He did his best to complete the neurological check in good humor, given that his nurse had looked the other way for his impromptu slumber party. He answered all the basic questions, sat perfectly still while she checked his pupils with her penlight and tried not to sigh while she checked his extremities for any signs of weakness, even though it felt like it was eating up half the time Madison had left before she needed to head back to Lovestruck.
Once he’d passed with flying colors, Madison returned and sat on the foot of his bed with her willowy legs tucked up under her and her hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee. She’d brought a cup back for him, as well, and while it didn’t hold a candle to the Bean’s maple blend, it wasn’t altogether terrible.
“So did Brett stay all night? Is he taking you back to Lovestruck?” He tried to sound as casual as someone recovering from a head injury who was also hiding an appalling secret possibly could.
“Oh.” She shook her head. “No, actually...”
“Knock knock!” A woman carrying a folded knit blanket poked her head in the door. “I hope I’m not interrupting?”
“Aunt Alice!” Madison hopped off the bed and waved the woman inside. “I was just telling Jack that you were on your way to come get me. You got here so fast.”
Too fast—certainly too fast for Jack to unburden his fired-up soul. He felt guiltier than ever when he learned that the blanket in Alice’s hands was for him, and she’d knitted it herself. Obviously, he couldn’t ask her to go back outside so he could have a heart-to-heart with her niece.
Even if Alice hadn’t managed to hit every green light and empty expressway on her way to Burlington, he wouldn’t have been able to spend any more quality time with Madison. Less than two minutes after Alice’s arrival, a hospital technician pushed an empty wheelchair into his room and announced he was there to escort Jack to the radiology department for his follow-up CT scan.
But hey, at least once he passed this last test, he’d be discharged and he could go home. So he gamely got into the wheelchair and even let Alice fuss over him and tuck the hand-knitted blanket around his legs as if he were a nursing home resident.
“Do you have a ride back to Lovestruck once you’re discharged? I’d be happy to come back and get you after I drop Madison off for work,” Alice said as the tech began wheeling him toward the hallway.
Everything seemed to be happening at breakneck speed, and as much as Jack wanted to go home so he could hold his daughters tight and give his mom a good long look at him so she could put any lingering worries at ease, he found himself feeling wistful. He looked at Madison walking alongside him—really looked at her—and at that moment he would have given anything to rewind the clock and spend last night in a hospital bed all over again if it meant he’d fall asleep with Madison’s head on his shoulder once more.
“One of the guys at the station is coming to get me. Wade. Thank you again for the blanket.” He reached for Madison’s hand and held it loosely in his as they neared the doorway. “Assuming I do, in fact, get out of here, can I see you tonight?”
“Why? Do you need a night nanny?” She gave his hand a playful squeeze.
He wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t. He didn’t need a night nanny. It had taken finding Madison, stupidly pushing her away and being forced out of a tree by an angry feline for him to realize they both needed the same thing. They needed connection. They needed to love and be loved in return. What they needed most of all was each other.
He lifted her hand to his lips and covered it with a tender kiss. “No, I need you.”
If only there wasn’t one last thing standing in their way...
Chapter Fourteen
“No way.” Wade shook his head, but kept his gaze glued on the steady stream of traffic snaking its way up the interstate toward Lovestruck. “Absolutely not.”
Jack’s CT scan had shown no progression of the bleed in his brain, so he’d been discharged with head injury protocol, which meant no drinking, no driving and no strenuous activity or heavy lifting. He didn’t dare ask if toting six-month-old twins around counted as an overly taxing activity, because he couldn’t wait to wrap his arms around his little girls and breathe in their delicate baby powder scent.
Nor did he ask if he should be going on a date in just a handful of hours, because he had a feeling that answer would also be a firm no. He and Madison would technically be staying in, anyway. Plus, he wasn’t entirely sure she’d want anything to do with him at all once he finally told her the truth.
“What did you just say?” Jack said, turning to glance at Wade sitting in the driver’s seat of the Lovestruck Fire Department’s small SUV. His lingering concussion must have been messing with his hearing, because it sounded like Wade had just told him not to out himself as Fired Up to Madison.
“I said no. Don’t do it, man. Keep that information to yourself.” Wade sent a knowing look Jack’s way to hammer his point home.
Jack leaned his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re the one who’s been encouraging me to pursue a relationship with Madison since the day we responded to her hair-straightener fire.”
“Correct.”
“And now that I’m finally ready, you’re telling me to lie to her.” He shook his head. “Nope. Not going to happen.”
Wade held up a hand. “I’m not telling you to lie to her. There’s just no reason to bring it up at this late date.
