A Very Married Christmas: A Silver Bell Falls Holiday Novella(12)

With an exaggerated wink at her, Melanie couldn’t help but laugh at his attempt at humor. “Only you would be concerned about being able to wave in a parade.”

“You were the one who once told me you thought I deserved my own fan club…”

“No, what I said was that it was like you have your own fan club around here. That’s completely different.”

But he ignored her and continued. “You said I should have a parade in my honor.”

Now she laughed a little harder. “I think you have more than a mild concussion because you have a seriously warped memory of that conversation.”

He shook his head. “Nope, I distinctly remember you saying I should have a parade in my honor.”

“Don’t even,” she said, wiping the last of her tears away. “I believe what I said was maybe there was a parade in your honor during one of those ridiculous Christmas festivals. Then we joked about the marching band following you around and you said only on Saturdays.” Then she smiled tenderly at him. “But in light of what happened today, I think you totally deserve a parade in your honor.”

“That’s my girl,” he whispered.

“When can we take you home?” she asked. “Has anyone talked to you about it yet?”

“No, but…”

Behind them, Dr. Cooper came back into the room. “Okay, Mr. Stone, let’s see how you’re doing.”

Melanie stepped out of the way and had to rein herself in every time she saw Josiah wince with pain when Dr. Cooper touched him. Hadn’t he been through enough? Shouldn’t they give him something for the pain?

Clearly she’d said all of that out loud because Dr. Cooper turned to her and gave her a patient smile. “Why don’t you step out into the hall while we do this?”

Melanie looked beyond him to Josiah who nodded. “You should go and tell your dad what’s going on and I think Drew is out there as well. Tell them all that I’m fine and I’m hoping I’ll go home later today.”

“Tomorrow,” Dr. Cooper said as he continued to examine the wound. “We’ll keep you overnight for observation and send you home tomorrow with care instructions, antibiotics, and pain meds if you need them.”

Josiah grinned weakly at Melanie. “One night. That’s not so bad, right?”

She hated it, but she needed to be strong and not let him see her break down.

Again.

“Not bad at all,” she said. “I’ll come back in a few minutes.”

Out in the waiting room, she did exactly as Josiah asked and gave her father and Drew an update. Drew excused himself to call the station while John guided Melanie to a seating area and encouraged her to sit and relax.

“He’s very lucky,” John said.

Melanie looked at her father like he was crazy. “Dad, he got shot! How is that lucky?”

“It could have been much worse, Mel. It could have…” He stopped and shook his head. “I don’t even want to think about it. We need to be thankful that he’s going to be okay. One night in the hospital and a couple of weeks’ worth of recovery are nothing in the grand scheme of things.”

She knew her father was right, but this was all too hard to wrap her brain around. Just this morning they were happy and laughing and planning their wedding and in the blink of an eye, they had almost lost everything.

She almost lost him.

And that’s when she started to cry again.

As if knowing exactly what she was feeling, her father wrapped her in his arms and simply held her while she cried.





Chapter Five



Three days later, Josiah thought he was going to go insane.

He was home and just about everyone in Silver Bell Falls had stopped by to see him. It was a good thing—a great thing!—but he was beginning to get a little stir crazy.

“Dude, you seriously need to relax.”

Looking over at his friend Dean Hughes, Josiah frowned. “That’s all I’ve been doing—relaxing. I hate it. I need to be up and doing something. Anything!”

Dean simply laughed softly. “We were all afraid of this.”

Josiah simply arched a dark brow at the comment.

“Look, we all know how involved you are in the community and you’re a great sheriff. And as much as I hate to say it…we’ve all been taking bets on how long you were going to stay at home before you started complaining.”

“He was complaining three hours after he got shot,” Melanie commented as she put a plate of cookies down on the table for the men to share. Then she winked at Josiah. “The nurses at the hospital were glad to see him go.”

Dean laughed again. “Really? Our mild-mannered sheriff upset some of the fine citizens of Silver Bell?”

“Let’s just say there’s been a decrease in his fan club,” Melanie teased.

“Ah-ha! So you admit I have a fan club!” Josiah quipped.

But Melanie simply pat his cheek and gave him a serene smile. “Sure. If that will make you feel better, then yes. You have a fan club.”

While he knew she was just saying it to make him happy, he’d still count it as a victory—something he didn’t have a lot of this week.

“Josiah, you have to give yourself time to heal. I know it sucks and you’re anxious to get back to work but…you’re not going to be of any use to anyone if you’re in pain,” Dean said reasonably.