48. Pudding Cups #2
The button was on the other side of Carter’s body; there was no way for me to reach it discreetly, and I got the sense that if I dove for it, I wouldn’t get there first. “How do you know Carter exactly?” My voice came out too strained, giving away my nerves.
“We have an understanding.” The man said with a predatory tilt of his head, and I wondered what the hell that was supposed to mean. “At least we will.” He gave me a smile like the Cheshire Cat, and I realized he knew exactly what I was doing.
His gaze suddenly flicked to the monitor as Carter’s heartbeat spiked, and I whirled, shocked to see Carter’s fingers twitch. I slid my hand into his. “Carter?” I breathed, hope exploding in my chest.
Eyes still closed, he weakly murmured something inaudible.
I leaned over the bed, careful of his IV.
“I’m here, baby. I’m right here.” I took his face gently in both hands.
“Carter, it’s Sara. Can you say that again?
” His eyes remained closed, and he murmured again.
“I can’t understand you, but I’m here.” I tried again, my excitement growing. He was waking up!
“My strawberry’s.” He mumbled out so quietly, I wasn’t sure if I’d heard him right.
“You want strawberries?” I asked excitedly, knowing I’d bring him an entire truckload of them, but he didn’t respond again.
I suddenly remembered to hit the nurse’s call button, and that’s when I realized the stranger was long gone. Thank God.
“He’s awake, he woke up.” I was buzzing with excitement and hope as Andie, the nurse I’d gotten to know a little bit, came in. “I mean, kind of.” I wrung my hands. “What do we do?”
Andie smiled warmly and started checking his vitals. “Now, we wait.”
Hours later, when Carter had finally come to, I was ready to put him right back under.
His first coherent words to me were utter delusion. “We need to break up.” And my first thought was, oh fuck, he has brain damage.
We were going to be like that movie, 30 First Dates or whatever. Only he was Drew Barrymore… which I supposed made me Adam Sandler. Which was honestly sort of fitting, but he was alive and I loved him, so I’d do whatever it took, for as long as it took.
Concerned, I reached for him, but Carter withdrew, a hard, cold look in his expression that made my stomach sink. “You’ve been through a lot.” I started quietly, “And you don’t know what you’re saying.”
“I do know what I’m saying.” He stared at the wall behind me, refusing to look at me with those purple-ringed eyes. “More than you know.”
“Carter, look at me.” I tried gently .
His gaze dropped to his hands. “I’ve made up my mind. It’s over. We’re done.”
Something in me erupted, overriding the panic. I was sleep deprived, I’d missed lunch, my emotions were so strung out I didn’t even know how I’d kept it together, and now this?
Fury didn’t even begin to describe it. I’d been at his bedside day and night, worried sick. This stupid idiot had nearly gotten himself killed, and now he was pulling this shit?!
“If you wanted to get rid of me, you should have stayed comatose.” I snapped angrily as Carter blinked, his greasy hair sticking in every direction. “We love each other, remember?! So you’re not getting rid of me when I don’t even know if it’s you or the brain damage talking.”
His jaw flexed for the longest second of my life as I gaped at him. “That was before. This is now.” He said firmly.
“Are you kidding me?” I demanded. “Are you seriously trying to break up with me right now?”
“I’m not trying anything. I did break up with you, and you’re just going to have to accept that.” Carter bit out so cooly that I wanted to strangle him with his own IV tube. We were in a hospital. They’d already brought him back once. They could do it again.
Ultimately, I decided not to strangle the love of my life with my bare hands, purely on the principle of the matter. “Un-fucking-believable.” I stormed out of the room, past Liam, who was mouth agape in the doorway next to Cade.
“The fuck did you just say?” Liam demanded.
I shot Carter a look over my shoulder. “ That is your fault.” I ignored Liam’s stream of outraged questions as I added sourly, “Have fun with that, Kensington. I’ll go ahead and order the dentures for you too because you’re gonna fucking need them!
Because if Liam doesn’t do it, I swear to God, I’ll knock out your perfectly straight teeth myself!
” Carter looked stunned as I shouted at him, and the peanut gallery stifled shocked, wide-eyed, disbelieving laughs from the corner of the room.
“I’ve been sitting at your bedside day and night, worried sick, and I warned you what would happen if you got yourself killed, so don’t look so surprised—and will somebody get the damn doctor up here to look at his stupid brain already! ?” I demanded, holding back a sob.
I practically stomped down to the cafeteria like King-Kong and angrily ate a chocolate pudding cup, unable to finish it as I finally burst into tears.
A little while later, I smelled Sloane’s signature perfume behind me, and she rounded the cafeteria table and slid into the chair across from me.
“How mad is Liam?” I asked, staring into the abyss of my pudding cup, feeling nauseous.
“If Carter wasn’t already in a hospital bed, I’m pretty sure Liam would have put him in one.
” What a mess. “It’ll all work out.” She gripped my hand across the table and grimaced.
“He’s probably disoriented, and he’s obviously been through hell—I’m sure he’s not thinking clearly yet, even if he thinks he is. ”
I nodded, hoping she was right, but a small part of me knew she wasn’t. “You think I should go up there and check on him—on Liam?” I sighed halfway, wishing Liam would knock his teeth out. Maybe knock the sense right back into him, I certainly wanted to.
“Cade is trying to talk Liam down right now,” Sloane said. “Plus, Theo and his cousins are up there. They won’t let Liam hurt him. At least not while he’s still in a hospital bed.” Sloane nodded confidently. “Let’s give it a few minutes.”
Only I knew a few minutes wasn’t going to change his mind. I’d seen the look in his eyes. Seen the determination to push me away.
Why? I couldn’t say exactly. But he’d done it before, and I knew exactly what it looked like, and even worse, what it felt like.