Page 20 of Love Wells Kept

Aaron drums his fingertips on the back of Denny’s chair. “He’s talking. I wouldn’t expect him to chat your ear off right away—”

Denny snorts a quiet laugh. “He wouldn’t chat your ear off before he got kicked.”

“A man of few words,” I add.

“In that case, it sounds like he’s on track to be back to his usual self soon. The kind of recovery we love to see around here.”

Jackson’s eyelashes move across the delicate, freckled skin above his cheekbones, and when his eyes open, he’s finally looking right at me.

My skin tingles in anticipation, and there’s a new lightness in my chest.

“Hey,” I whisper, blindly feeling for his hand.

I’ve spent so much time talking to him despite his unresponsive state, and I had planned on giving him a speech better than my last-minute wedding vows once he finally looked at me. But I’m rendered speechless by his searching gaze, so I interlace our fingers on top of his bed and lose myself in the warmth of his palm on mine.

Bennett shifts his weight from side to side, attempting to get comfortable in the world’s most uncomfortable chair. “Welcome back.”

“About damn time,” Denny playfully scolds. “Have a good nap?”

Jackson closes his eyes with the tiniest rock of his head back and forth, and his chapped lips open with a hoarse, barely audible “No.”

I dip down to kiss his cheek through an inescapable smile and an ineffable weightlessness. I could float away on the high of hearing his voice.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” I nuzzle into him, dragging my nose and lips back and forth across his coarse beard. Tears well in my eyes. “I was so scared I was going to lose you…and I don’t know what I would’ve done.”

“I…” His swallow is audible, and his voice is gravelly and dry. Similar to when he’s had strep throat in the past.

I straighten back up, smiling gently down at him and squeezing his hand. The memory of his low voice vibrates through my ribs. “Shh. No need to talk if it hurts. I just want you to know I love you so much.”

Biting the inside of my cheek, I barely hold myself back from talking his ear off. Telling him about how scared I was, that Odessa’s going to be begging him for a horse the second he leaves this place, and that I kept our secret about the baby because I knew how important it was to him that we tell everyone together. There will be time for all of that, now that he’s awake. There will be time for everything.

Aaron gives him a few tiny sips of water from a Styrofoam cup, and Jackson’s exhale has a heavy rasp to it. Eyes flitting from person to person, his mouth tips into the smallest frown. If I hadn’t become an expert at reading subtle cues during my time here, I might’ve missed it.

It must be the confusion Aaron mentioned. I can’t begin to fathom what it’s like—to be in the barn one moment, the scent of hay in your lungs, the world familiar and grounded—and then to open your eyes to the antiseptic stillness of a hospital room.

“We’ve missed you.” I offer him a smile, tender and hopeful. He doesn’t return it, but I press on. I crave his smile like a salve, something to soothe the raw place inside me that’s been aching since the moment Red ushered me out of the house. “Odessa’s been calling every day, wanting me to remind you that you owe her a horse.”

His brows draw together, a crease forming between them.

Okay, he doesn’t remember that they were supposed to buy her a horse.

My tongue flicks over my lips, nervous. “Never mind that. I’m just—” My voice catches on the edge of something sharp. “I’m just so happy you’re okay.”

Jackson’s mouth opens tentatively, and I lean in closer to better hear him over the drone of background hospital noise. He squints at me with dark-rimmed, bloodshot eyes. My smile wavers slightly in the space between his lips parting and the ragged sound of his voice.

“Who…who are you?”

Kate

For a moment, the words hang between us in the silence, gentle and cruel. A fucking ridiculous smile frozen on my face as I process the fact that he’s not joking. All the hope I had shreds into thin paper ribbons with a single sentence.

Who are you?

My world tilts, tipping my smile until it falls from my face. I blink hard, but my vision becomes kaleidoscopic anyway. I pull my hands away and they curl into themselves, nails cutting into my palms, clinging to the echo of his thumb skimming my skin earlier.

Aaron steps in, clearing his throat. “Things are probably a little foggy right now, but Kate’s your wife.” He gives him a light elbow. “Lucky guy to have a girl like her.”

Jackson’s eyes sweep over me without a hint of recognition.