“Oh?”
“They were on their rounds with Dr. Carter, and we said hello but not much else.” Jake began to chuckle, “Carter runs a tight ship with these students, and he wouldn’t let either of them stop to talk to me.”
I sighed deeply before continuing my story.
Jake’s chuckle turned into a frown as soon as he heard my sigh. He nudged my feet down and pulled my body over to him. We sat next to one another, my head on his chest, both his arms wrapped tightly around me.
“OK. Shoot.”
“Sarah told me today that Max is unhappy.”
Jake dropped his arms and pushed himself back to look at me.
“Why?”
“How can I explain this? He’s happy to see me happy with the man that I love…”
“But unhappy that he is not the man that you love?” Jake finished my sentence.
“Yeah, I guess you can put it that way. Sarah says that he feels that I’m the one who got away. He regrets not having proposed on graduation night.”
“I don’t! Emily, Max will be fine. He will eventually find another woman and forget you ever existed.” Jake grinned and searched for an annoyed look I refused to show.
“He can’t ever forget me!” I retorted, but regretted saying as soon as the words left my mouth.
“Does that mean you can’t ever forget him as well?” Jake’s voice accused with a mock-menacing arching eyebrow.
“No,” I stammered. “It just means that…well, you should know…it’s not easy to forget me.” I laughed.
Jake suddenly forced his body onto mine. Conversation was done for the night.
The rest of the week went no differently than the first few days. I saw Jake first thing in the morning before he left for the hospital. I fixed us breakfast, and he didn’t come back home till I was asleep. I spent my waking hours registering for gifts, picking the dinner menu, and giving my seal of approval on all of Sandy’s picks. Aunt Barbara spent most of her waking hours at our home as well. She figured since the chief was working all the time, she would stay busy with us.
Friday night, I tried my hardest to stay up and see Jake. I was annoyed that we saw each other no more than thirty minutes a day. I texted, I called. Rarely did I get more than a minute conversation before he got paged to another patient. Once again, my eyes failed me, and I couldn’t stay up any longer. I sent one last text.
I cannot believe I have seen you no more than an hour in the last three days. It is one thirty a.m. My eyes are closing. Wake me when you get home. Good night.
Was this how it was going to be the rest of our married life? Ugh, I hoped not.
I was startled awake with a heavy arm on my body. Jake was fast asleep in our bed. I slowly got up to shower, but woke Jake up in the process.
“Don’t go,” he whispered.
I listened and stayed in bed with him a bit longer.
“What time did you get home?”
“About an hour ago.” His voice sounded like he was in a sleep coma.
“You mean you worked twenty-four hours yesterday? What happened?”
“Lots of emergencies. I am so tired!”
“I’ll let you sleep. We’ll talk later.” I kissed his forehead and left the room. Exhausted, he didn’t put up a fight. His arm thumped on the bed as I dropped it from my body. Once downstairs, I turned on both ovens and put in the croissant bread pudding and brown sugar-glazed apple wood smoked bacon. Water for the french press began boiling as Sandy and Bobby trickled downstairs.
To my surprise, Nick came into the kitchen with Jane.
“Jane!” I ran to give her a welcoming hug. “What are you doing here?”
“What about me, Sis?” Nick opened his arms. We shared a three-way hug.
“My boss decided late yesterday to give me this weekend off so I flew in this morning. I thought I’d come and help you with wedding prep.”
“Mom’s done just about everything so there’s not much to do, but I’m super happy you’re here.”
“Where’s Jake?” Jane wondered.
“He ambled into my room about an hour ago and I haven’t seen him since,” Nick answered.
“Oh, he’s sleeping in his bed right now,” I said.
“I’m up,” was all I heard as I walked into the breakfast room with all the food.
I was surprised to see Jake up and dressed already.
“Why are you up? You should sleep some more.”
Jake came over and kissed me passionately in front of his whole family. Jane and Nick started gagging and Bobby and Sandy laughed.
“Are they like this all the time, Mom?” Nick questioned.
“All. The. Time!” Sandy answered.
“Sorry,” was all I could say in between the onslaught of kisses.
We all sat down for breakfast and Jane and Nick both had great news.