Racing Heart, page 15
“I’m not sure how I’m going to help him. All I do know is that it’s going to kill him, staying in that bed while he heals.”
“Just be there for him beaut, it’s all you can do.” Her lips turn up at the corners, in a soft, sympathetic smile. “If anything, he’s lucky he’s got you.”
“Thanks.” Smiling back at my friend, I feel my eyelids beginning to slowly droop. Soon enough, they’re so heavy, I can’t keep them open anymore. Maria’s voice fades into the background, and soon, I’m fast asleep and away with the fairies.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Finn
Three Days Later
I stab my index finger on the call button for the nurse, for the second time in a row. No fucker is answering me, and I’m in so much pain, I’m ready to cut my own leg off. There’s no use in it being there, I can’t do fuck all with it. I’m stuck in this bed like a cripple. I’ve had enough.
“You know Finn, you can keep antagonizing the nurses, but it’s not going to help you in the long run, is it?” Jordan tells me.
“They should try lying here not able to even turn over at night. In fact, for the first couple of days, I couldn’t even take myself to the can, I had to piss into a bag.”
“Ugh,” Jordan sighs, rolling her eyes, “You make it sound so glamorous.”
“Fuck that. I just want out.”
“Well, until you can get around, you’re not going anywhere. Get used to it.”
I can feel the deep creases forming on my brow. I can’t take this shit.
“Plus, Superstar, you’re not the only patient; they do have others.”
Standing from the chair, she straightens her baggy jumper.
“I’m going to the toilet; I won’t be long.”
“Enjoy it.”
Looking back over her shoulder, she blows me a kiss, putting a smile on my face instead.
As the bathroom door locks, the one to the room opens, and a stern-looking nurse enters.
“Mr. Cooper, you called…”
“Finally. I need some painkillers. My leg is killing me.”
She takes my chart from the bottom of the bed, scanning over it, then looks at the watch clipped to her dress.
“You’re not due for any, yet I’m afraid, Finn.”
“Oh, come on…”
“You had codeine a little under two hours ago. I’ll need to speak with the doctor first.”
“Ugh.” I fling my head against my pillows behind me, jolting my leg which is in raised and in traction.
“Jeeesus, that hurt.”
“You never were a good patient, even as a child.”
I know that voice. I snap my head up and look to the open door. As the nurse leaves, a familiar face appears.
“Mom.”
My mood lifts instantly. I can’t believe she’s here.
“Well son, this is a bit extreme, if you wanted a break, you should have said…”
“Yeah, ha-ha. I look like I’m having the time of my life, don’t I?”
Mom rushes towards me, hugging me.
“Oh, son, look at you. I was so worried.”
“I can’t believe you’ve made the flight all the way out here.”
“Well, I had news that my baby was seriously injured, what kind of person would I be, if I didn’t.”
“Hey, I know you haven’t flown anywhere since dad died…” She stops at the side of the bed, and I take her hand. “I guess I just thought you wouldn’t be able to do it on your own. Have you seen Braydon yet?”
“Yes, he was in the lobby getting food, as usual.”
Greedy fucker. I think to myself.
I hear the lock of the bathroom door opening, totally forgetting that Jordan was in there with mom appearing like she did. Her step falters as she steps out of the small room, closing the door after her.
“Erm, hi.”
“Jord. Come here, babe.”
When she reaches my side, I introduce her to the other main woman in my life.
“This my mom, Karen. Mom…”
“Oh, my goodness, you must be Jordan?” My mom interrupts me. “I’m so happy to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Jordan answers in a small voice.
They shake hands, but it’s not long before mom is pulling her against her and hugging the shit out of her.
“You know mom, it’s best if you let her breathe.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
Chuckling to myself but shaking my head at my mother as she loosens her hold on my girlfriend, I lay back and admire the scene playing out before me.
Mom pulls over a chair and places it next to Jordan’s, and we talk for a little while. Seeing my two favorite women getting along, amps my spirits up no end. After a while, Mom turns to me.
“Son, I have to get going and get checked into the hotel. If I don’t make it back today, I’ll be here tomorrow. I’m not sure how the jet lag is going to affect me.”
“How are you getting there?” Jordan asks.
“A cab, sweetheart.”
“I’ll take you back.”
Mom looks to me then back to Jordan.
“Are you sure, sweetie?”
“Yeah, come on.” She comes to me first, giving me a kiss. “I shouldn’t be too long, babe, as long as I can get through the afternoon rush.” Jordan grabs her bag as mom hugs me, kissing my forehead and following Jordan from the room.
I hear Braydon’s voice on the other side of the door, and it’s not long before he’s charging in.
“Hey, dick. How are you feeling?”
“Shocked, seeing mom here.”
“Yeah, I thought it’d be a nice surprise.” My brother smiles happily, making me mirror him.
“What you got to eat?”
“Well, I was told in the supermarket or whatever you call it, that this is the best chocolate in England. Not sure if they’re right.” He throws over the candy in the brown wrapper.
“Galaxy?”
He nods. Jordan told me this was her favorite. I don’t waste much time; I open the top and pull back the gold wrapper biting a piece off.
“Hmm, not bad.”
“Oh, I got you this too. They’ve actually got Starbucks downstairs in the cafeteria.”
“Oh, music to my ears.”
Taking the white, to-go cup from his hand, I take the first sip. It’s like an orgasm in a cup when you’ve been drinking the shit the hospital has been pouring down my throat.
Braydon leaves to use the bathroom, and while I’m waiting for Jordan to get back, I hear a knock on the door. Frowning, I shout to come in. I’m confused as to who it could be. The door opens, and a tall dude enters. When I come face to face with the stranger, I’m shocked.
“Anderson? What are you doing here?”
“I came to see how you were. That was a bad crash.”
“What do you care?” I frown, looking away from him.
“Come on, Cooper… I’m not an ogre. I do have feelings and seeing you fall the way you did, shook me up. I thought you’d broken your back.”
“I guess someone was on my side that day.”
Come to think of it, maybe it was my dad; he was my guardian angel. It could have been so much worse.
“Yeah, I guess they were. Look, how about we call a truce?”
Is he serious? This all started because he was hitting on my girl. I look at the honesty that’s written all over his face and nod.
“I remember seeing someone standing away from me at the side waving his arm, it was you, wasn't it?”
“Yeah. I stayed with you until they arrived. I lifted the bike from your body.”
“I still don’t understand what happened.”
“We clipped wheels on the bend. I saw you go up in the air. I started losing control and I could feel myself going down. I slid across the track about twenty to thirty yards away from you. I heard the crash of the bike as it hit the ground; the next thing I knew, it was trapping you underneath it.
“Jesus. I remember seeing you right on my tail. I must have lost control myself.”
“I shouldn’t have been that close.” He moves towards the bed with his hand outstretched, waiting for me to shake it. “Well, what do you say? Shall we call a truce.”
Nodding, I pull myself up and hold out my hand.
“Thank you for everything you did.”
“You’re welcome.”
With our hands still joined, I decide to fuck with him a bit.
“You can still keep your eyes off my girl, though.”
“Woah, that girl is way too feisty for me. She’s a good one though, so look after her.”
The door to the bathroom opens, and Braydon reappears.
“What’s going on?”
“Braydon.” Anderson nods at him.
With a smirk on his face and a snigger, he lets go of my hand and turns away.
“Hurry up and get well again, I’m shit without a bit of competition.”
I stop him as he reaches the door.
“Thanks again, Caleb.”
With a single nod of acknowledgement, he leaves.
Well fuck me, that was a turn up for the books.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jordan
Two Weeks Later
Going into Finn’s hospital room and seeing him so depressed is killing me. He hates that he can’t get on his bike and even more so, that he can’t go on the track. He’s in plaster from his groin to the tips of his toes, it’s going to be a while before he sets foot out on that track again. That is the hardest thing of all.
His spirits have declined day by day since his crash. I’ve told him he can come and stay with me when he’s out of here; he’ll need looking after. One, he’s not fit to fly home and two, someone needs to be with him twenty-four hours a day. His mum had to fly home yesterday but promised to keep in touch and would try and get back out here in a few weeks.
Braydon has tried to give him the results from this weekend’s meeting, but as soon as he said Anderson had won, he looked like he was going to blow a bloody gasket. He just doesn’t seem interested in anything. It’s like all the fight and competitiveness he had, has disappeared.
I reach across and capture his hand, but he pulls it away, which hurts my feelings more than anything. Me, Braydon, and Dave have tried to cheer him up, but nothing works. I’m at a loss as to what to do now.
“Finn, please don’t push me away. I’m here for you, we can get through this.”
He turns his head my way, a look of disgust burning in his eyes.
“What if I never sit my ass on a bike again?” He scowls, “Jordan if I can’t ride or race... I’m nothing. I may as well have died on that track. I’ve lost the top slot, I’ve lost everything.”
The door slams shut behind me, forgetting that Braydon was in the room too. I nearly give myself whiplash, snapping my head around so quick.
Shaking my head at Finn, not believing what he’s just said, I spring up from the chair and move towards the door to leave. Not before I turn back to him and give him a piece of my mind.
“Maybe you should have a good hard think about what you’ve just said.” Then, yanking on the door handle, I follow Braydon out.
“Hey. He didn’t mean that.” I tell Braydon, catching up to him and pulling at his arm as he storms away.
“Yeah, he did. My brother doesn’t say anything he doesn’t mean.”
“Well, fine then, we’ll let him chew on it for a bit. Let’s go get some coffee.” Raising my eyebrows at him, I tip my head in the other direction.
He turns around with a small, mischievous smile and walks back towards me.
“I like you.”
“Good, because the feeling’s mutual.” We set off down the corridor, not stopping until we get to the coffee shop.
We spend the next half an hour in the coffee shop, just chatting and people watching. This must be my favourite pastime. Anywhere Maria and I went, we made sure to sit by the window.
“Do you really think he meant it?” I ask Braydon dredging up the conversation with Finn.
I’d like to think he didn’t, but what do I know, I really don’t know anything about him. His state of mind at the moment though, is questionable.
“In a way, yeah. When dad died, he went through a bout of depression - I mean don’t get me wrong, it hit us both hard but Finn, he had this bond with dad, and no-one could break it. I think it came through riding. It never interested me as such. I was always better with my hands. I was always fixing things, which is why I became an engineer. It took a while to get Finn to seek help and see a counsellor. Finn’s a problem solver, he’s a fixer - if it’s something he can’t help with or make better, he gets angry with himself. That’s where his depression came from. Do you get me?”
“I do,” I answer, nodding my head; I can even see Finn being that way. Softly sighing I drink the rest of my coffee. “Are you ready to go back up and kick your brother’s arse?”
“Yeah, let's do it.”
We walk back up to Finn’s room in comfortable silence. It’s nice. The nurse lets us back through the locked door of the ward, and we head back down the corridor.
Braydon stops dead in his tracks as he goes to turn the corner, making me stop with him. I follow his line of sight, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be looking at.
“What the fuck.” Braydon breathes.
“What’s wrong? Is everything okay?” I’m a little confused.
“What the fucking hell is she doing here?”
Looking in front of me again, the only thing I can see in my path of sight is a woman standing at the nurse’s station. Her hands are flying around, obviously trying to get her point across. She’s definitely not dressed for a hospital visit though, more like a night out. I mean, who wears six-inch heels to a hospital. Nice shoes, but really...?
“Wait here,” Braydon tells me and charges over to her. “Annabelle, what are you doing here?”
Being the nosy cow that I am, I close the gap between us and stand behind him.
Now, I’m really curious.
“I have every right to be here.”
“You have no right at all.”
I feel like I want to say something, but I probably shouldn’t, there’s obviously some hostility between these two. Moving to Braydon’s side, I cut in.
“I’m sorry, who are you?”
She sets her flawless gaze on me, looking me over like I’m nothing more than shit on her shoe.
“Annabelle, Annabelle Cooper, and you are?” She says in her sickly-sweet American voice.
“Jordan Kennedy. I’m Finn’s girlfriend.”
She scowls at my held-out hand and rolls her eyes.
“Jordan, leave it.” Bray interrupts. “Go and see Finn, I’ll join you in there in a minute,” Braydon begs me, but there’s no chance I’m leaving.
Something’s going here, and I’m going to find out. I mean unless she’s a long-lost sister he hasn’t told me about, but then wouldn’t Braydon have been nicer to her? I look between them.
“Well,” she ignores Braydon completely, “I’m his wife.” The bleach-blonde bombshell exclaims, making my eyes pop out of my head. To say I’m in shock is an understatement.
“Did you…” I stutter, taking a deep breath before I lose my shit, “Did you say his wife?”
As I turn to look at Braydon, he’s shaking his head. I wait for answers, but he’s not very forthcoming. In fact, he turns his eyes to the floor.
“What’s going on? Is she telling the truth?”
I raise my voice asking Braydon, he still doesn’t look at me, and that bitch has one hell of a smug grin on her face. If I have to look at her again, I’m going to punch her.
“Fine, you wanted me to go see Finn, I’ll do just that. I’m sure I can get some answers from him.”
Swinging around, I hear Braydon say, ‘oh shit,’ as I make my way back to Finn's room. He looks up at me as I walk in and drop my bag on the chair with a thud.
“Jord, I’m sorry…
“Don’t speak…’ I cut him off before he even gets a sentence out of his lying mouth. “Is there something you want to tell me?” I demand angrily.
“About?”
“Oh, you know something you have maybe forgotten to tell me before you managed to take over my whole world.”
We stare at each other. He tries to look into my soul with that deep, meaningful gaze he uses. This time though, it’s not going to work. I glare at him, and if looks could kill, right now, he would be on the floor. The door opens behind us, followed by the click of her pathetic, fucking heels on the shiny floor. I can’t stop my teeth grinding together as he looks up at her.
“Annabelle?” He questions as he eyes the two of us gobsmacked. “Jord,” he states, swinging his shocked gaze to me again, “It’s not what you think.”
“No? She’s your wife,” I point my finger behind me in her direction and shout, “And you didn’t think to tell me? All the time we’ve spent with each other, and you couldn’t mention that you were married. What a fucking fool I am. You must have had a really good laugh behind my back.”
As I glare at him, I can’t stop the stray tear that rolls from my eye and down my cheek.
“What was I, a filler for while you were in the UK?”
“Jordan, I swear it’s not like that.”
“I can’t believe you’ve done this to me.” I drop down into the chair and my heart split in two.
“Baby, please, let me explain.”
“Don’t you dare baby, me. I’m so bloody stupid.” I growl berating myself for not seeing it. I daren’t look at that bimbo because I swear, I will wipe that smirk off her fucking face.
“I hate to break up this little party, but if you don’t mind, I'd like to speak with my husband.”
“I’m not leaving.” I weakly state, trying to stand my ground. I've never been the kind of woman to be pushed around, and I’m not about to start now.
