Page 45 of Jackson's Redemption
“What day is it?”
“Monday,” he said.
“Monday! But that means—”
“You’ve been in here for three days. Mostly sleeping.”
“Is that normal?” That didn’t seem normal.
“Doc didn’t have a problem with it. He said rest was the best medicine. Nurses have been in and out to give you pain medication. Do you need me to call them now?”
I shook my head. “No, it hurts, but not that bad. Just achy all over. For the first time I feel like I have my wits about me. Have you been here the whole time?”
He grunted. “Not like I would leave you, Kate.”
I didn’t want to go there yet. “When can I be released? When can I go home?”
He shook his head. “That’s up to the doc. I imagine he’ll want to see you steady on your feet first.”
Of course. I couldn’t leave if I couldn’t walk. And the idea of sitting on a ten-hour flight…? I knew that wasn’t possible. I needed to stay at least a few more days. I settled back into the bed and Jackson, seeming to assume I was going to fall back asleep soon, took to his chair again. The chair he hadn’t left in three days.
“Why?” I asked him, not feeling remotely tired. “Why did you bring me here to Alaska?”
He looked away from me, and I knew what that meant. He was searching for answers. For a way to tell me something he believed wouldn’t upset me.
“The truth,” I told him.
“I saw you for the first time on my first day of high school. You were a junior and you were doing orientation for all the freshman and I remembered thinking you were the most beautiful person I had ever seen. I didn’t have a lot in my life then. Drunk father, punk-ass brother. My mother was killing herself trying to keep it altogether. You became this…thing to me.”
“A crush?” That was simple enough, but it didn’t explain why I was here.
He shook his head and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “More than that. You were an idea. You were hope. You were something for me to point to and say, I’m not going to be like my family. I’m going to be different and someday Kate Lazio is going to go out on a date with me. Then we met that day when you hurt your ankle. I told you I was going to Arizona State and you told me you went there as if I didn’t know.”
“I told you to find me on campus. That I would buy you a drink as a thank you,” I said, remembering our conversation.
He nodded. “Which made me even more focused. More driven. I started walking around your neighborhood after that. Hoping I could catch you out running or something. Your father picked up on it, decided I was getting too cocky, I suppose.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m sorry.”
“No.” He stood then and came over to the bed resting his hand so gently on mine I didn’t even feel the weight. “You didn’t do it. He did. I didn’t bring you here to take his blame. I didn’t tattoo your name on my arm because I hated you. I did it to help see me through. To remind me who I was and what I wanted so I wouldn’t get lost in prison. When I heard the news about your father, I thought about going back to Marana, making sure you were okay. Maybe it seems crazy, but I felt connected to you. You were this guiding light to me and I wanted to make sure you were safe. Then Angel came up with the idea for the contest and giving away the tickets…I thought maybe giving you an escape was a better option. It was a chance, Kate. Something I threw out into the universe to see what would come back. You. You came back.”
It was hard to process what he was saying. Hard to imagine I was even worthy of being the woman he held in such high esteem. A guiding light? When for the last few months I had felt so stuck in the dark. It didn’t make sense to me.
“I don’t know what to say. I just assumed, back at the cabin, that you hated me. I was the reason my father targeted you.”
“My brother, too.”
“Do you hate your brother?”
“My brother is dead. Drive by shooting. My father, too, of a heart attack. I would say my mother is better off but any time I call or visit all she can talk about is her grief over losing them.”
I turned my hand underneath his and our fingers fit together. As well as they had these last few days.
“I’m sorry I ran.” Then I huffed out a laugh. “For more reasons than one.”
“This is my fault, Kate. I should have told you up-front.”
I shook my head. “You should have, but you can’t take the blame for this. I lost my head and there was an accident. That’s all that happened.”
