Soft lips touch mine. I remember these lips. I remember the first time I kissed these lips. I remember every time I kissed these lips. I definitely remember how badly I wanted to kiss these lips before I ever got the chance in the first place.
But I also remember the pain. The heartache. I remember how quickly our marriage fell apart and I remember why. I remember the venom that spewed forth from these lips and crushed me into nothing.
Sometimes the good isn’t worth the bad.
This time the good definitely isn’t worth the bad.
As his tongue teases the seam of my lips, begging for access, his hands hold me tight.
My own hand pushes up between us and clamps over his mouth. I shove with all of my strength and send him stumbling back a few steps, looking startled. “No!”
“Elle…”
“I don’t want that again.”
“We could…”
My trembling hands clench into fists by my sides. “No. I’m not going back. There’s no going back.”
He reaches for me. “Let me explain. You just need to listen…”
“I don’t want to.” I go to open the door, but his hand snags my wrist.
“Elle… you need to…”
“I said I don’t want to!” I shout, effectively silencing him. “I don’t want this; I don’t want to be with you at all.”
That hard mask that I know so well comes flying down. “Did you ever love me?” He moves towards me. “Tell me the truth… did you?”
“What does it even matter, Isaac? We’re done. It’s been four fucking years and I’ve only just gotten my shit together.”
“Me too, Elle! You don’t know how hard it’s been.”
I don’t? “I’m leaving.”
I pull the door open and step out into the cool air. My body feels numb. I just need to get out of here.
“Wait,” he pleads, grabbing the back of my jacket. Why can’t he just leave me alone? “I’m sorry… I pushed. I shouldn’t have.” I don’t respond. What exactly can I say? I pull free and begin down the driveway. “Elle!” He calls after me but I don’t stop.
Fuck him.
Fuck him and everything about him.
Those tears I promised myself I wouldn’t release are now falling down my face.
Isaac
“Eloise.” I grab her arm and spin her around. The tears falling from her eyes shatter me. I knew it wouldn’t happen, I knew it couldn’t be, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking. “I’ll take you home.”
She sniffs and wipes away her tears with the back of her hand. “I can walk.”
“Please… I’ve been unfair. I promise I won’t bring it up again.” I mean it too. It was wrong of me to even ask her for this. Even if she did take me back, we’d still be living a lie. There’s so much she doesn’t know, so much that would ruin us if she ever found out.
I just panicked. The thought of never getting another chance with her like this forced my hand. I’m an idiot.
If I’m going to even try to bring her back, she needs to know everything that happened.
She’s just not ready to hear it yet, not after this stupid error on my part. I mentally kick myself. How could I have been so stupid?
She follows me to the car in silence and I help her in, partly because I’m scared that if I let go of her, even for a second, she’ll walk away.
“I need my phone back,” she tells me before I start the engine.
I forgot about that. Even though it has been vibrating against my dick for the past ten minutes.
I pull it out, laughing when she scrunches up her nose and takes it back after wrapping it in some kind of facial wipe. She sprays the screen with hand sanitiser and then the back before rubbing it.
“I’m sorry,” I say genuinely.
Her silence only further pushes the knife of rejection into my heart.
She’s resolute. She doesn’t want me. She said so.
I could tell her body wanted me but not her mind or her heart.
Can I blame her?
Nope.
“You’re disgusting,” she says, her tone neutral.
At first I think she’s talking about the way I behaved but I see the tilt in her lips and realise she’s referring to the phone incident.
I smile a little, though it’s half hearted.
“I’m sorry, Isaac,” she whispers as I put the car into gear. The sound of sorrow in her voice hurts me almost as much as her rejection. The fact that she thinks she has anything to apologise for is crazy.
“Don’t.” I place my hand over hers. “I understand. It’s me who should be sorry.”
“I guess we left things so suddenly that we didn’t have proper closure.”
“Probably.”
“At least now we…” she exhales. “Now we can move on.”
I clench my jaw and nod. So close… if I hadn’t have pushed her I might’ve been able to slot myself back into her life. I’ve fucked it now. There’s no coming back from this. Her mind is set.
I just… I don’t want to give up.
But she deserves so much better.
“You’ll still sign the papers… right?”
I tense but nod. I’m not one to renege on a deal. “As promised.”
Her body deflates; mine only stiffens further.
Is this it? Are we actually done now? As soon as I sign those papers, we’re finished. There’s no going back.
“Isaac!” Eloise screams and I see a blur of green.
The sound of metal crunching and glass shattering sounds around me. I feel my body lurch to the side violently and scramble to gain control of my car. It’s impossible. We’re pushed off the road and I see a flash of field before the bottom of the ditch gets closer. There’s a pain in my side but my arm goes across to find Elle. I push back on her chest as we begin to tip.
The car rolls onto Elle’s side; she makes no noise but I see the metal door bend inwards.
Creaking, crunching and groaning send me in a panic. We’re going to tip upside down. I grab the wheel and turn it to the left, relieved when we fall into an upright position. The jolt would have bounced me out of my seat if not for my seatbelt.
“Elle?” I undo my seatbelt after only a second to gather myself. My head spins and my lungs clog with the smoke coming from the engine. It burns my throat and tastes foul on my tongue. “Elle, baby?”
She remains strapped to her seat; her hair is over her face.
I brush it back and gently lean over her so I can see better. She’s out. Blood is gushing down her neck and shoulder. More blood is trickling from her ear and even more from her mouth.
“No!” I beg, feeling my panic rise. “No, no, no.”
My door flies open and a man comes into view. He’s speaking but there’s a ringing in my ears making it impossible for me to hear a thing that comes out of his mouth.
He presses me back into my seat and holds me there, all the while talking to me.
The world spins around me but I need to help Elle. I need to make sure she’s okay.
She’s breathing, barely. What if she dies?
Slowly and surely my ears begin to settle and my scrambled brain begins to function.
“There’s an ambulance on its way,” a woman yells as the man holds me in place.
“What’s your name? Can you tell me your name?” He asks when I look at him.
“Isaac.” Why is he holding me down? “I need to get to Elle. Let go.”
My numb arms lift and then flop into my lap.
“You need to remain still and calm.”
The smoke burns my lungs and the fear of the engine explosion sends me diving for my seatbelt. Strength I didn’t know I had courses through me. We need to get out of this car.
“You don’t need to; it’s fine. The fire is out.” He slams me back as my strength wavers and then diminishes to nothing. It fades away with the lingering smoke.
I blink, trying to focus.
Nothing.
Chapter Seven
Eloise
My head throbs and there’s an awful pain shooting through my arm.
Nausea bubbles in my stomach and I lurch upwards before vomiting. Whoever is with me must have seen it coming because I feel soft cardboard knock against my chin.
Hot flashes of pain overwhelm me with each heave. My ribs ache. I feel so sore.
“It’s okay; you’re okay.” My mum’s voice breaks through the tired fog of my mind.
I blink and rest back once the heaving stops. “Toothbrush.”
“I’ll fetch one soon.” She pushes my hair out of my face as I blink my eyes rapidly. The blur finally subsides enough for me to take in my mum and my surroundings.
My dad is sitting to my right, holding my hand, and my mum is on my left.
“What… what happened?” I look down at the IV in my arm and the tight bandage around my other wrist. “Was I in an accident?”
“A car smashed into the side of Isaac’s just off the hill,” my dad explains softly.
It all starts coming back to me. We were at a junction. The light turned green for us so we drove through. A green car came flying through the red light to the left. Isaac swerved and the green car swerved, but he hit the front corner of the bonnet. I remember spinning.
My hand flies to my head as I recall cracking my forehead against the passenger side window.
There’s a bandage around my forehead but it’s not too thick.
“You needed glue. It wasn’t a bad cut; your hair will hide the scar,” my mum explains, though I’m not worried about scarring.
“Isaac?” I panic and look around the room. “Where’s Isaac?”
My dad clicks his fingers in front of my face. “Are you hearing me?” I focus on his lips as the sound travels to my left ear but not my right.
“Am I deaf?”
“Temporarily,” a doctor says as he steps into the room. “Hi there, Eloise Price?” I nod, not bothering to correct him. “I’m Doctor Lamar. How are you feeling?”
“Like I got hit by a car,” I comment dryly.
My mum moves out of his way as he checks me over and asks me a series of routine questions. He explains that I have a concussion and mild head trauma, a perforated eardrum and some damage to my tongue where I must have bitten it. My wrist is broken but it’s a clean break so it will only need to be in a cast for a few weeks.
“And Isaac?” I ask for the thirtieth time. I’m getting annoyed now.
“Your husband is fine; he’s eager to see you,” the doctor says and I’m not sure why they couldn’t have told me that to begin with. “A few cuts and bruises and possibly a broken rib, but otherwise he’s okay.”
“Thank you,” I say, though I don’t know who I’m thanking.
“We’re keeping you in overnight, purely because we’d like to monitor your concussion.”
“How long until I get my hearing back?” A high pitched ringing sounds from deep in my head, reminding me of the affliction.
“A few days. I wouldn’t worry too much. You got off lightly considering the car damage.”
I disagree but I don’t say as much. I wait for him to finish what he’s got to do.
“I want to see Isaac,” I say as soon as the doctor leaves.
My dad’s fists clench by his side. “Why?”
“Because we were in an accident,” I reply, annoyed by his tone.
My mum kisses me on my good hand and links her arm with my dad’s. “I’ll send him in.”
I pull myself up, careful of my injuries. My entire body feels stiff and sore.
It only takes a minute after they leave before Isaac is strolling into the room, fully clothed in a t-shirt and jeans. He looks okay except for a few scratches on his face and a bandaged forearm.
“I thought…” He says, staring at me with parted lips from the end of my bed. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” I tell him and motion to the chair by the bed. “I’m fine. You’re fine. Your car on the other hand…”
“I don’t care about that.” He sits and his jaw clenches. “How are you?”
“I’m not as bad as I probably look, judging by your expression.”
“I want to hold you,” he admits with difficulty. “But after today…”
Wincing, I pull myself further up the bed and rest my broken arm on my lap. “You can.” Truth is, after this ordeal I need a hug.
“I can’t.” He looks away, his eyes tortured and pained.
I want to ask him why but I’m scared of the answer.
“What happened exactly?” I say instead.
His expression hardens with anger. “That arsehole driver.”
“What happened to him?”
“The Police picked him up half a mile down the road trying to run away from the scene on foot. He’s unharmed.”
I wince. “Drinking?”
“You guessed it. People sicken me.”
“Let’s be grateful it was us he hit. Someone else might not have been so fortunate.”
He lifts my hand carefully. His larger hands clasp it between them. Soft lips touch my knuckles before his forehead comes to rest there. “I’ve been so worried. Your parents wouldn’t let me see you.”
“I’m sorry.” I do feel a little guilty about that. I put them as my next of kin after we separated. “But I’m okay. Sore… but okay.”
“You’ve been in and out of it for almost two hours now.”
The doctor already told me this, said it was a side effect of the adrenaline, morphine and concussion. “I don’t remember much.”
He kisses my hand again and rests his head on my lap. The urge to stroke his hair is too strong. “I’m sorry, Elle.”
This time I don’t think he’s saying sorry for the crash. It feels deeper than that.
My fingers thread through the back of his growing hair. I tease the locks gently as a way to soothe him. He moans and buries his face deeper into my lap.
I smile a little and rest my head back. The dizziness keeps fading in and out. This time I let it swallow me; it’s starting to become a relaxing feeling.
Isaac wraps a hand around my thigh as I continue to comb his hair with my fingers. “I can’t let you go. Not now.” I’m almost certain he whispers, though I can’t be sure.
Sleep claims me.
Isaac
The man and woman who saved our lives have called the ward twice and left their number. I manage to catch them and thank them profusely. It seems they’re married and were in the car behind us when the crash happened. It was fortunate that they weren’t pulled into the collision by mistake. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank them enough. If they hadn’t put out the fire, if they hadn’t called for an ambulance… I dread to think.
We talk for a while longer; they even ask if we need anything fetching. The goodness of these people seems to never end. I promise them that I’ll pay them back somehow and, despite their arguments and refusals, I will. I don’t know how but I will.
I hang up just as my dad turns onto the ward. To say he looks worried is an understatement. I told them not to call him. I didn’t want to worry him so I didn’t call him until I had news of both mine and Eloise’s good health.
“You’re both okay?”
I nod, even though I reassured him over the phone that all is as well as can be considering the circumstances. “We’re both okay. It could have been worse. We escaped with clean breaks and a few scrapes.” Speaking of breaks, my ribs ache.
“Where is she?”
“She’s in there.” He makes a move but I stop him with my hand on his arm. “Give her a moment though; she’s getting cleaned up.”
“You should have called when it happened.”
I shake my head. “Pointless worrying you.”
“What happens now? Shouldn’t you be resting?”
/>
“He refuses,” my nurse says with a raised brow as she passes us, a thick manila envelope in hand.
“Isaac.” Dad chastises.
I cringe a little. “I haven’t officially discharged myself.”
“But you are, because you’re stupid and stubborn.”
“And just like my dad.” I give him my most mischievous grin and hope he lets me off.
“I’d punch you if I thought it would do any good,” he grumbles. My charm is clearly lost on him.
“Eloise Blackburn.” Our heads whip around at the sound of Elle’s name. It’s coming from the nurses’ station. A tall man with dark skin and a buzzed head stands in front of the desk. He looks stressed; his fingers are laced behind his neck as he chews on his lip. “She was in a car accident.” He adds after the nurse says something else.
My heart stops. Is this one of her friends?
I notice the large bouquet of purple flowers resting on the desk and the teddy bear beside them that holds a love heart between its paws.
“Room three, just down there.” I see her arm stretch over the desk and her hand bends in our direction.
“Thank you.” He turns our way but doubles back when he realises he’s forgotten his gifts.
He’s just a very concerned friend. I repeat this in my head when he strolls past us without a glance and disappears into Elle’s room.
“Just a friend,” I mutter.
My dad doesn’t say anything but now he seems unsure as to whether or not we should go in.
We wait for just under eight minutes. My dad figures this is long enough, though I’m not sure I want to go in there at all. I’m scared of what I’ll discover.
“Come on.” My dad strolls ahead and stops outside her door. I follow and wait for him to knock.
The door opens and it’s the guy with the gifts. He looks at us, we look at him, and then he looks to Elle who we can’t yet see.
“I hope we’re not intruding,” Dad says loudly so Elle can hear him.
“Not at all,” the guy responds, smiling a little when Elle presumably gives him the nod.
Distinction: The Distraction Trilogy #3 Page 7