Chapter 18.

Eboni sat in the hospital room with Gunnar's still body lying on the bed next to her. She wouldn't let his hand go until he woke up.

Doctors had said the shot went into his side. It had punctured his small intestines and gone through his body. She'd been told that Gunnar must have had a horseshoe and rabbit's foot in his pocket for his incredible luck. Eboni had almost laughed. Getting shot didn't seem like a lucky happenstance.

Who the hell would do that to him? Shay's ex-boyfriend came to mind first. If that fucking bastard had hurt Gunnar, there wouldn't be a place in this world where Eboni wouldn't go to find him to exact some revenge.

Eboni kissed the back of Gunnar's hand. "I know you're sleeping, but I need to talk to you." She rubbed her thumb over his knuckles. "I didn't want you here when you first arrived to fill in for Queen. I thought you would be a distraction." She laughed through tears coming down her cheeks. "You were a great distraction. You made me remember our time together. You made me get in touch with my feelings for you. You made me remember that I loved you." She squeezed his hand. "I still love you. I love you, Gunnar Wells."

Eboni put her forehead on the mattress and sobbed.

"You're not going to let me sleep, are you?"

She brought her gaze up and saw Gunnar smiling down at her. His eyelids hung halfway down over his eyes.

Eboni leapt from her chair and embraced him so hard she thought she would hurt him, but she didn't care. "I didn't think you wouldI thought you were going to--"

"Stop. I'm alive. I'm here. Does Mom know?"

The hospital-room door opened. Elizabeth sauntered inside with a scowl that would scare the dead. When she got close enough to Gunnar, she picked up a pillow from a cart next to him and swatted him with it.

"Come on, Ma." Gunnar put his hand over his stomach.

"You scared me to death. Why did you go into the salon without the police? You're not Superman."

Eboni backed away from Gunnar long enough for Queen to embrace her son and kiss his cheek.

"I thought the alarm was a fluke." Gunnar squeezed Eboni's hand and then took his mother's in his other.

"The police asked us who we thought would do this." Elizabeth patted Gunnar's arm. "Shay is giving them every detail of her creepy ex-boyfriend."

Gunnar shook his head. "It wasn't him."

Eboni furrowed her eyebrows. "You know who did it? You have to tell the police. They've been waiting for you to wake up."

"I can't help them." Gunnar shook his head. "I know it wasn't that guy." As he smiled at his mother, he proclaimed, "You're closing that salon."

Queen's eyebrows furrowed. "No, I'm not."

"I wasn't asking. You need to close it. It's attracting a dangerous element there. It's not safe for you to keep it open."

"That's not for you to decide. It's my business. I'm keeping it open. People in that community need me, need my services. I can't turn my back on them."

"Gunnar, we can beef up security. And you're--" Eboni had almost said that he would be there, but with his look, she knew he still planned on leaving.

A nurse walked into the room, breaking up the tension. "Good morning, Mr. Wells." She dragged in behind her a machine on its own stand. "It's not often we get a celebrity in here. The guys in here are going crazy."

Gunnar offered a slight smile.

"And the women are just--" The nurse cut off her statement when she saw Eboni's expression. "Let's just say you've definitely made an impression."

"When can I get out of here? I have things to do." Gunnar rubbed his hand over his eyes.

"That will be up to the doctor." The nurse wrapped a cuff around his arm and engaged the machine to get his blood pressure. "We have you on antibiotics now. We'll keep your bandages changed. If all goes well, maybe in a few days. But that's my guess."

"I've canceled my surgery."

Gunnar shook his head. "No. You need that surgery now."

"And what? Both of us will be laid out at the same time. No, I'm going to make sure you're all better before they cut me open." Elizabeth grabbed his hand again.

"That's crazy. I'll be fine. You need this surgery."

"I need my children all happy and healthy." She patted Gunnar's shoulder.

"Speaking of your children, did you see Gideon?" Gunnar smiled. "I can't believe he came here right after the game when he heard about me. He was tight-lipped about the Super Bowl results. Did he win?"

Elizabeth looked forlorn. Eboni tried hiding her laughter considering she knew the results.

"He lost?" Gunnar asked.

Queen Elizabeth beamed. "Just teasing. His team won."

Gunnar nodded. "Awesome. I'm telling you. You raised a family of champions."

The nurse removed the cuff and wrapped it around the monitor she'd pull into the room. "I know." She patted Gunnar on his shoulder. "You're an MMA champ. Now you have a Super Bowl champion in the family. And I hear congratulations are in order."

"Yeah, Gideon Wells is an awesome player." Eboni patted the back of Gunnar's hand.

"No, I saw online that you're going to be a dad."

Gunnar's eyebrows rutted together. "I'm not going to be a dad." He turned to Eboni. "Am I?"

Eboni didn't answer. She couldn't move. She hadn't expected the news to be blurted out by a nurse. Being in a hospital room with the TV turned off and Gunnar's phone away from him, she thought she would have time to break the news to him.

The nurse continued. "I saw the story online and the ring in your pocket, and I just assumed--"

"Ring?" Eboni had to sit down again.

"I'll leave you all alone. The doctor should be in shortly." The nurse backed out of the room.

"Eboni, even when I left, I've only thought of you. Every day, every moment, I wanted you. I thought you wouldn't want me again after I left, so I never tried to contact you again." Gunnar hit a control on the inside of his bed to bring his head up. "When I saw you taking care of my mother when I came home, the old feelings came back. You have my heart completely. I don't want to spend another moment without you. I don't know where it is in the room, but I have a ring for you."

Both Eboni and Elizabeth gasped.

"Will you marry me? Please say yes, or I'll pull the guilt card and say that I almost died." Gunnar laughed and quickly held his side.

"Gunnar, before I answer anything, I need to tell you something." Eboni's stomach flipped. She wanted to hold Queen's hand in case Gunnar got out of bed and walked home. "What the nurse said."

"About me having a kid? Not true. I wasn't lying when I said I hadn't slept with anyone else since moving away to train."

"You're partially right. You don't have a child. You would have." Eboni maintained eye contact with Gunnar until realization crossed his face.

"You were pregnant? When?"

"I found out after you left. I was depressed and getting sick. I thought it was because I was crying all the time." Eboni didn't mean to make Gunnar feel guilty. She needed to tell it all. "When I wasn't crying, I was eating everything in sight. My aunt told me she thought I might be pregnant. I took an at-home test. It came out positive." She averted her gaze. "I didn't want to believe it. I mean, we were both so careful. You wore condoms and I was on the Pill."

Gunnar adjusted himself in bed as he split his gaze between Eboni and his mother.

"I decided to get an official word. So I went to the doctor. He confirmed that I was about two months along."

Gunnar sat up taller. "So what happened? I haven't seen a child around you since I've been home. You haven't mentioned having a kid."

Eboni glanced up for a moment and then dropped her gaze again.

"You got an abortion?" Gunnar slipped his hand from hers.

"No. Of course not. Even if you had said you never wanted to see me again, I would never do that. I lost the baby. For the longest time, I blamed myself. I thought I had done something wrong. Then your mother explained that sometimes these things happen."

Gunnar turned to his mother. "You knew? All these years, all the phone calls we've had. Never once did you say, 'Guess what, son? You were going to be a father but Eboni had a miscarriage.' Never crossed your mind to tell me something like that?"

"It wasn't for me to tell you. This was Eboni's news and your business." Queen's voice came out low and slow.

"My business? Oh, no. Apparently, it's the world's business now. How did this get leaked to some gossip site? Is that why you didn't come by the other night?"

"Stop it, Gunnar. I wouldn't do that. My cousin overheard my aunt mentioning it. He blabbed the news. I was going to tell you last night before you left for the salon. Then I thought that if I had caught you at the salon we could talk there."

"I'm not mad that you miscarried. It happens to lots of women. I'm pissed that no one who claims to love me bothered to tell me. I would have come home to be with you had I known. Did you think I stopped caring about you? Or did you stop caring about me?"

"Gunny, that's not fair. I had no idea where we stood." Eboni wrapped her arms around her body.

"When you two went out to dinner and I asked you if you'd talked, I thought you talked about that then." She glanced at Eboni.

Eboni had already felt guilty for not telling him right after it happened. One look from Queen Elizabeth and Eboni felt like dirt. She returned her attention back to Gunnar, who looked like he wanted to melt her in her spot just from his glare.

"It didn't matter if I were in prison. A part of me was in you and it died and no one thought it was my business to know. I had a right to know. I had a right to be involved whether we were together or not."

Eboni swallowed. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"I am too. As soon as I get clearance to leave, I'm going back to Vegas." Gunnar turned to his mother. "Hopefully, Gideon will be here soon. He can take care of you."

"Gunnar--"

"I'm really tired. Could you turn off the lights when you two leave?"

Eboni's heart sank to the floor. She'd known Gunnar would be mad. She'd never thought he would turn his back on both her and his mother.

Queen Elizabeth approached her son. "I know you're angry. Get some sleep. Think about everything. Remember that we love you." Despite Gunnar turning his head, she managed to kiss his cheek. "I love you. I will always be there for you."

Queen stepped away from Gunnar to give Eboni a chance to kiss Gunnar good-bye as well.

Eboni couldn't muster the strength to approach Gunnar. Not initially. Then she realized that she did love Gunnar. She hadn't withheld the information to hurt him. She approached the side of the bed. He flipped his face to the other direction, away from her.

"I love you, Gunnar. I love you." She kissed his cheek, his temple, the side of his neck, anyplace she could reach. "If it means anything to you, I couldn't wait to have our child."

Gunnar remained quiet.

As he had requested, Queen turned off the lights when she and Eboni walked out of his hospital room. When Eboni heard his door click shut, she fell into Queen's arms and wept.

"I thought you would have told him by now. Why didn't you said anything?" Elizabeth stroked Eboni's back as she hugged her.

"I knew he had a dream with this fighting thing. I thought if I told him and he came all the way home, he would resent me." Eboni's breath caught during her explanation. "Now he hates me." This time, she sobbed. She felt like Gunnar had left her all over again. This time it hurt even more. This time he had asked her to marry him.

"Give him time. Gunnar is reasonable. He can't stay mad forever."

As the nurse had mentioned before, Gunnar remained in the hospital for a few more days receiving antibiotics and having his bandages changed daily. Like clockwork, both his mother and Eboni showed up to his room every day.

Determined not to talk to either of them each time they visited, he sat in silence. Not these stubborn women. His mother could talk a blue streak anyway. With Gunnar offering no volleying conversation, his mother spoke about everything from how there were no good romantic comedies anymore to the reason she chose one red nail polish over a different red nail polish.

When Eboni visited, he felt conflicted. He wanted to be angry with her. Too bad every time he saw her, his heart melted.

"I know you're angry at me. I wish you would talk to me," she said as she sat in a chair next to him. "Fine. You don't want to talk? I'll do all the talking. When I found out I was pregnant, you were the first person I wanted to tell. I must have picked up the phone to call you about a hundred times. Each time, I stopped myself and I would run different scenarios in my head." She crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair. "In one scenario, you come rushing back home to be with me. I carry to term with you by my side the entire time, because Queen Elizabeth's boys would always do the right thing. Then a year or two down the road, you hate me for making you feel trapped."

That statement got Gunnar to glance at her. He almost opened his mouth to refute her claims but remained quiet. He would have dug ditches if it meant being a family. Didn't she know that?

"In the other scenario, you come running back home to me to be by my side. I lose the baby like I did for real. But since you gave up your training, they refuse to take you back. So, again, you're stuck at home with me. Third scenario, I tell you I'm pregnant and you tell me you don't care. You accuse me of trying to use the baby to get money from you."

Gunnar balled his hands into fists. No way did Eboni think he could treat her that cruelly. Then again, he had refused to talk to her since finding out her news. She had been partially right.

Eboni turned her head. "As you can see in every scenario, it doesn't end up great for me."

"You forgot one scenario."

Eboni wiped under her eyes and regarded him. She didn't speak. She waited for him to share his thoughts.

"You tell me as soon as you find out you're pregnant. I do come home to be with you and I beg you to marry me and come with me back to Vegas. I take care of you and our child. I treat you like a queen. We live happily ever after. You ever think of that one?"

Eboni wiped her nose. "No. You know why? It means I would leave my family. I would leave my home."

Gunnar nodded. "Fine. Stay here with these people." He lowered his bed and swung his legs over the side.

"What are you doing?" Eboni stood.