Chapter 17
Chase
“I’m sorry, could you say that again?”
“Mr. Ryan, I’m Alice with the San Pedro County sheriff’s office. We found your number as one of the registered numbers associated with a phone we found on a young man.”
Oh, god. Mateo... Please don’t tell me he’s dead. Suddenly, every thought that Mateo seemed to express about wanting to kill himself floods my brain. He can’t be dead. He just can’t be.
“Sir?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. You said you found my phone. Where was it?”
“The young man didn’t have any identification on him when we found him, but this phone was nearby. Do you think you’d be able to assist us?”
They want me to identify his body. Oh god. He’s dead. Tears spring to my eyes, but I try to keep them at bay. “Yes, I can come identify the body.”
“Body, sir?”
“Yes, Mateo Lopez. I gave him my phone to use.”
“Sir, I’m sorry for being unclear, but the young man isn’t dead.”
My eyes grow wide and I nearly drop the phone in my hand. “He’s alive?”
“Yes, sir. But barely. It would be best if you came immediately.” She gives me the address of the hospital where Mateo is and a number to call when I arrive.
“I’m leaving now.” We disconnect, and I’m out the door as fast as I can grab my keys. I’m don’t like that she said he was barely alive, so once I’m outside the city limits, I speed all the way to the little town. I’m not sure why Mateo is there when he’s supposed to be in L.A., but none of that matters now. What’s important is that I get to him and make sure he never gets away from me again.
The drive takes almost two hours, even traveling at over eighty most of the way. I pull into the small hospital’s parking lot, screeching to a stop in a red zone. They can tow me if they want. I don’t give a shit about the car. I just need to get to Mateo before it’s too late. I race to the front doors and look for someone who can help me.
The woman sitting at the information desk seems startled when I rush up to her. “Mateo Lopez’s room, please.”
She types the information into her computer before telling me he’s in room 201. “Thank you.” I move to the stairwell and take the steps two at a time. Once I’m on the second floor, I follow the room numbers until I find the right one. The door is cracked open, so I stick my head through and look to make sure I’m in the right room.
The body in the bed is so badly bruised that I’m almost certain it’s not Mateo. But as I get closer, I realize it is the man I’ve somehow managed to fall in love with after just a few days around him. And now he’s lying on a hospital bed in front of me.
His eyes are closed but his chest is moving steadily with each breath. I don’t know what the monitors mean, but the beeps and lines all seem uniform so I take that as a good sign.
Carefully reaching for him, I take his hand in mine, afraid to hurt him in any way.
“Mateo?”
He stirs slightly, his hand lightly twitching in mine.
“Mateo? It’s Chase. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Cha...” He can’t even say my name through his swollen jaw and lips, but the sound of what he does say releases the floodgate that I’ve been holding back since I left the house.
“Oh, god. Mateo. You’re going to be okay. I promise. You’ll be good as new.” His eyes open, tiny slits as he looks at me. I want to believe he’s smiling, but the swelling is so horrendous that it’s difficult to tell. “Just get some rest, baby. I’m right here.”
He closes his eyes again and falls asleep. After about an hour, there’s a knock on the hospital room door. “Mr. Ryan?”
I stand up and turn to the doctor. “Dr. Ryan. Yes, that’s me.”
Two police officers enter the room behind him and shake my hand. Normally, I wouldn’t be so obnoxious about being called a doctor, but I want to make sure they know I’m someone who will not be pushed around or ignored.
“Dr. Ryan. You know this man?”
“Yes, he’s my friend.”
They motion for me to sit back down. And as they tell me about how they found Mateo, I’m glad I did. Of all the possible scenarios I could have imagined, Mateo being beat up and left for dead on the edge of a small town was not anywhere near the realm of possibilities.
“Do you know who did it?”
“No. We’re hoping Mateo can help us with that when he’s feeling up to it. We appreciate you coming down. There weren’t any other numbers in the phone he had except yours, so we didn’t know who else to call.”
“I’m glad you did, thank you.” The two men take down some more of my information before heading out, assuring me that they would investigate the attack.
After they leave, the doctor stays behind to examine Mateo. Mateo suffered a broken jaw and fractured ribs. Luckily, the doctor said there was no internal bleeding, and despite the way he currently looks, Mateo should make a full recovery.
I stay planted by his side, only leaving to use the bathroom or get something from the food stand in the lobby.
Two days pass before Mateo opens his eyes again. And when they do, I’m right there next to him. His swelling has gone down but it still looks pretty bad. And his bruises look even worse than they did before.
“Water.” It’s barely a whisper, but I’m happy to hear him talking. I grab the plastic container from the rolling table next to the bed and pour him a cup. Bending a straw for him to drink from, I carefully place it to his lips, allowing him to take a sip.
“Do you want some more?” I ask when he releases the straw.
“No.”
“How are you feeling?” I ask. Instantly, I feel ridiculous for even asking. “Sorry. Obviously, you don’t feel good.”
“Chase... You came for me?”
I sit back down on the chair that I’ve been holding to the floor for the past two days and grab his hand. “Of course, I came. I think I love you, Mateo.”
A wet gloss covers his eyes. “You do?”
“Yeah, I do. This week has been horrible since you left. I know we just met, but I don’t know how else to explain how I feel.”
He just stares at me for a moment before closing his eyes. “I don’t deserve you. And you certainly haven’t done anything wrong in life to deserve me.”
“How can you even say that?” I pull his hand to my lips and give him a soft kiss. “We all have issues, Mateo. All of us. I don’t care about any of them. Your past is in the past, and that’s where it should stay. I want you to build a new life…with me. When they called, I thought you were dead. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you. At least when I thought you were in Los Angeles, I knew there was still some hope.”
Mateo just lays there for a moment, looking at the tiles on the ceiling. “You know, the funny thing is that when that guy was kicking the shit out of me, I realized I didn’t want to die. He could have killed me and done what I’ve been trying to do for so long. But that’s not what I wanted any more. Not really.”
A wide grin spreads across my face. “That makes me so happy to hear.”
“But that doesn’t mean you have to be stuck with me, Chase. You could do so much better than me.”
“I can’t do any better than you, Mateo, because you’re the man I love, and there’s nothing better than that. No one’s better for me than you.”
“Really?” he asks, suddenly softening his expression. “You really want me? Why?”
“Because,” I reply with a chuckle. “You make me feel alive.”
“And you want what? For me to be your bruised up boyfriend?” He moves his free hand toward his face, but I reach for it before he can point at the bruises covering his body.
“I want you to be my partner. I want you to move in so I don’t have to come home to an empty house anymore. When you were there, it was filled with laughter and life.”
“Despite the fact that I wanted to kill myself?” His sarcasm is a welcome sound. It means he really is going to be okay.
“Yes... Because you didn’t, did you?”
He rolls his eyes. “No.”
“See, that’s progress.”
He smiles, or at least tries to. “You’re a bit crazy, you know that?”
“Crazy for you.” I lean forward and press a gentle kiss to a spot on his head that isn’t bruised. “So what do you say? Will you come back home?”
“Home... I kinda like how that sounds.”
“Me too. Now you need to get more rest. We can talk about everything else when you’re feeling better.”
He nods, already beginning to doze off. But one last whisper comes from his lips as he falls asleep.
“I think I love you too, Chase.”