Just Say Yes (Just Say Yes #2) (3 page)

I couldn’t believe he’d been with me the whole time. But, I knew if the tables had been turned and he was the one lying in a hospital bed, I wouldn’t have left him either. I loved him far too much to let him wake up alone.

“Sure. I’ll try to later,” he said, sounding unconvincing to me.

“Goodnight, Mom and Dad.” I yawned.
Ow!

“Goodnight. We’re so happy you’re awake,” my dad added before we ended the call.

“Andy, go home,” I pleaded. “You need some sleep, a nice hot shower, and probably some food, too.”

When I finally realized he’d been there for so long, I asked where our cat, James, was staying.

“Justin and Will are taking care of him. Your friends have been a big help to me, especially since I didn’t know where the hospital was. They drove me here when I got the call from Jess. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if they hadn’t been home that night.”

My eyes grew heavy and I smiled sleepily at my blue-eyed man. “Remind me to cook them dinner when I break out of here.”

“I don’t think you’ll be doing too much for a while,” he stated flatly, his expression distressed.

Whatever sort of drug cocktail that was in the IV bag began to flow through my body, and suddenly it felt like I was floating, my body light as air. My vision blurred slightly, almost like I was drunk, but the drugs were making me sleepy, too. I drifted off for a split second, then jerked awake.
Ouch.

“Go home, okay? I’m going back to sleep for a while.” I was losing my fight against consciousness, but needed him to know how much I loved him before I fell back to sleep. “I love you,” I slurred.

“And I love you,” he replied and kissed me softly again before I drifted away.

When I woke next, the sun was shining brightly through the windows. I was alone in the quiet hospital room; the only sounds came from the IV pump next to the bed. I vaguely remembered the night before and recalled waking up in pain then pushing that magic button a few times.

I remembered Andy being there; calling my mom and dad, but that was about it. Hopefully, he’d gone home to get some rest, shower, and eat something.

My purse was on the rolling table next to my bedside within reach of my good arm. I dug through it, found my birth control pills, and popped the ones I’d missed from being in the hospital. Crap, there went my plans for Andy and me before I left for vacation.

The whole right side of my body ached, but nowhere nearly as bad as it had when I woke up the first time. I was feeling better, so I stretched out the neck of my hospital gown and looked down the front to see why I hurt so much.

Ugh.
No wonder everything hurt. I was one solid bruise from the top of my ribs to just below my hip. The side of my freaking boob was even bruised! I’d been in the same position in my bed so long my back was starting to ache. Unable to change position on my own because I couldn’t put weight on my injured shoulder, I pushed the nurse’s call button just as the doctor walked in.

“Miss James, you’re awake,” he voiced.

“Please, call me Zoey.” I hated it when people called me ‘Miss’. I was just plain Zoey.

“Of course,” he said politely. “I am going to send you up to radiology for a follow-up CT scan of your head right now and if all is still well, you can go home later this evening.”

Oh, thank God.

“How are you feeling this morning?” he asked as he thoroughly examined my visible injuries.

“I’m better,” I replied. “My back was starting to hurt, so I was calling the nurse to see if she could come help me roll over. How sad is that?”

He chuckled and flipped through my chart, added notes, then glanced back up to speak to me. “Considering what you’ve been through, it’s not sad at all. You’ve experienced quite the ordeal.”

“Can you tell me again what happened, doctor? The details are still a little foggy.” For some reason I dreamt about football all night and it made no sense why, especially since I hated football.

“Well, Zoey,” he said, as if he had a memory of something amusing. “When you get run over by a man the size of ‘The Fridge,’ chances are, you’re going to get hurt.”

Who the fuck is ‘The Fridge?’
“Sorry, Doc, I don’t get it,” I smiled in utter confusion. “Who is
‘The Fridge?’
”

Dr. Waits quickly flipped my chart open, scanned over it and looked back up at me. “Ah, you’re too young to know who he is. He played NFL football for the Chicago Bears and the Philadelphia Eagles. He was only six foot two, or so, but weighed over three hundred pounds.”

Holy shit, Andy was right.
“Awesome. Please tell me I am the only person in history to have been hit by a running appliance.” I made myself laugh at my own stupid joke and Dr. Waits even laughed with me.

“You are definitely my first, Zoey,” he chuckled again. It didn’t seem like being hit by a
person
would cause so much pain, but after he described how I slammed headfirst against the front of my car before landing and hitting the back of my head on the street, it made more sense.

The doctor and I spoke for a few minutes before a giant, male nurse pushed a wheelchair through the doorway of my room. “Are you ready for some tests so we can get you out of here?”

“Let’s get this over with,” I laughed.
This is gonna hurt.
The nurse introduced himself as Allen as he helped me from the bed to the wheelchair. Allen wheeled me to the elevator, then up to the radiology department where they performed another CT scan, just to make sure nothing changed from the one they did when I was admitted.

As Allen wheeled me back to my room after I was done, I noticed Andy waiting for me just inside the door.
His short hair wasn’t sticking up from running his fingers through it like it had been the night before. He’d changed into clean clothes, looking as gorgeous as ever. The smell of his body soap and cologne infiltrated my senses the closer I came to him. However, I wasn’t confident he’d slept any. His blue eyes were tired and he still looked drained.

“Hey, you,” I said to him as Allen pushed me to the side of the bed.

“Good morning, Beautiful.” He smiled widely, obviously happy to see me out of bed.

“Are you ready to stand, Miss James?” Allen asked. I nodded in response and that time it didn’t hurt nearly as bad as before.

Allen locked the wheelchair in place and helped me to my feet, steadying me as I turned to sit on the bed. A draft of air grazed my bare skin, as my gown became untied and fluttered open.

Andy took in a sharp breath and looked away as Allen re-tied my gown, helped me onto the bed, arranging the blankets for me. After he left, I eased to the side of the bed as far as possible, then patted the empty space next to me.

“Come up here with me, please,” I pleaded, tapping the bed. Andy pushed the button to recline the bed a little so I would be comfortable.

Andy slipped off his shoes and slowly eased himself up next to me, carefully wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I nestled into him, losing myself in the constant warmth of his body, knowing that next to Andy was the only place I wanted to be.

“Did you get some sleep?” I asked.

He chuckled quietly while he very carefully tried not to move. “I’m the one that’s supposed to be worried if
you
slept, not the other way around. This is one of the reasons I love you so much. You’re lying here in the hospital with a head injury, and worried about me instead of yourself. You are incredibly selfless.”

He kissed the top of my head and I burrowed into his side a little more until I felt a twinge of pain. I pushed the magic medicine button so the pain didn’t worsen then laid my arm across Andy’s stomach.

We rested together for quite some time and it felt nice to be in his arms. He was warm and smelled wonderful from his shower. “You smell good,” I whispered groggily. I felt him lay his head back against the bed then we both drifted off to sleep.

My parents woke us later when they came to visit. Andy slowly started to get up from the bed, but my dad spoke first. “You look comfortable. Stay where you are, son. Sorry we woke you, but we’re glad to see you get a little rest too, Andy.”

My dad turned to me. “As for you young lady, I’m so thankful you’re going to be okay.” His eyes were teary when he bent over and gently kissed me on the forehead.

He stepped back to give my mom her turn to see me. She squeezed my hand lightly. “Mija, we were so scared for you.”

I smiled up at my mom and dad. “I’m fine, I promise. I’ll be sore for a while, but they’re only bruises. Nothing’s broken at least.”

We talked for a while longer and I let them know about the tests they ran that morning. Andy was still on my hospital bed with me and I expected to feel uncomfortable with my parents there, but I wasn’t. As they were getting ready to leave, the doctor came in with my test results.

“Good news, Zoey. It looks like you’ll get to go home later today. Your CT scan has been reviewed and everything appears to be normal,” he said. “We’ll get someone up here to get you checked out soon and I’ll send you home with some pain medication to take if you need them.”

What a relief it was to be going home. I needed a nice hot bath and something decent to eat. I was ready to go to my quiet apartment to spend some quality time with my man.

My parents kissed me goodbye and Andy spent the day in my hospital bed with me watching TV. We were still waiting for the discharge papers when my dinner was delivered. One glance at what was on the tray and I wanted to gag. They had brought the same thing to me for lunch earlier that day. Broth, a hard bread roll, and Jell-O.
Gross.

“Just eat it,” Andy said softly when he saw the look of disgust on my face. “You haven’t had much since Thursday, so you need to eat it. I’ll fix you something better when we get home.”

“Okay, bossy. I’ll eat it.” Luckily, the hospital released me shortly after dinner.

Andy brought a pair of sweatpants and my favorite hoody for me to wear home. I smiled at the fond memories of him pulling that hoody over my head the last time I wore it. He helped me change out of my hospital gown and I didn’t miss the pale, sickened look on his face while he helped me get dressed. The bruises really bothered him.

He gathered all of my belongings, packed them in my bag for me then left to pull my car around to the hospital entrance. I waited patiently on the bed for my wheelchair ride out of the hospital when a nurse whom I’d never seen before entered. After a quick introduction, she wheeled me out the door to my waiting car.

“So, did my hard head leave a nice dent on my Audi?” I asked Andy as I painfully stretched forward to see if I could find any damage.

“No,” he answered gruffly, obviously not wanting to talk about it. He opened the car door and helped me in. When I tried to buckle my seatbelt on my own and couldn’t, he leaned over and did it for me.

The ride home from the hospital was miserable, but I was ready to be home in my apartment. No matter how small each bump in the road was, I felt it. Andy parked as close to the lobby doors as possible and then helped me into the building. My bruised hip and leg made climbing the flight of stairs tortuous. I could barely put any weight on it, so Andy carefully picked me up and carried me. I rested my cheek on his shoulder, breathing him in all the way up the stairs.

He situated me on the couch then turned on my iPod before making me a sandwich. I was famished and the broth and Jell-O at the hospital only made it worse. I pretty much devoured the sandwich and guzzled a glass of water in a matter of minutes. After I finished, Andy brought me the package of Oreos I kept in the back of a cupboard for PMS emergencies. He didn’t know that’s what they were for, but I demolished an entire row of those too.

Andy kept himself busy tidying up my already clean apartment while I sat alone in the living room eating my dessert. He was being helpful and taking care of me, but he seemed a bit distant. There was definitely something going on in that head of his. Once I was finished with my cookies, he was right back at my side to see what I needed next.