by Ashlee Price
Scott wakes up to hear that his wife has been in to check on him after his car wreck. He knows that it was Jesse when his doctor describes her, but he doesn’t know what she was doing there. After everything that he and his father have done to her, she shouldn’t want to speak to him.
But her claiming to be his wife gets him thinking. There’s a lot he’ll need to do to get her on board, but Scott is now focused on getting her to say yes to a question that he should have asked a long time ago. The only way that he’s going to be happy is with Jesse. Scott just has to convince her of that.
Chapter 1 – Jesse
The last thing I was thinking was about how mad I was at Scott. I was much more worried about him being okay. I knew that he’d dumped me and told me that he didn’t want to be with me anymore, but I couldn’t stand the idea of him in a hospital all by himself. I did give his father a call, but I kind of doubted that he would come to see his own son. I didn’t know all of the details between the two of them, but I knew that there was tension. It was something that was impossible to deny.
So Melissa came with me and we went down to the hospital. Since the lady on the phone wouldn’t give me any information, I was just going to have to get what I could when I got there. I was worried for Scott, worried that something was going to happen to him or already had. They wouldn’t have called if it was nothing, right? Then I realized that he had to have been unconscious or they would have just asked him for his information.
The closer I got to the hospital, the more my mind wandered over what could have happened. It made me realize once again how much I loved the man, because the very thought of something happening to him was more than I could handle just then. I was driving faster than I should have, but it still didn’t seem to be fast enough.
“You have to slow down Jesse. I don’t know why you’re even going. You’ve done your part and called his family. No one else would expect any more from you than that, especially not the way it ended. Besides, it was weeks ago.”
I knew she was right, but even after hearing out loud what had already echoed in my head, something told me that I was supposed to be there. It was a feeling that I couldn’t shake; when I tried to it was impossible. So I mashed down on the gas a little more and ignored the way that Melissa kept grabbing the sidebar on the door. I slowed down a little when I saw the turnoff for the hospital. I was almost there, but I still seemed so far away.
When I got to the emergency entrance Melissa offered to park the car. She knew that I was worried and she knew that I wasn’t going to feel any better until I could see Scott for myself with my own eyes. There was nothing else that was going to relieve the tension in me.
When I got to the information desk, I asked where Scott was and the lady asked me how I was related to him. I wanted to get in there and I wanted information, so instead of telling the truth as I had before with the nurse on the phone, this time I lied and said I was his wife. It was innocent enough, and I knew that he wouldn’t ever find out. I was hoping he wouldn’t, anyways. It wasn’t any harm to anyone. I just wanted to make sure that he was fine, and then I was going to leave. No one had to know that I was there.
“Well, dear, just go up to the third floor. He’s in room 230.”
I thanked her, and she handed me a small map to help me find my way. The hospital was large enough that a person could get lost in it, and I was glad for the map when I almost got lost myself trying to find the floor Scott was on. When I saw him through the glass door, he didn’t look too bad, but there was a bandage on his head that was stained with a little blood that had seeped in from underneath. My heart lurched in my chest, and I moved forward before I could do anything else. All I could think was that I couldn’t lose him like I’d lost my father. I hadn’t known Scott nearly as long, but I knew that there would be the same pain.
A beeping sound was the only distraction in the room. They may not have known who he was, but they hadn’t spared any expense for him. Scott was in a huge room, nothing like the one that my father had shared with several other people when he was dying. The differences were stark, and I figured that Scott must have a gold card for his insurance as well.
Moving to his side, I looked down at his sleeping face. He didn’t look like anything was wrong. There was only one mark on his head that I could see, and his vital signs looked good as well. Having seen that he was basically okay, I was just about to leave when a doctor came in.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know that someone was in here. How are you today, Miss?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“Who are you to the patient?”
He was eying me like I wasn’t supposed to be there, and since I knew that was true, I felt guilty. “Um, well, I’m his wife.”
“His wife?”
I nodded my head and squared my shoulders to convince him that I was telling the truth. I was lying, of course, but there was no room for me to back down now.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. We were worried that we weren’t going to be able to get any family down here at all.”
I nodded my head again, really not sure what I was supposed to do. I was just there to check on him. That was what I was supposed to be doing, anyways, but now I was face to face with his doctor. I should act concerned and ask some questions like any other wife would.
“So is he going to be okay, doctor? I don’t even know what happened.”
“From what we’ve been told, he was in a car accident with another vehicle. He came in here unconscious and has yet to come to. Well, there were a few moments when he became conscious, but he wasn’t lucid and we weren’t able to get much information past what the EMT told us. He’s lucky to be alive. The car was pretty mangled up, from what I hear. He was going so fast…”
The man paused, and I wasn’t sure why. I finally asked if he was going to be okay when he woke up.
“Everything tells me that he’s going to make a full recovery. He just needs some time to rest, and then he’ll be able to go home.”
I thanked him and waited for him to leave before I took one last look at Scott and followed him out. I wouldn’t be there to take him home and he wasn’t going home with me, but I’d done what I was there to do.
Melissa was waiting for me in the lobby. When I told her that he was okay, she seemed as relieved as I was. There was no telling her that I didn’t love him now. It was obvious after the way I acted, and I wished that I’d done a better job of holding that all in.
Chapter 2 – Scott
“Good to see you up and around, Scott. I don’t know where your wife went, but I’m sure she will be around in a little bit. How are you feeling?”
Shaking my head, I tried to figure out what he meant about my wife and her being back. My head hurt, and when I felt the top of it, I knew that I’d hit something. I was starting to think that I was either hearing things or I’d really messed up my head, because I couldn’t for the life of me remember who my wife was. If I had one, I was sure that I would remember her.
“I’m not married, doc.”
He looked at me as if he was concerned that I would forget something as important as that. I couldn’t help but feel the same way about it. If I’d forgotten a wife, there was surely something wrong with my head.
“Well, there was a woman in here, pretty young thing who said she was your wife. Come to think of it, she didn’t stay long, but she asked how you were doing and everything.”
“Did she have red hair?” My heart was pounding in my chest. I knew that I didn’t have a wife, but I knew who I would want it to be if I did have one.
“Yeah, so you know who I’m talking about, right?”
His concern was leaving his face. I was sure that it was because he thought I was remembering her. I didn’t want to tell him that it wasn’t my wife, but the girl that I’d dumped a month before. So instead I just kind of nodded my head and told him that I did know who it was.
“I don’t know if she’ll be back tonight. So am
I ready to get out of here, doc? I’m not going to say that this isn’t a comfortable bed, but I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.”
“Well, we’re going to make sure that all of your tests come back okay and that you’re mobile, but that won’t take more than a couple of hours. You’ll be in our own bed tonight. I’m sure yours will be far more comfortable than what we offer here in the hospital. If I were you, I would want to get home to the wife as well.”
I tried to ignore the last comment, but it was hard to because a surge of jealousy went through me. I didn’t want to think about the doctor looking at Jesse in that way. I didn’t want anyone to ever look at her like that, and it suddenly occurred to me then that having her as my wife was the only way that I was going to have her completely. I needed her, and as soon as I was out of the hospital, I was going to find a way to make sure that she forgave me, my father be damned.
The tests were irritating, but after it was concluded that I wasn’t going to keel over forthwith when I left the place, I was released. I called the office and had a car sent to the hospital to pick me up. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do to win Jesse’s heart and convince her to forgive me, but the fact that she’d come to check up on me told me that she still cared. I still wasn’t sure how that could be, but the very fact that she’d told people that she was my wife made me feel a whole different way about it.
When I got home my phone had several messages on it, from my father I assumed, and I was about to listen to them when I got a call from the man himself. I didn’t really want to talk to him, but when he mentioned Jesse I finally started to actually pay attention.
“Why did she call me, Scott?”
I wasn’t going to tell him about the wreck. I was going to be fine, and there would be a lecture involved if he knew. My head was still hurting too much for that.
“There was a mix-up and I wasn’t able to take care of something.”
“I thought you were done messing with her, Scott. Don’t you remember the conversation we had, where you agreed that it was for the best?”
The conversation he was talking about hadn’t gone like that at all, but it was pointless to argue with him. “I didn’t really have a choice, did I, Dad? You made it seem like I was going to take the company down if I dated her. You failed to mention that you’d bought out her property. Were you even going to tell me about that, or was I going to have to find out later when she came to me with it?”
“If you’d gotten rid of her like I’d told you to, we would not have any problems. She would have never contacted you, and we could go on like it never happened.”
He was just so sure of himself and how horrible she was. It made me mad. I didn’t want him to think about Jesse in that way. “She called you tonight because I was in a car wreck, and since she was the last call on my phone and I was out of it, they called her. She wanted to make sure that I was okay and that I had someone there. She actually came down there to see me, which is more than I can say for you.”
“I didn’t know what had happened. Her voice was rushed and sounded strange on the recording. I figured that she was upset about the shop, and you know that I don’t have time for that kind of thing.”
His words made me sneer. There weren’t too many things that he had time for. My whole life I’d never been one of them, and I didn’t see the point in pretending that it was any different now. I was going to choose love over money, if for no other reason than to not end up like him. He was proof of what that choice could lead to. I was a lot like him, but I didn’t want to be like him on that front. I was going to be different.
“Yes, I know. Well, I’m fine. Is that why you were calling, or was it only to tell me that Jesse called?”
There was a silence on the other side of the phone. The longer it got, the more nervous I became. Why was he calling me?
“I wanted to talk to you, son. It’s been a while, and with everything going on, I just wanted to. To see how the business is going. I don’t like how things have come between us in the last month or so. Ever since I sent you to that bistro, it has been nothing but problems. Something is going on, and I need to know that you can still handle your job.”
“If I can’t, will you replace me or will you take the reins back yourself? We both know that you’re dying to take over again.”
“Why wouldn’t you handle the job? You have the schooling and the experience. You just have to get it together, Scott, and whatever it is that you’re letting bother you has to stop. You have to let her go. She was never meant for you, son. I’m glad that she cared for you and tried to get a hold of me, but her heart doesn’t change her bloodline. You come from good stock, and I want our next generation to as well.”
It didn’t make sense, him talking about the family like he cared. What had gotten into him? Was something wrong and he was just trying to let me down easy? I shook my head. As long as I’d known my father, he’d never been the sentimental type. He was all business. This was actually the first conversation that we had had that wasn’t purely business topics.
“I got to go, Dad. I’ll talk to you later when I’ve been awake a little longer.”
There was a disapproving sound on the other end of the line. I knew he was mad, but I didn’t care. I had bigger things to do than worry about him. I had to go get the girl.
Chapter 3 – Jesse
The morning routine was comforting, and by the time the line was outside, I was getting back into the swing of things. We hadn’t been open the day before, and it was like the customers were itching for coffee. There were more than I remembered, and several times I had to apologize for being closed two days in a row. It had never happened before, and a lot of the locals who I’d been missing popped in to see if everything was okay. By noon I was feeling better about everything, and for a little while I was able to forget about Scott and everything else that was going on.
When I closed up for the day, Melissa went home and I went upstairs. I needed a day to relax, but with the eviction looming, I knew that I didn’t have time to take a nap. I had packing to do: my father’s room was still half full of his things and the closet was almost all the way full. I still hadn’t found the courage and energy to go through it, but now I was going to have to.
Pushing my way into the room, I sighed at the open trash bags and the mess I’d made. Was it really that hard? I had to get rid of some of it, even though I didn’t want to get rid of anything. It was bad enough that I’d lost everything in the span of a couple of months, and now the idea of throwing away an old shirt was hard for me to imagine. I had to, though.
***
I had somehow fallen asleep on the bed. I’d been going through clothes and boxing things up, so I wasn’t even sure how I’d fallen asleep at all. I’d gotten several boxes packed up, but it had taken a toll on my brain. Paired with a dream about Scott, it left me feeling more than a little disoriented. It was about as bad as when I’d gotten drunk the other night. I was back to that weary feeling.
There was a loud knock on the door downstairs, and I realized that it must have been what woke me up to begin with. I didn’t know who it could be, and for a few minutes I was just going to let it go. I didn’t even want to get up out of bed to see who it was. It must not have been anyone important or they would have called me instead of just popping up.
Closing my eyes, I listened for a moment. I was hopeful that whoever it was had left, but then there was another knock, louder this time. Groaning, I got up from the bed and went to the window. I didn’t know who I expected to see, but it wasn’t Scott. Not the man who wore me out in my dreams and left me cold and alone in the morning. What was he doing here? I cursed myself for going to the hospital. I was pretty sure that the doctor had told him what I’d said, and I didn’t want to face him. It was embarrassing to say the least.
“Jesse, I can see you in the window. Please just answer the door. I’ve called a hundred times and you won’t answer, so here I am.”
I moved away from the window. I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do. Looking down, I saw that I was still in my uniform. Whether I wanted to see him or not, I didn’t want to see him like that. Pulling on some clothes that were a bit nicer, I walked down the stairs slowly and eyed the man looking back at me.
Scott looked good, but he also looked like he hadn’t slept very well the last couple of days. There was still a knot on his head, and it reminded me of being called to the hospital and all of the feelings that he’d made me feel again. I missed him, a lot, and I walked a little slower just so I could take him in. Why did I still feel this way when I knew that he didn’t feel the same?
“What do you want, Scott?”
He smiled at me, the type of smile that melted my heart into a little puddle. It was hard to be mad at him when he looked at me like that, but I had to stay strong and not let him get in my head again.
“I want you, Jesse.”
“If you wanted me so bad, Scott, then why did you dump me?”
“Because I thought I had to.”
“And now?”
“Now I don’t want to go another day without you, Jesse.”
It was similar to what he’d said on the phone, I thought. Parts of that conversation were still coming back to me in flashes. “Well, you could have had me. You did have me.”
“Not anymore?”