Carnal Christmas-epub by Robin L. Rotham Page A

for a reason…
     
     

 

Chapter Fourteen
     
    Christmas Day
     
    “Joe? Did you say something?”
    He blinked at Ariel. She was leaning over the side of his bed, dressed in her old gray sweater and looking like she’d been dragged backward through a hedge.
    Was he in the hospital? It looked like a hospital room, with a curtain hanging around the bed and a TV too tiny to be enjoyed mounted high on the wall. Oh, and yes, there was an IV in his hand, with tubes connecting it to some sort of pump-on-a-pole that was cranking away. And a blood pressure cuff on his arm that started inflating like it knew he was thinking about it.
    Definitely the hospital. Hopefully that meant there was a tube in his dick, too, because he did not want to get up to piss. His body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and his eyes kept wanting to close.
    “Hey, welcome back to the land of the living, Josiah,” she said as she took his hand and sat on the edge of the mattress. Her eyes ran over his face compulsively, as if he’d been gone for years. “Are you awake for real this time?”
    “This time?” he croaked.
    “This is the third time you’ve woken up today. Would you like a sip of water?”
    When he nodded, she held up a cup so he could drink out of the straw. He grimaced when he swallowed. His throat felt like it had been sandblasted.
    “Sorry, the nurse said you’d probably have a sore throat from the tube they put down there.” She set down the straw and punched a button on the remote by his hand. “Are you having pain anywhere else?”
    “Nothing too bad.” He carefully felt his stomach with one hand. “What happened?”
    “What’s the last thing you remember?”
    “I don’t…” He frowned. “I was dreaming about Travis.”
    Ariel’s face softened in sympathy. “What about him?”
    “We were at the house—ours, I mean—and it was summer, and we were talking…” He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to remember, but as with all dreams, the details vanished into the mist as he tried to recall them. He sighed. Dammit, and it had seemed so real, and so important, too.
    Travis’s voice echoed in his head and his eyes popped open. “Everything happens for a reason.”
    “I totally agree,” Ariel said. “Wait, was that what you were trying to say when you woke up?”
    “I don’t know, but I remember him saying that in my dream. Everything happens for a reason.” He closed his eyes and smelled summer. Warm cotton. Cologne. Travis.
    “You must have heard the doctor talking to us this morning before they brought you down from the ICU. He said that.”
    “Us?” He opened his eyes and looked around.
    “Brent went home to change, but he should be back soon. Hake and Mandy, too. We’ve all been here all night.”
    It came back to him then. “I had an aneurysm?”
    She nodded. “It ruptured.” Her eyes filled and then her face crumpled as she leaned forward and rested her forehead on his shoulder. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, Joe. It took ten years off my life when they ran out with you like that.”
    Joe reached up and rubbed the back of his knuckles on her wet cheek. “Does that mean I’m only three years older than you now?”
    “Don’t laugh,” she scolded, sitting up to grab his hand and squeeze it tightly between both of hers. “The doctor said your heart stopped during the surgery. They almost lost you.”
    Well that was sobering.
    Then his eyes widened. Holy shit, his heart had stopped?
    Everything happens for a reason.
    A feeling of urgency gripped him. “Call Brent and see if he’s still home. If he is, tell him to bring the box I put under the Christmas tree.”
    She gave him a puzzled smile as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Brent. “Hey, are you still at the house? Yeah, he’s awake, and he’s asked you to bring in the box he left under the tree. Okay, thanks, I’ll tell him. See you in a few minutes.” Tucking the phone away again, she said, “They’re