Top Shelf (Five for Fighting #4)

by Amber Lynn

  “For his fourth birthday. Hopefully his mom will let him ride it by himself soon.”

  “She said not until I’m thirty.”

  Both of them seem a little dejected as they made their way down to the car. All Jasmine could think about was the talk her and John were going to have after their babysitting duties were over. If they were going to have children, he needed to know big machinery purchases needed to be run by her. It was the first time she really worried that the future they were planning out was going to be filled with road blocks.

  Chapter Seventeen

  John was certain Jasmine hadn’t thought the offer of babysitting through. If she would have, she’d have realized it would only make him want to move their relationship along. Seeing her interact with Ben made him daydream of a little girl, the spitting image of her mother, playing dress up in the closet and trying to walk around in shoes way too big.

  Initially Jasmine had seemed a little overwhelmed, or maybe just cautious, but once she figured out Ben’s head didn’t spin around and he didn’t throw up pea soup, she got into the playing full-heartedly. They’d only spent about an hour and a half in the apartment, but it was enough time for John to see exactly what he wanted for his future. As a man who’d recently lived one day at a time, it was a little strange to see your life mapped out for you.

  “If you think it’s getting to be too much for her, give me a nudge and I’ll take Ben for a walk.”

  “Thanks.” There was a sad smile that crossed Jasmine’s face, but it was gone so quickly John thought he’d imagined it.

  John leaned in closer so he could whisper in her ear. “When we get home tonight, I’m going to massage all that stress you’re building up inside of you out.”

  The reply was a contented sigh as Jasmine leaned her head onto his shoulder. They were sitting with Ben between them. The presents had been stored in the trunk, but Jasmine refused to put the cake in there, so it sat on her lap.

  “You guys remind me of my parents. Always whispering and kissing. You do know how gross that is, right?”

  “Are you telling me there isn’t a girl out there that you want to kiss?” John asked, but he was hopeful the kid wasn’t already charming the ladies. “I remember very distinctly that you were willing to let sharks eat me so you could run away with my girl.”

  “That’s different. She’s a movie star. Everyone loves movie stars.”

  A chuckle from the front of the car caught John’s attention. The driver had remained quiet, even when his eyebrows had risen up to show how surprised he was about his passengers for the evening. John had been introduced to Kevin already, and the man seemed alright, but he made it pretty clear just by his gestures that he was only used to driving around Jasmine.

  “Do you have something to add to the conversation, Kevin?” John had only heard the man say about five words, so he knew he could speak, but he was professional enough that he stayed quiet while he drove.

  “No, sir.” The sedan they were in made it easy to see Kevin sit up a little straighter and glue his eyes to the road out in front of him.

  “Come on. How long have you been driving celebrities around? I’m sure you’ve got all sorts of stories about them driving you crazy.” John didn’t think he could get the guy talking about Jasmine with her sitting right there, but he was curious about what stories the man had.

  “If you’re fishing for something about me, you’re not going to hear much you don’t know. I’m rude, like to go to clubs and I don’t share my rides with others very often. I think since Kevin’s been with me, we’ve had a night out with the girls twice, and I’m pretty sure he had nightmares for at least a couple nights after those nights.”

  “Do I want to know the details of these girls’ nights?” Jasmine had claimed she didn’t really have any close friends, so John wanted to know who she was hanging out with, but he didn’t come right out and ask.

  “Not any more than I want to hear about the nights you’ve had out with your teammates. I’ve seen pictures, and the wives I’ve talked to have mentioned a few war stories their husbands have shared.” Her head was still on his shoulder, so he couldn’t see the glare he knew was on her face.

  John groaned and thought about what she could’ve heard. There were a lot of tales that probably weren’t shared for fear of incrimination, but there were plenty of times John was the only one out at a bar acting stupid.

  “Calm down. The scariest stuff I’ve seen came from my agent, who is still trying to get me to confirm whether we’re getting married, by the way.”

  That topic got Jasmine to lift her head and John got to see the look he expected. The way her eyes barely squinted to show just a hint of lines around the edges of her eyes was adorable. Of course John didn’t bother telling her that.

  “If she’s sending scary stuff, I take it she doesn’t approve of the idea.” After hearing the woman squawk in his ear, he had a pretty good idea of her feelings about the relationship in general.

  “I got a text today that was nothing but the word prenup over and over. Then just before we got in the car, since I refused to reply to her earlier text, I got links to information about annulments. How do you think she feels?”

  “Sounds like a ringing endorsement to me. What do you say, Ben? Do you think we should get married?” John would’ve probably been better off asking the driver, but in reality neither of the other people in the car had enough information to make an educated decision. Some would say that Jasmine and John didn’t either, but those people could mind their own business.

  “Daddy says you’re never getting married.”

  “That’s because your daddy doesn’t think I’m good enough for your Uncle John.” The thought that Jasmine had let go of whatever issue she thought Doug had with her vanished with the slight bitterness in her voice.

  They’d had a great night hanging out with Doug and Lizzie, which should have alleviated Jasmine’s concerns on the topic, but apparently it hadn’t. “It’s not that he doesn’t think you’re good enough. If anything, he’s more concerned about me breaking your heart and the aftermath that could bring. He’s dealt with the stalkers I’ve had before who didn’t take a breakup well.”

  “And I wonder why everyone is so against our relationship. I’m pretty sure Meemaw is the only person who’s been wholeheartedly behind it.”

  Something was going on, beside the fact John shouldn’t have brought up his past breakups. Ever since they’d gotten in the car, Jasmine had seemed a little off from her usual self, at least the self she showed him. With Ben riding along, John hadn’t expected they sit in the back and continue their endless need to touch each other, but the few moments her head was on his shoulder accounted for all their contact initiated by her. The conversation hadn’t seemed too stilted, but whatever John was picking up on had him reanalyzing it in his mind.

  “What’s going on? Are you still worried about tonight?”

  Jasmine had turned to look out the window next to her, zoning out while he was working through whether he should say anything or wait until they were alone. If she was really worried, he’d offer to drop her off with the cake and presents and head back to his place with Ben. The only time he’d seen Meemaw, she looked fragile, but he was sure they could keep Ben busy enough that he wouldn’t be a bother.

  “Hmm,” Jasmine said as she turned back to him. “Yeah, I suppose I am.”

  “But that’s not what has you preoccupied. We’ve had a great day and all of a sudden you’re acting kind of distant.”

  “It’s a little hard to be distant with your arm around my shoulders.” She tried to smile, but it came off a little pained since her eyes didn’t light up like they usually did.

  “That’s not what I mean and you know it. What’s going on? If it’s not tonight, is it about us? You seem a little defensive about the marriage talk.” John hadn’t told her he’d gotten a ring, but he was worried she’d somehow seen the box in his pocket and freaked out.

&nbs
p; “It scares me that you can read me so easily. You know, I’ve been offered a lot movie parts over the years, and there’s only one general storyline I refuse to be a part of.”

  Jasmine looked out the window again, evidently fine with where her words had stopped. Since she knew where her thoughts were going, maybe she assumed the rest of the people listening in would fill in the blanks. It was a subject they really hadn’t talked about before, though, so John wanted to know why her mind had turned to her career.

  “With Ben here, I won’t share my immediate guess, especially since I know it’s wrong after watching that movie you played a bounty hunter in.” One of two movies John knew Jasmine had been topless in. “So, why don’t you share the roles you won’t take with the rest of us.”

  “I don’t take roles where the couple instantly falls in love. One look at a person shouldn’t be enough to know you were meant to be together and I’m starting to wonder why I seem to have forgotten that. When even a four-year-old doesn’t believe you should get married, you have to wonder why you’ve tried living a fantasy.”

  Hearing her question what had quickly grown between them caused the invisible hand he only felt around Jasmine to squeeze John’s heart tightly. His right hand even reached up to his chest to try to massage the pain he felt away.

  “He didn’t say we shouldn’t get married, Princess. He repeated the fact that his father has said he doesn’t think I’ll ever get married. That very well could have been something said a year ago.”

  “I don’t really want to talk about it right now. You asked and I told you what I was thinking. Maybe when you’re giving me that massage you promised, you can try to erase the crazy insecurities that just triggered.”

  Looking out the window, it was hard to see exactly where they were since it was getting darker outside, but John figured they still had a few blocks to go. He moved the hand trying to keep his heart in his chest down to cover Ben’s eyes and used his other hand around Jasmine’s shoulder to turn her head in his direction. Once he tried to convey he was going to do everything he could to make sure her insecurities were corrected, he lowered his lips to cover hers.

  He wished they were alone, so he could reiterate with their full bodies how much they belonged together, but he settled for trying to ignite the sparks he felt every time they touched. He’d brought them up before, and she claimed she felt them too. He’d tried to slow things down after the initial bonfire they’d started, but clearly he wasn’t doing a very good job. Bringing up marriage and kids basically every day probably didn’t help much.

  When he got to the point where their tongues fighting for control between their mouths was making his pants a little tight, John took a deep breath through his nose and drew away from her, but only so he could rest his forehead against hers.

  “You better believe that I will fight for this, no matter who says it can’t happen. Even if that person is you.”

  “I know. I just have this issue where I second guess myself and surprisingly it’s taken me this long to do it.”

  “I hate to break up whatever you got going on back there, but we seem to have run into a little roadblock,” Kevin announced.

  John sat up and let Ben’s vision return. It wasn’t like he hadn’t already seen enough kissing in his life to scar him forever, but there needed to be a limit where his babysitters were involved.

  “If you can’t drive around it, can we turn around and find another way?” John looked out the window next to him to try to figure out where they were, but the houses weren’t familiar.

  “I don’t think that would help. It looks like the roadblock is at our destination.” The grime tone wasn’t as evident the first time Kevin spoke, but John picked it up the second time.

  He didn’t have a great view of what was going on, but he assumed there had to be an accident or something in front of Meemaw’s. Scrunching and moving around so he could look out the front window, John could see there were flashing lights, but they were still about a block away from the action, so it was impossible to know what was going on.

  “Okay, you guys stay in the car for a second and I’ll go take a look.” John moved to get out of the car, but Jasmine’s forceful voice stopped him.

  “If you think you’re leaving me here, you’re imagining things.”

  Before John could reason with her, Jasmine had put the cake down on her seat and was jogging down the sidewalk. John had only seen accidents in movies and pictures of the one that had almost killed Doug, but he knew they could be gruesome and Jasmine didn’t need to see one up close. Neither did Ben, which left him in a bit of a dilemma.

  “Can you keep an eye on him for just a second, while I go stop her and see if the scene is safe for us to bail out here?” Leaving Ben with someone John didn’t know well was not preferable, but he didn’t see a logical way around it.

  “I’ve got cars behind me and I currently can’t turn into a driveway to get facing in the other direction, so it’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

  It didn’t really make John feel any better, but he shouted a thanks as he took off after Jasmine. She was quick, but his slightly longer legs made it easy to catch up.

  “Don’t start, John. I know you’re going to claim it’s just an accident, but what if it’s not. What if something happened to Meemaw?”

  “You can read my mind and yet you were just letting insecurities about us give you a panic attack. You have to listen to reason. If it is Meemaw, you need to calm down a little. Running in there in a frenzy isn’t going to help.”

  John got in front of Jasmine, turning to walk backwards as he did, trying to slow her down. She just lifted her arm up and pushed through him like a star running back. If he’d put a little more effort into it, she wouldn’t have been able to, but he wanted to gauge just how much desperation was settling in. The test didn’t have great results.

  “You’re about to get a good look at how crazy I can get, so make sure you’re watching closely. In about fifteen seconds, you may very well question your sanity when it comes to me.”

  Facing the direction they were heading again, John verified there was a firetruck and an ambulance, like he thought he’d seen when he first got out of the car. There were no police cars and there weren’t people standing around taking in an accident scene. That meant the paramedics were called to a house.

  John’s heart felt like it was beating five times faster than normal, so he could only imagine how Jasmine felt. He wanted to reach out to her, but he’d seen the frantic look in her eyes for the few seconds they faced each other. She needed to verify everything was okay before she accepted comfort. John was thinking of anything he could attempt to say to help the situation when he finally got a look at Meemaw’s house and saw the front door was wide open.

  Jasmine must have seen it a split second before him, because she took off in a full run. “Meemaw,” she yelled when she saw the paramedics carrying out a stretcher. John kept up her pace, but he hung back a little, knowing he would only be in the way.

  “Ma’am, we need you to back up and stay clear.” There were three people helping to get the stretcher in the ambulance, but with John’s eyes on the ashen woman they were carrying, he didn’t see which one of them spoke.

  “That’s my grandma. What happened?” Jasmine continued to try to get closer, but the paramedics were quick to get their patient ready for transportation.

  “She passed out during dinner, Nieta. I don’t know what happened. We were having a wonderful time and then all of a sudden she started coughing and couldn’t stop. I called for help immediately and got so flustered that I hadn’t had a chance to call you yet.” Ernesto appeared next to Jasmine as she tried to get a look into the back of the ambulance.

  John hadn’t really thought about who Meemaw’s hot date was with, but he hadn’t expected it to be Ernesto. Evidently the other man took his dates seriously, because he was dressed in a nice suit and looked to have spent plenty of time putting gel in his hair.


  “She needs her medicine. Did she get the pills in the small bottle?” Jasmine’s question was more for the paramedics than Ernesto.

  “We don’t have time to sit around and discuss things right now. We were able to revive her, but she needs to get to the hospital now. If you know more about her condition, you can ride along and give us that information, but we need to leave now.”

  John still couldn’t see who was talking, but it sounded like it was probably the same person. Jasmine didn’t hesitate climbing in the back of the ambulance, without giving John a second thought.

  “What hospital are you going to?” he asked. He needed to drop Ben off somewhere before he could meet up with them, and he figured they wouldn’t let him ride along anyway.

  “St. Mary’s,” a voice said as the doors were shut. A second later the ambulance was pulling away.

  The firetruck that was blocking traffic the opposite direction took off too. If John wasn’t busy trying to figure out his next moves, he would’ve questioned why in the world they’d decided to block both lanes of traffic.

  “Do you need a ride, or can you find your way there?” Ernesto asked. He was already walking towards a sedan in the driveway.

  John looked over his shoulder and saw Kevin pulling up as traffic started moving again. “I guess I’ll see you there.” He thought about asking for more information, but he wanted to get to Jasmine as fast as he could. Hopefully, Doug and Lizzie had enjoyed their night out.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Four hours later, Jasmine sat alone in Meemaw’s intensive care room. The doctors and nurses had tried to get her to take a break to get something to eat, but they made the mistake of telling her the chances of Meemaw waking up were slim. The fight against her body shutting down was over and whatever the machines around the room were saying wasn’t good.