20 Questions

Chapter 46

"Jenna, baby, I have missed you so much. Let's drive to the courthouse right now and get married. I can't spend another minute without you," Hunter whispers as he traces my lips with his finger.

His eyes are glowing and he wears the precious sleepy smile that I love so much. He wraps his strong arm around my waist and pulls me close to his warm body. My nose takes in the spicy scent of his cologne and all my senses are heightened. He slants his mouth to mine and his warm tongue caresses my own, his taste so pure and delicious. I've missed waking up next to him. I run my fingers through his soft hair as he massages my breasts, rubbing his thumb over my sensitive nipple.

With one swift movement, he is hovering over me and I open my legs for him. It's been too long and I want him. I want him so badly it hurts and the craving rages in intensity. He fills me. Oh, does he fill me. My back arches with each thrust and he glides in and out of me with ease. I'm so wet for him, I always am because that's the effect he has on me.

"I love you, Jen," he whispers in my ear and a shiver cascades through my core. "I need to be closer to you, I'm gonna push harder. Ok, baby?"

I nod and take him all in, but I can't get enough. His lowers himself and sucks gently on my neck. I'm not going to last much longer and from his sloppy movements, I can tell he is just as close as I am. He reaches down and grabs my breast and everything goes black. I squeeze my eyes tightly together as the fireworks explode inside of me. Hunter screams my name and empties into me. We are connected body and soul, physically and emotionally. I love him so much it scares me.

"Courthouse it is. I just need to go tell my dad. I will be right back," I respond, still panting from making love to my one and only. I get myself dressed and open the door. I walk into the room and my dad is lying in the hospital bed, sedated and still on the ventilator.

I lean down and whisper to him, "Daddy, Hunter and I are going to the courthouse to get married. I will be right back and then hopefully we can get this tube out of your mouth."

I kiss his forehead and turn to leave when I hear an alarm screaming. In a panic, I look at the ventilator and then to the heart monitor. There are no abnormalities, no irregular heart rhythms. My dad looks the same, still sleeping peacefully. I search his breathing tube for a leak but can't find one.

There must be one. The ventilator is screaming. His tidal volumes are fine, his respiratory rate is normal, his oxygen saturation is ninety-eight percent. Why is it alarming?

I run to the nurses' station and tell them that something is wrong with my dad. Do they not hear the alarms going off? Why is nobody doing anything? The red-haired nurse I am screaming at rolls her eyes and returns to her charting. I wave a hand in front of her expressionless face, but her eyes don't divert from her screen and she transforms into something almost robotic. There's a male nurse with his back to me, refusing to acknowledge my panic as I scream frantically at him. I run behind the nurses' station, nobody stopping me and grab his shoulder to turn him around.

"Jansen?" I ask to the familiar face staring back at me.

"Hey Jenna. What are you doing here?" he asks. His eyes are bloodshot and his words are slurred. He's high and he's in scrubs.

"Why are you in scrubs? Are you high right now?" I yell, angry and confused and terrified.

"I'm a nurse now," he says and turns to grab a syringe and a tourniquet, wrapping the blue elastic around his upper arm.

"You're not a nurse, I'm a nurse. You're...you're...Jansen, you're dead. You died. I spoke at your funeral." The tears pour down my face as he tilts his head at me.