Dark Love (The Two Sides of Me Book 3) by Amy Garcia

Seattle. The same way he looked at me when he woke up screaming my name until I arrived, only calming when he had me within his reach. He’s not yelling this time; he has family with him, he’s not alone, but this doesn’t make me feel any better about not being at his side the moment he returned.
    “I never left you,” I say as I approach, the guys move away giving us space.
    “I…know,.” he says slowly, purposely, carefully as if he’s searching for the words and plucking them from a shelf to string them together. He reaches for me, and I take his hand in both of mine kissing his knuckles my hot tears splashing onto his skin, but he doesn’t smile or blink. His jaw tightens, and his pulse accelerates as he parts his lips and closes them.
    I wait for him to say something else but he doesn’t, he just looks at me with building frustration and I realize he’s having trouble with speech, a typical side effect after brain surgery.
    “Are you having trouble finding words?” I cup my hand on his jaw and his eyes say all I need to know, they glaze over, and tears threaten to fall, but he reins them in blinking away the extra moisture. “It’s going to be ok, baby, this is common, you just need to relax and the words will come back.”
    I lean in to kiss the cheek still cupped in my hand, and he pulls me gently closer until our lips brush lightly. My tummy flutters and the world is all set straight, aligned and in focus. I have him; he knows me, and he loves me still.

He won’t let me go, as in I’ve been held against his chest with his fingers tangled in my braid for twenty minutes in silence. His breathing has leveled off, blood pressure and pulse are down, and I feel the contentment radiating off of him like the warmth of the powerful sun. I’ve propped my hip on the edge of the bed, I’ll stay here for as long as he needs me to, until he knows it’s all real, until he knows it’s all over. Gabriella returned a minute or two after I did, he glanced at her, nodded I think but went right back to fussing with my hair.
    “Honey, the doctor, is here, he needs to see you for a minute. Can you let her up?” Gabby asks him, I pull away just an inch and his arms tighten, not enough to keep me in place, he’s still weak, but the message is loud and clear, no he will not let me up.
    I can hear the surgeon behind me shuffling around, probably uncomfortable enough having to look at Evan but now he thinks he’s dealing with a clingy wife.
    “Evan.” I pull away and move until we are nose to nose. “Just for a minute, he needs to do an assessment, I swear I’m not going anywhere, I’ll hold your hand.”
    Something I’ve never seen ripples through his eyes, panic. “Shush…it’s all right, just for a second I promise.”
    When I move to sit his eyes shift to the doctor and instant relief replaces the panic. David. He thought it would be David. So much can be said with only our eyes, he doesn’t need to speak for me to know what he’s thinking. This must be how he reads me so well; he always knows what I’m thinking without a word passed between us. His grip loosens, but he’s not letting go completely.
    I glance back at the group; Gabriella is sniffing dabbing her eyes with a tissue; Simone has his arm around her shoulders beaming a broad, genuine smile that touches his eyes. And Isaac leans with his back against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest expressionless. I’m not able to examine his frame of mind because Evan’s grip tightens bringing me back to him. The doctor runs through several steps of a neuro exam, speaking to Evan in Italian and I wonder if that’s the best idea, shouldn’t he speak English? He is from Italy though, born and raised until he was a teenager; Italian truly is his native language. He suddenly switches to English with a thick accent.
    “Everything seems to be going fine, Mr. Lawson. Are you able to speak yet?”
    “Yes.”
    “Are you in pain?”
    “Yes.”