Never Let Go: Top Shelf Romance Collection 6

by Steiner, Kandi

  I drop my chin down to my chest and inhale. Do I smell her? She never wore her Green Tea perfume in the hospital, but she still had a scent. I tell myself I’m inhaling it right now. I rub my thumb and forefinger over the seam of my left sleeve and picture her arm in the shirt.

  When I had Cleo removed from my visit list, I sent her stuffed sloth and most of the pink fleece blankets with her. I kept one, and Cleo’s pillow. Selfish. No surprise there.

  I sleep on the pillow every night, and wrap myself in pink blankets. The apartment has a living/area kitchen, too, as well as a large bathroom, but I mostly spend my time in bed. Maybe it’s a side-effect of being confined to my hospital room for so many weeks.

  I sigh. I stretch my legs beneath the covers, and in the process, I knock over a bowl half-filled with rice, ground beef, and gravy—all of which I made myself.

  “Fuck.”

  I scoop the food into the bowl and set it on the night-stand. Then I hang my legs off the bed’s side and take my breathing mask from atop another pillow. Twice a day I have to do this. Attach a cylinder of chemicals onto the bottom of the mask, strap the thing around my head, and breathe as deeply and as slowly as I can.

  My lungs are still healing. Willard thinks they’ll recover over time, but no one knows for sure.

  I was intubated, on a ventilator, for six days, with only moderate sedation, meaning I remember every bit of how it felt to have the tube down in my throat. Sometimes at night, I wake up clutching my mouth, trying to pull it out. Funny, because my nightmares from the first transplant weren’t very different really—focused on the mouth sores that, at that time, were the worst thing I’d endured. Before my relapse, I would often wake up with a phantom aching throat.

  I chose the moderate sedation as opposed to deeper sleep because I could still move my arms and legs a little. Several times a day, a PT came and made me exercise, which cut down on the muscle loss. I dropped twenty-seven pounds my twelve days in the ICU, and since then, have tried hard to gain them back.

  I do what I’m supposed to do, since I got discharged last week. Eat, sleep, lift weights, run on the treadmill in the living room. I have doctor’s appointments almost every day. I have a personal shopper, because I can’t really leave this space without risking an illness. Sometime in the next six months, that should get better.

  After my breathing treatment, I lay down on my back and read a few unfolded sparrows. Even though they’re worn and ragged now, I still think of the sheets of paper as sparrows.

  I read through them all two times before I curl on my side and lift out the one I’m reading most often right now. It’s a poem called “Longing” by Matthew Arnold. The words make tears fall from my eyes. It’s nothing new. I cry a fucking lot since I moved out of the unit.

  My “outpatient life” counselor keeps pushing me to do a screening for depression, but I know I don’t need that shit. I don’t need a pill, or some kind of therapy where I talk about my shit with someone who doesn’t know shit about me or my life. It’s fucking simple really. I like crying over Cleo.

  No, it’s nothing physiological. They all that shit, all the time. I’m healthy, in those ways at least. I’m A-okay. So what if I never use my dick? I still wake up with wood. My balls ache, telling me to let them blow sometimes, but I don’t care. One time I ignored them for six days and woke up in a pool of my own cum.

  Pathetic.

  Just like last time after discharge, I avoid the mirror, though this time, the reasoning is different. My hair’s growing back in—thick, soft gold—and I’m filling out from all the lifting, but I just... don’t want to see my face. I think it will make me think of her face. Of her hands in my hair.

  I scoot to the bed’s edge and press my hand against the glass wall. The cool is soothing. I scoot closer and let my forehead touch as well. It almost feels like a cool hand. Her hand.

  I look at the clock: 1:46 AM. I have a blood draw at 8 AM tomorrow morning. I need to go the fuck to sleep. I tug the blankets up to my neck and curl onto my side. Then I push a pillow behind me.

  “Goodnight, Cleo. I love you.”

  Tonight, the darkness seems to leak into my heart. I ache for her. I hold her pillow to my chest and start to cry, so hard and fast it’s sobbing.

  She’s not coming back.

  I clench my hands and look at them, and see her hands around them. I need her. I can’t fucking breathe without her.

  Why am I here?

  Without her... I pick up her stack of sparrows and I hug them to my chest. I get my breathing back under control. I swallow an Ativan. Maybe I’m wrong, about the crying feeling good. Right now, I just want to go to sleep.

  I wake at 3:11 with a nightmare. I summon her voice. “You’re okay. Don’t be scared... I’m here. I’ll be with you.”

  I’m lying on my side, holding my chest, when someone knocks on my door. Bangs. It sounds so frenzied, my heart starts to race.

  Sometimes I think of fires…

  I glance at my shirt as I stride into the living room. I look out all the windows, but I don’t see flame or smoke. I am the end unit. Sometimes people get lost.

  I look out the peep hole imagining her face—so when I see it, I blink once, twice, three times. Then my body goes white hot.

  That is Cleo. Hairless Cleo, swaying on my mat. I’m so alarmed by how pale and thin and nearly bald she is, I jerk the door open without another thought.

  The second that she sees my face, she starts to sob.

  “Fuck…” I reach for her, heart beating so hard my head buzzes.

  I’m surprised when her thin arms bat me away. “What did I do? You don’t want me?” she shrieks.

  “Cleo... Christ, what’s wrong?” She sobs so hard she pretty much collapses. She’s so fucking skinny I can pick her up. I haul her into my kitchen and sink down to the floor with her in my arms. “Cleo…are you sick?” My voice is shaky with a well of tears.

  She folds her arms around herself and shakes her head. “You,” she weeps. “You made me…sick.” I smell a bite of alcohol and look down at her hands. They’re marked with thick, black Xs.

  I feel cold inside. Her hair…her face. Even her green eyes are duller. I swallow back my tears and open my mouth.

  “What? Just say it!” she cries.

  I heave a breath out. “Fuck. The ventilator is a sign. It predicts death. Read any research on transplants. Goddamnit, Cleo—I didn’t want you to see me die.”

  “I died without you!” she roars. “I died for twenty-four days!” Rising to her knees, she shoves me hard.

  I almost fall over, because I’m shaking. I feel sick with shame. Regret.

  “Cleo...come here and let me touch you.” I hold my arms out. She backs away, and I reach my hand out to her. “Cleo… What happened? Are you okay?” She’s so fucking thin. She looks worse than I do.

  “I’m not okay. My heart is sick!” She fumbles to her feet and grips the counter. “I kept giving blood for you, for your transfusions. We’re a blood match now, I thought you might need…” She grabs hold of my refrigerator door and sobs. I scoop her up again. How good it feels. I bring her to my bed.

  The room looks different. All the lights outside the windows, brighter. Her blood buzzes in my veins.

  Twenty-Six

  Cleo

  Kellan. I hold him, claw at him. Wrap myself around him. “I’m so sorry. I missed you. You smell good.” I kiss him between his words. He kisses me. Our passion starts out slow but builds. I grope his cock, his rock-hard cock. His hand delves into my pants.

  He shoves some papers off the bed. His fingers wriggle in my pussy. He’s crawling down my legs and leaning down to lick me... Tonguing me gently, then whipping me.

  I come, and then he turns me over and pushes into me.

  I’m so full. He’s so thick. I’m wet. My clit throbs.

  “Kellan!”

  We come at the same time. He jets into me. He sags against me, and the weight of his body, his familiar feel and
smell, make me feel like I’m about to cry again.

  He eases me down on the bed, belly first, and gets up. He returns with a warm, wet towel. He cleans me tenderly. I sanitize my hands. He puts more in them and threads his fingers through mine.

  After that we turn to face each other. Kellan pulls me into his arms. He pushes his face against my neck. I can feel him shaking, causing tenderness to roar through me. So many memories: us in bed.

  I squeeze him gently. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” he says. “I’m fucking good.” I can hear the tears in his voice.

  “Oh, my baby…” His body shakes. I hold him tightly in the dark, with the city winking all around us. I cry, too.

  I can’t stop running my hands over him. He can’t stop doing the same. I run my hands all over his body. I even stroke the central line; it’s so familiar, like a friend.

  I kiss his throat. I taste his salty skin.

  His lips are on my temple. His mouth by my ear. “I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry, Cleo baby. I didn’t know what to do...” His voice cracks. “I kept thinking of you there and me sedated, on the vent, if something happened… Whitney. On that day.” I feel him shudder. “I thought you would go home. Why didn’t you just go home?” His voice breaks. He draws me up against his chest.

  “I told you I would never leave. I would sit there every day and watch for body bags going by. If I didn’t see one, I had hope.”

  “Christ.” Another shudder and some little moaning sound. “I’m so fucking sorry. So, so sorry.” His lips are everywhere. My face and hair… He wraps me tight against him. “I did everything wrong.”

  “You did what you thought was best. I talked to Arethea the other day... she told me you were on the ventilator for six days and the first two were pretty touch and go. I’m sorry, baby.” I stroke his face as hot tears spill down mine. “I’m sorry you were by yourself.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Arethea said Willard was bullshitting us that day you got the fever. She said you were lucky to pull through.”

  His forehead pushes against my fingers. “I kept seeing you. On the surface of the water. All your hair. I tried to swim to you.”

  I curl up against him.

  We talk all night, and make love two more times. We fall asleep together, tangled and soul-weary.

  The next morning I see all of him in the light. His hair. His pretty limbs. His chest and shoulders, and his perfect Kellan face. He’s beautiful. So fucking perfect. And he’s mine.

  “How are you? How do you feel?” I kiss his abs.

  He guides my hand between his legs.

  “No…really,” I press.

  He pulls me against him, his chin rubbing my hair. “I have a lot of joint pain sometimes. My lungs aren’t 100 percent. I have a hard time with weird shit, like Pig Latin. And remembering everything at the store without a list. Even the online store.” He gives a little laugh. “But I still know my antiderivatives, and I know every origami sparrow you hung on the ceiling. I would make the ICU nurses read them to me.”

  “You missed me?” Tears shimmer in my eyes as I look at his face.

  “I missed you every day, and every night. When I got moved back to our room... I had a bad time. I struggled about calling you, but I didn’t think it was fair to jerk you around. I knew if I got close to death again, I would want you to go again. And then one time I thought I was... My heart did something. Sort of like a hiccup from the chemo. And I wanted you. Arethea climbed in bed with me. Hugged me. I would have been embarrassed as fuck if I wasn’t so fucked up from missing you. But that was my last night inpatient. I came here, and I just…couldn’t call. I didn’t think you’d want me to.”

  I pinch his arm. “How could you say that?! You said you would take me all around New York. Kellan—I would take your call from anywhere. You know I can’t leave again. I can’t. I won’t. If you want me gone, you have to tell me now.” My voice cracks.

  He lays his cheek against my cheek, kisses my temple. “It won’t be normal—ever. I’m still taking sixteen pills a day. You can still trace both of my hip bones... I can’t run for more than fifteen minutes. Still can’t breathe enough.”

  “Kellan, please. I love you so much. I would want you with no legs and arms.”

  “Let’s not wish for that.” He strokes my cheek. “I love you too.”

  “Stay with me? Forever. You have to. You really have to.”

  He smiles a little, then it slips away. His face is gravely serious. Then he laughs.

  “Cleo…”

  Twenty-Seven

  Kellan

  i take her hand and lead her to the living room couch. She sits on the edge of it, and I struggle not to kneel in front of her. I laugh again.

  “I’ve got something to show you.” I sit beside her on the couch and pull her up against me. My hands stroke her belly through her shirt. “The only catch is,” I whisper against her throat, “you read the instructions. And follow them.”

  She turns to look at me with wide eyes. “What is it?” She pets my short hair. I rub my palm over hers.

  “Nice haircut by the way.” I kiss her jaw. “Trendy.”

  “Kellan…” She pushes at me. “I don’t like suspense. Or surprises. Remember?”

  I get a good laugh out of that before I open the trunk-style coffee table just in front of us and close my hand around the sparrow.

  I turn to her and open my palm. “I found this. Recently. I didn’t unfold it because…” I inhale, and try to slow my racing pulse. “I didn’t want to touch something you did.” I grin, then laugh. So not fucking smooth. Cleo blinks. With her hair so short, her eyes look luminous.

  I hold the sparrow out to her.

  “Do you want to open it and read it to me?” I shift onto the floor, sitting cross-legged, so I am looking up at her.

  She curls her fingers loosely around the sparrow, and I clench my jaw. I fake a smile. I can feel the blood drain from my face as she looks down at it. I wrap my arms around her legs and press my cheek against her shins.

  I shut my eyes and wait for it to fall out in her hand…the ring. I can feel her muscles tighten when it does.

  I’m not sure I can handle looking at her face, so I roll the words I wrote inside the sparrow back through my head. I read it many times before I folded it.

  Dear Cleo,

  It can be anything you want it to be. I would love to make you my wife—but I understand you may not want such a formal commitment so soon after all that’s happened. No one would understand that feeling more than me. If that’s the case, wear it on any finger. It was my mother’s mother’s wedding ring. It’s not a blood diamond, so don’t worry about that. It’s two carats with one small imperfection near the top left prong, but I’m learning imperfections don’t bother my selfless, strong, and loving friend, lover, and donor. You are everything to me. I love you with every cell I have, and I will always love you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for saving my life and my heart. Both are yours. Everything I have is yours.

  Kellan

  She pounces on me and I feel her arms lock down around me. “Kellan!” Her fist hits my shoulder. “That’s the worst proposal ever!” I open my eyes in time to see her thrust the ring at me. “What finger do you want to put it on, you lunatic?”

  She holds her hand out, all the fingers shaking.

  I blink as my heart pounds. I look into her eyes, so she can see the feeling in mine. Because I mean it when I tell her, “Any finger.”

  She throws her arms around me, squealing as she bounces. “Please make me the crazy woman who waited in the hospital every day for almost a month for her husband.”

  I smile down at her and blink fast as I take her left hand. My eyes meet hers again. “Any finger is okay,” I rasp. “Would be an honor.”

  She lets out a sweet sob. “Kellan!”

  I squeeze my eyes shut, then look into her face and slide the ring on the only finger she’s got held out.
/>   “Will you marry me?” My voice trembles.

  She’s already crying. “Yes! Oh, yes! I missed you so much…Kellan, I was going crazy. This is crazy…I know, but I don’t care. I don’t care…”

  “No more going crazy.” I scoop her up into my arms.

  I carry her to the bedroom and make love to her as we look down over New York.

  After that, we lie beside each other, face to face. Our hands roam each other. Cleo grins at her new ring.

  “I’m hungry,” she murmurs.

  I stroke her neck. “You need to eat. What do you want? I’ll go get you something.”

  “That’s a risk. No germ risks. Let’s order delivery.”

  I smile. “They don’t deliver here. Restaurants stop at the fifteenth floor. Chinese? There’s a place on the sixth floor. Manning liked it when he came.”

  “Mmmm. Chinese.”

  I kiss her hair. “I’ll go.” Her mouth opens. I kiss it shut. “No worrying. I have my own mask and gloves.” I kiss her hair again. She smells so fucking good, I can’t help it. “You want a bath while I’m gone? Get in there and relax?”

  She shuts her eyes and pulls me to her. “Kellan—I love you. Thank you for the ring. I realized when I couldn’t see you that I need you. To live life. And yes, I’d love a bath.”

  “I’d love to give you a bath. And help you live life. If you want that.”

  “I want that.” She kisses me, and I go with it. I believe her. Cleo loves me. She wants me, and I want her.

  I carry her into the bathroom and grin at the dance she does when she sees how huge the tub is here.

  “I’m filling it up to my nose,” she tells me.

  I take her left hand. Kiss the ring. She sinks into the steaming water.