End of Day (Jack & Jill #1) (21 page)

*

Day

Kelly was the
closest friend Jessica had made since Four stole everything. However, Kelly knew nothing of that time in Jessica’s life, nor her unconventional relationship with Dr. Luke Jones. In spite of the tragedy in Jessica’s life, she never lost her sense of humor. Once she found out Kelly and Gabe were “cheating on her” by training part-time with Luke, Jessica decided to see just how uncomfortable she could make her dear friend.

Kelly:
Biking with Gabe tonight. Are we still running in the morning?

Jessica bubbled with orneriness as she read Kelly’s text.

Jessica:
Yes. Mind if I ride with you two tonight?

It took Kelly much longer to text back than usual.

Kelly:
Gabe invited a friend to go with us.

Jessica:
Great! The more the merrier! Meeting at your usual spot?

Kelly:
Ugh! This is so awkward. We totally want you to come too, but the “friend” is actually Luke
.

Jessica:
What?!!!

Kelly:
Sorry, hun. I know you two didn’t hit it off, but he’s still Gabe’s friend.

Jessica:
I see … Well I still need to bike so Dr. Stuffy Pants is just going to have to deal with me coming along too!

Kelly:
O-kay … BTW please don’t call him that when we’re all together. I really like Gabe and if our two best friends can’t get along then it’s not going to be easy on us.

Jessica giggled to herself.

Jessica:
I’ll be on my best behavior. I won’t even bite him this time ; )

Kelly:
OMG! Wasn’t that crazy! I can’t believe he said that. Like you would ever bite someone.

It
was
crazy, considering Jillian kept her blood drawing technique to fingernails only with anyone Kelly fixed her up with. Biting was crazy to most normal guys, and they wouldn’t hesitate to call her out on it to everyone who would listen, but breaking the skin was not something that made the gossip loop. Most guys simply refused to endure the pain and the lasting marks, so those one-night stands ended with irreconcilable differences.

The devil pulled at the corners of Jessica’s lips as she ended the conversation and got ready for an evening bike ride with “friends.” She was the last to arrive which was unfortunate. Jessica wanted to see the look on Luke’s face when he found out she’d be joining them. Instead, her obsessive primping at the last minute made her a little too late for the surprise.

“Hey, Jess. You remember Luke.” Gabe scrunched his nose like she was a grenade and someone just pulled the pin.

Jessica’s brain sighed as she let her eyes drink in the vision of Dr. Luke Jones in his biking attire that hugged every line of his fit, lean body. She was still in a miserable dry spell and needed sex more than food by that point.

“Jessica.” Luke nodded with a polite smile as he fastened his helmet.

“Jones.” She smiled with a wink of mischief.

“Call me Luke.” His brow tensed a fraction, but only enough for Jessica to notice.

She shoved her two bottles of water in their holders. “Nah … I’ll stick with Jones.”

“So … shall we?” Kelly faked a smile that didn’t hide her eagerness to get going and end the awkward reunion between Jessica and
Jones
.

Gabe followed Kelly and Luke gestured for Jessica to go.

“After you,
Jones
. I want to look at your fine ass. It’s the best part of your personality. Besides, you’d never keep up with me, so I’ll let you set the pace.”

“You’re contumacious.” Luke pushed off on his bike.

“Whatever the hell that means,” she mumbled just loud enough for Luke to hear.

“Stubbornly disobedient.”

Jessica scowled at just how well Luke was playing the part.

“Catch me if you can.” He looked back and smiled. It was playful, flirty, and the sexiest look Jessica had ever seen.

“Hey! Where are you two going?” Kelly called as Luke buzzed past her and Gabe with Jessica closing in on him.

“See ya at the finish!” Jessica yelled.

“It’s not a race!” Kelly’s voice faded in the distance.

Jessica drafted behind Luke for miles. Aside from Jude, no one had ever physically pushed her so hard. The pace was intense … insane. They passed so many other cyclists Jessica lost count, all she knew was it felt like the final stretch of a major race and she would not come in second.

“Ready to have your ass handed to you by a girl, Jones?” Jessica hollered as she moved left to pass him.

“Wait!” he yelled, but it morphed into nothing more than a fading echo.

Jessica didn’t wait for anyone, but she should have. It happened in less than a breath. His voice, her name, stabs of pain, blurred scenery, then black.

She woke to his voice and flashes of red light.

“Don’t try to move, Jessica.”

“L-Luke?”

“Yes. I’m here.”

The earth beneath her shook and then she realized it was the bounce of the gurney surrounded by strange faces.

“What’s wrong with my neck?” She tried to reach for her neck but a pain shot up her arm. “Ahh!”

“You fell off your bike. We’re taking you to the hospital. Your neck’s probably fine. It’s just a precaution,” one of the paramedics reassured her.

“Kelly—”

“They’ll meet us there.” Luke climbed into the back of the ambulance with Jessica.

“What happened?” her voice slurred.

“The pothole was big and you were contumacious.” Luke simpered and in spite of the pain, Jessica smiled.

“Contumacious?” the paramedic questioned.

“He’s an … o-overeducated idiot.” Jessica let her eyes close.

*

The emergency room
visit lasted two hours, then turned into an overnight stay for observation. Jessica dodged any major injuries, receiving only stitches in her arm and some sexy road rash along her legs and her other arm, but by some miracle nothing was broken—except her pride.

“I don’t have phone numbers for anyone in your family.” Kelly rubbed Jessica’s hand.

“My parents are out of the country for their anniversary and Jude is at a conference. No need to call anyone and worry them.”

“I’ll stay with you.”

Jessica shook her head with an appreciative smile. “No need. I’m a big girl. Besides, they’re sending me home tomorrow.”

“I do need a shower.” Kelly pinched the front of her shirt, pulling it to her nose. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Positive.”

“Call me if you need a ride when they release you tomorrow. I can take off work.”

“Thanks, Kelly.”

“Get some rest, showoff.”

Jessica rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t showing off … I just wasn’t going to let a guy show me up.”

“I still don’t understand why you two didn’t hit it off. You’re perfect for each other.”

“Good night, Kelly.”

Kelly grinned. “Night, Jess.”

Jessica leaned her head back against the pillow and closed her eyes. The medication they gave her began to numb the pain and slow her thoughts. The soft echo of Luke’s voice lulled her to sleep.
Yes, I’m here.

A dull ache clenched Jessica’s body when she woke early the next morning, the physical impact of her accident magnified without the influence of pain medication. The gentle light of the distant horizon welcoming the morning sun illuminated the room. As everything came into focus she noticed the sleeping body in the chair next to her hospital bed. Luke.

He was still wearing his biking attire. Jessica’s heart swelled in her chest. Luke stayed all night with her, without her asking, without her knowing.

“Shit!” she whispered, trying to sit up.

Luke’s eyes fluttered open and he startled a bit as she grimaced trying to reposition. “Let me.” He jumped to his feet and adjusted her pillow to support her back. “Good morning.” He smiled, his face inches from hers for a brief moment.

“You stayed.”

Luke sat back down. He nodded, scratching the back of his neck. Then he smoothed his hand over his ruffled hair. She had never seen Dr. Jones look in such disarray. She liked it … a lot.

“I stayed.”

“Don’t you have patients today?”

“Eve rescheduled my day.”

Unwanted emotions crowded in Jessica’s chest then constricted in her throat. “You rescheduled your day?”

“Yes.”

“For me?” she whispered, rubbing her dry lips together.

“For you.”

“Why?”

He sighed. “I feel responsible.”

She shook her head. “Oh God! I’ve mastered the ability to push your pity buttons. That’s just great. Please, go to work. My body has taken bigger hits than yesterday’s incident. You didn’t put the pothole in the road. It’s not your fault.” She made a shooing gesture toward the door. “Go, I hereby absolve you of all responsibility.”

“All?” Luke raised his brows.

“No, not all. I’ll see you tomorrow. I gave you three months of my soul and then you tried to dump me. So for
that
you are not absolved.”

“First, it is ‘tomorrow,’ second, I have yet to see your
soul
, and third, I didn’t dump you.”

The soul comment stung a bit. She couldn’t blame him. It was possible she no longer had a soul to be seen. “I must look like a sewer rat.”

“What?”

Jessica blew a stray hair from her face. “Me. I need a shower…” she whipped the sheet off her legs, exposing the mottling of road rash “…and then there’s the ugly that won’t disappear any time soon. But you’ve never looked better. You probably need a shower, but I swear to God I can still smell that soap or cologne of yours, and your hair has escaped the confines of its normal gel coating and it’s giving me inappropriate thoughts. I go from visually tolerable to offensive and you go from
GQ
to
Sports Illustrated
.”

“Jessica, you look fine.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you mean white boy fine, not like when a brother says his woman looks
real fine
.”

“I
am
white and you’re not my
woman
.”

Her gaze slipped. Luke was perceptive and always stated the obvious as if she was somehow always missing it. “Thanks for staying, but you can go now.”

“I’ll get your doctor to release you, then I’ll take you home.”

When he left the room, Jessica closed her eyes. “You’re killing me, Jones.” There was never a magic wand around when she needed one. With a few waves and some magical words she would be normal and irresistible in his eyes. Her whole I-make-men-bleed-because-I-watched-someone-murder-my-best-friend thing was really getting in the way of the whole I-need-Jones-in-my-bed-NOW thing.

“Jessica, how are you feeling this morning?” Her doctor and his nurse filed in the room with Luke behind them.

“I feel and look like roadkill.”

“Nothing that won’t heal over time,” her doctor reassured her with a kind smile.

“I don’t know, my ego took quite a hit.”

Luke glanced up from his phone, biting back a grin.

Cheeky bastard.

The doctor checked her over then released her. Luke waited outside while she dressed.

“Ready?” he asked as the nurse wheeled Jessica down the hall against her will.

She nodded. “Did you call a cab?”

“No. Gabe and Kelly brought my car last night. Then they took yours home. Nice friends we have.” He relieved the nurse of her chauffeur duties and pushed her to the elevator.

“The best.” Jessica nodded.

In the elevator she glanced up at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re studying me.”

Luke chuckled as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “Probably because I am.”

“Have you figured me out yet?”

“Not completely.”

“And when you do?”

“Then I’ll have to start doing my own cleaning again.”

Jessica held her breath to keep from gasping. His words were a means to an end. She’d come to rely on her time with him, not his professional knowledge …
him
.