Page 251 of The Carnage We Keep

My father chuckles deeply, the low rumble in his chest growing into a full-on laugh. My mother joins him, giggling as she wipes a tear from her eye.

The doctor and his team slowly back away, hands raised, palms up.

“There’s the sweet, docile little angel we all know and love,” Hades sighs, chuckling as he runs his fingers through his hair.

Then she turns.

Her eyes find mine.

And instantly all that balled-up fury drains from her face as she stands there in the doorway, staring at me as her mouth lifts in a smile.

Suddenly, she’s staggering across the room, dragging the IV pole behind her and heading right for me.

I'm already swinging my legs off the bed, ignoring my parents when they tell me to stay put, even ignoring my body when it screams in agonized protest.

Because right now, what I need to do most in the world is wrap my arms around my wife and tell her that I love her.

So that's what I do.

I catch her with my good arm as she collapses into me with a sob, pulling her against me and struggling to stop myself from hugging her as tightly as I want to. She buries her face in my chest, gripping my hospital gown in her small fist as a ragged sob wrenches from her throat.

“You asshole!” she chokes into my chest. “You fucking fuck-headed fuck-face fuck! If you ever pull that shit again⁠—”

“Which shit, specifically, are we⁠—”

I wince when she smacks my good arm. “The shit where you gave the one dose of antidote to me!!”

I chuckle as I hold her tightly, grinning into the top of her hair.

“Confession time,” I murmur.

“What,” she mutters petulantly.

I grin as I lean down, ghosting my lips past her ear.

“I’d do it again tomorrow.”

She looks up into my eyes and smiles the biggest, brightest smile in the whole world before she collapses onto my chest.

I bury my face in her dark hair and inhale her scent.

She smells like home, and feels like forever in my arms.

“Just to be clear,” she mutters. “You’re never allowed to die again. Obviously.”

I grin. “Noted.”

Bella nips at my chest through my gown.

God, she’s so weird.

And fuck, do I love it.

“I mean it,” she says with a pout as she pulls back. “Because as inconvenient as it is, I might kinda sorta maybe be…you know…”

“Nuts?”

She shriek-giggles as she practically jumps into my arms. Well, arm.