Page 69 of Four-ever Single

I let my shoulders fall, some of the tension and worry about Jones finally dissipating now that I knew he was okay. It didn’t matter how long his recovery was as long as he was still there with me.

Forty-Seven

Jones

“You need to eat,” a female voice said quietly with a stern tone.

“I’m fine. Stop trying to mother me,” Bella said, equally as aggressive.

“I wouldn’t have to if you would stop and take care of yourself. You’re not doing him any favors by not taking care of yourself.”

“Yeah, and he’s in here because of me. The last thing I’m going to do is leave and have him wake up alone. I’ll eat later. For now, I’m staying put.”

“You need to eat, Bella,” I answered, my eyes slowly fluttering open as I tried to figure out where I was and why my body felt so stiff and sore.

“Jones!” She gasped and spun to look at me, her chair sitting right beside my bed.

I quickly glanced around, noticing the hospital room we were in and Lia standing at the foot of my bed wearing scrubs.

“How are you feeling?” Lia asked, walking over and checking the monitors I was hooked up to.

“I’m fine. But please bring Bella some food.”

“We’ll take care of that in a minute,” Lia said at the same time Bella blurted out, “I’m fine!”

“Are you in any pain?” Lia asked, writing something down on a small scrap of paper she pulled out of the pocket of her scrubs.

“Not much,” I lied.

Her eyes narrowed as she studied me, looking for the answer she wanted.

“Okay, fine. It hurts like a mother fucker.”

“I’ll check with Doctor Dickhea—Dickson to see if you can have more pain meds. We’ve been waiting for you to wake up before we gave more.”

“Thanks. But really, my biggest concern is Bella,” I said, turning to look at my wife. I was relieved to see she was okay until my eyes landed on the sling her arm was wrapped in. My brow furrowed as I tried to sit up and reach her.

“What happened?” I demanded, fighting off Lia’s hands as she tried to make me sit back.

“I’m fine, I promise,” she assured, looking from me to Lia with an expression I didn’t like. She was hiding something from me.

“What’s going on? How did you break your arm, Bella?”

“I think we should focus on you right now,” she said softly, reaching for my hand that didn’t have a million things taped to it.

“No.” I shook my head. “Tell me what happened before I find out from someone else. How did you get hurt? Was that from the fire? Did you get hurt because I couldn’t get to you?”

A million thoughts flooded my mind as I remembered the fire and being outside her door, trying to get to her before I got knocked out.

“I wasn’t there,” she rushed out quickly, leaning forward to be closer to me. “I wasn’t in the house when the fire happened, Jones. I went back to your place to get my iPad and it happened while I was gone. No one was in the house, and thankfully, the neighbors on the other side of the duplex weren’t home at the time either.”

“Oh, thank God,” I breathed out, letting my head fall back against the pillow. “I tried calling you over and over. I was so worried something bad happened to you before I could get there. It was the worst feeling not knowing if you were okay. I thought I was too late.”

“I’m so sorry.” She lowered her head and started crying. I tried to lean over to comfort her but was stuck in the bed. “Come here, baby. I can’t reach you, so you’re going to need to come to me.”

“I don’t recomm—” Lia started but then stopped and lifted her hands when she saw the icy look I was giving her. “I’ll be back to check on you soon.”

She turned and walked out of the room while I waited for Bella to come to me.

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