Chapter 18
Eighteen
Finn stood a few feet away, letting Slick and Aunt Poppy stay by Jess’s side. So far, they hadn’t asked him what he was doing with Jess and why it had been him calling them and not someone else.
There was no way they’d missed how he’d been clutching her hand when they’d rushed into her room. Nor the way he’d kissed her forehead when Jess first regained consciousness.
It was as though they accepted his presence in Jess’s room.
A light tap sounded, and the door opened.
“Mom? Dad?” As Finn had suspected, his parents had made the trip as well. Not only would they have been there for Jess, but they would’ve also been there for him, Aunt Poppy, and Slick.
His mom rushed over, her glitter eyeliner catching the overhead light.
He smiled in spite of the worry still deep in his whole body. The day Cerise Spelling stopped wearing anything glitter related was a day he didn’t want to think about.
“Honey!” She wrapped him up in a tight hug, and he returned it, squeezing her tightly.
His dad clapped a hand on his shoulder, and he sighed, not realizing how much he needed his parents. How much he missed them.
Finn pulled away from his mom’s hold and took a step back. Immediately, his dad was at her side, tucking her close to him.
“What are you guys doing here?” he asked.
“You didn’t think we wouldn’t come and have you go through this alone, did you?” his mom admonished. “When we arranged for the jet for Poppy, Slick and the kids, we arranged one for your father, sister and I, too.”
“I can’t believe you’re here, Cerise, but I’m glad.” Aunt Poppy smiled, her eyes glistening with tears. “You left Primmy with Sawyer and Paula in the waiting room?”
“Yep, they’re sitting with Jess and Finn’s friends.”
Finn had no doubt that Oak and Kaley would make sure his sister and Jess’s brother and sister didn’t get into any trouble. Knowing Oak he was probably at the vending machine getting them food and drinks.
“You’re all too loud,” Jess mumbled, but clear enough for everyone in the room to understand.
“Sorry, sweetie. How are you?” His mom rushed over to her side and went straight into nurse mode, looking at the IV drip while her fingers wrapped around Jess’s wrist, checking her pulse.
“Sore,” Jess responded, her gaze searching the room until it locked on his.
In two strides, Finn was at her side, his hand clutching at the one his mom was still holding.
“How sore? What’s your pain level on a scale of one being bearable to ten, being unbearable?” Seemed he couldn’t take his medical training out of him, either.
Chuckles sounded and he looked up to find everyone in the room smiling indulgently.
“What? It’s not like y’all weren’t thinking the same thing since everyone, apart from Aunt Poppy, has had some sort of medical training.”
His mom was a nurse, his dad a former paramedic, and now a volunteer firefighter. Slick had been a firefighter for years before switching to being part of the firefighter academy, and he would’ve done medical courses over the years as well.
Their grins got wider and the door behind Aunt Poppy opened.
A nurse stuck her head in. “There are way too many people in this room. Only one person should be in here.”
“We’ll wait outside,” Mom murmured and, as she walked past Aunt Poppy, she gave her another hug.
As much as Finn wanted to stay, now that her parents were there, they should be the ones to stay with Jess. Slick would probably be able to persuade the nurse that both Jess’s parents should be by her side.
“I’ll go with them,” Finn said.
“No!” Jess yelled. “I don’t want you to go.”
“You heard the nurse, popsicle. Only one person.”
“Well then, how come the three of you were in here when I first woke up?”
Finn had never seen Jess being that stubborn. When they were kids, there’d been a hint of it, but she always got over whatever she was arguing against pretty quickly, and her happy demeanor returned.
Somehow, that wasn’t going to happen this time.
“They shouldn’t have been here,” the nurse responded. “I’m not sure who allowed that. I’ve only just come on shift.”
“It’s fine. We’ll go grab a coffee and something to eat, then we can switch out,” Slick said, his gaze bouncing between his daughter and Finn.
At least Slick didn’t know Finn had said he was Jess’s fiancé, so he could get information about her surgery and be able to stay with her.
His uncle by marriage might’ve accepted him being in Jess’s room, but hearing Finn and his daughter were engaged without him having asked permission wouldn’t go down well.
Didn’t matter that it wasn’t real. That they weren’t engaged at all. There were some things that Slick would want done properly.
The fact that Finn planned to do all of that, anyway, wouldn’t matter. As far as everyone associated with Jess’s surgery and care was concerned, they believed Finn was her fiancé.
The door closed behind her parents and the nurse.
Jess stared straight at him, a lot of questions in her eyes. “Why are they here?”
It wasn’t a shocker that she wasn’t a fan of him calling them. That she would’ve wanted to go through this without them knowing, like she had when Bartholomew had attacked her.
The difference was, she wasn’t alone. She had him.
“It was the right thing to do. I couldn’t not call them, Jess. They needed to know. I didn’t know how badly you were hurt or what your recovery was going to be like.”
Her teeth worried her bottom lip.
Finn hoped she’d see what he’d done hadn’t been to undermine her or force her to tell her parents about her former stalker. He wouldn’t do that. He’d told her he wouldn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to do.
“Did you tell them about Bartholomew?” she asked quietly.
“No. Not my story to tell. It’s yours.”
“Okay.”
The chance to take the conversation further was halted by the arrival of the doctor.
Finn stood back from the bed while the doctor did his examination.
“The wound is looking good. After everything has healed properly, you’ll still have restricted arm movement for at least three to nine months, depending on how it responds to physical therapy.”
“Three to nine months! It can’t be that long. I’m a dancer. I need my arms,” Jess said.
The doctor smiled at her sympathetically. “As I said, it could be sooner, but there was some damage to the muscle and tendons. That’s going to take some time to heal. It depends on how much work you put in as well. If you do the work, you could be back dancing in less than nine months.”
Nine months was too long. Even three months was too much for Jess. She loved her career. Dance was a part of her soul. She’d been dancing since before he met her when she was eight.
Not to mention, Jess said she’d just been promoted to lead dancer. Her being away from the company for a considerable length of time could be the death knell of her career. No way would they wait for her to get better.
“We’ll get you sitting up in a couple of hours, and then tomorrow, you can meet with a physical therapist and sort out a plan. You won’t be able to start any type of therapy until the damage from the knife wound is healed.”
Jess nodded, but her throat bobbed up and down, as though she was holding back the tears he could see shining in her eyes.
The doctor gave her uninjured arm a squeeze before walking out.
Finn was at her side a heartbeat later, leaning down to hold her. Her body shook as the sobs she’d been holding back burst out.
There was nothing he could say that would make her feel better. Or make the situation better. He wasn’t the one whose career was disintegrating in front of them.
Slowly, her sobs quieted down until only the occasional shudder wracked her small frame.
God, Finn wished he’d been with her. He would’ve seen the person coming at her. Would’ve seen the malicious intent in their eyes, and he could have prevented this from ever happening to her.
God complex much? Get over yourself, Spelling.
His inner voice sounded like one of the former SEALs who’d been part of his BUD/S training. A tough man, but at the end of the day, he’d been proud that Finn had gotten through Hell Week. He’d been right to yell at him to make Finn dig deep to get through the torture of his training.
How arrogant of him to think that he could’ve prevented this? It might’ve been him who’d been stabbed. No amount of training made him invincible. What Finn had to do now was provide Jess with the support she needed to get through her recovery and physical therapy.
“I’m sorry, popsicle.” He leaned back and brushed his thumb over the tear tracks down her cheek.
“Everything was falling into place. I was going to be the lead dancer. I was going to have everything I’ve trained for, and now it’s going to be ripped away. Given to someone else. Why does this always happen to me?” Jess’s face was red and her slight form shaking from the emotion she was holding in.
To some people, it might sound like she was having a massive pity party, but Finn understood what this opportunity had meant to her. Who was he to judge how Jess reacted in this moment?
“I don’t know. But I will get to the bottom of it.” In all the chaos of finding out about Jess and getting to her side as soon as possible, he hadn’t thought about the next steps.
He needed to call Tex and ask if he could use his skills to tap into camera feeds around the wine bar.
“You’re going to have to talk to the police. There’s no way you can’t. A detective was here earlier and asked me to call him when you woke up.”
“I know, but maybe tomorrow. I’m still so tired.” Jess’s eyes drifted shut, but then snapped open again. “Oh my God...Kaley! Where is she?”
Finn grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “She’s fine. She’s with Oak. He came to the hospital. He insisted on taking her home, because she was hanging by a thread. I’ll message him and let him know that you’re awake and Kaley can come and see you. I don’t think the nurse will allow many visitors tonight.” He finished with a wink, hoping to lighten the situation.
A small smile ghosted over Jess’s face. “Yeah, the nurse was a bit of a tyrant. And that sounds good about Kaley. I hope she doesn’t have nightmares about what happened to me. I couldn’t bear it if she did.”
“I think Oak will stay with her. He’s a good one.”
“If he’s like you, then yes, he is.” She shifted and winced. “I wonder if the tyrant nurse will come back and give me some pain meds.”
“I’m sure if you sweet-talk her, she will.”
She laughed, then grimaced. “Damn. Even laughing hurts.”
“It will get better.”
“I know. I just don’t have the time to be sidelined for so long. I may as well kiss my career goodbye.”
“No. I’m not going to let you think that. You’re going to come back from this far stronger than you were before,” Finn said.
“I hope so.”
“I know so. Jessica Killian is going to be the talk of the dance world.”
Jess smirked. “I think you might be exaggerating a little bit.”
He shook his head. “Nope. I saw you dance. You’re breathtaking on stage, Jess. You deserve that promotion to principal dancer. That position will be yours, regardless of what happened to you today.”
She sighed. “It’s a nice dream to have, but I wouldn’t expect Madame Baxter to hold the position for me. Not that she would, anyway. Her concern is for the company and the company only.”
The resignation in her voice sounded so desolate, and she’d know how the dance world worked better than he did.
Finn just hoped that whoever had done this to her would be found soon, because the thought of a threat still hanging over Jess’s head wasn’t one he liked.