Promise Me (Book One of the Kirkland Family)

Promise Me: Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Justin watched the red-headed confusion leave him alone with his daughter.  Damn that woman.  Out of all the people in this town for Josie to become friends with...why did it have to be her?  That sweet terrified look in her eye when she first glanced at Josie lying here made him want to take her in his arms again, and he didn’t like feeling that way.  He wanted to hate Hannah Baker.  He really, really did want to, but she was making it too freaking difficult to summon any animosity toward her.  She’d actually looked to him for permission when Josie asked her to stay.  What was he supposed to do?  Deny his little girl’s request?  When he could have lost her tonight?

He wasn’t stupid.  He knew the dangers of an inflamed appendix.  Something so common, so easily fixed, and yet so deadly.  And that had happened to his baby angel.  What would have happened if he hadn’t arrived back here in time?  Would Hannah had let Josie’s cries of pain go as just a normal stomach ache?  Would he have come home to find his daughter in a worse state than now?

These were the things Justin thought about, now that the surgery was over and Josie would be well again in a few days.  They gave him reasons -- distorted reasons -- to build up a hateful wall between him and Hannah Baker.  He needed that wall.  He needed to separate his growing admiration for the woman.

Otherwise, he just might do something retarded...like fall in love with her.

Justin snorted.  How did Hannah put it, when he called her that night?  “Not bloody likely”?  Yeah, not bloody, freaking likely.

He barely knew the woman.  Barely spoke for more than a few minutes with her.  Had been in her presence a total of five or six times in the last thirteen years.  If it hadn't been for his family -- all of them, dammit -- he wouldn't know she even existed.  Their paths would have kept right on veering off from each other, and he would have been none the wiser for her fiery beauty, sweet charm, and hot temper.

When his mom showed up to see Josie, without his dad, he remembered that the doctors would only allow two people in the ward at a time, and Hannah had been the first to give up her spot for his parents.  And that earned her another top mark, in Justin's thinking.  If Beth had been here -- most likely by him dragging her here -- she wouldn't have budged from the room for anyone.  Not because she had an overpowering love for her daughter, but because she was spiteful that way.  Beth would have rooted next to Josie's bed just because she could, not once thinking of others.

Hannah stayed only long enough to reassure Josie and provide the tenderness and care his baby girl needed from her, and then she allowed others their turns.  And Justin could see in her face how frightening and difficult it had been for Hannah to stay that long, and even agree to hang out for longer, and yet, she only hesitated to let him make that decision.  

Damn her...she's gonna make me like her, despite it all!

After about ten minutes of his mother fussing over a sleeping Josie, she departed, too, and his dad entered.  They chatted quietly for a minute or two, and then were both evicted by hospital staff.  Josie's room for the next two nights was ready and the doctor said she was stable enough to be wheeled in that direction.  Justin didn't see Hannah again until he found Josie's room on the second floor.  She was talking on the phone in the corridor, and he caught the tail end of the conversation.

"Okay...just do the best you can...I'll let you know...Thanks, Mark, you're my hero."

Who the hell is Mark?

Hannah tucked her phone in her back pocket and turned a smile on his parents.  "I can't remember if I thanked you for driving me here, but I really appreciate it."

"Oh, Hannah, dear," his mother crooned.  "Think nothing of it.  That's what friends are for."

Hannah gave them both a hug, and his dad a kiss on the cheek.  "You two are real angels, you know that?"

"I think I might have heard that once before," his mother said while his dad blushed from his kiss.  "Was that Mark on the phone?"

"Yes...he's minding things for me tomorrow."

"He's such a good man," Mary Alice exclaimed.

"Yes, he his," Hannah agreed with affectionate pride in her voice, which made Justin angry again for some reason.  "Mark is my Knight in Shining Armor."

"Well, you tell him we said hi," his mom said and turned to Justin.  "We're going to head home, but you call us if anything happens, and we'll see you in the morning."

Justin unhinged his jaw to make the appropriate reply, but his attention was still on Hannah and her hero Mark.  It bothered him that she obviously had a caring man in her life.  He couldn't figure out why it bothered him, but the annoyance plagued him nonetheless.  Hannah had moved over to Josie's side during his goodbyes to his mom and dad, and she was smoothing the hair from his baby's forehead and touching her cheeks for temperature.

I’ll bet she caresses Mark in that same loving way.  And suddenly, he didn't want her touching Josie any more.  The door to the private room closed behind his parents, and Justin was beside Hannah in a heartbeat, snatching her hand away from his little girl.

Startled, she said, "What--"

"Who's Mark?" he growled, her wrist held in his tightening fingers.  She squirmed to get loose, but he only closed in on her more.

Confused, she asked, "What?"

And he said, "I don't want you touching my daughter like you touch your lover."

Hannah blinked for a moment, and then outraged, she colored to a shade of purple and hissed, "What?"  Yanking out of his grasp, she rose up on tiptoes, nearly touching her nose to his, and she said, "Are you really this stupid?"

"Who's Mark?" he tried again.

She said, "None of your damn business, that's who!"

"Hannah?"  Josie called faintly from the bed.  Both of them whipped around to look at her, Hannah's heels hitting the floor again.  Josie’s eyes remained closed, but she weakly raised her arm toward them.

"Yes, sweetie, I'm here," Hannah said, moving over to Josie’s side again and taking the smaller hand securely between her palms.  “What is it?”

"Don't...fight..."  And she went back to sleep.

Justin watched as Hannah squeezed her eyelids shut like a vise against the outside world, and then she nodded and mumbled, “Yes, Josie...no fighting...I promise.”

And how did she propose to do that? Justin wondered when he was still in the fighting mood.  Hannah leaned over and planted a gentle kiss on Josie’s forehead before releasing her hand.  Then she inhaled a breath...exhaled, and filled her lungs twice more.  Pivoting around on her sneakered feet, she didn’t even look at him as she walked around to the other side of the room and commandeered one of the chairs by the window.  Justin raised an eyebrow.  Oh, really?  So, he was to get the silent treatment?  Did she really think that would work?

The woman pulled her feet up into the seat and curled her arms around her bent legs, resting her head on her knees as tendrils of hair tickled the sides of her face.

“Are you going to tell me who Mark is or not?” he demanded.

She ignored him.

“If you’ve been flaunting your sordid relationships in front of my daughter...”

Her back heaved as though she breathed in a deep lungful of air again, but she still ignored him.

“Josie saw enough of that with her mother,” Justin snarled in a low voice so as to not wake Josie again.  “I won’t have her subjected to it again...do you hear me?”

Nothing.

“Well?”

Her arms tightened around her legs, but no comment came out of her mouth.

Justin muttered an angry curse under his breath and stalked closer to her.  Dammit, she damn well was so damn stubborn!  He almost admired her determination to keep her promise.

Ah, hell.  Not almost.  He did.  Justin felt like continuing this one-sided argument just to see if she’d actually break that promise.  Proof that she was like every other beautiful woman he’d ever known.  

Then he thought about that kiss he wanted from her.  A kiss to verify how very un-special she really was.  But he couldn’t kiss her here with Josie snoozing only feet away from them.

Or could he?

It was a private room.  It was late.  The nurses said they wouldn’t be back to check on Josie until right before a shift change, whenever that was, but it gave him time.  All he’d need was two seconds.  In two heartbeats, he’d know.  He’d get it figured out.

And he smiled evilly, practically relishing the slap across the face she’d give him.  Then maybe she’d finally leave him alone.

Justin stopped in front of her.  His boots knocked into the chair legs, and he saw her stiffen, but she didn’t move otherwise.

One kiss.  Two seconds.

Then he’d be free of her.

With that in mind, Justin’s hands wrapped under her arms and jerked her to her feet...roughly.  He waited for the scream.  The slap.  The knee to the groin.  But she only widened her eyes and gazed cautiously at him, her mouth clenched tightly in a thin line.

He kissed her, full on the mouth, no hesitation.

She froze...and then she melted.

And three seconds later, his slipped his tongue between her softening lips, and thought, Ah, hell...it’s proof alright...of the best damn kiss ever.

*****