by Tara Mills
“What happened?” he asked, tears finally welling in his eyes.
Tanya sobbed. “We saw you. Sabrina saw you—with her.” She looked at Kelli.
Jackson turned and beckoned Kelli over. She hesitated before approaching them.
“Tanya, this is Kelli, my dad’s wife. Kelli, this is Tanya.”
Tanya’s fingers dug into his arms, hard. “Are you telling me this was all just a stupid mistake?” She looked ill.
“Looks that way. Kelli, I’m sorry but I’ll call you later. I need to get over to the hospital.”
“Then that woman…” Kelli said, the situation beginning to dawn on her.
“Is Sabrina Eckhart, my Sabrina.”
“Oh, Jackson, no.” Her face contorted in distress. “Would it be okay if I called your dad?”
“Yes.” He looked down at Tanya and stepped back. “Do you want to ride with me?”
She wiped at her eyes and nodded.
“We’ll see you there,” Kelli said, hurrying to her car with the phone pressed to her ear.
Chapter 30
“How could she be so reckless, so damn stupid?” Jackson asked, kicking it down and breaking the speed limit as they hauled ass to the hospital.
“I sure didn’t help,” Tanya admitted. “I wasn’t exactly the voice of reason, either. I saw you two, same as Sabrina, and assumed the worst.”
“Well, thanks,” he said, with a bite of anger. Jackson shifted gears and they shot around another car. “For your information, I would never cheat. I thought Sabrina understood that. She knew my background, knew how hard I’ve been on my dad for being a faithless shit. I can’t believe she’d think I was capable of that! This is totally fucked up. I don’t know if I’m more hurt or pissed—not to mention I’m sweating bullets over here because she’s just been hit by a goddamned SUV!”
Tanya’s foot punched the floor and she grabbed the dashboard. “Could you slow it down a little, please?”
He eased off and shot a look her way. “I’m sorry. I’m not handling this very well.”
“You scared her.”
His eyes darted back for a second. “I scared her?”
“Yes.”
“What the hell did I do?”
Tanya sighed. “She said you were different last night after we ate—distant. You withdrew and it really worried her. She didn’t know why, and without an explanation to reassure her, she came up with all kinds of ideas on her own.”
Jackson was silent for a minute while he chewed on that. Finally he let out a bitter laugh. “It was Emma.”
“Pardon me?”
“Emma—and before you jump to another ridiculous conclusion,” he said, pointing his finger at her, “that really paints me in a shitty light, listen up. Fifteen minutes alone with Emma was all it took to scare me about my future. I realized I’m not ready to handle kids yet. I’m serious—believe me, I’m getting incredibly serious—about Sabrina, but I just don’t want to think about more than that right now. I went to talk about that with my brother when I left.”
“Are you better now?”
“No. I should have talked to Sabrina. This wouldn’t have happened if she wasn’t feeling insecure about us. I didn’t realize I left her that way.”
“You pulled a Houdini.”
“I know that now.” He put on his signal and turned into the hospital ramp. “Dig Sabrina’s phone out of her purse. We’re going to have to call her family.”
It struck Jackson as he and Tanya ran inside the ER waiting room that he was spending way too much time here lately, and this was confirmed when the woman working the reception desk rolled her eyes and said, “You again?”
“No,” he said breathlessly. “My girlfriend was just brought in. She was in an accident. Sabrina Eckhart?”
“They took her up to surgery. I can’t tell you more than that.”
Tanya moaned and sagged against the desk, and Jackson put his hand under her arm. “Thank you. We’ll be over there if you hear anything.”
“Hospital policy doesn’t allow me to give that information out to anyone but immediate family.”
“I understand.”
They retreated to the far side of the waiting room, well away from all the commotion, and Jackson held his hand out for Sabrina’s phone.
Tanya settled into a chair while Jackson wandered, one hand covering his ear, the phone pressed to the other. When he turned, all she could see was Edvard Munch’s disturbing painting The Scream. That’s exactly what she felt like doing, but she was all screamed out, her throat raw on the inside. She didn’t know if she had any tears left. She was parched and unable to care enough to do anything about it. Her eyes flickered over all the people waiting, and she tried not to dwell too long on any of them. It felt wrong, and it disturbed her to witness other people’s misery.
Jackson came back, slipping the phone into his pants pocket. He dropped into the chair across the aisle from her, and Tanya heaved a sigh of relief that she wasn’t alone anymore.
“I got hold of Andy. He’s going to take it from here. Sounds like everyone will be coming.”
Tanya’s eyes bugged out. “Not Wyatt?”
Jackson paled. “Let’s hope not.”
“He’s just a little too…”
“Rambunctious?” Jackson offered helpfully.
“Better than what I was going to say.”
Jackson snorted in agreement.
They sat in silence for several minutes, each absorbed in their own thoughts. Eventually Jackson looked up. “Sabrina honestly thought I was messing around on her?”
“Well, from where we were standing it looked like you were pretty friendly with that other woman.”
“Kelli,” he reminded her. “She was showing me her sonogram. She’s expecting.”
“This is your dad’s wife?” Tanya asked, frowning.
“I know, it sounds strange, doesn’t it, but it’s the truth.” Jackson looked around. “I’m going to find a Coke machine. Can I bring you something?”
“Diet?”
“I’ll be back.”
The machines must have been close because he wasn’t gone long. He handed her a cold bottle and she uncapped the top and tipped it back, almost choking on the fizz.
He dropped back into his chair and took a long swig from his bottle. When he lowered it again, Tanya was watching him pensively.
Jackson’s whole body tensed. “What’s wrong? Did you hear something?”
“No. I was just thinking.”
“Well, you’re making the hair on my arms stand straight up. What is it?”
“Don’t hurt her,” Tanya said softly. “Sabrina, I mean.”
He snorted ruefully. “It’s a little late for that.”
Jackson dropped forward, his elbows on his knees, and cradled his head in his hand. That’s how Hal and Kelli found him when they came through the automatic doors.
One arm around his bride, Hal went to his despondent son and sank onto the chair beside him. He reached out, a tentative hand hovering over his back. “Jackson?”
Jackson turned and gave him a feeble smile, but it was enough of an acknowledgement, and Hal sighed and gave his son’s shoulder a comforting squeeze.
Kelli sat beside her husband, her face clearly echoing her distress at the awkwardness between the men.
Jackson took a deep breath and peeked out from behind his hand.
“Sabrina’s in surgery,” he said finally. “We don’t know any more than that.”
“Then she’s in good hands,” Kelli said, her eyes filled with kindness. She turned to Tanya. “How are you holding up? Okay?”
“I’m still numb, but at least I don’t feel like screaming nonstop anymore, so I guess that’s an improvement.”
Jackson nodded, agreeing with her. Then he kicked back, loose and exhausted, in his chair. His Coke bottle hung limp by the neck from his fingers and he let his head drop back. His eyes rolled toward the ceiling. “I wonder what’s going on up there
.”
Tanya shuddered. “I’m trying not to.”
The automatic doors slid open and she shot to her feet as Sabrina’s parents came rushing in, followed by Andy and Toni. They spotted Tanya immediately and made their way over.
Jackson rose, and rather than take Mrs. Eckhart’s hands reaching out to him he pulled her close for a comforting hug instead.
“Oh, Jackson,” she cried. “How did this happen?”
“Just a stupid, pointless accident,” he said helplessly.
“Where is she now? How is she?”
“Sabrina’s in surgery,” Jackson told them. “But we don’t know anything more than that. I was hoping you could find out something.”
“Audrey,” Sabrina’s father said to his wife, “why don’t you wait here? We’ll find out and be right back.”
Mrs. Eckhart agreed and sat with Tanya, grasping her hand. Mr. Eckhart and Andy walked over to the desk.
Though he was desperate for news and sick with worry, Jackson performed introductions between the two families while they waited. It was several difficult minutes before Sabrina’s father and brother returned.
Andy gave an unhappy shrug. “It’s still too early to say.”
Aaron and Leah blew in next, followed closely by Sam and Candace. To Jackson’s surprise, Rob and their mother joined them a few minutes later.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I called your mom,” Hal said in answer to Jackson’s startled exclamation.
“And I called Rob,” Kelli admitted.
“Thank you,” Jackson said softly and rose to meet them. He brought them back and introduced them to Sabrina’s family also.
Helen and Hal greeted each other cordially, and Jackson looked at his brother in surprise. Rob shrugged back. It would seem their parents could put their rift behind them for the sake of their sons. They made small talk and Helen even exchanged a few friendly words with Kelli. Clearly, with the marriage over decades ago, unofficially anyway, the hostility had finally burned itself out.
Andy sat forward, his restless leg bouncing on the ball of his foot. “So how did this happen, anyway?” Aaron looked at Jackson gravely.
Jackson shared a look with Tanya. “Mind if I take this?”
“Please do.” She waved him on.
Jackson’s eyes traveled slowly over all their faces, not lingering too long on anyone.
“Sabrina thought she caught me with another woman at the Vandyke Mall. I was on my way to Currito’s for a quick dinner and ran into Kelli, but since they’ve never met, Sabrina didn’t know it was innocent. All she knew was that I was supposed to be working late, not out with a strange woman. Seeing us upset her so much she ran right into the path of a truck.”
He shook his head and unscrewed his bottle, upending it for a hard, painful swallow of warm Coke. Recapping it, he glanced at Rob, and they shared a look of mutual understanding.
“She never even saw the truck,” Tanya whispered. “I think she was crying too hard to notice anything.”
Hearing that, Jackson felt his insides twist.
His mom gave his knee a supportive squeeze. “Everything will turn out fine.”
They all looked up when a woman in scrubs approached the group. “Mr. Eckhart?”
Sabrina’s father rose anxiously. “Yes?”
“I was sent to speak to you about your daughter. Would you…?”
“No. Please. Tell me here. We’re all family.”
She looked at the many worried faces and nodded. “Both the tibia and fibula of the left leg were broken, and there’s some muscle damage to the knee.”
She paused at Mrs. Eckhart’s gasp but pressed on. “We believe she fractured her right wrist trying to control her fall. The good news is she didn’t sustain any spinal or internal injuries, though we’ll be monitoring her concussion. She’s lucky her wrist and leg seem to have taken the brunt of the damage. She’ll be admitted following surgery, so if you could get us started on the paperwork, that would help.”
“Will she need physical therapy?” asked Aaron.
“Yes.”
Walt’s face paled. “Did you say she’s still in surgery?”
“Yes. Once she’s moved to post-op, the orthopedic surgeon will want to talk to you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back.”
Audrey moved to her husband’s side for comfort. “Let me help you.”
They walked off to deal with the paperwork together, leaving the rest staring at each other, not exactly sure how they were supposed to feel.
Jackson shot to his feet and began to pace between the two rows of chairs. He whirled without warning, a note of desperation in his voice as he said, “I have to ask a favor. I need a few minutes alone with Sabrina before the rest of you come in. Please, it’s important.”
“Let him,” Tanya said quietly.
Clearly the Eckhart brothers weren’t pleased with the request, but their wives looked at them and started to nod, and Sabrina’s brothers agreed.
Andy sighed. “Okay, Jackson. Work your magic.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Chapter 31
Sabrina stared out the window of her hospital room, forlorn and heartbroken. The depth of her misery shocked her, but she understood it. What woman wouldn’t fall apart after losing a man like Jackson, but did she have to make it worse on herself? One stupid impulsive action and she was probably out of a job, would certainly be broke, and would no doubt have to move in with a family member during her convalescence. Oh, well, she wouldn’t be able to pay her rent anyway. Was she going to have a limp for the rest of her life? Probably, knowing her luck.
****
Jackson gently pushed the door open and breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn’t sharing her semi-private room with anyone else. The door didn’t make a whisper, so Sabrina didn’t realize he was there. Her head was turned toward the window, and she was staring at the sky, the air around her heavy with sadness.
He wasn’t feeling a whole lot better. There was a veritable brew of emotions frothing inside him, and he still hadn’t sobered. He’d never been more scared than when he was lying under that engine with her, horrified by what he could see and terrified at the damage he couldn’t. Emotions he didn’t even know were inside him had roiled up like bile and left him shaken and weak. But now, seeing her breathing normally and moved at how heartbreakingly pretty she was despite the abrasion on her cheek, he wanted to track down her doctors and nurses and give each of them a grateful thank-you for restoring Sabrina to him.
Jackson’s eyes skimmed down her body, taking in the cast on her arm and the larger cast under the blanket dwarfing her right leg. He felt a wash of tenderness for her, like a wave engulfing him and drawing him out to sea. He let it take him.
With a flicker of a smile he said, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you promise you were going to look before you leaped from now on? I’m pretty sure.”
Sabrina turned and stared at him. There were tears falling silently down her cheeks, and they wiped the teasing smile right off his face. Jackson rushed to her side and took her hand, giving it a squeeze.
“Hey, now, I was only trying to lighten the mood, that’s all. You’re going to be okay.”
“What are you doing here? I thought…” She dashed the tears away, but it wasn’t stopping them.
“Honey,” his eyes and his voice softened tenderly, “I’ve been with you the whole time. They had to drag me out from under that damn truck by my ankles.”
“You were under there with me?”
“Right away.” He used his thumb to wipe at another fat tear. “Tanya explained everything.”
“She did?”
There was pain in his eyes when he asked, “Why would you think I’d hurt you like that, Sabrina? You know me. How about trusting me a little?”
Sabrina whispered, “I’m sorry. It was a kneejerk reaction.”
“No more of those, okay? You saw me with Kelli, my dad’s wife. She was showing me her
sonogram. That’s it.”
“That was your step-mom?”
“Jeez.” He shuddered. “Do you have to call her that?” He brushed his thumb over her knuckles. “What you saw was perfectly innocent, and if you still don’t believe me, you can ask Kelli when she comes to meet you tomorrow, along with the rest of my family. They waited with all of us while you were in surgery.”
“Jackson, I believe you. Why did they leave?”
“They didn’t want to tire you out. You have a crowd waiting out there of just your family alone.” He dropped his forehead down to hers and murmured, “I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you’re going to be okay.”
Sabrina laughed weakly. “I’m feeling pretty lousy right now.”
He caressed her unmarred cheek. “I imagine. Did they tell you everything?”
“Yes. What they didn’t say was that I was a nitwit for not looking where I was going.”
Jackson chuckled. “Do it again and you can forget the truck because I’ll kick your ass. Now, listen. Before everyone barges in here, I’d better make this quick. I think what you witnessed Monday night was my first panic attack. Just a few minutes alone with Emma and all I could see was my future screaming toward me like the ground and my parachute wasn’t opening.”
“Emma scared you?”
“A bit,” he admitted with a cockeyed smile. “I needed a little perspective from my brother, so that’s where I went. Talking to Rob is automatic. I’ve been doing it for years. I guess I should have talked to you. He pointed that out to me.” He squeezed her hand again and looked into her eyes. “The thing is, I’m falling for you in a big way and my hand isn’t moving anywhere near the cord. I don’t care if I do go splat.” He chuckled. “You and splat kind of go together. I can accept that. What I can’t quite deal with is what comes next. I’m in no hurry to reach the domestic finish line.”
“You thought I’d object to that?”
“I wasn’t sure.”
“I’m not ready for motherhood. I love my brother’s kids, but I don’t want to acquire a set of my own. I don’t know how many times I’ve told Tanya that hanging with my nephews and niece is better than birth control. I love them in small doses but—no.” She shuddered at the thought.