Next to Me (12 page)

“Fine,” I say, immediately giving in. I know I’m not going to be able to walk on this leg for at least 24 hours. That means I’m going to have to be off tomorrow night, too, but I should be ok to cover that shift in the ER on Friday night. I’ll be hobbling around, but at least they won’t be short-staffed. I almost tell her to call Landon, but he’s working a lot over these three days that I’m working. I don’t know if he has early mornings or had late nights. I don’t want to worry him either. I'll call him sometime

tomorrow and leave him a message.

“Good girl. I’ll get the doc and call Demi. She’ll be happy for an excuse to be out of work tomorrow!” We both grin knowing just how right Mercy is. Demi hates her marketing job and is trying desperately to find something new in PR.

Mercy’s gone about ten minutes before she comes back with Dr. Culpepper from the ER. He’s an older doctor, in his 60s, and is the best of the best. He’s also one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. He comes into the room applauding, which tells me Mercy physically went and got him and recounted the whole story to him. He commends my bravery and suggests I give the hospital security team some training.

He gives me a tetanus shot and an antibiotic shot, not wanting to wait days for an oral antibiotic to kick in. After stitching me up, he instructs me to stay off my injured leg for at least 24 hours, and promises that if I come to work in the ER on Friday night he’ll make sure that I’m not running all over the place.

I’m finalizing the paperwork for the reports with security as well as the on-shift injury forms when Demi arrives.

“Dear Lord! You look like shit!” Demi says entering the hall.

“Thanks for the encouragement!” I laugh.

“I heard you were a total badass and kicked that junkie’s ass,” she beams. “Way to go!”

“Thanks. I’d prefer to not have had the encounter, but…yeah, I totally kicked her ass!”

Demi gets my pain meds from Mercy and wheels me down to the main entrance of the hospital where she hails a cab. I tell her the whole story from beginning to end all the way home. When we pull up to my building the cabbie tells us there’s no charge for someone as brave as me. I give him a tip

at least and Demi helps me from the cab and I get settled on my crutches.

We get off the elevator and round the corner to find Landon sitting with

his back against my door. He’s got his head hung over and he’s wringing his hands. When he sees me he bolts up to help me, practically knocking Demi out of the way.

“Jenna! Oh, my God! Why didn’t you call me?” he says putting an arm around my waist. He gives Demi the crutch he’s just replaced.

“I didn’t want to worry you. I know you’ve been working a lot,” I tell him. “How did you know?”

“Mercy called me two hours ago and said you were getting stitched up and that Demi was bringing you home.” He takes my keys from my hand and opens the door quietly knowing that Spring is asleep. “I’ve been here for over an hour, worried sick. I was about to call you!”

“I was going to call you tomorrow. I knew you were super busy,” I begin.

“Thanks for bringing her home, Demi. I really appreciate it,” Landon says with a smile. “I’ve got her from here.”

“Alrighty then…I’ll leave you with your Prince Charming and call you tomorrow.” Demi smiles and gives me a hug. “I’m glad you’re ok, Jenna.”

Landon closes the door behind Demi and turns to me.

“I can’t believe you didn’t call me,” he says with a hint of chastisement.

“I told you I didn’t want to worry you. I know how busy you were supposed to be over these next few days,” I tell him in my defense again.

“I don’t care what I have going on, Jenna. If something happens to you I want to know. I
need
to know.” He’s boring his eyes into mine, driving home his message.

“Ok. I’m sorry,” I tell him. He wraps his arms around me and holds me like he’s hanging on for dear life.

“Good. Now, let’s get you into bed.” Landon releases his grip on me and takes my crutches, leaning them against the couch before he gingerly scoops me up in his arms and carries me to my room. With the pant leg missing where my bandages are, he can see the area of my leg to avoid so he doesn’t hurt me.

He lays me gently on my bed and all I can think is how awful I must look. I’m wearing my scrubs, which is already not the most attractive look, but I’ve got blood on them and one of my pant legs has been torn completely off so I have one regular pant leg and one short-shorts pant leg.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“I look ridiculous,” I tell him, motioning to my torn and bloody clothes.

“You look beautiful, and brave. I’m so proud of you,” he says.

“I’m glad you’re here, Landon,” I tell him, taking his hand as he positions himself next to me on the bed.

“This wasn’t exactly how I envisioned the first time I took you to bed, but…” We both give a small, nervous laugh. “But I’m glad I’m here, too. Do you want to talk about it?” he asks.

“I’m not sure what Mercy told you, but there was this totally cracked out woman demanding the address for her mother so she could find her daughter. Her sister had custody of her kid, but the sister, who was a patient on my floor, died about a month ago and now the girl is with the grandmother,” I explain.

“So what did you do?” Landon asks.

“I played along until I could get in a position to get the knife out of her hand,” I tell him, playing down my krav maga skills.

“Well, like I said, I’m very proud of you, Jenna.” Landon kisses the top of my head and pulls me just a tad bit closer to him. He’s lying slightly above and next to me on the bed. My head is nestled between his shoulder and his chest and, despite the insanity of the night’s events, I have an overwhelming feeling of peace.

“Don’t you need to go? I know how busy you were going to be over these three days while I was working,” I say. “I don’t want you all groggy for work tomorrow. Oh, my gosh! It’s 2:30 am!” I hadn’t checked the clock at all since before the incident and am shocked at just how late it’s gotten.

“I’ve already rearranged my morning appointments so I can be here to

take care of you. Spring will be working and you’ll need me here.” His tone is so beautifully commanding. “Now, what can I get you? When do you need to take your pain medication? Mercy said it’s every four to six hours but I don’t know when you took it last.” Landon stands and shoves his shoes off, making himself even more comfortable. He looks at me, anticipating my reply.

“Well, Mr. Bossy Pants…I took the pain meds right before we left the hospital, so only about an hour ago. I’m doing fine, but they’re going to make me sleepy soon. Why don’t you go back to your place, get some sleep, and then if you want to come back in the morning you can,” I tell him. This seems like a reasonable plan to me.

“No.”

“No?”

“No. You can barely walk, Jenna. What happens when you have to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night? You’re going to need more pain medication in a few hours and I can’t trust that you’ll hear an alarm to wake you up for it. And what happens if I’m not here when you’re ready to eat in the morning? You can’t stand in the kitchen and cook! I’m staying.” It’s not a question, but a statement of intent. He’s smiling at me because I have no defense. Everything Landon said is valid. Even if it wasn’t, I’d still take it because I really don’t want him to leave.

“Ok then. I guess you’re staying. This isn’t exactly how I planned on posing on the bed, but…” I smirk and Landon raises an eyebrow at me, smiling right through me. “I’d like to change. Do…you…think you can help me…with that?” It’s going to be a feat to get my pants off without making me wince.

“Well, this night is just full of surprises! Again, not how I envisioned taking your clothes off.” Landon takes my ugly, yet wonderfully comfortable clogs off my feet and tosses them in the corner before looking at my legs. “Hmmm…do you think you can use your left leg to lift yourself up a little? I’ll hold you up on the right.” He moves around to the side of the bed and we work together to lift me off the bed enough that I can start to pull my pants down.

“This is so embarrassing,” I mumble.

“You’re just not used to be the patient,” he says, his free hand helping me with my pants while I hang onto him. “Do you want me to leave while you finish changing?” We’ve successfully moved the waistband of my pants past my injury so Landon pulls my pants the rest of the way off and throws them in the trash in my bathroom.

“Um…you could just turn around I suppose,” I tell him. Landon just nods at my suggestion and turns to face the door while I pull off my shirt and take my bra off. “Oh, um, I forgot to ask you to get me a shirt. They’re in the second drawer in my dresser there.”

Landon pulls open the drawer and unknowingly takes out one of my dad’s t-shirts. When he turns around I’m sitting up holding my scrubs in front my bare chest. We lock eyes and I feel my chest rise and fall with heavy breathing. At that moment I will myself to be 100% better by Saturday night. Nothing is going to keep me from following through on my plans to take my relationship with Landon to the next level.

“Thank you,” I say softly as Landon hands me the shirt and turns around. He doesn’t say anything. I think he’s trying to calm his own hormones down, too. “Ok, you can turn back around now,” I tell him after getting settled.

“Nice shirt.” Landon smiles at my vintage Dr. Pepper shirt.

“It was my dad’s,” I tell him, feeling the worn material in my hands.

“That’s nice.” Landon moves to the bed and moves the sheets and blanket so he can pull them over me. Once I’m settled he pulls his shirt off and I think I release an audible gasp. “I’m sorry. Do you want me to leave this on?”

“No,” I say quickly. “I mean, I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable without it on.” My heart is beating fast as I get my first view of Landon’s body. We’ve been together for a month now, but have been very cautious after our first date when I attacked him on my couch. He’s toned and cut and looks like he belongs on the cover of Men’s Health. It’s also my first full view of his tattoo. It’s a symbol that I’ve never seen before, and it is just as sexy as I knew it would be. He starts to unbuckle his belt and I panic just slightly. “What are you doing?”

“I can’t sleep in my jeans, Jenna,” he says matter-of-factly. “I’m going to sleep in here on the floor. Are there extra blankets in the hall closet?” I suppose I should be relieved that he’s going to sleep on the floor, but I’m actually a little disappointed.

“You can sleep up here, with me, if you want,” I say. He tilts his head and gives me a suspicious look. “It’s fine. With my injury it’s not like anything is going to happen. It’ll all be very PG…13.” I smirk and flap over the covers to my left.

“If you’re sure,” he says quietly.

“I’m sure.”

Landon finishes unbuckling his belt and his jeans are on the floor in a matter of seconds.

Boxer briefs.

Oh, dear God, help me.

He slides into bed and pulls the covers over him before he turns on his side to face me. He’s got his arm crooked under his head and his tattooed left arm is now blanketing my stomach. I could lie like this forever.

“Tell me about this tattoo of yours. It’s the only one you have so I’m guess it means something.” I trace my fingers around the symbol that looks slightly Celtic, but isn’t. It’s clearly an original design. It’s a circle with an intricate design woven within it. It’s beautiful.

“How do you know this is my only tattoo?” he smirks.

“Any guy that has a tattoo that can be completely covered by his underwear is clearly not capable of making good choices.”

“Ouch!” we laugh. “No, you’re right. This is the only one I have. My buddies and I got them after our first tour in Iraq. Andrew, Dave, Kyle and I met in boot camp and were brothers right from the beginning. All our last names start with S, so Kyle started calling us S Squad. One day he came up with this design. There are four S’s, one hidden in each quadrant of the circle. Andrew suggested we get tattoos, so we did. I wanted to get the Superman symbol and call it the family crest, but that idea got shot down.”

“Kyle is quite the artist,” I say, hunting for each S on Landon’s arm.

“He was. He, along with Dave and Andrew were killed in the explosion I told you about.”

“Oh, Landon. I’m so sorry.” I pull his arm closer to me and hug it.

“It’s ok. It was a long time ago. I was the most hesitant about getting the tattoos in the first place, but, I’m glad we did it. Those guys will always be with me.”

“You know, when I was in nursing school, I saw my fair share of tattoos,” I begin. Landon is looking sad and that makes my heart hurt. I know he treasures those guys and to have lost them the way he did is tragic. I just can’t stand him feeling that agony.

“I bet you did!” he says, turning his sad, introspective expression into something happier.

“You want to hear some stories?” I say with a yawn, my eyelids becoming heavy.

“Why don’t you tell me tomorrow? I think your pain meds are really kicking in,” Landon says, brushing his thumb over my cheek.

“No, I’m good. I can…” Another yawn escapes me and my eyes now feel like they’re glued closed. I try to open them…try to speak again, but it’s futile. I feel my body move and Landon’s voice say something about making me more comfortable. He brushes my hair from my face and I feel his arm blanket me again. And, just as I’m about to be fully unconscious, I can almost swear I hear Landon whisper, “I think I love you, Jenna.”

Chapter 8

I wake up to the smell of coffee. Landon must still be here because Spring can’t make coffee to save her life. I move and stretch my stiff body.  A hard night’s med-induced sleep has left me feeling weighted and heavy. The clock reads 11:30 am when I’m finally able to turn my head and open my eyes. Oh, well maybe Landon isn’t still here. He had a lot going on today and tomorrow with work. I’m sure he didn’t mean that he was going to stay all day and that he’s got coffee and breakfast waiting for me.