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She lifts my hand and places it over her flat stomach. “As long as we’re together, we’ll get through anything. We’ll give them two parents, a wonderful home, and most importantly a lot of love.”
I tip up her chin with my fingertips. “In the span of a week our family went from two, to three, and now to four. Thank you.” Leaning down, I plant my lips over hers and kiss her silly. She accepts it and more, then gives it back tenfold.
“I love you,” she whispers into my mouth before sealing her lips over mine. We spend the next thirty minutes in rush hour, downtown, San Francisco traffic making out like a couple of teenagers in the back of the family SUV.
Chapter Eighteen
Gillian
Her face isdeathly pale in sleep but the monitors bleeping next to her prove she’s stable. Her heart rate is where it should be, and the same with her blood pressure. She’s been in and out of consciousness since she was moved to the Bothin Burn Center at St. Francis’s Memorial Hospital over a week ago. I finally got Carson to leave her side to catch a shower and some sleep. Promised him I wouldn’t move from this chair until his return, and I meant that. There’s nowhere I’d rather be than here with my Kat.
I push a stray lock of golden hair away from her face. Her eyes flicker open. They’re glassy and unfocused, but she smiles anyway.
“Hey, Kat, there you are,” I say soothingly making sure I’m close to her. I’m holding her uninjured hand. She has light bandages covering the first skin grafting over her arm, the worst of the burned area. The neck is second, and then down the side of her ribs. We were informed she’ll undergo a series of grafting and surgeries over the next year. Chase, of course, is making sure she receives the best possible care and has informed the Board of Directors of his interest and considerable donations he foresees in their organization’s future. Again, I don’t care if Chase throws his money around like a hammer as long as Kat gets what she needs to heal. Phillip did, and is almost in perfect condition. I want that for Kat.
I look at Kat’s face, the bandages surrounding the upper half of the right side of her body, and the tears I’ve been holding back fall. This is my fault. “I’m sorry,” I choke out and hold her hand to my face, kissing the top of her hand repeatedly.
“Did you hurt me?” she asks in a low tone her voice rough, as though she hasn’t spoken in a month.
I shake my head while the tears fall to her hand. “Then stop acting like you did,” she warns. “Now, tell me what the doctors say?” Her eyes become harsh. “They keep sugar coating my prognosis and doping me full of drugs so I either fall asleep or I can’t think straight. I need the truth.”
Clearing my throat, I lean closer to her. “I think it would be better if Carson…” I start and she shakes her head then winces in pain. I stand up. “I’ll get the doctor!” Again she stops me with a squeeze of my hand this time.
“You’re my sister. Tell me. I want to hear it from you.”
I close my eyes let out a breath, and, without looking at her, tell her what I know in a long rush.
“You’re stable, they have the carbon monoxide poisoning under control. They’re watching your lungs for any signs of pneumonia.”
“Gigi…”
The tears slip down my cheeks, but this time I open my eyes and try to be strong, for her. “They said you will have little use of your right arm and minimal to no use of your hand. The nerve damage was too extreme.”
“Go on.” Tears fill her caramel brown eyes and slide down her cheeks. I almost break down and sob, but I can do that later. Now is when I need to pull up my bootstraps and be strong for my girl.
“Okay...um...they harvested the grafts from your bum and both inner thighs, but there should be very little scarring. The grafts are doing their thing now. You will probably have to undergo a lot more surgeries down the road, but the hope is that most of this will be behind you within a year or so.”
Kat nods, tears falling, and I wipe them away. “So my career is over.”
“No, Kat. That’s not true…there are ways…”
She shakes her head. “Not being able to sew, use my hands, especially my right hand. As it is I’m going to have to learn to be left-handed. It’s over, the dream, and the sooner I accept that the better off I’ll be.”
“Kat, you don’t know that. You have no idea what the use of your arm and hand are going to be like down the road. With physical therapy. Nerves regenerate, muscles can be retrained. Don’t give up. Just do everything the doctors say. All of us will help you through. Carson will help you…”
Her words are as cold as ice when she says, “Carson? You mean the man who has never once told me he loves me?” Shit. I thought they were past that. Unfortunately, I’ve been so busy the past three months, focused on my own situation, I never even bothered to ask. I’m a shitty friend.
“He loves you Kat.” I say with as much conviction as I have in my heart, because I really do believe he does.
She brings her chin down her eyes dark and hard. “Really? You think through all of this, and everything we’ve been through he could have maybe said it…maybe even once?”
“But he’s been here with you every step.”
Kat nods. “Yeah, he has, but that could just be to save face. And now, that my arm, neck, and side is burned beyond recognition, my ass and thighs have been scalped, you think he’s really going to want someone who looks like this?” She shakes her head, and I do not like where she’s going. As a matter of fact, I can feel where she’s about to go, and I hate it.
“Listen to me, Kat. He loves you. He’ll be here for you.”
With a cough and a wince she lays back on the pillow. “But do I want someone who doesn’t love me to be here?” Tears fill her eyes once again, and she moves to lift her bad arm to wipe them away and cries out. The pain must be excruciating even with the painkillers. As it is, the smell of her wound, the dressing, whatever salve they’ve put on it is making my mouth water with the sour taste that occurs right before I hurl. I do everything I can to push the nausea down, but her temperament, where her head is right now is not helping. It’s physically making the tension in my stomach feel like acid swirling around and around ready to crawl up my throat.
