Chapter 48 Dominic
Dominic
My entire body hurts like a motherfucker, and when I squint my eyes open, my reality isn’t much better. It takes a few blinks to clear the woozy fog, but it’s not long before I realize I’m lying in a hospital bed with IVs stuck in my arms and beeping machines providing medical white noise.
“Hey, Tony.”
Sherry is standing beside my bed, staring down at me.
“Hey, Sherry.”
“Not going to lie, this was almost as bad as that time we almost lost you from the pneumonic plague,” she says and purses her lips as she looks around the room.
Funny enough, I actually know what episode she’s referring to. It’s the one where a woman sends a letter filled with genetically altered Yersinia pestis to NCIS and Tony opens it.
“Glad you’re okay.” Sherry reaches out to tap my hand. “Ziva was real worried about you, but I told her you’d pull through.”
“She was?” I ask, but Sherry doesn’t answer this time.
“She was.” Hannah is at my bedside now, and it’s only then that I realize my room is also filled with Shane and my mom and my dad and my sister. Grandpa Louie sits in a chair, a smile on his face.
“You think now is a good time to make a career shift, Dominic?” he asks, his voice teasing and warm at the same time. “I hear the coffee business is a hell of a lot safer.”
A laugh escapes my throat, but it results in a shooting pain that radiates from my chest to my shoulder.
The shoulder I realize is currently bandaged up and immobilized by traction.
A vague memory of my surgeon talking to me while I was in the recovery room fills my head.
I was still heavily drugged from anesthesia, but I remember him saying the bullet was lodged in my shoulder and had just barely nicked an artery.
He said he got it out without any trouble, but if it’d been even a millimeter to the right, I would’ve been a dead man.
I meet Hannah’s eyes, and I see emotion shining in their gorgeous depths. Thank everything, she’s okay. I want to reach out to her, I want to pull her into my arms and hold her, but my mom and dad and sister step in front of Sherry and Hannah to give me gentle hugs.
“Glad you’re okay, son,” my dad says, smiling down at me. He clears his throat of emotion and squeezes my hand. “Definitely had us a little worried there for a minute.”
“A little worried? More like out of our minds,” my mom whispers into my ear as she hugs me again. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
“Yeah, Dom,” Dakota agrees and moves my mother out of the way to point a stern finger in my face. “I swear on everything, if you try to die again, I’ll kill you myself.”
My dad laughs and puts a hand on both my mother’s and my sister’s shoulders, gently edging them away from my bed. “How about we give Dominic a minute to get his bearings? Man’s been through a lot.”
“I could really go for some of those doughnuts I saw the ladies stocking that cafeteria buffet with,” Grandpa Louie says and stands up. “What do you say, Sherry?” He gestures to Hannah’s mom. “Would like you to join me for a little breakfast date?”
“Okay.” Sherry smiles and blushes and walks over to take his outstretched hand.
“I think I’ll join you all,” Shane agrees. “Could use some coffee.”
“Oh, Gibbs,” Sherry says through a grin. “You sure do love your coffee.”
“That I do, Sherr Bear,” Shane says and flashes a grin at both Hannah and me before joining my family and leaving my room.
And then, it’s just me and Hannah. Alone.
“I’m so sorry,” she says, but funnily enough, the same exact words come out of my mouth at the same time.
Hannah’s head tilts to the side as she searches my eyes. “Why are you sorry?” she asks, and I tap the empty spot on my bed for her to sit down beside me.
She does, thank fuck, and I don’t hesitate to pull both of her hands into one of mine.
“I know I bulldozed you a bit with the paying-off-the-mortgage thing,” I admit, and the responding smile I get makes my chest bloom with hope.
“And the six-figure check?” she adds, and my smile twitches with self-deprecation.
“That too,” I agree. “I should’ve talked to you first, but I just wanted—”
“I know, Dom,” she says and squeezes my hand gently. “I know you just wanted to help me. I know your intentions were pure and good. And I also know that my pride got in the way quite a bit.”
“I get it,” I say. “I understand why you got upset.”
“And I understand why you did what you did.”
“So . . .” I pause to search her eyes. “Are you saying that you forgive me?”
“Yes, but I hope that comes with the contingency that you’ll forgive me for acting the way I did,” she says, and her voice goes soft with uncertainty.
“I hope you can forgive me for cutting you out of my life like I did. For not giving you a chance to talk to me. For ignoring your texts and calls. I handled it all so horribly, Dom. I’m so sorry.
So, so sorry. And to think . . .” She trails off, and a few tears stream from her eyes.
“I almost lost you,” she says, and her lip quivers. “I was so scared, Dom.”
“But you didn’t lose me,” I answer without hesitation. “And of course I forgive you, Hannah.” I squeeze her hands. “Though I’m still a little pissed at you for going to that hotel room without me. I was so fucking worried about you. I feared the worst. The absolute worst.”
“I didn’t know what to do,” she says in a rush. “I knew Monica was in trouble and I didn’t know what to do.”
“Next time, call me,” I tell her. “For the love of God, call me.”
“Call you anytime?” she teases.
“Yeah, baby, call me anytime.”
We both laugh for a moment, our hands still locked together, but eventually, poignant silence stretches between us as our gazes search one another with an intensity I’ve never shared with anyone but Hannah.
“I love you, Hannah.” My whole world is wrapped up in this woman. My heart, my soul, my mind—all of it loves her, wants her, needs her. A life without Hannah isn’t a life at all.
She’s my forever, of that I’m certain.
“I love you too,” she whispers back, a fresh sheen of tears coating her eyes.
“Do you love me enough to marry me?” I ask, my mind made up with a finality I’ll never divert from.
“W-what?” she stutters.
“I want to marry you,” I tell her. “I, Dominic Dunn, want to spend the rest of my life with you, Hannah May.”
“You want to marry me?” she asks, her voice incredulous and more tears spilling down her cheeks.
I gently urge her body closer to mine, and I don’t stop tugging until she’s in my lap with her thighs straddling my hips.
“Dom, I don’t think the doctor—”
I cut her words off by placing my hand on her face and pressing my mouth to hers. Pain radiates from my chest and shoulder, but I don’t give a fuck.
“Marry me, Hannah,” I say against her perfect lips.
She leans back to search my steady, unwavering gaze.
“I love you,” I say again. “I’ve never loved anyone like I love you, Hannah. Please, marry me? Let me love you for the rest of our lives.”
“Yes,” she says. Her lips meet mine again, and I can taste the salt from her tears.
I kiss, deeper this time, and when a little moan escapes her throat, I swallow it down. The machines start beeping wildly, but I don’t give a fuck about that either.
This woman is going to be mine. Forever.