And hell was the shock of waking up, understanding where he was and why he was here, and knowing that, whatever happened, his warm, passionate relationship with Allison would never be the same again.

Earlier he’d had a different kind of dream. This time he’d been sitting next to Kate’s hospital bed, holding her hand as she slipped from life—swimming in morphine, her hair gone, her weight down to less than a hundred pounds. Her passing had come as a blessed relief, followed by a sense of loss that was like having his heart ripped out. Only the need to be there for Brianna had kept him connected to life.

Until Allison.

“Here you go. Down the hatch.” His new nurse had shown up sometime in the night and was still here for morning rounds. Pushing sixty and looking tough enough to wrestle a grizzly bear, she had not once called him “honey.”

She handed him a paper cup. By now Burke knew the drill. He took the cup and swallowed the pills inside with a sip from the water bottle she gave him. “How’s the pain?” she asked, pointing to a chart on the wall that rated pain levels from one to ten. “Can you give me a number?”

“What number would you give the devil stabbing you in the back with his pitchfork?” He glanced out the window at the pewter sky. “What time is it?”

“Almost seven. Your wife called a few minutes ago. She said she’d be here soon.”

“I don’t suppose you told her not to come.”

“That’s not in my job description. How’s the pain in your head?”

“Still there. Maybe a little better.”

“Any confusion?”

“How the hell would I know?”

“Well, let’s get you to the bathroom and into a clean gown before your wife arrives. Then you can rest and have some breakfast.”

Burke submitted to the indignity of letting her help him. So far his plumbing was pretty much out of control. The doctor had assured him that would change. But what if it didn’t? How could he expect Allison to do the things a nurse would do? And what if the accident and the surgery had left him unable to perform in the bedroom?

All the more reason she needed to call that divorce lawyer.

Back in bed, he could feel the oxycodone working. It dulled the pain in his back and head, but it also made him drowsy, not what he wanted. Sleeping through the pain was tempting, but he had decisions to make and people to deal with. He needed to be sharp.

Burke willed himself to stay awake, but as the minutes passed and the medication took effect, his eyelids began to droop. He was sinking into a fog when, suddenly, it cleared at the sound of Allison’s voice. He opened his eyes again.