JC caught Lisa under her arms just before she hit her knees. She had seen her mom standing in the lobby as she entered and the expression on her face had said it all.
The phone call that had changed everything…it had been her mom saying that Lisa’s sister had been in a car accident and she needed to get back home as soon as possible. JC, of course, hadn’t known that was the reason she had taken off. Instead, he blamed her and got angry with her rather than showing her the love and support she had greatly needed. The accident had brought back all sorts of bad memories of JC’s accident and she hadn’t known how to communicate that with him.
JC hadn’t known anything was wrong until he answered the phone call from Kelly on Lisa’s cell phone. Kelly was considered family as well and she had also been told about the accident, but Lisa hadn’t answered any of her calls and Kelly was concerned.
Sobs erupted from Lisa’s body as she expressed her relief. The look on her mom’s face was joy that her daughter was going to be all right. JC swept her up into his arms then carried her as he would a child. She desperately clung to him as she relived every second that JC had been hurt…when they hadn’t known if he would ever wake up again.
He carried her to an empty, far corner of the lobby and carefully sat down with Lisa in his lap. He nodded to Lisa’s mom, over her head, assuring her that he would stay with Lisa and everything would be all right.
“Thank you, I’m going back upstairs since I’ve called everyone to tell them the good news, take care of her,” Lisa’s mom smoothed a hand over Lisa’s hair before heading to the elevator.
JC rocked back and forth in a soothing motion and placed tender kisses on her hair. It was a long while later before Lisa calmed down and began to speak.
“I didn’t know if you were going to make it, I was so scared. You are always so full of life but then you were just lying there so still and pale. It was my fault you were in the accident. I was the one who quit, if I hadn’t quit then I would have been with you and Nick would have been driving and you would have had your seatbelt on because I never let you get away without one. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it.” She rambled on over the sobs that caught in her throat.
“Wait a second! Is that what you really think, that the accident was your fault?” He tried to look at her face but she kept it buried in his chest. “You wouldn’t have been able to stop anything. It was completely and totally my fault for not wearing a seatbelt and if you had been with me, there’s no guarantee that you wouldn’t have been hurt or even worse. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything had happened to you. I need you in my life, Lisa. You are so very important to me. I’ve been such a big jerk in the past.” He paused to reflect and they were both silent for a moment as Lisa tried to get a hold of herself.
She acted as if she hadn’t heard a word he had said. “I didn’t know what to do. I thought you were just being a baby and didn’t want to get a shot. I answered the phone that day because I was going to yell at you for calling and calling and calling and then it was the doctor on the phone telling me to come down and sign some paperwork. That wasn’t you in the bed. I almost passed out because I couldn’t believe that you were in that bed and I never told you how I felt. You could’ve died and left me here in a world without you. I can’t do this any more, Jace. I can’t sit by while you go out with all those women. I can’t talk to you everyday and see you on tv and in magazines and listen to you on the radio any more. Because just when I think I’m over you, you come back into my life and it just makes it that much harder when you leave me. And you always leave.”
JC realized right then that she wasn’t aware of what she was saying and wouldn’t comprehend anything that he would tell her at that point. He just wrapped her tighter in his arms and pressed her closer to his heart.
It was at that moment that he realized just how deeply he had hurt her.
Never again. He told himself. Never again will I hurt her, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to her. He promised himself and Lisa.
JC had a long while to think while he sat in the lobby of the hospital with Lisa on his lap. She fell into an exhausted sleep filled with shudders running through her body and still he held her close to him. Lisa’s mom eventually came back down to the lobby to see what was keeping them.
After seeing the raw emotion on JC’s face and the evidence of tears on Lisa’s, she sent them both home to Lisa’s house. Lisa’s sister was doing well and would be released soon. Her mom opened the car door for JC to place Lisa gently on the seat. She still didn’t awaken. Her head lolled as he reached across to buckle her in and once JC was in the drivers seat, he brought Lisa’s head over to rest on his shoulder. She sighed as she relaxed against him.
She woke up when JC pulled into her driveway. Sleepily, she tried to figure out what was happening.
She scrubbed her hands over her face and looked at JC. “I just had the strangest dream. I feel like I blacked out for a minute. I don’ t even remember seeing my sister, did I see her?”
JC opened the car door and got out as he tried to skillfully avoid the question. Clearly, she didn’t remember telling him all those things. “Um…she’s doing fine, should be released tomorrow.”
Lisa dug through her purse searching through her keys, still trying to grasp a memory from the past several hours. “This has been a crazy weekend, huh? Do you wanna crash here for the night?” She took a moment to see that JC was carrying only her luggage and nothing of his. “Where’s your luggage?”
“Someone took off so early this morning that I didn’t have a chance to pack so I’m going to have the hotel pack it and overnight it to me.” He walked through the door she held open for him and flipped on a light with his elbow.
“Why did you come anyway? And now that I think about it, we are going to talk about this whole setup from this weekend. You and Kelly are not going to get away with this.”
There was silence from her bedroom where he had gone in to leave her bag. “So is the guest room bed made or do I need to grab some sheets?” He looked everywhere but at Lisa. “I think that I left some clothes here the last time I was here, didn’t I?”
“Jace…” Her voice lowered.
“Tomorrow Lisa, it’s been a long day. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Drawn to her, he stopped inches away. Her eyes turned wary, remembering their parting from the night before. But he caught a hint of longing there as well. Just a brief kiss, he told himself.
But that was before their lips met.
There wasn’t much space in the hallway to escape his overwhelming presence. Lisa’s heart was at war with her head. Her heart was lost in the irresistible taste and feel of his lips against hers. Her head was screaming that he would only hurt her again. But soon the loud pounding of her heartbeat overpowered her head and she was flying again.
This time her arms crept around his waist, molding to his strong back, burning from the heat of his skin through the fabric of his shirt. Her hands traveled over his back, feeling the muscles flex as his own hands moved from her waist up her back to cup her face.
The emotions became too much and she tore her lips away from his, burying her face in his chest. The shirt under her cheek was still slightly damp from her crying jag earlier and with that, all the memories came back. Lisa wasn’t sure what she had told JC, but knew it couldn’t have been good.
With a tortured moan, she ripped herself out of his arms and flew into her bedroom without a backward glance, slamming and locking the door behind her.
JC stood there, alone, with his chest heaving trying to suck oxygen back into his lungs. His arms ached from the loss of her soft body against his. Angry with himself for not being able to control his feelings, he punched the wall in front of him before making his way to the guest room.
Tomorrow would be the real test.
