Las Vegas Sidewinders: Drake (Book 2) (7 page)

“Where are you going
again?” Dom Gianni, one of the alternate captains on the team, as well as a
good friend, asked him.

“Chicago. Met a girl
there.” Drake gave him a grin. “She’s in the hospital—I want to be there when
she wakes up in the morning. I’ll spend a few hours with her and be home
tomorrow night. I’ll be at practice Friday morning and ready to play Saturday.”

“So you’ve known this
girl, what, a week?” Dom frowned.

“Are you not the guy
who found a beat-up woman in a parking garage and brought her home with you?”
Drake gave his friend a look.

“Okay, okay.” Dom
raised his hands in surrender. “But I need your head in the game, man. You’re
essential to this team right now.”

“My head is fine. She’s
a Marine and her unit hit an IED in Afghanistan; she’s had ongoing problems. My
sister operated on her yesterday and I want to be there when she wakes up. It’s
important to me.”

“You know I’ve got your
back,” Dom said after a moment, concern etched on his face.

“Thanks, man.” Drake
clapped his hand on his friend’s shoulder and then grabbed his bag. “Gotta go.”

“Drive safe.”

Erin woke up to the
sound of nurses bustling about in the hallways. It was breakfast time, probably
around 7:30, and she blinked awake. Mack had lowered her pain meds yesterday,
but she still felt pretty good, though she definitely needed to get out of bed.
Her bladder was screaming and she was tired of lying there doing nothing. She
reached for the button to call the nurse when she noticed the figure sleeping
in the chair. There was no mistaking his tousled sandy hair and chiseled face.

“Drake?” Her voice came
out more like a squeak and his eyes opened instantly.

He sat up quickly.
“Hey.” He rubbed his face. “Surprise.”

“Hi.” She gave him a
tiny smile. “What are you doing here?”

“We played in St. Louis
last night, so I drove out after the game. Got here about 3:15 and fell asleep.
I wanted to be here when you woke up.”

“I’m glad you’re here.”
She reached out a hand to him. For the first time, he saw the extent of the
burns on her arms. The skin was mottled for the most part, lighter in some
areas than others, and distinctly puckered in random places. Somehow, it didn’t
change anything in his eyes; she was still beautiful. Even with the bandages
and cooling mask on her face, he didn’t see anything but the intriguing woman
he’d met at the ball with the great body and shy smile.

He squeezed her hand
reassuringly. “Mack says everything is going great.”

“I feel pretty good,
but I haven’t been able to see anything. She’s had this cooling mask going
24/7.”

“She knows what she’s
doing—trust her.”

“Drake?”

“Yeah?”

“I really have to pee.”

He laughed. “You need
help getting up?”

“Yeah, but…” Her voice
trailed off and she fidgeted nervously.

“You want me to get the
nurse?”

“No need, I’m here.”
Mack breezed in, kissing her brother on the cheek. “You look tired,” she
admonished. “You should’ve come to the house.”

“I wanted to be here
when she woke up.”

Mack smiled. “I know.”
She tousled his hair, the way she’d done when he was little, and he leaned over
to lay his head on her shoulder, just as he’d done when he was a kid.

Erin watched them with
envy in her eyes. She had no siblings and her mother had died while she was in
high school. Her father, though wonderful, had begun to show signs of early
onset Alzheimer’s during her sophomore year of college, so it felt like she’d
been alone for a very long time.

“Okay, so you have to
pee?” Mack unhooked part of the IV from Erin’s arm and then lowered the gate on
the bed.

Erin froze for a moment
and no one spoke. Finally, Drake turned and headed for the door, realizing that
she wasn’t ready to open up to him yet.

“Wait.” Erin took a
deep breath, steeling her resolve, and held out her hand to him. It was now or
never. He’d driven half the night to be here for her, so she would have to be
brave. “Could you help me up?”

“Are you sure?” he
asked, his eyes finding hers with an obvious question.

“You’re here,” she said
simply. “You came, even though I’m sure Mack has given you some idea what I
look like. If you’re going to get scared off, I’d rather you left now instead
of six months from now.”

“If I go,” he said
quietly, “it will be because something didn’t work between us, not because of
your burns. I’m okay with whatever it looks like. I know you don’t believe it,
but I’ve already had a supermodel, and it’s really not all it’s cracked up to
be.”

For a long moment
everything was quiet again. So Erin slowly lifted the sheet off her body. Her
left leg came into view first, and it was everything Drake had known it would
be. Long, silky and lean, with toned muscles in her thigh and calf. Without
hesitation, he reached out to lay his hand on her right knee as she slowly
pulled the sheet off the rest of the way. The scarring almost brought tears to
his eyes, not because they were ugly, but because they had to have been
incredibly painful.

“It must have hurt so
much,” he whispered softly, running his hand down her shin. The scarring
stopped about three inches above her ankle, where her combat boots must have
protected her.

“I don’t remember,” she
admitted. “When it first happened, I guess it was a combination of adrenaline
and shock, because all I could think about was getting to Shay. Then I passed
out, basically died, and I know when we got to the helicopter the medics put in
an IV and gave me morphine. I was in a medically induced coma for two weeks
after that, and when I did wake up, I was on heavy medication. The mental pain
was far worse than the physical.”

“You’re the bravest
woman I’ve ever met,” he said softly, reaching out to put an arm around her
waist as she slid into a sitting position. “Can you stand up?”

“Yes.” Her smile was
tremulous, but she managed to get to her feet. “I can walk. Really.”

“We’ll be right here,”
Mack said. “Take your time. You can brush your teeth if you like.” She winked
at her and Erin knew she was blushing even though no one could see it under the
mask.

As the bathroom door
closed, Mack looked at her brother. “You okay? Is this what you bargained for?”

“I bargained for this
amazingly strong, but temporarily a little bit broken, woman. That’s what I
got. She got those burns protecting our country, so that I can go out there and
be a dumb jock. She’s more than I deserve.”

“I raised such a great
kid,” Mack chuckled, reaching out to hug him.

“Well, I had a pretty
great family,” he said, grinning.

It was a little over
two weeks before Drake was able to get back to Chicago. It was Thanksgiving
Day, and Mack was hosting a huge celebration for the family. Just before lunch,
however, with the turkey in the oven and her mother and sister overseeing the
cooking, Mack left and headed to Tessa’s house. Drake had taken a 6:00 flight
out of Las Vegas and arrived in Chicago not long ago, so they would hopefully
be arriving within a few minutes of each other.

The rental car in the
driveway proved that she’d been right and she smiled to herself as she gathered
her medical bag and made her way to the house she’d come to know so well over
the last few weeks. Tessa either brought Erin to the office to be checked, or
Mack came out on the weekends, often hanging out with Erin, Tessa and Kate, who
were really good friends and a lot of fun to boot. She herself had never had
girlfriends like that, spending far too much time studying, working or just
being married and a mom. She and her husband, Vince, had been separated for
years now, but they were too lazy and comfortable to actually get divorced.

Refusing to dwell on
her own situation, especially since Vince and the kids were at the house now,
waiting for her to return, she knocked on the door. Drake threw it open and
gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“This time
you
look tired,” he remarked, frowning at her. “Did you do a surgery yesterday?”

“Actually, no,” she
smiled. “But a thirty-pound turkey needed to be in the oven by 6:00, so I was
up at 5 and was baking pies until almost midnight.”

He shook his head. “I
don’t know why you insist on doing Thanksgiving every year—why don’t you let
Kara do it for once?”

She shrugged. “It’s one
day a year. I like doing it.”

She followed him into
the dining room where Tessa, Kate, Erin, Bobby and Raina, in a high chair,
seemed to be expecting her. Erin had refused to remove the final bandages until
Drake was there to see them, so this would be the first time anyone except Mack
had seen her face. It was still healing, with bits of red and pink along the
incisions, but those would go away in a few months. The rest, Mack thought
proudly, was her greatest work yet. Erin’s face might not be what it was
originally, but the skin was damn close and her nose was even better.

“Hang on,” Erin smiled,
typing into her computer. “I’m getting Liv on Skype, so she can watch too.”

“I don’t think I’ve
ever had so many people watch me take bandages off before,” Mack grinned.

They waited as Liv
yelled greetings into the computer. “Where’s the new boyfriend?!” she demanded,
making everyone laugh.

“He’s right here,” Erin
pulled Drake close to her. “This is Drake. Drake Riser, meet Lieutenant Olivia
Mitchell. And we’re just friends, girlfriend.”

“My friends call me
Liv,” the woman on the screen with huge eyes and a bright smile laughed.

“I’ve heard a lot about
you,” Drake said pleasantly. “Someday you’ll have to show me what you can do
with a basketball and a shot of tequila.”

“You told him?!” Liv
demanded, her eyes glistening with amusement.

“He thinks he can do it
better,” Erin shrugged, knowing how her friend loved a competition.

“Hmm. We’ll see about
that!” Liv folded her arms across her ample chest. “But let’s get this show on
the road. I’ve got a shift soon.”

“Okay.” Mack slowly
turned Erin to face her. “I took out the four stitches that were there a few
days ago—the rest are dissolving on their own. You’re going to be able to see
the lines where I cut off the burned skin and attached the healthy skin, but
those lines should fade to almost nothing in the next three months. So keep
that in mind when you see this.” She slowly pulled off the tape from underneath
Erin’s chin.

Erin’s eyes remained
closed as Mack took off the bandages one by one. Drake was squeezing her hand,
and leaned close to whisper in her ear. “Open your eyes. When I see your whole
face for the first time, I want you to see it too.”

She did as he asked and
they smiled together as Mack pulled off the last of the bandages that had
covered all of the right side of her face.

Drake felt the breath
drain out of his lungs as he looked at her, really looked, for the first time.
She was, fading scars and all, simply stunning. Her pale blue eyes were fringed
with long, dark lashes. Her nose was perfectly straight, and the tiny scar
along the side of her right nostril was so small it would be easy to cover with
makeup even if it didn’t heal anymore. Her mouth was lush and pink, her lips
exactly as he remembered from their night together, and the skin that now covered
her face was healthy and bright. The burns were gone, he realized in awe; his
sister had done it.

Erin felt tears
threatening as she looked at her face. The reddish-brown, callused and bumpy
skin was gone, replaced by what looked exactly the same as what was on the
other side of her face, if not a little lighter in color. Her hairline was now
even and her nose was actually perfect. Mack must have fixed the slight bump on
the tip when she’d done everything else. Erin’s face almost looked better than it
had before and her hand moved to her cheek hesitantly.

“It’s fine,” Mack said
when she noticed her hesitation. “You could’ve had the bandages off on Monday
if you hadn’t waited for Drake.”

“It’s beautiful,” Erin
marveled.

“Damn, girl, I am never
going to a bar with you again!” Liv huffed into the computer, pretending to
pout. “She even fixed that bump on your nose. Now that just ain’t fair!”

“Shut up!” Erin
laughed, tears streaming down her face. “All guys ever see are your tits,
anyway!”

“‘Cause they fine!” Liv
bobbed her head, pretending to show off.

“Shut up!” Kate and
Tessa squealed, laughing and crying as they all held on to Erin tightly.

“This is amazing,”
Drake whispered, sliding an arm around Erin’s shoulders and softly nuzzling her
neck.

“Stop it!” Liv howled
from the computer. “Y’all are killin’ me!”

“Yeah?” Erin looked up
at Drake and crooked her finger. “Watch this.” She pulled his head down to hers
and their lips met hesitantly, slowly, until she stood up and went fully into
his arms. A cheer went up as the kiss deepened and Liv pretended to cover her
eyes in horror.