“Oh Clint, that came out wrong. I dreamed of seeing you again. Only I wanted to see you one day when I was normal. Not sick. Not in a hospital bed. I wanted you to see me like I really am. I’m strong.” But she wasn’t strong, she was babbling.
“Are you kidding? You’re one of the strongest people I know.”
She snorted. “Yeah sure. You always have to carry strong people through a jungle.” She started to tear up.
“Hey, Lydia, what’s wrong?” He was across the room and beside her bed faster than she could blink.
“It’s this damned pneumonia. My emotions are all over the place. Then having you here. I’m so happy, but I just wanted…”
“It’s okay. I think I understand.” He set the flowers on the nightstand.
“Well then, you’re doing better than me.”
He chuckled and reached his hand out towards her face. She caught it and brought it to her cheek. He felt so warm, so alive. She kissed his palm.
“Thank you for coming, Clint.”
She stared into the beautiful hazel eyes of the man who had literally saved her life. He finally cleared his throat.
“How is Beth?”
“She puts on a brave front when she comes to visit, but I’m really worried about her. I’ll be happy when I’m out of here and we can be together.”
“Always trying to take care of everyone aren’t you?”
“No I’m not.” Clint laughed. He looked so much younger than when he had been in the jungle. Lydia yawned.
“I can come back later if you need to get some rest.”
“If I hear one more person tell me I need rest and take it easy, I might have to kill them.”
Clint threw back his head and laughed. Her breath stopped. Literally stopped. In all the time she had known him in the jungle, she never heard him laugh like that. She wanted to hear it again.
“What?”
“Huh?”
“You’re staring at me, Lydia. Are you okay?”
“I just never heard you laugh like that.” He picked up one of her hands, brought it to his cheek, and then kissed her palm.
“Baby, there was never a moment I felt like laughing. I was scared almost every minute.”
“You saved me. How could you be scared?”
“Lydia, you were so sick. You almost died. I was scared every minute.” She stroked his cheek.
“Well you don’t have to worry now. I’m much better. The pneumonia has pretty much cleared up.”
“Yep, that’s what the hospital records said.”
“You hacked the hospital records?”
“Only at a very high level. I wanted to see what your prognosis was, and if you were getting the right level of care. Your doctors are very highly regarded.”
“You hacked my doctors?”
“Yep.” He didn’t even have the grace to look guilty. He was still standing there holding her hand.
“Wait, how do you know how to hack so many things?”
“It’s kind of what I do. Everyone on the team has a specialty. Mine is computers.” Lydia couldn’t help the grin that spread over her face.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit. That’s a pretty big smile for nothing. Spill it, lady.”
“Let me adjust the bed so I’m sitting up.” Looking at her, he immediately let go of her hand, and put his arm around her so he was supporting her. Then he found the remote that brought the bed up to the proper height so she could sit up.
“Is this better?” His arm was now trapped between her back and her pillows. She looked up at him from beneath her lowered lashes.
“It’s much better.” She couldn’t begin to explain what the feel of him was doing to her insides. It made her happy to see Clint looking flushed as he withdrew his arm.
“So what makes you so interested in my hacking abilities?”
“I would love to know some of your techniques. I have studied up on you brash upstarts, and I actually wrote a paper on a hacker who broke into a Fortune 100’s e-mail server and had all e-mails blind cc everyone in the company for a day. It was amazing how much confidential information was leaked in the hour before the server was shut down. It was done by a fourteen year old in Nebraska.”
“Yep, Shelly Reynolds. She’s really gifted.”
“The only thing I couldn’t find out was her punishment. I checked all my sources, but this was one of the few times I came up empty. It really pissed me off. I could never find out whether they prosecuted her as a juvenile or an adult, or what happened.”
“I bet you couldn’t.” Clint grinned over his shoulder as he pulled up a chair.