Say You'll Be Nine

There was a commotion from the hallway, and I recognized Marchie’s voice in the same moment Mom did.

She poked her head out of my room. “Marchie, is that you? We’re in here, sweetie.”

He came storming into the room, eyes red and frantic. “Where is he? Why didn’t someone call me? What happened? Is he okay?”

“Where the hell have you been?” I asked. He’d been out of town when all of this had happened, but I would have expected Jacks’s closest friend and business partner to have dropped everything and come running when it was time for the transplant.

“Tell me he’s okay. Please.” His eyes jumped around to all three of us.

Nine was the one who kept a cool head. “Yes. He’s still in isolation to keep infection and exposure risk down, but he’s doing fine. The transplant was two days ago, and so far everything is going smoothly.”

He dashed tears from his face. “He… he fucking told me to go to my cousin’s wedding in Vermont. He said the transplant wasn’t until the fifteenth, and then he texted like nothing was happening until two days ago. When I couldn’t get a hold of him, I called Nan at the shop and she told me. Can… can I see him?”

Once again, it was Nine who stepped forward and offered to lead him to the isolation room where Jacks was. As soon as they were gone, Mom turned to me in surprise. “Did you know he had such strong feelings for Jackson?”

I nodded, pulling the pile of clothes closer so I could put them on under the hospital gown. “He’s been in love with him forever. I asked Jacks why Marchie wasn’t here for this, and he said he went to a wedding. It never occurred to me Jacks sent him away on purpose.”

“Stubborn man,” Mom muttered, putting some of my other things in a cloth tote bag she had. “All four of you. Honestly, it’s like déjà vu all over again.”

“What do you mean?”

Her eyes were shooting lasers right at me. The intensity startled me. “The two of you—Jackson and you—have such a chip on your shoulder about being independent. God forbid you need to ask for help. God forbid you need to rely on someone. But when someone you love is in trouble, you’re the first one to want to help. Which is as it should be, but why you can’t let others help you when it’s your turn is beyond me.”

“Hey, wait a minute. That’s not fair. I did ask for help. I asked for Nine.”

She shot me a look. “No you didn’t. Not at first. He asked if you wanted him here, and you said you were fine.”

“I was fine!”

She dropped the tote on the bed and crossed her arms. Her long floral skirt moved around her legs. “Bullshit. You were scared. You were lonely. And you needed someone who was just here for you. See? You can’t even admit it now.”

I laughed. “But I do admit it now. I have been lonely, and I’ve never really had someone just here for me. Having Nine here has been amazing. He’s the sweetest man in the world.”

She smiled softly. “He is. He takes good care of you.”

“Then why didn’t you want me to stay with him in the RV?”

Mom rested a hip on the bed next to me. “I just assumed he needed to get back to the mountain house to finish up. That new job he told me about wants him to start by the end of the month, and none of the interior decorating stuff has been done yet at the cabin.”

I blinked at her, suddenly feeling the nausea side effect that often accompanied strong pain meds. “What new job?”

“The one with the cabin rental website. You know… their logo is a bear with a big animated heart hopping around it. They have those commercials on TV.”

“MyCabin dot com?” I asked incredulously.

“Yeah. Didn’t he tell you about it? They want him to teach people how to do over old cabins and turn them into rentals to list on their site. Isn’t that perfect for him?”

It was. “Well, yeah…”

“And he said the cabin they found for him is in northern Minnesota, so it’ll take him a couple of days to drive out there. I think that’s why he needs to get back to the cabin, but don’t quote me on that.”

When Nine got back to my room, griping again about how they almost didn’t let him in since he wasn’t family, I felt an odd lump in my throat. The new job explained his reluctance to have me stay in the RV, but why hadn’t he told me about the new gig? And how in the hell were we supposed to build a relationship with Nine in Minnesota and me in LA?