Chapter 18
Jace
I stand in Luke’s kitchen beside Lexi who’s looking down at the chopping board in absolute concern. “Are you sure?” she questions.
“Yes, I’m sure,” I groan with a roll of my eyes. “Just cut the damn thing.”
She cringes before getting on with it.
It’s Luke and Lexi’s anniversary from when they first kissed or fucked or… I don’t fucking know. It’s a reason for them to celebrate them. But you’d think after living with a guy like Luke for so long, the woman would know a thing or two about getting around in the kitchen, but no. She has no fucking clue what she’s doing.
Hence, why I’m here.
She wants to do something special for him today as he’s the big fancy chef of the house. So, in other words, she somehow has talked me into cooking their anniversary dinner so she can take all the credit when he gets home.
I don’t mind though, Luke is my best friend and I’d prefer to do the cooking for them, rather than have Lexi do it and get them both sick with food poisoning. Besides, she’s eight months pregnant now, so it’s the least I can do to help her out.
“This is so gross,” she groans to herself as her knife slices through the chicken breast.
I look across to see her face all scrunched up with her fingers barely touching the chicken. “Are you kidding?” I laugh. “It’s just chicken.”
“I know,” she says. “I just didn’t expect it to be so damn… squishy.”
Jesus Christ. “Get on with it,” I laugh as I pull out another chopping board to get started on all the vegetables. “And be sure to cut off all the fat. Luke would die if there was fat on his chicken.”
“Don’t I know it,” she scoffs.
I can’t help but grin as I start peeling the carrots. “Why can’t I do that job?” Lexi sulks.
“Because if you’re going to take credit for my cooking, then you’re at least going to get your hands dirty.”
She doesn’t respond, but she doesn’t have to for me to know that she’s currently rolling her eyes at me. “So, how're things going with this baby? Have you got the nursery put together yet?”
“No,” she groans, and from the tone of her voice, I get that this has been a bit of a touchy subject. “I want to get it all done, but Luke doesn’t want to put the stuff in the room until we paint it.”
“Sounds fair,” I grunt.
“How on earth is that fair?” she argues as the knife in her hand goes flying around the room with her dramatic hand gestures. “We don’t know what gender the baby is, so I have no idea what color to paint the room, therefore this little bubby won’t have a room set up until after it’s born.”
“Ok…,” I say slowly, not really getting it. Maybe it’s a mommy thing.
“Are you serious?” she grunts as she turns to fully face me. “You can’t bring a baby into the world without having its room already set up.”
“Oh… is that some kind of rule?” I say in confusion, hoping I’m not about to get my head chopped off by the knife in her hand. I mean, you hear stories about pregnant women all the time.
“No,” she groans. “It’s just my rule.”
“Ok, well why don’t you just paint it yellow or one of those gender-neutral colors, or just find out the sex,” I say, trying to be helpful as I turn back to the chopping board and get back to peeling the carrots.
She lets out a low groan as she shakes her head at the chicken. “First off, my baby is not having a yellow room, and secondly, I want the sex to be a surprise,” she says. “Can you imagine how good it will be pushing it out and then being told if it’s a girl or a boy? It would be the biggest possible reward after going through all that pain,” she tells me with stars in her eyes.
I nod along, not really understanding it at all. I mean, maybe if it was my own child I’d get it, but it goes straight over my head, so I nod along and just go with it. “What do you think it is?” I question.
At that, the softest, dreamy expression crosses her face before she turns and looks at me. “I don’t know, but I have this feeling it’s a little girl.”
“Oh yeah,” I smile. “I can imagine Luke with a girl.”
“Me too, he’d have to buy a gun.”
“Fuck that,” I laugh. “I’ll be buying one too.”
She shakes her head and laughs with absolute joy in her eyes, making it clear that she loves the fact that her child will have all these protective men surrounding it, whether it’s a boy or a girl, this child will always have someone right there for it. No matter what.
I finish up with the carrots and am just about done with everything else when I look over to see Lexi completely doing a hack job on the chicken. “For fuck’s sake,” I groan as I place my hand over hers and take the knife away from her. “Go and sit your ass down before you destroy it.”
She gives up the knife without a fight and walks around the counter with a smug as fuck grin on her face before sitting down at the dining table to watch the show.
I get on with fixing the mess she’s just made when she pipes up. “I think we should do some potatoes too. He likes those little bastards.”
I let out a huff and resist telling her ‘your wish is my command’ as I know she’ll take it way too literally. I finish up with the chicken and get them in the pan before stopping by the fridge and pulling out the stupid potatoes. “Do you want them mashed, steamed, or roasted?”
She gives me a blank expression. “Um… mashed?” she says.
Fuck that. I’m roasting.
I put the spuds out on the chopping board and get started. Once the first one is out of the way, I look up at Lex and start ordering her around again. “Could you find a tray and then pre-heat the oven?”
She jumps up out of her spot and I grin to myself as she does the awkward pregnant walk. After searching through nearly every cupboard, she finally finds a tray and comes over to start putting the potatoes in.
I grab another potato and get back to work. The knife comes down as I pay attention to what Lex is doing when I misjudge and slice the knife straight through the palm of my hand. “Fuck,” I roar as the sharp stinging instantly begins to burn.
Blood spills out over my hand and the countertop. I slap my other hand over the top to try and stop some of the bleeding while Lex stares at my hand with wide eyes. “Holy shit,” she shrieks before getting into gear and racing around the kitchen. I make my way over to the sink as she finds some paper towel and thrusts it into my face. “How bad is it?” she questions as she turns on the tap.
I run my hand under the water and it instantly turns to a sea of blood. “Shit,” I groan as the sting continues. “I think it’s bad,” I say sucking air in through my teeth while not really wanting to raise my other hand off it. Though, I have no choice I need to see the damage done in order to fix it.
With a cringe, I slowly peel my hand off the cut and take a look while the water continues to wash away the stream of blood pouring from my hand. “Fuck,” Lex says with wide eyes. “That’s a good one. You’re going to need stitches.”
“Yep,” I agree.
“Hurry up and cover that shit up,” she says. “My stomach’s getting queasy.”
I do as she says and put my hand back over the top before applying pressure. “Don’t you have some weird blood disorder. Shouldn’t you be used to this shit?”
“I do, but I’m used to seeing my blood. Not other peoples,” she tells me before finding a first aid kit and pulling out a shit load of bandages and gauze. “Here,” she says as she grabs some more paper towel.
I thrust my hand her way and she quickly dries it off before grabbing the gauze. “We’re going to have to do this quick,” she warns.
I cringe as the blood loss is starting to make me feel a little light headed. “Just do it,” I say.
“Alright,” she says. “On three. One. Two. Three.”
I rip my hand off the cut and she instantly replaces it with a shitload of gauze. It’s only been there a second and it’s already starting to soak through with blood. “Here,” she says, adding a little more and holding it down tightly while she reaches for the bandages.
I hold the gauze down while she starts to bandage up my hand and before we know it, our botch first aid job is complete. “Keep your hand in the air,” she tells me. “Let gravity do its thing. You won’t lose as much blood this way.”
I do as she says and watch as she grabs her keys off the dining table. I grab some more paper towel and try to clean away some of the blood spilled all over the bench. “Don’t worry about it,” Lex says. “I’ll clean it up when I get back. You need to get stitches first.”
I let out a sigh as I look at the mess in the kitchen. I don’t like leaving it this way, but I don’t think I have a choice. I walk over to the forgotten stove and turn it off before flicking the nobs on the oven as well. “Sorry,” I cringe. “I kind of ruined your dinner.”
“Don’t stress,” she says. “Shit happens.”
With that, we walk out the door and get up into her truck. The engine is running and she’s backing out of her spot in the blink of an eye. As she races towards the ER, I can’t help but think that I’ve ruined their night. I promise myself that I’ll make it up to them, I just don’t know how yet.
We get to the hospital and I walk in with Lexi pulling at my arm to hurry me up as though she thinks I’m about to die. Though I get it, if our roles were reversed right now, she’d have to go fast as her blood condition would have her completely bleeding out, but for me, the bandage is doing pretty good.
Lexi finds a seat in the waiting area as I go up to the nurse’s desk and give them my information. There are heaps of people here so it could be a bit of a wait, so with a sigh, I go back over to Lex and take a seat beside her, only to hear the end of the message she’s leaving for Luke.
“You have to hurry,” she says with urgency. “Jace got hurt. There was blood everywhere. We’re at the hospital.” With that, she hangs up the call and I stare at her blankly.
“You forget to tell him that I’m not dying,” I tell her. Her eyebrows furrow as she looks to me in confusion. “Your message,” I clarify. “You made it sound like an emergency. The poor guy will freak out when he gets that.”
Her mouth pops open. “Are you kidding?” she questions. “This is an emergency. You could have died in my house and I would have had to deal with it.”
“I wasn’t going to die. I cut my hand a bit.”
“A bit?” she gasps. “Any deeper and you would have severed your whole hand. My kitchen looks like a bloodbath.”
I roll my eyes at her dramatics and lean back in my chair to get comfortable for the long wait. “You don’t have to stay,” I tell her. “I’ll be fine if you wanted to salvage what’s left of your anniversary.”
“No thanks,” she says as she makes a show of getting comfortable. “I’m good here.”
Precisely an hour later, Luke comes storming through the doors of the Emergency Room and looks around in pure panic. His eyes come to a stop on me before traveling from my head, down to my toes, and back up again. “Oh,” Lexi murmurs beside me. “I see what you mean.”
“Yeah,” I grunt as Luke comes tearing across the waiting room.
“What the fuck is going on? What happened?” he questions as he looks between me and Lexi, probably wondering why the hell we’re together.
“Nothing, man,” I say, holding up my hand. “Just a little accident. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Lex demands before looking up at Luke. “He cut his hand really bad while trying to make our anniversary dinner. There’s blood all through the kitchen. You should have seen it.”
A softness that Luke only ever reserves for Lexi comes over his face before he grins down at her. “You had him cook dinner for our anniversary?”
“Well, I was trying to and then I was going to take all the credit for it,” she explains.
He leans forward and places both his hands on the armrest of her chair before bending down into her. “I fucking love you,” he tells her before kissing her.
“Ugh,” I groan. “Enough of that bullshit,” I tell them. “Remember we’re here because of me.”
With that, Luke straightens himself up and focuses on me. “You’re cleaning my kitchen,” he tells me in all seriousness.
I roll my eyes. I should have known that was coming. “Fine,” I say, “But only if they give me some painkillers. This is starting to hurt like a bitch.”
The second I mention a little bit of pain, Luke walks back over to the nurses’ desk and questions them on how long it’s going to be. Ever since Luke’s last tour where he was held captive, he hasn’t been able to handle seeing other people in pain, and it’s fair enough, the kinds of things he experienced in Iraq were shocking, hell, I still have trouble wrapping my head around it.
He comes back and lifts Lexi up out of her seat before taking her place and seating her on his lap in the busy waiting room. “She said there are still a few more people before you,” he tells me. “Maybe if you take the bandages off and let blood go everywhere, they’ll see you faster.”
“Hmm,” I grunt, wanting to get out of here. “Good plan.” I reach for the bandage only to have Lexi slap my hand away.
“Don’t be an idiot,” she tells me. “Both of you dickheads need to learn a little something about patience.”
Both Luke and I roll our eyes before he grins at me behind her back. He loves messing with his woman and I must admit, I quite enjoy it too.
After the longest half an hour wait, my name is finally called and I’m taken back into a room where a nurse named Gigi indicates for me to take a seat on the hospital bed.
“We’ll wait out here,” Luke tells me from the doorway as he pulls his phone out of his pocket and starts studying the screen.
“Thanks, man,” I say before he closes the door.
With that, I pay attention to Gigi as she starts unraveling the mess of bloodied bandages while we wait for the doctor to come in and stitch me up.