Heath Marshall.
The caption read below the picture.
Holy shit.
I didn’t just manage to have a one-night stand, I had a one-night stand with the keyboard player from Jaded Ivory. A member of Jaded Ivory was asleep in my bed. How the hell did that happen? And what the hell was I going to do?
First things, first. I needed to kick his hot ass out of my bed and get him on his way. I wasn’t a charity case and I wouldn’t let him treat me like one. I should have realized last night when he was in the VIP section. But Marcus had a habit of letting his college buddies sit up there so they could mingle with the stars who frequented the place. And Doug had mentioned they were friends of Marcus’s. With the casual way they were dressed, I never would have guessed they were members of the band. It was my fault for stereotyping them, but I judged based on the celebrities I followed on social media. Not to mention the ones who came into the club. They always came in dripping in as many designers clothes and jewels as they could fit on their bodies.
It didn’t matter. I wasn’t going let him feel sorry for me. I could take care of everything on my own. A part of me felt I’d been lied to. Not once had he mentioned who he really was, hiding himself behind the baseball cap most of the night.
My mind raced.
I should’ve known better. How stupid was I? I didn’t want to be seen by the world as a groupie who used her sick grandmother to snag the attention of a member of one of the hottest bands right now.
It was time to get him on his way. I’d find my way back to the hospital on my own. No reason I couldn’t take a bus there like I always did.
But the car made it so easy.
No.
There was no way I planned on heading down that road. I set my phone down and walked back to my bedroom. I pushed the door open and stared at the man in my bed. Why would a guy like him bother with a girl like me? I didn’t have money. Hell, the only thing I owned was this house and even that was threatened because of the number of debts I had.
Sucking in a deep breath, I walked over to the bed. Placing my hand on his shoulder, I shook him awake. Warm gray eyes fluttered open. For a moment, I almost let myself fall down the rabbit hole once again. At least until I reminded myself about what I’d just read.
His eyes flicked around the room, until they landed on me.
“What time is it?” His voice was still raspy with sleep.
“A little after nine. It’s time for me to get back to the hospital and for you to get back to your band.”
He threw his legs over the side of the bed, his eyes narrowed. “We’re not leaving until tonight. I can take you back to the hospital.”
He stood up and I took a step back. “I don’t think that’s a great idea.”
His eyes darted to the floor where he snatched up his boxers. “Look, about last night—”
“You and I were both part of what happened last night. If anyone needs to apologize it’s me. I pushed you into—”
“No one pushed me into anything.”
I noticed the sincerity in his eyes. He truly believed that. “Maybe not, but I initiated things when I shouldn’t have. You offered me a ride to the hospital not a night in bed.”
He took a step forward. “Jenna.”
I shook my head and took another one back. “I think it’s time for you to go. I’m sure the band is waiting for you.”
He scoffed. “Half of them probably aren’t even out of bed yet. I just wanna help.”
“I don’t need help. I can handle all of this on my own.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Wanna tell me what happened between last night and this morning? You didn’t seem to mind the help last night.”
I plunked my hands on my hips. “That was before I knew you were a member of one of the hottest bands in the country right now.”
“And what’s that got to do with anything?”
I threw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know. You could have told me last night.”
“So you wouldn’t have let me help, if you knew who I really was?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Well, you’re certainly implying it.”
I copied his stance, crossing my arms over my chest and bracing my feet apart. “Look, I don’t want to be categorized as some groupie who just wanted to get you in bed.”
“That’s not what I think…”
“Doesn’t matter. It’s what everyone else will think.” I dropped my hands to my sides and went to take a seat on the bed. “Look, I think you’re a nice guy. And I think you helped me a ton last night when I really needed it. But I’m okay now. I can get back to the hospital and you can get back to your life.”
Heath squatted down in front of me, but I turned my head and focused on the other side of the room.
“Jenna? Would you please look at me?”
I kept my gaze averted. “Just go,” I whispered.
He stayed there for another few seconds before I saw him stand up out of the corner of my eye. He moved around the room, grabbing his clothing. A few minutes later I heard him reach the doorway to the hall. I still didn’t look, afraid of what I might see or do. My chest hurt pushing him away. I’d never let anyone get that close to me that quickly.
He hit the frame of the doorjamb. Not hard enough to rattle it, just hard enough to get my attention.
“If you ever need anything, or even just want to talk, call me. I’ll always answer.”
I said nothing, listening for the sound of the front door as it closed. I had no idea how long it would take for the car to arrive and pick him up, but I would take the reprieve he gave me, by waiting for the car on the porch. When I pulled myself together and headed to the living room, I peeked out the front window. Heath was nowhere in sight.
Somehow, I needed to push all of that out of my head and get my ass back to the hospital. As I walked past the table to get my purse, I noticed a piece of paper that wasn’t there before. When I picked it up the first thing I noticed was Heath’s name followed by his number.
Done with the whole situation, I threw the paper in the trash and walked out the door. The entire bus ride, I tried to put Heath out of my head. It wasn’t working. By the time I reached the hospital, it seemed to be all I could think about.
The familiar scent of disinfectant and bleach hit my nose the moment I stepped through the door. The smell brought me slamming back into reality. Heath hadn’t come to the hospital to spend time together privately. He came to bring me to see my nana.
My nana, who currently lay in the ICU in an induced coma. I wanted to be by her side when they tried to remove her from the ventilator. I hurried through the process of getting my visitor badge and raced to the elevator. I arrived on the floor to see Joel had gone off duty, but another nurse sat in his place.
She looked up from her computer. “Can I help you?”
“I’m here to see my grandmother, but I wanted to know if there was any change since I left last night?”
She looked at the names on my badge. “You must be Miss Forino.”
“That’s me.”
She looked down at the chart next to her. “There hasn’t been too much change. I know she started wiggling her fingers and toes.”
“Isn’t that good?”
There was pity in her eyes. “It depends. It could mean she’s fighting off the drugs and trying to wake up, which is good.”
“What could be bad about that?”
“It could also be muscle reflexes. Until the doctor backs off the medication, we won’t know which it is.”
Deep down I prayed it was the first one. “Can I see her now?”
“Of course you can. Do you want me to walk you down?”
I shook my head. “No, I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll let the doctor know you’re here.”
On shaking legs, I walked down the hall to my grandmother’s room. The chairs still sat next to the bed from the night before. I took the seat c
losest to the bed and tried not to think about why there were two seats there. I lifted my hand and wrapped hers in mine. Like last night hers was cool to the touch.
I rested my forehead against the back of her hand. “Please, don’t leave me, Nana. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”
The tears burned the back of my throat as I did everything in my power to hold them back. Crying wouldn’t help anyone.
In hushed tones, I told her about what had happened the night before.
“I met a man. Probably not one you’d like at first. The tattoos and piercings screamed bad boy from the beginning. But last night he did everything in his power to make sure I got here to you.” I smiled as I thought of the way he’d stood up to that asshole last night. “He even made sure I got home and got some sleep. Which I knew you’d approve of. You never liked when I didn’t get enough sleep.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat as I thought about my next words. “But I pushed him away. Maybe it was stupid. Maybe I shouldn’t have let his status get the better of me, but I did. Not that he mentioned more than one night helping me. It’s just that, even if he did, he doesn’t need to be dragged into all my problems. I’ve got enough on my plate.”
Eventually, I made myself stop talking about Heath and moved onto another topic. I don’t know what made me kept rambling on. Except for the fact he was probably the sweetest guy I’d been with in a very long time. Hell, he was the first guy I’d been with in a very long time. He didn’t even freak out when the condom broke and I told him I was on the pill.
Thank God I kept taking it, otherwise, I’d be a mess for the next few weeks worried about the consequences.
I spent the time talking about anything and everything, even telling her about work, hoping she could hear me. I wanted her to know I was there. That I needed her to wake up.
I’m not sure exactly how much time passed before a doctor came into the room with a team to pull back the medication and reduce the use of the ventilator.
“Good morning, Miss Forino. I’m Dr. Wescott.”
I stood and reached out to take her proffered hand. “Hello.”
She gestured toward the chair. “Please, take a seat. I want to walk you through what we’re going to do.”
I nodded and sat. “Okay.”
She took the seat next to me. The one Heath had sat in the night before.
“First we’re going to reduce the percentage of help the ventilator is giving her. We’ll do small percentages at a time. If she’s able to handle the reduction for a period of time, we’ll reduce it more, until she can be weaned off.”
“Will she wake up then?” I asked, voicing my one fear.
“If she’s able to be completely removed from the ventilator’s assistance, we’ll stop the drugs keeping her in a coma and let her wake up naturally.”
“What happens if she isn’t able to breathe when you…um…reduce the ventilator?”
“We’ll put it back to the level she could handle and give the antibiotics more time to do their job.”
My heart raced as I thought of all the possibilities. “How often does this work?”
She patted me on the arm. “Let’s not worry about that right now. Every person is different.”
I thought about asking why the rest of the people were there, but at the last minute, I decided I didn’t really want the answer. More like I was afraid of the answer.
I watched as they set up around the room. I held Nana’s hand as one of the nurses moved around the bed. She punched something into the machine that looked like an accordion. Everyone stared at Nana, waiting for something.
Minutes passed. The pump on the accordion moved up and down exactly like it did before. A smile started to lift the corner of one of the nurse’s mouths as her eyes moved from Nana to me and back.
I heard the doctor say, “That’s good.” But I still didn’t understand.
“What’s good? I don’t see a difference.”
The doctor pointed at the machine. “I know it’s hard to see, but the machine is now breathing for her less times in a minute than it did previously. Her oxygen levels are still high, which means she’s making up the difference on her own.”
“Okay.” In my mind, I expected her to do something different. For there to be some type of physical change, but she looked the same. Eyes shut, cool hand held tightly in mine, nothing was different. I rested my head against hers on the bed.
“Come on, Nana. You can do it. Open your eyes and come back to me.”
A hand landed on my shoulder. “We’re going to leave her at this level for a bit, make sure she can sustain it on her own. We’ll be back—”
A loud, ear-piercing beep filled my ears. My head snapped up. People were running around the room. I was pulled away from Nana’s bed as a large cart was rolled in.
“We have a code blue.”
CHAPTER 7
Heath
I stared at the ceiling, trying to think of something to do. One could only watch so much TV while on the road. The weird part was I had no problem amusing myself before that night with Jenna. At first I blamed it on the memories of my grandmother. But it was a load of shit. I knew that when I couldn’t shake the restlessness after about a week.
Usually when the memories came on that strong it took a day or two to really push them to the back of my mind. We were coming up on a month and I still couldn’t get rid of them. I’d hid it well on stage, especially since I was with the rest of the band. It was easier to get lost in my head alone on my tour bus.
We’d just got back on the road after stopping for dinner. Nobody wanted to bother cooking tonight and Jackson would probably starve to death if we left him on his own for food. The man couldn’t cook worth shit.
I’d been the first one to leave the restaurant and head back to my bus. Jenna had planted herself firmly in my head. There was something so different and refreshing about her.
Once “Midnight Dream” went platinum, it got harder and harder to find someone who wanted to be with me for me. I knew Monty and Jackson had the same problem. They all wanted you for what you could do for them. Maybe they were a singer or a groupie, even a few actresses thrown in there. Not one of them wanted to be with us because we were nice guys. Nope. Every one of them had some ulterior motive.
Not Jenna.
I’d done everything in my power to help her, using what resources I had to get her whatever she needed to take care of her grandmother. Even after our spectacular night in bed, once she found out who I really was, she pushed me away. Most women would have seen what else I could do for them. It was the main reason I left her my number. Although I had a feeling after all this time she had no intention of using it, otherwise I would have heard from her by now.
I was little pissed at myself for not getting her number that first night, but I had it in my head I’d be taking her back to the hospital. If I wouldn’t have been so sure, I’d have gotten it. Then I could check in. See how her grandmother was doing. Ask if there was anything she needed. I knew she’d refuse, but then, at least I tried.
“Where are you?” I heard someone call from the front of my tour bus.
Groaning, I threw my legs over the side of the bed and walked down the hall. Monty stood in my living room, if that was what you wanted to call it, with his guitar in hand. He didn’t usually play the guitar, he preferred the bass, unless he was writing music.
Why would he be bringing that to me? Then I remembered our conversation the night I met Jenna. I’d been so lost in my head the last month, I’d blown everyone off, including Monty. I’d completely forgotten he’d wanted to write that night.
“What’s up?” I asked as I came around the front of the couch and plopped down onto it.
“I figure we can start working on that song since we have a decent amount of driving tonight.”
I shook my head. “I don’t—” My mood was shit and dealing with people wasn’t really high on my list.
Monty dro
pped onto the couch beside me. “What gives?”
I lifted a brow and waited for him to elaborate. I was being a dick by playing dumb, but if I could avoid getting into all of it then I would. But with Monty being so serious, I knew it probably wasn’t an option. He only brought out the serious when something was really wrong.
“You’ve been avoiding working on the music ever since I told you about it or should I say, ever since you took that chick to the hospital. What happened that night?”
I rubbed a hand down my face and leaned back against the couch. How much did I tell him? He knew I went home with Jenna that night, but he thought I went to the hospital and that was the end of it. Little did they know I’d spent the night with her. Once she threw me out of the house, it was still early. No one else from the band was awake. When I got back, I’d crept onto the bus and kept the whole situation to myself. I felt like I’d be tarnishing her reputation if I told them what had happened. Most of them would think of her as the latest groupie on the list. I didn’t want them to think she used a sick grandmother to get in bed with me. Hell, she didn’t even realize who I was until the next morning.
“Nothing, man. I’ve just been in a funk lately. Helping that girl with her grandmother reminded me so much of my own grandmother. It was just hard to relive all those days right before she passed.” I gestured with my chin toward Monty’s guitar. “I think some songwriting would do me good. Let me grab my guitar.”
“Good thing for that. Otherwise you’d be stuck with me until our bus stops.” He lifted his duffel bag. “It’ll be like we’re having a sleepover.”
I rolled my eyes and stood to walk down the hall to get my guitar. Working with Monty might help take my mind off the girl I left behind. By the time I got back, Monty had cleared all the trash in our way and had laid out the blank sheet music and a bunch of pencils. Needing the distraction, I sat and got down to work.
The next few hours passed in the blink of an eye. I hadn’t even noticed how tired I was until I started yawning. I set the guitar on the floor and stretched both arms over my head. “I think I’ve had enough for the night, man.”
Cover Me (Jaded Ivory Book 3) Page 5
