“Well, even though you may not say it is my fault and even though I know that I’m not the one who put you here, I am still sorry that you are in this spot, if nothing else like I would be sorry that someone wound up homeless,” he said. “Will you please forgive me?”
“Oh, Nick,” I said. There was certainly something humorous about how I was the one with bruises all over and he was the one in the most pain. “Duh.”
Nick finally got the hint, looking up at me with a chuckle and a smile.
“Well, you’re very generous with your kindness,” he said. “I will make sure you never get hurt like this again. I don’t care what it takes.”
“He’s in jail now, you know,” I said. “He’s not going to do anything.”
Nick almost seemed unsatisfied with that answer.
“I just want one good round in the ring with that punk,” he said. “Beat the shit out of him, get some—”
“Nick!”
I squeezed his hand.
“Let’s focus on us, not him, OK? He’s gone. He’s buried deep in some cell. He’s not our problem.”
For now.
But I don’t want to think about anything but this very moment right here, right now.
“Understood,” he said. “So really, though, you get out today?”
I nodded. A mischievous grin spread on his face.
“Can I drive you home?”
I arched an eyebrow at him.
“I don’t think my body can take any type of ride except the literal right now.”
Nick recoiled in shock.
“Oh, hell, I was just wanting to spend time with you! I wasn’t even thinking about that!”
“Uh-huh,” I said, but honestly, I knew now he wasn’t. I just enjoyed teasing him like this. “Well, I was going to ask my parents to come later today, but you happened to come in and ask before I could. So, I guess you win.”
“No,” he said. “We win.”
“Oh, Lord.”
But it was sweet having Nick by my side. Some of these scars and bruises would last a terrible amount of time, but for the moment, none of that mattered.
So long as I had Nick by my side, the world didn’t seem nearly as scary.
Chapter 19: Nick
The only “bad” news of the moment was that the doctors still wanted to keep Izzy for another hour, so I had to play the part of fake cousin for a little bit and exercise my patience while the doctors did their round of checks.
In that time, I pretty much held Izzy’s hand for the entirety of it. Obviously, some moments required that I pull back so she could talk to a doctor or show him something on her body, but if there was a moment where I could, I wanted her to feel my touch. I wanted her to know that I meant it when I said I would do anything to make sure she never got hurt again, no matter the costs.
She just doesn’t need to know how. At least, the how that doesn’t involve you directly.
About twenty minutes before our scheduled departure time, someone knocked on the door. Izzy let them in, and then I realized I might have overdone one aspect of this visit.
“More flowers?” Izzy said, her face more amused than upset or annoyed. “You really are trying to plant a garden, aren’t you?”
“I may have just gone crazy with orders and not worried about how it would be,” I said. “But yeah, this is probably getting to be a bit much.”
I texted Layla, who had gotten back in town, and asked her to arrange someone to grab the flowers so they could deliver them to Izzy’s apartment. Brett probably would have finished my request faster, but let’s just say I had no desire or interest right now in some brotherly shit-talking. That could come tomorrow; today was about taking care of the woman I lo…
I almost dropped the l-word, but I had to remind myself it was way too early. But it was certainly true that my feelings for her were unbelievably stronger than for almost any other woman I had known.
Finally, it came time for her to leave.
In a sense, I no longer cared if the world knew that I was dating Izzy Saunders. A part of me kind of wanted the world to know, especially if it got back to her ex in jail; I wanted him squirming knowing that she had done much, much, much better than him and that he would never live up to the standards that I had set.
But I could tell that Izzy was just so exhausted that the last thing she wanted was someone gawking at us as we walked out. Though I had driven to the hospital, I made the decision to just get us a luxury Uber back to her place and to pick us up on the side of the hospital; the cost was sincerely negligible for me to take her home and then take a ride back to the hospital, and it gave the added benefit of me being able to cuddle with her.
I ordered the Uber just as we got downstairs, where Izzy signed some documentation and paperwork. The flowers had already been picked up thanks to Layla’s apparent instantaneous connections, and as soon as Izzy said she was set, I escorted her out one of the side entrances to our Uber.
“You didn’t drive here?” she asked.
“I did,” I said. “I just didn’t want to take you out front. Last thing we need is some more pap.”
She didn’t say anything, but the relief that melted from her face was palpable. It was, to some extent, a risk we’d have to manage for as long as I played baseball and perhaps a little bit beyond, but there were better times to be photographed than
