Page 106 of Promising You
“I can’t tell you where we are,” he says. “But it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they’re taking good care of you.”
“But I don’t have—”
“It’s all paid for, Jade,” he interrupts, knowing my concern.
I’m not sure what he means. Is his dad paying for this? He must be. All I have is the college health plan, which only covers visits to the health clinic on campus. I don’t have insurance for any other type of medical care.
“And Lilly’s fine,” he continues. “She just needed to warm up from being outside for so long. It sounded like she was out there for a couple hours.”
“What happened with your dad?”
“He’s back at the house taking care of Lilly and keeping an eye on Katherine. I’m sure he’ll have her followed now to make sure she doesn’t end up back with Stephen. But Katherine was right. She and my dad aren’t getting divorced and they’re no longer separated. I have no idea why, but I’m not going to ask.”
He rubs his thumb along my knuckles, still holding my hand. “How do you feel?”
I take a moment to figure that out. “Okay, I guess. My knee doesn’t hurt anymore.” I pull the blankets away and see that my knee is bandaged up and I have bruises up and down my leg.
“What happened? Did I get stitches?”
“Yeah. You really busted up your knee. They said it’ll be fine. You just can’t go running for a while.”
“Then why am I here? Can I go home now?”
“You hit your head pretty hard. You have a concussion, so they kept you here to make sure you’re okay. They said you might be able to leave later today or tonight.”
“How long have I been here?”
“It’s Saturday, so about a day and a half.”
I sit up again. “I missed Friday classes? I had assignments due! And a quiz!”
“Jade, relax.” He eases me back down on the pillows. “We let your professors know you’d be out.”
“When did you get here?”
He looks confused. “What do you mean? I came here with you. I never left.”
“You missed class? But, Garret, you—”
“Why are you so worried about school? It was only one day.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t have to sit here with me, especially if I’ve been asleep the whole time.”
He sighs. “I love you, Jade. I’m not going to leave you when you’re hurt.”
I glance down, smoothing the blanket with my hand. “I thought you were mad at me about the whole list thing.”
“I’m over it.” He squeezes my hand to get me to look at him. “Are you?”
“Yes. I never should’ve asked you to do that. And I knew you weren’t messing around with Ava last semester, so I never should’ve accused you of that. I’m sorry. About all of it.”
“Jade, I only kept that stuff from you because I knew it would hurt you. I know how shitty I would feel thinking about you with some other guy, even if it was in the past, and I didn’t want you to feel that way. None of those girls matter. I only want you.” He picks my hand up and kisses it, his eyes never leaving mine. “I’ll always only want you.”
I don’t know if it’s the painkillers I’m on or what, but his words have me tearing up. “Come here.” I pull him in for hug. “Let’s not do the fighting thing again.”
“I’m pretty sure we’ll fight again. It’s normal. We just can’t let it go on for two days or however long that was. It seemed like two weeks.”
“Yeah, I know.” I let him go. “I should’ve talked to you sooner, but sometimes I can be a little stubborn.”
