Page 65 of Always Been You

Her phone buzzed and she saw that it was her dad, asking if she needed anything and if she was okay. She typed back that she was fine and that she didn’t need anything. She told him that she wasn’t sure how long she’d be and they could go home and she’d catch a ride from someone else.

She barely pressed send when her dad’s response came through. He told her that they were staying and they’d be in the waiting room if she needed anything.

Her parents hadn’t left her side since arriving at the hospital. She knew that if it were up to her dad, he would’ve come back with her to see Ethan. He’d been hovering over her in worry, asking her if she needed him to get her something to drink or eat. Telling her he could go grab anything from her house that she needed and run it back to her. And for the first time in her life, she hadn’t felt smothered by her father’s doting. She felt loved and taken care of.

The door opened and she glanced over her shoulder to see Chad, the nurse. She’d told him that she loved the skull and roses that were inked on his forearm and he’d complimented her dress, immediately recognizing it from Dirty Dancing. Their rapport was instant and it reminded her a lot of the first time she’d met Kingston.

Chad waved as he came in and changed out a clear plastic bag hanging on his IV. He took a barcode scanner that hung on his waist and held it to the bottom of the new bag before replacing the old one.

“I bet he was happy to see you,” Chad spoke in a low whisper.

Well, you would’ve lost money on that one.

“He must’ve said your name a hundred times when he was going in and out of consciousness.”

She wished that he’d said it when he was awake. Another tear started to fall down her face and Chad patted her shoulder.

“I’m on for the next six hours. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks, I will.”

When he left and she found herself alone with Ethan, she scooted closer to him and placed her hand over his chest so she could feel his heartbeat, like he’d had her do at the dance lesson. He was alive. That was all that mattered. Nothing else.

22

"Okay, Mister Steele." The day nurse, Rita, entered the room waving Ethan's release papers in her hand. "I just need your John Hancock and I can get you out of here."

Thank God.

Ethan couldn't wait to sleep in his bed again. To take a shower in his shower. To not be woken up every few hours to have blood drawn or his blood pressure taken. What should’ve been a two-day hospital stay, at most, turned into a six-day stint after an MRI that revealed inflammation in his brain. When he’d fallen down, he’d hit his head on a rock and it had caused cranial swelling. Nana kept making the same joke that he wasn’t as hardheaded as she’d thought.

He took the pen and signed where the green and red arrows indicated.

"Boy, things sure are going to be a lot quieter on the floor without you here. It’s been like Grand Central Station in here. You are quite a popular guy."

That was another reason he was looking forward to getting home. When he was home he could not answer the door. Here, anyone that stopped by had access to him. He supposed he could’ve requested not to have visitors, but he'd felt bad that people were driving all the way from Whisper Lake to see him. It was more than two hours round trip.

"Where is that beautiful girlfriend of yours?"

"Work." Ethan didn't look up from the paperwork.

Everyone at the hospital loved Jess. And why wouldn't they? She was, as everyone was saying, "a breath of fresh air," and "as funny as she is smart and pretty." Also she was "the total package" and had "hutzpa and class, a winning combination." The entire medical staff at Grace Memorial seemed to be smitten over his fake girlfriend that he really loved and knew now that he should never be with.

Just another reason that he was ready to get out of here. If he heard that he should "lock that down" or "put a ring on it" one more time from virtual strangers, he was going to lose it.

Ethan had never been under the illusion that life was fair. He'd been found in an alley when he was less than a week old. His first few years were spent in not-so-nice foster homes. The only parent he'd ever known died just as he was becoming a man. One of his best friends, Patrick, died of a freak brain aneurysm, leaving his sister Ali to raise his twin sons. Jess had spent most of her life unable to breathe. Carter was gone, leaving Lori to raise Carly and Jilly alone.

There were worse things in the world than his realizing that he and Jess could never be together, but right now it was ranking pretty high in the life-isn’t-fair category.

He knew he was feeling sorry for himself and taking it out on people that were doing their jobs, like Rita, or going out of their way to support him, like Jess, who'd been at the hospital every day. She worked in the mornings and cleared her schedule in the afternoons to come and see him. And each time she did, he told her she didn't need to come and he hardly spoke to her.

He'd tried to "break up" with her, several times. But she wasn't having it. She said that if they broke up now, everyone would feel sorry for him and assume that she was the girl that bailed on her hero boyfriend.

It wasn’t a secret that Jess was a force to be reckoned with, he just never thought that she'd be using her forces to try and keep them together and he'd be the one trying to separate them. Sooner rather than later he knew that he needed to have a serious conversation and end whatever it was they were, he just hadn’t found the right words yet.

Or, more likely, he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

"Well, I bet that lovely girlfriend of yours is happy to finally get you home."

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