Wrecked (Clayton Falls) Read Free Page B

smiled, and I could tell her mind moved elsewhere for a minute. “Yes, it is.”
    I gave myself a minute to recover. Why was talking so damn hard? “Are you going to be my nurse the whole time I’m here?”
    “I don’t think you’ll be staying in the ICU much longer so you’ll be moved to another floor. Of course, that all depends on what the doctors say. It should only be another day or two at most, but you’ll have me again tonight.”
    I decided not to mention how else her comment could be interpreted. “In case I’m not here later, I better get your number now.”
    She laughed. “Hold your horses there, stud. I think you have more important things to worry about than lining up a date.”
    “Is that a no?”
    “It should be.”
    I smiled. “We don’t have to line up a date. But could I at least get your number?” I glanced around for my phone but didn’t see it. “But I guess I don’t know where to write it down.”
    “It looks like you’re out of luck.” It would have disappointed me, but that twinkle in her eye made me think there was still hope. “Are you sure you don’t want me to call your parents? I know they’ll want to see you.”
    I let out a deep breath. “I might as well get this over with.”
    “Don’t you want to see them?”
    “Yes. Well, my parents. Probably not Molly and Ben, but I’ll have to face them eventually.” I hadn’t meant to say the Molly and Ben part out loud. Lucky for me, she didn’t comment on it.
    “I’m going to go ahead and call them.”
    I watched her retreating figure and decided she looked just as good from behind.

    ***

    “Oh my god, Jake.” Mom nearly choked me in her excitement.
    I decided complaining was a pretty bad idea, and let her attack—I mean hug me. “Hi, Mom.”
    She was tired. It looked like she hadn’t slept in days—she probably hadn’t and it was my fault. “I’m so glad you’re awake.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “You should be. What were you thinking?”
    “He wasn’t thinking. That’s the problem.” Dad tried to sound hard, but I could see the emotion in his eyes. By the looks of him, he hadn’t slept any more than Mom.
    Mom didn’t take her eyes off me. “I know you’re probably not ready to talk much yet, but at some point you’re going to tell us what happened.”
    “You probably know more than I do.” I struggled to remember what happened, but I kept coming up against a wall once I got to the part with my Jeep flipping.
    Mom took a seat beside me. “The police called to tell us they found your car flipped over and that you were already on your way over here. I know something happened between you and Ben, but he won’t tell me anything.”
    “You don’t want to know.”
    “You two hardly ever fight anymore. I don’t see how it could have been bad enough to cause this.” She gestured to me lying in a hospital bed.
    “It wasn’t his fault.” I wasn’t going to let Mom blame Ben. This was my fault.
    “I never said it was his fault. I just want to know what happened.”
    Why the hell not? I figured I’d rather give my version instead of letting Ben tell it. “Daniela decided to tell the world about how we tried to break Molly and Ben up in high school.”
    “You did what?” A look of horror crossed Mom’s face. She’d always loved Molly and wanted her around. “Wait, how’d you try to break them up?”
    I swallowed. I didn’t want to admit this part. “Daniela tried to get him to cheat on Molly with her when we knew he was plastered.”
    “But he didn’t, did he?” Mom didn’t seem as confident as I expected. Maybe she wasn’t as blinded by Ben’s perfectness as I thought.
    “No. He wanted nothing to do with Daniela.”
    Dad nodded. “Of course not. Ben had a one-track mind when it came to girls. You saw that and wanted to feel that way too.”
    Mom looked at me. “That’s why you did it, isn’t it? You were jealous.”
    “Yeah, and I liked her.”
    Dad half laughed. “Liked her?