Wild Ever After: A Marriage of Convenience Sports Romance (Wildcat Hockey Book 3)
Wild Ever After: Chapter 40

Tears pool in my eyes, and I breathe through the pain shooting through the top of my right foot. I’m pretty sure it’s broken.

Within a minute of calling Declan, I can hear him coming through the front door.

“Jade?” he calls, concern evident in his tone.

“Office,” I croak, and more tears fill my eyes. He came. He said he would, but it still fills me with so many emotions, it’s hard to breathe.

He races into the room with a wild look that softens when he sees me on the floor. Kneeling in front of me, he scans me from head to toe. His shirt is on inside out, his hair is wet, and he smells like someone else’s body wash. Even with the throbbing in my foot, the jab in my heart is more unbearable.

When he sees the red, and already swollen, top of my foot, his face twists like he can feel my pain. “What happened?”

“You came.”

“You called,” he says, like it’s just that simple.

I swallow around the lump in my throat. “I was trying to move the recliner back into the living room for you.”

His brows furrow, but then he stands.

“Don’t leave me. Please.” I reach out and grab his forearm. I watched him walk away before. I don’t want to do it again.

He kneels back down and brings one of his palms to rest on my cheek. His thumb glides across my skin, wiping away a tear. “I’m just going to get an ice pack. I’ll be right back. Okay?”

I nod, but it takes another few seconds to loosen my grip. “Okay.”

He leans forward and presses his lips to my forehead, lingering there for just a moment before he stands and leaves me on the floor.

When he comes back, he has an ice pack that he gingerly places on my angry, swollen foot.

“Hold this on there,” he instructs, and then lifts me into his arms.

I don’t ask where he’s taking me until we get outside, and I realize he’s heading for his car in the garage.

“I’m taking you to the emergency room to get an X-ray,” he says. “Do you want me to call Scarlett or your mom to meet us there?”

“No. I’ll call them later.”

He nods and sets me in the back seat of his SUV. “Knew this vehicle would come in handy. Good thing I didn’t sell it.”

He gives me a playful wink that does wonders for easing the tension between us.

“Thank you for coming.”

Hesitating with his hand on the door, he stares at me a beat before saying, “Always.”

The ride to the hospital takes less than fifteen minutes. Declan pulls up outside the ER, puts the SUV in park, and hops out. Instead of going in to get a wheelchair, he scoops me up again.

“Your shirt is on inside out and backward,” I tell him.

“Free-balling it too.” He grins, but keeps walking into the ER.

“What?” A small giggle escapes with the word.

“I was in the shower when you called. I threw on my sweats and shirt as fast as I could.”

Warmth spreads through me, but I don’t have time to dwell on it because Declan storms up to the front desk. He tells the receptionist who I am and what’s wrong with me. She wants him to fill out paperwork for me, but he shakes his head. “I’m not putting her down unless it’s for a doctor to look at her.”

She flushes. “Sir, I understand you want to stay with your girlfriend—”

“Wife,” he corrects her.

There’s some back and forth before she finally agrees to let him carry me to the back and fill out the paperwork in a chair next to my bed.

He’s focused hard on the task of answering a million questions about me, my health insurance, and medical history. Surprisingly, he knows most of it, without even asking. I lie back and watch him. Being with Declan just feels good. Even with a broken foot and fluorescent lighting.

When a doctor finally comes in, Declan stands.

“Hi,” she says, looking from me to him, then back to me. “I heard you hurt your foot.”

“Yes,” I say, and remove the ice pack. It’s started to turn an ugly black and purple and is somehow more swollen, making it twice the size of my left foot.

“Ouch.” She sanitizes her hands and then steps toward me. “What happened?”

“I dropped a recliner on it, while I was trying to move the chair into another room.”

She presses only lightly on the top of my foot, but I gasp at the pain that shoots up my leg. Declan stands and comes over to take my hand.

“Sorry,” I tell the doctor. I’m a big baby when it comes to pain, but damn, that hurt.

“You don’t need to apologize,” Declan says. Then to the doctor, “Wouldn’t an X-ray be better, so you don’t hurt her again?”

“I’m okay,” I say.

She smiles at him and steps back. “Can you put weight on it?”

“I haven’t really tried,” I say at the same time Declan says, “No, she can’t.”

The doctor looks between us again. The man played hockey with a broken wrist two games last season and he’s treating my broken foot like it’s going to be the death of me.

“I’m going to order an X-ray now. The swelling and tenderness indicate it’s likely broken, but let’s see exactly what’s going on and then we’ll figure out how to get you fixed up. Okay?”

“Thank you.” I give her an extra broad smile to make up for the grumpy man next to me.

“It shouldn’t be long,” she says, and returns my smile.

Declan frees his right hand from mine, gives me his left, and extends the right to her. He still looks like he wants to tear the hospital apart to get my care expedited, but he replaces his manners somewhere under all that protectiveness. “Thank you.”

With a nod, she leaves us. A nurse comes next to give me some Tylenol for the pain and a fresh ice pack. Whether it’s because of Declan’s insistence or not, I can’t be sure, but it’s less than five minutes before I’m wheeled to another room for an X-ray.

By the time we replace out that it is broken, in two spots, the pain medicine is working and I’m getting tired from the crash of adrenaline and the emotional rollercoaster I’ve been on for the past twenty-four hours. I just want to go home.

I try to listen to the instructions as they put me in a boot for discharge, but my eyes are heavy. They wheel me back out to the vehicle and Declan lifts me into his SUV.

“Can I sit in the front?” I ask, not lifting my head from his chest.

He shuts the back door and instead takes me to the passenger seat. “You need to keep it elevated as much as possible.”

“I will when we get home,” I promise.

While he drives, I lean over to rest my head on his shoulder. I must fall asleep because the next thing I know, he’s got me in his arms again.

He climbs the stairs with me in tow and then heads to his bedroom. Laying me down, he asks, “Do you need anything?”

I shake my head as a yawn keeps me from speaking.

He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “Is it okay if I stay in here with you for tonight? I don’t want to be far, in case you need something.”

I scoot over to make room for him. He kicks off his shoes and lies down with his back up against the headboard.

“Thank you for being here.”

“You can always call me. No matter what.”

I close my eyes again as another yawn escapes. “The pillows smell like you.”

“I would have taken you to the other room but…”

When it seems he isn’t going to finish that sentence, I glance up at him. “But what?”

“I didn’t want to see your stuff all packed up.” His jaw tightens.

I’m so tired it takes my brain a second to process. “I haven’t packed anything.”

“But the green chair is gone, and you were moving the recliner.” His dark eyes scan my face for understanding. “I thought you were putting it all back like it was before you moved in.”

“The green chair will look better in my office, and I was moving the recliner back because you love it. I never should have made you move it in the first place.”

“It’s just a chair. I don’t care where it goes.”

“I know. That’s why I wanted to move it.”

“I don’t follow.”

I’ve never been one for grand gestures, or really gestures of any kind. I’ve always loved simply and selfishly. Declan showed me that there was another way. His love is big and generous. And I want to love him back in that same way so that he can feel how good it is to be loved that way.

I swing my legs to the side of the bed and stand, wincing only a little as I put weight on my right foot.

“What are you doing?” Declan is by my side in a flash, circling my waist and taking the pressure off my right foot.

“I need to go downstairs.”

“Lie down. I’ll get whatever you need.”

“No. I want to get it myself.”

He looks exasperated but picks me back up again.

“No.” I wiggle to get him to put me down. “I need to walk by myself and get it.”

A deep growl rumbles in his chest, but reluctantly, he sets me down. “Why can’t you let me take care of you? That’s all I want. Whatever it is you need downstairs, it isn’t an inconvenience for me to get it.”

“I know, it’s just…” If stomping wouldn’t hurt, I’d do it now. “I love you, and I wanted to get the divorce papers you left and rip them up in front of you.”

He looks stunned.

“I was moving the recliner back to show you that I want to be here with you. It was dumb, I know. It wasn’t the sexy or grand gesture you deserve for all that you’ve done for me, but it was all I could think of at the time. I never wanted to get divorced, not really. But I thought it was the only way to know that we were both in this because we want to be.”

“I want to be,” he says.

“Me too.” I take a step closer to him. “Six months ago, I didn’t believe in the idea of marriage. Then you came along. Now I can’t imagine life without you. I am so in love with you, Declan. Crazy in love. I want our happily ever after, if you’ll still have me.”

He takes me by the upper arm and pulls me back to him. His mouth descends on mine, and he kisses me, while taking my feet out from underneath me.

I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back like my life depends on it.

“You love me?” he asks, out of breath.

“Yes.” My heart beats wildly. “So much. I’m sorry about the stupid reality show, about all of it, really. None of it matters without you. Of course, I love you. How could I not?”

He kisses me again, and it lights up my insides.

No one has ever loved me as well as he does. Losing boyfriends in the past was hard, sad even. But losing him for good would be devastating in a way that terrifies me.

He rests his forehead against mine and nips at my bottom lip. “I love you too.” Another nip. “Wife.”