Page 42 of Anchor

His wife rolls her eyes and smacks the back of his head after the nurse closes the door behind her. Tyler smiles wider and kisses his wife on her lips, murmuring to her.

“When are they letting you out?” his wife asks when she can pull herself from Tyler’s grip.

I shrug before I forget about the gash in my side. “Probably tomorrow. They’ve stitched me up, gave me antibiotics. Don’t see any reason why I need to stay longer than that.”

Selena raises her eyebrows. “Tomorrow, huh?” she says.

My lips twist into a scowl. “I’m not staying in here longer than that.”

“He hates hospitals,” Tyler tells her.

Selena says, “You were shot twice and nearly blown up, for God’s sake. You need to rest like the nurse said.”

I shake my head. “I won’t get any rest here. It’d be best for all involved if I do my convalescing at home.”

“You’ll stay here until they discharge you,” Selena says firmly.

Tyler gazes at her with moony eyes. “Gotta love her,” he says and kisses her hand. “She’s a pain in the ass, but you gotta love her.”

I roll my eyes at the both of them. “I’ll stay,” I say, then add, “for now.”

Selena gives me a stern look, then kisses Tyler on the cheek. “I’ve got to get going, but you keep an eye on this guy and make sure he doesn’t give those pretty nurses too much trouble.”

Grateful for the change in subject, I say, “Yes, ma’am.”

She comes to give me a kiss. “You rest, okay? I’m not joking.”

“Fine,” I say. “But only if you promise to run away with me. You deserve much better than that old man.”

Tyler makes a scoffing sound in his throat.

Selena smiles again and ruffles my hair. “Get better,” she says, “and we’ll see.”

Once she leaves, I’m able to unhinge my smile and I stare out of the window for a while. Tyler watches me silently until I say, “You don’t have to stay. I’ll be pretty boring for a while.”

Tyler doesn’t crack a joke, which isn’t like him. “I think you need to talk about what happened,” he says with an uncharacteristically serious face.

“I’m fine,” I say to the wall over his shoulder.

“Cut the bullshit,” he says. “You’re not okay. I can look at you and see you’re not okay.”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“You can’t cage that shit up,” Tyler says. “You need to get it out or it’ll haunt you.” When I say nothing, he keeps going. “It was about his wife, wasn’t it? While I was waiting for them to bring you in, I looked him up. The Lady who drowned a while back? That was his wife?” He pauses like he’s waiting for me to acknowledge him, but I keep my face carefully blank. “It doesn’t take a genius to guess he blamed you for her death.”

“Ty, I don’t want to do this,” I say.

“Then I’ll talk.” He crosses the room to sit beside me. “It wasn’t your fault,” he says.

“I know it’s not my fault.”

“Do you? Maybe you should tell that to your face, because you look like you killed twenty people instead of saving their lives.”

“I didn’t save them. I’m the reason he kidnapped them. If it wasn’t for me, they would have been fine.”

“The reason he kidnapped them is because he was a sick man,” Tyler argues. “A sick man made that decision out of anger and grief. He wasn’t right in the head, Gabe. If I lost Selena, I’d be mad as all hell, but I wouldn’t kill people because of it.”

I keep my eyes on the bedspread. I can’t bring myself to look at him. “If she was caught in that storm and I couldn’t get to her in time—”