Unraveling (19 page)

“Yeah?” I looked
over at him.

He
leaned back in the chair and seemed to be contemplating something. Finally, he said, “I want you to stay with me for awhile-”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he shushed me.

“You’re hurt, and it’s going to be hard for you to get around. Let me help you,” he pleaded, looking at me with round puppy dog eyes. He was not playing fair. I was putty in his hands when he looked at me like that.

“Jared I-”

“Please, Katy? The thought of you, alone, in that condo tears me up inside. All I’ll do is worry. Please, stay with me.”

I took a deep breath to center myself.

Honestly, the thought of having to hobble around at home, by myself, wasn’t appealing.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Really?” his eyes lit up.

“Really,” I nodded. “I’ll just want to get some of my stuff.”

“Of course,” he replied with a grin.

His leg bobbed up and down as we waited for the doctor to make his rounds.

I wasn’t looking forward to the doctor showing up, because I knew that meant he’d touch me. I shuddered at the thought alone.

“What’s wrong?” Jared asked.

I knew there was no point in lying, not with Jared, so I said, “I don’t want the doctor to touch me.”

“Katy,” he leaned forward and cupped my cheek. “I’ll be right here with you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I know,” I whispered and meant it. Jared made me feel safe, nothing, no one else, especially a man, had made me feel since my rape.

When the doctor came,
Jared comforted me by holding my hand. He would nod reassuringly at me, as the doctor looked me over, I locked my eyes on his and never looked away as the doctor poked and prodded me.

Jared centered me.

“Well,” the doctor said, taping my ribs back up, “everything looks good, I’ll get the discharge papers together and you should be out of here within the hour.”

“Great, thanks,” I said.

As soon as he was gone, I realized I didn’t have any clothes, and voiced this to Jared.

He chuckled. “You’ve got plenty of clothes. I don’t know how, but all the clothes you and Karlie bought, survived the crash unscathed.”

“Really?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yeah,” he chuckled. “They’re in my car, I’ll go grab a couple of bags and be right back.”

“Thank you,” I said, releasing his hand. “For everything that you’ve done.”

“I haven’t done nearly enough,” he murmured and pressed his lips to my forehead before he left.

I pressed my fingers to my forehead, where his lips had been just moments before, and a smile spread across my face.

I was totally screwed when it came to Jared, because the he
art wants, what the heart wants, and my heart wanted Jared.

19

I signed my name on the line and the nurse smiled.
“I’ll be right back with a wheel chair.”

“I can walk.”

Her smile faltered a bit. “No, sweetie, let me get you a chair. There’s no need for you to be uncomfortable.”

“I have bruised
ribs and a broken wrist. I can walk,” I snapped.

She looked over at Jared and he shrugged in
a, ‘what can you do’, manner.

“Okay,” she said, “I’ll be right back with your copy and then you can get out of here.”

“Thank God,” I said, rummaging through the bags Jared had brought in.

I found a pair of jeans, a tank top, and loose sweater.

“Do you have some scissors?” I asked him. “To cut off the tags.”

“Do I look like I carry around scissors?” he raised a brow.

I laughed. “Not really.”

“I do
, however, carry a pocket knife,” he grinned, pulling out the blade. He cut off the tags and I gathered up the clothes, disappearing into the bathroom.

It took me forever to get the clothes on, because my stupid arm cast kept getting in my way.

First, I couldn’t get my jeans buttoned and then I couldn’t get my sweater over the cast.

I couldn’t wait for the dumb thing to come off.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t bought a brush, so my hair was just going to have to look like a mess.

I knew there was a ponytail holder in my purse, which had survived the wreck, along with my shoes and jeans from that night. My shirt howe
ver, was shredded in places.

I opened the bathroom door and rummaged through my purse until I found it.

I brushed my hair, as best I could, with my fingers and pulled it back in a sloppy ponytail.

“I want to get out of here,” I told Jared, hands on my hips.

He chuckled and stood to stretch. I knew his back had to be killing him, after being in that chair for so long.

“I can tell,” he said. “The nurse should be back in just a minute.”

“I’m going stir crazy!” I began to pace in the length of the small room.

“You haven’t even been here
for twenty-four hours,” Jared remarked.

“I just hate hospitals. They smell like bleach and things are always beeping. It’s annoying.”

Jared chuckled as the door opened.

I grabbed the papers from
the nurse, said thank you and began to pick up my stuff.

“Katy,” Jared said. “Katy!”
He said a bit louder when I wouldn’t listen. “I can get your stuff.”

“I’ve got it, Jared,” I snapped, not wanting to be helpless.

“Katy,” he began taking the bags from my hands. “You were in an accident last night, you’re hurt. You don’t need to be carrying these heavy bags. Let me help you.”

I sighed, you couldn’t argue with Jared.

“At least, let me carry my purse, so that I don’t feel like a complete invalid,” I clutched it closer to me.

He laughed. “You can keep the purse. Come on,” he nodded out the door. “Let’s get you out of here before you wear a hole in the floor.”

I followed Jared down to the main lobby.

“Stay here,” he nodded to a chair. “I’ll go pull the car up.”

“I can walk,” I said, holding my head high.

“Katy,” he groaned. “I had to park pretty far away and I don’t want you to tire yourself. I’ll be right back. You know…” he paused.

“What?” I sighed, the fight going out of me.

“You don’t have to be so tough all the time, Ka
ty. It’s okay to be vulnerable,” he said softly, those brown eyes boring into me and seeing more in me, than anyone else ever had.

My lower lip trembled and I wanted to tell him that, no, I couldn’t be vulnerable.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” he assured me. “Don’t run.”

“I won’t,” I whispered, my voice cracking as I took a seat in the hospital lobby.

People bustled around me, going about their business.

I watched through the glass doors for Jared’s Toyota to show up.

When I saw the bright blue of his car, come around the curve and under the awning, I stood and scurried out the doors.

Jared came around to open the passenger door.

I looked at the ginormous vehicle and cringed. Getting inside that thing was going to kill my ribs. 

“Do you mind if I lift you?” Jared asked softly, from somewhere behind me.

At this point, I didn’t have much choice.

“Help me,” I said.

“I’m going to lift you up,” he warned. “Okay?”

I n
odded.

Slowly, he swept my legs out from under me and lifted me into the passenger seat like a small child.

I reached for the seatbelt and pain lanced through my side. “Ouch!” I exclaimed.

“Hang on a second, let me get it, kitten.” He pulled the seatbelt out and buckled me in. This close, his citrusy smell threatened to overwhelm me.

He pulled away and smiled. “All good?” he tapped my knee.

I nodded, hoping I wasn’t blushing like a fool.

We pulled away from the hospital and a rumbling started in my stomach.

“I’m hungry,” I said.

Jared chuckled. “I’m starving too, that hospital food tastes like ass.”

“You know what ass tastes like?” I laughed.

“Metaphorically speaking, of course,” he shrugged. “There’s a McDonald’s down the road. Would that be okay?”

“At this point, I’d eat just about anything,” I said, trying not to flinch every time he drove over a bump in the road.

He turned into the drive thru and I told him what I wanted.

I pulled out my wallet but he refused to take the money.

“Jared,” I whined. “Please, take it,” I held out the twenty-dollar bill. “You stayed the whole night with me at the hospital and now you’re letting me stay at your house. This is the least I can do.”

“No, Katy,” he glared at me. “Put your money away, and let me take car
e of my girl.”

My cheeks flamed at his words but I refused to argue with him anymore. I put the money away and dropped my purse on
to the floor of his car.

He got the food and pulled into a nearby parking lot.

“Bagel for the lady,” he said, handing me the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. “And two chicken biscuits for myself. This is quite the feast,” he winked at me.

“Tastes good to me,” I said, already taking a huge bite.

He chuckled and unwrapped his sandwich. “You’re easy to please.”

I shrugged. “I’m not some complicated chick that’s going to flip out if you forget my birthday. I don’t care about those kinds of things, so eating somewhere fancy is pretty far down on my list. I’ve learned that it’s the simple things that matter the most.” I turned to face him. “When you’re older, you aren’t going to look back and remember that your boyfriend took you to the coolest restaurant in town. You’re going to remember the tim
e you sat and looked up at the stars.”

Jared looked away and I wondered if he was remembering our ‘non-date’, the way I was.

He cleared his throat. “Katy… do you… see yourself… with me?” he looked up at me with those long black lashes framing his brown eyes.

“Y-yes,” I stuttered.

He took a deep breath and looked… relieved.

“Good,” he said, softly. “That’s really good,” he said a little louder. “Because I see myself with you.”

I didn’t really know what to say.

Jared cleared his throat. “I’ve –uh- never,” he squirmed in his seat, “dated before. So, I don’t really know the proper way to go about this,” he looked at me. “But I want to be… exclusive with you.”

I snorted
and his cheeks flamed. Oops. “Sorry,” I said, “it’s just… I don’t date.”

“Oh, right,” he opened the wrapper of his second biscuit.

“No, Jared, what I mean is, you don’t need to have the ‘I want to be exclusive’ talk with me. It’s not like I’m hanging out with any other guys. Except for Rollo, but he doesn’t count,” I winked.

“So…”

“So,” I blushed. “I think you’re saying you want to date me.”

“Yes,” he chuckled.
“I’ve never had a girlfriend before so you’ll have to bear with me, while I learn.”

“I doubt that you’ve never had a girlfriend,” I scoffed.

“Never,” he said, with a chuckle. “What about you? Any jealous ex boyfriends I should know about.”

“I’ve only ever dated one guy,” I whispered.

“Oh,” he said.

“We dated all through high school,” I took another bite of my bagel.
“It –uh- it didn’t end well,” I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

“You wanna talk about it?” he took a sip of his drink.

“No,” I answered.

“That’s fine,” he said, balling up his trash and dropping it into the paper bag.

He waited until I was done eating to drive to my condo.

Every time I pulled up to the building, I always hated how stark it was. It wa
s far too modern for me, but since my mom was paying, I had no input.

Jared followed me up, and I let him in first.

I motioned to the lumpy white couch in the living room. “Make yourself at home, it shouldn’t take me long to pack a couple of things.”

“You better pack more than a couple,” he said. “At least a week’s worth.”

I gulped. A week? At Jared’s house?

There’s no way I’d come out of this unscathed.

I grabbed my green and navy striped duffel bag from the top of my closet. I had all the new clothes I bought, in Jared’s car. So, all I really needed to grab was pajamas, underwear, and my bathroom stuff.

I dropped my sweat
pants and sleep shirts into the bag and then attacked my bathroom.

Finally seeing myself in a mirror, I did a double take.

Oh hell.