Chapter 20
Laird
I was allowed to go home. I couldn’t remember shit, but aside from my broken leg, my body was fine. Everything else I struggled with was mental. There was nothing else they could do for me at the hospital, and when a patient didn’t need the bed anymore, they needed to clear it out for someone who did.
Jackson had collected me from the hospital after I had taken care of the bills, and we had driven back to my cabin in his truck. The trail up the mountain to the cabin hurt like a bitch. I was jostled around, and my leg hurt as much as my head did. But when Jackson helped me into my cabin, it was great to be back.
Everything was the way it always was, and I felt at home. This was something I knew.
“Are you going to be fine?” Jackson asked when I settled on the couch.
I nodded. “All I need is to rest up and recover.”
The doctors had said that if I was in my own space with my own routines, it might help to jog my memory. God knows I needed that. I was sick of being stuck like this, with the void inside of me. It had only been four days, but mentally it had been a hell of a lot longer and a hell of a lot more than just that.
“Right. Well, I would feel like a shit friend if I didn’t at least leave you some food. So, what do you want?” Jackson walked to my open plan kitchen.
“I usually don’t have much stocked up. And I’m not that hungry.. Coffee would be great.”
Jackson nodded. “Coming up,” he said.
“I need to take a piss,” I said.
“Need help?”
“Fuck no. I’ve got this one.” I hobbled from the couch to my bedroom and then the bathroom. It was hard on my leg, but I wasn’t immobile. That was good news.
After I finished in the bathroom, I hobbled to the bedroom. It was hard work, and I sat down on the bed to take a breather. I lay back on the pillows. God, it felt good to be home again. I reached up and pushed my hands under the pillow. My fingers tangled in something and I pulled it out.
In my hands, I had a pair of black satin panties. I opened them, and they were sexy with lace inserts. I closed my eyes. The scent that clung to them was amazing. It was something floral and something sexual, all at the same time.
I flashed on an image of a woman’s body with these panties stretched over her perfect ass. Her hip bones pushing out slightly when she lay back. A tattoo that moved when she did.
And that red hair. Short, curly red hair and eyes the color of spring leaves.
Fiona.
It crashed into me like a freight train. A twisted ankle, rough fucking, the baby. And that I loved her. I wanted to be with her. And she thought I didn’t know who she was.
Because until two seconds ago, I didn’t. But I knew, now. I remembered it all. The darkness in my mind faded, and even though my head hurt like a bitch, I remembered.
The accident crashed down on me as well, and I gasped. I felt the four-wheeler between my legs, the way it gave out when I hit the rock. The scream of the woman behind me flying off. And then the world tilted on its axel, spinning around and around and a deafening crack. I knew something had gone terribly wrong just before I had blacked out. And my last thought had been about Fiona.
When I opened my eyes, it was like a year had sped by in a second. My hands trembled, and I pressed my hand against my head where it ached.
Jackson came into the room.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Why didn’t you tell me about Fiona?” I asked.
“What? I told you.”
I shook my head. “You didn’t tell me how serious we are. You didn’t tell me about the baby.”
Jackson’s eyes widened. “You remember.”
I nodded. “I do. And I remember a whole lot of shit you didn’t tell me.”
I was pissed off. I was panicked. I had no idea what I was feeling. Everything was a jumbled mess, but I knew I was okay again and I knew Fiona needed me.
“Look, man. I was looking out for you.” Jackson stood with his arms folded in the doorway like a sentry, or like someone who had something to hide.
“How were you looking out for me? You know how I feel about her.”
“I wanted you to remember for yourself. Things were going so fast. I figured, if you remember for yourself, I will know it’s real. But if I tell you that you love her, you might do something just because I said you had to.”
I shook my head and climbed off the bed. I hobbled to Jackson and grabbed him by the collar. I was pissed.
“That’s a dick move,” I said. “She is carrying my baby, for fuck’s sake! How can you let me leave her in the lurch like that?”
“I was trying to do the right thing,” Jackson said.
I wanted to punch the living shit out of him, but I knew what he was saying. We were going fast. No one would understand it but me. No one would know how genuine my feelings for Fiona were. So I pushed Jackson to the side and hobbled out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Jackson asked, coming after me.
“I have to get to her,” I said. What if it was too late? What if she had already given up on me? But no, I wouldn’t accept that. If Fiona felt even half of what I felt for her, she would hold on.
I found my truck keys on the hook next to the door and yanked it open. I only had one thing on my mind and that was getting back to my woman and making it all right again, to fix what had broken and make good on my promise. I would be there for her. We would do this together.
“Don’t do that,” Jackson said, grabbing onto me and nearly pulling me off balance.
“You can’t keep me from her,” I yelled.
“I’m not trying to keep you from her,” Jackson said. “I was never trying to do that. But you have to sit down, or you’ll hurt yourself even more.”
“Not until I get to her,” I said.
Jackson wrestled me against the door, his arm against my chest. He wasn’t as strong as I was, but he was making his point.
“I’ll call her, dammit. I’ll get her to come out here. But you need to sit the fuck down and take care of yourself.”
I finally heard what he was trying to say. I understood.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll sit down. But we have to call her. Now.”
Jackson nodded. “Just sit down, okay?”
I did what he asked and made my way to the couch. I sat down. I was out of breath even though I had barely done anything. Jackson had been right, trying to drive all the way to the city with a cast to get Fiona back would be stupid. I pressed my hand to my head which was still aching.
Jackson took out his phone and dialed a number before pressing it to his ear. He glanced at me before walking out of the cabin. I needed to know what he was saying to her.
After a short while, Jackson came in, holding the phone out to me.
“She wants to talk to you.”
I took the phone and took a deep breath before I held it to my ear.
“Fiona?” I said.
“Oh, my God, Laird,” she said. Her voice cracked, and she started crying.
“I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. I need to see you.”
“I love you,” I said. I couldn’t think of anything else. Fiona sobbed on the other side of the line, and I knew that it was what she had needed to hear. It was what I’d needed to say. I looked up at Jackson who was shaking his head, but he was smiling.
Frankly, I didn’t give a shit. If I wanted to be with Fiona, it was what I wanted. I was a grown man, and my heart wanted what it wanted. There was nothing else to say about that.
And no matter what happened, nothing was going to take me away from Fiona again.