Page 57 of Jameson’s Salvation

Jameson glanced at the small hospital bed and shook his head.

“Babe, I’d barely fit in that bed alone.”

“Please?”

Her big green eyes bore into him and he couldn’t deny her request.

Jameson carefully eased his big body onto the bed, while pulling her mostly on top of him.

“Does anything hurt?” he asked before he settled in farther.

“No,” she whispered.

He adjusted them so Kennedy’s head was resting on his chest, their legs were tangled, and he was taking her weight.

“Perfect,” she muttered.

He agreed but stayed quiet, not wanting to jostle her anymore than he had.

Jameson lay awake for a long time, his arms full of his sleeping woman. He stared at the ceiling, sleep evading him, when he heard it. The faintest of whispers.

“I love you, too, Jameson.”

Just a feather-soft admission that floated through the room, but had slammed into his chest like a sledgehammer.

He closed eyes and drifted to sleep.

18

Kennedy

I’d spent three full days in the hospital. After Jameson’s plea for me to stop bitching about having to stay, I’d kept my mouth shut. I had forgotten how hard it was to see someone you cared about in a hospital bed. How difficult it was to watch someone you loved in pain and not know if they were going to make it.

It hadn’t been that long ago I’d been in Jameson’s shoes. I’d stood next to my mother’s bedside and prayed she wouldn’t die. I’d felt helpless and heartbroken. Even if it wasn’t the same thing, it was close enough and I could empathize with Jameson.

Beyond that, I’d been behaving like a total brat. Who cared if I had to stay in the hospital? I was alive, relatively unharmed, and I would heal.

But now I was sitting in Jameson’s truck on my way home and he was acting weird. I wasn’t sure if he was being weird because I’d been released. He’d obviously wanted me in the hospital where I’d been under constant medical supervision or if it was something else. But he was definitely off—fidgety, lost in his thoughts, and distracted.

It was scaring me. Maybe he’d changed his mind about us. Since the day I’d met him, my life had been full of drama. It was a lot to take in and even more to ask someone to participate in when it had nothing to do with them. Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone to Nixon and gotten them all involved. I had no idea Reggie would get violent and I’d be putting everyone in danger. If he found out I’d enlisted Nix for help, they could be in the line of fire. And there were teenagers involved, too. Everyone knew how much Nix loved McKenna and her siblings. They’d been through enough and it wouldn’t be hard to hurt Nix through them.

We were almost to my house when I couldn’t take the silence anymore. That, coupled with Jameson twitching his thumb on the steering wheel, was driving me insane.

“What’s wrong?”

Jameson’s jaw clenched and deep lines formed on his forehead.

Yeah, something was very, very wrong.

“Fuck. I don’t know how to tell you this.”

My heart sank and my eyes automatically shut. This was going to kill me.

“Listen,” I whispered. “If you’ve changed—”

“Stop,” he bit out and gripped the wheel tighter. “Nothing has changed.”

That should’ve made me feel better but it didn’t.