Page 94 of Fighting Jacob

Chapter Forty-Seven

Jacob

Shock is the first thing that hits me from Lola’s confession, closely followed by relief. Hank is harmless... until you piss him off. I found out just how tough he is in the days following my arrest. He didn't hold back in the ring, meaning I was sporting more than just bruised knuckles. Because I understood his anger, I took it in stride. My arrests didn't just flush my dreams down the toilet; they killed Hank’s as well. I plan to make it up to him. I just haven’t worked out how yet.

I’m drawn from my thoughts when Lola says, “I’m sorry, Jacob, but I have to go. I’m due at work in an hour, and I’ve still got to get back to Erkinsvale.”

Nodding, I slip out of my seat. “I should head out too. Em is most likely panicked out of her mind that I’ve been gone so long.”

If it were any other person but Lola standing across from me, the possessiveness in my tone would have caused conflict. Mercifully, Lola is as confident as she is beautiful. She knows I’m not supporting Emily because I want to get into her panties. It’s because not everyone is as strong as her.

We make our trip back to Hank’s Gym in silence. It isn’t awkward, more that Lola needs a few minutes to figure out what she wants to say. I understand the cause of her long deliberation when my car pulling in beside her Jeep coincides with her lips landing on my mouth. It’s the briefest peck, but the accompanying words are enough to coerce the most suicidal man off the ledge. “I miss you, Jacob.”

I lose the chance to tell her I miss her too when she bolts out of my car, jumps into her Jeep, then races out of the parking lot like a woman on a mission. I hate the missed opportunity, but nothing can wipe the smile off my face. Today has been a good day. I escaped a jail sentence, found out Lola didn’t sleep with Flynn, and she admitted she misses me. Some may say the last one isn’t a victory, but they obviously don’t know Lola. Just her admitting she misses me is huge—nearly as big as those other three little words I’d give my left nut to hear come out of her mouth.

When I strut back into Noah’s hospital room—yeah, I’m strutting like a peacock—I notice Emily is on a call. Not wanting to interrupt her, I prop my shoulder on the doorframe to wait. It’s only when she asks her caller if Lola has seen me do I announce my arrival with a cough. Her eyes snap to mine so fast, I’m certain she’s now dizzy.

She tells her caller she has to go before racing across the room to throw herself into my arms. “You’re back!” The vanilla cloud that engulfs me pops a reckless, yet hopeful idea into my head.

After tugging Emily closer to my body, I move to stand next to Noah’s bed. “Come on, Noah, don’t act like you don’t want to get out of that bed and kick my ass.” If anything will get a rise out of Noah, it will be me using Emily as bait. “I have your girl in my arms, and you’re not going to do anything about it?”

Not recognizing my ploy to stimulate a response from Noah, Emily slaps me across the chest. “Don’t be an ass, Jacob.”

With my mind still hazy from my unexpected afternoon, a chuckle rumbles in my chest. One, Emily can’t scowl no matter how hard she tries, and two, she hits like a girl. She and Lola couldn’t be more opposite if they tried. Lola would put me on my ass for laughing at her, but Emily’s slap was like a fly colliding with my chest.

My laughter is nipped in the bud when I realize my ploy worked. Noah's fist is clenched. It isn't as tight as the one he shook at me when I let gaping holes in the defensive line back in our football days, but it's still a fist all the same.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to help yourself.” After setting Emily on her feet, I curl my hand around his fist. It firms even more. "Come on, wake up and kick my ass." Then I won’t need to break my promise. “You know I wasn’t just hugging her. My crotch also got friendly with her thigh. What can I say? I'm a horny dog, and her leg was mighty enticing.”

My eyes rocket to Emily when Noah’s hand I’m not clutching lifts from the bed. “Get a nurse.”

While she does that, I move Noah’s hand away from the ventilator. His eyes are closed, but there’s no doubt he’s seconds from yanking out the tube responsible for his breathing the past two months.

My eyes lift when Emily’s return to the room is closely followed by a plump nurse. “Help him.”

“We can’t remove the ventilator tube before conducting a set of complex tests. If we remove it too soon, his lungs may collapse.”

She flicks the top of a syringe filled with murky liquid before emptying it into the IV line in Noah’s wrist. Not long later, Noah stops fighting against my hold. Although I’m shocked beyond belief at his strength, guilt is hammering me. The last time I held him down like this was when he tried to hurt himself after Chris’s funeral. He smashed the mirror in this seedy motel he went to drown his miseries in. Even though the shards of glass scattered around his feet never got near his wrists, I knew him well enough to know the thought was there.

Once Noah settles enough I’m not worried about him hurting himself, I raise my eyes to the nurse completing a set of observations on him. “Why can’t you take it out? He obviously doesn’t want it in there.”

“When patients have been on a ventilator as long as Noah has, they need to be weaned off it. If we just remove it, there’s a possibility his lungs could collapse. We’ll start the process of weaning now. If he handles that, we’ll fully remove it within a few days.”

They removed Noah’s tube four days later. Although his heart rate initially climbed, he maintained the oxygen levels the doctors were aiming for. It was a day of firsts for both of us. A couple of hours after his tube was removed, I attended my first anger management class. Let me just say, it isn’t my cup of tea.

Then, the very next morning, I have to leave again—longer this time. My probation officer is adamant I either do community service as stated or become a prisoner of the state for the same period of time. Although I hate breaking the promise I made to Noah, it’d be ten times worse if I didn’t have the option to return every weekend.

“I’ll come back and visit every weekend, I promise.” I wrap Emily up in a tight embrace. “If anything happens, call me straight away.”

“I will, I promise.”

She wipes away the tears sitting high on her cheeks before watching me say goodbye to Noah. It's even harder than I predicted. I'm confident Emily has everything under control. It just sucks realizing that not all promises can be kept. I can only hope Lola is right, and that Noah will understand when he wakes.

After messing up Noah’s hair—I know how much he hates it—I spin on my heels and dart out of the room without so much of a backward glance. If I look back, I may never leave. I rush away like Lola did, knowing there’s a right time and place for everything. Right now isn’t our time, but she’ll be my forever. I’ll make sure of it.

When my elevator arrives at the lobby, I think I’m out of the danger zone.

I’m an idiot.

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