The Rules Regarding Gray (15 page)

“Wait, what?” His voice had gone from vulnerable to frantic in half a second flat.

Anna sighed in exasperation. “We’re at Seton. She’s in surgery. Your best friend is a dick.” And then she hung up on him.

“Motherfucker!” He slammed his fist down on the bar, and then he left out the back door as Seth watched after him curiously.

He tried to call Ian but ended up leaving him a rather verbally abusive message that ended in him hanging up on the man’s voice mail. When he pulled into the hospital, he sat in his car for a moment, trying to get himself to calm down.

He found the surgical waiting room easily enough, but as he entered, his feet slowed from their fast gait to a rather pathetic shuffle. Anna was there, and the moment she spotted him, her eyes narrowed. That girl did not like him. She stood, her arms crossed on her chest, and she sauntered toward him.

“Did you misunderstand me when I said find her
boyfriend
and think I said douche bag three-way lover instead?” she remarked in annoyance as she approached him.

“No,” he commented through gritted teeth. “What I heard was that she was in the hospital, and since I can’t reach her boyfriend either, I decided to come myself. Now do you have something else to say to me, or do you think you could actually focus on Gray for a moment rather than how much you hate me?”

She glared for a moment, but then she sighed, and she returned to her seat. He followed and took the seat next to her.

“She ruptured her Achilles tendon when we were doing our workout yesterday. One of the sports surgeons the company uses was able to get her in this morning. They’re resecting the tendon right now.”

“So she’ll be okay?”

Anna turned toward him and sneered. “No, she’s not going to be okay. Her fucking career is over.” She shook her head then and stared at her lap. “No one’s going to tell her that, but…” She just kept shaking her head. “Why are you here, Jasper?”

That one question hit like a fist to the gut. What she was ultimately saying was he had no business being there, and yet, there was no other place in the world he wanted or needed to be. There was a huge fucking disconnect between what his life was and what he wanted it to be.

“I get that you don’t like me because of the circumstances surrounding my relationship with Gray—”

“Relationship,” she scoffed loudly, rolling her eyes.

Jasper gritted his teeth for a moment, inhaling through his nose. “I’m not the only person involved here.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not a fan of either you or Ian at the moment.”

“What exactly is it you think I’ve done to hurt her?” He hissed out quietly, trying to avoid sharing their conversation with the few other random people in the room.

She finally turned to him, facing him full on. “This has nothing to do with whether you have hurt her already. The fact of the matter is you will hurt her. She isn’t like you—even if she’s trying to keep up with your game,” she said venomously. “But, hey, if it makes you feel any better, when she gets hurt by this, I’ll be cutting Ian’s balls off at the same time as yours.”

He scoffed in annoyance and looked away. Communicating with the woman was impossible, and he wasn’t going to waste his time trying. They sat there for nearly an hour, ignoring one another, both of them side by side with their arms crossed on their chests. When a nearby door was suddenly pushed open, Anna stood.

“Dr. Thomson.” Anna rushed to the man.

Jas followed standing beside her. The doctor eyed him curiously for a second, appraising his longer hair and his worn jeans.

“And you are?” The doctor finally managed to say something.

“This is Gray’s douche bag three—”

“I’m Jasper. I’m a friend of Gray’s,” he muttered.

Dr. Thomson nodded. “I see.” And then he turned his attention to Anna, ignoring Jasper completely. “No surprises. Surgery went as expected. We’ll keep her leg splinted and wrapped for a while before moving her over to a boot once she can start putting a little weight on it. She’s in recovery, and you’ll be able to go back and see her soon. Once she’s fully awake, you’ll be able to take her home.”

Anna thanked him, and then Jasper was alone with the woman who hated him once more. When they sat again, he glanced over at her, and she looked back at him suspiciously.

“Look, I know you may not believe it, but I do respect her. I care—”

“You care?” she asked with that same damn sneer on her face.

“Yes. I do. When you called, I panicked. The idea of sitting in the bar not having any idea what was happening… I couldn’t do it. So I came.”

Anna looked down at her lap, and she sighed. She left him alone then, and half an hour later, the door opened again. A nurse called Anna’s name, and he stood with her, but as they approached the door, the nurse looked at him curiously.

“I’m sorry, sir. I only have one name listed as—”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” he muttered.

Anna turned toward the door, but then she stopped and turned back around. “Don’t leave yet. I’ll tell her you’re here and see if you can come back.” She didn’t smile, but she paused for a moment, watching him. And then she was gone, and he was alone.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. It was Ian.

“Where the hell have you been?” he seethed when he answered.

“Tied up. I’ve been at the office dealing with some SOX compliance disaster. What the hell is going on? I’ve missed like twenty calls from Gray, and you more or less told me I’m the shittiest person on the planet via voice message without ever telling me what the hell I’d done wrong.”

“Gray ruptured her Achilles tendon. She just got out of surgery.”

“Oh… Well, she’s going to be fine then, right?”

“Wha— No, she’s not going to be fine. She’s… You know what? Forget it. I’m not going to try to explain this all to you. Call her later today. It’s outpatient surgery, so she’ll be home within a couple hours.”

“I have meetings this afternoon. I’ll get in touch with her later on today. Tell her I’m thinking about—”

“Tell her yourself, asshole.” He hung up on Ian and started pacing around the surgical waiting room. He stayed there pacing for nearly an hour, and when he’d all but given up hope of being admitted to see her, the nurse finally returned.

“You’re Jasper?”

“Yeah.”

“You can come on back.”

He followed the woman through a series of hallways, until she was pushing through a set of double doors, and as he followed her in, his pulse accelerated. He’d thought Gray was one of the smallest grown adults he’d ever seen the first time he met her, but as he approached her bed, she looked so small and frail he thought she could likely break if someone flicked her with their finger.

The two times they’d been intimate, his arousal had devoured the sight of her small frame against his much larger one. He’d loved their physical dynamic and the power it made him feel. At the moment, he felt helpless—stripped of every last ounce of that power. And he felt like he was staring at the most breakable thing in all the world.

The head of the bed was raised, and she was dressed in shorts and a tank top. Given the nurse who was collecting a hospital gown from the foot of the bed, she’d just changed. Anna was standing on the far side of the bed, and as she looked up, she studied him. Gray looked at him, and she stared with an unreadable expression.

“They’re getting ready to discharge her, so I’m going to go pull the car around.”

Gray glanced at Anna and nodded, and then her attention returned to him.

“Hi,” she said softly.

“Hi. How are you feeling?”

Her lips pulled up slightly, but it wasn’t enough to perk up her face. She looked wiped out and exhausted. “Okay. Sore. Queasy. But I’m all right.”

He nodded as he approached the bed. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I tried to reach Ian all day.”

He could feel his face falling, and he glanced away to hide it. But she must have caught his reaction, because the next thing he heard was her taking a deep breath, and then he felt her fingers touching his, pulling his attention back to her.

“I wanted to call you.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

She said nothing for a moment. Her lips pulled up in an odd half smile, but it fell. “
Because
I wanted to.”

A tremor ran through his body. It coursed with need that far surpassed the sexual desire he felt for her. He didn’t know anything about what he was feeling—nothing at all. It was at once painful and intoxicating, addicting and liberating. He felt so human and weak with her, and yet, he was more comfortable in his vulnerability than he ever imagined he could be. Why did she make him feel so many things?

“Can I ask you a favor?” Her voice sounded so tired.

His gaze was wandering down her right leg to her wrapped up foot and calf. It looked like her leg ended in a large Q-tip.

“Of course,” he said quietly.

She took a deep breath. She was nervous about whatever it was she needed to ask.

“Anna has to get to the center this afternoon for a rehearsal. They’re already scrambling to…” She looked away as she shook her head, and when her eyes returned to his, they were filled with tears. “To replace me and get the understudy up to speed on our season opener. Umm…” She sniffed back her tears. “Would you be available to babysit me?”

He smiled gently, letting his fingers wind through hers and running his thumb down her palm. “I would love to.”

She finally smiled at him.

* * * *

Jasper thoroughly enjoyed Gray on drugs. The surgeon had recommended she take two Vicodin rather than one that afternoon, and about thirty minutes after she downed the pills, she was giggling as she lazily watched the television in her bedroom. He’d gotten some toast in her, but her stomach had been too upset for anything else, and now she was lying on her left side with her right leg propped up on some pillows—an ice pack wrapped around her ankle.

He watched her from the kitchen as he finished closing up the bread bag and wiping the crumbs from the counter, and then he joined her. He sprawled out next to her in her sea of white sheets and white down, and he propped his head up to see what she was watching.

“I didn’t take you to be a Jerry Springer sort of gal,” he commented with a smirk.

She smiled at him, but her eyes looked so heavy, and they blinked in slow motion. “Well, this guy here … he’s sleeping with that gal there, you see…” her words were lazy and damn near slurred. “But that gal doesn’t like him because she’s in love with her stepfather. It’s a terrible situation. But they’re gonna do a paternity test to make sure her stepfather isn’t her mother’s… Err… That’s not right…” she muttered in confusion.

He chuckled as he watched her eyes try to focus, and then she let them close, taking a deep breath.

“Why aren’t your parents here?”

She glanced at him. “They’re doing this … Tuscan thing and drinking a lot. I think they’re on a bus even. But I don’t know. Do they have busses there?”

He shook his head. He had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. “Busses where?”

“You know. That other place. Spaghetti.” Her voice was getting heavier and her words slower. Her eyes were drooping.

“Are you hungry?” he asked in confusion.

“Not food. The place.”

He gave up perpetuating the conversation. “I reached Ian.”

Her eyes opened wider for a moment.

“He said he’s been tied up with some compliance something or other at work, but he’s going to call you later this afternoon when he has a chance.”

She snuggled deeper into the sheets and a bit closer to him, and then she sighed. Her eyes closed. “I don’t care.” She hummed as she started settling into sleep. But she wasn’t quite out yet, and she reached over, pushing her hand under his shirt and resting it on his stomach. Her fingers mindlessly kneaded his skin like a cat as she snuggled up to his body. “I like you more than him.” Her words were slow and slurred, and there was no chance she’d be remembering them. “So confusing…”

He froze. Her fingers went still as her mind disappeared, and he sank into the sheet too, rolling toward her and pulling her hand from his stomach. He lifted it to his mouth, kissing her palm. Her hands alone had the ability to drive him mad, and feeling her palm against his mouth made his insides tingle and his balls ache. But he didn’t do anything other than kiss that one small innocuous part of her body.

And then he leaned to her ear. “I like you more than him too,” he whispered. “And it
is
exceptionally confusing.”

He spent the next few hours channel surfing and watching her sleep. She would murmur on occasion, and more than once, she’d hummed seductively. What he wouldn’t give to be in her head right now.

When her door opened at just after four, he froze. He had no idea who it might be, and here he was in bed with her while she was virtually unconscious and drugged. When he saw Ian walk in with a large pizza box and a six-pack of beer, he sighed. It was relief. It was also disappointment.

“Hey,” Ian hollered at him as he moved to the large dining table by her kitchen. He set the box there, and then put the beer in the fridge.