“Mr. Anderson?”
“Yes. That’s me,” he said as he faced the approaching doctor.
“Sorry about the wait. I understand you’re the one who came in with Ms. Shelton?”
“Yes.”
“Are you family?”
“Well, it’s complicated,” he hedged.
The doctor looked at him for a few moments as if trying to decide on what he should or shouldn’t say. Being that Austin was the one who’d come in with her, the doctor conceded, “She has deep bruising on her arm. It’s going to be sore for a while. From my understanding, her attacker hit her in the face. She has a slight crack in her cheekbone, but it will heal. Until then, she’s going to have swelling and it’s bruised pretty deep. She’s going to be sore for a few days. At this time we don’t see any brain damage or anything else wrong.”
Austin wanted to punch something, as rage boiled. He knew that piece of crap was somewhere in the hospital and he wanted nothing more than to hunt him down and do some major damage.
“Ms. Shelton has agreed to press charges, which is good. We have the cops with her attacker now. He’ll go from here to jail. I’m not supposed to say this, but you broke his jaw,” the doctor said. He didn’t look heartbroken over it.
“Thank you,” Austin told him, feeling a bit better that Jack wasn’t getting off pain free.
“She’s being moved to a room for the night. We’d like to keep an eye on her in case there was something we initially missed.”
With that, the doctor left and Austin walked to the front desk, receiving directions to her room. He walked the long hallway, then hesitated outside her door. He didn’t know what kind of reaction he was going to get from her. He knew he couldn’t go in there showing the anger he was feeling. Of course, it wasn’t projected at her, but she still didn’t need to see it.
He stepped inside to find her sitting up in bed. Her head turned when he came through the doorway, and their eyes locked together. Fury once again overwhelmed him at the bruising on her arm and the deep purple overtaking the left side of her face.
“Hey,” he lamely said.
“Thank you, Austin,” she whispered.
“I’m so sorry, Kinsey. I should’ve been there sooner.”
“I’m glad you got there when you did. I have a feeling I’d be a whole lot worse off, otherwise,” she said as a tremble racked her body. He wanted to take her pain away, to hold her.
He walked to her bed and sat down with her watching him warily.
“I can’t believe he touched you,” Austin growled.
“I’m fine, Austin. Really, I am. My face and arm are a bit sore, but I’m fine,” she promised.
“When I saw him hit you, I…”
“I know. I’m just glad you happened to be around,” she interrupted. He should be grateful she was admitting she was happy to see him, even if it had taken her getting attacked first.
His hand came up and gently caressed the uninjured side of her face. Her eyes grew wider as she took in a deep breath and watched him.
“Kinsey,” he practically begged her.
“I can’t…”
“I just… I need…”
Austin stopped trying to vocalize how he was feeling and he leaned in and gently took her lips with his. She didn’t try to stop him. He didn’t want to hurt her any further, but he needed to taste her lips, needed to reassure himself she was really okay, that she was there with him. If something worse would’ve happened, he didn’t know what he’d do. He couldn’t let himself even think about it.
He leaned closer, his hand moving to stroke the back of her neck, his touch on her lips careful as he slid his tongue along her bottom lip. It wasn’t about passion or fulfillment, it was about reassuring himself she was real, she was there, she was his.
He felt heat rush through him, a warmth that seemed to focus on his heart, and enlarge it ten times its normal size.
Finally, he pulled back and slowly opened his eyes to look at her face. She opened her own eyes as if she were in a trance, gazing at him with such wonder and awe in her expression, that if he hadn’t been sitting already, her look would’ve knocked him to his knees.
“Let me stay here with you, Kinsey. Let me hold you.”
She looked at him as the fog started to clear. Her eyes filled with tears - pain, need, confusion all mixed in her expression. He knew the answer before she uttered the word. He was tempted to kiss her again, to prevent her from saying it.
“No.”
“Why? Why do we have to make this complicated? It’s just one night,” he asked. He’d never before begged a woman for anything, but she was causing all kinds of firsts for him, it seemed.
“It’s just too… complicated. One night won’t fix or change anything.”
“We want each other, Kinsey. We care about each other. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that,” he said. He felt a glimmer of hope at the hesitation in her eyes.
“For you, it’s easy, Austin. You see what you want and you go for it, no questions asked. I’m not that way. I’m honestly not that girl from the wedding. I don’t know why I did what I did that night. I don’t know why I’ve continued to lose control with you since, but that’s not me. This is me, right here, right now. I’m not exciting and glamorous. I’m not a jump in the nearest closet kind of girl. As soon as the chase is over, you’ll lose interest. The girl you keep chasing, the fling you’re wanting isn’t real,” she said, her voice hoarse from what he was sure was unshed tears.
“You know what? I think you’re lying. I think you’re lying to yourself and to me. You say none of this has been real?” he questioned.
While looking into her eyes, he placed his hand over her stomach, causing her to gasp. Good. He wanted to shake her up, not much, just a little.
“This is as real as it gets. You might be carrying my child, Kinsey. The sex didn’t happen in a dream, or my imagination. The explosion between us, every time we’re within five miles of each other, isn’t fake. You can try and build your walls, that's fine, but don’t you dare insult me. Don’t you dare tell me it’s all been nothing but a dream.”
He knew he was on the edge of a cliff, barely holding on. He also knew he shouldn’t take out his anger on her, but he was mad, mad at just about everything right then.
He leaned back as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“Okay.”
“What?” Austin looked up as she whispered the word.
“I’m tired, so tired of everything. I don’t want to fight any more tonight. I don’t want to think. I just want you to hold me,” she whispered, fear present in her eyes.
He didn’t say anything else, just took off his jacket and climbed in next to her. As he pulled her into his arms, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders.
He woke up in the early dawn hours and slipped from the room. They both needed to figure out what they wanted, but he wasn’t going to push her anymore. He’d made his intentions clear; now the ball was in her court.
◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊
When Kinsey woke in the morning, Austin was gone, leaving her heart aching, though she tried telling herself it was for the best. Still, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling at the sudden loneliness consuming her.
While she was trying to eat her breakfast a couple hours later, a knock sounded on her door, making her eagerly look up.
Instead of Austin, several people silently stepped inside the room with big grins on their faces, all carrying huge bouquets of flowers and balloons. By the time they were finished, her room looked like a florist shop.
One of the people handed her a card, then they left as quickly as they’d come. With shaking fingers, she opened the envelope and pulled out the note.
I’m sorry you were hurt. Get better soon.
Austin
That was it? She flipped the card around, looking to see if anything else was on the other side. Nothing.
She didn’t know what to think. He was sending her massive amounts of flowers, but he was gone, and his note was so impersonal. Was he saying goodbye?
Kinsey lay back down and cried herself to sleep, still no closer to finding any answers.
Chapter Nineteen
“You should still be resting, not coming back to work so soon,” Katherine scolded Kinsey two days later when she walked in the room to check on Joseph.
“I know this sounds silly, so please bear with me, but I’ve missed him. I’ve grown quite attached to Joseph, and being away the last couple of days, I felt… I don’t know… just - off,” Kinsey said with a shrug.
She checked his charts, reassuring herself the temp nurse had done her job well, and then she sat down beside Katherine.
“That I can understand,” Katherine said, immediately softening. “Joseph has a way of casting a spell on everyone around him, even when he’s sleeping.”
Kinsey had missed being there. She hadn’t wanted to leave Joseph in the care of anyone else. She’d been with him from the beginning, and she’d see it through to the end. She just hoped and prayed the end was him waking up.
“Go ahead and get comfortable. The rest of the family will be here any minute. They’re anxiously awaiting the conclusion of our story,” Katherine offered.
Kinsey felt like an intruder during the story, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave. She wanted to know what made a couple stay together for so many years. She was captivated by Katherine’s voice as she spoke of her love.
Soon, the room crowded with Joseph’s children, nieces and nephews, even some of the grandchildren and great nieces and nephews. The large space felt as if it quickly shrank, with the amount of people in it.
Kinsey waited to see Austin walk in, but he was absent. She refused to allow herself to watch the door, instead focusing on Katherine as she got comfortable in the chair next to her husband’s bed.
“How’s he doing today, Mom?” Alex asked.
“He’s doing good. Look at his cheeks. Being home is bringing the color back into them. I know he’s on his way back,” she replied with confidence.
“He’ll come back because we need him to,” Emily said with a hopeful smile.
“I can’t remember where I left off.”
“He’d tricked you into coming to his place. He was showing you the castle he was building just for you,” Bree said with a sigh. “So romantic.”
“Yes, that’s right. I gave up fighting him. I knew when I left that night, I’d never be the same again, but I didn’t care anymore. One minute with him was better than none. I was so tired of hurting, aching. But I knew that hurting was nothing compared to how I was going to feel once he was done with me. But still, I couldn’t refuse him anymore…”
Joseph lifted his head, his darkened eyes looking into her own frightened ones. The power he wielded over her was too great. She also knew she was powerless to stop it.
“I do want you in my bed, but that’s not all. This is for you. Since meeting you, everything I do is about you, Katherine. I can’t live without you,” he murmured.