Page 39 of Jenny
“But don’t tell Elle.” Carlos lowered his voice as if someone might hear him. “She gets jealous.”
Elle was Carlos’ pretty fiancée. “Is she here?”
“She was. My mom’s here now. They’re going to take turns. I may have an extended stay ahead of me.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Dare knew there was spinal cord damage. “You’ve got this.”
“Going to give it my best shot, Sergeant.” Carlos sounded optimistic. That was a good sign. “Is your mom here?”
He nodded. “She says hi.”
“Did she bring cookies?”
Dare had forgotten that Carlos loved cookies. “No, but I’ll ask if she can make some for you. She mentioned something about kitchen facilities at the family support center.”
“Sweet. Is Jenny here, too?”
Hearing one of his guys mention her name so easily felt weird yet right. “Yes, she is.”
“Just friends. Yeah, right.” Carlos laughed and then grimaced. Pain? “I knew there was more going on. Yang owes me fifty bucks.”
Dare’s mouth gaped. “You bet on my friendship with Jenny?”
“Relationship, and well, yeah.”
He shook his head. “I’m going to come up with some kind of payback for when you get out of here.”
“Bring it on, Sergeant. I’ll be ready.” Carlos’ eyes gleamed. “It’s good to see you.”
Dare touched his arm. “I would have been here sooner, but I wouldn’t fit with the traction junk they had me wearing. Now, I’ll be here as often as you want company.”
Carlos blinked. “That might be a lot, Sergeant.”
“Then it’s a lot.”
He gripped the bedding. “I don’t remember what happened. Do you?”
“Very little, but maybe Yang and Humphreys do and can fill in some blanks.”
“It doesn’t matter, but I’d still like to know, Sergeant.”
“I know.” Dare also knew Carlos needed him. Not a problem. That was why Dare was there. He stretched out his good leg to make himself comfortable. “Have you been watching any baseball games?”
****
Jenny hadn’t set her alarm, so she shouldn’t have been surprised she’d slept until ten. Guess she needed the sleep after working on her new story last night. The words had been flowing. Ash had landed a sabotaged 777, and she hadn’t wanted to stop.
With her arms over her head, she stretched.
No more being lazy. Time to get up so she could go back to the hospital. The more time she spent with Dare, the more she wanted to be with him.
Jenny touched her lips. She enjoyed his kisses, too.
Talking about his feelings yesterday hadn’t been easy for him. She hadn’t meant to push, but he couldn’t keep everything inside and keep pretending he was fine. Missy had tried to do that and was still processing through Rob’s death six years later. Jenny didn’t think that would happen to Dare since he hadn’t taken much prodding to open up.
She kept trying to figure out if he was too good to be true. So far, he seemed genuine, and that filled her with hope. Maybe her message in the bottle had brought her more than a friend. The possibility existed for something bigger, something lasting. The idea thrilled her. She liked him. She was ready for more with Dare.
An hour later, she walked into his hospital room. His bed was empty. The sheets and pillow had been stripped.
