43. Daniel
43
DANIEL
W e got to Dubai as soon as we could. Rosie was very lucky she only had a dislocated shoulder and broken nose. Thankfully, she was wearing a helmet, but she was still knocked unconscious. The girls said she came over a hill, turned sharply, then the next thing she was rolling and then thrown off. They found her unconscious in the sand. She’s come out of surgery, and we are all waiting in the waiting room; me, Louis, Emily, Georgia, Matthieu, Ivy, and Alex. I continue to pace up and down the fluorescent corridors of the hospital.
“Hi, Rosie Hunt’s family?” the doctor asks, looking over at us. “She’s awake, but only two people are allowed in.” Georgia and Emily look over at me and I nod. They should be the first people to see her. I have no claim over her like they do. They look relieved and walk with the doctor.
“Thanks,” Louis says, squeezing my shoulder.
“Rosie will want to see her friends, not me. Maybe I should go.”
My brother grabs me and hauls me back. “Now is not the time. I’ve been in your position before, remember Paris,” he tells me, reminding me of the night Emily was attacked. “You need to see her, and only then if she asks you to leave, you leave. Now is the time to step up and show her how much you love her. Do not let fear push you away from her.”
“I was so close to losing her. I can’t lose her,” I tell him.
“I know. Look at Emily and me. Did you ever think we could come back after that night?” I shake my head. “Exactly. I dreamed every single day for the moment that she would look at me with love, not hate. Have faith, brother.”
The girls come out after an hour. “She wants to see you,” Emily says.
My heart thunders in my chest. “She does?”
Emily gives me a wide smile. “She does.”
I launch myself down the hospital corridor toward her room, stop at the door, suck in a deep breath, and steady myself before pushing it open. I see her black and bruised body in the bed, but seeing her awake with those marks seems so much worse. Her face pulls into a grimace as she looks over at me, and I’m not sure if it’s from pain or my presence. I move toward her and take a seat.
“You’re crying,” she mumbles.
I don’t realize I am until I wipe my tears from my face. “I thought I lost you, Rosie,” I confess quietly. She reaches out to me, and I take her hand and slide my chair closer to her.
“I thought I lost you, too.”
I lift her hand to my lips. “Never, you have my heart forever.” Tears start to form in her eyes as I continue to kiss her hand.
“I’m sorry I never told you about Dubai.”
I shake my head. “Whatever happened before today I don’t care. I love you, Rosie Hunt. I never ever want to spend another day without you in my life, this has been torture. You’re the end game for me. I want to build a life with you wherever that may be—London, Dubai, the fricken moon. As long as you are by my side that is all that matters.”
Tears run down her face. “You’d move to Dubai, for me?”
“Yes. I would move heaven and earth for you.”
“You hurt me when you left,” she says quietly.
“I know, baby,” I say, kissing her hand, “I got scared and ran. These past couple of weeks without you have been the worst. Getting the call about your accident, I thought … I thought I’d lost you and I’d never known pain like that before.”
“I missed you, too,” she confesses. Hope sparks in my veins. “When Ivy gave me the promotion, you were the first person I wanted to call, but I couldn’t. I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“I know you did.”
“I was going to tell you when I gave you the tour of your home. I couldn’t keep it from you anymore. I was also going to tell you, yes, that I was willing to give us a chance and take things publicly.”
“You were?” Fuck. I had no idea. I’m an idiot.
She nods. “Have you seen the property?”
“Yes,” My face lightens, “it was the most amazing gift I’ve ever received. The small touches that you put everywhere made me fall in love with you even more.”
“I was hoping if I put my stamp on it enough you would only ever see me there and wouldn’t ever bring another woman to that home.”
“There is no other woman for me ever again, do you understand?” I ask her. She nods. “Don’t they say in sickness and in health?”
“When you get married, they do.”
“Guess we’re testing those vows out before the day then.” Rosie’s mouth falls open as she stares at me in shock. “I mean what I say, I’m all in.”
“Me too.” Wait, did I hear that correctly? “I love you, too, Daniel,” she declares, and I jump up and kiss her lips ever so gently not wanting to hurt her.
“You love me?”
“Yes.”
“And we’re no longer hiding that?”
“No.”
“Thank fuck,” I say, kissing her again.