Page 56 of Protecting Jess

Their grins got wider and the door behind Aunt Poppy opened.

A nurse stuck her head in. “There are way too many people in this room. Only one person should be in here.”

“We’ll wait outside,” Mom murmured and, as she walked past Aunt Poppy, she gave her another hug.

As much as Finn wanted to stay, now that her parents were there, they should be the ones to stay with Jess. Slick would probably be able to persuade the nurse that both Jess’s parents should be by her side.

“I’ll go with them,” Finn said.

“No!” Jess yelled. “I don’t want you to go.”

“You heard the nurse, popsicle. Only one person.”

“Well then, how come the three of you were in here when I first woke up?”

Finn had never seen Jess being that stubborn. When they were kids, there’d been a hint of it, but she always got over whatever she was arguing against pretty quickly, and her happy demeanor returned.

Somehow, that wasn’t going to happen this time.

“They shouldn’t have been here,” the nurse responded. “I’m not sure who allowed that. I’ve only just come on shift.”

“It’s fine. We’ll go grab a coffee and something to eat, then we can switch out,” Slick said, his gaze bouncing between his daughter and Finn.

At least Slick didn’t know Finn had said he was Jess’s fiancé, so he could get information about her surgery and be able to stay with her.

His uncle by marriage might’ve accepted him being in Jess’s room, but hearing Finn and his daughter were engaged without him having asked permission wouldn’t go down well.

Didn’t matter that it wasn’t real. That they weren’t engaged at all. There were some things that Slick would want done properly.

The fact that Finn planned to do all of that, anyway, wouldn’t matter. As far as everyone associated with Jess’s surgery and care was concerned, they believed Finn was her fiancé.

The door closed behind her parents and the nurse.

Jess stared straight at him, a lot of questions in her eyes. “Why are they here?”

It wasn’t a shocker that she wasn’t a fan of him calling them. That she would’ve wanted to go through this without them knowing, like she had when Bartholomew had attacked her.

The difference was, she wasn’t alone. She had him.

“It was the right thing to do. I couldn’t not call them, Jess. They needed to know. I didn’t know how badly you were hurt or what your recovery was going to be like.”

Her teeth worried her bottom lip.

Finn hoped she’d see what he’d done hadn’t been to undermine her or force her to tell her parents about her former stalker. He wouldn’t do that. He’d told her he wouldn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to do.

“Did you tell them about Bartholomew?” she asked quietly.

“No. Not my story to tell. It’s yours.”

“Okay.”

The chance to take the conversation further was halted by the arrival of the doctor.

Finn stood back from the bed while the doctor did his examination.

“The wound is looking good. After everything has healed properly, you’ll still have restricted arm movement for at least three to nine months, depending on how it responds to physical therapy.”

“Three to nine months! It can’t be that long. I’m a dancer. I need my arms,” Jess said.

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