Chapter 19
The Lone Wolf wasn’t at all an appropriate name for the Nelson family commercial fishing boat that Grace found herself on after breakfast. She’d been a lone wolf herself until a month ago. But now she had her own pack of friends and…family—maybe.
After a thirty-minute boat ride on the water, Joey anchored the Lone Wolf at his secret spot. The boat had run as smooth as the water was for them today.
“Fingers crossed the weather is like this tomorrow,” Abby said, lying back along one of the long seats at the front of the boat. She smiled up at the sun with her large brown sunglasses covering her eyes.
“I hate to break it to you, friend, but you won’t be sunbathing tomorrow,” Krista pointed out.
“And I won’t be drinking beer.” Joey popped the top of a Bud Light and tipped it back.
“Can we catch a fish today?” Grace asked hopefully.
Joey shrugged. “Sure. My philosophy is that there’s more than enough fish out there. If we catch the ‘big one’ today, there’ll be an even bigger one tomorrow.” He winked and motioned for Grace to follow him to the stern of the Lone Wolf, while Krista and Abby stayed at the bow.
“So, this is an outrigger,” Grace said, walking up to a pair of long poles fitted to the side of the boat. “The outriggers allow multiple lines to be dropped into the water and thus simulate a school of fish. That helps us trick our big catch.” She grinned, proud of herself, then proceeded to label other parts of the fishing gear that Jack and Noah had taught her about, eager to show off her knowledge.
“I thought I was here to help. You seem to already know what you’re doing.”
Grace cocked her head. “Well, I’ve been out a few times in the last month preparing for this tournament. I never would’ve guessed a couple months ago that I’d be involved in a major fishing tournament.”
“Sometimes life surprises us.” Joey kept his gaze on the water. Grace guessed he was watching for something to jump. She’d seen Jack and Noah do the same thing. Or maybe there was some meditative quality about staring out onto the water. Maybe your deepest thoughts were out there waiting to reveal themselves if you were patient enough.
Grace followed Joey’s gaze and stared into the deep blue as well, waiting, hoping…Nothing. “So, are we going to toss chum overboard? Is that your secret tool?” she asked, clutching the rig’s handle as the wind picked up and the boat swayed on the water.
“Nah. That’s everyone’s secret tool. Mine is this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter with a hole drilled into the top.
“A quarter?”
“Nice and shiny. Fish like shiny things.”
Grace had to laugh. This was something that Jack and Noah hadn’t yet taught her. “Women like shiny things, too.”
“This is true.” Joey glanced over. “You know, after my brief engagement ended, my ex gave her ring back to me. I used it at this very spot.”
Grace pushed her neck forward. She’d heard about Joey’s broken engagement in the past. “You used a diamond engagement ring to catch a fish?”
Joey finished the beer he was drinking and tossed the can into an open cooler off to the side. “Damn fish got away with the ring, too. Better than letting my ex keep it, I guess.”
Grace curled her fingers tighter around the railing of the boat as it rocked against the current. “She was crazy, if you ask me.”
“I’m the crazy one for letting things get as far with her as they did. And what kind of fool uses an engagement ring as fish bait?” He shook his head.
“The kind that’s in love,” Grace said softly, understanding exactly how he’d felt. She’d fallen fast and hard for Jack over the last few weeks, and now it seemed like it was over. She swallowed thickly.
Joey looked at her. “So, about that fish you want to catch today. I haven’t got a ring, but I swear by quarters.” He pointed a finger at her. “If you tell your boyfriend this secret, no more DD cabbie for you.”
Grace’s mouth fell open. “What boyfriend?”
He scoffed. “Come on. I’ve driven you and the girls around enough to hear what’s going on between you and Jack. And if you ask me, he’s the crazy one if he lets you walk away.”
She wouldn’t really be walking away, though. It was up to Jack if this thing between them was going to go any further. “Thanks for saying so, Joey.”
He nodded, slipped a fishing hook through a hole drilled into the top of the quarter, and dropped it into the water.
“I’ll believe this science of yours when I see a fish.”
“All right, all right. Seeing is believing.”
An eternity later—which reminded Grace why she didn’t like fishing; she was too impatient—the line jerked.
“Fish!” Joey called, working fast and doing things that Grace had no clue about. Krista and Abby came running. They worked just as fast. Grace just stood there and watched. Some captain she was. Then, after nearly twenty minutes, a king mackerel was pulled out of the water and plopped onto the deck of the boat.
“She’s magnificent,” Grace said, crouching near the catch. She looked up at her friends.
Joey frowned.
Krista frowned.
Abby frowned, too.
Grace looked between them. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s too small. We’ll have to throw her back,” Joey finally said.
“Really?” The fish looked great to Grace. It also looked like a fish that belonged in the water and not on the surface.
“Sorry, Grace. I know you wanted one today, but Joey’s right.” Krista swiped her forearm along her brow.
Grace shrugged. “I’m not disappointed. That was still exhilarating.”
“Just wait for tomorrow.” Krista smiled at her. “We’re going to show Jack and Noah how it’s done.” She lifted her hand for a high five, and Grace obliged.
“Add Sam to that scenario and I’ll gladly high-five it,” Abby said.
“Sam, too.” Grace raised her hand again for Abby this time.
“Ou-hoooooooooooooo!” Krista howled.
“That’s what you do on the Lone Wolf,” Joey told her. “You catch a fish, you howl.”
“Seriously?” Grace looked at Krista, hoping she’d start laughing. Instead, she tipped her head back and howled again.
Joey, Abby, and finally Grace joined in, howling before heaving the mackerel back into the ocean.
The fish probably thought they were a crazy bunch, and Grace would have to agree. Crazy in the best kind of way.
After a few more hours of fishing, sun, beer, and good conversation, Joey decided it was time to head back. The girls took to the bow of the boat while Joey steered. Grace moved to the stern to be alone. She’d thought that maybe Jack would’ve called today, but he hadn’t. She’d been busy, but she’d still noticed his silence. And it infuriated her a little bit. She was doing this for him and his family.
And yeah, for hers, too.
She watched the water’s spray arch up and fall to the side as the boat cut through the ocean. Like angels’ wings, she thought. There was indeed a meditative quality to the constant pattern the water made—the same every time. Unless the boat’s motor changed, the water’s effect would always be the same. That was kind of the way life was, maybe. If you wanted things to be different, you needed to behave differently.
Wow, this water really does go to your head.
Grace turned back to look at the others just as the boat cut left. Grace stumbled and clawed at the railing on the other side of her. It was wet, though, and her hand slipped, making her fly backward. Something hard hit the back of her head—ka-plunk!—and she felt her body flip in the air. She was suspended, weightless and flying, unable to determine if she was upright or upside down until she hit the water, as hard and abrasive as cement.
And then it swallowed her up.
Jack despised a desk job. He’d rather be doing anything but this. He stared out the window that overlooked the ocean. The water wasn’t so hard to look at anymore. He owed that to Grace. There was one good thing that had come out of this need of hers to win the fishing tournament. He’d recaptured a little piece of the happiness he’d once had out there.
But Grace hadn’t been doing any of it for him. She’d been motivated by a need to help her mother, and that just didn’t sit right with him. He reached for his phone and eyed the screen. No missed calls. He’d thought maybe she would’ve felt remorseful today for keeping her motives from him like she had. Maybe she would’ve called and apologized.
She hadn’t. Instead, she’d called in sick and left him at this desk, fielding calls and staring at the walls, which could use a fresh coat of paint, he decided.
Jack spun in his chair as the door opened. Despite his foul mood, he grinned at his brother Noah. “Tag. You’re it, bro. I’ve got to go finish up the latest project with Tristan. Then I have to call a guy back about another job.”
“Your business is really rolling,” Noah said, reluctantly heading toward the desk.
“Yep. Thinking about having a grand opening just to introduce the biz to the community. What do you think?”
“I think that sounds good. Call the newspaper. Maybe they’ll hook you up with a front-page story. Wait until after the tournament news is done with this weekend, though.”
They stared at each other.
“Yeah. Good idea,” Jack finally said. “You still mad at Grace?” he asked.
Noah shrugged. “I spoke to Krista about it. She says Grace didn’t mean to upset me.”
Jack nodded. “You still mad at me?”
Noah gave a little nod. “I’d feel better if I could punch you for screwing my sister.”
Jack grimaced. “She’s not your sister, bro.”
“Maybe not yours, but I’ll keep thinking of her as one if that’s all right with you.”
Jack smiled. “She’ll be glad to hear you say that.” And if he wasn’t fighting with her right now, he’d be glad to go tell her so himself.
“I’m still not doing the tournament. I forgive you both, but I need a little time before I can handle enclosed space with you two making out.”
Jack massaged a hand over his face. “I quit the tournament, too. The whole thing has been called off.”
“Yeah? Why?”
Jack shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
“Don’t tell me you were screwing her and now you’ve gone and broken her heart. Because then I’ll really want to kick your ass. And you know I can.”
Jack laughed. “Maybe she’s the one who broke my heart. Have you considered that?”
“Is she?” Noah asked.
“I’m not sure who did what.” He wasn’t even sure if he was the one who was supposed to be calling Grace and apologizing right now. He’d waited all day for her to do that and she hadn’t. “Anyway, I’m heading over to work.”
“Since I’m managing the desk and there’s apparently not much going on, I can call the paper and schedule a grand opening for your business if you want.”
Jack pointed a finger at his brother. “That’d be great. You know, I need a secretary for my business. You’re hired.”
Noah flipped him the bird. “You always were a jerk.”
Jack closed the door behind him and bounced down the steps, feeling slightly lighter after his conversation with Noah. He checked his phone again. If Grace didn’t call by the time he finished working with Tristan, he’d bite the bullet and call her. Or better yet, he’d go see her. Kissing her was a lot more fun after they’d argued and made up.
As he drove, Jack’s stomach started to roll uneasily. Not so much his stomach, though. He recognized the feeling. It was more his gut, the same way it’d felt when Chris had gone missing. Jack pulled out his phone and dialed his father.
“Hey,” his dad said after three rings.
“You okay, Dad?”
His father coughed into the receiver. “Yeah. Why you asking?”
“Is Sam all right?” Jack asked next.
“Last I saw him. What’s going on with you, son?”
Jack shook his head, pulling into the work site. Tristan was already waiting for him beside a pile of new lumber. “Nothing. I’ll see you later.” Jack ended the call and left his phone in the center console. “Hey, bud,” he said to Tristan as he walked up. He gave the kid a once-over. “You all right?” he asked, seeing no evidence that he wasn’t.
Tristan gave him an odd look and nodded. “You’re late.”
This made Jack laugh. “Right. Well, let’s get to it.” Because the sooner they did, the sooner he could set things straight with Grace.
Grace tried to open her eyes, but they wouldn’t budge. It was like an anchor was weighing them down. Her lungs felt heavy, too.
Where am I? What’s going on?
She could hear the sound of water crashing over her, loud and heavy, punctuated by a sharp mechanical beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
She recognized the sound as her heartbeat.
Her mouth was so dry. She tried to swallow, but couldn’t.
Beep. Beep.
“Is she going to be okay?” Krista asked in the distance.
Grace tried to answer, wondered why Krista’s whispered voice sounded like it was miles away.
Someone else’s voice answered instead. Followed by Abby’s voice.
“We need to tell Jack.”
Jack.
Grace willed her eyes to open. Needed to tell Jack what? She’d already told him her secrets. Or, really, he’d discovered what she was doing on his own and was mad at her now.
Beep.
The flippin’ beep was getting on her every last nerve. But it meant she was alive, right? Of course she was alive. Grace’s head throbbed as she remembered bashing it against the side of the boat. And going under.
Beep.
Beep.
“We’ll need to wait and see. She’s comfortable right now. Has the family been notified?”
“I’ll call her mom,” Krista said.
“I’ll call Jack,” Abby said.
Grace raged inside her very still body. They were wrong. She wasn’t resting comfortably right now. This was a living nightmare.
Beep.
Jack hammered the last board into place. He was twenty feet out in the water, soggy wet, and ready to get back to shore. Dry clothes and a hot coffee sounded good right about now. And he’d like to check his phone to see if Grace had called.
“Done,” Jack told Tristan.
The kid rewarded him with a smile.
“Let’s grab our stuff and go home.” Tristan had only been living with him for a day, so home was a figure of speech.
They got in the truck and Jack reached for his phone in the center console. Five missed calls. He tapped his code to unlock it, hoping at least one of those calls was from Grace.
The missed calls were all from Krista. Confusion slipped into worry. Jack tapped his voicemail and listened to the messages, slipping from worry to fear.
“First unplayed message,” the robotic voice of his voicemail said, talking annoyingly slow.
“Jack, this is Krista. You need to come to the hospital. It’s Grace.”
Jack started the engine and laid on the gas as he listened to the next message and the ones after that.
“Jack, where are you? Grace is in room 211. Just, uh, come when you can.”
There was no report as to why Grace was in room 211.
“What’s wrong?” Tristan asked.
Jack had forgotten for a moment that the kid was even there beside him. “I have to go to the hospital.”
“Everything all right?”
Jack shook his head. “I’m not sure. It’s my, uh…the girl I’ve been seeing.” He didn’t have time to swing by his house to drop Tristan off. “I’ll take you to the hospital and call you a cab when we get there.”
Tristan nodded. “Sure, man. Sorry your girlfriend is sick.”
Jack laid on the gas a little harder, needing to get to Grace. When had the calls come in? Why was she in room 211? What had happened?
Jack pulled into the parking lot of Blushing Bay Memorial. He handed Tristan a card for Joey’s cab service. “Call this number. Someone there will get you home.”
Tristan nodded. “Sure. Good luck.”
Jack’s large steps ate up the parking lot. Everything seemed to be going too slowly, though. The lot was too long. The elevator took an exaggerated amount of time to open and then carry him to the second floor. The door seemed to tease him as it waited to ping and open. When it did, Jack burst down the hall, ticking off the room numbers as he passed. Turning a corner, he entered Grace’s room, hoping for a bandaged arm or something equally inconsequential.
Grace lay in the bed, eyes closed as if she were sleeping. Monitors beeped around her, attached to her by colored wires and sensors. His gaze scanned over her as he tried to assess what exactly was going on. Her left arm was in a sling and there was a bandage circling her forehead.
“Jack!” Krista threw her arms around his neck. “I’ve been calling you. Where have you been?”
He shook his head. “I was in the water. Left my phone in the truck.” But none of that mattered. “What happened?”
Krista slid away and looked at Abby, who was sitting on the other side of the room. Blushing Bay’s newest terrific trio, or terrible depending on the women’s moods.
“Abs?” Jack asked, looking at his former sister-in-law.
“The doctor thinks Grace will be okay. She has a concussion. The sling on her arm is to stabilize a fractured collarbone. She’s medicated for the pain right now.”
Jack struggled to breathe. “He thinks she’ll be fine?”
“Of course she’ll be fine,” Krista offered. “This is Grace. She’s the toughest woman I know.”
“How did this happen?” he asked next, because those weren’t everyday injuries.
Krista hugged her arms around her body. “We were on Joey and Dad’s boat.”
Jack’s gaze snapped up. “Boat? Grace called in sick today. Why was she on your family’s boat?”
Krista and Abby exchanged another look.
“Stop that, all right? Just tell me what’s going on,” Jack said, anger heating his voice. He couldn’t help it. They’d been stupid and now Grace was hurt.
Krista took a tiny step backward. “You’re the one who called off the tournament, okay? Grace was devastated, so we decided to do it ourselves.”
Jack slammed the heel of his palm into his forehead. “Kris. You’re not a fisherman.”
“I know my way around a boat,” Krista argued. “So does Abs.”
“You, too?” Jack looked at Abby and shook his head. “Whose ridiculous idea was this?”
“All of ours. We did it for Grace,” Krista said softly.
All eyes went to the patient on the bed.
“The tournament is important to her,” Abby said. “And we had Joey, too. He’s a fisherman in his own right.”
“He’s a cab driver,” Jack ground out, irritated and upset with himself.
“Well, if you hadn’t quit on Grace.” Krista stepped forward this time, pointing her finger at his chest.
“So this is my fault?” He shook his head. “I didn’t quit on her. I quit on her silly idea that a boat was ever going to make me like her mother.”
“It would if you weren’t so pigheaded,” Krista argued.
“Pigheaded?” Jack repeated angrily.
A nurse stepped inside the room. “Excuse me. I’m going to have to ask you all to leave if you can’t keep your voices down.”
“Sorry,” Krista said.
“When will she wake up?” Jack asked, turning to the nurse, a young woman with kind eyes and short, wavy hair.
“Well, she hit her head pretty hard. We have her on pain medication and a sedative to help her rest right now. We want to give her brain a chance to heal.”
“How long?” Jack asked. He needed to talk to Grace. He needed to tell her how sorry he was…and how he felt about her.
“We want to monitor her for the next twenty-four hours. Are you family?” the nurse asked.
“No. Kind of.”
“Grace’s mother is on her way,” Krista told the nurse. “I sent my brother to go pick her up in his cab.”
Jack groaned. “That’s just great.”
“Do you seriously think we wouldn’t call Grace’s mom?” Krista shook her head. “You need to get over your grudge against Tammy, Jack.”
“Voices. Remember to keep it down. I really should’ve already asked you to leave,” the nurse warned. She probably knew Krista, since they both worked at the hospital.
“We promise,” Krista said. “Abby, let’s go get some coffee downstairs. Jack might want some time alone.”
“Thanks.” Jack sat and took hold of Grace’s hand. A zing of electricity ran through him. Their touch had always been that way.
He willed Grace’s eyes to open. Just for one second. He needed to see that she was going to be okay. He couldn’t lose her.
The door behind him creaked open. The scuffling steps of someone who was either too lazy to lift their feet or couldn’t entered the room.
Jack had one guess who the visitor was. He didn’t look back. Instead, he steeled himself against his emotions. Krista was right. He needed to get over his grudge, but he had no idea how. “This is your fault, you know,” he finally said. “Grace was doing this because you asked her to.”
Tammy Donner stepped up to the bed.
Jack could hear her sniffles beside him. She walked around and sat in the chair that Abby had occupied earlier. She was slow to sit, careful.
“You asked her to fix things between our families when it wasn’t hers to fix.” He met Tammy’s gaze across Grace’s bed. Without meaning to, his grip on Grace’s hand tightened. He pulled his hand away and wiped it over his face, willing the hardness of his muscles to ease. He wasn’t going to verbally spar with a woman who was sick.
Tammy reached for Grace’s other hand. “That’s where you’re wrong, Jack. I told her not to do the tournament. She was determined. You know how Grace is. No one has ever been able to tell her what to do.” Tammy kept her gaze firmly on Grace. “Besides, you’re the one who agreed to do this dangerous thing with her. Didn’t you learn your lesson after your friend died?”
Jack erupted out of his seat, unable to contain his energy. “Don’t talk to me about mistakes or lessons learned. You don’t get to talk to me about anything.”
Tammy pulled back, her eyes rounding as she stared at him.
Dammit.
“I’m sorry, but one of you needs to leave,” the nurse said, stepping in again. She folded her arms under her chest.
“I’ll go.” Jack cast one more glance in Tammy’s direction, not meeting her eyes fully, then stormed out of the room.
Early the next morning, Jack went to the hospital to check on Grace, but she was sleeping soundly. Whatever drugs they were giving her apparently worked well. Instead of pacing her hospital room and waiting for his chance to make amends, he left and distracted himself by giving his only employee a birthday gift. It wasn’t every day that a boy legally became a man.
“What do you think?” Jack asked.
Tristan turned back to him, a wide childlike grin sweeping over his face. Even though he’d just turned eighteen, he still looked like a boy to Jack. The kid cursed excitedly and added, “Are you serious?”
“Watch your language. And yeah, I’m serious.” Jack matched the teen’s grin, slipping out of his bad mood for a moment.
“No way!”
“You don’t want it?” Jack asked, knowing that wasn’t at all what the kid meant. The RV had belonged to him and Chris. They’d taken it on a lot of wild trips back in the day. Since the accident, though, it’d just sat in Jack’s backyard. He couldn’t imagine ever using it again without his friend. Chris would approve of passing it on to someone like Tristan.
“Yeah, I want it.”
“There’s a campground down the street. You’ll have to pay rent for the lot there. I figure you’ll make more than enough working for me.”
Tristan’s eyes were like saucers. “I can’t believe this! This is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
“Well, go in. Look around. See it from all angles. It should be spacious enough for one eighteen-year-old.”
Tristan ran inside and popped back out in less than a minute. “Seriously?” Enthusiasm poured out of him.
“Happy birthday, Tristan.”
The distraction and the kid’s reaction made it all worth it. Jack pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked for missed calls. As he looked, the phone started buzzing in his hand.
He pulled it to his ear. “Hello?”
“Get over here, man,” Noah said into the receiver.
“Over where?”
“The docks. Krista, Abby, and Joey are bringing in the big one!”
Jack had completely forgotten about the East Coast fishing tournament going on today. “What?”
“They’re doing it for Grace. Now get your butt over here.”
“Is it big enough to win?” Jack asked, waving at Tristan and climbing into his truck.
“Could be.”
“No way,” Jack said, sounding like the eighteen-year-old he’d just left. Minus the childlike enthusiasm. He couldn’t muster excitement when Grace was still lying in room 211. He still hadn’t gotten his chance to talk to her.
“Krista just called. I’m heading over to check it out myself,” Noah said. “If she wins, I owe her dinner because I told her she’d never pull it off.”
“Never tell a woman she can’t do something,” Jack said, having learned that lesson the hard way.
“Why, thank you, O wise one. See you in five?”
Jack turned his truck in the opposite direction of the community docks. “I can’t. I’m going to the hospital to see if Grace is awake yet.”
“Got it. Well, tell her we’re all thinking about her,” Noah said. “And this doesn’t get her out of anything at work.”
Jack laughed. “It’s really weird that my brother thinks of my girlfriend as a sister.”
“She was my sister before she was your bedfellow,” Noah pointed out.
“Yeah, yeah.” Jack nearly ran through the parking lot once he arrived at the hospital. He took the stairs over the elevator because he didn’t want to wait a second longer to talk to Grace.
When he turned the corner into her room, Tammy was seated at Grace’s bedside. Of course she was.
Jack frowned, his gaze moving over Grace. Her eyes were still closed, just like they’d been when he’d left her this morning.
“Jack,” Tammy said, turning and offering him a smile.
He didn’t want her smiles. “I’ll wait outside until you’re done visiting.” He turned to walk back out.
“No, you don’t have to—” Tammy used her arms to push up from the chair.
He didn’t want to feel sorry for Tammy, either. In fact, he wanted nothing to do with Tammy. He was standing by his belief that Grace wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her mother. “Do you ever listen to a thing that people say?” he asked, unable to help himself. His voice wasn’t raised or angry. In fact, he was surprised at the calmness in it. “Do you even care about what other people want?”
Tammy’s expression dropped. “Jack,” she said again.
Just hearing the sound of his name on her lips irritated him. He remembered a time when he’d called her stepmom. A time when he’d been proud of her and had relished his name on her lips. He’d considered her like a real mom to him.
“I said I’ll sit outside while you visit with Grace,” he said firmly but calmly. “That way I won’t say anything that I’ll regret.” Not that Tammy wouldn’t deserve every word.
“Jack?”
He stopped walking. This time it wasn’t Tammy’s voice. Joy flooded his chest, washing out all the anger and bitterness. He turned back and met those dark brown eyes, so warm and full of life. “Grace.”
“She’s up. That’s what I was trying to tell you,” Tammy said.
Jack flicked his gaze toward her. “You couldn’t pick up a phone and tell me that sooner?”
Tammy huffed. “Well, I didn’t have your number. And Krista and Abby have been out on the boat all day.”
Grace frowned. “On a boat? The Lone Wolf?” she asked weakly.
“The tournament that you were so dead set on winning,” her mother said, looking down at her.
“The one you forced her to enter,” Jack said firmly.
“I didn’t force her.”
“They did the tournament without me?” Grace asked, interrupting their exchange.
Jack stepped back toward her. “They did it for you. I just spoke to Noah. They caught something, maybe a big something.”
Grace smiled. “Really?”
Jack nodded and sat in the chair beside her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up.”
“It’s okay.” Grace slipped her hand in his. “Mom was here.”
Jack clamped his lips tightly.
“And she didn’t force the tournament on me, Jack. I wanted to do it.”
“Because of something she did,” he said, working hard to keep his voice neutral. “But let’s not talk about that right now. How are you feeling?”
Grace swallowed. “Honestly? The two of you together is kind of stressing me out a little.”
Jack looked up at Tammy. She’d probably been here for hours. It was his turn now.
“If you don’t mind, I kind of want to be alone,” Grace said. “I’m really tired.”
“Do you need a nurse?” Concern tightened Jack’s chest. The doctor had said she’d be fine, but what if they missed something?
“No, I’m fine. I just can’t listen to another argument between you two.”
“We weren’t arguing,” he objected.
“It sure sounded like it to me. And not just now. You two have been arguing like a couple of children while I lay in this bed on pain meds. It felt like a horrible dream, and now that I’m awake and can ask you to stop, that’s what I’m going to do.” Her voice rose and shook with anger.
“I didn’t realize you could hear us,” he said.
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it does. I would never do anything to hurt you.” Jack reached for Grace’s hand.
“You know I wouldn’t, either, Gracie,” Tammy said.
Jack gritted his teeth. He couldn’t help himself. His gaze went to Grace, who was watching him.
“Please go,” she told them both. “I’ll call you tonight.”
He wanted to argue and stay. What Grace needed was for him to leave. Nodding, he headed to the door. “I’m glad you’re awake,” he said, which felt like empty words compared to the ones he wanted to say. He wanted to make sure Grace knew how lost he’d been over the last twenty-four hours. He wanted to tell her exactly how he felt about her—he loved her. That was clearer every second that passed. He didn’t want to live his life without her.
He cursed under his breath as he exited the hospital room. Then reluctantly, he turned back to Tammy. “How’d you get here?” he asked. Or growled. Yeah, he was a bear this afternoon.
“Mrs. Smith brought me here. She’ll be back in ten minutes. I’m supposed to meet her downstairs.” Tammy didn’t move. There was only one way to the elevator and Jack guessed she didn’t want to ride with him.
“Great.” He stepped back along the wall. “You go ahead. I want to talk to the nurse anyway.”
Tammy started a slow walk past him. “I’m sorry, Jack,” she said, stopping when she was right in front of him. “Really sorry. For everything.”
Jack watched her walk farther down the hall, wishing he had it in him to forgive and forget.