Page 24 of Happily Ever Maybe

Sawyer sighed and then went to the bag he had brought withhim. “Mom’s going to kill me if she finds out I did this.”

“Mom’s going to kick my ass if I don’t actually speak withJennifer before she finds out.”

As soon as I said the words, he turned to me, and both of uswidened our eyes. “Shit. Yes. You need to talk withher. Now.”

He helped me get dressed quickly, and then I slowly moved tothe room beside us.

Daisy stood there, her gazenarrowed. “What the hell are you doing up?”

I held up my hand as Sawyer slowly backed away. Weakling.Though I didn’t tell him that. Mostly because I was afraid of Daisy, too.

“Just let me talk to her.”

“We need to make sure you are healthy enough to stand up,too, you know.”

“I’m fine. A clean bill of health.”

She looked pointedly at my bandage, and I shrugged,immediately regretting it. “I’m going to be fine. Nothing permanent. I justneed to make sure she’s safe. Please.”

“They’re keeping her for observation. Fix this. Iwant my people to be okay.”

I nodded and made my way into the room. Jen sat on the bed,still in her clothes, hooked up to a machine showing her pulse and bloodpressure. Everything looked good, and I was grateful for that.

When she met my gaze, my heart just…stopped. Jennifer hadalways been beautiful to me. Always something more. It was usually hard for meto keep my gaze off her. The way she lit up a room. It was her strength, herbeauty, everything about her.

I’d craved her from the moment I saw her and had done mybest to be one of the guys with her so she wouldn’t see. Wouldn’tknow.

And then I had one moment of ecstasy, a moment that meanteverything.

I wanted more. I had been working up the courage to tell herhow I felt, to say fuck the complications.

And now it seemed we had an even larger one.

“Why are you out of bed?” she asked, a small smile playingon her face. “What am I saying? Of course, you’re not listening to directions.Why wouldn’t you be walking around after having part of a wall fall ontop of you?”

“I needed to be here. To see you in person. You passed outin front of me.”

“So did you. Right on top of me, and then everyone pulledyou away from me, and I didn’t get to see you. I just saw the blood.” She paledagain, and I cursed, moving to the side of her bed. I wanted to reach out andtake her hand. But I didn’t.

“I’m fine,” I said after a moment, studying her face.

“I’m fine, too.”

But what did fine mean?

“At least sit down so you don’t fall.”

“Okay. Okay.” I took the seat next to her bed and scooted itforward. When it pulled at my stitches, I winced, and Jennifer cursed under herbreath.

“The nurses don’t know you’re in here, do they? So when theyfind you’ve skipped out, they’re going to get angry.”

“And they’ll blame me, not you. I’m reallyokay.”

“You threw yourself on top of me.”

“I didn’t even think twice. I knew we couldn’t stop him intime. I refused to let you get hurt, Jen.”

Her eyes clouded. “I’m just so pissed offthat you got hurt. For me.”