They sat there for a while, laughing. Simone smiled at him, “It’ll be okay, Gunn. We’ll get Jimmy and Lisa through this.”
An arm went around her shoulders, pulling her to his side as best he could with the chairs in the way, “Yeah we will, sweetheart.” He looked at the doors of the operating room, “Yeah, we will get through this.”
***
Jesse became aware of a beeping sound as he came to. A very annoying beeping. As he became more aware, he remembered what had happened.
The crash.
Simone kicking her way out of the wreckage. He turned his head and saw Simone asleep in a chair by the head of the bed to his left. Her arm was stretched out, her hand in his. He saw that the other arm was bandaged.
His hand squeezed hers involuntary as he saw the busted lip, scrapes and black eye marring her otherwise peaceful face. She jerked awake when he did; her unfocused eyes looking around as he hoarsely called her name. She seemed to finally come awake and looked at him, “Jesse,” she breathed. He tried to speak again, but a dry mouth kept him from it. A drink of water helped him to talk, “How’s Jimmy? Everything okay?”
She nodded, setting the cup back on the rolling table, “Jimmy is in recovery right now. Doctors said he’s going to be okay.”
She looked at him, “You have a concussion and busted ribs.”
He held up a bandaged wrist with an arched brow, she explained, “You have a light sprain and should be out of it in a few days.”
He looked her over and saw her bruises and cuts along with the black eye and busted lip. As she turned her head, he saw a butterfly bandage on her temple. She saw where his gaze was and she ran a light hand over it, “I hit my head in the crash and have a slight concussion.”
She shrugged, “I’ll be okay in a couple of days.”
She gently ran a hand over his stubbled cheek, “I’m okay. Really, I’ve had worst sparring with Jane.”
A wheezy chuckle came out of him, “I’d believe that, ” he rasped.
“That woman’s mean when you get her riled.” He learned early on never to sneak up on the smaller woman. The one time he did, he found himself on his back and her knife at his throat before he even realized what had happened.
Simone broke him from his thoughts by brushing a gentle kiss on his lips, “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Looking up into her eyes, he saw the emotion that belied her simple words.
Shakily, he raised his hand to cup her scraped cheek in his large hand.
“I’m glad too.”
He took a deep breath, wincing as he did and said a rushed whisper, “I love you too, Sim.”
She froze at his words, words she herself had said before she left the crashed vehicle to face their captors. She looked at him, green eyes glassy, and spoke in a hoarse whisper, “Are you sure, Jesse?”
She leaned into his hand, putting hers over his, “Cause I’m not an easy woman to love. I have more issues than a magazine subscription, and I have a tendency to stay in my own head too much. And-” She was stopped by the thumb over her lips.
A wheezy chuckle drew her attention to his laughing gray eyes.
“Simmi, I’m not perfect either, and that’s okay. I don’t want perfect, I want you.”
He shrugged, “We’ll learn one another as we go.”
He looked up into her face, a tear running down her cheek, “I can do that.”
She nodded, “Yeah, I can do that.”
She let out a breath, “Cause, Cole and I have been talking about it for a while, and we decided to open a second branch of Brandon and Williams Investigator Services. I’m moving out here and setting up the second branch.”
His heart began speeding up, something that embarrassingly made it known as his heart monitor picked up the increased heartbeat. She giggled at that, “I take it you like that idea?”
He smiled up at her, “I always have room for an undercover P.I. at the bar. You think you know someone who can do it?” A shy, beautiful smile graced her battered face, “I think I just might.”
Epilogue
Furious didn’t come close to how he felt as he hung up the phone with his source in the department. That detective was back and was continuing the case. When he first found out his guy had run the wrong one off the road, he was near incoherent with rage. A mistake the man had thankfully corrected for his own sake. Then when she had been put on bereavement leave, he thought he finally got a break. With word her cousin had died in the crash instead of her, he thought that might have finally gotten the bitch off the case and leave his past alone.
Till now. He had hoped to keep his hands clean of this mess, but that didn’t look like that was going to happen.
It seemed like that old saying was true; if you want something done right, you got to do it yourself.
***
Simone was entering a hospital room for the second time this month. Only this time was different. As she walked into the room, she thought back about what the doctor said after they came into the waiting room.
The surgery went well, and they could leave as soon as they came out of recovery and from under the anesthesia. As Simone came up to the bed, she saw their color was much better than the last time she saw them. She crouched by the bed, taking in the pale, but peaceful face. Simone brushed a wisp of hair from the face. She stirred, blinking bleary blue eyes as Simone came into focus. She smiled down at her, “Hey, Ali.”
Simone's Midnight Call (Mississippi Series Book 2) Page 8
