constricted. “Just her?”
Ben shook his head. “He didn’t know you were here.”
“Why wouldn’t I be here?” I popped up again. No watery knees this time.
Ben shrugged. “After this afternoon, we weren’t quite sure which side your loyalties were on.”
“Loyalties—” I glanced at the woman now standing beside me before looking at Ben. Ripping his damn head off while his hands were wrapped in gauze seemed ill-advised. Not with this girl trembling beside me. “Now is not the time for this. Can you just take us to Jake?”
“I can take Kayla. I’ll see if he wants to see you.”
I fisted my hands.
“No, she can come.” Kayla’s voice was shaky, but her face was sure. “I know he’d want her there.”
I swallowed down the angry tears. “Thank you.”
“Suit yourself.” Ben held out his arm. “We have to head upstairs.”
Kayla tucked her hair behind her ear. “I didn’t recognize you or I’d have come over to sit with you.”
I gave her a tight smile. “Same. You were a lot smaller last time I saw you.”
“Braces and crooked pigtails.”
I laughed. “Yes. That I remember.”
She gripped my forearm as we followed Ben down the hall to the bank of elevators. “I know Jake wants you in the room. The guys are just… Well, the guys. Protective to a fault. Why I don’t live in town.”
“You don’t?”
She shook her head. “I work in Syracuse—well, worked. I just got fired.”
“Fired?”
She shrugged. “When I got the call that Jake was in the hospital, my boss didn’t take too kindly to me wanting to leave.”
“Jerk. It’s family. I’m sure we can talk to him or her.”
Kayla shrugged. “It was a shit job. I took it because I thought I was going to be training to be a sous chef. In reality, I was just learning how not to get my ass groped.”
“Jesus.”
Ben shot a dark glance over his shoulder.
“All part of working in the restaurant field. Waitressing gets it far worse.”
“Not in my bar.”
“Yeah?” She finger-combed her hair. “Jake told me you took over Sharkey’s. Or at least inherited.”
“It’s mine.” It was the first time I’d really said it out loud. “It needs work, but it’s going to be amazing when I’m done with it.” I gave Ben a little side-eye. “When we’re done with it.”
Ben held the door to the elevator open, but he didn’t say anything as we crossed the threshold.
“So, are you a chef?”
She shrugged. “Trying to be. School didn’t take, but I’m self-taught. I’ve been cooking and working in restaurants since I was sixteen.”
The elevator opened and Ben strode off. Kayla’s gaze followed him then returned to mine, her cheeks flushed.
Ben was attractive, if a little…intense. “Maybe we can talk about that when we get Jake situated?”
Her face went slack with shock. “Really?”
“Pretty sure you have a good reference.”
She grabbed my hands. “I do. And not just Jake.”
I grinned. “Good, because I’m pretty sure I’m going to go kick your brother’s ass.” I stalked off the elevator and down the hall.
Ben was talking to a doctor near a cracked open door. I walked right past them into the room, the younger EMT sputtering for me to wait.
Nope. There was no way I was taking another minute to wonder and stress over what Jake looked like.
Or just how hurt he was.
A curtain shrouded the bed, and I recognized the boots set on top of a chair. Definitely Jake’s. I swung the curtain wide open before I stopped to think that I didn’t have a right to do this.
It didn’t even occur to me. He was just mine.
“How dare you.”
He wore a hospital smock and still had his work pants on. His uniform shirt was nowhere to be seen. His deep dark eyes opened, tired and sooty where the crinkles dug deep into his face from being outdoors all the time. An oxygen mask covered his nose and mouth. His arm was in a sling, but otherwise, he looked okay.
A few bruises maybe.
Relief jacked up my anger. “You didn’t think I’d come here for you?”
Surprise dented the exhaustion. He tried to pull the oxygen mask down. “Freckles—”
I pushed the mask back up on his face. “No. I get to talk right now. You just keep that thing on. You scared me, dammit. Walking away with that smile on your face like you’re going to be mine for all time. Then you don’t want me here. That is not going to happen, buster.”
His hand flexed, and anger sparked in his eyes. He pulled the mask down. “You’re the