Chapter 4
Jax
A couple of days later I’m fast asleep, minding my own business, dreaming of Emma Watson and her Vanity Fair shoot, when I’m rudely awoken. I manage to pry my eyes open, still a little bit sensitive to light, and find a scowling Mav standing over me. With a groan, I roll over so I’m lying on my noninjured side, my back to him.
“Hey!” he says, as he shoves me over again, my loss of equilibrium rolling me too far and almost out of bed. “Fuck.” Mav tries to stop me from falling and giving myself yet another concussion and broken collarbone. Once he’s righted me, I manage to sit up and brace myself for the tongue-lashing that’s coming my way in three, two, on—
“What the fuck are you doing here, Jax?” he demands.
“Good to see you too, bro, and don’t worry about me, doc says I’m healing fine.”
“Yeah? Is that why you almost rolled out of bed just now?”
“That wasn’t my fault! You’re the one who yanked on me. I was quite happily asleep before you barged in here.”
“And why are you here, Jax? I know you didn’t bother telling anyone where you went. Everyone’s been frantic, trying to track you down.” The crease between his eyebrows is back, which means he’s pissed.
“Whatever,” I mumble, and go to turn away from him again. Well, as much as I can, given my limitations with this stupid shoulder.
“I’m serious, Jax,” Mav says. “They’re all worried sick about you.”
“Well they shouldn’t be, I’m fine. It’s not like they care anyway, they’re not looking after me, they don’t talk to me, they talk about me. It’s as if I’m not even there. I figured, if that’s the case, then I don’t need to be there, so I went,” I explain.
“You left without telling anybody?” he asks.
I shrug. “I took a leaf out of your book.”
“When I left, I didn’t have a broken collarbone and wasn’t still suffering the effects of my fourth concussion.”
“Eh, details. Besides, I’m willing to bet not long after I turned up here, Josh texted you and told you I was here.”
Mav tries to hide his smile. “He may have.”
“And then knowing you and the goody two shoes you are, you in turn told everyone else.”
“They were worried,” he says.
“Yeah well, if they were that worried they should have taken notice when I was going stir-crazy right under their noses.”
“You know they only meant well.”
“I couldn’t take it anymore, Mav. I was going insane!”
He sighs. “You’re just lucky I convinced them you’d be okay up here. It helps that Aubrey’s a nurse.”
“Isn’t she still in uni?”
“Do you want to stay here or not?” he asks.
“Right, Aubrey’s a nurse.”
“Good.”
“So can I stay?” I ask.
He nods. “But,” he says before I can begin my happy dance, “there will be rules. Your doctors in Booker have recommended people up here and you will be doing everything they tell you, okay?” I nod and begin tilting to the side as I sit in bed. Mav gently pushes me back to my centre. “You’re a fucking mess,” he says, shaking his head.
I give him my cheesiest grin. “But you love me anyway.”
“Don’t make me regret this,” he warns as he walks towards the door.
Over the next three weeks, I’m a model patient. Seriously. I even let Aubrey practice nursing shit on me. She took my blood pressure so many times I thought my head might pop off from the force of the cuff thingy, but it’s still there, so no harm done. She’s a good choice for my brother. Mav needs someone who’s no-nonsense and isn’t afraid to slap him when he’s being an idiot. I don’t need to tell you she needs to do that often. Seriously though, she’s great. I wouldn’t blame someone who went through the things she, Mav, and Josh went through last year, if they were bitter and angry. But she’s not. I’m sure she misses her grandpa, but she doesn’t walk around with a cloud over her all the time. She’ll be a good nurse, and I’m sure my brother will get a kick out of playing patient with her too.
Josh is a strange dude. I mean, I know he’s got the whole “I’m responsible for my grandpa’s death” thing going on, but that doesn’t mean he has to be so socially awkward, does it? So I’m doing my best to rectify that. He protests, but I know deep down he’s happy I’ve taken him under my wing.
“So twin bro,” I ask Josh as we eat breakfast, “you going to join me in the gym once I get the all-clear on my arm?” It’s been six weeks since my accident so, fingers crossed, I’m allowed to start physio. I’m also hoping my doc will let me back in the gym so I can start working my legs again.
Josh snorts. “Ah yeah, I don’t think so.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“I’m not the gym type.”
“So come for the babes. There’s always a yoga or Pilates class going on,” I tell him.
He shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Nah, come on, man, it’ll be great. I’ll even wingman for ya.”
“I’ll be right.”
“Aww, don’t be like that,” I say, “I’m a good wingman, just ask Mav, I’ve been getting him laid for years.”
“Excuse me?” Mav says, raising an eyebrow.
“What? It’s true,” I say, ’cause it is.
“On the odd occasion, and it was really, really odd,” he says to Aubrey, “that I wanted to hook up, I was more than capable of doing it myself. Not that I need to worry about anything like that ever again,” he says, picking up Aubrey’s left hand and kissing her engagement ring.
“Vomit,” I say, before turning back to Josh. “So what do you say?”