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“Yeah, yeah, I am. I’m probably gonna stay until she gets released, then take her home.” I ignore the curious look I’m getting from Margot as I continue my conversation with Laura.
“I know who she is, Jake. I knew the moment you showed up on-scene. It’s always going to be her, isn’t it? No matter what, it’s always been her.” I don’t look at Margot as I walk out of the room and shut the door. “That’s why you said it’s not working.”
There are people walking up and down the hospital corridors, going about their business, but none of them will be paying attention to the conversation I’m about to have.
“I don’t know what to say, Laura. I don’t know what youwantme to say.”
“Say I’m wrong. Tell me that I’m wrong, and you’re not staying with her in the hospital because you still love her.”
“I can’t do that.” I’ll never lie about how I feel. I have known my entire life that Margot is a part of my soul. Even more so because she left me. She grew into a woman I would be honored to have at my side for my entire life, but that’s not quite true. She’d always been that woman. Lying to Laura isn’t the way that I’m going to start the fight to get Margot back.
“Then there’s nothing left for me to say. I hope you’re making the right decision, Jake. She left you once. Don’t think for a moment that she won’t do it again.” The line goes dead after that and I’m thankful for it.
I stay outside of Margot’s room while I think about what I’m going to do, how I’m going to approach the woman who owns my heart.
What I’ll have to do to convince her to give me a chance.
I run my hands through my hair and then walk down the corridor toward the cafeteria to get coffee. I’m going to need it. I’m in for the fight of my life.
After all, I’m fighting for my future.
7
MARGOT
I’m such an idiot,and I can’t even blame it on the injury. I knew I shouldn’t let myself enjoy him touching me. I knew it. And I still loved every second of it.
I can’t hear anything Jake is saying, but I hear the female voice on the other end of the call before he goes outside. My body aches, my head hurts, and all I want to do is sleep. So I turn off the lights that I can and curl myself into a ball on the hospital bed underneath the flimsy blanket they provided.
My body is bent and broken in a way that I haven’t felt since my miscarriage. As the tears start to fall freely against the hospital bedding, I know that my pain is only beginning. The bruising on my face and chest has started to throb, and I regret turning down stronger painkillers than the ibuprofen I insisted on.
It was an accident, only an accident. I repeat it to myself over and over until I finally fall into a fitful sleep. The nurses check on me throughout the night, waking me up gently every time they do so. There is concern about a concussion, and they want to monitor me for bleeding that they might have missed. By the time I’m cleared for discharge by the doctor the next morning, all I want to do is go home and sleep for twenty-four hours straight.
When I pull out my phone and see that the battery is dead, I sigh to myself in frustration. As I make my way to the nurses’ station to ask to use the phone, I catch a glimpse of a familiar uniform. Ray is standing there in his bunker gear, looking as attractive as he had the first night I met him.
His red hair is unkempt, and the smile he has when he looks at me lights up his face. I make my way over to him, knowing that I don’t look good. I threw my hair up into a sloppy bun when I crawled out of the hospital bed, and I haven’t even brushed my teeth. My eye is still swollen, even though I can now see a little bit of light out of it. In short, I’m a hot mess, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
“Hey there, sweet girl. I thought you might need a ride home,” he says as he smiles at me and offers a little hug.
“I do, actually. And my phone is dead. How’d you know?” I smile at him and lean into the hug.
“My sister’s a nurse. I asked her to give me a call if she found out when you were being released. I picked up a half-shift today, but the guys are okay with giving you a lift home. Then after I get off, how about I come over and check on you? I’ll bring takeout and a movie. We can have the date we missed out on last night.” As much as I want to say yes, I know it would be a lie.
“Yeah. Okay, at least to the first part. I’m pretty sore.” I let him guide me out of the hospital with a hand on my lower back, and for the first time since crawling into the hospital bed the night before, I feel like everything might be okay.
The sliding doors leading us outside show the fire tanker resting just outside of the emergency parking zone, and he helps me up into the rig that has three other men sitting in it. I’m familiar with them in passing, but I don’t know their names. They are all relatively younger-looking, none of them older than forty, if I have to guess.
“Hey, guys. Thanks for the lift,” I say, surprised that my voice is shaking along with my body.
“It’s no problem at all. Especially for you, ma’am.” The man sitting in the front passenger seat looks back at me, and I’m struck by how gorgeous he is. His eyes are amber-colored and stand out in stark contrast to the dark-brown tones in his skin. I feel my jaw drop, and I can’t say anything.
“Damn, man. Keep your hands and your smile to yourself,” Ray says as he slides into the driver’s seat.
I audibly gulp and force myself to say something. “Holy shit, you’re gorgeous.” Apparently, the injury I got has robbed me of my common sense. “I mean. Well, shit. You know you’re gorgeous.” I feel the heat crawling up my neck and into my face so I look away and into the eyes of the man sitting right next to me, which is a mistake.
“Are your eyesblack?” I ask, unable to help myself. Even though I can see that they aren’t really. They are a shade of dark brown that are almost black, but not quite. Besides, his midnight-black hair and bronze skin do nothing to detract from his looks either.
“No, they’re close though.” He laughs a little, then grabs Ray’s shoulder. “Damn, Ray. You’re gonna end up having to fight one or all of us for this one. She’s stunning.” He winks at me and then leans forward so that I can look at the other man in the truck without introducing himself.
