Chapter 37

37

JASON

We spent most of Wednesday at the hospital, Zach working on the homework his professors had sent while he was missing classes while I fiddled around on my phone, trying not to go crazy. I ran out and got food for us, checked on my mom and dad, and sat in on doctor visits when they updated us on Mandy's progress.

Zach's Aunt Amy came by, insisting Mr. Jacobs take a break and head home for a shower and some rest. He protested, but she had this odd combination of a sunny disposition mixed with fuck around and find out that somehow had everyone bending to her will. It was kind of impressive.

Mandy was a little more alert, awake for longer periods, though she also seemed to be in more pain. It was hard to watch her suffer, but she was a trooper, pushing through it as best she could. She still wasn't strong enough to get out of bed, but they did have her do some exercises to help with circulation. She slept for quite a while after that.

It was evening when she woke again, and it was just me in the room with her this time. Mom and Dad had run home for a shower and a change of clothes with promises to bring back dinner. Zach was spending some time with his Aunt Amy, watching over Drea, who was still under sedation. There had been talk of beginning to wean Drea off the sedatives, but I wasn't sure if they'd started that process or not.

"Hey, big brother."

I looked up with a smile, delighted to hear her voice. Until now, I hadn't really had a chance to speak with her when she was awake. "Hey, sis. How're you feeling?"

"Like shit."

I chuckled. "Probably going to be that way for a bit. Want me to page the nurse?"

"Maybe in a little bit. I'm okay for now."

I leaned forward and took her hand. "I've missed you."

"Yeah?" Her face registered a mix of surprise and delight.

"Of course. Who else do I have to torture?"

"Dumbass," she said, but her eyes were alight with humor. It was such a goddamn relief to see.

Her smile slid off her face. "How's Drea? Mom wouldn't tell me much other than the basics."

I swallowed hard. "You know she's sedated?"

She nodded.

"There's not much to tell. I think they're going to try to start bringing her out of it soon, but it could take a couple of days before she actually wakes up."

Her face fell, and her eyes became glassy with unshed tears. "It's my fault, J."

"What?"

"I was fucking around with the Bluetooth, giving her shit about her terrible taste in music. I had to have the last laugh."

"There was a deer. She tried to swerve to miss it. That's not your fault."

"She might have seen it sooner if she hadn't been distracted. She would have had more time to react." Tears ran down her face.

"Or she might have hit it head-on. There are a million ‘could've been' scenarios. You can't carry this on your shoulders. It could have happened to anyone."

I grabbed a tissue and handed it to her. She wiped at her eyes but didn't say anything else.

"Hey." I waited for her to look up at me. "It's not your fault, sis. Not anymore than it's the deer's for being in the road or Drea's for rolling the car. There's a reason they call it an accident. Sometimes accidents happen, and it's not anyone's fault."

"I'm just so scared." The tears were flowing again. "She's my best friend, J. Like, the absolute best. I don't know how I survived Astaire before she moved to town. And I don't want to do the rest of high school without her."

I sat on the edge of her bed, careful not to jostle her leg or bump any of the other wires she was still hooked up to. I brushed her hair off her face and tipped her chin so she'd look at me. "She's strong, Mandy. A survivor. She will push through this, and you girls will be back to annoying me with your late-night sleepovers."

"I just want her to be okay."

"I know. Me too."

Mandy's bout of tears wore her out, and she fell asleep not long after. Zach and I ate with our families, then returned to Astaire once again. The worry over his sister and his dad was starting to take a toll on him. I could see it in the circles under his eyes and how he carried himself, as if he were carrying the weight of their well-being on his shoulders. I knew the stress of missing classes was eating at him too. He was doing as much of the work as he could remotely, but it was difficult to make up lectures and group projects when you were fifteen hundred miles away.

Wanting nothing more than to take care of him, I sent him into the bathroom to shower, hoping the hot water might wash away some of the stress of the day. In the meantime, I put fresh sheets on my bed, then rounded up several candles, spreading them around my bedroom. My mom had a thing for scented candles. Hopefully, the different fragrances wouldn't become cloying, but I could only work with what I had.

Zach entered the room looking sexy as fuck, his hair glistening with moisture and wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. It was amazing how I'd never found anyone sexy before, but the closer Zach and I got—the stronger our bond—the more attractive I found him. In that moment, I didn't think I'd ever seen anyone look as beautiful as he did with his brown eyes glowing in the candlelight and water droplets trailing down his toned chest. I was pretty sure I was more than a little in love with him. Probably had been for a while, but my dumbass was apparently slow on the uptake when it came to lust and love and everything Zach .

"What is this?" he asked, brows raised in surprise as he took in the candles spread out around the room.

I reached out and took his hand, pulling him toward me. I gave him a light kiss, then gestured to the bed. "Lose the towel and lie on your stomach."

"You gonna ravish me, Whitt?" The corner of his mouth drew up in a sexy smirk.

I leaned in close, my mouth just inches from his. "I'm gonna take care of you." I pressed my lips to his forehead, then pulled back, hooking a finger behind the edge of his towel and tugging it free. "No more questions," I said, nodding toward the bed.

He smiled but did as I asked, settling himself on his stomach with his hands at his sides. I stripped down to my briefs, knowing I needed to keep the barrier between us, or I'd be too tempted to skip the massage altogether and ravish him as he'd suggested.

I kneeled on the bed, swinging one leg over his hips to straddle his waist. Bending forward, I trailed soft kisses along one shoulder, moving across his back to the other side. Then I moved to his neck, starting at his hairline, and began a new path downward, kissing each nob of his spine until I reached his tailbone. He sighed, and I could already feel some of the tension melting away from his body.

Bending forward again, I kissed his cheek, then ran my fingers through his hair. I repeated the gesture over and over, each time choosing a new path through the dark strands, gratified to see him sinking into the pillow a little more.

I paused to grab the lotion we'd left on the bedside table this morning. I poured a nickel-sized dollop, then rubbed my hands together, warming the liquid before I placed my hands on Zach's shoulders and began working the lotion into his skin. I didn't really know what I was doing. I'd certainly never given or received a massage before, so I was moving completely on instinct. But given the way he groaned when I pressed my thumb into a knot I found near the base of his neck, I figured I was on the right track.

I continued working him over, using my thumbs to knead his muscles, letting his moans and groans guide me as I moved from his shoulders farther down his obliques, then to his lower back. My cock was straining in my briefs, my tip peeking out of my waistband, turned on by the feel of his body beneath mine, but I ignored it. While Zach had shown me orgasms were a good distraction, that wasn't what this was about. Or at least not at this moment. Maybe this massage would lead there, maybe not. I just wanted to show him how much he was cared for. He'd awakened a sexual side in me I hadn't known I had, but that wasn't all he was to me, and I wanted to show him that.

His moans turned to sighs, then eventually faded to the soft sound of regular exhalations as he finally relaxed into sleep. I slid off him, rubbing the rest of the lotion into my own hands, then made my way around the room to blow out each of the candles, plunging the room into darkness. Zach was lying on top of the comforter, so I grabbed a throw off the foot of the bed, lay next to him, and pulled it over us. He let out a contented "mmm" and burrowed his face into my shoulder. I pressed a kiss to the top of his hair and whispered, "Sleep, honey. I've got you."

My last thought before I drifted off was just how lucky I was to have found him.