Chapter 19 Hunter #2
“Good, because they’ll be here in five minutes. They’re already inside the hospital.” Zoey turns her head, glaring at Mason. “Hey. I hate to interrupt whatever is happening over there, but I’d like my coffee too.”
Lizzy’s hand touches Mason’s arm, and he gives her a smile before his gaze moves to his cousin. “Coming right up.” He stalks across the room in a few short steps, standing on the opposite side of my bed, and holds out a cup to his cousin. “Your order.”
She snatches the cup from his hands and says, “Thank you.” A second later, the cup is at her lips, and her eyes close like she’s savoring every drop.
“You two should go home and get some real sleep,” I tell Lizzy and Zoey. “I’ll be fine here by myself.”
“Oh no,” Lizzy tells me. “We’re not leaving until they kick us out.”
“Which will be around eight tonight when visiting hours end. They made an exception for last night because you were knocked out,” Zoey adds.
It’s not that I want to be alone, but I know how uncomfortable it is to sleep in a hospital chair. They’re running on adrenaline right now, but soon, it’ll wane, and they’ll be more like the walking dead.
There’s a light tapping on the door before Zoey’s parents, Lulu, Oliver, Harlow, Tate, and Zoey’s grandparents walk into the room.
I’m taken aback by the number of people who can cram into a small space. And they did it to see me. Even when my parents were alive, we were a small unit. We didn’t have much family besides the four of us to speak of, and if we landed in the hospital, visitors were few and far between.
“You look good, son,” Lucio says as he walks to stand next to Mason with his wife on his arm.
Delilah is beautiful. Lulu and Zoey look so much like her, there’s no doubting who their mother is.
“Oh, sweetie. You’re looking good,” Delilah says as she holds on to Lucio’s arm.
“Let me see that man,” a voice I could clock from across the room without even looking says as Zoey’s grandmother scoots around everyone to come to the side of the bed where Zoey’s sitting. “As handsome as ever.” She smiles at me.
I can’t help but look at her and wonder what it would’ve been like to have had grandparents of my own.
Just like my parents, their parents died young, but not in the same tragic way.
I hadn’t thought much about growing up without them, but after being around the Gallo family, I know I missed out on so much when it comes to family members.
“It’s good to see you, beautiful,” I tell her, giving her a soft smile.
She waves her hand at me. “His mind’s working good too.”
Zoey chuckles as she leans over and gives her grandma a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for coming, Gram.”
“No place else we’d rather be,” she says, cradling Zoey’s cheek in her hand.
“Getting shot sucks,” Zoey’s grandfather says.
My eyes widen as I stare at him. When I look at an older person, it’s easy to forget they were young once and had lives we can never fully grasp.
When I look at him, I don’t see a man who could’ve been shot. He looks like he’s always sat in a recliner, sipping a nice glass of wine, doing a crossword puzzle.
“You got shot in the leg,” Betty tells her husband. “It’s hardly the same.”
“The woman has no empathy,” he says to no one in particular. “And don’t forget about my ass too.”
Wait. He wasn’t just shot once, but two times? How in the world?
“That one wasn’t that bad,” she replies.
He gives her a hard stare. “It wasn’t your ass.”
She waves her hand wildly in the air, dismissing him. “Men,” she mumbles. “Some are big babies.”
“Grandpa, why were you shot twice?” Zoey asks him.
I’m happy the focus is on him and off me. It helps to keep the pressure away from me.
“A bad business deal,” he says.
“Bar business?” I ask, confused.
Betty clucks her tongue. “Sal has an illustrious past.”
“Illustrious and criminal,” Lucio adds.
Sal shrugs. “Times were different.”
“You on the up-and-up now?” Mason asks with his head tilted, like he knows something everyone else doesn’t.
“For the most part,” Sal answers. “Most of the time.”
I start to laugh, but when a pain shoots through my middle, it quickly dies.
Sal’s gaze drops to me. “I’ll take an ass and a leg over the stomach any day of the week.”
“That ain’t no lie,” I tell him as I try to adjust in the bed to find a better position.
“When you go home, we’ll make sure your fridge is stocked so you don’t have to worry about cooking,” Delilah says to me, placing her hand on my arm. “We want you to focus on healing.”
“You’re too kind, Mrs. Gallo,” I say.
“Delilah,” she corrects me.
“I’ll be able to cook.”
“Nonsense,” she says, shaking her head. “You take as long as you need to get well. Don’t push yourself.”
“You get one week off, and then it’s back to the grind,” Tate, my boss and Zoey’s cousin, interrupts. “If you need more than that, we’re going to have a problem.”
I know she’s teasing. Tate is a great person, and I am lucky to have landed a spot in her shop and to have her as a boss.
“I’ll be back in a week. I can’t sit around much longer than that,” I tell her.
I’ve never been one to be idle. If I have to stay home and nurse myself back to health for a solid week, I’m liable to go insane.
“I shuffled your clients around to later appointments, but you know I’m kidding about the week, right? Take as long as you need, Hunter. If people are in a hurry, I’ll handle the extra load, or Timber will. We got you, buddy.”
Who knew that when I met Tate, she’d become such a big part of my life, and that down the line, I’d fall hard for her cousin? Maybe someday we’ll become family in the truest sense of the word.
I sober at my thoughts. Did I just go there? Zoey and I have only kissed, and I let my mind drift to something more and a future.
Maybe the anesthesia is messing with my head, because yesterday I kissed Zoey for the first time, and I wasn’t thinking about a future together.
Life is short. I know that, but I’ve still ignored it because I am young enough that I sometimes allow myself that luxury, even though it’s stupid. Age doesn’t matter when it comes to death. It comes for each of us in its own way or time.