33. Lennon
Chapter thirty-three
Lennon
I’ve been in the hospital for a week. When I finally fully woke up, I saw the exhaustion in every face looking back at me. Dale had taken time off to help Tess, take care of Rosie, and check on both Tess and Hayes’ businesses. Cash and Shelby haven’t been into work. Hayes looks like he has barely eaten or slept. No one wanted to tell me all the details of that fateful night, but I dug my heels in…well as much as someone stuck in a hospital bed can and demanded answers.
I wasn’t expecting what I heard. Tess had run in because I wasn’t back outside yet. She caught Connor’s attention and ended up with a broken nose and a fractured wrist. Hearing that, my stomach dropped, hating myself for her getting hurt. I remember stabbing Connor, him stabbing me, and then nothing…blackness. Hayes brought Scottie, and when they entered, Connor wouldn’t listen. Scottie ended up shooting him and has been cleared after the department investigated. He shot him in the arm, and another officer was able to get the cuffs on Connor. While all of that was shocking, I wasn’t ready for the rest. After Connor was discharged from the hospital, he ended his life in a jail cell.
I want a small part of me to feel bad about how it all ended. But all I feel is happiness. I will never have to worry about him coming after me again. I can finally be truly happy. When Scottie searched Connor’s car, he found a hotel key from a few towns over. He found the room full of pictures of me. And Hayes. Even Rosie. I know he was never going to stop until I was dead.
Today is finally discharge day. When Connor stabbed me, the knife slightly nicked my liver, but thankfully the EMT’s got me to the hospital quickly, and I was rushed into surgery. I was told that the surgery took four hours. Shelby told me that the waiting room was overflowing, Stretch implementing the Pine Creek Phone tree. I wasn’t even aware of the mysterious phone tree .
I am ready to be home with my family. Hayes is double checking the room to make sure everything has made it into my bag, while I sit and wait in the wheelchair. “Babe, you got everything. Can we please go home now?” He steps out of the bathroom and slings the bag over his shoulder. “Is someone impatient?” I stick my tongue out at him, and he answers with a wink. “Alright, sunshine, let’s go home.”
He leaves me in the lobby so he can pull up his truck, but is parking only a couple minutes later. He runs back in to get me, shocking me when he picks me up and deposits me in the passenger seat. “Let’s go home, sunshine.” He gently kisses my forehead before running the wheelchair back inside. I ask him to drive past the shop on the way home, feeling like it’s been a year since I’ve been through town. A wide smile breaks out across my face when I see how busy the shop looks, but Hayes gives me a scowl when I ask to stop. “Absolutely not. Not yet. I need to get you home to rest.” One glance over at Hayes, and my comeback dies on my lips. It looks like the drive from the hospital to home pains him. He still has bags under his eyes and if I had to guess, has lost ten pounds. I reach over and grab his hand, squeezing it to let him know that I understand.
We finally pull into the driveway and my mouth drops open. There is a huge Welcome Home, Lennon banner spanning the front of the house, and the driveway is lined with cars. “Mother fuckers. I told them. I told them not today. You need your rest. You aren’t up for this.” I would be surprised if he didn’t crack a molar. Hayes is not happy. “Hayes. Babe.” I wait until he looks at me and as carefully as I can, I wrap my arms around his neck. “It’s fine. Let them be for a couple hours and then give them the boot.” He stares into my eyes before moving closer until our foreheads are touching. I didn’t think that I would get this again. Hayes. Feeling him. Sitting next to him. Touching him. But he’s here and so am I.
He insists on carrying me inside, to which I just roll my eyes. I realize that he needs this. He needs to be the one to take care of me. When we walk inside, everyone runs over wanting to give me a hug, and the growl that comes from my chauffer, let’s them know he is not happy. He brings me into the living room, where Shelby is holding two pillows, and he sets me down in the armchair. He quickly grabs the pillows and sets them on either side of me. I have to bite my lip to hold in my laughter.
I didn’t see Rosie when I was carried in, but as soon as I’m situated in the chair, she comes running over. Hayes picks her up at the last second, so she doesn’t collide with my stitches. I’m so excited to see her that I would gladly take the pain. “Mommy!” He sits her in the chair next to me, while I waste no time wrapping her in my arms. We decided, even though it killed me, that she shouldn’t come to the hospital until I was up and moving. My wound ended up getting infected, so I was there three days longer than originally expected. “Hi, my sweet Rosie. I missed you so much.” Dale brought her to the hospital yesterday for the first time, and I never want to go that long without seeing her again.
Hayes comes back with a small plate of Shelby’s homestyle potatoes. A wide smile breaks out across my face, because these potatoes were the only thing I wanted while I was in the hospital. “Thanks, babe.” When I look up from my plate, there is more than one person staring at me. “What? Try eating hospital food for that many days!” Hayes pulls a chair up next to me, pulling my hand into his. “Max pooped in Pop Pop’s house, and Red rolled in it!” I look down at Rosie, shocked, because as far as puppies go, Max had been pretty perfect. No accidents. I glance over at Dale, and he just shakes his head.
“Rosie, come play!” Rosie looks over at my nephew, Crosby, and back up at me. “It’s okay, Rosie. You can go play. We will watch a movie and snuggle later.” I barely finished speaking before she is jumping out of the chair and running over to her friend .
After an hour of visiting, my body is ready for a break, but I feel bad telling everyone to leave. After I yawn for a second time, Hayes stands up. “Alright, everyone. Thank you all for coming. Thank you for bringing food. But Lennon needs to take her medicine and she is about to fall asleep.” Everyone quickly gathers their things and heads to the door. Everyone but Tess. While Hayes is holding the door for everyone, she walks over to me and throws her arms around me. “I’m so sorry, Lennon. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more. That I didn’t come in sooner.” She’s sorry? If it wasn’t for my ex she wouldn’t have been hurt. “Tess, you have nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one that is deeply, deeply sorry. It’s my fault you were hurt.”
I don’t know how long we stand there in each other’s arms, both crying, but eventually she steps back. “I’ll get out of your hair and let you rest. I love you, Lennon.” Rosie runs up to me, wrapping her arms around my legs. “I love you too, Tessa.” Rosie gives her aunt a hug, and Hayes walks her to their dad’s truck. She has still been staying with Dale, but she said that tonight is the last night. She is ready to be back in her own home, and for people to stop hovering over her.
“Okay, who is ready for some pajamas and movies?” Rosie and I both scream, “Me!” and like Max understood Hayes, takes off up the stairs. Rosie follows after him, while I stare up the stairs. It’s going to take me an hour to get up them. But when I put one foot on a step, Hayes sweeps me up into his arms, taking the stairs two at a time.
We spend the rest of the day in bed. I took a few naps, but every time I woke up, Hayes and Rosie were still next to me, with Max at the end of the bed. We don’t do a lot of talking, but this is enough. This is enough. Being here with them…is everything. I didn’t think that I was going to make it, and I was going to lose this.
“Sunshine.” I look to my right, Rosie asleep in the middle, and focus on the love of my life. The man that took my broken pieces and put them back together, better than before they were broken. “What did you mean?” I tilt my head, trying to think of what he is talking about. “You said…a boy and then a girl.”
My visions come back to me from when I was bleeding all over the living room floor. Our life, flashing before my eyes. “Before you got to me, our life was playing in my mind. I saw lots of things. Rosie growing up. Graduating high school. But we have more kids. First a boy, and then two years later, a girl.”
“That sounds like a pretty great life.”
Yes, it does, and it’s all because of this perfect man.