Indelible Love - Emily's Story (19 page)

“Jake…I’m OK. I want to do this for
you…with you. I’d like to be with you tonight.” No matter how much
I wanted to sound confused, his intentions were clear.

“Emily, I’m going to honor your
wishes. That’s how much I love you,” he answered with regret
written all over his face.

Almost every part of me wanted to be
with Jake. He must have somehow read that tiny part of me that
regretted saying yes. I loved Jake for knowing me so well. I loved
him for wanting to help me keep my promise to myself and to my mom,
no matter how difficult it was for him. But most of all, I loved
him for loving me so much. Tonight I knew, if ever I were to walk
down the aisle, he would be the one at the altar waiting for me. I
knew that’s how much I loved him.

My eyes opened to a frantic thought.
Road trip. Oh my gosh, I wasn’t ready to leave, and all my friends
would be waiting for me at the house.

“Jake, Jake! I have to go. I haven’t
packed for my road trip and we’re leaving in half an
hour.”

“What? You’re going somewhere?” This
was a change. He sounded groggy and I was wide awake at six in the
morning.

“I’m going to Vegas to watch the
football game with my college friends, remember? I have to leave
right now.”

“Don’t go. Stay with me.” He held me
prisoner in his arms—a happy prisoner. “How am I to go several days
without seeing your beautiful face?”

“Jake, let’s be real. You won’t see me
for three days whether or not I’m in town. I don’t think Chief Reid
is going to let you leave the hospital for a week at
least.”

“Stay a little longer. I’ll fly you
out to Vegas later today.”

“No. I have to go. Sarah will be
waiting. I’m getting up and leaving, OK?”

“Should I come with you?”

“No. Stay in bed.”

“I mean to Vegas.”

“Jake. Don’t be silly. I’ll call you
later. I love you.” I ran out the door and rushed home.

Chapter 8 Road Trip

Within minutes I was home, showered,
and packed in time for my friends to arrive. Though I didn’t want
to be away from Jake, I looked forward to seeing my friends
again.

Ding Dong! Ding Dong! 6:30a.m. Right
on time. I was looking forward to spending some time with Sarah and
getting her caught up on all the craziness of the last five days.
She would be able to help me focus and sort out my feelings. I
opened the door and to my surprise, it was Jake.

“Good morning, my love.” Jake planted
a kiss on my lips. “I wanted to stop by and see your face before
you left.”

“Didn’t you just see my face? Didn’t
we see each other the whole night?”

“Love, I’ve never slept as well as I
did last night. We’re going to have to have more slumber parties.”
He grinned at me. “Here, I brought you your favorite breakfast.” He
handed me an almond croissant and a latte. My stomach growling, I
was grateful for the food. “How did you sleep last night? You claim
you don’t sleep too well outside of your own bed.” He obviously
doubted my original claim.

This was a tough question to answer.
In all honesty, last night was the best night’s sleep—ever! It felt
so right to be with him in his bed, to be held by the man who
adored me. But, if I admitted this to him, he would want to sleep
together every night, and I didn’t think I could resist the
temptation. I had fallen once only to be rescued by Jake of all
people. Next time he would not be such a Good Samaritan.

“Well? How did you sleep?”

“I’m going to plead the fifth on your
question.”

“Why? Could it be because you enjoyed
it as much as I did?” His lips slowly widened to a grin.

“No comment,” I answered with a grin
of my own. “Don’t you need to get to the hospital early and prep or
something?”

“No. The rest of the surgical team
does that. I walk in whenever they’re done and perform the
operation. Today’s a routine heart surgery. Nothing too
complicated.”

Of course it wasn’t too complicated
for him. He would probably be the one to take over for the chief if
he were to step down. Chief Reid had filled me in on Jake’s
important role at the hospital. Before last night, I wasn’t quite
aware of what a coveted doctor I was dating. His modesty made me
appreciate him even more.

“Hey, Emi? Guess what?”

“What?” I asked.

“The chief just called me with some
good news.”

“Oh?”

“Well, there’s this heart association
conference in Paris he wants me to attend. He was going to go
himself but has a conflict now with some important hospital board
meeting. He called to see if I was available.”

“That’s wonderful. I’m sure it will be
a great experience for you. Though, I’ll miss you while you’re
gone.” I hoped I didn’t sound too sad at the thought of him leaving
me. I didn’t want him to miss anything on my account.

“Emily. I’m not going to Paris without
you. How could you think I could be apart from you for that long?
The chief is quite smitten with you and told me to take you along.
He’s transferred his ticket and hotel room over to my name. I’ll
just buy you a ticket. What shall we do about the one room? Can we
stay together in the same room?” His eyes were hopeful.

“Jake, I don’t know what to say. I
don’t think I can get a whole week off from work. Besides, it
sounds kind of dangerous, the two of us in Paris,” I teased. “Who
knows what kind of concessions I’ll make in such a romantic city,
especially if we only have one room?” I flirted with his
hope.

“I like the sound of that,” he said,
hugging me. “Let’s go to Paris, then we can go visit Gram in
London. She really liked you. Dad told me she called early this
morning to tell him how wonderful she thought you were. My whole
family loved you.”

“Oh, I’m relieved to know I passed the
test. I do want to meet Gram. I’ll work on getting that week off.
I’ll let you know as soon as school starts.”

“So, I have a question that wasn’t
answered yesterday while you had us broken up in your own mind.” He
shook his head, looking at me as though I were crazy.

I shrugged my shoulders
and raised my eyebrows as a combined apology and
what else was I to think
, response.

“When did you know you loved me, and
why didn’t you tell me this monumental information
before?”

“I’ve known for a while, but couldn’t
admit it to myself till the night before we left for Hawaii. At the
sushi restaurant when you were asking me about my family, I
appreciated how much you cared for me and how you empathized with
my every joy and heartache. I, too, wanted to be there for every
part of your life. I knew that I would laugh when you laughed, and
cry when you cried. That’s when I finally admitted that I had
fallen in love with you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, I kind of waited for you to say
it first so I could reciprocate, but you never told me you loved me
in Hawaii.” I shrugged my shoulders again. “I felt a bit
self-conscious bringing it up out of nowhere.”

Jake gave me another disapproving look
and came over to hug me. “Please don’t ever doubt my love for you,
OK?”

“OK,” I answered but nudged him away.
“I think it’s time for you to leave, Dr. Reid.”

“All right. Don’t forget about getting
the second week of February off, OK? If your principal says no,
then let me talk to her.” As I walked Jake out to his car, he held
my hand and noticed the eternity band on my finger. Joy radiated
from his eyes.

“You’re wearing the ring…on your
finger?”

“Oh…you noticed finally? It was so
heavy around my neck I was getting a neck cramp,” I kidded. “I
thought I’d try it on the finger and see if it’s any better here.
Of course as luck would have it, it only fits on my ring finger.” I
stretched out my ring finger to show him the perfect fit. “Unless
of course you think it looks better on my neck, then I’ll put it
back on as a necklace.” I pretended to take the ring off and Jake
immediately stopped me.

I confessed my heart to him. “I am
committed to you as your loving girlfriend. When I see us heading
toward that last step, you’ll be the first to know.”

Cars started pulling up in front of
the house as we continued saying good-bye. Max was one of the first
to get out of the car. He stared at me with a hurt expression. As
much as I hated seeing Max upset, I wanted to finish saying
good-bye. “I love you, Dr. Reid. Now go. Save lives.”

Jake wouldn’t let go of me, but I
gently nudged him away.

“Hi, Jake,” Sarah called out. “Did you
have a good Christmas? How was Hawaii?”

“It was fantastic. How was your
Christmas? You went up to Oxnard?”

“Yeah. It was great. What did you get
for Emily for Christmas?”

“You’ll have to ask her. I tried to
give it to her, but she wouldn’t take it. Though, I got an
unbelievable present from Emily last night.”

“Oh? What did you get?” Jake had
piqued Sarah’s curiosity. Once she got curious, there was no
stopping her.

“You’ll have to ask your
best friend.” His vainglorious face had
I
slept with Emily last night
written all
over it. Now everyone wanted to know.

“What did you get him? Why’s he so
happy?” Charlie asked.

“Go to work, Dr. Reid,” I
admonished.

“My girlfriend is telling me I have to
leave. Have a great trip and take care of her for me,
OK?”

“Jake, why don’t you come with
us?”

“No, Sarah. Jake needs to get back to
work. He’s going to be jobless if he takes any more time off.” I
gave Jake a disapproving look while he shrugged his shoulders at
Sarah. “Bye. I’ll call when I get there” was the last thing I said
before we started our road trip.

The ten of us took two cars into
Vegas. We crammed all our junk into the cars and hopped in
uncomfortably for the next four hours. I felt like I was back in
college. This was no first class to Hawaii—back to my reality. Max,
Peter, Sarah, Charlie, and I squished into Peter’s Honda Accord. I
sat in the back with Sarah and Charlie and felt distressed after
Max and I had such an awkward ending at lunch the other
day.

Sarah and Charlie tried to make eye
contact with me but I avoided them. Peter went off babbling about
the hotel that he booked for all of us. I vaguely heard him say
something about a suite but didn’t pay much attention. I could tell
Max was concentrating hard not to look back at me too often. I
stared out the window at the sights and sounds of the busy
freeway.

Haphazardly, I started thinking about
Max and our times together in college. We had gotten into horrible
fights all the time. Max was always so stubborn and hated admitting
to any wrongdoing. Chuckling to myself, I remembered how he was
supposed to pick me up from the library at 4:00 one rainy afternoon
but didn’t show up till 5:00. I was wet and late for my study
group, but rather than apologizing and making sure I was OK, he
fought with me the whole time, arguing that I had told him the
incorrect time. Explaining how improbable his reasoning was since I
had a 4:30 study group didn’t end the discussion. We didn’t speak
to each other for almost a week. Ugh! He was always so obstinate.
Looking back, we were passionate about everything. Maybe that was
how collegians were—eager to jump feetfirst into any situation. We
loved passionately and fought just as passionately. We made it
through one day at a time.

“Emily, how was Hawaii?” Peter woke me
from my memory.

“It was wonderful.” I tried not to
sound too mushy.

“Details, Emily!” Sarah
commanded.

“Well, I met Jake’s parents and his
brother, Nick, for the first time at the airport, and we instantly
bonded like family. They were so warm and loving toward me.” My
face broke into a deep smile. “We arrived in Maui and met Jane
there. Then we did so many activities I couldn’t even begin to
explain all of them. I probably lost five pounds in the four days
we were there because of how active we were.”

“What were the sleeping arrangements
like?” Charlie asked, guffawing like a teenage boy.

“Charlie.” I slapped his arm. “The
parents were in one room, Jake and Nick had another room, and Jane
and I roomed together.” I smiled, remembering how Jake had wormed
his way into my bed the first night.

“Activities?” Peter kept pressing for
more information.

“The day we landed, we had an early
lunch, took a helicopter ride, hiked five miles, snorkeled, I had a
scuba diving lesson, did yoga, and went to a luau!” I felt
exhausted just remembering all the activities.

“How on earth did you do so much in
one day?” Sarah sounded amazed.

“I don’t know. The Reids are all
active people. I was so exhausted after the scuba lesson, I wanted
to collapse. But, I kept up with them somehow and finished the day.
The next day brought on more scuba and surfing lessons, and I had
to drudge through a basketball game. That was a long two hours
pretending to cheer for their team.”