Chapter 8
Conleigh
Without realizing it, I had slowed my steps in the children’s ward with a cupcake in one hand a card, and two balloons in the other hand. Collins was having to celebrate her seventh birthday in a hospital room.
I was crossing my fingers, my toes, praying, wishing upon shooting stars she would be released from here soon.
We were waiting for the test to come back after her latest biopsy.
There was a song being played and sung by a man that had a rasp in his voice. Tears immediately sprang into my eyes. I knew that voice. I had heard that voice when I had been washing dishes. It was my neighbor, the man that knew how good he looked but didn’t try to exploit it. The man that I had lain awake at night numerous times and daydreamed about what a life would be like with him.
It would be a fairy tale.
However, I didn’t believe in fairy tales. I stopped believing in them when I was five and my father walked out of our lives and then my mother allowed the front door to be a revolving one.
But when I asked him to stay the night over a month ago, he had me once again believing in fairytales. He checked the doors every night before bed. He rubbed my feet if I had a hard day at work. He was patient with Collins. Kind. A giver. And never a taker.
The type of man he was. I wondered what my hang-up was about finally taking the plunge and doing more than just sleeping next to him, cuddled to his side every night. I knew it would connect us even deeper. Did I want that?
Yet I knew the answer.
I wanted everything with him. All the way to the stars and back.
Shaking my head to clear those thoughts, glancing around the floor it was to see all the nurses and even a few doctors leaning against the nurse's station as they listened while he sang.
The song he was playing was Collins’s favorite song. It wasSweet Child of Mine.
I stood there for what felt like hours but was only a few minutes as I waited for him to finish.
And then when the last chords were strummed, I walked the rest of the way to Collins’s room.
Collins knew I wasn’t her biological mother. I had told her the story when I felt she was old enough to comprehend.
However, that never stopped her from calling me, mom.
Which she did when I stepped into her room, “Hey Mom. Gage came to sing to me on my birthday.”
“I see that, baby. That was very nice of him. Have you thanked him?” I asked her. She knew her manners, but I couldn’t help but ask her.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom. I used the manners you gave me.” I held back a chuckle from that. However, the man in the room didn’t.
My god what a chuckle it was. I was doomed.
Walking over to her bedside, I leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead, and said, “Happy birthday, Sunshine.” Then I handed her the cupcake I got for her.
I didn’t bother with a cake; she wouldn’t be able to eat it and I didn’t want to see sadness creep over her face.
She smiled as she took a big bite and then mumbled around the chocolaty goodness, “Thanks, Mom.”
“Fuck.” I looked up at Cam when he read something on his phone.
He looked at Collins, smiled, then looked at me and then Gage. “Powers called church.”
Gage pulled his phone out and glanced at the screen. His jaw tightened.
“Fuck.” I watched as, for some reason, he seemed to be at war with himself.
Then he placed his guitar back in its case, stood and then stepped beside me and also pressed a kiss to Collins temple, “Sorry, Buttercup. If it was anyone else, I’d tell them to go fuck themselves.”