“All right, what’s going on?” Eliza raced over from the trailers, skidding to a halt with eyes somehow wider than usual, taking in the scene in front of her. “Seriously, what thehellis going on?”
Ozzy pushed Jake’s chest and he let himself be moved. As he stood, the fight drained out of him. He looked around slowly and saw Ozzy on the ground, inching back. Evander with his hands up in front of himself. Eliza and Corinne both staring wide-eyed. Aras whispering to Robinson on the other side of the living room window. Mason standing slack-jawed in the doorway.
“I’m gone.” Jake’s legs barely wanted to work, but he forced himself to walk away, skirting around the fucking root in the yard, and dug his phone out to get himself a ride. His fingers didn’t want to work very well and his knees were also revoltingagainst him, so he shifted to the other side of the tree and sat with his back against it, trying to collect himself enough to type into his phone.
“Jake. You’re making a mess.”
He turned to see Bunny lowering herself next to him. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine in a whole variety of ways. Did you miss the blood streaming out of your head?”
“Head wounds bleed more.”
“Yeah. I can see that.” She touched his chin, stinging right up the left side of his face. “And your teeth are pretty red. Probably bit your cheek. Maybe your tongue.”
He said nothing, just turned his attention back to his phone and tried to get his fingers to cooperate in spite of the fact he was frozen. It took way too long to tap over to the hotel’s address, in part because he had to skip over Quinn’s apartment and it doubled up the pain to look at that address. But he got it entered and he turned off the screen. “Ten minutes and I’ll be gone. Sleep it off.”
“Jake.” Bunny snatched his phone out of his hand, popped in his passcode, then tapped a few times. “I canceled your ride because you’re not going to the hotel. Stop being so stupid and get your ass up so we can get you to the hospital.”
Jake shook his head, laughing at the whole exchange. Bitterness rose up in his throat, and he didn’t bother to try and stop it. “I am stupid. You’re right. That’s what you all think. Jake’s dumb and lovable. And since I’m not being very lovable right now, all that’s left is dumb.” He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the throbbing all over his face. “Give me back my phone, Bunny.” He held his hand out. “I don’t want to yell anymore, but I’m pretty much done with all this. Just give me the phone.”
She hesitated, but before he could freak out, she handed it back. “At least let medical look you over.”
He reached behind his head and came back coated in red. “Fine.” Slowly, he got up. Every movement ached. When he trudged toward the medical tent, everyone gave him a wide berth.
When he walked in, the medic looked at him. Then her eyes widened. “What on earth—”
“I’m clumsy. Hit my head, fell.” He sat down in an empty chair, then opened his mouth and felt around. Sure enough, hot pain there too, concentrated in the soft skin of his right cheek. “Bit myself in the fall. Just need to get cleared so I can head back to the hotel and get some rest.”
She started grabbing stuff out of her kit, then went around behind him. “Yeah, that’s not on the table. I can do the chin, but this back here is bad. And inside of your mouth, I don’t have the stuff here to do anything with that if it needs actual treatment.”
“My mouth is fine. It’ll heal.” They all wanted to keep him there, and all he needed was to go anywhere else. “Just slap a bandage on me and I’ll go to the ER if I start to feel worse. Just need enough to keep from bleeding all over the hotel’s nice white sheets.”
She was silent for a while. Then he felt a sting of cold as something washed over the back of his head, followed by pressure as she apparently gave in and bandaged him up. “I can’t recommend this course of action.”
“I won’t hold you responsible. I just want to take a nap.”And pretend this whole day never happened and I never signed up to be on this show and that someone puts fiberglass in Ozzy’s lube.
“Ireallycan’t advise that you sleep unless you get looked at. At least not alone. If you have a concussion—”
“I hit my head on a car, then tripped over a root and smashed up my chin. I don’t have a god damn concussion.”
“Well, I’m glad there’s another medical professional on site with me. I had no idea. Where’d you get your degree?”
He rose from the chair and headed for the exit. “Don’t need a degree to be worth a damn.” The rage was back, burning away the freeze in his extremities and allowing him to get himself a ride. Without Bunny’s interference, that time. No one bothered him, even though he didn’t miss the whispered conversation between Eliza and medical. It didn’t matter. He reached back and he wasn’t bleeding. His chin had scabbed over. And mouth wounds healed fast.
When the car came, the driver looked him up and down as he got in. Jake waved his hands in front of himself. “I’ll pay double, and I promise not to bleed on anything.”
Which seemed to be enough to get Jake hauled back to the hotel. Finally.
Chapter thirty-one
Quinn
Quinn didn’t go homewhen he left the job site. He couldn’t deal with being alone in that apartment with those memories any better than he’d handled everything back with the house.
Truth was, as soon as he got a block away, he’d wanted to drive back. Talk with Jake. Try to get something back between the two of them. But this would just happen again. He couldn’t keep going for easy relief in exchange for his long-term wellness. Spending all that time with Jake wouldn’t do anything other than make it all that much worse when he went flying off to Kalamazoo or wherever was next.
He drove until he reached a park. He turned off the car and got out, then kept moving, walking across the grass and heading for the little bridge over the manmade pond. A fountain in the center sprayed water up, cooling the area, and he was mostlyalone. The closest people were in sight, but not anywhere close to being in earshot.
