Time to Bounce (Carter Brothers #6)

Chapter 28

Imagine if spiders laughed like psychos when you found them.

— Text from Athena to Gable

ATHENA

I felt numb.

There was no other word for what I felt.

It felt like the life had been drained out of my soul, and I was sitting here, a broken shell of the woman I once was.

I didn’t know what to do.

What to say.

Was there anything even to say?

The Carters had tried to talk to me.

Hell , even Maven had tried.

But I didn’t have anything left in me to give, not even conversation.

I’d been sitting in the exact spot since I’d gotten into the waiting area, and my mind just blanked.

I didn’t know how much time had passed.

I didn’t know if it’d been overly long.

My bladder was full.

It’d obviously been a while.

But …

“ Carter family?”

I was standing, my numb legs protesting the movement with each inch I stood.

“ Felix ,” Garnett jolted out of her seat. “ Is he okay?”

“ He’s okay.” He looked sheepish. “ Barring infection,” he looked hopeful now. “ A surgeon joined me shortly after I started. We were able to remove the bullets, repair the damage. Everything is good now. He’s stable. He’ll be in a lot of pain, but he’s awake.”

“ He’s awake?” I breathed.

“ And asking for you.” The doctor looked at me, then turned back toward Gable’s parents. “ He also wanted me to say something.”

“ What ?” Garrett asked.

“ He said ‘ Addie says hi.’”

There was a sharp intake of breath and then Ande and Garnett burst into tears.

“ Addie ,” I breathed.

Addison .

His sister.

Holy shit.

Did that mean he died?

“ Come on,” he gestured at me. “ I’ll take you back.”

“ I want to come!” Ande breathed.

Ande .

Addison’s twin.

“ Two at a time,” he looked at the rest of the family. “ You can file in one at a time, but Gable wants her to stay.”

I rubbed at my heart. “ Maybe he should see y’all first?”

“ Go ,” Germaine smiled. “ It’s enough to know that he’s okay.”

He pressed his fist to his heart.

It wasn’t enough for me.

I wanted to see him.

“ Ande , me first,” Garrett said. “ I just want to lay eyes on him, then I’ll go.”

Ande reluctantly hung back as Garrett and I left, following Dr . Felix through a maze of hallways.

He led us to the back of some long hallway and said, “ Thanks to the shooting, the hospital is stuffed full. This is an overflow wing, and there’s one nurse working on seven rooms. This is also the old children’s wing, so don’t be alarmed by all the paintings on the wall.”

He wasn’t lying.

The hallway was bright and cheerful.

There was Dumbo flying over rolling hills. The girl from Brave running after a bear with her bow strapped to her back. There was even Elsa and Anna on the wall dancing in an ice storm.

He stopped beside a closed door and said, “ None of the other people on this wing are involved in the shooting. These are all patients who were in surgery or just out of surgery before the shooting happened. You don’t have to worry about him being next to some gang member.”

Garrett growled beside me, and I reached for his hand and squeezed.

He caught my hand and squeezed back. Hard . Then let me go.

Felix pushed the door open but didn’t go inside.

“ He’s awake but could be a bit loopy still thanks to the medication he’s on,” Felix said. “ His new doctor will likely make rounds in just a few minutes.”

Then he left us, likely busy as hell thanks to the day’s events.

“ Athena .”

My head whipped toward the bed, and there he was, wide awake, staring at me like he’d never seen me before.

“ Gable ,” I breathed.

He lifted his fingers toward me, and I hurried his way.

My fingers tangled with his, and the tears that I’d managed to hold at bay fell.

“ You’re okay,” Garrett said softly.

My face dropped, and I let my head rest on his thigh as I tried to find a way to breathe past the tears clogging my throat.

He was alive.

Alive .

He’d made it.

“ Yeah ,” Gable sounded worried, though. “ I just want to be completely open and honest with you. The doctor wanted to sound positive, but he pointed out that there was a reason that surgery is done in sterile rooms. Says the likelihood for infection is high, and that they’re going to have me on strong antibiotics in hopes that it’ll help with infection, but that I will probably have issues despite their measures.”

I lifted my head, tears blurring my eyes. “ What’s that mean?”

He grimaced. “ That it’s going to be a long road.”

I stood and cupped his face in my hand, dropping my forehead to his. “ Then we’ll travel it together.”

One week later

“ Is he okay today?” Garnett asked as she came into the room.

I looked at the man who’d given us not one, not two, but three more life or death experiences in the last week and said, “ I think so.”

Today was the first day he actually looked like he had some color to him.

She walked to the bed and fixed his hair.

It was overly long, as was his beard.

He was starting to look like he did when he was undercover.

I loved it and hated it at the same time.

A knock at the door sounded, and Garnett and I both turned.

“ Yes ?”

That was the last breath I was able to take for a full minute as I stared at the doorway.

“ Who are you?” Garnett asked defensively when she saw my reaction.

I couldn’t draw in a breath of air.

My lungs weren’t working.

“ I’m Mary Beth . Athena’s sister,” the woman explained.

Mary Beth .

Mary Beth .

“ What ?” Garnett asked, sounding just as stunned as I felt.

Garnett caught my hand over Gable’s sleeping form and squeezed.

My hip rested against the side of the bed, Gable nestled protectively between us.

I drew in two sharp breaths before saying, “ What are you doing here?”

Garnett’s head whipped around, and she stared at me, realizing something was wrong.

She had no idea of what had happened.

I hadn’t told any of them.

I was waiting for Gable to be awake so I could tell him first.

But besides those initial minutes when we’d first arrived in his recovery room, Gable hadn’t been awake or aware enough to listen to me talk, let alone explain something so complicated.

“ I’m your sister, why wouldn’t I be here?” she asked.

I inadvertently squeezed Garnett’s hand and said, “ Why now?”

Mary Beth’s eyes flitted momentarily to the side before she returned her gaze and said, “ I was worried about you. Him .”

“ Tell me what’s going on,” Garnett ordered, surprising me with her forcefulness.

I’d , of course, known she was a bad ass.

She was one of the longest standing employees of Dallas Police Department . You didn’t become that without having a little badass in you.

But this…

She sounded scary.

I’d never seen her this way before.

“ I , uh, I …” Mary Beth stuttered.

“ Wait outside,” she ordered.

Mary Beth stumbled, then nodded. “ Okay , sure. Okay .”

Then she left, leaving me reeling.

“ Athena Grace Murphy , look at me,” Garnett ordered.

She punctuated that order by squeezing my hand.

I had no other choice but to turn her way.

“ What was that?” she asked. “ How ?”

I knew what she was asking.

I dropped my eyes from her intense gaze, then dropped into my seat beside Gable’s bed.

I dropped my forehead to his hand—his blissfully warm hand—and drew in a few shaky breaths before I picked up my head again and blurted out the entire story.

Garnett listened to it all, not saying a word.

She waited until I was done before she said, “ I don’t know what to say.”

I didn’t either.

The man at my side however…

“ Kick her out,” he urged. “ Tell the hospital she’s not welcome here, and don’t allow her in anymore. We’ll deal with her when we are out of this place.”

I whipped my head around to see Gable’s eyes wide open.

And angry.

Holy hell, was he angry.

“ Gable ,” I breathed. “ How are you feeling?”

“ Angry as hell,” he admitted. “ That fuckin’ bitch.”

“ Language , Gable Buchanan Carter ,” Garnett snapped.

Gable’s lips twitched, but he didn’t smile.

“ I’m talking about your chest,” I hovered my hand over said chest. “ Are you feeling okay?”

“ Sore . Every time I take a breath, I feel like I’m stabbing myself in the heart with a screw driver. But other than that…” he trailed off.

I smiled. “ They have you on a morphine pump, but the last time they were in here filling it up, you told them to fuck all the way off with their pain meds. So they put you on different ones that you have to ask for.”

“ Could you ask?” He smiled.

I got up to do that and he caught my hand. “ Not you. She might still be out there.”

I nodded and sat back down.

Garnett pressed the button instead of leaving, asking a nurse to bring Gable some pain meds.

Just as I was about to say more, the door pushed open, and Maven and baby Lola pushed inside along with Hollis and Dalia , Ande and Tex , Shayne and Cillian , and Ellodie and Cam .

“ Where are the rest?” I found myself asking.

“ At a play date at the circus,” Hollis laughed. “ Dalia wanted to stay, but she has a checkup for an ear infection she had last week. You’re awake!”

“ I’m awake,” Gable confirmed.

“ Why do you look angry?” Ande asked. “ Does it have to do with that woman crying in the hall?”

“ Yes ,” he snapped.

“ What’s going on?” Ellodie asked.

Maven placed the baby in my arms, and I melted.

Lola was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.

As in, no baby could compare.

Sure , I might be partial, but she was just so gorgeous.

The entire Semyonov family agreed with my sentiments. They’d told me so last night when they’d all visited before heading back to Tennessee for a few weeks.

“ Oh , I brought you this,” Maven said as she pulled my computer out of her diaper bag. “ I went by to get you another change of clothes like you asked and to help the movers know where to put all your boxes and things. Your computer was going crazy with the dings, so I caught it up for you as I left.”

I smiled and put it down on the end of the bed.

Gable squeezed my hand and said, “ Boxes ?”

My face blushed.

“ She moved herself in,” Garnett laughed.

“ Someone has to take care of you when you get out of this place,” I flushed, not meeting his eyes.

He squeezed my hand and it was only then that I realized Garnett had let my hand go only for Gable to grab it.

I looked at him and his eyes were gleaming.

Despite the pain, he looked happy to hear the news.

“ Good ,” he winked. “ That solves one thing.”

“ What else needs to be solved?” Shayne asked. “ I like problem solving.”

“ The engagement ring I have in my sock drawer somehow needs to find its way to me. Also …” He paused as I continued to flush, this time a violent red.

“ That’s solved already, too,” Shayne giggled.

“ Is it now?” he asked, sounding curious. “ And how is that?”

“ To get all the information without having Garnett and Germaine here to give her permission to hear it, she had to be your fiancée. Surprise .” Ellodie giggled.

I gave him a sheepish smile and picked up my hand. “ I was just…”

“ Perfect .” His eyes gleamed. “ Though maybe when I can get down on one knee, I’ll still ask you.”

“ I’ll say yes,” I promised. “ I’ll take it off when we get out of here.”

“ Absolutely not,” he replied. “ You’ll keep that on until you die.”

A feeling of excitement bloomed in my chest.

“ Well , what’s the other problem solving?” Mom asked.

His eyes narrowed on the door. “ Get rid of that bitch of a sister so Athena doesn’t have to deal with her ever again.”

Maven gasped, and the baby in my arms started to squirm.

Her eyes opened, and her baby blues blinked at me blearily.

“ What ?” Maven asked, voice deadly calm.

Before I could say a word, Garnett relayed everything again for the five women in the room.

Maven turned toward the door, marching with a purpose.

“ Get her, tiger,” Shayne called.

I winced.

“ Let me see the baby,” Gable urged.

And though I knew it to be a distraction tactic, I turned so he could see the baby.

“ Cute ,” he said. “ Bet Auden loves that bow.”

“ He hates it,” Shayne giggled. “ They get more and more ridiculously big each day that Auden refuses to leave it on her.”

Voices .

Yelling .

Then Maven stormed into the room. “ She’s lucky I have a kid in here, or I’d claw her eyes out.”

“ What happened?” Gable asked excitedly.

I flicked his ear just as the nurse came in with a wide-eyed look. “ Um , I’m here to pass out the good stuff.”

“ That’s for me.” Gable raised his hand.

She smiled and said, “ I guessed.”

Gable got his medication, and we waited for the nurse to leave again before Maven said, “ She’s here because she’s dying and needs a kidney. She’s hoping that Athena will use her heart and give one to her.”

“ Absolutely not, she won’t,” Gable snapped, eyes spitting fire.

He tried to sit up, and his face went shock white.

“ Don’t ,” I said as I moved, placing the baby on the bed between his legs before I helped Gable get resituated. “ No sudden movements. Everything you do needs to be slow.”

The kids all took that as their cue to pile onto the bed with their newest cousin.

“ What’s that?” Tex asked as he pointed at the tube coming out of Gable’s chest. “ Can I touch it?”

“ No , buddy,” Ande said. “ That’s helping Uncle Gable breathe.”

“ Or making it impossible to,” Gable grumbled.

“ What’s that?” Tex continued, pointing at the white dressing on Gable’s chest.

“ That’s a boo-boo,” I said as I carefully peeled the dressing away.

I knew it would be time for a dressing change soon, so I went ahead and took it off.

Possibly , I should have left it, but the way Gable was staring at it so curiously, I knew he wanted to see, too.

“ Nasty .” Tex wrinkled his nose. “ It makes me want to touch it.”

“ Please , don’t.” Gable laughed. “ You’re such a weirdo like your mother.”

“ Hey !” Ande cried.

Then Gable’s eyes went altogether serious. “ Ande .”

Her eyes went to him. “ Yeah ?”

“ I saw her.”

This was another thing I’d wanted to hear about.

“ You did?” she asked, sounding desperate.

“ Yeah ,” he nodded. “ I think she was real, too. That all…” He whipped his head toward me. “ I saw your brother.”

My heart melted. “ You did?”

“ I did,” he nodded.

Then he told us about what had happened in that in between place.

He told us about Gavrel and him staying where he was to make sure I was okay before he moved on. He told us about Addison and how happy she was in the white peace, as he called it. He also told us about how it felt to be there.

“ It was weird,” he admitted. “ I had no pain there. Things didn’t ache. My eyes were wide open, and I could see everything. I had this inner peace, like it just felt right to be where I was. Like I could be perfectly content there.”

“ I’m glad you didn’t stay,” I mused.

His eyes were sparkling when he said, “ You weren’t there, Athena . Why would I stay anywhere where you weren’t?”

A small sniffle had me glancing over to the side to see Garnett smiling despite the tears that were rolling down her cheeks.

“ I’m glad she’s happy and at peace.” She breathed. “ That’s all I could hope for all of my children.” Her eyes went fierce. “ And did I mention how tired I am of nearly losing all of y’all? I raised y’all for thirty some odd years with no issues, got you through puberty, your sixteenth year, and out of the military. Then all of you meet your significant others and I feel like yeah, this is it. I can finally stop worrying. Then bam. One by one all of you have broken my heart. If not you, then the women you decided to bring into your lives. And I’m downright sick of it.”

“ You know what I’m not sick of?” Tex asked. “ Watermelon .”

That had me giggling. “ Oh , yeah?”

Tex nodded decisively.

“ On that note,” Ande snorted. “ I gotta go. The other kids are probably going wild. I just wanted to stop in to see if this bonehead woke up today. Now that I’ve confirmed proof of life, I better go help my husband or he’ll close down his circus.”

They all filed out one by one, leaving Maven , Lola , Gable , and me.

Maven gathered Lola up into her arms and tucked her back into the front carrier at her chest.

When she was done, she walked up to Gable’s free side and looked down at him.

He gave her a ‘what now’ look.

“ I’d like to tell you I’ll kill you if you hurt her,” Maven brushed an invisible piece of lint off Gable’s shoulder. “ But you’ve already proven that you’ll come back for her no matter what.”

Gable winked. “ I’ll make her happy, Maven .”

She nodded. “ See that you do. Or else.”

Maven left, leaving Gable and I alone.

“ Athena .”

I looked at Gable , my eyes taking in his chest tube, the bullet holes in his chest, and the beard that was getting perilously close to his collar bone, before finally gaining the courage to look into his eyes.

“ Will you marry me?” he asked. “ It might be a while before I can get on my knee. And I want you to say it now.”

I brushed some of the hair off his forehead before saying, “ You didn’t even have to ask. It was a done deal.”

He snorted. “ Athena .”

I leaned forward, pressing my lips to his. “ Yeah ?”

“ I’m going to say this, and don’t take it the wrong way,” he murmured.

I pulled back, heart pounding.

“ Yeah ?”

“ You stink. You should really go home and take a shower.”

I threw my head back and laughed.

He was right.

I did stink.

I didn’t go home to take a shower, though.

I took one in the bathroom made for kids, squatting down the entire time so I could fit under the shower head.

When I got back out, a nurse was there with a tub and a couple of rags.

“ Your turn,” my eyes gleamed.