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Chapter 10
Ali could hear them whispering inside through the open window. Her mother and Cornell going at it. He insisted on staying, her mother insisted he go to work, and John tried to placate both of them.
Cornell didn’t end up going to work yesterday as he had planned. And that morning, Ali was still too tired to argue. He hovered over her all day, only leaving her side to call into the coach’s meeting, speak with Jasper about practice, and check in with his dad, who was still seemingly happily working from their house and looking after Mowgli.
Apart from those calls, Cornell was never an inch away from Ali, asking incessantly if she wanted anything—food, water, a heating pad, the remote. He grasped her elbow the moment it seemed like she wanted to stand, telling Ali to go slow, not push herself when she just wanted to get up and walk around—her legs had been relatively immobile for almost forty-eight hours.
I love this man wholly, deeply, and immensely. But if he doesn’t stop hovering, I’m going to scream.
Porter dropped the tennis ball into her lap. Ali couldn’t throw it very far—her body still ached. She tossed it underhand as high as she could, and Porter dashed onto the grass.
Cornell came outside, closing the French doors behind him. “You were hungry,” he said, noticing her empty plate.
“I was starving,” Ali corrected him. It was the first time she had truly been hungry since Monday night when she came home from work.
He took her plate that contained the crumbs of her egg sandwich. “Do you want something else? Fruit or—”
“No. Leave it. Sit.” She told him, and Cornell sat down beside her, placing his mug of coffee on the table. It had to be his third cup, but as Ali took in his exhausted face, she knew he needed it. “I want you to go to work.”
Cornell shook his head, “Ali—”
“You need to. And then go home, have dinner with your dad, and go to bed,” Ali said. “You’re exhausted.”
Pursing his lips together, Cornell wouldn’t give in so easily. “I can take another day.”
“You have a game tomorrow,” Ali reminded him. “You can’t be off-grid anymore. I’m fine,” she assured him. “I’ll be better knowing that no one back at school is upset with me because you’re not there.”
Ali knew Evan was a kind and understanding boss. But he hired Cornell to run and lead his team. He couldn’t do that from Fort Worth, sitting on the couch with her.
“If I go now, I’ll come back tonight.” Concern poured from his tired eyes. “I’ll sleep here with you.”
“No. You need a good night’s sleep.”
Porter dropped the ball at Cornell’s feet, but his stare didn’t leave her own until the dog pawed at his knee for attention, motioning at the ball. He sighed and reached down, throwing it clear across the backyard, and shook his head.
He needs to relax, Ali thought. Cornell had been on edge since the morning after she came home. When she woke up and awkwardly rolled out of bed to use the bathroom, Cornell sprang up alert, panicked, asking if she was okay, his eyes more worried than when she was in the hospital.
Ali remembered nothing about the nightmare Cornell told her about. All she could remember was a horrible stabbing in her ribs and John bringing her medicine while Cornell lay beside her. Other than that, and apart from a minor, irritated throat, it was blank.
There’s a lot of blank.
Porter returned with the ball, and Cornell took it. “I’ll sleep better if I’m with you.”
“Why are you fighting me on this?” Her tone didn’t hide the annoyance.
“Ali,” Cornell said, placing a hand on her knee. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I am okay,” she insisted. “I’ll be totally on my feet in a day or two. But I won’t be able to do that if you keep doing everything for me.”
Cornell looked down at his lap, and Ali felt guilty because she knew his sweet, big heart was in the right place.
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I know you mean well. I just need to start doing some things for myself.” Like use the bathroom, take a shower, brush my hair, Ali wanted to add, but for the sake of Cornell’s feelings, didn’t.
“What about at night?” Cornell said with his gaze still down. “What if you need me at night?”
Ali bit her lip. Was it really that bad?
“I’ll call you when I wake up. You can talk to me until I fall asleep again.” She reached out and took Cornell’s hand, squeezing it. “I need a little time, then I’ll come home, and everything will go back to normal.”
