chapter Three
Jake
Beautiful. That’s the only way I can describe the angel leaning over me. Everything was hazy except for her face. She had pretty, green eyes that watched me intently. I wanted to talk. I tried but couldn’t. Something was stopping me. She leaned closer, but then the haze got worse, and my angel disappeared.
I didn’t see her at first. I searched until I found those green eyes. She smiled, and the haze took me again.
She held my hand. I could feel her small hand in mine, and all I wanted to do was get closer. Why couldn’t I talk? Why couldn’t I move?
Every inch of me hurt. I tried to move my arm, but it felt stiff. After one more try, I gave up. I forced my eyes open and nearly closed them again. I had to have been dreaming—either that or I was dead, because there was no other explanation for the angel sitting next to me. I recognized her, but not from anything real. It was more like little pieces of a dream.
Gorgeous, green eyes stared back at me. They were only matched by this incredible reddish-brown hair that had just a slight wave to it. If I could have made my arm move, I’d have reached out and touched it.
“Jake?” She said my name softly. It had never sounded better coming from anyone else’s lips. And those lips—they were perfect.
I pushed through the fog and smiled at her. Dream or not, I had to try.
“How are you feeling?” She held up a cup with a straw. “Are you thirsty?”
What was this? I looked down at my arm and there was a damn IV stuck in it. “Where am I?”
“You’re at New Hanover Regional Hospital. You were in an accident.” She said it so calmly, like she was talking about the weather. “I’m your nurse. My name is Emily.”
As soon as she said it, everything came back to me. Being at Tom’s house—Daniela telling Ben—going to Gill’s, and my Jeep flipping over.
“Are you sure I’m not dead?” She was wearing scrubs, but there was no way I’d be lucky enough to get a nurse that looked like her. Knowing my luck, mine would be an overweight 70-year-old man.
She smiled again. “You’re not dead. You could have been. You’re very lucky.”
“Yes, I am.” I meant having her as my nurse. I think she got it because she blushed a little. It looked adorable on her pale cheeks.
“Would you like me to call your family? I wasn’t expecting you to wake up so soon. The medication wore off faster than anticipated.”
“My family? Have they been here?”
She looked at me strangely. “Of course.”
“Just my parents…”
“Your parents, and your brother and his wife.”
“Ben and Molly were here?” I was surprised they’d bother after what I did.
“I practically had to kick them out.” She looked at me for a moment before continuing. “They care about you a lot.”
“What time is it?” I couldn’t handle thinking about how pissed Ben had to be. How disappointed my parents would be. Obviously I needed to see them, but I wasn’t ready yet.
She glanced at her watch and then back to me. “It’s five-thirty a.m.”
“And you’re still working? Or did you just get here?”
“You were right the first time. I prefer working nights actually.”
“When do you think they’ll get here?” I figured she’d know I meant my family.
She fidgeted with the button on her sweater. “My guess is they’ll be here by seven.”
“Okay, that gives us an hour and a half.”
“Gives us an hour and a half for what?”
I gave her my best grin. “To get to know each other.”
“I’m glad to see you still have a sense of humor. It means you’re doing all right.”
“Who says I was joking?” I tried to wink at her, but it didn’t work.
“Your face is still bruised up.” She reached over like she was going to touch me but stopped herself.
“Oh.” That was the first time I even thought about what I must have looked like. No wonder she wasn’t flirting back.
“Yeah. You actually look a lot better now. You must heal fast.”
“I do. I’d get injuries when I played football that should have kept me out for weeks, but I’d be over them in days.”
“You played football?” The way she said it left me wondering if she really cared or was trying to be polite.
“In high school.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah.”
We sat awkwardly for a second. I usually could fill those silences easily, but my brain still felt kind of foggy.
“I saw that you’re from Clayton Falls. Do you know someone named Mel Garrison?”
“Melanie Garrison? Sure I do. She was a year behind me, but we went to a really small high school.”
“Oh, cool.”
“Where are you from?” I had to keep her talking. If we stopped, she’d probably leave to see another patient. I wasn’t ready for her to leave yet, and I didn’t feel like being alone.
“I’m from a small town just outside Asheville. Have you heard of Ridgeview?”
“Yeah, definitely.” I wanted to say more, to tell her that one of my friends from high school went to the college up there. But I was already getting exhausted. “I’ve heard it’s pretty.” At least my brain was functioning enough to answer her.
She smiled, and I could tell her mind moved elsewhere for a minute. “Yes, it is.”
I gave myself a minute to recover. Why was talking so damn hard? “Are you going to be my nurse the whole time I’m here?”
“I don’t think you’ll be staying in the ICU much longer so you’ll be moved to another floor. Of course, that all depends on what the doctors say. It should only be another day or two at most, but you’ll have me again tonight.”
I decided not to mention how else her comment could be interpreted. “In case I’m not here later, I better get your number now.”
She laughed. “Hold your horses there, stud. I think you have more important things to worry about than lining up a date.”
“Is that a no?”
“It should be.”
I smiled. “We don’t have to line up a date. But could I at least get your number?” I glanced around for my phone but didn’t see it. “But I guess I don’t know where to write it down.”
“It looks like you’re out of luck.” It would have disappointed me, but that twinkle in her eye made me think there was still hope. “Are you sure you don’t want me to call your parents? I know they’ll want to see you.”
I let out a deep breath. “I might as well get this over with.”
“Don’t you want to see them?”
“Yes. Well, my parents. Probably not Molly and Ben, but I’ll have to face them eventually.” I hadn’t meant to say the Molly and Ben part out loud. Lucky for me, she didn’t comment on it.
“I’m going to go ahead and call them.”
I watched her retreating figure and decided she looked just as good from behind.
“Oh my god, Jake.” Mom nearly choked me in her excitement.
I decided complaining was a pretty bad idea, and let her attack—I mean hug me. “Hi, Mom.”
She was tired. It looked like she hadn’t slept in days—she probably hadn’t and it was my fault. “I’m so glad you’re awake.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You should be. What were you thinking?”
“He wasn’t thinking. That’s the problem.” Dad tried to sound hard, but I could see the emotion in his eyes. By the looks of him, he hadn’t slept any more than Mom.
Mom didn’t take her eyes off me. “I know you’re probably not ready to talk much yet, but at some point you’re going to tell us what happened.”
“You probably know more than I do.” I struggled to remember what happened, but I kept coming up against a wall once I got to the part with my Jeep flipping.
Mom took a seat beside me. “The police called to tell us they found your car flipped over and that you were already on your way over here. I know something happened between you and Ben, but he won’t tell me anything.”
“You don’t want to know.”
“You two hardly ever fight anymore. I don’t see how it could have been bad enough to cause this.” She gestured to me lying in a hospital bed.
“It wasn’t his fault.” I wasn’t going to let Mom blame Ben. This was my fault.
“I never said it was his fault. I just want to know what happened.”
Why the hell not? I figured I’d rather give my version instead of letting Ben tell it. “Daniela decided to tell the world about how we tried to break Molly and Ben up in high school.”
“You did what?” A look of horror crossed Mom’s face. She’d always loved Molly and wanted her around. “Wait, how’d you try to break them up?”
I swallowed. I didn’t want to admit this part. “Daniela tried to get him to cheat on Molly with her when we knew he was plastered.”
“But he didn’t, did he?” Mom didn’t seem as confident as I expected. Maybe she wasn’t as blinded by Ben’s perfectness as I thought.
“No. He wanted nothing to do with Daniela.”
Dad nodded. “Of course not. Ben had a one-track mind when it came to girls. You saw that and wanted to feel that way too.”
Mom looked at me. “That’s why you did it, isn’t it? You were jealous.”
“Yeah, and I liked her.”
Dad half laughed. “Liked her? Maybe you had a crush, but do you really think that’s what it was about?”
“It doesn’t matter. I was stupid, and I realized it pretty quickly afterward.” I think Dad was right. I was jealous. I’m pretty sure I liked Molly because she was the girl I couldn’t have.
Mom patted my leg through the blanket. “It was stupid, but Ben couldn’t have been that angry about it. It was years ago.”
“He’s angry. You should have seen the way he looked at me. And Molly—” I didn’t even want to think about what she thought of me now. We fought all the time, but she never actually hated me. “There’s more. I also sent a stupid picture that was pretty much the reason Molly decided to go to B.U.” I’d given Molly such a hard time about hurting Ben, but really I was the one who started the whole mess.
Mom smoothed out my blanket. “Molly wanted to try something new. If it wasn’t college, she would have done it later on, or worse, would have regretted her decision not to.” I wasn’t sure whether Mom was just trying to make me feel better or if she really believed it.
“I still messed things up for them.”
Mom rested her hand on the bed next to me. “That doesn’t explain how you ended up flipped over in a ditch.”
“It doesn’t? I was upset. I drank a little more than I should have.”
“A little more?” Dad shook his head. “How much did you drink, Jake?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“This has to stop. If it wasn’t your fight with Ben it would have happened anyway. We’ve been pushing it under the rug for years, but you have a problem.”
“I’m not an alcoholic if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Like hell you’re not.” He looked down and up again. “I’d know. I’m one too.”
I went to cross my arms but the tube from the IV stopped me. “What are you talking about? I’ve never seen you take a drink in my life.”
“Why do you think that is?” He ran a hand through his graying hair.
“I thought it was because of Grandpa…” I knew Dad’s dad had drinking problems. He’d been in AA my whole childhood.
“It was partly, but I really stopped because I almost missed Ben’s birth.”
“Shit.” The word slipped out before I could think.
“Jake!” Mom snapped at me.
“Sorry.”
“I’m lucky your mother didn’t kick me to the curb. Thankfully, your uncle got me in there in time. I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since.”
I didn’t know what to say. Why was he only telling me that now? Maybe if I’d known… I stopped that train of thought. It probably wouldn’t have changed anything. It’s not like I would have wanted to listen to him.
Dad didn’t wait for me to respond. “I already called Jim Morgan. He thinks he can keep you from doing any jail time because it’s a first offense, but there’s no way you’re getting out of this without at least some community service. You’re also going to lose your license. Jim thinks it might only be the minimum one year, but a 0.3 alcohol level is not a minor offense.”
Jim Morgan was Dad’s attorney. He’d only be talking to him about me for one reason. “Wait, I’m getting a DUI?”
“What did you think was going to happen?”
“I’m in the hospital…”
“Because you drove drunk. Thank the Lord you didn’t hurt anyone else.”
I hadn’t even thought about that. What if I’d hit someone? It was one thing to get myself sent to the hospital. If I’d hurt or killed someone else—I couldn’t even fathom it. I put my head in my hand. “What happens next?”
“You have a court date set up for next week. Now we wait to talk to the doctors and get you home.”
I looked up when I heard someone knocking on the open door.
“Can we come in?” Molly asked tentatively. Ben waited with her.
I made myself smile at her. “Yeah, definitely.”
“Why don’t we let you all talk? We’ll be in the waiting room.” Mom patted my hand before getting up. Dad gave me a small smile and followed her out.
I waited until my parents disappeared through the doorway. “I really f*cked up this time, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did.” Ben pulled a chair over, gesturing for Molly to take the one Mom had been using.
“I’m sorry.”
Ben leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “For scaring the hell out of us? Mom probably lost ten years off her life.”
“For this and the other stuff.”
“Am I pissed you tried to wreck my relationship with Molly? Yeah, but it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“That was ages ago, Jake. We were kids.” Molly touched my arm gently. I wasn’t used to her talking to me nicely.
“You really don’t care?” I’d spent the last six years worried that Ben would find out. What kind of guy tries to screw his brother over like that? It had to have been my low point. It didn’t help that Daniela suggested it right after we’d hooked up. We were both using each other. I was the closest thing she could get to Ben, and she gave me sex without asking for anything more.
Ben straightened. His expression told me he wished he was anywhere but there. He wasn’t the only one. “I already told you I was annoyed, but it’s over. Let’s stop talking about it.”
Molly looked like she wanted to say something but closed her mouth.
“Just say it.”
She studied her lap. “Did you really have a thing for me?”
I smiled, waiting for her to look at me. “Yes, as misguided as it was.”
She laughed. “I had a crush on you once too.”
“You did?” Ben and I said at the same time.
“For over a year, actually. I thought I’d lost my mind. I was supposed to hate you.”
“What changed your mind?” I asked.
“I fell for Ben in eighth grade.”
“Your crush was in middle school? That doesn’t count.”
“What did you expect? Ben and I started dating when I was fifteen.” She rolled her eyes. Usually it annoyed me when she did that, but I liked it this time.
“It’s good to have the real Molly back.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know how to deal with you when you’re nice.” I smirked. Smirking always pissed her off.
“Like you should talk? Are you ever nice?”
“Just like old times.” Ben put an arm around Molly’s shoulders.
That conversation went better than I expected. Somehow I knew I wouldn’t be able to fix the DUI problem as easily.