Spike (25 page)

Afterwards, Aidan groans with each tortured step as I help him out to the bedroom. I pull back the sheets, and he sits down on his side of the bed. “Thanks for the help, mate. Hope I didn’t spoil your night,” Aidan says.

“Nah, all good,” Rob says, walking to the front door.

“No dramas,” Aidan says, nodding his head. “When I get the footage, I’ll ring ya.”

“Righto mate, I’ll catch ya later.” Rob winks at me and then shakes his head as he takes long strides towards the door. I follow him out. His hand on the doorknob, Rob stills and turns his head towards me.

“Ring if you need me, Eevie,” he says low enough so Aidan might not hear. “
Anytime
.”

I simply nod, and then he’s gone.

****

I undress Aidan, and we get into bed. I turn on the bedside light and reread the instructions from the doctor. I need to make sure he’s getting everything he needs, when he needs it. “It says you need to take the antibiotics with food. Are you hungry?”

“Maybe just a piece of toast with vegemite. I’m not all that hungry,” he says as he shuffles to get comfy.

“Okay. What else do you need?”

“You know what’d be
really
good?”

“What?”
What dirty thought is running through his head at a time like this?

“Just to fall asleep with my wife-to-be.”

My shoulders drop. “Aw, baby.”
How sweet.

How bad is it that
I’d forgotten about the proposal? I’d been so busy thinking about the tablets, the physio and just getting him home.

I smile as his words resonate. Today has just been filled with highs and lows. “You got it.”

“What did you think I was gonna say?” He smirks as I slip in beside him on his good side.

“I thought you were gonna say something dirty.”

“I’m open to suggestions … but maybe tomorrow. I think my cock is in shock, along with the rest of my body.”

“Yeah, it’s been quite a day.”

“Shit,” Aidan curses. “I’m gonna have to call my mum. I can’t have that conversation right now, but I’ll have to call her in the morning.”

“What if it’s on the news or something? Maybe you should get it over with now, then you won’t have it on your mind. You need to rest.”

“Can you do it for me?” He pouts his bottom lip.
He thinks those pouty lips will change my mind.

“I think this is something you have to do.”

“She’s gonna kill me, you know. Then who will you marry? She’s always worried that somethin’ like this would happen. Maybe if I tell her in the same phone call we’re getting married she might not go so hard on me?” His eyes search mine for approval.

“Maybe breaking the news of our engagement is something you should do in person?”

He breathes out heavily. “Yeah, you’re right. Better hand me my phone.”

I hand it over, and he taps it on my chest. “Last chance to save my arse?” He flashes me his perfect teeth in a smile that always does naughty things to me.

“I’m sure she’ll go easy on you.”

He dials the number.

“Hey, Mum … Yes I was away riding … Yeah, about that.” He pauses and runs his fingers over his temple, squeezing his eyes shut. “I had an accident …” Her voice blares loud enough so that even I can hear it. “Mum, Mum, I’m okay. I’m home now, I’m fine … No, don’t come over, it’s been a big day and I need sleep. I’ll ring you in the morning and tell you all about it. Okay?”

The mumble through the phone seems to quieten down. “Yes, I love you too, Mum. Talk to you tomorrow.”

I phone Cassie and let her know I won’t be in for the week, and promise to call her in the morning with details. There’s no way I could concentrate at work. Aidan needs me. I can’t imagine going back into the office, at least not before he’s comfortable with using the crutches. Even then, I can come home in my lunch hour. If I can’t take any more time off work than a week, then maybe I can organise for his mum to drop by. We’ll work it out. There are a lot of people that love him who will be more than willing to help.

My man needs me. Rather, my fiancé needs me.

I’m dying to tell people about the engagement, but they can all wait. There are more important things to worry about. The love of my life is battered and bruised, but thank God he’s alive. I can’t even begin to imagine what that scenario would feel like. The emotions of the day catch up with me, and I start to cry.

“Hey, babe, shhh,” he says, in a low soothing voice.

“I’m sorry … It’s just been a big day. Sometimes I think about how much I love you, and then something like this happens, and my heart cramps up in my chest and I can’t breathe. If I lost you …”
I’d just want to die.

“Oh, baby girl. It’s gonna take more than a lousy tree to get rid of me.”

“I know.” I let out a deep sob and snuggle into the doona. I’m petrified to touch him … to hurt him.

“What I’d give to be able to make love to you, take those tears away, but I’m in a whole world of hurt.”

“How’s the pain?”

“Bearable. Guess we’ll see how I go with sleep.”

“Okay. Just let me know what you need. Wake me up, I don’t care.”

“You know there’s nothing wrong with my lips. Come on over and lend me that sweet mouth of yours.”

I lean over him, brushing his wild hair from his face. My lips sink into his, his tongue gliding against mine, melting away some of the stress of the day.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

* EEVIE *

“Aidan Maverick Stone,” her voice booms, frightening the shit out of me as she walks into our bedroom. I follow close behind her, trying not to grin. I know this isn’t funny, but I think Aidan is about to have the shit blasted through him.

“Hey, Mum,” Aidan says, and groans as he tries to sit up further in the bed. I rush to his side and help him with the pillows.

“I always dreaded this day,” she says, her tone softening. She sits beside him, and runs her hands through his hair before playfully slapping his cheek. She points a finger at him, accusingly. “You should have phoned me when you were in hospital. I would have been there in an instant,” she sniffs, and takes a handkerchief from her pocket and dabs her eyes.

****

* AIDAN *

“It’s not as bad as you think. I’ll be fine,” I assure Mum, but truthfully I have no fucking clue. All I know is that the pain seems distant after the tablets kicked in an hour ago. My head feels strange, kind of fuzzy, and I just wanna sleep. I can’t handle much else. My heart wanted to escape my chest when Eevie and I battled to take a shower. We nearly had to call for help to get me out of bed because my body didn’t wanna play.

“Show me,” she demands, pawing at the sheets.

“Hey, take it easy,” I warn, pulling the linen from her grasp. Thank fuck Eevie helped me put boxers on this morning. It took all of five minutes, but at least I’m covered.

“Aidan,” she says, like my name is a curse word. She stares me down like I just raided the cookie jar before dinner.

“Fine,” I mutter through clenched teeth. I lower the sheet, and lift up my shirt so she can see my back. I’d reckon I’m about to earn myself a good slap over the head.

Mum gasps, covering her mouth. “Oh, my poor boy,” she cries out and moves in closer. I prepare for the slap. Instead she gifts me with a hard kiss to the forehead.

“It breaks my heart to see you hurt, darlin’. Breaks my heart.”

She lowers my shirt and I grit my teeth, sucking up the pain as I brace myself to lie back. Mum tucks me back in, and sits on the edge of the bed, stroking my hand.

“Like I said.
Fine.
  Chicks dig scars anyway …” I trail off, as if in some kind of daze. I roll my head to look over at Eevie sitting on the covers beside me. The light shining through the window behind her has her looking all angelic again. My angel. My wife-to-be. Her smile is like paradise. Does that make sense? Yeah. It totally does. And smiling like that, I can’t take my eyes off her. So I don’t.

“So you want the good news, Mum?” I ask, like a man high on opiate drugs. Because that’s exactly what I am. High. On drugs. On life. And crazy in love.

When Mum doesn’t answer right away, I sluggishly turn my head towards her. Eyebrows bunched together, her eyes dart between Eevie and I. “What do you mean, ‘good news’?” she probes.

Air is forced out of my lungs as I shift onto my good side. “My body’s hurtin’, my head’s in some kinda fog, but in my heart I’m the luckiest man walkin’.” I chuckle to myself.
Walking
. Ha!

I pull Eevie’s hand to my mouth and press my lips to her knuckles. “Well, I’m the luckiest one alive. Walkin’ or not.”

“You’re not making any sense, Aidan,” Mum scoffs, straightening the corner of the sheet.

Eevie draws in a long breath, and the deep flush of colour to her cheeks doesn’t go unnoticed by me. If I could grab her and wrestle her beneath me, I would in a second.

Struggling to keep my heavy eyelids open, I mumble, “Eevie’s my forever. She’s gonna be my wife … Gettin’ married … Babies. Good news…”

I give in to my eyelids. I’m done fighting. There’s a thud noise and the bed shifts on both sides.

I might just rest my eyes for a bit.

****

I wake to the sounds of women chattering and the clinking of teacups.

I rub the sleep from my eyes to find the two most important women in my life grinning their arses off at me.

“What’d I do?” I ask defensively.

“I’m fine, by the way, Aidan. Eevie picked me up from the floor,” Mum says, stern at first but almost laughing by the time she gets to her last word.

“What?” The floor? Wait … was that the thud noise? Didn’t I just imagine that?

Mum gives me a big smooch on the lips and pinches my cheeks. “Congratulations, darling.”

“Ah, thanks. Did Eevie tell you?”

Eevie throws back her head and laughs. I didn’t think what I said was funny.

I shrug.

“You mumbled something about marriage and babies and then passed out,” Eevie informs me.

Babies? I was talking about babies? Not that there’s anything wrong with that; of course I want a family. But, I said that to my mother?

Man, these drugs are fucking me up.

****

Three weeks later

When Eevie’s at work, thank God I have my buddy, Sergeant, keeping me company. He’s a permanent fixture, curled up on the end of our bed, but he probably thinks I’m crazy.

“
I promise to be there for you, inspire you, and love you no matter what obstacles come before us
. Does that sound better than before, mate?” I ask Sergeant.

He frowns at me from the end of the bed, then proceeds to roll over so he can lick himself.
Well, fuck.

“You’re no help,” I mutter to myself. “At least wag your damn tail, give me some sign of support. This is for Eevie. Gotta get it right.”

At the mention of her name, he wags his tail and wiggles his arse up the bed to lick my face.

I scratch him under his chin, and he stretches his head back and makes a whiney noise. “Yeah, I can’t wait for her to get home too, bud.”

All these hours lying around has given me more than enough time to think. If I didn’t have the brains to realise it after the shit storm in Griffith, then I fucking do now. There’s nothing like a good concussion to knock some sense into you. Life’s too short to sit back. I know what I want.

I want a family of my own, and I want to be everything my father was not. My dream starts and ends with Eevie, and I’ve got our plan all worked out. I’m taking the rest of the year off from riding to build on our future. Motocross isn’t going anywhere, but Eevie and I are.

When I’m back into the training next year, I know I’ll be ready. I don’t wanna go back too soon and do more damage. Supercross is only a short season, so I won’t be missing much. I’ll just smash ‘em out of the arena when I come back next year. They won’t know what hit them.

****

Two weeks later

The loud
brapp
noise of the bike echoes in the lounge room as the four of us watch the GoPro footage in awe.

There’s a loud thud noise, the crunch of plastic and metal, and the bike disappears from view. The camera appears to roll into something green, before coming to a stop in darkness. As if on cue, the four of us gasp and swear like troopers.

“You crazy son-of-a-bitch,” a muffled voice says. Must have been one of the checkpoint guys.

“Fuckin’ hell,” Rob mutters. I catch him shaking his head out of the corner of my eye.

The darkness continues. No movement. And it’s eerie as hell, because I know that I’m just lying there like a pulverised sack of shit. I could’ve really fucked myself up. Well and truly. I thank my fucking lucky stars I didn’t.

“Ambos are on the way … Hang in there bud,” is the last thing I hear before I flick the TV off with the remote. I might just watch the rest later.

“You motocross boys are fuckin’ nuts, man,” Ryan says, and takes a long swig of his beer.

“We’re not all fuckin’ cowboys like Stone,” Jones chips in.

I laugh out loud. Pretty sore and sorry cowboy right here. “Go hard or go home, right Jones?” I say and raise my beer bottle. Jones knows more than anyone why we do what we do. We live and breathe it: the churn of dirt; the sweat and the thrill of pushing the limits.

“Fuckin’ cheers to that,” Jones says, and clinks the neck of his beer bottle against mine.

“You still on painkillers?” Rob asks, and throws a pizza crust back into the box on the coffee table.

“Fuck no. I took those Endone tablets the first few days after the accident, but not after that. I was high as a fuckin’ kite, dribblin’ about shit I couldn’t remember.”
Like telling my mother about babies. “
I didn’t wanna rely on ‘em. I don’t know if you remember, but Beau Stuart, who was close to taking out the title a few years back, got hooked on ‘em after a bad crash. He never returned to the track, but mark my words, I’m comin’ back.”
If it kills me.