33. Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Two
Jaylen
A fter showering for the first time by myself and without the help of the male nurse that usually helps clean me, I'm exhausted, and gladly flop down on the hospital bed with still wet hair and only a pair of grey shorts.
My legs are trembling slightly, and every muscle in my body is aching.
"Who knew it took so much effort to shower," I say to Sophia and my Aunt Louise when they walk back into the room.
"I did offer to help you," Aunt Lou says, walking over to me and cupping my jaw in a loving, motherly gesture.
"I'd rather die."
Sophia laughs, and her mother rolls her eyes.
"You realise that I used to bathe you all as children, right?"
"Yeah, I do, but I'm now an adult and I'm very capable of doing it myself. Besides, everything has grown since then, and I love you too much to shock you and end up giving you a heart attack," I retort.
"Fair point," she says, grimacing. "I best be going anyway. Michael has a meeting with Brody Garcia to finalise plans for the wedding, and after the debacle at the last meeting to do with a marriage, I'm forcing my way in to this one. "
"Go give them hell, Auntie Lou."
"You know I will, sweetheart."
She presses a light kiss against my head, hugs and kisses Sophia and then leaves the room.
"Dad's going to lose his mind if she walks in that room," Sophia says with a cunning smile on her face.
"Yeah, but at least with her by his side, it should go smoothly, and hopefully there won't be any issues."
"Yeah, I guess," she sighs, moving to sit in the chair beside me.
I sit up on my bed and nudge her, drawing her attention to me.
"How are you feeling?" I ask her, glancing over my shoulder to be sure the door to my room is closed so no one can hear our conversation.
Her brows draw down in confusion, but when I point to her stomach, she realises why I'm asking.
"Honestly, I'm all good. I'm not experiencing any symptoms yet."
"Is that normal?" I ask, slightly concerned.
She laughs and nods.
"Yeah. You usually don't have any symptoms until six weeks and onwards, so it's very normal. We had a scan, and everything is fine so far."
I breathe a sigh of relief.
"How's things with Rory?"
A smile tugs at my lips as I think about Aurora, and my cheeks heat when I think about how stunning she looked as she lost herself to the pleasure earlier.
"Everything's good with us," I tell her, clearing my throat and rubbing at the back of my neck. "We, uh, had a moment earlier, and it gave me the reassurance I needed that she feels the same way for me as I do for her."
"A moment?"
"Yeah, I bought her some flowers and then we had a talk."
"And now you're smiling like a kid on Christmas," she states, laughing at me as I cover my face because I am indeed sitting here with a wide, cheesy grin on my face.
"She makes me happy, Soph. Every time I'm around her, she's all I can focus on.
I spend every second I can watching her, analysing her, and admiring her, and when she's not with me, I'm worried sick.
My chest gets tight, and my brain is adamant that she's in danger without me there to protect her.
It's agonising, but I wouldn't have it any other way because when we're not apart, it's magical.
I love spending time with her and getting to know her. She's honestly fascinating."
Sophia watches me with a shocked expression as I ramble on.
"Not only is she beautiful, but she's kind, and caring, and selfless. I feel like she's everything I've been waiting for and thought I'd never find."
"Jesus Christ, Jay. You sound like you're in love with the woman."
"I think I am," I admit.
Since my revelation with Sophia earlier, I've been stuck in my head the rest of the day thinking about what things would be like for us once I'm not stuck inside this hospital .
Would Aurora still feel the same way about me when we're not spending every day with each other?
Will she consider making a go of things with me when she realises that I'll go back to being Dominic's second-in-command once I'm all healed up?
What will happen if she moves back to Ireland?
It's a continuous loop of miserable thoughts, and as much as I want to think positively, I can't until I'm able to speak to her and learn where her heads at.
As if she can hear my thoughts, she walks into my room with a cheesy grin on her face and her hands behind her back.
"I've got a surprise for you," she says, bouncing with excitement as she watches me.
My eyes scan her body, appreciating the way her scrubs hide what's underneath, but also hating it because after allowing my hands to roam over her body earlier, I want to see the curves that she's been hiding from me.
"What's the surprise?" I ask, sitting up and allowing her to lazily drag her eyes down my bare chest.
She licks her lips and rips her eyes away from my body as a blush appears on her cheeks.
"Well, whenever we play our question game, you always somehow end up talking about food, and you spend a lot of time complaining about the food that you get given here, so, I thought I'd get you something from the cafeteria because it's better than what patients get."
My brows rise, and I know my eyes are probably wide and excited at the thought of food .
She moves her arms from behind her back, revealing a chicken, bacon, and mayo sandwich, and a packet of salt and vinegar crisps.
"Have I ever told you how amazing you are?"
She laughs, bringing the food over to me.
"I don't think so," she says, placing a gentle kiss against my cheek as I rip open the packet of crisps.
"Well, you're the most amazing person I've ever met," I tell her before I start digging into the crisps and the sandwich, grateful to finally have some flavourful food.
"If I knew how happy food would make you, I would've bought you some earlier."
"Spending time with you has been making me just as happy as this food currently is, darling."
When I see her flustered reaction to my comment, I forget all about the food I'm devouring and instead focus on her, submitting the image of her into my brain to ensure I'll never forget every beautiful detail.
"While you finish that, I'm gonna start reading," she says.
I didn't even realise she had her Kindle with her until now.
Maybe I do have an unhealthy obsession with food.
"Before you get lost in your book, I wanted to talk to you about something."
She frowns at me, placing her kindle down on her lap.
"Don't look so worried, it's nothing bad," I tell her, reaching out to hold her hand in mine.
"Okay… What is it?"
"Are things going to change once I'm released from the hospital and we're not spending every day together?" I ask bluntly .
She stares at me in surprise, and a sweet smile spreads across her face as se squeezes my hand and shakes her head.
"No, of course not."
I breath a sigh of relief and lean forward, pecking her lips.
"Things will obviously change in the sense of spending a lot of time together because we'll be out of this place, and I assume I'll have a new work schedule where I hopefully have more than one patient, but I'll make sure I still have time to see you."
"So I'll be able to take you on dates?"
"If that's something you'd want to do."
"I definitely want to. I'd like for us to officially have a label on things."
"You realise we're technically already dating, right?"
"We are?" I ask, genuinely surprised by her statement.
She laughs, nodding her head.
"We haven't been on any dates. Not real ones any way. I know I've dreamt about a couple, but I know they aren't real."
"I'd class our first date as the first night we spent together when I was reading that book by the Twisted Sisters," she says, interrupting my rambling.
"How? I wasn't even able to talk at that point."
"Yeah, I know. I miss how peaceful this room used to be," she jokes.
I feign hurt, clutching my chest as if she physically stabbed me through the heart, and she laughs at me, swatting at my arm.
"I'm joking, I promise. I know you couldn't talk then, but it was the first night we spent time together, and we got to know a little about each other. Plus, it was the first night that I felt safe here, and comfortable, so for me, I class that as our first date. "
"Okay, fine, I'll accept that, but our second date will be outside of this hospital," I tell her, determined to take her on a proper date.
"I'm afraid we've already had a second date as well."
I groan and flop back on to the bed, shaking my head.
"Okay, I give up. How about we stop counting dates we've supposedly already had, and we just agree that we'll go on a date once I'm out. Yeah?"
She nods, and giggles at me.
"Yeah, I can agree to that."
"Great. Now get your cute little backside on this bed and let me cuddle you while you read."
She slips off her shoes and grabs her Kindle while I shuffle to one side of the bed and allow her to climb in beside me.