“Evan, I appreciate your concern, but I think we will need to figure out Nathan by ourselves,” Cal snapped.

“He’s my friend too.” Evan raised his voice. “He needs to see someone.”

“We can’t take him to the hospital, you know the drill,” Cal snarled.

“His hand looks fucked up. We can’t fix that shit here,” I growled.

“Guys, I think at this point we just need to see if anyone can see him in town that will be discreet,” Evan suggested.

“What the fuck happened?!” My attention snapped to the entrance of the living room. Jane came barreling into the room, heading straight for Nathan. She looked him over, cataloging all his injuries, and each time she noticed something, her face fell even more. Guilt ate at me at what I couldn’t do earlier, protect.

“Jesus, Jane, what the hell are you doing here?” Cal looked surprised.

“What do you mean, what am I doing here?” Jane glared at him. “It’s eight-thirty in the fucking morning, and no one has answered my texts or calls. I came over, worried that something had happened, and I’m glad I did.” She looked back at Nathan, worried. “What the fuck happened?”

No one answered her right away, and I think we were all a little afraid of her reaction. Her eyes settled on me, and I figured I better man up and just tell her what had happened. I explained everything, with Cal adding to my story. Her anger was so fucking sexy. Her protectiveness of us, when she asked if we could trust Evan, was the fucking cherry on top.

Her attention kept going back to Nathan, and the look in her eyes made me think she cared about us more than I could have hoped for. I felt her emotion more than on the night we gazed at the stars. Could she eventually love us? I ground my teeth, feeling like an idiot thinking about love again. In all honesty I never thought about falling in love again. With Jane I could see a future that I hadn’t expected to see, one that I hoped for like a kid on Christmas morning. We just needed to get through today.

I asked her to take Nathan to the hospital knowing she would take care of him, and I knew Cal needed to go check on Kelsey and Rose right away. She didn’t hesitate in saying yes, but sounded cautious; she was nervous about their safety. Once we assured her that she would be fine, Evan offered to go too —with some resistance from her at first—. She had a look of determination in her eyes that I was in awe of.