“Go home, get a good night's sleep, and then you can be here for the surgery.” I knew I wasn’t going to sleep with the nurses coming and going all night, but that didn’t mean Mom had to sleep like shit, too.
“Exactly,” Dad grunted.
Mom wrung her hands in front of her. “What if something happens?”
I splayed my hands around. “I’m in the best place if something does happen, Mom. They have me hooked up to so many machines I feel like a car getting worked on. They’re gonna know something is wrong with me before I even do.”
“We’ll be back before they take him in for surgery,” Dad promised. “I want to be here with him, too, doll, but we aren’t much help for him if we’re both dog-tired.”
“Fine,” Mom huffed. “But we’re going to stop by the nurse’s station before we leave to make sure they have our phone numbers.”
“Fair enough,” Dad agreed.
Mom grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I love you, Grant. Keep being strong, okay? This will be all behind you before you know it.” She pressed a kiss on my forehead and rested her tear-stained cheek against mine. “Call us if you need anything.”
“Love you, too, Mom,” I whispered.
Mom moved away, and Dad stepped toward me. He squeezed my forearm and nodded. “We’ll be back before you know it.”
Luna and Greta had left an hour ago, and now, I was alone again.
I craved silence, but when I had it, it was like I was drowning. I was left with nothing but my thoughts, and they were scary.
In a few hours, I was going to have brain surgery to remove a tumor in my head, and I couldn’t grasp how things had changed in just a day.
Cancer was something I couldn’t wrap my head around. I prayed to God that when they opened me up tomorrow, they would tell me it was benign.
I turned off the lights and closed my eyes.
A thud sounded outside my door.
It swung open, and I could make out a figure in the doorway.
“Hello?” I called. The nurses were in and out, but they were a lot more graceful than whoever was standing there.
“Jesus Christ,” King grumbled. “I blame your aunt for making me a klutz. I’ve been married to her for too long. She’s wearing off on me.”
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” I chuckled. Meg was one of my favorite people in the world. She lived life unapologetically, and you couldn’t help but smile when she was around.
King stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. “Fucking dark in here.”
“I can’t really see, so it doesn’t matter if the light is on or not.”
“Fair,” King mumbled.
A soft glow registered in my sight, and it moved around the foot of my bed and turned off when it was at my side. “What are you doing?” I asked.
I heard him rustle around and then the sound of the footrest on the chair opening. “Going to sleep. This chair is way better than the ones out in the waiting room.”
“What?” I laughed. “Why the hell are you sleeping here?”
“Hospitals are lonely, son. There isn’t a reason in the world why you have to be here alone when you have a club and family behind you.” King sighed, and I felt his hand on my arm. “When I was in the hospital with my stroke shit, I was never alone. As much as I growled and grumbled at Meg to leave me alone, she never did. Looking back, that was the smartest thing she ever could have done. I probably would have given up if I wouldn’t have had her and the club. I couldn’t give up, so you aren’t going to give up.”
“I’m not giving up.”
King grunted and moved his hand. “Good, but I’m gonna stay just to make sure the silence doesn’t make you change your mind.”
And this is why I loved the Devil’s Knights so much. They were there for you no matter what, even when you didn’t know you needed them.
