Page 39 of Twister

He gave a decisive nod in response before I watched him step over to the side table and fill a plastic cup half full of water from a jug that had been left there. He popped a straw into the cup, then sat on the bed next to my hip and leaned forward enough to hold the straw to my lips.

“Mm….” I moaned in delight as I sucked the deliciousness down, closing my eyes in pleasure. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted in my life and was gone in seconds.

When I felt Daniel shift, I opened my eyes and watched in amusement as he adjusted himself. By the time he looked back at me, I’d been able to raise and hold an eyebrow at him.

His cheeks darkened. “Don’t blame me for how I react to your delicious moans. They remind me of….” He trailed off, looking off to his left.

When I followed his line of sight, I snorted.

Rose was lying on a cot, fast asleep. He was truly ridiculous.

I licked my lips again, amused once more when he shifted in his seat.

Deciding it was probably time to change the subject, I motioned to the cup still in his hands and asked, “More?” then startled at how gravelly my voice sounded.

The lust I’d seen in Daniel’s eyes evaporated in an instant. He nodded, then busied himself with filling the cup again. When he sat back down, I noticed it was fuller than it had been the first time he’d filled it.

It didn’t matter. Like before, the cup was empty in seconds. Unlike before, I stifled my moans. The water was still the best thing I’d ever tasted, but I didn’t want to keep teasing him.

There was plenty of time for that later.

“What’s the time?” I asked, still appalled at how gruff my voice was. My eyes widened when I realized I didn’t know what day it was. I could have been asleep for days. I didn’t think it had been too long, considering Rose was here, but anything was possible. “What day is it?”

Daniel stilled, the sound of water pouring from the jug for the third time and the consistent beeping of the heart rate monitor the only sounds breaking the silence. He shook his head before he refocused on his task. “It’s a little before 5:00 a.m. on Friday. You were out for nearly twenty hours.”

Slowly, I nodded, taking stock of my body, one limb at a time.

My head felt heavy, with a slight throbbing sensation just behind my left ear.

My legs felt a little twitchy, but that could be down to how long I was asleep.

The rest of me felt sluggish and slightly stiff, which wasn’t a surprise if what Daniel said was true.

I always felt lethargic if I slept too long.

A distant memory of being in agony rose before it dissolved into the ether. I felt fine now, apart from general exhaustion. If there was something I needed to worry about, I assumed I would have been hooked up to multiple machines rather than the single small one attached to my index finger.

The doctors and nurses would have more to say later, which would probably answer any medical questions I had. For now, I was awake and focused on getting as many answers from Daniel as I could.

“You called my parents.”

He raised an eyebrow and settled in front of me again, lifting the straw to my lips. “How do you know that?”

Sipping more slowly this time, I quirked my eyebrow in response. “I heard you. Mom screeched. Loudly.”

The corners of his lips twitched. “I can’t say that I blame her. She was very upset that you’d been hurt.”

“Hmph.” I pursed my lips in annoyance. She was going to be insufferable the next time I saw her.

“They called when they stopped for the night.” He paused when my eyes widened, then continued when I opened my mouth to respond. “Your dad said they were using their camper, which was slowing them down.”

Closing my eyes, I groaned. “Fantastic.”

“Is something wrong?”

Oh, sweet summer child. What wasn’t?

“Camper means long stay.”

“And that’s a problem because…?”

I opened one eye and glared at him. “Mom and Rosey? Disaster in the making.”

He looked over at his daughter and snorted. “Yeah, I can see that.” His eyes softened. “Hopefully, they’ll distract each other.”

“That’s fair.” I tilted my head in acknowledgement, then narrowed my eyes at him. “Probably by wedding planning.”

The blood drained from his cheeks, and I could see his Adam’s apple bobbing under his now-scruffy beard. “What?”

“I refuse to let her plan my wedding.” My eyes softened, and I reached for him, squeezing his shaking hand. “ Our wedding.”

He swallowed again, his mouth opening and closing like he wanted to say something but then thought better of it.

“I heard you talking to one of your brothers. I love you too, Daniel,” I said quietly.

“I know it’s crazy to be saying it this quickly.

” I gripped his hand hard. “But if my mom is on her way, and with the camper no less, we need to present a united front from the start. I’ll be damned if I let her turn our wedding into a taffeta spectacle. ”

“Um….” He looked like a deer in headlights. “What the fuck is happening right now?”

I chuckled. “The way I see it, we’re already halfway there.”

“What…?”

Without turning around, I gestured at the nameplate above the head of the bed behind me. “You gave me your last name.”

“How did you know that?” he asked so quietly, I could barely hear him.

“I told you.” I reached over to pat him gently on the cheek. “I heard you.” I felt my eyes fill as I stared into his eyes, seeing all the love and affection I felt for him reflected right back at me. “You called me your husband.”

He melted into my palm, his eyes softening until they, too, were welling. “That was just for the hospital….”

“Was it?” I countered. I knew what I’d heard. I’d felt the raw anguish in his tears when I wouldn’t wake up no matter how much he begged. The pain in his voice when he’d told the hospital staff that they couldn’t keep him from his husband. “Or did you wish it was true?”

He was saved from responding when the door opened and a diminutive woman with black hair cut in a pixie style bustled in.

“Oh, good. You’re awake. Dr. Christine said to expect it soon.

” She hustled over to the end of my bed and picked up my chart, sweeping her eyes over the records one page at a time, then nodded. “How are you feeling, Mr. Porter?”

I smirked at Daniel. “Which one?”

He blanched as his own words were repeated back to him.

Yeah, sweetheart. I heard everything .

As if she knew I was messing with Daniel, the nurse chuckled. “Mr. Marshall Porter. Presumably, he’s the one in the bed, unless you two have undertaken a body swap.” The smile faded. “You haven’t, have you? They’re a pain in the ass to reverse.”

“Yeah, that’s me,” I said, smiling, amused at her playfulness. “No body swap here.”

She heaved a sigh of relief, and her smile promptly returned. “Good. I don’t need the extra paperwork.” She tapped the clipboard to her thigh. “How are you feeling, Marshall? Any dizziness? Nausea?”

“No and no,” I said, shaking my head slowly as I took stock of my body.

“A bit sluggish when I woke up, but I’m feeling better with every passing minute.

I’m still feeling a little tender here—” I motioned to the area behind my left ear.

“—but that’s to be expected, right? I hit my head pretty hard yesterday. ”

“Right.” The nurse nodded, her jaw tightening slightly before she stepped around Daniel, who was still sitting on the bed next to my thigh.

“Let me check just to be sure.” She placed the clipboard on the bedside table, then poked and prodded my skull a little in the injured area, noting when I winced.

“Okay. The wound’s coming along nicely, but it needs a few more hours’ sleep to fix. ”

Great. More sleep. Like I hadn’t just slept for the last twenty hours or whatever. I rolled my eyes. Now that I was awake and chatting with Daniel, the last thing I wanted to do was sleep.

She must have noticed my reaction because she chuckled as she stepped away from me to pick up the clipboard. “I don’t see any reason why you have to sleep here, though. I’ll start the discharge process so you can get out of here and back home, where I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable.”

Oh… I’d forgotten about the whole reason why I was in the hospital. My heart dropped when I glanced at Daniel only to find a heartbroken look on his face. “Um….”

The nurse looked at Daniel, then back at me, her eyebrows furrowing. “What?”

“Home was destroyed yesterday.” Daniel swallowed heavily, then shot me a guilty look. “We do have a place to stay, but I haven’t had a chance to talk to Marshall about it yet.”

“Oh.” The nurse glanced between us again as she chewed her bottom lip a little.

“I’m very sorry to hear that.” She shuffled in place, then stepped back and held the clipboard up.

“I’ll let you discuss things while I update your records.

” One last guilty look at us before it felt like she broke the land-speed record leaving the room, the door clicking shut behind her.

“Sparkle Marshall! You’re awake!”

I laughed when Daniel dropped his head with a resigned sigh. “Hey, Rosey.” I turned my head just in time to see her launch herself at me, arms outstretched.

Squeezing me tightly, she nuzzled into my neck and refused to let me go, even when I started patting her on the head. “I was so worried!”

“I know, sweetheart. But see? I’m fine.” I kissed the top of her head and glanced at Daniel, who looked like he was ready to melt at the cuteness overload in front of him. “How are you feeling? Yesterday was a lot to deal with, wasn’t it?”

She didn’t pull away from me at all, instead nuzzling further into my arms as she nodded.

When she started to tremble, I tightened my hold and kissed her hair again. “It’s okay, Rosey. We’re all safe now. See? We’re all together again and safe.”

Daniel placed a hand on her back and gently rubbed, not stopping until she started to relax. “Now that we’re all awake, we should probably talk about a few things.”

Without letting her go, I raised an eyebrow at Daniel in expectation.

“Jackson has offered to let us stay with him until we get ourselves sorted.” He gave me a pointed look. “And he wanted to make sure that you knew that he was including you in that offer.” His eyes softened when he continued quietly, “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to stay in Rockdale after yesterday.”

Rose let out a muffled whimper and, even though I didn’t know how it was possible, snuggled even closer to me. “Don’t go, Patriarchal Marshall. Don’t leave us.”

Daniel’s face scrunched up at her pleading words, his eyes squeezing shut. He took a couple of deep breaths to control his emotions before he choked out, “Rosey, please….”

I pressed my lips to her hair to hide my smile. I wasn’t sure what he was expecting bringing this up in front of her, but I understood his need to discuss it as a family. Whatever each of us decided, we needed to consider Rose in the equation.

And that’s what it boiled down to. We were a family now. Somehow, in the past few days, we’d started to look at one another as family, even if it was patently ridiculous to anyone on the outside looking in.

In our own way, we loved one another deeply.

How could I leave that?

“I’m staying, Daniel.”

I nearly laughed at how much he startled. Even Rose shifted in surprise before she finally relaxed into my arms and let out a relieved sigh.

“Are you sure?” Daniel asked, his eyes conveying how worried he was.

“Our house is gone . There’s barely anything left.

The only thing that survived the tornado was the storm shelter, and even that sustained a fair amount of damage.

” He chewed his bottom lip like it was his next meal.

“I don’t know how long it will take to rebuild.

And not just the house but the rest of the property too. ”

None of that mattered. I understood what he was saying, but to me? It sounded like a challenge that needed to be worked on before it could be solved.

It felt like a dream and the answer to my questions about what to do in my future.

I shrugged. “I love you both and the farm. Why would I want to be anywhere else?”