I Know Better (By Your Side Series Book 1)

by A. P. Watson

“Okay. Thanks, guys,” Misty retreated from room, hovering just outside the door.

  “Let go of me!” Mr. Dale thrashed around, still trying to free his arms.

  “You’re okay. You’re safe now. We just have to keep you in bed to make sure you don’t fall and hurt yourself,” Kara said calmly. She tried her best to soothe the man, but just like with Nate and I, no progress was made.

  “Misty, toss us another bottle of Precedex, so we’re ready to go when this one runs out,” Nate shouted, his hands fastening yet another restraint around our patient’s ankle. “Kara, hold him down while I tie this.”

  Kara’s hands held the man’s right leg still, but it was as if he could sense defeat. In a final attempt to free himself, he bucked harder. I grabbed his left leg, tying the final restraint at the speed of light. I’d just managed to fasten the clip on the restraint when the patient’s leg ripped from my grasp, slamming into the center of my abdomen with all the force he could muster. The blow stunned my system. Stumbling backward, I clutched my stomach, air screeching through my lungs as I tried to breathe.

  “Son of a mother!” I substituted the word to keep myself from screaming a long list of profanities.

  “Sir, we are trying to help you! Do not kick us!” Nate’s voice boomed through the room, startling all of us. He rushed forward, tying the man’s free leg.

  “Get me out of here!” Mr. Dale screamed.

  Like lightning, Kara rushed to the IV pole, increasing the dosage of Precedex.

  Misty’s hands grabbed my arm, sliding me toward the door. “Wren, are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I think so.” I sucked in a deep breath. “Just knocked the wind out of me.”

  Nate checked the strength of the leg restraints before approaching me. “You sure?”

  “Fit as a fiddle.” I lifted the bottom of my scrub top and flinched as I examined my abdomen. A red mark stretched across my abs.

  “Positive?” Misty asked uncertainly.

  I smiled at Misty. “Yeah. Hurts like hell though.”

  “I think the medicine is finally starting to work.” Nate walked to the other side of the bed, staring at the patient’s cardiac monitor. “His heart rate is 62 now.”

  Kara moved near the bed, staring at our now-subdued patient. “Thank goodness,” she said, sighing loudly.

  Nate and I finished up a few other tasks and some charting on our new patient, but by the time 4:00 a.m. rolled around, our unit was technically overstaffed. Because I was still in orientation with Nate, I was sent home early. Usually, I’d request to stay, but trying to wrangle our alcoholic patient wore me out. I waved goodbye to all my coworkers and gladly ordered an Uber to drive me home instead of walking. On the ride back to the townhouse, I decided to send Jacks a quick message.

  Me: Hey, I just wanted to thank you for bringing food to my work tonight. All my coworkers were extremely appreciative, and everything was delicious. If you still want to talk, come by today or tonight when you get off work.

  It only took thirty minutes for me to get home and hop in the shower. I sighed as I threw my hair up in a towel and tiptoed back to my room. Thank goodness, I got to leave the hospital early tonight. After getting dropkicked in the stomach by that crazy alcoholic patient, I was over it. My patience for stupidity was borderline tolerable on a good day, so combine that with the bruise gradually forming on my abdomen, and I was fucking done with work for the night.

  Ryan and Terayn were asleep down the hall, and the last thing I wanted to do was wake them up by rifling through the clothes dryer. Unfortunately, between work and hanging out with Jacks, I didn’t have much time to do laundry. Though, at the moment, I couldn’t have cared less. My hands quickly twisted my hair into a fishtail braid, and then I jumped in bed, too exhausted to even bother with pajamas before passing out.

  “Your hair smells nice.” The faint sound of someone whispering in my ear drew me from the comfort of sleep.

  “Hmm?” I mumbled, sleep still clinging to my mind.

  “I said your hair smells nice.” This time, the voice grew a little bit louder, but it was the feel of a hand on my back that forced my eyes open.

  Without thinking, I screamed at the top of my lungs. We’re talking helpless victim running through the woods alone in the middle of the night, eighties horror slasher film, type of scream. I shoved my comforter down, turning as I moved to face whatever creep had accidentally stumbled into my bed.

  “Wren, calm down! It’s me, Jackson!”

  Shock froze me in place. I stared back at him, following his gaze as it settled on my very bare chest. Normally, I wasn’t a shy person. Hell, my job used to be peeling off my clothes in front of a crowd of strangers every night. But I wasn’t scared of him seeing my body. After what happened yesterday, I was afraid of letting my guard down, of letting him see me. Because once he passed my barriers, he’d be able to bear witness to every single scar and flaw I carried.

  “Wren! I’m coming!” Ryan yelled from the hallway. Footsteps tore across the wooden floor with fury as he sprinted toward my room. In about three seconds, two of my best guy friends would be face-to-face with my rack. I wanted to move, to cover myself up. But my brain was in such a state of utter confusion, all I could manage to do was convert oxygen into carbon dioxide. “Wren!”

  Just as Ryan was about to burst through the door to my room, Jackson leapt toward me, placing his hands on my breasts. I glanced down at his cupped hands, only to realize when I shifted my attention to the door that Ryan was there, staring at us in complete shock. We all took turns ogling each other for a few moments before I was finally able to find my voice.

  “Ryan, on a scale of one to ten, how bad does this look?” I asked.

  He laughed, leaning against the doorway as he clutched a baseball bat. “Twelve.”

  “Glad to have it confirmed. You absolutely wouldn’t believe me if I told you this isn’t what it looks like, would you?”

  “Not in a hundred years.”

  “I won’t even bother then,” I replied with a sigh.

  “You’re okay, right?” Ryan positioned the wooden bat over his right shoulder, concern masking the features of his face.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “What the hell are you doing here, Jackson?” Ryan’s focus quickly shifted back to me. “And I thought you worked last night, Wren.”

  “I did. I got to go home early because we were overstaffed.”

  He shifted his glare to Jackson, awaiting an answer. “I just came over to surprise Wren,” Jacks said innocently.

  I motioned to my chest. “Brilliant plan. Obviously, I’m surprised.”

  Ryan snickered, unable to conceal his amusement. “I’ll leave the two of you to sort this out.” At that, he walked away from my room, shutting the door behind him.

  “You seriously have five seconds to close your eyes and remove your hands.”

  “Wait, I’m the bad guy here? I was trying to protect your modesty in front of Ryan!”

  “Oh, please, Terayn and I flashed Ryan in college. He’s seen my boobs and would’ve hardly acknowledged them!” I replaced his hands with my own, covering my chest with my arms. “You, on the other hand, just sat there staring at me.”

  “Can you blame me?”

  “Yes! Yes, I can!” I shouted. “Now, will you close your eyes, so I can put some clothes on?”

  He conceded, still sitting on the side of the bed. I leapt up, hurried over to my dresser, and removed a pair of underwear and an oversized T-shirt. When I was dressed, I turned toward him, fixing the sheets on my bed.

  “Can I open my eyes now?”

  “Go ahead.”

  He slid off my mattress, helping me rearrange my white duvet. “What happened to your stomach?”

  “Huh?”

  “You had a bruise on your stomach,” he said, pointing to me.

  “Oh.” My hand lightly touched my abdomen as I recalled my night at work. “A drunk asshole went crazy when we tried to put him
in restraints to keep him from getting out of bed and cracking his skull on the hospital floor. When I tried to tie down his ankles, he kicked me in the stomach.”

  A muscle twitched in the side of his jaw. “He kicked you?”

  “He was withdrawing from alcohol, so he didn’t really know what he was doing.” I shrugged, trying to show him it wasn’t a big deal. “It happens every now and then.”

  “I don’t like that. It’s bullshit and shouldn’t happen at all.” His voice was low. He was furious.

  “Yeah, well join the club. It hurt like a bitch.”

  “You need another job.”

  “Okay, Dad.”

  “I’m serious.” He moved to lie next to me as I plopped back in bed.

  “I can’t magically pull one out of thin air! Any hospital I work at will have patients like that. Even nursing homes have dementia patients who can become violent and aggressive. What would you have me do, not work?”

  “If people you’re trying to help are just going to beat on you, then yes.”

  “I have bills to pay! I have to work.”

  “I still don’t like it,” he stated, his tone still serious.

  I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Well, I have to work, unless you want to become my sugar daddy and take care of me.”

  “Is that what you want?”

  I shook my head. “Never. I wouldn’t touch your money. I like making my own.”

  He smiled slightly, his eyes drifting over the lines of my face. “I figured as much.”

  “So, I take it you got my text message?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you couldn’t sleep last night, so you decided to go ahead and come over?”

  “How did you know?” he asked, his head tilting to the side.

  “It’s barely seven in the morning, and your hair is still damp, which means you most likely took a shower right before coming over. My guess is you went for a run to clear your head because you couldn’t sleep, but when that didn’t work, you decided to come here.”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  “Pretty much. What’s bothering you?”

  “What happened yesterday is bothering me. I’m sorry for acting like a dick.”

  “Jacks, if you were embarrassed or disgusted by what happened, then just be upfront and tell me. Whatever the reason, I can handle it. I’ve gotten good at protecting myself.”

  He stared at me incredulously. “You’ve no idea, do you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Nothing.” He ran a hand through his hair, collapsing on the pillow beside me. “I promised you friendship, and I broke my word. Self-control is usually never an issue for me, but yesterday . . . ”

  “It was,” I said, finishing his sentence.

  “Yes.”

  “I see.”

  “Not to mention, I’m stressed with work and feel like there are a million different things I have to micromanage. Between discussing my grandfather’s extended stay at the rehabilitation center with his insurance company and handling a couple of larger client accounts, I needed a distraction. And I’m a complete asshole for trying to use you as said distraction and pulling you into my shit.” His hands balled into fists, his fingers tightly squeezing until the skin turned white. “It also didn’t help that Elise kept texting me Wednesday night. She always likes to fuck with my head.”

  I’d be lying if I said my heart didn’t sink at the mention of a woman’s name. Who was she and how did she possess such a strong hold on a man who was a notorious bachelor? “Who is Elise?”

  “Huh?”

  “You said Elise fucks with your head. How does she do that?”

  “Oh, she’s my ex. We didn’t part on the best of terms, and every so often, she tries to reinsert herself in my life.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

  “Don’t be.” His fists opened, and he reached forward to take my hands in his. “Actually, just punch me in the face. Here I am, complaining about my problems when you worked all night and got kicked in the stomach. Jesus, I’m a selfish son of a bitch.”

  “No, you’re not. You can always talk to me.”

  He freed one of his hands, running it through his hair. “Fuck.”

  “You’re not selfish. And don’t worry about the kick, it’s just a part of my job.”

  “I swear you must be a saint.”

  Even though he was wrong, I smiled at his comment. “With my mouth, we both know that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

  “I’m not so sure. I’ve barely been around you for twenty minutes, and I already feel better.”

  “Actually, that’s probably due to the fact you copped a feel five minutes ago.”

  “It was certainly the highlight of my week.” He donned one of his devious grins and winked at me.

  “I’ve been commended on their magnificence a time or two.”

  “I believe it.”

  I yawned, nestling myself under the covers on my bed. “Since we’ve both been awake all night, let’s get some sleep. We’ll work on getting you de-stressed when we wake up.”

  “I wish I could, but I have to go back to my place and get ready for work.”

  “You’re exhausted. Why don’t you take a sick day and we can both get some much-needed rest?”

  “I’d love to, but I haven’t taken a sick day in three years.”

  “You need to take a day off and rest, or you’ll end up getting pneumonia.”

  “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Oh, I’m absolutely right. I’ve got the nursing license to prove it,” I said proudly.

  Jackson’s eyes bore into mine for a few moments as he contemplated my words. “Let me call my boss.” He slipped off my bed and disappeared into the hallway. When he returned, I was almost asleep. He slid into bed next to me, his arms wrapping around my waist.

  “Good night, Jacks.”

  “Good night, Wren.” His lips brushed my cheek so softly, I wasn’t sure if the gesture was real or a figment of my exhausted imagination. Either way, it was the final reassurance I needed to relinquish my consciousness to the seductive pull of sleep.

  The warm body lying next to mine felt like heaven, so my arms tightened, not quite ready to wake up from such a restful, peaceful sleep.

  “Good morning.” Jackson’s voice was barely a whisper, but when he spoke, his breath tickled my ear.

  I nuzzled my face into his chest. “That tickles.”

  He blew on my ear on purpose this time, causing me to snuggle him with my face once more. “You just nuzzled me like a baby chipmunk.” His hands squeezed my waist lightly. “God, I think that was the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

  “I’ve barely been awake two seconds and you’re already teasing me. Why do I keep you around again?”

  “Because I’m charming.”

  I sat up, staring at him incredulously. “Are you?”

  “Come on, you can’t deny it.”

  “Give me a minute, and I’ll certainly try,” I said. He smiled broadly, leaning against the headboard. “Did you get any sleep?”

  “Actually, chipmunk, I did. Thank you for that.”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  “Did you know you do this cute sighing thing while you sleep? Every so often, you let out this little sigh. It kept me awake at first, but then it kind of grew on me.”

  “Sorry, I’ve been told I do that before,” I replied, my cheeks surging with warmth.

  “Don’t be sorry. I didn’t notice you doing it the other night.”

  “I was probably too scared.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. I didn’t even think about that.”

  “What time is it?”

  “Almost four,” Jacks answered.

  “What day is it again?”

  He laughed at my question before replying. “Friday.”

  “Oh yeah! You played hooky today, so you could see me.”

  “Technically, I di
d it because I needed to rest.”

  “Semantics.” I shrugged, loosening my hair from its braid, and combing my fingers through the soft waves. “Since it’s Friday, that means the Chinese restaurant won’t be too busy yet. We can get takeout and watch Netflix!”

  “I would, but I’m supposed to have plans with Kate this evening.”

  “I thought that was tomorrow.”

  “Both nights, actually.”

  “Just reschedule. You can have your booty call tomorrow night, because how many times have I ever asked you to hang out and eat takeout with me?”

  “Actually, you’ve never asked me to do that.”

  “Exactly!”

  “You call for the takeout and I’ll cancel my plans with Kate.”

  He slipped out of my room to make a phone call while I made one of my own. Terayn and Ryan introduced me to Wong’s last week, and I was dying to try it again. Not to mention, their delivery service was fast as hell. I placed an enormous order of dumplings, lo mein, sesame chicken, fried rice, and a couple of other things I was dying to try. There was no way Jacks, and I would eat everything, but I ordered extra because I wanted to make sure there was enough food for Ter and Ryan too.

  After calling in our order, I decided to throw on some clothes. I changed into a clean bra and underwear before styling my hair and throwing on a little makeup. Because we were just going to be lounging around, I threw on a pair of gym shorts and a tank top.

  When the doorbell rang thirty minutes later, I grabbed my wallet and raced to answer it.

  “Hey! Your name is Ken, right?”

  The delivery guy couldn’t have been much younger than me, and he smiled brightly when I said his name. “That’s me. Are Terayn and Ryan here?”

  “No, they’re still at work. They’ll be home in a few hours though.”

  “That’s right.” He handed me the bag of food. “And you’re Wren, their new roommate?”

  “Yep!” I slid the handles of the bag down my arm and unzipped my wallet. “How much do I owe you, darlin’?”

  “It’s thirty-six even.”

  “Have you been really busy with deliveries today?”

  “It hasn’t been too bad, but it’ll get a lot busier after six.”

  “That’s true. Everyone will be getting home from work.” I was about to pull some bills from my wallet, but Jackson beat me to the punch. He suddenly stood behind me, placing a wad of cash in Ken’s hand.