A Perfect Ten (Forbidden Men #5)(147)

Noel and I shared a glance. Excitement glittered in his eyes, and I knew my own stomach fluttered with anticipation. I couldn’t wait to get back into his room. Nodding together, we turned back to Oren’s parents.

“Of course,” Noel answered immediately. “I’ll get the gang gathered, no problem.”

Within a couple hours, we had everyone back at the hospital. “Okay, so...” Noel rubbed his hands together as he took control of the group. “I think we’ve agreed that it’s too soon to tell him he’s married unless he remembers, but, uh...everything else is fair game. If he asks about something, we can tell him whatever he wants to know.”

Though only Pick, and possibly Eva had known Oren and I were married before the accident, they all knew now.

“Sounds good.” Pick placed his hand on the small of Eva’s back. “Let’s go see our boy.”

En masse, we started for his room. I wondered fleetingly if so many strangers at once would overwhelm him, but I also knew everyone would take it easy on him. When we reached the door where Phil was standing to welcome us inside, I stalled and latched on to Noel’s arm.

He glanced at me and walked me a few steps away before murmuring, “What’s wrong?”

Worry filtered through me. “What if I can’t do this? What if I can’t keep it together and I just...I start crying again? I don’t want to upset him or—”

“Caroline.” Noel smiled and kissed my forehead. “If you want to see your husband, then come on. I know you. Once we get in that room, you’ll do whatever you have to do to keep it together.”

His not-so-pep talk made my lips quiver with a half smile. But then I straightened my spine and nodded. Though my nerves were wrenched with worry, I clutched his hand as he led me into the room behind everyone else.

Oren was awake and sitting up in bed. Half his face was still bandaged, but he looked so much better, alert and conscious with color in his face.

His gaze darted warily over everyone as we filed into his room. “Whoa,” he finally murmured, as if overcome. “There’s a lot of you.”

At his side, his mother took his hand. “These are your closest friends,” she said. “They’ve been here every day, worried about you.”

Once again, Oren looked sick with dread. He didn’t recognize any of us. But he swept out a hand with a big, encompassing wave and gave a shaky, “Hey.”

None of us answered. I think we were in shock that he was treating us like complete strangers.

“We’ll let you talk to your friends, then.” Brenda sent him a bolstering smile as she stood. “If you need anything, we’ll be right outside.”

He gave a jerky, nervous nod and followed her from the room with his gaze as if he didn’t want her to leave him alone in here with us. Then he blew out a breath and glanced at us again.

“Okay, this is strange,” Pick spoke up. “Ten’s usually the one to crack a dirty joke whenever we need some comic relief.”

While everyone else let out a quiet laugh, Oren shook his head, confused. “Who’s Ten?”

Silence answered him, which only made him shift on his bed, looking even more uncomfortable. Finally, my brother said, “You are, buddy. That’s what we call you?”

I hovered against Noel’s side, clinging to his arm because I so badly wanted to go to Oren and just hug him and soothe his unease. He looked so alone in that bed. Alone and lost.

“You do?” Oren murmured, sounding confused. He shook his head. “Why do you...oh. Because of the Tenning part. Got it.” Glancing around at us again, and not even pausing at me—which stung every time his gaze flittered over me—he added, “Am I not still friends with any of my high school classmates?”

“I’ve never met any of them,” Noel answered. “And I’ve probably known you the longest out of everyone here. You and I met freshman year of college. We were dormitory roommates for a semester. Then we got an apartment together until about a year ago.”

Oren nodded. “So none of you ever knew Zoey either, then?”

The name caused us to freeze. By now, everyone knew who his sister was and that she’d died, but since we had a Zoey in our group as well, it was strange to hear him say the name.

Noel finally shook his head. “Uh, no. No, sorry, we never got to meet your sister.”

“Oh.” Deflated by that, Oren glanced down at his hands.

“So...” Noel went on, determined to clear the uncomfortable tension from the air. “You’ve probably known Hamilton here the second longest, for about two years when he joined the football team with us.”

“Football?” Oren glanced up, surprised. “I played football? In college?” He shook his head. “I...I wasn’t planning on going out for ball in college.”

Noel grinned. “No, but I talked you into it. We kicked ass together, too. Won the national championships this year. You were the best wide receiver on the team.”

“Really?” An awed surprise flooded Oren’s voice as his lips curved into a smile. “That’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah,” Noel murmured. “And after I got married, you moved in with Hamilton here and his girlfriend—”

“Blondie,” Zoey blurted before Noel could say her name. “You call me Blondie.” Tears glistened in her eyes as she smiled. “And you like to coax me into cooking you a meal or doing your laundry as often as possible.”