Wyatt might have been able to endure a bullet wound, but this would likely destroy him.
“We’ll get a lawyer.” Tabitha reached out and rubbed his thigh. “I can afford a really good one.”
Wyatt shrugged. “What’s a good lawyer gonna do for me? Plea bargain for a lesser charge? I’ll never be able to be sheriff again. I’m still facing jail time, even with the best lawyer money can afford. This is my business. I know a solid case when I see one.”
She didn’t have a solution for him. Like he said, this was his business. If Wyatt said he was fucked, Tabitha knew he probably was. She didn’t have a single solution to offer, so she just leaned into him once more and wrapped her arms around him. Wyatt hugged her back, and together they just sat together in the cool November morning and tried to come to terms with the fact that their lives were about to be ripped apart more violently than they had the first time they’d thought love made them invincible.
“I want you to leave,” Wyatt said in a gruff voice, as if the words were tearing out his soul. “When everything starts going down, I want you to go back to Key West. Be happy. Love life. Be amazing at everything you do.” He repeated the words she’d written to him in that letter so long ago as if he’d read it a million times. “’Cause I know you can. The whole world knows it, and I’m so happy everyone gets to see you as I’ve always seen you.”
“No.” She placed a hand over his heart, knowing it beat for her, and everything in her wanted to stay right where she was right now. “I’m not leaving this time.”
“That’s your gift to me.” Wyatt kissed the top of her head once more. “I’m sorry, Tabby, but I need to know you’ll do this for me. I can survive everyone else seeing me fall, but I never want you to see it. It’ll kill me. I know it. Please tell me you understand.”
Tabitha wanted to lie to him. They’d been so good at it for the past four months, but in the end she couldn’t do it. “I do understand.” She tightened her arms around him, clinging to what she knew was slipping through her fingers. “I don’t want to, but I do.”
“I want you to write a hundred more books.” Wyatt ran his hand over her back softly, and even through the tears she could still hear the smile in his voice. “Promise you’ll keep me a perfect memory.”
“It’s not hopeless yet,” she said defiantly, refusing to promise, because she knew what it meant. “Let’s just wait and see what happens.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“I got you a change of clothes.” Wyatt handed Romeo a pair of jeans and a T-shirt he had gotten out of his gym bag that he kept in his SUV. “I should’ve thought ’bout it earlier. I was distracted. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks, Wyatt.” Romeo took the clothes, looking genuinely grateful for them. “I should’ve changed before I left for the hospital, but—”
“Hey, no one’s blaming ya for it,” Wyatt said and then made a point to look at Romeo, who still had Jules’s blood staining his jeans and T-shirt. “But you got to change. Go take a moment. Get yourself a cup of coffee. Hell, have two. You look like you need it. I can sit with her.”
“She’s still”—Romeo raised his eyebrows—”really relaxed after the surgery.”
“I’m sure I can handle it. I’ve been dealing with my sister a lot longer than you have,” Wyatt reminded him. “Take your time. Go see the twins again. We got your back.”
“Okay, yeah.” Romeo nodded. “I will. I’m going to take some more pictures. Even stoned outta her friggin’ mind, she’s driving the doctors and nurses crazy wanting to see them.”
“Then go.” Wyatt gestured to the doors that led out of the ICU.
Romeo surprised him by stepping forward and hugging Wyatt in that same tight, strong-armed way he hugged his own brothers. It was obvious the chaos of the night was wearing on him. His emotions were right on the surface, and Wyatt understood completely. He patted his brother-in-law’s back affectionately as he reeled over the bizarreness of his life that had allied him with Romeo Wellings of all people.
“She’s been asking ’bout you too,” Romeo said as he pulled away. “She’s been asking for you a lot actually. She keeps saying something’s wrong with you.” He shook his head. “They got her high as a kite. It’s making her paranoid as hell.”
“Yeah,” Wyatt agreed distantly. “That must be it.”
“Tell her I’m taking more pictures. I won’t be too long.”
Romeo was halfway down the hallway before something occurred to Wyatt, and he called out, “Hey.”
He turned around, arching an eyebrow curiously. “Yeah?”
“Congratulations.”
Romeo pulled back, making it obvious that was the first he’d heard it. Then he gave Wyatt a wide, pleased smile that lit up his entire face and showed the first signs of excitement for the future rather than the stress and strain he had been dealing with for the past nine months. “Thanks, man.”
“Sure.” Wyatt gestured to the doors once more. “Go look after those boys, Dad. You might as well enjoy it now. Twins are something else.”
“Nah, they’ll be good,” Romeo said confidently. “They got half Juliet in them. They gotta be good.”
Wyatt laughed. “Whoa boy, who lied to you? Wait and see; it’s gonna be interesting.”
“I can handle a little interesting.” Romeo laughed with him before he turned once more to leave. “See you soon.”
Wyatt walked to Jules’s room. He had already checked in at the nurse’s station and had a sticker on his chest that said he had a right to be there. He could hear his sister’s voice before he stepped past the door, because it echoed off the stark walls, vibrant and demanding as always.
“Just put me in a wheelchair. Five minutes.”
“Darlin’, you just got out of surgery, and you lost a lot of blood. You need to get a little stronger first.”
“I’m strong.” Jules sounded unbendingly confident about it despite the slur in her voice. “My daddy made me strong.”
“That ain’t a lie, you know.” Wyatt stepped in the room and saw his sister, who was so pale her lips were almost blue. She had IV’s in both arms, and wires coming out of her gown that tracked the steady beat of her heart, but he didn’t doubt her words as he confirmed to the nurse, “Her daddy did make her strong.”
“Wy Wy.” A frown marred Jules’s forehead when she turned to him. Her blue eyes were darker than they usually were, her pupils wide and dilated from whatever drugs they were giving her, but still she saw what Romeo didn’t and asked, “What happened to you?”
“Well.” Wyatt grabbed the chair Romeo had obviously been sitting it and pulled it closer to Jules’s bed. “Let’s see. My sister made me an uncle this morning. That happened. Wanna see some pictures of my nephews?”
Jules made a move to sit up a little.
“Honey, you can’t move too much yet.”
“I got her,” Wyatt said as he took his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t move round too much.”
That seemed to appease the nurse, who walked out of the room as Wyatt searched for the pictures he took of Jules’s sons. He held up his phone to his sister, showing her the first one.
“Oh.” Jules took the phone from him, staring at the screen with a look of motherly adoration. Tears filled her eyes as she whispered, “I wanna hold him so badly. Which one is he?”
Wyatt looked at the screen, trying to see what bed he was lying in. “That’s Freddy.”
“Sweet like Daddy.” Jules let out a little giggle. “He looks like a Fred, dontcha think?”
Actually, he didn’t look anything like a Fred. He looked more like a Nova or a Tino, with his olive coloring and dark hair, but Wyatt didn’t argue. If they’d had a daughter, they would have named her after Romeo’s mother, but they didn’t.