Two intolerably long hours have gone by when Quinn and Cole burst through the door. I notice how let down they are when they see that Jaxon is still asleep. Quinn’s eyes well up with tears and Cole pulls her into his chest.
“Quinny, he’s awake. The doctor says he’s just sleeping now,” Em utters softly, while rubbing Jaxon’s chest.
“Oh, thank God,” Quinn sighs.
“Seriously?” Cole questions.
I stand up and point to my chair so Quinn can have it. She quickly claims it, pulls her knees up to her chest, and lays her head down. “Thank you,” she says.
“How was he?” Cole asks.
“He seemed normal. His voice is shot to shit, but it just seemed like he was waking up after a long nap. It was so weird. Definitely not what I was expecting,” I reply.
“He heard everything,” Em whispers, without taking her eyes off Jax.
Quinn lets out a deep yawn and asks, “What do you mean he heard everything?”
“Well, turns out Em wasn’t crazy after all. He thanked her for always talking and reading to him,” I explain.
Mom reaches out and rubs Em’s back and smiles. “She pulled him through. He worked hard to wake up because of her,” she says, and Em casually shrugs her shoulders. The room quiets down and another yawn rips through Quinn, which causes a tidal wave effect of yawns around the room.
“Shit, babe, stop,” Cole says through a yawn. “There is no way you can possibly be tired! You slept almost fourteen hours last night, and that was after you had a three-hour nap yesterday afternoon.”
Quinn hugs her legs tighter and softly says, “I guess all this stress just wears me out.”
“Well, he’s awake now, so maybe you will be too,” he grumbles.
“Damn, someone’s grumpy he hasn’t gotten laid,” I jest.
“More than you buddy,” he stabs back.
“Touché,” I whisper.
“I had a dream you and Audrey were together,” Jaxon’s raspy voice interrupts.
We all freeze and immediately turn toward him. There is a round of ‘Jaxon’s’ called out and everyone seems to move closer to his bed all at once.
Cole is the first to speak. “How are you feeling, man? Shit, I missed you.”
“Um, I’m not sure,” he croaks. “What day is it?”
“Monday,” I reply.
“How did this happen?” he gestures at himself.
“You don’t remember me telling you earlier?” Mom questions. When Jaxon shakes his head, she explains that he was hurt during practice.
“Well, at least it was practice and not a live game. I don’t want to wind up on the highlight reel like superstar over here did last year.” He tries to laugh while pointing at Cole.
Last year, Cole got the wind knocked out of him in one of the first games of the season. It freaked us all out to see him lying motionless on the ground but we can laugh about it now, and often do every time they replay the hit on ESPN.
“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Cole groans.
“So my dream...you and Audrey. It was pretty cool,” Jax says, looking directly at me.
“Nah, he fucked that one up,” Cole’s annoying voice states.
“It’s real? I knew it! I totally knew you had a thing for her,” Jax says with a smile.
“You would be okay with it?” I ask, shocked. “What about that promise we made to never date the other’s girls? Past or present.”
“That shit goes away when you’ve met ‘the one.’ I have Em now. I could really care less about my ex-girlfriends. But that doesn’t mean I’d ever want anything to happen to Audrey, she’s been through enough. Why? What did you do?”
At the mention of her past, I want to dig a hole and throw myself inside. I was supposed to be the one person to treat her right, the one she could count on. “Shit man...I pussied out and should have told you all of this over a month ago.”
“I think I need to go get some coffee,” Mom mutters. She gives Jax a kiss on the forehead and scurries out, obviously uncomfortable with the idea of hearing about her sons’ sex lives.
“Over a month?” Jax raises his voice.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t beat around the bush, Jace,” Em says and then turns to Jax. “Audrey was the girl Jace was kissing up against his truck back in high school, the same day you met Audrey at Cole’s party. She was the girl Jace was gushing about meeting. She thought you were Jace, and then Jace didn’t want her after she had been with you.”
“Hey!” I quickly interrupt. “Don’t say I didn’t want her. I’ve always wanted that girl!” I pause and take a deep breath. “I just didn’t realize how much until it was too late.” Em shrugs her shoulders and snuggles in closer to Jax. He wraps her up in his arms and briefly kisses her lips.
“Wait...hold on, this is too much,” Jax rasps out. “First of all, what the fuck, Jace? Why didn’t you say something that night at Cole’s party?”
“Because I thought she was mad at me about something. I thought she wanted you.”
“Cole said you messed it up. What does that mean? What did you do?” Jax questions harshly.
“I freaked out, okay? I hadn’t told anyone about us yet. You were in a damn coma! Mom was coming. I had so much to explain and I just needed to focus on you.”
“Why? I wasn’t going anywhere,” he smiles.
“Not funny, man,” I retort.
“So you chased her off?” he asks.
“Oh, more like threw a fucking fit until she left,” Cole adds.
“Cut him some slack,” Quinn chimes in.
“I yelled at her to leave...” I finally admit.
“In front of all of her friends?” Jax asks, and I shamefully nod my head. “You didn’t learn from me?”
“Nope. I guess I needed to follow in your footsteps, big brother.” I try to give him a snarky smile.
“Jackass.” He lies back and seems to let me off the hook for a little while, but I have a feeling it won’t be for long. “Quinn, wake up! Geez, I thought you’d be more excited to see me,” he calls out.
She smiles lazily and gets up to hug him. “I did miss you. Don’t do that again. I don’t like the Em you leave behind,” she says to him.
“She was perfect. I wouldn’t have been able to pull through without her,” he says, smiling down at her. Slowly, he pushes her up so he can look in her eyes. “Babe, seriously. You were amazing. I can’t imagine going through this without you. Comas. Life. I want you to be mine.”
“I am yours,” she sniffles, showing him her palm.
Immediately, I can tell where this is going and I thank the stars that I thought ahead. As he starts to speak her name, I rush to interrupt, “Dude, I grabbed something from your room.”
“Freaky twin telepathy again,” Cole groans.
Jaxon holds out his hand as I dig around in his gym bag for what he wants. When he has a hold of it, I see him start to contemplate something and I jump to stop him.
“Don’t even think about getting up. Do it right there,” I assert, pointing at his bed and pushing him back by his shoulder. He groans, but then stops when he looks up into Em’s wide eyes. She cups his hand in between the two of hers and questions him with just a look.
“Beautiful, you charged into my life with barely any clothes on.” He stops to wink at her and she rolls her eyes in return. “I was hooked from day one. I couldn’t look at another girl from that point on. You ruined me, and I never want to be put back together. You molded yourself into my family so perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for it to have gone any better.” He stops and looks at the ground again, frustrated. “I wish I could do this on one knee, baby.”
She quickly swipes at her eyes and laughs through the tears. “It’s okay, it’s okay! Keep going.” She points to the box in his hand and he pops it open to show her the two-karat diamond I helped him pick out this past summer. Quinn and Em gasp at the same time when they see her ring.