“Rocko?” I question in confusion. My dickhead neighbor doesn’t give two shits about anybody but himself and now all of a sudden, he’s calling someone to come and help me out? It doesn’t make any sense.
“Yeah,” Jackson says, slipping a hand under my back and helping me to sit up a bit better. I groan and cringe but all that manages to do is make me even more aware of just where I’m hurting. “Come on,” he says, reconsidering as he looks me over. “I should take you to the hospital to get looked at.”
“No,” I grunt out. “I’ll be fine. I just need help up and an ice pack. You don’t have to hang around.”
Jackson looks at me blankly. “I’m not about to leave you alone with nothing but a fucking ice pack,” he demands. “Is there someone that you can stay with tonight? You probably shouldn’t stay in the house alone.”
I don’t like it, but he’s right. It also doesn’t go unnoticed that neither of them not offering to stay. “Yeah, can you call Tully? She’ll stay with me.”
“Tully?” Kaylah grunts. “Tully Cage?”
“What other Tullys do you know?” I throw back at her, hating her questioning tone. I mean, Tully certainly isn’t the kind of girl I would have hung out with in the past, but the little booger has certainly grown on me.
Kaylah scowls and Jackson steps in. “Go get her an icepack,” he tells her. “Find some bandages too.”
With that, Kaylah disappears into my home as Jackson runs a hand down his face and takes a seat beside me. “Are you going to tell me what the fuck just happened to you?”
I rear back from him, flinching at his tone. “Don’t take that tone with me,” I scold him. “You’re the one who fucked things up for me, not the other way around. You don’t have the right to question me anymore.”
He cringes and hangs his head. “Fuck, you’ve got to know how sorry I am about that,” he murmurs. “I guess I really did screw you over, didn’t I?”
“You think?” I scoff, cringing at the way my ribs scream at me. “You took advantage of me that night. You and Kaylah were my family. One day you were there, the next… nothing.”
“You know I’m sorry,” he repeats.
“How could I know that when neither of you has spoken to me since?”
“Shit,” he curses, running his eyes over the cuts on my face but lingering on the one courtesy of Noah, clearly realizing this had happened before as it’s already been stitched, but luckily, he moves right along. “I was hoping Kaylah would reach out before now. She misses you. I needed her to mend that bridge before I could dive in and start groveling. She wouldn’t have forgiven me if I’d forced it on her.”
“Jackson,” I sigh, hearing Kaylah rummaging around in the kitchen, “I don’t want to hear your bullshit excuses. Straight up, you knew how I felt and you took advantage of that. You never should have touched me and I never should have thrown myself at you the way I did. It was stupid.”
“Babe,” he sighs, giving me that smile that I used to think I was in love with as he reaches out and squeezes my shoulder, temporarily forgetting how sore my body is. “You and I never would have worked. You had a crush that would have faded and I look at you too much like a sister.”
I let out a sigh, hating how those words still have the ability to sting. “I know that now,” I admit. “I’m just sorry it took me so long to figure out.”
“Well, I’m sorry I used to be such a manwhore. Those days are gone now.”
“Yeah, I heard you locked yourself down in a serious relationship,” I chuckle, holding onto my stomach, hoping it can help soothe the pain. I mean, where the fuck is Kaylah with that ice pack? “Things really have changed, haven’t they?”
“I heard you’re getting a little too friendly with Noah Cage.”
“Are you keeping tabs on me, Jackson?”
He booms out with laughter. “Of course, I am, kid,” he tells me. “Just be careful with him, alright. He’s… into some things.”
My eyes narrow on him, knowing he must hold the answers to the big ‘disappearing’ secret. I’m two seconds from launching into my interrogation when a cautious voice murmurs behind him, completely throwing me off track. “What are you talking about?”
Jackson turns to take in his sister, staring at me with nothing but hurt. “Shit,” Jackson grunts, looking down at his bare wrist, “is that the time? I got to go.”
“Jackson,” Kaylah seethes. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Bullshit,” he laughs, pushing up off the couch. “I don’t want to be here for this showdown.” He walks forward and presses a kiss to my cheek before looking back up at his sister. “Clean her up. I’ll wait outside if you need me,” he walks to the door before looking back at me. “Just remember, the trick with Kaylah is to go for the guilt trip. She’s a sucker for that shit.”