ChapterThirty-Three
Otis Redding played low from Sunny’s phone on the hospital bedside table. Davis had pulled up her playlist hours ago, the music slowly unraveling his nerves. The steady beep-beep of her heart monitor had helped more than the music.
He gently squeezed her healing hand laced within his and skimmed the back of his other fingers along the soft skin on the inside of her arm. She sighed, drawing his gaze from his fingers’ path to her face. While he wanted her to finally wake up, her eyes remained hidden behind closed lids.
Dark bruises marred beneath her eyes, a testament of the hardships and fight with death she’d fought. He’d almost lost her. Still couldn’t believe she’d made it to the hospital, let alone through surgery. Gunnar had used the defibrillator three times between taking off in Bjørn’s helicopter and Fairbanks Memorial.
Three times Davis thought the life filled with light he’d barely snagged a glimpse of would disappear to agonizing darkness.
But she’d survived the flight in, her heart flickering like fireflies at night. After hours of surgery, the doctor assured them she’d survive that as well. While the bullet hadn’t caused irreparable damage, it had nicked the bottom of her lung, causing a massive loss of blood. If they hadn’t switched helicopters and had the medical supplies Bjørn stocked for search and rescue, she’d be dead.
Davis closed his eyes to the sting that thought brought and thanked God she’d survived. Now, Davis would trust the hope stretching before him, a life of him and Sunny taking on adventures together. He bent his head to their hands and kissed her fingers.
The door clicked open, and Davis’s muscles bunched. He glanced up as Sunny’s mom held the door for her dad, who carried two large takeout bags. Davis’s body relaxed, though his stomach twisted with nerves.
“Hey, son. How’s our girl doing?” Arne Rebel asked as his eyes scanned his daughter, the “our” settling in Davis’s core.
“Still sleeping.” He should move, give them time to visit without him hovering, but he couldn’t bring himself to let Sunny go.
“Did you get any sleep, hun?” Katie stepped around the bed and pulled Davis in a side hug, patting his shoulder.
“Yeah. I slept.” Not much, but enough.
Arne chuckled, the twinkle in his eye telling he knew just how much Davis had slept. Davis shrugged one shoulder and let the corner of his mouth lift into a smile. Katie patted his shoulder again before moving to the bags Arne set on the windowsill. The smoky scent of barbecue overpowered the antiseptic hospital smell and made his stomach growl.
Since the couple had first arrived at the hospital, rushing into the waiting room and pulling Davis into their embraces with tearful thanks, he’d longed to trust the gratitude and acceptance they presented. And so he had, soaking in the love of the Rebel family like he was a desert in a drought. When the doctor had said they could see Sunny, and Katie had grabbed Davis’s hand, pulling him into the room with the family, he’d almost lost what little composure he’d had.
Seeing Sunny had shattered it.
He pushed aside the memory of him bawling like a baby and looked at the couple. Katie fussed with pulling containers out of the bags. Arne kept trying to peek, earning a swat from Katie. Man, Davis really hoped they agreed to what he was about to suggest. He cleared his throat, and they both turned in unison.
“I’d like to ask you something.” Nervous energy grew thick in his windpipe.
When he didn’t continue, Arne lifted an eyebrow. “We’re listening.”
“You know I hurt Sunny last fall when I didn’t contact her.” He caught himself fiddling with her hospital bracelet and stopped. “After my last tour, I wasn’t in a good place, and though everything in me wanted to follow the blinding light Sunny shone, I was afraid I’d make that light blink out. I was just so paranoid and angry and had little faith in myself or others.” He pushed his free hand through his hair, frustrated that he was messing this up. “That probably doesn’t make sense.”
“Son, I’ve been there. I know what it’s like.” Arne pulled a chair from the wall to the opposite side of Sunny’s bed. “How are you now?”
“I came up here to figure that out.”
“And did you?” Arne glanced at his wife as she pushed a chair next to him and leaned his forearms across the bed’s railing when he peered back at Davis.
“More than I thought I had.” His vision blurred as he thought about the last months. “My time away from everyone made me realize just how much they mean to me.” He shifted his focus on Sunny’s face. “I don’t want to waste anymore time second-guessing the love others have for me. Yet, I also know I can’t stay at Stryker. I need to be away from that kind of life, always worried about enemy attacks.”
“So, what’s your plan?” Katie cupped her hands around Sunny’s other one resting on the blanket.
“Well—” Davis lifted his mouth in a lopsided grin and looked from Arne to Katie and back again. “Your daughter asked me to marry her, and I’m wanting to as soon as she’ll have me.”
Katie smiled, her eyes widening. Arne’s eyebrows slammed over his. Davis needed to keep talking if he wanted to get both of Sunny’s parents on board.
“Then I plan on spending the rest of my life doing everything I can to make her happy and so full of love she bursts. I’m hoping I have your blessings because, with Sunny, my life finally feels whole.”
Silence filled the space between them like a bubble about to pop. Or maybe more like the moment a dirty bomb detonates and sound and thought suspends those seconds before the world explodes. Davis held his breath, not sure what he’d say if they disagreed.
“You better say yes or I’m going to be mad.” Sunny’s whisper cracked and whipped all three of their gazes to her.
Though her eyelids fluttered tiredly over her eyes, she glared at her dad. She took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Davis leaned over her, bringing the back of her fingers to his lips. She turned her dark brown eyes to him.