Hotbox (25 page)

“Of course you are,” Jayden replied. “Unless you’re bringing me my ticket out of here, I don’t want anything.”
             
“Sorry. You have to wait at least until the evening when the doctor stops in.” He looked at me and said, “She’s pretty
ornery
. I don’t see how you can handle her.”

“Hey,” Jayden protested. “I could turn you in for your unprofessional comments.”

“Yeah, you’re right,
”
he smiled.

I moved from the bed and sat down in the chair as h
e began taking her blood pressure.

“Relax,” he told her.

“I am.”

“You
r
pulse is racing.”
             
“That’s because my boyfriend just kissed me.”
             
He
responded with an easy laugh
and
said, “Take a deep breath.”

Sh
e did and he continued to monitor the reading. “Hmm,” he said, grabbing her chart. “It’s been over six hours since you took any pain medication. How do you feel?”

“Like going home.”

He smiled. “Lift you
r
arms.”

I
watched her hesitate and it made me curious
.

“Lift your arms,” he repeated with another smile.

“
You’re
ornery,” she scowled at him.

He laughed and said, “I’ll be back with some pills to pop, and if you don’t take them, I’ll have to tell
the doctor your head injury is still affecting
your judgment. See if
that
gets you out of here.” With one last smile he headed out the door.

I looked at her with bewilderment. “What was that all about?”

She shook her head with a
sheepish
smile. “Nothing.”

“Nothing? Why did he want you to lift your arms?”

She looked embarrassed, but I was too curious to let it go. I waited for her to answer, but she wouldn’t say anything.

“Fine, I’ll just go ask
Trae
,” I said, standing up.

“Pleas
e
d
on’t leave,” she begged me. When I sat down
on the edge of the bed
she sighed. “It’s just…
It hurts
—my ribs, my neck, and my shoulder
s
. I can hardly lift my arms. I hate taking pain medication because it makes me sleepy, but apparently it’s good with helping me relax. I get tense when I hurt, and I can’t relax.”

“What’s wrong with sleeping?”

“I don’t know. I feel weird
being asleep
with
people walking around me,
looking at me. It’s creepy
.”

It made me laugh
and she made a face at me, but eventually she laughed, too
.

“How can you laugh without it hurting?” I asked.

“I can’t. It hurts like hell. But I’d rather laugh than not.”

“Yeah, that’s my girl,” I smiled, nodding my head
.

An hour
later she was asleep again. I answered a call from Jesse, wondering where I was. I told him about Jayden and he was pretty worried. I assured him she was fine and that she would probably be able to come home the next
day
.

Cali and Stacie stopped by around noon.
They stayed for over an hour
talking with Jayden until she began
to get
a little sleepy again. She dozed off and they quietly left. Cali gave me her number to call for anything
we
mi
ght need, and told
me to let Jayden know she would be coming back later.

Two more of her friends dropped in. Camryn and Vanessa. They only stayed for a few minutes, not wanting to wake Jayden up. They left her some flowers and a card. Shortly after that
one of her neighbors
stopped by, and then several people that worked with her. It felt odd meeting all of these people while Jay was sleeping, but every one of them stated, “Oh,
you’re Ty?
I’ve heard so much about you!”

Her father stopped in again while she was still
asleep
. I was immediately uncomfortable because
I didn’t know what to say
. I stood up and mentioned I would give him some time with her, but
he asked me to sit down by him instead. So…
I sat on a stool and faced him where he was sitting.

“Let’s talk,” he said quietly, glancing at Jayden sleeping
silently
.

I nodded and waited for him to begin.

“I realize
I’m not a nice
dad
when it comes to guys i
n her life
. She means everything to me
,
and the worst thing for me to see is for her to get her heart broken. I don’t care if she’s seven, seventeen, or seventy—I don’t want to see it happen. B
ut she loves you…
She wanted me to understand you, but I wasn’t interested in getting to know you—
at least not until now. S
he’s been happier than I’ve
ever seen her. I like to see her
happy.

“
Now here’s where the problem occurs. I’ve heard some things about your character from some people, and I’ve heard different things from oth
ers. So I’ve decided
I’m going to take my
daughter’s
advice,
and give you a chance
so I can find out for myself
.”

It wasn’t exactly what I expected from him. Joe Adams was t
rying to keep the peace for Jayden’s
sake. It was a hard thing for him to do, but he was willing to do it.
At least we had something in common.
I also wondered what she had said to him earlier that morning. It must have been pretty severe in order for him to become so cooperative. 

“I love her,” I
told him
with a shrug. “I can’t promise I’ll do everything to your
expectations, but I love her. A
nd she’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.
Her happiness is what’s most important to me.
”

He studied me for a
long
moment before nodding, and stood up.
“Let her know I stopped b
y,” he told me. “I’ll be around—i
f she needs me.”

I nodded and watched him head out the door.

Jayden woke up an hour later. When I mentioned her father stopped by
,
she had a look of panic
on
her face. I assured her it was actually a good visit
,
and
then
she relaxed
. She was pleased by her father’s effort when I shared the conversation we’d had.

The doctor stopped
in
a bit later
and checked her over, asking questions and reading her chart. Even though Jayden strongly insisted she wanted to go home,
he
declined, wanting her to rest one
more night. He told her she could probably go home
in the morning.

There was a knock on the door around
three-thirty
. Jesse popped his head in, then Jack, and Devin, and Aaron…and my entire baseball team, including the coaches.

“We had to apply for a special permit to all be in here at once,” Tucker
joked
. “Just kick us out when
you’re feeling claustro
phobic.”

Jayden was pretty surprised to see them all, especially when they brought two bouquets of flowers
, each in a vase
.
I
hadn’t even done that, so I was grateful for their consideration.
And, instead of a card, they signed all their get-wells onto a baseball. It was handed to me to sign also, and I was glad to be the only one that could write
:
I’ll always
love you…
Ty
.

They stayed for about a half an hour
,
but were quickly replaced by a few other friends: Silvia, Josh
,
and Shawn
—who
also brought her flowers and a couple of balloons
.
Megan and s
everal others visited throughout the day, and
Stacie re
turned later on with Matt. B
y eight p.m.
, Cali was the last friend that left
.

At nine another nurse came in
with
more pain medication. Jayden was just as feisty with her as she was with
the other one
.

“Ha, nice try, Jayden,” she said. “There’s a note right here from
Trae
:
Don’t let her push you around.
”

I spent my second night in the hospital with her.

Chapter Fifteen

Jayden was released at
eleven
in the morning when
h
er father was there on a break from work. I wasn’t
sure
what
it was going to be like around him
, but at least I didn’t feel the loads of animosity from him that I had previously felt. I thought he would prefer to be the one to take her home, so I was surprised when he suggested I do it. Cali
had come
by earlier
to
take
the flowers and balloons to Jayden’s, so I was happy to be left with my beautiful girl and the responsibility to get her settled
in
at home.

She was in very good spirits; she wanted to be out of the hospital more than anything. I
knew she was still pretty sore,
and even though she had promised the doctor she would take the pain medication, I was sure I’d have to do
a lot of
convincing.
Other than soreness,
she was fortunate to only have cuts and bruises.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about how much it would kill me if she hadn’t survived…

“Ty, are you lost in space?” she asked me with a smile.

I brought myself back to her, sitting on her bed with a glass of juice.
She seemed much happier to be in her own bedroom.

“Uh,
yeah, I guess so
. What else can I get for you?”

“Nothing. Sit with me. Please?” She patted the spot beside her.

She put the glass on the nightstand as I sat on the bed with her. She maneuvered herself against me so I could hold her, and I leaned back on the pillows and closed my eyes. It was the most comfortable position I’d been in for two nights.

We t
alked about the upcoming week—m
y last game, and graduation. She asked me about work
,
so I filled her in on that. The job that I was offered came up and she wanted to know more about it. I wasn’t interes
ted in talking about it
,
though;
I had already decided not to take it. When she insisted I tell her why, I told her I wasn’t going to be that far away from her. She told me that she would go wherever I went and she didn’t care where it was, as long as we were together.

She also said if I decided to
try
professional baseball, she would support me in that, too. She assured me she would follow me around the world if I let her. I began thinking about our future, and which direction would be the best way to go. I knew I wanted to marry her. There was no doubt in my mind.
But I was also struggling with some personal issues that I fe
ared were going to hold me back.

She stretched out on the bed with me after a while. I think she realized how tired I was. She
ran her fingers through my hair, and after just a few minutes,
I was out like a light.

She sent me off to practice later that afternoon. It was the perfect opportunity to make her take some pa
in medication because
I told her I wouldn’t leave until she
took it
.

“Fine. If it knocks me out then I guess that’s a better way to pass the time
without you
.”

All the guys asked how she was doing and expressed their gratitude that
she
was all right. I didn’t have the greatest practice because my mind was on Jayden most of the time, but it felt good to be on the field again, doing something active.