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The Ammendment 19
I had taken it of Richard one night by the pool. The sun was setting, casting a burnished glow to the snapshot. He was looking right at me, his sharp jaw softened by the scruff I liked, his head tilted as he looked at me. His intense hazel eyes were focused on me holding my phone, a smile playing on his full lips. He held a glass of wine loosely in his hand, while he stroked his bottom lip with one long finger. Bare-chested, his skin still glistening from his swim, and his hair swept off his face, he was stunning in the muted light, his love for me evident. It was one of my favorite pictures of him.After I took the picture, he had smirked, curling one side of his mouth higher than the other.“Put the damn phone down, sweetheart, and get over here. The girls are asleep, and I want you on my lap.”I had acted coy. “Whatever for?”He reached over, pulling me from my chair. “Get over here and sit that sweet ass on my knee. We’ll talk about whatever pops up.”I had laughed at him until he
The Ammendment 20
“I’m transferring him to acute care. He’ll still be monitored closely, but he’ll have his own room. There is a far more comfortable chair where you can sleep instead of on the floor.” He winked, having caught me napping beside Richard’s bed, leaning against the rails while still clutching his hand.“Okay,” I breathed.“We’re going to wean him off the medication keeping him in the coma. It will take him a few days to wake up, and once he does, we’ll know what we are dealing with. His scans are good, though, and I am hopeful.”I could barely nod, my throat constricted and tight.He stepped forward. “If things go as I hoped, once he wakes up and heals, Katy, he has a long road ahead of him. Everything from the waist down has been affected. He’ll have a great deal of muscle loss. There will be therapy for gait training and strength. He’ll need leg exercises, pool therapy, various other machines. He won’t be able to do stairs, so he’ll need a bedroom on ground level or an elevator.”“I und
The Ammendment 21
“Hey, hey, shh,” he soothed. “It’s okay, Katy. It’s going to be okay.”He didn’t move or try to stop my tears. He held me and let me cry it out. When I managed to calm myself down, I pulled back and met his sympathetic gaze.“Sorry,” I sniffled.In true Maddox fashion, he winked and wiped my cheeks. “Usually women don’t cry until they’ve spent a little time with me. It’s not often it’s on first sight.”A smile pulled at my mouth. “What are you doing here?”He sat down and tugged me into the chair beside him. He pulled some napkins from the dispenser and handed them to me.“I’ve been here for two days, Katy. Graham let me know they were moving Richard and you were finally off the floor.”I blew my nose and gaped at him. “Two days? Why didn’t I know?”“Because I didn’t want to interrupt or worry you. Graham has been keeping me abreast of the situation.” He studied me. “Did you really think I wouldn’t be here for him? For you? After what he did when I was lying unconscious in the hospita
The Ammendment 22
“Here for the most part. I work, eat, go check on you, come back, work some more. Eat. I think I’ve gained five pounds. Their pie is stellar. In fact, you need a piece.”I opened my mouth to argue, but his look silenced me. He waved to the waitress and ordered us coffee and pie, waited until they arrived, and lifted his cup.“Tell me what the doctor said.”9KatyAs he promised, Maddox didn’t keep me from the hospital for long. We returned as soon as I got a message saying Richard had been moved. Maddox followed me into his new room, a silent companion, there to support me.I went directly to the side of the bed. There were still machines whirring and beeping away, but there were fewer of them. Richard had obviously been given a sponge bath, his hair damp around his ears where they had wiped with the wet cloth. The room was large and bright with two comfortable-looking chairs and even a small sofa. The usual kind of hospital bathroom was in the corner, and the walls the same green, b
The Ammendment 23
“He thinks you will hold him responsible for the accident. That it’s his fault Richard is in the hospital. God knows the boy is heaping guilt on himself every day.”I gasped and turned in my seat to face him fully. “The man driving was drunk, Graham. He was speeding and blew through the red light.” We had found out he had hit three other cars—glancing off the back bumpers and sideswiping them, his speed increasing before plowing into the side of Brad’s vehicle. “How on earth is that Brad’s fault?”“He has somehow decided he should have reacted faster. If he had sped up or slowed down, the car would have been hit in a different place, and perhaps Richard wouldn’t have been so severely injured.”“I’ll talk to him, Graham. I don’t hold him responsible. That poor boy.”He sighed. “Thanks, Katy. We’d all appreciate it. Maybe if he heard it from you, he could stop this needless blame on himself.”“I will. As soon as I see my girls.”He turned the car into their driveway. “I’m sure they’re w
The Ammendment 24
I was angry for his family, for the pain Brad felt, for the tears my daughter shed, and for myself.Because his selfish act hadn’t ended yet. I had no idea what the future held for Richard. If he would wake up. If he would walk again.If he would come back to me.I cursed the man who caused this as I held the young man so desperate to take the blame. Brad’s tears soaked my shoulder, and he shook violently as he sobbed.And I wept with him.10KatyMy anger didn’t abate. It grew.For six days, it simmered and twisted in my gut. Six days as I waited by my husband’s bed for him to wake up. To open his hazel eyes and look at me. Smile. Frown. Groan. Anything.The medical staff told me to be patient. To remain positive.Both emotions were slowly draining from me.For six days, he remained trapped in a world beyond me. Where I couldn’t reach him. His chest fell and rose with his breathing. The full oxygen mask had been replaced by cannulas, his breathing tube gone. Thick stubble grew on hi
The Ammendment 25
“I think—”I cut him off. “I don’t care what you think, Maddox. The answer is no. It would be too traumatic for her.”He set aside his laptop and stood. “More traumatic than seeing her mother wasting away? To have her little life blown apart and not understand what is happening?”My heart plummeted. “You’re exaggerating.”“No, I’m not. You’re not there at night when she sobs in her sleep, Katy. Crying out for her mommy and daddy. Weeps in my arms and can’t settle until we walk with her while she cries herself to sleep. You’re not there when Heather can’t relax and fusses for hours on end, needing you.”I was stunned by his words.“I think if Gracie saw him, it would help, not hurt. And I think you need to sort your priorities.”The anger, the bitterness I had been swallowing down exploded, and I lost it.“My priorities? Stop telling me what to do!” I screamed, all rational thought gone. “I am sick of being told what to do and where to go! Leave me alone!”“No.”I crossed the room and
The Ammendment 26
“No. Don’t be sorry. We’ve been waiting for this. You needed to let it out, so I goaded you, Katy. You’ve been too stoic, too strong, and it was killing you. You were shutting down on all of us.”“I feel so angry.”“You have every right to be angry. Don’t give up hope, Katy. Above everything else, Richard needs that. He’s going to need all your love and strength when he wakes up. Because he will.”I glanced over to the bed where my husband was still locked in his own world.“I miss him so much. I need him too.”“I know.”The door opened, and Laura poked her head in, her eyes wide, looking upset. “Are you, ah, all right in here?”I nodded, more traitorous tears coursing down my face.“I’m sorry,” I whispered.She came in, holding out her arms. I went into them, my tears soaking into her shoulder.“Let it out, Katy,” she murmured. “We have you. And no matter what happens, that isn’t going to change.”So, I cried, releasing the anger and accepting the love and pain I had been trying to h
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