Chapter 29
Iretreated to my side of the house and immediately decided to take a shower.
It was hard not to get my stitches wet, but the effort was worth it.
The warm water felt incredible on my aching muscles.
I had a few bruises from the fall, and surprisingly all the hiking and zip-lining had worked sections of my body I hadn’t moved in a very long time.
I toweled off and changed into a pair of flannel pajamas. As I walked by my closet, I noticed the clothes I’d worn zip-lining in a pile on the ground, my muddy shoes the cherry on top of the dirty sundae. My white shoes were caked with brown and green stains, and I sighed.
“I’ll deal with it in the morning,” I muttered to myself.
I shuffled into my living room and settled onto the couch.
It would be impossible to think about sleep right now, and I was far too wired to try writing anything in my novel, so I grabbed a book from my shelf and tried to read for a few minutes to calm down.
I ended up mindlessly reading, not really absorbing the words.
Then my phone pinged. I set my book aside with a sigh and read the text.
FLOSSY POSSE:
MACEY: I hope you feel better, Hope!
TYLER: Yeah, I hope you’re doing okay!
HOPE: I’m all good now. Don’t worry about me, guys. I’ll see you on Thursday!
My phone pinged again, and I thought it was the group chat, but it was Tyler messaging me privately.
TYLER: How are you feeling?
This was new territory with Tyler. Now that he’d sorta made a move on me, I was considering the possibility of being more than friends with him…
HOPE: I’m good. Jay stitched me up, so everything should be fine.
TYLER: I’m really sorry, Hope. I wish I could’ve stopped it.
HOPE: You didn’t know I was such a klutz lol. It’s okay.
TYLER: I just hate that our moment ended on such a bad note…
HOPE: It didn’t end badly. I had a great time with you today, despite the stitches.
TYLER: Really?
HOPE: Really. I think you’re really sweet, Ty. And I like you…
TYLER: I like you too…
Just as I was about to respond, a knock at my apartment door jolted me back to reality.
“Hope? Can I come up?” Jay’s voice echoed up my stairwell, where the connecting door was.
I quickly threw my phone onto the cushion next to me like it was a hot potato and ran my fingers through my still-damp hair, trying to smooth it down.
“Uh, yeah, sure! Come on up,” I called back.
Moments later, Jay appeared at my door, carrying a small bag.
He gave me a small half-smile, and I did my best to look relaxed while sitting on the couch.
Could he tell I was wired? Because I felt like a live bundle of copper cords ready to electrocute something.
This day was making me feel crazy. The back and forth between the Ty and Jay stuff was starting to make me feel a little dizzy, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with my head injury.
“I thought you might need some Tylenol,” Jay said, holding up the bag. “And I brought a few ice packs, just in case.”
It took me a second to respond, a little taken aback by his hospitality. “Thanks,” I said, shuffling on the couch, unsure what to be doing with my body at the moment. I decided to grab a decorative pillow and wrap my arms around it, a protective shield of sorts.
Having him here in my space was not helping me avoid thinking about the moment when he’d lifted me onto his kitchen counter only an hour ago.
Or how he’d been standing between my legs while he stitched me up.
I was struggling to shove aside a plethora of images involving him, and having him in my space was not helping.
Jay walked over to the kitchen, impervious to my chaotic thoughts, and retrieved a glass from the cabinet, filling it with water. When he came over to the couch, he handed it to me along with the pain meds and ice packs.
“Here, you should take these now to help with any swelling and pain.”
I took the pills and swallowed them with a sip of water. I hyper-focused on what I was doing, trying desperately to keep out images of him tending to my head.
He’s a dentist, I reminded myself mid-gulp. And that helped a little.
Just as I finished handing him the empty glass, my phone buzzed again.
My eyes quickly flitted to the phone where I’d tossed it only a minute ago.
It was right there, only a foot away from both Jay and me.
Unless Jay was blind, he had to have caught sight of Ty’s contact flashing on the screen and maybe even the message.
I snatched the phone quickly off the couch cushion. When it was safely in my hands and the screen angled away from Jay, I checked what he’d responded.
TYLER: I can’t wait for our date…
I flushed and quickly put the phone face down on the decorative pillow in my lap.
“Tyler worried about you?” Jay asked, glancing at my phone.
“Something like that, but I can text him in the morning.” I tried to act nonchalant, but he seemed to sense my composure was waning.
“I saw you two go down by the lake together before you got hurt. Was he confessing his feelings for you?” His eyes twinkled with playfulness.
I flushed and glared at him, trying to smother the surprise at his spot-on guess.
“Not that it’s any of your business. But yes, he told me he likes me.” My chin jutted out instinctively. Prickly as a porcupine.
“I wondered when he’d finally get the guts to admit his feelings for you,” Jay chuckled and took a seat next to me on the couch. He leaned back into the cushions, not seeming to have any trouble getting comfortable.
With the way he was positioned, leaning back at an angle, I could see the ridges of his abdomen through his tight-fitted long-sleeved shirt. Memories of how his hard chest felt against my back when going down the zip line together smacked into me, and my teeth ground together.
I shoved aside those images and defaulted to an accusatory tone to defend myself. “How did you know Tyler had feelings for me?”
“Don’t tell me you missed all his obvious attempts to flirt with you?” He gave me a disbelieving look, but when I huffed and turned away from him a bit, he seemed to catch on that I had, in fact, not seen the obvious attempts. “Poor guy. You didn’t even know until tonight, did you?”
“You know what? I think I’m a little tired,” I faked a yawn, and Jay smiled, standing from the couch. He chuckled softly to himself.
“Get some rest. You’ve had a long day. I’ll check back in a few hours.”
“Okay, thank you,” I said, not tired at all, but also not having the capacity to talk to Jay about Tyler any longer.
Unfortunately, I felt like he’d won some invisible battle by getting me to change the subject, but I didn’t have any energy left to care about the invisible tally.
“Goodnight, Hope.” He glanced back once more at the door, and my stomach fluttered.
“Goodnight, Jay,” I replied.
When he disappeared back down the stairs, I blew out a breath. I picked up my phone and responded to Tyler, my fingers shaking slightly.
HOPE: I can’t wait either…
The exhaustion from the day hit not ten minutes later, and I didn’t even make it to my bedroom before I fell asleep on the couch.
And there, in the deepest recesses of my mind, I was transported back to the kitchen where Jay had stitched up my cut.
The scene unfolded with a dreamlike clarity, every detail just as sharp and vivid as reality.
Jay returned with the suture kit and unexpectedly lifted me onto the counter. I felt the same fluttering in my stomach as I looked into his eyes. He leaned in, examining my cut with careful attention, but this time there was an added intensity in his gaze.
“You’re going to be fine, Hope,” Jay said softly.
I could feel the warmth of his breath on my skin as he cupped my cheek, his thumb brushing my skin before traveling down to caress the curve of my neck.
“Jay…” I said, barely able to choke out his name.
His eyes locked onto mine, and I could see a tender determination in his gaze. Without another word, Jay leaned in, closing the distance between us. His lips met mine.
What felt like a real fire erupted inside me that I didn’t know could be ignited. My arms instinctively wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer, and my fingers wound into his dark, wavy hair. I let out a little noise when his teeth gently grazed my bottom lip.
One of his hands found the curve of my waist, gripping tightly and sending tingles of electricity through every nerve ending in my body.
He tugged me closer and lifted me off the counter. My legs wrapped around his waist as he carried me over to the couch. My back met the cushions only seconds later, and then the weight of his body was pressing against mine, and I thought maybe I’d died and gone to heaven.
“Jay,” I murmured, my fingers locked into the curls at the nape of his neck. “Jay,” I said again.
“Hope,” he responded. “Hope,” except something changed in his voice. It suddenly sounded far away, and I started to feel like I was being pulled physically from my body.
“Hope.”
I was being tugged from the depths of the dream back into reality—only I wasn’t alone.
“Hope, wake up.”
His voice broke through the last remains of my dreamy haze, and I opened my eyes. It took me a moment to realize a lamp light was on and someone was leaning over the couch where I’d fallen asleep.
A bewildered pair of blue eyes was staring down at me, and I gasped as the last tendrils of the dream officially evaporated.
“Jay,” I gasped, sitting up in a panic. I realized I was holding onto him, and quickly released him. His shirt was all wrinkled where my hands had been, quite literally fisting it.
Jay was kneeling beside the couch, holding a glass of water and looking rather composed, considering I’d just been clinging to him in my sleep.
“I heard you calling my name,” he said, a tiny line of concern furrowing his brows. “I thought something was wrong.”