Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Jared stood and threw a few bills down to pay for her meal before pulling her up and grabbing the few bags she had. He held her hand as he led her out of the diner. He got her into his truck, buckled her, and was on the road back home before either spoke.
“When we get home, we’ll go to our bedroom and talk, okay?”
Sky was unable to talk because of the pain ripping through her stomach, so she just nodded. How was she going to get through the day without alerting him? She wrapped her arms around her waist and looked out the window until the pain stopped.
Jared watched her take a shuddering breath. He pulled over on the side of the road. Something was wrong with her.
“Look at me,” Jared demanded.
Sky took a deep breath before turning.
He didn’t like how pale she was and the beads of sweat on her forehead. “You’re in pain.”
How the heck did he know that? She thought she’d been doing an excellent job of hiding her pain.
Jared unbuckled himself before undoing hers, then pulled her onto his lap. She moaned as the twisting pain started again. He pressed her chest against his and wrapped his arm tightly around her back.
“God, Sweetheart, you’re scaring the shit out of me. I need to get you to the hospital.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll be okay.”
Jared cupped her chin and lifted. “Tell me what’s wrong now, or I’m taking you to the Emergency Room.”
Sky clutched her stomach and shook her head frantically. “No, I’ll be fine. I just need to get home. I have medicine that helps.” What she didn’t say was that it might be too late to get the pain under control and she would just have to ride through it.
“Tell me now, Baby. I need to know, so I can take care of you.”
Even through the pain, Sky could feel a red tide cover her face.
“I have horrible menstrual cramps. I take a pain pill when it gets too bad. It doesn’t happen every month. I have found that stress will usually cause it. I’ve had them since this morning but was able to control the pain with Advil until my dad showed up.”
“Sky, do you have the pills with you?”
Sky drew her knees up as another pain raced through her.
“Yes, that was one of the reasons I had to come to town. I needed to pick up my prescription because I was out.”
Jared reached into the side pocket of his truck and pulled out a bottle of water.
“Here, Baby, it’s warm, but I just opened it a few hours ago. Where are the pills?”
Jared reached for the bag she indicated, tore it open, and took out the pill bottle. He read the instructions quickly before shaking out a few of the pills.
“Here, swallow these, Sweetheart.”
Sky sat up on Jared’s lap. The pills went down right before another cramp started.
A moan broke from her throat. Damn. It had never been this bad before, and she didn’t know if she could take several more hours of this.
She knew she could get a pain shot at the hospital, but it had always been the last resort for her father because they were too expensive.
He hadn’t cared that she had been in pain.
He’d been worried her moaning would alert the people in the apartment next to them, and the authorities would see the condition she was being raised in and take her.
“Here, Baby,” Jared said and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly against his chest. He dropped his hand to her stomach. “Is this where it hurts?”
The heat from his hand that spanned her stomach slid in, loosening the muscles enough for her to take a deep breath.
“Ohhh, that feels so good,” she whimpered and closed her eyes.
Jared kissed the top of her head. “Let’s wait until the pill kicks in, and then I’ll drive us home.”
“You don’t have to do that, Jared. I’ll survive. I always do. Besides, it might take a while for it to be effective. It depends on a lot of factors.”
Several minutes passed silently with just the sound of their breathing. She was surprised it affected him so strongly when a cramp took over her body, and her breathing sped up.
“I don’t like that I can’t help you.”
“You are. The heat from your hand and body feels wonderful.”
By her slurring her words, he guessed the medicine was starting to kick in. “We need to get you home and get you comfortable.”
Sky nodded and slowly sat up with the assistance of Jared’s hand on her back. He buckled her in and reclined her car seat so it would be easier for her to rest.
The medicine was making her body feel heavy, and her thoughts swirled around in her head.
Sky vaguely felt the cramps that had wracked her body for hours, but the majority of the pain was reduced because of the drugs.
She didn’t like the way they made her feel, but she put up with it because it was so much better than the cramps that would take her breath and leave her midsection achy for days.
****
“Relax back, Baby. We’ll be home soon.” Jared watched as she lay back, turned on her side a bit, and fell asleep instantly.
Before long, he was pulling up in front of the house. He came around the truck and slowly opened the side door, so he wouldn’t wake her. He lifted her and held her against his chest as he made his way up the steps and through the front door.
Abby gasped and clutched the dish towel to her chest.
“What happened to her?” she whispered.
“She’s going to be okay. She sometimes gets bad cramps from her period.”
“What can I do?”
“Nothing right now. I’m taking her to bed. I’ll lie with her. If we’re not down by dinnertime, can you bring us up a tray? I don’t think she’s going to want to be out of bed, because if not for the cramps, then the medicine she had to take for the pain is knocking her out pretty good.”
“You just take care of our girl and call down to the kitchen if you need anything.”
Jared raced up the stairs and lay Sky down on the mattress in their bedroom.
“Here, Baby, let’s get you undressed.” He pulled off her clothes before pulling one of his t-shirts over her head. He then stripped out of his own clothes, leaving on his boxers, before climbing in and curling his body around hers and placing a hand over her abdomen.
“You don’t have to stay here with me,” she murmured drowsily.
Jared gritted his teeth. “I’m not leaving you like this, so don’t even try to push me away.”
One of her hands curled over his. “Thank you, Jared.”
“For what, Sweetheart?”
A shiver raced over her body when his warm breath caressed her ear, and his hand made little circles on her stomach.
“For taking care of me. I promise I’ll be better by tomorrow, so I won’t be a bother to you anymore.”
“We have a lot to talk about later. Right now, I want you to rest. When can you take another pill?”
“I can take two every four hours. I’ll take two more tonight. Usually, the worst of the cramps is over by the morning,” she said in a slurred voice that got weaker as the seconds passed.
“We’ll see how you’re doing tomorrow. Now rest.”
Sky was in and out of consciousness for the next several hours. She heard voices but had a hard time pulling herself from the drugged sleep.
“Just set it on the bedside table, Abby,” Jared whispered.
“How is she doing?”
“She’s been sleeping, and as far as I can tell, her cramps are not affecting her as badly. The pain medicine helped a lot.”
“My sister had bad menstrual cramps like that. It was horrible to see her in that kind of pain.”
“It’s awful seeing Sky in that kind of pain, too. I hope I never have to see it again.”
“Just be there for her when she is. I’m glad you’ve let your ridiculous thoughts go and gave yourselves a chance.”
“Me, too.”
“I’ll get the tray tomorrow. Get some rest. You look like you could use some yourself. Remember, just call if you need anything. I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night.”
“What was she talking about?”
Jared levered himself up so he could see her face. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
Sky pushed her hair out of her face before slowly turning her head to look at him. “I can feel the medicine starting to wear off.”
“Dammit. Can you take another pill?”
Sky looked at the clock on the bedside table. She bit back a groan. “Not for another half hour.”
Shit. How was he going to deal with seeing her in pain?
“We’ll get through this, Baby. Do you think you can eat something? Abby brought us some sandwiches.”
“I probably shouldn’t even try. But you need to eat something.”
Jared stood and came around the bed. “Can you at least take a drink of water?”
Sky nodded. “Yes. I’d like that.”
Jared cradled her against his body as he sat her up and reached for the glass of water on the bedside table.
“Here you go.” He raised the glass to her mouth.
Sky drank greedily before she lay back against him with a sigh.
“Do you want any more, Baby?”
“No, thank you.”
Jared pulled them back down on the mattress before cupping his body around her again. He felt her stiffen in pain before he heard her whimper.
“Dammit. What can I do?”
“Your hand on my stomach helped. I don’t know if it was the pressure or the heat, but it did help.”
Jared pressed his palm against her lower abdomen, listening to her breathing and body signals to see if he was pressing too hard.
“How’s this?”
Sky placed her small hand over his. “It feels good,” she moaned. “Don’t stop.”
“I won’t, Baby. I’ll be here for you the whole time.”
Sky released a breath when the pain lessened. “Why?”
“Why what?”
There was a moment of silence.
“Why are you acting as if you care now when we both know you don’t?”
“I know we have to talk. I just thought we’d wait until you were feeling better.”
Sky sighed and closed her eyes. “It doesn’t really matter.”
Jared cupped her cheek and turned her head toward him enough to see her expression. “It does matter. You matter.”
Sky tried to push his hand away from her face and swallowed back the tears that burned her throat. “Don’t say things like that.”
“I screwed up. I’ve been trying to push you away because what I feel for you scares the crap out of me.”
Sky’s brows pinched together in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Since the moment I saw you, I knew you were going to cause me problems.” He raised his hand when she opened her mouth.
“Now wait a minute, just let me finish. It only took a second, and I started falling for you, and I haven’t stopped.
No matter how much space I tried to put between us, you’ve become the most important person to me. ”
“How cannn ... ohhh,” she gasped in pain.
“Shit, Baby,” Jared growled and pressed his hand against her stomach again. He watched helplessly as she tried to breathe through the debilitating pain.
Several moments passed before the pain lessened enough for her to take a deep breath.
Jared looked at the sweat on her forehead and the pallor of her skin. “How long will this last?”
Sky kept her eyes closed. “It usually lasts twenty-four hours, but sometimes longer,” she said tiredly. “I’m fine on my own, I’m sure you have work to do.”
“Sky, I’m not leaving.” He glanced at the clock. “I think you can take more medicine now.”
He helped her take the pills before settling them back on the mattress and holding her tightly against his chest.
“Try to relax and get some rest. I’ll be here when you wake up,” Jared said and pressed a kiss to her forehead.