Wild Side (Rose Hill, #3)(102)
“I’m not asking permission! Where the hell is my husband?”
The trainer stops and draws back, looking offended by my biting tone, but Will pulls my attention away. He speaks as he pushes to stand. “I’m so sorry, Tabby. This is all my fault. I misjudged—”
“Will, I don’t care about that right now. Where is he? Just tell me where he is.”
“Getting a scan. They’ll come get me when he’s back. They think I’m his brother.”
I walk forward, effectively blocking out the man who thinks he’s going to keep me from Rhys, and squeeze Will’s shoulder. He looks so fucking stricken, I can barely handle it. “You did good.”
He turns his head down, the heels of his hands pressed against his forehead. “I didn’t. I did this. If I had been more accurate, he wouldn’t have adjusted his position to make it work, and…and I—”
I crouch down, squeezing his forearms. “Hey, hey. Stop.” I give him a shake. “Fucking stop it. Don’t do that.” His big baby blues, swimming in tears, leap up to mine. “Believe it or not, I know a thing or two about blaming yourself for someone else’s health. And guess what? It will eat you alive and not change a thing. A million little things happened last night that could have had a million different outcomes. Maybe if he hadn’t moved, he’d have hit his head. Maybe if you had landed differently, it would have been your back.”
I shake him once again for emphasis. “Do not, under any circumstance, do this to yourself. It solves nothing. Now pull yourself up by the bootstraps. He’ll need his friend. Go and get some sleep. I’ll stay now.”
He gives me a nod on a shaky exhale. “Okay. But I’m not leaving.”
It’s then that a door opens, and a nurse pops her head in. “For Dupris?”
Will wipes at his face, nods in my direction, and does me a solid when he announces, “Yeah, his wife is here now.”
The woman smiles kindly at me. “Okay, Mrs. Dupris, you can come with me.”
I turn and give Ford a pointed look. He’s not an emotional person, but I want him to stick with Will and keep the WPW police off my ass. He picks up on my intention immediately and moves to sit one chair down from the other wrestler.
Then I turn and follow the woman back into the eerily silent ward. The only sound aside from my footsteps is the insistent beeping of monitors.
When she turns, I quicken my pace, that invisible pull I’ve always felt toward Rhys stronger than ever. I may not have all the answers, but I’m certain of one thing—if I can be with him, we’ll be okay. Together, we can get through anything. This much I know about us.
If everything life has thrown at us hasn’t been able to pull us apart, this won’t either.
I let out a whimper when I see him and rush toward the bed. His tan skin looks pale against the sterile white hospital sheets. His tall frame overwhelms the bed, and he belongs in something bigger, something plusher—something where I can bring him home-cooked food.
“Gentle, hon.” The woman’s warning has me drawing up. “We need to keep him still. Doctor will be right in.”
Rhys avoids making eye contact with me as the nurse heads out. His lips are pressed together tightly.
I take the last couple of steps slowly and wrap both my shaky hands around his large one. “Hi, baby.” I turn the term of endearment back on him, his eyes flitting to the side to see me. “I got here as fast as I could.”
I fold at the waist and press a kiss to his upturned wrist. “God, it’s so good to see you.” I look him over. Jaw clenched, throat working.
“How—” He sounds choked up and covers the emotion with a cough. “How did you get here so fast?”
I lift a shoulder in a casual shrug. “Ford and his toys.”
His lips twitch, but I’d never call his expression a smile.
With that, the door opens, and the doctor breezes in, nose to the clipboard in her hands as she announces, “Well, Mr. Dupris, we’ve got good news, and we’ve got bad news.”
CHAPTER 45
Rhys
GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS.
That’s the thing with me. They always go hand in hand.
When the doctor finally looks up, her eyes land on Tabitha, who is holding my hand. She rubs her thumb in soothing circles like that might magically make me feel my feet again.
The silver lining is that I’m pretty sure I feel blood rush to my dick.
“You must be Mrs. Dupris.”
The name stings. I’d never put this name on Tabitha, not now that I know the pride that comes with being a Garrison. She deserves that kind of legacy.
But she doesn’t correct the doctor. She smiles and replies with a soft, “Hi.”
“I’m Doctor Osei, a neurosurgeon here at the hospital. Rhys, hello again. So I’m just going to cut straight to the chase. The good news is that with imaging, I can see clearly that there was an impact to your T10.” She fires up a computer in the corner and turns it to face us, pointing at the spot.
“There are a couple of small floating bone chips, but aside from that, the spinal cord has not been directly injured. I believe what you’re experiencing is spinal shock, which is your body’s way of forcing you to stay still while it puts energy into healing. Feeling should come back in anywhere from a couple days to a few weeks. Recovery will require rehab.”