Sandy

They had just taken the tubes out of her throat, and although her bandages hadn’t changed, she could at least speak. According to the doctors, she would be taken out of ICU by the end of the day. Eager to hear everything she had to say, Smokey and I stood on opposites sides of the bed and waited with baited breath.

He fed her a few more ice chips. “Does it hurt?”

She blinked.

“Can you talk?”

She widened her eyes.

“Maybe,” she whispered. “I love…” Her eyes rolled in my direction. She blinked and then looked at Smokey. “Both of you.”

“We love you, too.”

“I uhhm. I can’t remember…”

Smokey looked at me, and then at Eddie. “Don’t worry about what happened that night. You need to get better so we can get you out of here.”

I hoped she’d never be able to remember what happened. I feared I’d never forget it, but to think of her recalling the events of that night made me feel ill.

“My arm hurts,” she whispered.

Smokey sighed. “It’s broken.”

“That sucks.”

“Could be a lot worse.”

She blinked a few times, and then looked at the cup of ice. After Smokey gave her a few more ice chips, she continued.

“I want pie. Apple pie.”

Smokey laughed. “I’ll check with the doctor. Maybe in a few days.”

“Someone was. A guy tried to. Where’s my ring?” she stammered.

I held up my hand. “Right here, waiting for you to wake up.”

She blinked.

Smokey looked up. “Jesus fucking Christ.”

I turned toward the door. Dressed in a burgundy set of scrubs and a new pair of tennis shoes, P-Nut sauntered into the room.

“Someone order a sexy nurse?” he asked.

“What in the absolute hell are you doing, Nut?”

“They wouldn’t let me up here for three days. Fellas downstairs said she woke up, so I went and bought these. Had to do something.”

“You crazy prick.” Smokey looked him up and down, and then shook his head. “What’s covering your tattoos?”

I hadn’t noticed until Smokey said so, but the tattoos that covered P-Nut’s forearms were gone.

He peeled a flesh-colored sleeve up his arm and exposed the tattoos. “TatJacket. Got it at the same place.”

Smokey shook his head and laughed, honestly out and out laughed, for the first time in days.

P-Nut wedged his way between me and the bed. “What’s up, Ed?”

“Just chillin’,” she whispered. “You?”

“Same. You’ve got a pretty big fan group downstairs, kid.”

“Do I?”

He nodded. “I don’t know. Maybe twenty or thirty. Sometimes more, sometimes less.”

She looked at Smokey.

“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I haven’t so much as left this room.”

She looked at P-Nut. “Who?”

“Most of the time, Richard’s down there. His parents came a few times. Some of Red and White’s best. The FFMC. Their Ol’ Ladies.”

He looked at Smokey. “And, that piece of shit Tank kept comin’ by and askin’ questions. I told him to kick rocks, and he hasn’t been back since.”

“Red and White?” she asked.

“Hells Angels.”

She nodded.

He looked at Smokey. “That Bama fucker’s been here three days.”

“He’s good people,” Smokey said.

“Don’t know about that. The fucker kept tryin’ to talk to me, so I went and sat by some family that was waiting on grandma to get out of hip surgery for a while. Then, I sat with some sexy bitch while she waited for her husband to get out of heart surgery. Bitch was a MILF, I’m tellin’ ya. Pretty much been bored to death waitin’.”

P-Nut was weird, but I really liked him. Having everyone together, as strange as it seemed to admit, made me feel like we were a family. The thought of a room filled with people who cared enough about Eddie’s welfare to stay and wait for the three days was comforting. It proved just how sincere Smokey’s friends were. They were an extension, so to speak, of our immediate family.

While P-Nut talked to Eddie, I held her hand in mine. Within no time, I was daydreaming about living a life that also included the child Smokey and I shared. After getting through the situation we were in, we’d undoubtedly be able to handle anything that life tossed our way.

Anything at all.