Page 42 of Bound by Destiny
“Who do I send this to?” Austyn says, pulling us out of our thoughts and putting Jacks on even higher alert.
“Your dad and Buzz.” Jacks moves away from me to sit by Austyn. “What’d ya find?”
Just then Ma appears in the room again as Princess and I make our way over to her. “He’s made it through the last few hours with nothing beeping wildly. The doctors say this is a good sign, but he’ll be out for a while.” She runs her hand over her head. “Need you guys to go to the clubhouse and get some sleep.” Princess starts to object, but Ma puts up her hand. “I don’t have the energy to fight with you. Just do as I ask, please. When you come back up, please bring me a change of clothes and toiletries. Okay?”
“You need to sleep too, Ma,” Princess tries.
“They brought in one of those recliner things that turns into a bed. I’ve been catching a little bit of sleep there. I’m not leaving. You know this. But you need to go home and get rest or you won’t be any good to anyone.”
“I hate leaving you here.”
Ma shakes her head. “You sleep and come back. There’s nothing you can do here anyway.”
“You really think we’ll be able to sleep?”
“Yes, you will because I need you. I need you strong to help me carry this load. You’ll do it for me.” The strength and conviction in Ma’s request gives me the strength to be able to press on for my family. Pops needs us all to be strong right now, and Ma is our example.
Princess breaths in tightly through her nose. “Right.” She reaches over and pulls Ma into her arms. “I’ll be back in a few hours, and that’s the only way I’m leaving right now—take it or leave it.” Ma pulls back with a small smile on her face.
She kisses Princess’ forehead. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
After goodbyes, we leave the hospital and make our way back to the clubhouse. I’m so exhausted on the ride there, I’m pretty sure I fell asleep holding Jacks, which is totally stupid.
Jacks helps me into the clubhouse, while Austyn, still pumping away, takes off in front of us. Everything from the night and day before come crashing around me, my legs having trouble walking.
“What’s wrong with her?”
I hear Micah’s voice as I gather myself. His hair is messed up, and he doesn’t look like he got much sleep. Join the crowd, buddy.
“She’s tired,” Jacks says, irritated.
“That’s not just tired. What did you do to her?!” It comes out as a screech and if Jacks wasn’t holding me up, I’m for sure Micah would’ve had a punch to the temple.
“Get the fuck out of my way,” Jacks growls, and I feel the tension in his body.
Drumming up my strength, I pull slightly away from Jacks and stand on my own two feet. “Micah, I was in the hospital all night. I’m tired. I’m going to bed. End of discussion.”
“What, with him?” Micah clips, and it’s like a douse of cold water waking me up.
Jacks growls, taking a step forward, and I get in his path knowing Jacks will tear Micah apart limb from limb. Shit, I just want to sleep.
“Micah, I was going to do this another time when everything had calmed back down, but since you’re in my face and Jacks here is holding on to a very thin thread of his control, I guess I have to do this now.” His full attention comes to me and Jacks’ hands come to my hips, which I’m thankful for.
“You don’t love me, Micah.” He opens his mouth, but I hold up my pointer. “Ah, ah, ah. Let me finish.” Micah’s mouth snaps shut. “Let me rephrase that. You aren’tinlove with me, Micah. You’re in love with our history. You’re in love with the idea. You’re in love with the thought that this is how our story is supposed to be. What you are not, is in love with me.”
He goes to talk again, but I shake my head. “You’re not—in a romantic way. For me what I see is I was in love with the fantasy of what my parents had, and I projected that on to you for so many years. I had this childlike idea of how my life was going to turn out. But Micah, that’s not our story. It’s not our plan in life.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying,” Micah tosses in as I take a breath, then shake my head.
“I know exactly what I’m saying. I came to the realization that we are just friends. That everything we’ve done growing up was setting us up for friendship. A deep-seated relationship, but not romantically. As friends, as family.”
“Do not tell me you didn’t feel anything from our kiss,” he barks out, and Jacks goes still behind me. “We both felt it. It’s why I pushed you away because it was too intense.”
“That was in college. Micah, so much has changed since that night. And look at you, you brought what’s her name to my apartment the next time we met. None of that was my fault, Micah. Someone who truly loves the other doesn’t do something like that. They don’t intentionally set out to hurt the other person. When you’re with the right person, you can’t sleep, can’t breathe without thinking of them. You just know, Micah, and that isn’t us.”
He steps closer and I feel Jacks’ arms slip around my waist, pulling my back to his front.
“Emery, you really believe all of that?”
