“You feeling okay?” he asked with genuine concern as he took a seat across from her.
“I’m fine.” That was her story and she was sticking to it.
All of her life when people asked how she was doing, how she was feeling, “I’m fine” was her pat answer. Most people took her response at face value either because they believed her or because they didn’t really care how she was doing and just asked because it was the social norm.
Grandpa J wasn’t most people.
“I’m not so sure about that.” His weather worn hand reached across the table and patted her forearm before giving it a little squeeze. “I think that you need to get some rest, you hear me? The last thing you want is to catch that bug that’s floating around.”
“I know.” Stephanie knocked on the table that was made of wood.
Grandpa J didn’t look impressed by her superstitious response. His head tilted a hair as his left brow raised. “I’m serious. When the boat is sinking you have to put your own life vest on first before you can save anyone else. From what I’ve seen, you make sure everyone around you is in a lifeboat and you end up dog paddling in the middle of the ocean. I think sometimes you forget to take care of yourself as well as you take care of everyone else.”
His insightful words hit her, hard. Tears began pooling in her eyes. She did her best to sniff them back. Before the waterworks really had a chance to flow her pager beeped with a code that indicated she was needed in the emergency room.
After checking it, she stood. “Duty calls.”
Being the gentleman that he was, he pushed his chair back and rose to his feet as well. “Alright, but don’t forget what I said. You need to rest and take care of you. If you need anything, anything at all, you let me know, ya hear?”
“I will. I promise.” Stephanie was still fighting back tears as she gave him a quick hug before rushing to the elevator bank closest to the break room.
As she waited for the doors to open she wiped the moisture beneath her eyes and realized that she couldn’t keep going on like this, bursting into tears at the drop of a hat. She’d done her best to convince herself that her father passing and whatever had happened between her and Ace hadn’t affected her. It clearly had and she wasn’t doing herself any favors by not dealing with it.
The doors opened and she stepped inside the elevator as she started formulating a game plan to get herself back on track. First things first, when she got home tonight she was going to have to take a fearless emotional inventory. No denying. No hiding. No avoiding. Whatever she was feeling she was going to face it.
When she arrived on the first floor, all of her personal issues were forgotten. Instantly her mind switched into work mode. In her job, being preoccupied could cost someone his or her life. She entered the room focused, calm and clear minded.
Her Zen state of mind shattered when she saw the patient lying in the bed. If it were physically possible, Stephanie’s jaw would’ve hit the floor. She sucked in a startled puff of air as her heart started galloping so hard she was sure it was audible.
Alerted to her presence, probably thanks to her gasp or pounding heart, Ace’s eyes fluttered open.
“Hi,” he smiled, wincing slightly as he did.
The barely noticeable action snapped her out of her shock. He was in pain.
“What happened…are you okay?” she asked even as she was picking up his chart.
As she scanned the document, several words stuck out to her. Gunshot wound. Infection. And MTBI, which stood for mild traumatic brain injury.
She looked up at him for answers. Instead of getting them, he rasped, “I missed you.”
The fact that he had a head injury and may not even know what he was saying didn’t stop her from admitting, “I missed you, too.”
Her mind was having a hard time processing what she was seeing and it wasn’t just because Ace was now sporting a beard that looked sexier on him than the shirt and sweats had the last time she’d him. He was here. Right in front of her. She could reach out and touch him.
“Oh good. You’re here.”
She turned to see Seth Sloan walking through the doorway.
He made his way into the room, filling the space with authority. “Maybe you can talk some sense into him.”
Confusion swirled through her as she looked back and forth between the two men. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Garrett says he needs to stay overnight for observation.” Seth stood beside the bed with his feet shoulder width apart and crossed his arms. She wasn’t sure if it was meant to be an intimidating stance, but if it was, he was nailing it. “Ace is refusing. I had you paged so that you could get through to him.”
Ace sat up straighter in the bed. “I’m fine.”
Stephanie still wasn’t sure exactly why Seth thought that anything she said would matter, but she tried anyway. “If Dr. Gresham thinks that you need to be observed, then you need to be observed.”
“I’m fine.”
He stole her line.
She knew from personal experience that those words covered all kinds of sins and that he was obviously not fine. He’d been shot, from what it said on his chart the bullet hadn’t entered the abdominal cavity so it basically equated to a flesh wound but he was fighting an infection and he had a concussion. That’s what she should be focused on. Instead, she felt like a teenage girl whose crush had just showed up at her job. Since the moment she’d lifted her eyes and seen Ace, the dark cloud cleared and the sun was shining through again.
* * *
Even in his foggy-minded state, one fact remained sharp and in focus: there was no way he was going to stay in the hospital. He’d only agreed to come and get checked out because Seth had pulled rank and insisted on it. Although they were both out of the Corps, the chain of command was still intact.
After his flight landed this morning Ace had gone directly to Elite offices for a debriefing on the shit show the mission had turned out to be. Once they’d landed on foreign soil, things had gone sideways. Two days into their retrieval there was an uprising against the government. Suddenly there was no longer government backup available and all intel they had arrived with had changed. What had started as a clandestine code yellow, no-combat mission, had escalated to a dangerous code red, under fire extraction.
Six days in, they found themselves under siege from enemy combatants. Thankfully, they’d all escaped the attack unharmed, but a good portion of their equipment including radios and protective gear had been destroyed and because of the remote area, there were no cell signals. They’d been totally blind, in hostile territory, with no way to communicate with anyone.
It had taken them two weeks to locate the asset and another twenty-four hours to get him out. During the extraction, Ace had placed his own bulletproof vest on the asset and had ended up getting shot himself. He’d treated the wound with the minimal first aid that they’d had available in the field. In D.C. he’d seen a doctor who’d patched him up so he could catch the first flight home.
The past few weeks had been hell and the only thing that had gotten him through it was thinking about seeing Stephanie. And she was here. As pissed as he’d been at Seth, he was thinking now he should thank him. He wasn’t sure what made him think to call her, but whatever it was, he was glad he had.
Ace could feel that his thinking was a little hazy. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been here. They’d given him a shot of pain medicine when he’d arrived before they’d cleaned out his wound. Once the pain had dulled he’d grown so tired he couldn’t keep his eyes open. Then Stephanie had walked in and his entire existence shrank. She was all that mattered. Not pain. Not gunshot wounds and not his boss. Just her.
“You’re not fine,” Seth insisted. “Garrett said you need to be observed.”
“No he didn’t. He said that it would be a good idea.” Ace corrected Seth before asking, “Could you give us a minute?”
He hadn’t spoken to Stephanie since she’d fallen asleep in his a
rms the night before he’d left. As he stared at her now, all he wanted to do was pull her back into his arms and never let her go. Since he couldn’t do that, he at least wanted to touch her. Her hand. Her arm. He didn’t care, he just wanted to feel her soft skin and prove to himself that she was really here, in the flesh. Since they’d left things so unsettled between them, he wasn’t sure if she’d appreciate any PDA in front of an audience.
“Fine. I’ll be outside.”
Stephanie bit her lip and looked uncertain as she watched Seth go.
Ace took the opportunity to take her in. At first glance she looked like the same, stunning girl he’d left lying asleep in his bed. Her golden red hair was pulled up in a ponytail with soft wisps framing her heart shaped face. Her large, glossy chestnut eyes still held warmth and depth that he wanted to drown in. Her perfect rosy lips still called him like a lighthouse in the midst of a storm.
But the longer he studied her, the more he noticed little things that had changed. Her cheeks were sunken in. They’d hollowed since he left. There was a shadow of dark circles beneath her lower lashes and her complexion was a shade paler than the last time he’d seen her. She’d lost weight. She hadn’t been eating and taking care of herself.
When she looked back to the bed she wore a tentative smile on her gorgeous face.
“What’s wrong?” he barked.
He hadn’t meant for his question to come out so harsh. Her head jerked back slightly and her smile fell as she stammered, “You’re in the hospital…you were shot and—”
“No. Not me. With you.” He shifted, taking some of the pressure off of his chest and he intentionally kept his voice gentle as he spoke, “What’s wrong with you?”
“With me?” Her brow furrowed and she touched her chest. “What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong with me.”
Knowing that he wasn’t in any shape to engage in a battle of wills and that even if he was, this wasn’t the time or place to get into it, he dropped it. For now. But he was definitely going to be revisiting this subject. Once they were home and he’d slept, eaten, and gained some of his strength back, he’d be finding out exactly what had happened to cause her weight loss, her sleeplessness and her overall fatigue.
He may not be able to get to the bottom of that mystery and make things better right now, but there was something he could do.
“Come here.” His voice was rough with command, partly because of the pain that he was in, but mainly due to the primal and possessive instincts that only Stephanie incited in him.
He was happy to see the flush that rose up her cheeks as she crossed the small room in a few steps and stopped at his bedside. He loved the fact that he was the one that had put color back in her pale complexion.
Needing to touch her, his hand reached out to touch the blush that he was responsible for. His movement caused a searing pain to shoot through him but that was nothing compared to the payoff he got when his fingers brushed her velvety smooth skin. The second he made contact with her the light, warm, weightless feeling that he’d only experienced with her, spread through him.
Her hand clasped around his wrist as she leaned into his touch. He ran his thumb across her jawline as her breaths grew shorter. His eyes were heavy and he closed them as he let himself luxuriate in being able to reach out and touch her.
“You feel so good,” he rasped.
She let out a small sigh. “So do you.”
“Okay, Mr. Elliot.” The doctor that had treated him when he first arrived walked back into the room. Seth followed behind him.
When he did, Stephanie, whose back was to the doorway, took one step away from his bed so that she was just out of his reach. He lowered his hand slowly and rested it carefully on the side rail.
“Your blood work is back. It looks pretty good, considering. The infection is mild. I know you’re determined to be discharged, but I have to advise you to remain here where we can monitor you and you can continue receiving fluids and antibiotics intravenously. At least overnight.”
As much as Ace appreciated the doctor’s concern, he knew he’d feel better in his own bed, preferably with Stephanie in it. He was exhausted and hadn’t had a shower or a good night’s sleep in almost three weeks. If he stayed here, that would just prolong those things from happening.
“I’m going home.” Sitting up taller he started to remove his IV.
Stephanie moved back beside him and covered his hand with hers, halting his progress. “I’ll stay with you.”
When his eyes lifted and met hers, she continued. “I’ll stay with you tonight and then if Dr. Gresham releases you tomorrow, I’ll take you home.”
Hearing her say home was all he needed. She was all he needed and if she was going to be here tonight, so was he. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Seth stepped up to the bed.
“Okay.” His eyes started to close and he could hear voices as they discussed his condition, but they sounded far away.
He fought to stay awake so that once Seth and the doctor left he could talk to Stephanie, but his body had other ideas. He drifted off to sleep, finally being able to rest knowing that Stephanie was here, he’d made it home to her.
Chapter 14
“Are you sure you don’t want any more?” Stephanie asked as she cleared the empty bowl that had been filled with soup just moments ago.
“I can’t eat another bite.” Ace smiled up at her causing her heart to pitter-patter. “Thank you, again. You don’t have to do all this.”
“You don’t have to keep saying that. I want to,” she repeated for the dozenth time before taking the dish to the kitchen to rinse it out, shutting the door softly behind her so he could get some more rest.
Ace had been discharged from the hospital two days ago and Stephanie had taken him home. To her home. Dr. Gresham had consented to release him, but only if he wasn’t alone for the following seventy-two hours. She’d been more than happy to agree to that arrangement and he’d had no problem crashing at her place.
And that’s exactly what he’d done. He’d crashed. After sleeping a good fourteen hours the night that he stayed in the hospital, he’d come home and fallen asleep for another eight. Then after waking up to eat, go to the bathroom and take his medication, he clocked another ten hours of solid sleep. And that was basically how the schedule had remained. About every eight to ten hours he’d wake up, use the restroom, eat and fall right back to sleep. Oh and thank her and tell her that she didn’t need to do all of this, like it was some kind of hardship.
It wasn’t.
The past couple of days she’d slept more than she had in…she couldn’t remember how long. She’d also read a book and caught up on some shows on Netflix. It had been like a mini-staycation with Ace.
She’d watched him sleep, which she’d assured herself wasn’t stalker behavior since she was supposed to be watching him. She’d memorized every line on his face that wasn’t covered by his newly acquired beard. The facial hair looked good on him, it somehow managed to make him look even manlier, which she would’ve thought was an impossible feat. She’d also gotten pretty dang good at predicting when he might wake up. His breathing pattern would change and his expression would tighten. He usually started showing signs about thirty minutes before he’d actually wake up, so she’d use that time to make him food and have it ready for him.
She tried not to think about what had happened to him, it scared her too much. She hated that he’d been hurt. She hated that there was a bullet hole in him. She hated thinking about what would’ve happened if he’d been hit even a centimeter lower in his liver or a centimeter higher and the bullet had pierced his lung. She never wanted to think about a world without Ace in it.
A loud knock sounded and the bowl she was washing slipped from her hand and crashed into the sink, thankfully it didn’t break. She grabbed a towel and hurried to the door, doing her best to reach it before another knock sounded. She hoped the initial knock hadn’t disturbed Ace since she was sure he had already fa
llen back to sleep.
In her rush, she hadn’t bothered to check who was on the other side of the door before she opened it. She immediately regretted her haste. Mason stood on her porch holding a bouquet of flowers.
“Hello, beautiful.”
Not wanting to draw out this interaction, she skipped the pleasantries. “This isn’t a good time.”
She started to close the door, but he reached out and placed his hand on it. “Steph, don’t do that. Don’t shut me out like you always do. You need to talk. I know that you’re grieving and holding it all in isn’t going to help anything. I’m putting aside our differences to be here for you, the least you can do is let me.”
Seriously? It shouldn’t surprise her that Mason would try to use the death of her parent as an angle to make him look like the bigger person, but sometimes the levels of douchebaggery he reached were mind-blowing.
Why Simone had thought it was a good idea to disclose their personal life to Stephanie’s ex-fiancé was baffling to her. But, in all fairness, she’d never opened up to her little sister about the reasons for their breakup, so as far as Simone was concerned the two of them had just “grown apart.” Not to mention, her sister had always gotten along with Mason, mainly because he had money and would buy her things. Of course, he only bought Simone gifts when he wanted something from her, usually to stay with Scott so they could go out.
Mason was good at manipulating people. If he wanted something, he usually got it. Which she knew was the real reason he was still upset about her breaking off their engagement. It wasn’t personal. He didn’t miss her. He simply hadn’t gotten his way so he couldn’t let it go. He couldn’t let her go.
She knew that he wasn’t going to take her rejection well, but that didn’t stop her from saying what needed to be said. “Mason, I don’t want to talk to you. I have nothing to say and I’m not interested in hearing anything that you have to tell me. We’re not together. We’re not friends. We’re not anything. Please don’t come back here. You’re not welcome.”
All He Needs – Ace & Stephanie (Crossroads Book 10) Page 12