A Missing Heart(86)

I take Gavin by the hand and swing my arm around Ever as we make our way down the hall and into AJ’s room. His head is bandaged up but he’s awake and pretty alert considering what he’s been through. His face lights up instantly when I smile at him. “You’re going to be okay, I hear.”

“I heard I’m perfect,” AJ says. “I also heard I’m a little hard-headed.”

“I think I can attest to that,” I say through laughter.

“AJ, I’m so sorry for all of this,” I tell him.

He looks a bit confused at my apology. “What are you talking about?”

“I was driving the car,” I say with a shrug.

“Yeah, and I didn’t have my seatbelt on. Plus, that truck swerved and hit us, remember?”

I nod a bit. “I know. I feel like I should be apologizing for a lot more than just the accident, though.”

“Stop, Cam,” he says. “Don’t. You have nothing to be sorry for. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that everything happens for a reason—to teach us a lesson or make us appreciate something we didn’t appreciate before.”

I place Gavin down on the bed. “You have to be gentle with Daddy, little buddy, okay?”

Gavin, with his dark head of hair and AJ’s matching vibrant blue eyes, nestles under AJ’s arm and immediately closes his eyes. His feet curl up and he tries to pull the sheet over himself too. Gavin hasn’t slept much in the past week. I know he’s had a hard time being away from AJ, which has made me love AJ just a little more. He’s had such an impact on this little boy, and for someone who refused to ever have another child after what we went through with Ever, he’s turned into a father any kid would want to have.

“Can we go home now?” AJ asks through a grin. “You brought my clothes right? No one will see us leave. But, um, I’m going to drive, if you don’t mind?”

“You’re out of your mind,” I tell him through laughter.

“I was. I think they took my brain out for a few minutes. That was funky.”

“When you get out of here, in a few days hopefully, we’re going back to Connecticut, and we’re buying a house, just like we talked about.”

“Only if there’s a tree and a swing,” he tells me.

“I know,” I say, smiling. “I’ll take care of it, and you, and these two kiddos.”

“If I didn’t have a bandaged head with a hole going into my brain right now, I’d say I’m the luckiest man in the world. But even with the bandage and hole, I have to be at least the second luckiest man in the world.”

“Only you would be smiling and laughing just hours after brain surgery.” I lean over and kiss him gently on his lips.

His arm lifts with a slight struggle and he places it heavily on my back, pulling me in a little more. “Keep kissing me.”

“I won’t ever stop doing that,” I tell him.

“Ever?” he asks.

“I think that may be how we ended up with Ever,” I whisper into his mouth.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE


“I DON’T REMEMBER signing any papers,” I tell Cammy. “What are you talking about? You got us a house?”

“You did sign the papers!” she laughs. “You may have been in a drug-induced state, but you signed the papers. Your dad took care of the rest. And as far as I’m aware, Hunter and your dad have been working day and night in the house to get as much of the renovation done as possible, so we could at least move right into it.”

“Where is this place? I can’t believe you did this without even showing me,” I tell her.

“Do you trust me?” she asks me.

“That’s a really hard question,” I reply with a sarcastic groan.

“Get in the truck,” she tells me.

I do as the lady says, waving goodbye to Mom as we pull out of her driveway. Their house was our first stop after the long-ass drive home from Philly, but mostly because I didn’t know if we were staying with them for a bit until we found a place to live. I had no idea that Cammy had been secretly handling the living situation for the last two weeks while I was in the hospital.

We drive down some familiar streets and toward the part of town I’ve always loved the most, being more farmland than residential. The houses are spread out and the land lots are much larger, which is something I’ve always dreamt of, yet could never afford. Tori wanted to live as close to the downtown area as possible, and I lost that battle, but when two people can’t agree on what color of sheets to put on the bed, there’s little give going on.

“I think you’re going down the wrong street,” I tell her. “And you’re driving my truck like a chick.”

She looks over me briefly, fixing her eyes on me. “I know where I’m going. I lived in this town half of my life too.”

“But there’s only one house on this street, Cam, and it’s not for sale. Trust me.”

“You’re right,” she tells me with an exaggerated sigh. “It’s not for sale.”

We pull into the driveway of the old farmhouse, the one I’ve been sneaking behind since I was a kid. The one Cammy and I used to visit more often than we should have. “Cam,” I say.