Wrecked and Yours

by James, CeeCee

  Miranda stared at the text message. Dane again. What’s with this guy?

  Jason shifted the truck and stepped on the brake. Miranda glanced at him as she slid her phone back into her purse. No use getting him riled up about it just yet.

  “What do you think about Cassie?” Miranda asked. Her sister had made huge improvements, and was healing fast. The doctors were releasing her to a rehabilitation center soon. And once her muscles were strong enough to continue treatment at home, she’d be released for good.

  “You going to be ready for her when she comes home?”

  “I’m nervous, I’ve got to admit.” Miranda bounced high off the seat as Jason hit the hospital speed bump hard. “Dude!”

  He smirked. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

  Cassie was sitting in her armchair when they arrived in her room.

  “Wow! You look cute.” Miranda commented as she walked up to give her a hug. Cassie’s blonde hair had grown where it had been shaved. She had a silver stretchy headband pulling the rest of her hair back, and eye makeup on for the first time.

  Cassie dipped her head at the compliment and her cheeks colored.

  “What do you think of our girl?” Miranda said to Jason. But he wasn’t paying attention, instead stood glaring at the other corner. Miranda pushed back the hospital curtain to look. A young man nervously sat in the chair, paling under their gaze.

  Clearing her throat, Cassie got their attention. “Miranda, Jason, this is Leif.”

  Leif sprung up and offered his hand to Jason.

  Oh no, Miranda thought, seeing the burn in Jason’s eyes. He took the proffered hand and gave it a bone-crackling squeeze.

  “It’s nice to meet you.” Leif tried to hold his own. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “I’ve heard nothing about you.” Jason released his hand.

  Leif licked his lips and nodded, before offering the smashed hand to Miranda. She wanted to give it a harsh squeeze too, but something about Leif’s brown eyes softened her. He was just a kid, maybe eighteen himself. Gangly and thin, his clothes hung on him like he hadn’t yet grown into his height, but his face had a sweetness about it. Miranda took his hand gently. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “It’s nice to meet you too,” he said. “Uh, please sit.” He waved at his chair.

  “I’ll stand,” Jason glowered. Leif swallowed, but stood up tall.

  “Well, since we’re all here, we have something to tell you,” Cassie said.

  Miranda lowered herself to the bed as a wave dizziness swept over her. No, please not marriage…

  “I wanted to tell you sooner, but Leif asked me to wait until he was here.”

  Leif walked over and held her hand. “You want to tell them or do you want me to?” he asked gently.

  Her eyes shone with tears. “Oh my gosh, I didn’t think this would affect me.” She brushed them away, before looking at her sister. “Leif and I were going to have a baby together. I lost the baby in the accident.”

  Miranda let out a deep exhale. “I’m so sorry, Cassie.”

  “It’s okay.” Cassie bit her lip. “It was one of those things we thought would never happen to us. To be honest, I completely freaked out when I found out I was pregnant. So it’s hard not to feel guilty now.”

  “It’s going to take some time to process,” Miranda said. “What is it you always tell me? It’s not your fault.”

  “I know this isn’t the best way to be introduced to someone’s family,” Leif said. “I just wanted you to know that I love your sister.”

  “Yeah?” Jason stared him down. “Where have you been all this time?”

  Leif squared his shoulders. “I wasn’t allowed in the room because I wasn’t a family member. It’s been torture. You have no idea.” His mouth flickered in an expression of pain. Cassie picked his hand off her shoulder and kissed it. The corners of his lips slightly lifted. “I’ve been here every day since she woke up.”

  “How come I’ve never seen you?” Jason demanded.

  “It hasn’t been easy,” Cassie admitted. “We had the nurses in on it, too, trying to keep everyone separated. I just wasn’t ready for you all to meet until I felt stronger.”

  “It isn’t the way I would have done it, but I wanted to do what was best for her,” Leif added.

  “Wow.” Miranda blinked. “So clandestine. I’m glad we finally get to meet you and the secrets are out of the bag.”

  “Me too, because you are going to be seeing a lot of me,” Leif said.

  Cassie laughed. “Thanksgiving, Christmas.”

  Jason’s eyes bulged and he rubbed the back of his neck. “I need some fresh air. See you tomorrow, okay, Cassie?” He leaned over to kiss her cheek. Standing back up, he frowned as he looked at Leif.

  Miranda pantomimed to her sister, Call me. Cassie gave her a thumbs up.

  “It was nice meeting you, Leif.”

  He waved. “You too.

  Turning, Miranda could see Jason’s anger in his squared shoulders, and she put her hand on his back to steer him out of the room. As soon as she shut the door Jason let lose a string of curses. “… pencil neck little—”

  She grabbed his hand and yanked him along to the elevator, her face burning bright red as the nurses turned to see what the ruckus was about.

  “Calm down, Jason.”

  He took some deep breaths while they waited for the elevator.

  “I just want to say, I understand you’re upset. But, remember, she’s an adult.”

  That had the opposite effect and his eyes sparked again.

  The elevator arrived and Miranda dragged him in. “You know what,” she said hurriedly, “let’s think about all of this tomorrow. It’s a beautiful day. Let me take you to lunch.”

  “I’m not hungry,” he said, a little pouty as the door slid closed.

  “No?”

  “Well, maybe a little.”

  “All right. Poison pizza it is.” She triumphantly stabbed the second floor button for the cafeteria.

  He gave a ghost of a crooked grin. “You know what would really cheer me up? Your old man laugh.” He gave her ribs a little poke.

  “Ahh!” she giggled, “Don’t do that!” Batting him with her hands, she tried to fend him off as they arrived on their floor.

  They exited the elevator and an elderly woman stopped them. “Oh my goodness. You two are such a cute couple!”

  Miranda’s eyebrows raised and a blush crept up her neck.

  “Thank you,” Jason answered.

  “You remind me of me and my Howard. We were together fifty-two years. How long have you two been married?”

  “We’re not married.” Miranda blurted. “Just friends. He’s like my brother.”

  “Oh.” The lady’s smile fell. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” Miranda said, shriveling inside with embarrassment at her over-the-top reaction. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought about it before, herself.

  The lady nodded again, a bemused look on her face, before shuffling off to the cafeteria.

  Miranda didn’t know where to look after that.

  Jason quietly chuckled. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, leading her to the outside door. “I actually have other plans for today.”

  “Oh yeah, what plans?”

  “I’m thinking it’s a good day to go to the zoo.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yeah, you said you hadn’t been in years. Me either. Let’s go.”

  “Heck, yes!” Miranda held the door open for him, filled with renewed energy.

  At the truck, Jason gave her one of his thoughtful glances.

  He put the key in the ignition but didn’t turn it. “Hey, I need you to do me a favor.”

  “What?”

  “You know, that thing you do when you feel awkward when people say we’re a great couple.”

  Miranda bit her lip.

  “You told that lady I’m like a brother to you. You’ve done that before. I hat
e that.” He rubbed along his jaw with his hand and then gave a small laugh.His green eyes flashed at her. “I mean, I get it. It’s weird when they say that. But it’s okay to just leave it that we are friends. Don’t tack that brother thing on.”

  “Okay.” Miranda raised her hands. “No more brother.”

  “I mean, you’re sexy as hell, and that would be a weird thing for a brother to think. Right?”

  Miranda blushed and shoved him on the shoulder. “Shut up, Jason.”

  He grinned for a moment, then slid back into his serious look. “Besides, I think you’re saying it just to protect yourself. You know, put everything in a neat box so you don’t have to think about it any more.”

  Miranda felt a zing of defensiveness. She was about to protest, but didn’t want to give him the satisfaction by reacting. “Hm, I’ll have to think about that.”

  “Yeah, okay.” He turned the key, and spun the volume on the radio. “Lets go check out the monkeys.”

  The zoo was packed with troops of kids from different schools, all wearing matching t-shirts and being herded through the animal exhibits by harried counselors. “Reminds me of the last time I was here,” Miranda said, just before her foot got mashed by one of the boys.

  “This might be why the term rugrat is thrown out so fondly.” Jason scanned the crowd. He noticed her grimace. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Nothing a little cotton candy can’t fix?”

  “Absolutely need cotton candy right now!”

  “Oh my word!” A loud squeal rang across the monkey compound. Claudia hurried over with her two little daughters in matching dresses in tow. “Look at you two! So adorable!” she winked at Jason. “I knew you’d end up together.”

  “Claudia! What are you doing here?” Then, with the merest glance at Jason, “Naw, he and I are just friends.”

  “Friends? I know friends when I see them, and I ain’t seeing it here.”

  Miranda ignored her coworker and leaned down to the girls. “How do you like the zoo? I’m Miranda, by the way.”

  Claudia’s oldest daughter was about six. She smiled shyly, showing her missing two top teeth. “I liked the butterfly house,” she lisped.

  “Oh, I guess I’m going to have to go visit that one next.” Miranda nodded.

  “Well, we have to get moving if we’re ever going to get through this place. Right, girls? I still haven’t seen the elephants yet.” Grabbing her daughters’ hands, Claudia threw a “Have a glorious day!” over her shoulder, and teetered away on her high heels.

  “How does she do that without busting an ankle?” Jason watched them leave, shaking his head. Then he smiled. “You did better.”

  “What? I freaking rocked that! You owe me cotton candy, stat.”

  He took her hand inside his own big one and they headed towards the snack-shack. Miranda suddenly had a prickly feeling that someone was watching her. She casually turned her head to look around, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just crowds of kids screaming and tired mothers pushing strollers. She realized Jason was talking to her. “What?” she asked.

  “Pink or blue,” He pointed to the flavors of cotton candy.

  “Oh, pink of course.” She smiled with anticipation, the creepy feeling forgotten.

  Chapter Twenty-Five Present Day

  Jason had taken the week for his yearly fishing vacation. But instead of fishing, yesterday he and Miranda had spent the previous day getting Cassie settled into the rehabilitation center. Leif had been there also, and although Jason avoided him, Miranda watched him carefully. He seemed very attentive of Cassie, and her face lit up whenever he spoke to her. Still out for judgment, she thought to herself, but he’s looking better.

  And today when Miranda came downstairs, Jason was trying to get the waffle maker to work.

  “Not fishing?” Miranda questioned.

  “Naw, I’ll go tomorrow.” He opened the waffle maker lid, and started to swear. The waffle had peeled apart, firmly sticking to both the top and bottom of the griddle.

  “This is why I do frozen ones.” Miranda patted his arm. “Just pop them in the toaster.” She walked to the freezer and pulled out a package. Tossing it to him, she said, “You can learn much from me, grasshoppah.”

  He caught it with a raised eyebrow. “Do you even know what’s in this? Have you ever looked?”

  She pulled out the box and squinted at the ingredients. “Too much reading for this early in the morning,” she said, shoving it back in the freezer.

  He shook his head, but opened the bottom cupboard and hauled out the toaster.

  After breakfast, they both walked down to the lake. The water was calm, rippling with a thousand sparkles from the sun. Miranda threw a stick out into the water for Archer. The dog swam for it, just his dark head bobbing on the surface.

  Miranda clapped her hands as he brought the stick back. “What a good boy!”

  Archer shook himself dry.

  “Ahh!” Jason yelled at the unexpected shower. “Crazy dog.” He yanked his t-shirt up, showing off his muscular stomach, and wiped his face.

  The corner of Miranda’s lip turned up. “Come here, Archer. Let me throw that stick again.”

  Jason looked at her with raised eyebrows. He grabbed her hand. “Come on, I have somewhere I’ve been wanting to take you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  The shore was littered with driftwood. Jason held her hand more firmly as they climbed over an old log. Miranda smiled at the feeling.

  The bank next to them began to rise into a steep cliff the farther they walked. Soon, the beach was constricted to a thin strip between the base of the cliff and the water.

  “I’m taking my shoes off.” Jason slipped off his sneakers and knotted the laces together. He slung them around his neck.

  Miranda carried hers in her hand.

  The water gently lapped at their feet as they walked along the base of the cliff.

  When they came around the bend there was a pinnacle of land that stood alone where it had detached from the main cliff, like a candle on the beach. The sides leading to its plateau were gentler, but still fairly steep.

  It took Miranda all of two seconds to figure out what Jason wanted her to see. She stopped in her tracks before turning to stare open-mouthed at him. “You’re not making me go up there.”

  He grinned hard but tried to hide it by rubbing his jaw. “Come on,” he coaxed.

  “Shut. Up. Jason. No freaking way.”

  “I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “You know I’m terrified of heights. Are you serious?”

  “Yeah I am. This is going to be great.” Then he looked her in the eye. “Trust me, will you? Just this once?”

  Miranda groaned. He was pulling out the trust card. It was so completely unfair.

  “Come on. Follow me. I promise it will be easy.”

  “Yeah?” Miranda pointed to the overhang at the top. “That doesn’t look easy to me.” She arched her eyebrow at him.

  Jason laughed. “Seriously, it will be fine. I promise. Just put your feet where mine are.”

  Her stomach did a flip-flop as she looked up its sides, her inner voice saying, Can’t do this, no way, no how.

  “Come on,” Jason said, his eyes daring her. “Show me how brave you really are.”

  Her eyes narrowed at the challenge.

  The first few feet weren’t too bad. There was a rock at just the right distance for a handhold. Miranda followed him, placing her hand exactly where she’d seen him place his. Every now and then he’d glance back, and tell her where to put her foot.

  It was about half way up, when a river of sand rolled passed her, that things started to feel a little sketchy.

  “Err, Jason?”

  He glanced up to judge the distance, the cords in his neck standing out. “We’re almost there. I’ll make you a steak dinner for your reward.”

 
“I can cook my own steak,” she huffed, grabbing a grass tuft to pull herself higher, her thigh muscles trembling from the strain. “I made it last week, remember?”

  “That was a steak? I thought you were attempting to turn carbon into diamonds.”

  “Ha, ha, ha.” Miranda said dryly. “The mistake was the seasoning.” She slid her hand into the crevasse where he’d just had his foot. She couldn’t be too mad at him. He was trying to distract her and doing a pretty darn good job. Besides, even Archer had turned his nose up at the meat.

  A few more feet, and Jason was climbing onto the ledge below the overhang. He reached down to give her his hand and pulled her up. “This isn’t going to be bad,” he said. “But I know it feels scary. I’ll boost you to the top. You’ll pull yourself over and away from the edge, and I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Pull myself…” She craned her head to see the top of the ledge. “Can’t you go first?”

  “Not this time.” He bent over and laced his fingers together. “Come on, you can do it.”

  Miranda’s pulse thundered in her ears. She put her foot in his hand and balanced with her other hand on the top of his head.

  “Ready.”

  “As I’ll ever be,” she said resignedly.

  He stood with ease, lifting her to the edge. She scrambled forward until she could grab some roots to pull herself the rest of the way, while he pushed from underneath.

  Once up, she wiggled to the center of the plateau and hugged her knees. Jason grunted as he hauled himself up next to her. He stood on the plateau and chuckled. “Wow, would you look at that?”

  “It’s beautiful,” Miranda said, her blue eyes squeezed tight.

  “It’s okay.” He scooted closer to her. “I’m here, I’ve got you.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. “We’re going to stand together. Count of three.”

  “On three, or after three,” she laughed weakly.

  “You’re such a goof.” At three, he stood up, lifting her with him.

  She buried her face into his chest. Her legs felt loose and weak. “Don’t let go,” she breathed into his shirt.

  “Hey, I’m not going to let you go. I’ve got you, remember?” He squeezed her close to him for a moment, and she felt his heart beat. Slowly, he rubbed his hand down her back. “Okay, I want you to turn around. I swear I’m not letting go.”