Read Your Heart to Keep: Holly and Jax for Free Online

off yet. You’ve also got a tube down your throat that needs to stay in for at least 24 hours. I’m sorry. I know it’s uncomfortable.”
    Uncomfortable? It was beyond uncomfortable. It was like having a garden hose shoved down my throat and taped to my face.
    Unable to resist the pull of sleep I let it claim me, hoping that when I awoke again I would feel a little more human.

Chapter Five
    Holly - Twenty Four hours after surgery
     
    My body began to come back to me. Anesthesia had worn off, the pain meds keeping me comfortable. The awful tube had been taken out, allowing me to talk and take sips of water. Most of the hours after surgery were a hazy mess of fragmented moments.
    I still had tubes coming out of my neck and was bandaged around my chest but apart from that, I was considerably better than I had anticipated I would be.
    The grueling surgery had been a success in the eyes of my specialist. It was hard to fathom that the pulse I could feel under my skin and the beep of the heart monitor next to me was not my own heart but that of another. A dead person. I didn’t feel different inside. It still seemed like my heart, physically. Mentally it was too extraordinary to grasp. In time the reality of the gift I had been given would slowly sink in. I owed this person my life. It’s a pity I would never get to thank her and tell her how grateful I was. I would never take for granted this second chance I’d been given.
    The next best thing would be to contact her family and not only offer my condolences for their loss but my sincere gratitude for their daughter’s selfless donation. I made a mental note to follow through with this as soon as I was able to. It would be wise to allow them their time of grief first.
    Today I was permitted to have my first visitors. I could hardly wait to see my family again. My brother!
    I hoped they’d been home to get some rest. I couldn’t stand the thought of them staying outside in the waiting area, trying to sleep on chairs, being woken frequently by the medical staff who were merely doing their jobs.
    I knew my family though. It would have taken great effort on someone’s behalf to get them to leave.
    One of the nurses that had been assigned to my around the clock care had just stepped out for a moment and had promised she would be back as soon as possible. It was the first time I could recall being alone, since waking from surgery.
    When the large glass door slid across signaling her return, I wasn’t anticipating a second person.
    “Hey pip-squeak! How are you doing?”
    I knew that voice. “Tyler!”
    Normally, I would have chastised him for still using the childhood nickname he’d blessed me with, or rather cursed me with, but hearing it come from his mouth in that moment was the most heavenly sound.
    “I’m doing better today. I’m so glad you are here!” I watched his blurry shape move closer.
    “I wouldn’t be anywhere else! I came as soon as I heard.” He leaned in gently, kissing my head, unable to hug me due to the mass of wires I was tangled in.
    “You look like crap, squirt.” He ruffled my hair, pulling a chair over and sitting down. Nothing like brutal honesty from a brother.
    “I bet. I’ve felt like it too up until this morning. I don’t remember much but I do recall not being able to move. Or speak because I had a tube down my throat.”
    “Are you in pain?” He reached for my hand and held it, giving it a gentle squeeze.
    “Not really. A little discomfort but not actual pain.”
    “Well, this hot nurse you have on hand is obviously doing her job then.”
    I could hear nurse, Heidi chuckle. Even though I didn’t know what she looked like, she sounded young. I was terribly embarrassed at my bold brother’s attempt at flirting. He hadn’t even been in the room for five minutes.
    “You did not just say that, Ty. I’m so sorry Heidi!”
    Through her laughter she said, “Oh you’re very welcome. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
    I