Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
Erica
The ride to the hospital was eternal. Then trying to get someone to allow me near him took another million hours. At least it felt like it. I wasn’t family so they wouldn’t give me any details.
The rest of the firemen were still working on the blaze so I couldn’t even ask them to find out for me. The mansion had a carriage house at the back and the fire had spread due to the winds off the water. One other person got hurt dragging Jake to safety, but he was in the burn unit.
I’d convinced my mom and sister to go check with the nurses’ station again just so I could have a minute to myself.
Well, me and another woman about my age who was about to gnaw her fingernails down to the quick.
She seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t concentrate long enough to keep a thought in my head.
Was Jake burned?
Was he hurt?
Who had saved him?
I stared at my paint-splattered sneakers, forcing my breathing to level before I freaked out in the middle of the waiting room. I gripped my hands so hard to make them stop trembling that my knuckles went white.
“Ma’am.”
I looked up, my heart rate swinging into dangerous territory. Ben Sullivan stood in front of me, his hands wrapped in white gauze.
I popped to my feet and grabbed his wrist. “Ben. Are you okay?”
He winced and eased his hand out of mine.
“I’m sorry.”
He gave me a gentle smile. “I’m okay. Just superficial burns. I had to take my gloves off to move some debris off the chief.”
I closed my eyes and felt the room sway.
“Hey, hey. Relax. I can’t really catch you right now. He’s fine. I promise. One of the beams that fell on him—”
“God.” I sat back down.
Ben crouched in front of me. “It wasn’t that bad, just knocked his mask off so he got a little smoke inhalation. He’s fine—honestly. They just had to get him cleaned up and had to get his O2 stats back up.”
“But he’s okay?”
He nodded.
A tall, leggy blond with pink streaks in her hair stood up on the far side of the waiting room. “Are you talking about my brother?”
Ben rose. “Are you Kayla?”
She nodded.
His gaze quickly tracked her then hit the floor and bounced over her shoulder. Obviously, he was trying not to check her out.
Man, Kayla was Jake’s sister. She’d just been a kid when I moved away. Definitely not the case anymore.
Ben cleared his throat. “Jake sent me down to get you.”
My chest constricted. “Just her?”
Ben shook his head. “He didn’t know you were here.”
“Why wouldn’t I be here?” I popped up again. No watery knees this time.
Ben shrugged. “After this afternoon, we weren’t quite sure which side your loyalties were on.”
“Loyalties—” I glanced at the woman now standing beside me before looking at Ben. Ripping his damn head off while his hands were wrapped in gauze seemed ill-advised. Not with this girl trembling beside me. “Now is not the time for this. Can you just take us to Jake?”
“I can take Kayla. I’ll see if he wants to see you.”
I fisted my hands.
“No, she can come.” Kayla’s voice was shaky, but her face was sure. “I know he’d want her there.”
I swallowed down the angry tears. “Thank you.”
“Suit yourself.” Ben held out his arm. “We have to head upstairs.”
Kayla tucked her hair behind her ear. “I didn’t recognize you or I’d have come over to sit with you.”
I gave her a tight smile. “Same. You were a lot smaller last time I saw you.”
“Braces and crooked pigtails.”
I laughed. “Yes. That I remember.”
She gripped my forearm as we followed Ben down the hall to the bank of elevators. “I know Jake wants you in the room. The guys are just… Well, the guys. Protective to a fault. Why I don’t live in town.”
“You don’t?”
She shook her head. “I work in Syracuse—well, worked. I just got fired.”
“Fired?”
She shrugged. “When I got the call that Jake was in the hospital, my boss didn’t take too kindly to me wanting to leave.”
“Jerk. It’s family. I’m sure we can talk to him or her.”
Kayla shrugged. “It was a shit job. I took it because I thought I was going to be training to be a sous chef. In reality, I was just learning how not to get my ass groped.”
“Jesus.”
Ben shot a dark glance over his shoulder.
“All part of working in the restaurant field. Waitressing gets it far worse.”
“Not in my bar.”
“Yeah?” She finger-combed her hair. “Jake told me you took over Sharkey’s. Or at least inherited.”
“It’s mine.” It was the first time I’d really said it out loud. “It needs work, but it’s going to be amazing when I’m done with it.” I gave Ben a little side-eye. “When we’re done with it.”
Ben held the door to the elevator open, but he didn’t say anything as we crossed the threshold.
“So, are you a chef?”
She shrugged. “Trying to be. School didn’t take, but I’m self-taught. I’ve been cooking and working in restaurants since I was sixteen.”
The elevator opened and Ben strode off. Kayla’s gaze followed him then returned to mine, her cheeks flushed.
Ben was attractive, if a little…intense. “Maybe we can talk about that when we get Jake situated?”
Her face went slack with shock. “Really?”
“Pretty sure you have a good reference.”
She grabbed my hands. “I do. And not just Jake.”
I grinned. “Good, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to go kick your brother’s ass.” I stalked off the elevator and down the hall.
Ben was talking to a doctor near a cracked open door. I walked right past them into the room, the younger EMT sputtering for me to wait.
Nope. There was no way I was taking another minute to wonder and stress over what Jake looked like.
Or just how hurt he was.
A curtain shrouded the bed, and I recognized the boots set on top of a chair. Definitely Jake’s. I swung the curtain wide open before I stopped to think that I didn’t have a right to do this.
It didn’t even occur to me. He was just mine.
“How dare you.”
He wore a hospital smock and still had his work pants on.
His uniform shirt was nowhere to be seen.
His deep dark eyes opened, tired and sooty where the crinkles dug deep into his face from being outdoors all the time.
An oxygen mask covered his nose and mouth.
His arm was in a sling, but otherwise, he looked okay.
A few bruises maybe.
Relief jacked up my anger. “You didn’t think I’d come here for you?”
Surprise dented the exhaustion. He tried to pull the oxygen mask down. “Freckles—”
I pushed the mask back up on his face. “No. I get to talk right now. You just keep that thing on. You scared me, dammit. Walking away with that smile on your face like you’re going to be mine for all time. Then you don’t want me here. That is not going to happen, buster.”
His hand flexed, and anger sparked in his eyes. He pulled the mask down. “You’re the one who talked to Maitland. What was I supposed to think?”
I gripped the edge of his bed. “Your firefighters told on me? Like I was doing something wrong?”
“What was I supposed to think?” His voice was rusty, as if he’d been coughing for days. “You keep telling me you’re leaving.”
I shut my eyes against the threatening flood of tears. “You’re right. Then again, I’m new at all this stuff. I don’t move at the speed of light like you do. I’m a normal person who needs to think things through a little.”
“Yeah? So, why are you coming in here—” He started coughing and lifted the mask to suck in a few lungfuls of straight oxygen.
I pushed the hospital table out of my way. “Jake.”
“I’m fine.”
I pushed the mask over his mouth again. “You sit there, Jake Mills, and let me do the talking this time.”
He grinned behind the mask and gestured for me to continue.
I shook my hair back. I could see the streaks of white paint in my wild curls from my periphery. God only knew what I looked like right now, but I didn’t care. “I told Maitland to keep driving—not to even park his big fancy car. I told him Sharkey’s was mine. I’m not going anywhere.”
Jake’s eyes were wary.
“I love you, Jake. I’ve always loved you.”
He tried to sit up, but I pressed him back.
He shoved the mask away. “You can’t say that to me and think I’m going to be laying down the first time you fucking say it.”
He pulled me down with his good arm and covered my mouth with his own. He smelled like smoke and wet ash. I tunneled my fingers through his hair and held on to him.
Some of the anger bled out of me. He was hurt and I was yelling at him, but God, I’d been so scared. I’d just figured out I wanted him, and I’d almost lost him at the same time.
His grip was just as tight as mine. “I’m fine, Freckles. My guys got me out. They always do, because I fucking trained them to be the best in the area.”
I pressed my forehead to his. His hair was singed along his hairline, and it was just one more reminder of how close the fire had come to him.
He hoisted me up onto the bed and tucked me along the side of him. “I’m good, baby. I swear it.”
I turned my face into his chest and let the tears come. I didn’t sob and break down, just let out a few that had been hovering. “You can’t leave me.”
“Never. I’ll never let you go again.”
“I’ve got plans for us.”
He kissed the top of my head.
“Put your mask back on.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I clung to him in the cramped bed. I didn’t mind the tight quarters. It was my spot with him. My spot had always been by his side. I’d just been too stupid to reach out for it before.
I wouldn’t be again.
Kayla peeked around the curtain. “Is it safe to come in?”
I hid a smile against the furnace that was Jake’s chest. “Yes, it’s safe.”
Jake held out an arm for his little sister. “I’m okay, Cupcake.”
I laughed. “I guess I’m not the only one with a nickname.”
Kayla’s cheeks reddened. “I hate it.”
I laid my hand on his chest by my cheek. “Yeah, it’s not so bad.”
The tromp of boots and male voices created chaos a few minutes later.
Over a dozen firefighters came in to see him throughout the evening. Luckily, Jake was in a solo room. I got a few snarky comments and cold shoulders until the gossip chain had caught up to my news of telling Maitland to take a leap into the lake.
Literally or figuratively, his pick.
Soon after, my parents came in to see Jake, and then headed home. Kayla fessed up about her job situation, and I told him we were hatching a plan.
Finally, everyone cleared out.
Jake shoved at the flat pillow behind his head with a snarl. “I don’t understand why I can’t go home.”
We’d been informed that the mansion was definitely a lost cause. Thankfully, the fire hadn’t spread to the next property. A welcome spring rain had helped out there.
And my guy was acting as if it had been just another day at work.
“Says the man who has had so many coughing fits your abs probably hurt.”
He lifted his ill-fitting hospital gown to show off his very impressive torso. “As you can see, my abs are quite fine. So is the rest of me.”
I just lifted an eyebrow at him. “Rest. Doctor’s orders.”
“You mean nurse. Because I haven’t had a doctor come in to see me so I can freaking go home.”
“Which is exactly why we’re staying until morning.”
“I don’t want to stay here—wait, did you say we?”
“Can’t get rid of me that easily, buddy. But you have to rest. No pervy hospital fantasies will be played out tonight.”
“Who said I had hospital fantasies?”
Avoiding his gaze, I straightened his blankets.
“Or is that you, Miss Ramos?”
“It is not.”
“You’re the one who mentioned it.”
“Yeah, well, you’re the one who keeps showing off your chest and abs.”
“You like it.”
I hid a smile. “I’d like it better after a shower and with a very large bed.”
“That can be arranged.”
“Tomorrow.” I climbed back into the hospital bed with him. I’d had to get out for a while to get the circulation moving again. “Right now, I just want to hold on to you, if that’s okay.”
“More than.” He made a little room, but there wasn’t much to be had.
I settled myself against him as best as I could, tucking my head under his chin. His deep, even breathing calmed me, as did the cool oxygenated air from his mask that helped combat the heat that seemed to radiate off him.
“I love you, Freckles.”
I smiled against his neck. “I love you too, Jake.”