Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
Callum
I wake up abruptly in the middle of the night to a sharp pain that starts in my shoulder and shoots down to my elbow. I jolt into an upright position, unable to control my body's reaction.
Birdie’s head slips from my chest as my back thumps against the headboard. The back of my skull falls against the wood as the pain radiates through my arm, feeling like a knife twisting through my flesh and bone.
If I’m being honest with myself, my right arm has been bothering me all day. My muscles have felt weak and stiff since I woke up yesterday morning, but I pushed it to the back of my mind because I wanted to enjoy my date with Birdie. I wasn’t going to let anything get between my time with her.
But this…I can only describe this feeling as excruciating pain.
The stabbing sensation morphs into a sting, as if I’m being attacked by a swarm of wasps.
Birdie lets out a sleepy groan, starting to wake up when I suck in a ragged breath and clench my teeth together. We must have fallen asleep after three rounds of sex because the last thing I remember is running my fingers through Birdie’s hair as she trailed kisses along my naked chest.
“Fuck,” I hiss as my left arm reaches for my right. I try to massage the muscles with my fingertips, but I know from experience that it won't do any good. I’ll have to ride out the pain and let this pass.
I hold my arm against my bare stomach, my muscles spasming as I draw in choppy breaths.
Immediately knowing something is wrong, Ollie bursts through the cracked bedroom door and jumps onto the bed with us. His front paws scratch at the comforter covering my legs as he whimpers and whines.
The feeling is so intense that a high-pitched ringing fills my ears as I ball my legs up to my chest and drop my forehead to my knees. Through the ear-splitting pain, I faintly hear Birdie’s voice as her hands cup my shoulders. Her words seem to echo like she’s speaking from the other end of a tunnel.
“Callum!” she rushes out while shaking my shoulders.
She gets on her knees beside me, taking my face between her palms and lifting my distressed gaze to hers.
“Callum,” she repeats, her tone thick with grave concern. Her eyes frantically dart between mine, searching for an answer. “What is it? What’s going on?”
I purse my lips together and shake my head, trying to ride out the wave of agony.
“I…” I try to speak, but my words trail off as another jolt of pain shoots down my arm.
“ Fuck . It hurts.”
Overcome with worry, Birdie lets the sheets fall from her naked body and straddles my waist, never removing her hands from my jaw. Her eyes shift from my face, to my chest, and down my torso as she attempts to assess me, but her shoulders slump when she doesn’t immediately pinpoint anything.
“Cal,” her voice cracks with emotion. “Talk to me, baby. Tell me what hurts, or at least try to show me.”
Ollie attempts to jump between us, his paws brushing against my stomach as he lets out a string of anxious whimpers.
“It’s okay, Ollie,” Birdie exhales, her voice shaky. “He’s okay. I’m going to take care of him, bud. He’ll be okay.”
She quickly rubs the top of Ollie’s head before he huffs out a whine and lays down beside us.
“Listen to me, Cal,” she instructs, returning her attention to me. “I need you to tell me if you’ve taken any new medications recently. Are you having trouble breathing? Any chest pain?”
Just as the spasm starts to subside, Birdie’s hands are everywhere. Her fingers poke and prod around my chest and abdomen before she reaches for my wrist to check my pulse. Once she gets a reading of my heart rate, she instructs me to open my mouth before looking deep inside my throat. My first thought is that she’s checking for an allergic reaction.
She’s in full-on nurse mode, trying her best to keep calm while assessing me as quickly as possible.
I shake my head in protest when she closes her eyes, trying to focus as she rechecks my pulse.
“It’s,” I pant, “my arm. “I can breathe. It’s just…my right arm.”
Her body freezes when she hears my voice. Her eyes snap up to meet mine.
“Oh, thank God,” she exhales a relieved breath, placing a hand over her chest. “Callum, you almost gave me a heart attack.” She leans forward and presses her lips to mine before trailing kisses along my cheek and jaw.
Fuck. I love her.
Her brows furrow in confusion when she pulls back .
“Did this come out of nowhere? Have you injured your arm recently?”
“No.”
I finally feel like I can focus long enough to take a full breath as the last of the pain starts to dissipate. I push off the mattress with my good arm and sit up straighter with Birdie still in my lap.
“Maybe you injured it without knowing,” she guesses. “Did you lift anything unusually heavy today?”
“No, it’s not that,” I clear my throat. “Have you ever woken up with a leg pain that takes your breath away? It starts off feeling like a sharp knife, then it’s like your muscles try to crawl out of your skin.”
“If you’re referring to a charley horse, then yes,” she nods. “But most people experience cramps like that in their legs at night… It’s not as common in the arms.”
“Well, that’s exactly what it felt like just now. At first, the pain was in my shoulder, and then it shot down to my elbow. I never know when it’s going to happen, but once it does, it’s fucking debilitating.”
Her brows knit together as the color leaves her face.
“What do you mean?” she asks quietly. “Does this happen to you a lot?”
“At first, the episodes were maybe once a month.” I pause and push a hand through my hair. “But over the past six months, they’ve been more frequent.”
Her expression stills, scaring the ever-loving shit out of me. She seemed so calm less than a minute ago.
Now, she looks like she could throw up.
“Do you think this could be connected to your hand? The trembling that I noticed at Captain Ray’s?”
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “This is why I went to see a doctor in the first place. Aside from the sporadic pain and tremors, there are days when I just feel weak. Where my limbs feel stiff and faint.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat before continuing.
“Something just doesn’t feel right, Birdie.”
When she narrows her eyes, I can see the wheels spinning in her mind.
“And the doctor told you these symptoms are all related to stress and anxiety? He ran no tests?”
“He only did blood work. Once all my labs came back normal, he dismissed it as stress. He told me to come back if my symptoms didn’t start to improve.”
Her nostrils flare at my response.
“No,” she grits out. “You’re not going back to that lazy excuse for a doctor. You need to see someone who is going to take you seriously. I don’t have the training of a medical doctor, but I can tell you that your symptoms don’t align with someone who is suffering from anxiety.”
Silence fills the space between us as my eyes flick between hers.
“What do you think it is?”
Her breath hitches at my question.
“I…” she stammers. “I don’t know, Callum. Like I said, I’m not a medical doctor.”
I can tell by the look on her face that she’s not being candid with me. She has an idea of what it could be, but she doesn’t want to tell me.
She doesn’t want to scare me.
“But you’ve cared for thousands of patients,” I retort. “You have to have some sort of inkling of what it could be.”
The ticking of the ceiling fan is the only sound in the room as she anxiously chews on the inside of her cheek.
“Cal…I think you should see a doctor first. I don’t want you worrying yourself sick over nothing– ”
“Birdie,” I interject. “I have seen a doctor. Please, just tell me what you’re thinking. Please . I’d rather hear it from you than go out of my mind, self-diagnosing myself with some rare disease.”
Hesitation fills her features.
“Are… Are you sure, Cal?” Her voice is barely a whisper.
“Yes.”
“You have to understand that I could be completely wrong,” she halts. “But as a nurse, it’s my responsibility to sometimes look for the worst-case scenario. When I’m with a patient, I have to explore every route to make sure I’m not missing anything. It’s just the way my brain has been trained to work.”
She’s rambling now, speaking a mile a minute. She does this whenever she gets nervous.
“Birdie,” I exhale. “Please just tell me.”
Her nostrils cave in as she sucks in a deep breath and blows it out.
“It could be neurological.”
The words spill from her mouth like roaring rapids, so fast that I barely understand her.
Neurological.
A tight ball forms in my throat as I try to process that one word.
My fingers dig into the bedsheets on either side of me as I stare off into space. My vision blurs as Birdie runs her fingers up and down my bare chest, trying to calm my racing heart. She glides her hands up to my shoulders, squeezing them tightly.
“Callum, look at me.”
I slowly lift my gaze and find the lines of Birdie’s face curved with regret. She wishes she wouldn't have told me. She knows that I now realize how serious this could be .
“Like I said,” she continues, “I could be completely wrong. However, most patients with unexplained symptoms affecting their muscles and movement will be referred to a neurologist for testing. That doesn’t mean that every patient walks out with a life-changing diagnosis. It’s just part of the process of ruling out serious conditions.”
“What…kind of conditions?”
“Nope. We aren't gonna go down that road,” she objects.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know enough about neurology to give you an educated answer. And like you said, attempting to self-diagnose is only going to drive you mad. You’re going to see a doctor as soon as possible, and then we’ll go from there. Until then, try not to let your mind spiral with ‘what-ifs’. Okay?”
Too late. My mind is already going there.
ALS.
Parkinson’s.
A fucking brain tumor.
Jesus Christ.
My chest constricts as my heart threatens to race out of my body.
“Birdie,” I mutter, holding her stare. “What if it’s bad? What if it’s really bad?”
Her face falls at my concern. She brushes her thumbs along my cheeks and presses her lips to my forehead.
“But what if it’s not?” she asks, her voice soothing. “For all we know, you could be deficient in something as common as magnesium. It could be as simple as taking a supplement to relieve your symptoms.”
“ Fuck ,” I curse under my breath, rubbing my palm against my stubble. “I should have been taking this more seriously.”
“Hey.” Birdie reaches up and threads her fingers through my curls. “Look at me, Cal.”
When I stare into her silver eyes, I almost forget about why I’m on the verge of a panic attack.
“I’m here to make sure that you take it seriously from here on out,” she deadpans. “I know a highly recommended physician at the hospital, Dr. Moreno. She’s one of the best doctors I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. She’s the type of physician who will sit down with you and genuinely listen to every word. I’ve never seen someone care so much about their patients. I’ll text you her number so you can call her office on Monday.”
Feeling overwhelmed and, quite frankly, terrified of the news I could receive, I anxiously rake my fingers through my hair.
“Cal?” Birdie says sternly. “I’m not messing around. I won’t let you put this off.”
“Okay,” I nod, my voice barely audible. “I’ll do it.”
She arches a skeptical brow.
“You promise me, Callum? You’ll call first thing Monday morning?”
“Yes.”
I tug my lower lip between my teeth as I stare up at the ceiling. I close my eyes and focus on breathing, trying to slow my heart rate to a comfortable pace.
I feel sick. Like I could either throw up or pass out.
I just got Birdie back, and now this? I swear, the universe fucking hates me.
“Baby…” Birdie utters, returning my attention to the angel sitting in my lap.
Baby.
God, that word coming from her lips… It single-handedly eases the fight or flight coursing through my veins.
My thoughts shift from my health to being very aware of the stunning woman straddling my waist. My eyes heat as I track the moonlight trailing down her bare breasts and torso.
Fucking hell.
She’s unbelievable. Ethereal.
Birdie leans in so close that I think she might kiss me. But she stops just before her lips brush mine.
“Everything is going to be okay,” she whispers. “Take comfort in knowing that the doctors will get to the bottom of what is happening. And once they do, you’ll be headed in the right direction.”
My lips turn up in an appreciative smile.
“Thank you, baby,” I breathe, skimming my hands up and down her ribs.
Right as my pulse starts to slow, it shoots back up when Birdie trails her pointer fingers from my chest down to the hair below my navel.
“Is your arm still bothering you?” she asks against my lips.
“A little. But not nearly as bad.”
Goosebumps cover my skin as her nails drag up to my chest.
“Can I…” she breathes, flicking her thumbs along my nipples, “help take your mind off everything? Or would you rather go back to sleep?”
“Depends,” I smirk, tugging her lower lip between my teeth. “What did you have in mind?”
“Would you rather me show you or tell you?”
My cock wakes up, filling with blood at her suggestive tone. She lets out a faint moan as my tongue peaks out to lick along the line between her lips.
“I think we’ve done enough talking for tonight.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” she grins seductively before lifting her hips and pulling down the covers separating her hips from mine .
When she lowers her naked body back to mine, my cock thickens as she presses our lips together and rubs her slick pussy against me. When her tongue dips into my mouth and strokes against mine, I reach behind her and palm both of her ass cheeks in my hands.
“Birdie Wren,” I groan between kisses as she massages her warm pussy from my base to tip, priming me with her arousal. “You need to fuck me. Right now.”
“Or what?” she taunts.
“Or I’m going to flip you over and drill you into this mattress. Fuck you until you can’t get up from this bed tomorrow.”
When she moans against my mouth and tightens her fingers in my hair, I know that’s exactly what she wants.
My dirty girl.
Before she can blink, I roll us over and position myself on top of her. I waste no time filling her to the hilt with one unyielding thrust.
“Cal!” she screams.
“Birdie Wren,” I say through clenched teeth, pulling out to the tip before pushing back in. “God, you feel so fucking good. So right.”
She reaches for the back of my head and crushes our mouths together in a searing kiss.
Our lips never part, not even when I spill myself deep inside of her.