7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
C ody slid off the stool. “I need to see her now.”
Tired beyond words, Mindy Sue’s fatigue mirrored his own. The last several days had taken a toll on her. The last few hours had worn him down, even more than the last six months without Brooke had.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to wake her. Her meds finally kicked in, and she was sleeping well when I left. I wasn’t planning on leaving her alone this long, but I didn’t want to tell you what happened where she could overhear us if she woke up.”
“I just need to see her, so I’ll know that she’s really okay.”
“I don’t think seeing her will ease your mind.” Mindy Sue stood and started back down the hall.
He followed. “I know she’s injured.”
“There’s just no way to prepare yourself to see her. Believe me. Before I walked into her hospital room, the doctor tried to warn me. You just can’t believe it until you see it.”
Cody walked beside Mindy Sue to their room. She unlocked the door as quietly as she could. The deadbolts clicked and slid out of place. Opening the door slowly, she peeked in to see if Brooke was awake. Mindy Sue sighed with relief.
Cody looked past her and got his first look at Brooke. He moved farther into the small room. A lamp shone on the desk. A scarf over it cast a blue glow, soft, but enough light that he could see her. Her chest rose and fell as she breathed, disrupted by soft hiccups from crying herself to sleep. Wadded-up tissues lay beside her on the bed. Mindy Sue gathered them up and tossed them into a wastebasket under the desk that separated her bed from Brooke’s.
He took a moment to catalogue Brooke’s injuries. Her face was pale as death with dark circles under her eyes. A long, stitched cut on her cheek. She wore a tank top, allowing him to see a large bandage on her shoulder. Her left arm was bandaged. He couldn’t see the cuts, but the fact that it was bandaged from her elbow down to her hand told him they were serious. Her hand rested over a silver-covered oval dish.
“Is that my daughter?” Cody whispered.
Mindy Sue touched her fingertips to Brooke’s hand over the too-small vessel that held a tiny life that had never gotten a chance to really live. “Yes. She won’t let go of her.”
Cody wanted to pick her up and hold her. This was as close to his daughter as he would ever get. He knew that would wake Brooke, so he stuffed his hands in his pockets and continued to stare down at her.
Her right arm was bandaged much in the same way as her left, but it was in a strapped brace that served as a cast. He guessed despite her broken wrist, she still needed to be able to clean and re-bandage the stitched cuts. The tank top covered the bandages around her midsection. The outline of them showed through the material. Her leg, encased in a heavy black brace, lay outside the blankets that slightly covered her to the waist. She couldn’t be comfortable, though pillows kept her propped up. Her right arm rested on a pillow by her side. He bet any time she moved her arm, it sent pain through her shoulder.
He had no idea how to get her back to the ranch without subjecting her to more agonizing pain.
The thought of hurting her made him ill.
“Why did they let her out of the hospital so soon? Shouldn’t they have waited a few more days at least? Kept an eye on her injuries?”
Mindy Sue gathered some clothes from her closet and whispered over her shoulder. “She didn’t need to be there anymore. The surgery went well. They patched her up and put her back together. She can walk and get around on her own. It’s not easy, and it’s painful. She can’t use her hands and arms very well, but she’ll manage with help.”
“But the C-section,” he protested.
“Most women who have one spend only three days in the hospital; she was there nearly five. She’s okay, Cody. Physically, she’s healing well.”
Mindy Sue came over and stood beside him. They whispered, but even that small sound made Brooke squirm and mumble in her sleep. Her shirt turned wet over her left breast. He gave Mindy Sue a questioning look.
“Her milk came in. That’s why her breasts are so big. Can you imagine your own body rebelling against you? You know there’s no baby in your head, but your body insists there is. The doctor said her milk will dry up in a few more days.”
Mindy Sue took a washcloth from a drawer and folded it in half. She gently raised Brooke’s tank top enough to put it over her breasts. He guessed it was the best she could do without waking Brooke completely.
“Her pills are on the desk. She can’t have anything else until two in the morning. If she wakes up, help her the best you can. I’ll be downstairs on the second floor in room twelve. That’s Julie’s room. You remember her from summer last year. We all hung out at the ranch for a week.”
Cody remembered the petite blonde with the giggling personality. She was a sweet kid. Kid , he thought. She was only a year younger than Brooke. Brooke seemed to age before his eyes. He saw her now for the woman she was: a badass mother, who fought for her life and that of her child. He was sorry it had taken him this long to see how tough, resilient, and strong she’d become.
“I don’t know how she’s going to react to seeing you.”
“It’ll be fine. I love her. I’ll give her whatever she needs. But I’m not leaving her side for anything. Not now. Never again.”
Mindy Sue stared at Brooke, then him again. “Okay. You can have my bed for the night. If you need me, come down and get me. We’ll figure out what comes next in the morning.” She bit her bottom lip, obviously reluctant to leave.
“I’ll be gentle with her. You can trust me. She does.” He hoped that was still true. If not, he'd spend the rest of his life proving it to her.
Mindy Sue came to Cody and gave him a hug, holding him tight for a moment. He needed it. He gave her a squeeze. “Thank you for taking care of her, for being the friend she needed, for watching out for her, for…everything.” It should have been him with her, but he was glad Brooke had Mindy Sue.
She hugged him harder. “Make her happy again.”
He held her at arm’s length. “I won’t stop trying until I do.”
She nodded with a look in her eye that said she’d hold him to that. “I’ll see you in the morning.” Mindy Sue moved toward the door.
He waited for her to leave. The locks clicked into place with her key. He wondered if Brooke needed that sense of security even now, after Adam had been locked up.
Toeing off his shoes, he sat heavily on Mindy Sue’s bed. Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he dialed Susanne. Well after ten, but he knew she wouldn’t care about the time, and only needed to hear from him about her daughter.
He didn’t want to wake Brooke and walked to the door, undid the locks, then stepped out.
Susanne answered on the first ring, and he said the only thing that mattered. “She’s going to be okay. I swear it.” He would do anything to help Brooke heal. “I have to whisper. She’s asleep.” He didn’t want his voice to carry through the door or to others on the floor.
“What happened?
“She was attacked by the campus stalker.” He let that sink in for a moment. “But it’s a lot more complicated than just that.”
“Did they catch him? Who was it?”
“You can’t tell anyone for a lot of reasons.”
“I won’t. Just tell me.”
“Governor Harris’s son, Adam.” He paused and looked through the crack in the door at Brooke, twitching in her sleep. He wanted to go back in and softly touch her shoulder to try to soothe her but knew nothing he did would help her. “I’ll explain when I have more time.”
“And your baby?”
Your baby .
“Our little girl was killed during the attack,” he said, choked up, and let the tears fall.
Susanne’s tears and grief drifted through the phone. “No, Cody. No,” she sobbed. “I didn’t want it to be true.”
“It is.” He needed to face reality and be strong for Brooke. She needed him to hold it together so she could fall apart and he’d be there to pick up the pieces. “I spoke with Mindy Sue. She told me everything. I’ll fill you in on the details when I can. I want to bring her home tomorrow, but I’m not sure I can because of her injuries. They’re bad. The drive will be hard on her. She might fight me about coming home to the ranch after…everything that’s happened.”
“If she can’t come here, I’ll go there. We can stay in a hotel until she can travel. In the meantime, take care of my girl, Cody. Tell her I love her. Tell her I want her home. Tell her nothing else matters. We’ll take care of her.”
Nothing else matters , as in it didn’t matter that she hadn’t told them about the baby. No one would be upset with her over it.
Cody had to agree. He’d made it impossible for Brooke to come to him.
Shaking off his misery, he remembered the most important thing was getting her well.
“I’ll call you in the morning. Mindy Sue said Brooke needs to turn in a term paper and take her last final exam. I’ll see if she’s up to it. No matter what, I’m staying until I can bring her home.”
Susanne knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t leave Brooke alone anytime soon.
“I wish I was there, but I don’t think I’d have been able to keep myself together. She needs us to be strong for her. I can’t imagine her grief. The thought of losing her…I can’t go there. She’s my heart, Cody. And so are you. I hurt for the both of you.”
Cody could barely get his next words past the lump in his throat. “You need to prepare yourself to see her. She’s hurt badly. It’s going to take her weeks to heal.” He took a minute to calm himself before he went on. “Susanne, I’m sorry. This is my fault. If I’d talked to her after we… If I didn’t let this thing with Kristi roll on, even when I knew…”
“You shouldn’t have crossed the line if you only intended to hurt her,” she snapped.
“I didn’t want to hurt her. Kristi was pregnant. What else could I do, but be there for her and the baby?”
Susanne cried harder. “I’m s-sorry. I know y-you’d n-never hurt her intentionally. I’m just so an-angry about her st-staying away, and not confiding in me. I feel so helpless to h-help her now.”
“It’s going to be okay. This is my fault and I’ll fix it.”
Susanne let out a heavy sigh. “Cody, don’t do that to yourself. Blaming yourself won’t help her. Even if Brooke had told you about the baby, she probably still would have returned to school to finish her semester. The person stalking her would have found her here, there, wherever she went. It isn’t your fault.”
He appreciated that she said that, even if he didn’t believe it.
“Sometimes, terrible things happen. We can only do our best for her now. She needs us, our love and support.”
“I know. And I promise I will give her all of that and more.”
“I know you will. Call me in the morning. Kiss her goodnight for me.”
“I will.” He ended the call, walked back into the room, locked the door again, crossed to her bed, and leaned over Brooke, kissing her softly on the forehead. “Your mom told me to tell you she loves you, sweetheart.” Because she was asleep, he added, “I love you, too,” and pressed his lips to her forehead, hoping that when she woke up, she’d be happy to see him.
Stretched out on Mindy Sue’s bed, he lay on his side, just looking at her sleep beside him. In the more than ten years he’d known her, he’d never told her he loved her even in a non-romantic way. She’d told him all the time how she felt. She made a point of showing him how much she cared. Maybe not always in the best way—she could be a little forward at times—but she’d been young and determined.
He had to admit, even when her antics to win him were comical, he was flattered.
It hit him hard that he’d almost lost her, and he’d never told her how he felt about her. Maybe he hadn’t known how deep his feelings ran. Maybe he’d denied them for so long, he couldn’t see them for what they were.
Everything had come clear that night they shared together, five days ago, and now. He didn’t want to waste another day of his life without her. He needed to be loved by her. He wanted to spend every day, every hour, every second loving her. Because he did. Deeply. Wholeheartedly. And he was ready to make sure she knew and felt it every day for the rest of their lives.
If she’d let him.