I’d caught him as he’d passed out again.
Even unconscious, his forehead furrowed and jaw knitted tight in pain.
“Come on. Please, wake up.”
Forrest pranced around us, splitting my attention between his dangerous hooves getting too close to my patient and doing my best to keep that patient alive.
Why, oh why, didn’t I bring my cell phone? Why did I have to be the one to witness such a disaster? How long would Della and Cassie be gone? Where were John and Chip and all the rest of the damn family living on this farm?
Bending over Jacob, I pressed my forehead to his, hoping he’d hear my thoughts if he couldn’t hear my voice.
“Please wake up,” I silently begged. “I’m not equipped to deal with this. You can’t die. You know I have issues with people dying, and I don’t have enough answers about where souls go to let you leave. So…you have to stay.”
Pulling away, I searched his pained face for any clue he’d heard me.
“Come on, Jacob. Please, please wake up.” I tapped his cheek lightly, earning another heart-wrenching groan. His body seized as he sucked in a gasp, his spine soaring upward.
“No! Don’t move.” I clamped my hands on his shoulders, keeping him as still as I could.
His eyes flew open. Wild and hazy, they danced over me, the sky, everything and nothing.
“You’re okay. You fell off Forrest. But I’ve got you. Just don’t move, okay? Just…get your bearings. That’s it. Relax.” I stroked his cheek with the back of my hand, heart racing for help.
His eyes hooded again as whatever blow to his head tried to drag him under for the third time.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Wake up. Helloooooo!” My stroking turned to tapping again, and his gaze shot wide. This time, they focused, locking onto mine.
A film of sweat covered his forehead. Sweat caused by injury, not by the sun. He must be in a lot of pain for his system to perspire so quickly.
My nerves skyrocketed. All I wanted was someone to come racing over to tell me what to do. To take responsibility. To fix what I didn’t know how to fix.
“You’re okay. Just…don’t move and let me figure this out.”
He winced as he disobeyed me and moved anyway. Just a shuffle in the grass, a wriggle on my lap but enough to send my heart scrambling out of my chest.
“Ca-can you feel everything?” I bit my lip, eyes zooming down the length of his body, skipping over his blue T-shirt, faded denim, and scuffed-up boots.
He nodded, frowning deeper. “Yeah.” He moved his right leg, then his left. “See?”
“I don’t think you should be doing—”
“Let me go, Hope.” His gaze landed on my face, looking up at me from where I had his head cradled in my lap.
“You should probably stay where you are.”
“I’m not lying like a cripple in the grass.”
“You’re not a cripple.”
“You’re right. So let me up, dammit.”
I removed my hold on his head, allowing him to sit up slowly. I tried to help, pushing his shoulders gently, but he gave me a glower, and his silence was all I needed to back off.
For a minute or two, we sat surrounded by crushed grass, Forrest snorting and pacing as if feeding off his owner’s agony, and the birds chattering away uncaring.
Jacob stayed slouched like a broken puppet, his hands massaging his lower vertebrae.
“D-do you want me to do that?” I shuffled closer.
“No chance.” He didn’t bother looking over his shoulder, continuing to unkink muscles and hopefully do the correct thing and not mess himself up even more.
Finally, he stretched slowly, arching his neck left and right, wincing and hissing between his teeth before planting his hands on the ground and hoisting himself awkwardly up.
“Wait!” I shot to my feet, dashing in front of him. “Honestly, you should stay where you are. Do you have a phone on you? Let me call your mom or aunt or even a damn ambulance. You should be checked out.”
His face blackened. “You’re not calling an ambulance.”
“Your mom then.”
“Her either.”
“But you need help.”
He smirked wryly. “That’s why you’re here.”
“But I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Just do what I tell you, and everything will be fine.”
I clamped hands on my hips. “Look, you flew off a speed demon and crashed at warp velocity into the ground. You probably have a concussion, not to mention a tweaked back. Even if you can walk now, I’ve heard that—”
“Hope.” Jacob held up his hand, stumbling a little to the side. “Just…quit it. Okay? I’m alive. That’s all that matters.”
“But your mom—”
“Would lose her ever loving mind if she knew I’d been hurt.”
“I agree. So you shouldn’t have been so reckless.”
He groaned. “God, don’t you start. You’ve been hanging around her too much.”
“She’s right, though. You shouldn’t be jumping without tack. It’s stupid.”
“Wrong.” He leaned toward me. “It’s the only thing I have where I’m free.”