30. Cedrick
“Ican go home?”
“Yes, just some discharge stuff, but we can give you some leeway. Within the hour if you’d like,” my doctor shares with me before shaking my hand.
Ellie’s are filled to the brim with tears.
“I hope you feel better soon, Cedrick. You’re healing well. I’ll leave you two now.” The doctor ducks out of the room with a wave.
“Let’s go home, baby.”
Her face lights up and she takes my hand in hers, nodding furiously. “Yes, home. I’d love that.”
Her other hand goes to her belly and my eyes follow.
“Can I?”
She nods. I reach out and rest a hand on her stomach, a huge smile spreading across my face.
“I’m so excited,” I whisper.
“Me too,” she says, a tear finally slipping down her face. “You’re going to be such an amazing father.”
“This kid is going to have the best mother out there.”
“Well then I guess it’ll be a pretty lucky kid,” she says, laughing and wiping her tears. “Okay, let’s get you out of here. I’ll call your brothers to help us.”
Ellie whips out her phone and seconds later, she’s walking around the room, gathering our things while she fills them in.
I watch Ellie, the love of my life, and I truly feel like the luckiest man in the world. Lucky that my operation worked, lucky that I survived, and lucky that I get to go home with Ellie.
Despite how dire things were just days ago, when I thought that might be the last time I’d see her, everything seems to be just right. This time, when we enter my property, the secrets torturing me are no longer under wraps. Everything is out in the open. We feel the same.
“Okay, baby,” Ellie says, pocketing her phone. “Ishmael and Liza are on their way, and Caesar will be by later. He’ll help get you home and settled.”
“Come here,” I say, reaching out for her.
She immediately walks over, a look of concern on her face. “You need something?”
“I do,” I murmur, caressing her cheek and pulling her closer to me. “This, right here.”
I hold her by the arm protectively and I press my lips against hers, savoring the taste and feel of her. And everything really is perfect.
Ellie walks into the room,carrying a tray of food.
“No, not this again, Ellie. Yesterday…”
“I know, but I read the recipe wrong. Believe me, it’s good, when it’s made right.”
She sets the tray on my lap, and I look skeptically at the bowl of green soup.
“Ellie…”
“Cedrick, please just try it.”
“Remind me why I can’t just eat normally?”
“Healthier foods to get you healthier quicker. It was my favorite when I was little.”
“Okay,” I tell her. “That convinces me.” I don’t tell her I would have eaten it even if it were made of caterpillar insides.
I wearily pick up the spoon and dip it into the soup. I bring to my mouth, expecting the worst.
“Hmm…that’s…not bad.”
“See! I told you.”
For her, I pretend to like it. After yesterday’s dinner was such a disaster, she needs this win. I won’t get in the habit of placating her with little white lies, but for now, I like it in a way, because she made it.
It’s not that Ellie’s a bad cook, it’s just that the ingredients she insists on using do not belong together. At least, not in this way.
I eat the entire bowl extra fast, pretending to love it. The look on her face when I hand her the empty bowl makes it all worth it. Except now that she thinks I like it, she’s going to make me eat it every day.
God help me. If she asks, I’ll tell her my taste buds changed after I recovered.
“So I was thinking we could take a walk outside in the garden,” Ellie says upon returning. “If you want to, of course.”
“I’d love to, I haven’t been outside all day.”
“Do you want to try the walker today?”
“Yeah, I think I’m ready for it. In physical therapy earlier, we used one for a little bit and it went really well.”
“We’ll go really slow, just in case,” she says, bringing the walker over to my side of the bed.
Ellie helps me up, and I stand slowly, using the walker for support. We make our way down the hall and to the elevator. Thank God I had one installed when I built this.
Walking is definitely hard, since I’m still recovering from surgery, but it’s getting easier by the day.
As soon as we step outside, I feel instantly happier. The day is beautiful, and I can walk again. And this beautiful woman is by my side, and she’ll be by my side forever. How could life be better?
Ellie has been amazing, taking care of me every single day, making sure I take my medication, cooking me meals, and making sure I get outside.
“Thank you,” I say as we walk through the garden.
“For what?” She looks at me curiously.
“For everything. I don’t think I could do this without you.”
“You could. It just wouldn’t be as much fun without me.” She grins. “And you’d do the same for me.”
I make a face pretending I might not, but she sees right through it. She knows I’d do anything for her.
“We should probably get up,”I murmur.
“Mmm, we should, but I don’t want to.”
“Neither do I,” I say, nuzzling my face into her hair. She’s lying on my chest, something that she couldn’t have done a month ago when I first came home.
“Let’s just stay in bed all day.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice.”
She lifts her head up and smiles, something I’ll never ever get tired of seeing.
“You’re so beautiful.”
“Thanks.” She looks away as if she’s embarrassed by the attention. Suddenly, she sits up, her hand going to her mouth.
“Are you okay, Ell?”
“Yeah, I thought for a second that maybe the morning sickness was back again, but I think it was a false alarm.”
“Fingers crossed. It’s been a good two weeks without it, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe you just need to eat something. Why don’t we go make some breakfast?”
She nods, sliding out of bed. I join her, relishing the feeling of being able to walk again without any help. My recovery has been tough, but I’m finally about ninety-five percent of the way through it.
When we reach the kitchen, Ellie opens the fridge, surveying the contents.
“Hmm, I think we need to go back to the market today. The cute one we went to last week.”
“After breakfast?”
“If you’re starving, I can make us some eggs if you want. And then we can have something bigger later.”
“Eggs are perfect. Sunny side up?”
“Anything for you.”
Two hours later, we’re at the market, filling our cart with all types of artisanal foods made by locals. This is our second time at this place, and we’ve both fallen in love with it.
It was my first time in a market since the shooting, and neither of us wanted to go back to the one where it happened—not yet, at least, although we did go back to thank them all. But too much of a hubbub comes up around us. One of my sisters-in-law recommended this place to us.
“Let’s have pasta for dinner tonight. They have a ton of options here, and they all look amazing.”
“What, no soup?”
She rolls her eyes at me, but I detect a hint of a smile on her lips. “No more soup. I’m just as sick of it as you are. Besides, I think you’re healed enough. There’s no need to keep torturing you.”
Thank God.
We browse the various kinds of pasta in the aisle, and I admire Ellie’s growing bump. Pregnancy suits her well. Her beauty seems to increase with each day, adding one more thing to the long list of reasons why I’m so lucky.
This past month has been one of the best of my life, even if most of it was spent in bed recovering. It’s the little moments with Ellie, the way we’ve gotten to know each other on such a deep level, that’s made it the best.
And I wouldn’t change a single thing. If getting shot is what it took to find this, I’d do it as many times as I had to.