“Give her all the time she needs,” I suggested. “Not only does she need to heal from her trauma, but she has to mourn someone she cared about, too.”
“I planned on waiting until she comes back to San Diego to start working on her, but I’m sure as hell not letting her just walk away. The projects she has going on in the lab are important to her, and Montgomery Mining. I think once she’s feeling better, she’ll realize that,” Jax explained. “The woman is wicked smart.”
“Then you should be able to relate to her,” I said drily.
My brothers and I had been sent to a boarding school for the gifted when we were young, and had advanced to college courses by the time we’d hit fifteen.
I wasn’t quite sure if our paths in life had been good or bad.
Yeah, it was great as businessmen to have lightning fast brains, but it was highly possible that we’d gotten robbed of our childhood, and had grown up way too fast.
I didn’t have any fond childhood memories that I could recall, but I wasn’t sure if that was because my family was so dysfunctional, or the fact that I’d been in a boarding school heavily focused on academic advancement as far back as I could remember.
I rose, anxious to get back to Taylor’s room before she did. “Anything else we need to discuss?”
Jax got up with a troubled look on his face. “Just one thing,” he answered.
“Tell me,” I instructed.
His jaw was tight as he said gruffly, “Don’t get hurt. Anything worthwhile is usually a risk, but don’t give anyone your damn heart until you know for sure that you can trust that person with it.”
We stared at each for a second before I replied, “It’s not going to go that far. No worries,” I assured him and clapped him on the back as we started walking toward the cafeteria exit.
I was close to all of my siblings, but it was a rare moment when Jax got deadly serious.
It was during those very infrequent instances when I truly realized how damn glad I was to have him watching my back.
Hudson
“There’s no fucking way you’re getting into the shower by yourself.” I tried to make my voice firm, but gentle. Unfortunately, the words had flown from my mouth before I could achieve either of those tones.
Is she out of her mind?
I’d just gotten Taylor home from the hospital a few hours ago.
I’d made good on my promise to give her the medium-rare steak and loaded baked potato I’d vowed to get her as soon as she could handle it.
My assistant had picked up an order from the best steakhouse in San Diego, and had left it in the warmer for us to consume when we’d arrived at my home.
Since the hospital had started her on solid foods, and she’d handled it well, I didn’t need to hold back on anything she wanted to eat.
Thank fuck!
I was learning that I was completely unable to not give Taylor anything she wanted when she looked at me with that trusting green-eyed gaze of hers.
But this…
Hell, no…
The woman could break her neck while trying to take a shower on her own. She could barely stand up.
After dinner, she’d looked so damn tired that I’d brought her upstairs, showed her the big bedroom with an attached bath that she’d be using while she was here, and put her down on the bed.
She’d scrambled into a sitting position, her feet on the floor, and had immediately decided she needed to utilize that enormous shower in her bathroom.
Taylor glanced up at me as I stood right in front of her. Like blocking her view of the bathroom was really going to help her forget that crazy idea?
“I need…to feel clean,” she said in a hoarse, wavering voice that revealed just how tired she was at the moment. “I didn’t get to shower at the hospital. I can at least manage that.”
I saw her shudder, and I knew all the hot water in the world wasn’t going to help her scrub away the memories that were haunting her right now. “No,” I said in a calmer tone this time. “Be reasonable, Taylor.”
“I am,” she assured me. “There’s a huge bench in the shower, Hudson. I can sit down. I haven’t cleaned up since you scrubbed the first few layers of dirt off me when we first got onto your jet. I shower every day, sometimes twice a day