I shouldn't love you

CHAPTER NINE

Jenna

We make it to the hospital in record time and fortunately, we came at just the right time for visiting hours. In our rush to get to the hospital, we forgot to confirm visiting hours. 

We are directed to his room and what I see breaks me. There really is a God, I mean I knew that there is a God but right now I am seeing his work. Looking at the bandages around Asher's body and the number of cuts and scrapes he should be in ICU right now but he looks fine and is even laughing at something that is playing on the TV. 

"Oh my gosh, I'm so happy that you're alright." Stephanie rushes to him and hugs him and maybe too tightly. 

"Ouch, careful of the ribs there tiger." 

She lets go of him and stands to the side, while I stay rooted at the spot I've been in since I entered this room. 

I have tears sliding down my face and my mind is just going through scenarios where Asher is taken from this world. I realize that life is too short, and I need to come clean to my sister about my feelings for Asher. 

My thoughts are jarred by Asher's voice saying, "Hey, don't cry, come here. I'm fine." 

I go to his open arms and I'm careful not to hurt him because causing him pain is the last thing I want to do. Oh we all know that you just want to love him, the devil on my shoulder says and I will it to quiet down. 

I see tiny scrapes on his neck and I think about him dying which brings another bout of tears. I feel hands rubbing my back in circular motions and surprisingly that calms me a bit. He pushes me back some and wipes tears from my eyes. 

I look around the room to see that my sister is nowhere to be seen and he reads the question in my eyes and tells me, "I asked her to go and get you something to drink, maybe water that will calm you down." 

I nod my head and whisper, "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, I'm a big boy, and ain't no accident will get me down." I give a half-hearted laugh at his attempt at a country accent and he smiles back at me. 

He grabs both my hands while I'm still standing over him and says, "Please don't cry over me, I'm going to be fine, there's nothing a little bit of physical therapy won't fix."

"I know, but just the thought that you could've died, I don't know but it just gets to me," I say then look down because I've revealed too much to him and he might even notice that I sort of have feelings for him. 

"Baby, I'm fine, so please stop crying okay." Woah, did he just call me baby? 

I get a funny feeling in my stomach from hearing that name coming from his lips and directed at me. He rubs his thumbs over my hands and I get a heady feeling, so I need to sit down, which I do.

"How are you?" he asks me and that elicits a laugh out of me, that this guy is in a damn hospital bed and yet he's worried about me and how I am, yep he's a keeper for sure. 

We make idle chit-chat while we wait for my sister to come back. Once she comes back, Asher tells us how the accident happened and in outrage, I say,

"Yeah, you buddy are never getting on a motorbike again." I realize too late what I've said and try to cover it up with, "I mean, it nearly killed you, I'm sure you won't want to have anything to do with it huh?" but the looks in their eyes say they don't believe me. Oops.