Chapter Nineteen
“Should I open that other pint of ice cream or should I have a second brownie?” Lyss asked as she swung her legs over the edge of the couch. “Decisions, Decisions.”
From her spot in a plush oversized armchair, legs dangling over one arm, Roxie tilted her head back and looked at Lyss. “Uh, did you really just ask that, chickie? Clearly, the answer is both. And while you’re up, you can get me some more as well.” She extended her arms in Lyss’s direction, clanking her spoon against the side of an empty glass bowl.
“Huh, look how well that worked out for you,” Lyss said.
“I know.” Roxie winked and blew a kiss. “Love you.”
“You better.” Lyss grabbed her own bowl as well as her water glass and padded to the kitchen in her woolly socks. “Hold on, I’ll grab your dishes in a minute. I can’t be trusted to carry more breakables than I already have in my hands.”
“Don’t make me wait too long. You know mama gets mad if she has to wait too long for her chocolate.”
With a chuckle, Lyss deposited her bowl and glass on the kitchen counter, then headed back to the den for Roxie’s. “Hand it over.”
Roxie gave her the dish then snatched the remote off the coffee table. “Mind if I flip on the local news? I want to check the scores.”
“Go for it,” Lyss said as she went back into the kitchen. After dropping a brownie in the bottom of Roxie’s bowl, she opened the pint of Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked and ladled a generous scoop on top.
“I totally forgot they were playing tonight. How are things with you and Gregg? I sorta got the impression when we talked the other day that things weren’t all roses and sunshine,” she called from the kitchen.
Roxie’s boyfriend of about a year coached for Georgetown’s football team. Seemed like a pretty good guy, though he hadn’t spent too much time with Roxie’s friends. In the fall especially, he was crazy with traveling and the team’s rigorous training schedule.
“Rox?” Lyss called out. She squirted a stream of chocolate syrup into the bowl. Might as well go all out. There was a chance she was pregnant after all. That called for a serious chocolate binge.
“Oh, sorry. He’s fine. Things are fine.”
Fine. Hmm. Lyss had been a girl long enough to know fine was never fine. When she returned to the living room, it was to find Roxie frowning at the TV screen. Her spine was straight as an arrow and a glimmer of unease shone from her eyes. “They lost,” she said, her voice flat.
“Oh, that’s too bad.” This was the first time Lyss had ever seen Roxie react this way. She had an almost…fearful look to her. Gregg’s team had lost games before and Roxie always shook it off with a, there’ll be other wins. Maybe things weren’t so smooth sailing with her and her man. “Everything good, Rox? Gregg having a rough season?”
“Huh? What?” Roxie turned to Alyssa and blinked as though trying to get with the program. “Sorry, what did you say?”
“Just wondering if Gregg’s team is having a bad season and if it’s affecting your relationship. You seem…uneasy.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry. They are having a craptastic season actually.” She waved away Alyssa’s concern and reached for her treat. “But we’re fine. I’m just being dramatic. Besides, we’re not here to talk about my love life. We’re here to get sugared up because of your dumb husband.”
“Ugh.” She plopped down on the couch as the evening took a turn for the morose. “You had to bring it up, huh? I’d almost forgotten for about six seconds there.”
With a snort, Roxie stuffed a giant spoonful into her mouth. “No, you hadn’t,” she said around her dessert.
No. She hadn’t. Derek had been on her mind every second of the past few days. So much so, Hannah had forced her to go home from work midday. She’d mixed up a window treatment order, returned a call to the wrong client, and dropped a box of paint samples all over the floor. And that was just in the first hour. By noon, Hannah was so tired of putting out fires, she’d shooed Alyssa out the door with orders not to come back until she and Derek talked then had “all kinds of makeup sex.”
About ten times that afternoon, she’d picked up her phone to call Derek then chickened out. He was going through something and needed time to work it out in his mind. Throughout the day, she ran through the gamut of emotions regarding to her husband.
First, she was pissed. Who the hell did he think he was to walk away after she’d dropped the bomb of a possible pregnancy? Then came the guilt. He was struggling, and she needed to support him. And back to anger. Support him? Um, hello? She could use some support as well. In the end, she’d called Roxie who showed up for an impromptu girls’ night. Nothing like chocolate to soothe a battered heart.
Though hours in bed with her husband would have been preferred.
“He’s not dumb, Rox. He’s just acting dumb.”
A very unladylike snort came from Roxie’s chair.
“He’s just finally processing everything that’s happened and it’s hitting him hard.” She’d kept the antibiotic vs birth control contest quiet, not quite ready to talk about it. Every time she thought about bringing it up, her stomach took a nose dive.
Roxie grasped Alyssa’s hand. “I know, hon. And that’s fine. But he’s pushing you away in the process. That’s the dumb part.”
With a sigh, Alyssa nodded. “I know. I’m ninety percent sure he’s going to come to his senses in the next day or two and come home, but that ten percent that’s convinced he’s never coming back to me? Yeah that ten percent is a nasty bitch.”
“Did you just say nasty bitch?” Roxie’s mouth formed a dramatic O. She looked like the startled emoji. “Damn, girl. That’s some serious language for you.”
“Ha, ha. Aren’t you supposed to be helping me, not mocking me?”
Back to her playful self, Roxie laughed. “Sorry, chickie. Hey, is there a reason I’m the only one eating here?”
“Oh!” Alyssa popped up. “Got all distracted with real-life nonsense. Let me get my food.”
Worrisome thoughts invaded Alyssa’s mind. In the kitchen, she propped her hands on the counter and bowed her head, taking a minute to collect herself. Derek would come home soon. He had to. Alyssa wasn’t sure she could make her way through the rest of her life without him. They were a tight team. Or at least they used to be.
He’d be back.
She straightened and snatched the last brownie. After Derek was home and they put this chapter of their lives behind them, she’d revisit Roxie’s relationship. Because there was something amiss there. Something Rox was troubled by. And since Alyssa loved Rox, second only to Derek, she’d figure out what it was and a way to help.
Just as she settled a brownie in the bottom of her bowl, a gasp came from the living room.
“Alyssa?” Roxie’s voice trembled. “You need to get in here, now.”
She frowned and grabbed her bowl before heading back to the living room. Maybe Roxie was ready to talk about whatever was bothering her. “What’s u—”
She stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of her husband’s face on the television screen. “What the…”
Roxie stood, her face pale and eyes wide, gaping at the screen. “Lyss,” she said.
“We’re coming to you live outside a convenience store in Adam’s Morgan where reports of a robbery with shots fired are being investigated.” A male reporter’s voice blared through the TV. “We don’t have much information at this point, but what we do know is that the man pictured here, Derek Jackson, a former SEAL and owner of the tattoo shop Trident Ink, just down the block from the convenience store, was shot while trying to disarm the robber.”
A scream ripped from her throat and her legs crumpled. The glass bowl slipped through boneless fingers. It crashed to the wood floor and shattered in a thousand shimmery shards.
“Lyss!” Roxie cried, catching her just as she was about to hit the ground.
“Oh my God, Roxie,” she said as a sob tightened her chest. “I can’t…oh my God I can’t lose him, too.” Tremors wracked her body. The room was suddenly freezing, and she could barely think past the intense pain in her stomach and chest.
“Sweetie, breathe. They said he’s alive and has been taken to the hospital.”
“W-what?” Alyssa’s breath hitched. Her chest felt so tight she could barely suck in air.
“The reporter said he was taken to the hospital.”
“He-he’s alive?” She forced her knees to straighten and keep her upright. “Which hospital?” She grabbed her friend’s shoulders. “Which one, Rox?”
“I don’t know, honey.”
“We have to go. We have to find him. What hospital? Oh God. I can’t drive. I’m shaking too much. You had some wine. Can you drive or have you had too much?”
Suddenly Ginuwine’s Pony rang out through Alyssa’s phone. “Brett,” she said. “It’s Brett.” He’d set the ridiculous ringtone after Magic Mike premiered and he’d bragged that he was both a better dancer and better looking than Channing Tatum.
Alyssa scrambled over to the couch, her heart in her throat and her head full of worst case scenarios. By some miracle, she managed to avoid the glass all over the floor. Her hands shook so bad it took her three tries to swipe the phone open. “Brett? Have you seen the news?”
“He’s alive, Lyss. I was there.”
Her legs went limp again and she collapsed on the couch. Yes, the reporter had stated Derek was alive, but hearing it from Brett finally loosened the knot in her stomach. “Where are they taking him?”
“Washington Hospital Center, sweetie.” Brett’s voice was low, anxious.
“What happened? How bad is it?” She held the phone so tight in her grip she was afraid she’d crack the screen. But her fingers wouldn’t loosen. The cell was her lifeline, her only link to information about her husband.
A sad chuckle left Brett. “You know our boy, Lyss. He’s a born fuckin’ hero. There was a robbery in the store while he was buying something. No way would he not try to intervene. He was seconds away from taking out the robber when another person in the store accidentally alerted the gunman to his presence. He was shot. After that the robber freaked and ran out of the store without any of the money. No one else was hurt.”
Her chin dropped to her chest and tears fell from her eyes. “How bad?” she whispered.
Brett’s swallow was audible. “Not sure, sweetie. They wouldn’t let me ride with him. I’m about ten minutes out from the hospital. Do you need a lift? I can come get you.”
“No. Go to him. I don’t want him alone. Rox is with me. We’ll leave right now.
“Okay, sweetie. He’s one tough bastard and he loves you so much, Lyss. He won’t leave you this way.”
She sobbed out an okay, then disconnected the call.
“Washington Hos—”
“I could hear him. Uber’s on the way. Three minutes out. Here.” Roxie handed Alyssa her shoes and coat. “Let’s go.”
Thank God for Roxie. Alyssa probably would have run out into the thirty-five-degree night in fuzzy slippers and without a coat. Not to mention Uber hadn’t even crossed her mind. Driving would be impossible. She was so freaked out she would be a hazard behind the wheel.
As though on autopilot, she stuffed her feet in her sneakers and arms in the coat. Normally she wouldn’t be caught dead in her worn out Navy sweatpants and Derek’s mammoth T-shirt, but this was so far from normal, nothing else mattered but getting to Derek.
“Come on, Lyss.” Roxie guided her out the door and to the car waiting in the driveway.
“Washington Hospital Center, right?” the twenty-something female driver asked.
“That’s right,” Roxie said. “Emergency entrance.”
“Gotcha.” The driver shot Alyssa a curious look in the rearview mirror, but kept her curiosity to herself.
There was no better friend than Roxie, who laced her fingers with Alyssa’s and held her hand. She didn’t speak. Didn’t try to make small talk or assure Alyssa all would be well. Because the words would be empty. Neither of them had any clue how the night would play out.
Alyssa stared unseeing out the window as they traveled into the city.
She’d already suffered a devastating loss in her life. Another one couldn’t possibly be in the cards for her, could it?
If Derek died, she’d be left with nothing. No one. She had no family, well none that would accept her, and she wouldn’t go to them anyway. There was Roxie, her sister in all but blood. She’d given Roxie a lot of herself over the years, but not everything. Derek was the only one who’d gotten everything, every little piece of her heart, mind, body, and soul. The only one who would ever get all of her. All her hopes, fears, desires, dreams.
If he died, she’d live out the rest of her life without giving those pieces to anyone ever again. She knew it deep in her bones. She just loved him that much. There just wasn’t enough space in her heart to let another man in.
“Don’t,” Roxie said, squeezing her hand. “Just don’t. We’ll be there in a few minutes and we’ll find out.”
Tears streamed down her face as she swallowed. “I know.”
After another ten minutes, the car came to a halt outside the glaring neon emergency sign at Washington Hospital Center in DC.
“I’m not sure I can get out,” she whispered to Roxie.
Roxie gave her a stern look. “You can, chickie. Your man is waiting for you in there. And I can guarantee he’s going to be a royal ass pain of a patient until you get in there and work your magic on him. In a non-sexual way, of course. Save the sexual healing until after he’s discharged.”
A ghost of a smile tipped Alyssa’s lips. Rox was right. Derek hated to be sick or injured. Saw it as a sign of weakness, and he turned into a growly bear until he felt better.
She could do this. She could get out of the car, walk in the building, and inquire about her husband. She could hear the news—good news or bad. She had to. For him.
Then, she could wrap her arms around him and tell him how much she loved him.
Right before she blasted him for putting himself in danger.
As long as he was still alive.