Page 89 of An Unexpected Turn
“About to get worse.”
THIRTY-FIVE
JAKE
Isat at my desk, grumbling through paperwork for the day in between checking my phone every five minutes for a reply from Peyton. The second Lena suggested coffee, I should have said no. Yes, she wouldn’t have let it go and I would have had to make an appointment with her eventually, but it should have been on professional terms in the office, just like Peyton said.
I’d thought getting it over with and not causing a scene at the high school was easier, but I should’ve known better. If it were reversed, I would have lost it seeing Peyton walk off with another man. Lena must’ve made a comment about our fling that lasted just short of a month. She’d sworn she was on the same casual page as I was, but whenever I ran into her, she always tried to make me stay.
The only woman I wanted to stay for was Peyton, and my split-second bonehead decision may have caused a rift between us that we didn’t need right now.
I almost left Keith a message saying that I needed to speak to him as soon as he got back, but he would have called me right away, and I wanted to tell him in person that I’d fallen in love with his niece. I owed him that much respect and would accept whatever happened with us later, as long as I still had Peyton.
That, not Keith’s reaction, was what kept me up most of the night.
I leaned back, scrubbing a hand down my face before I jumped at the buzz of my phone. My hope turned to dread when I read my son’s name on the screen.
“Mike, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, but Ms. Miller got hurt. Aaron got into a fight at lunch, and she got hurt trying to break it up. I didn’t see what happened, but there was blood on the floor after the ambulance came.”
“She left in an ambulance?” I yelled, leaping out of my chair and grabbing my jacket and keys. “How long ago was this?”
“I don’t know, right before lunch ended. I called you as soon as I heard.”
How bad was it that my son saw a pool of blood where it happened and she left in an ambulance? My own blood ran cold thinking of her hurt and alone.
This was one way of letting the town know about us if they didn’t already, because there would be no doubt left in anyone’s mind once I got there who Peyton was to me.
She was everything—and until I knew she was okay, nothing else mattered.
“Thank you.” I locked the door behind me since I was the only one due in the office for the afternoon. “Please do me a favor. Call Aunt Kris and ask her to pick you up at home after she gets the girls. I need you to stay with her tonight.”
I jogged to my truck, jumping in as soon as I clicked the key fob and started the engine.
“Okay. Can you text me to let me know if she’s okay?”
I smiled, taking in a deep breath to calm down enough to drive.
“I can do that. I’ll text you as soon as I know how she is.”
I hung up and battled the urge to do ninety for the twenty-minute drive to the hospital.
“Peyton Miller,” I yelled at the poor girl at the intake desk of the ER, breathing heavily from running from the far end of the hospital parking lot. “She came in by ambulance.”
She scanned a clipboard and nodded before lifting her head. “She’s in triage. I can have someone update you when I know more.”
“She’s my girlfriend. Can you just let me back there so I could stay with her?”
My stomach sank when she pursed her lips.
“No one is allowed back there unless you’re immediate family.”
“Jake? Hey, man. What are you doing here?” Buck, an old friend of my sister’s, slapped my back. “Is Mikey okay?”
Buck was an ER nurse, and I thanked God for this fucking small town and its endless connections that made it seem even smaller.
“My girlfriend was brought in by ambulance. She got hurt at the high school. Peyton Miller.”
