Page 24 of House of Scarlett
“She’s waking up again. Just let her come out of it.”
The voices are clearer now, so I can make out the words, but confusion swamps my senses.
Where am I? How did I get here? What are those beeping noises? My toes are cold. Why are my toes cold?
I try my eyes again, and the light dims.Thank you. I try to murmur the words, but my throat is scratchy and they don’t come out.
“Do you want some water?”
The sound of ice sloshing in a pitcher steals my attention, and I see a blue cup with a bendy straw in front of me. It might be levitating there, but I don’t care. I just want water.
I take a sip and shake my head, trying to clear the cobwebs. “What?”
“You’re okay, Scarlett. Everything’s good. You just had surgery, but everything’s fine. Don’t worry about a thing.”
The voice suddenly has an identity. “Flynn?”
“I’m right here, big sister.” Her hand squeezes mine, and I realize my hand is cold too.
“Why am I cold?”
“I’ll get her another warm blanket. I saw where the nurse grabbed one.”
I turn slightly to see the back of Amy’s head as she leaves the room. “Amy?”
“She’ll be right back,” Flynn says with a smile. “We’ll get you all nice and warm. You’ve got a private room too, so you don’t have to worry about someone named Earl ripping ass on the other side of the curtain while you recover.”
“Earl?”
“Now you’re just confusing her.” Kelsey’s dark hair pops into view around Flynn’s shoulder. “How are you feeling, babe? You scared the hell out of us. I’m so glad you have Amy. She was not fucking around with your health.”
I nod because she’s right, but I still feel like I’m floating through clouds rather than tucked into a hospital bed.
Behind Kelsey, in the shadows of the room, there’s another person. A man? I blink twice, but my vision is still fuzzy. Or maybe I have gunk in my eyes.
“Dad?” I say the word hesitantly, hope rising inside me, and I reach up to grasp it.
He came? Oh my God, he came.
The IV tugs at my hand as Kelsey steps aside, and I see through the shadows and realize exactly how wrong I am. It’s not my father.
It’s Gabriel Legend.
“What ...” Confusion and shock flood my system. My lungs catch, and my heart seems to twist inside my chest.
The amorphous beeping coming from inside the room speeds up, and Flynn’s attention jumps to the other side of the bed, where my IV is connected to a pole.
“I can go.” His deep voice rumbles through the room like thunder from a hundred miles away. He takes one step toward the door, his face still bathed in shadow.
“No. Stay.” I don’t know why I say it.
Maybe because in that moment, those are the only two words in my entire vocabulary. Maybe because it’s so good to see him, hear him, feel his presence, that I need to hold on to this moment for a few more breaths. Maybe because even with time and space, the way I feel hasn’t changed.
Then the memory of that night charges back into my brain.
“You should go. And don’t come back, Scarlett. This isn’t happening.”
The heart rate monitor beeps again and again, and everyone in the room seems to hold their breath until Flynn breaks the tension.
