PART SIXTY FIVE
*Jess’ POV*
I sat behind the wheel of the car, my heart pounding hard as we sat parked in front of my family's estate. I actually really hated driving, and again I was on the verge of tears.
“Babe relax, we’re back now,” Aston soothed.
“I just need to catch my breath,” I sighed.
“You did great.”
“Oh my god,” I muttered, “I just drove a car. What the hell happened today?”
“No idea,” Aston smiled, leaning across the shifter and kissing my cheek, “Thanks.”
“For what? I broke your arm!”
“No you didn’t. I was an idiot,” he replied.
“But…”
“You drove a car for me,” he said, “I’m proud of you.”
“Oh my god,” I repeated, “I drove a car.” Just thinking about it had me in a state of shock. And I hadn’t just driven it down the lane we lived on. No I drove it far.
“Let’s go in,” Aston said, pushing his way out of the car. I followed after him, my body starting to finally calm itself down. I was in need of a hot drink and a comfy sofa, and maybe a few cuddles.
“JESSICA REGO WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!”
I was startled by the shout, my mother coming storming down the walk of the mansion.
“Oh shit,” I muttered.
“Jessica! What are you doing behind the wheel of a car? Why was the house unlocked? And why the hell were two of the horses saddled up with no one around?!”
“Long story,” I sighed, shrinking away from my mother back towards Aston.
“You have some serious explaining to do!!” she said, pointing at me aggressively. I was 26 but getting told off like a kid.
“I made her drive me,” Aston said, holding his arm up to show off the cast.
“Oh dear, what happened?!?” my mother screeched, sweeping down the path up to Aston and inspecting his cast. She was a surgeon after all!
“Broken,” he shrugged.
“How?”
“Horses,” I explained, grimacing. I knew I was about to get an ear full from my mother. She was always on us about being safe around the horses, and now one of my guests had been to hospital.
“No wonder,” my mother sighed, “Jessica you should have called me!”
“Sorry,” I said, “I was a bit of a mess.”
“Well your Dad has gone to get the saddles off the horses, why don’t you take Aston inside to rest,” she said.
“Ok,” I replied, grabbing Aston’s hand and walking into the house. I sat him down in the lounge we’d spent the evening in the night before, passing him the remote control for the TV as I wandered off to put his painkillers in my room and then to make two cups of tea.
“Thanks,” Aston said, taking the cup from me as I went to join him.
“It’s alright,” I said, leaning my head on his shoulder affectionately. I felt horrible about everything that had happened.
We sipped our tea and watched the TV in silence. I was on the downward spiral from how dramatic I had been and was absolutely exhausted, and I could tell Aston was seriously feeling his painkillers because he kept nodding off.
As I watched Aston doze and nearly spill his tea all over his lap I took his mug from him, setting it on the table. “What?” he mumbled, opening one eye.
“Want to go lay down?” I asked him, stroking just behind his ear gently.
“You gonna make me sleep in the other room?” he asked with a smirk, his eyes closed lazily.
“No.”
“Good,” Aston said, “Are you planning on joining me?”
“I will in a bit,” I said, “I have some things to do first.”
“Ok,” Aston yawned. I helped him up from the couch and into my room, grabbing some extra pillows from the room across the hall to help him get comfortable with the cast.
“Sleep well,” I whispered, kissing his head and stroking behind his ear again.
I sat and waited for Aston to fall asleep and then I snatched up his phone, determined to give both his mother and his band mates a call to let them know what happened. It wasn’t really my place to do so, but I felt so horrible about what happened that it was only fitting.
“Aston! Hi!” his mother said as I rang her first.
“It’s Jess actually,” I said, nervous. We hadn’t spoken since I’d been up to meet Aston’s family around my birthday, and clearly things had taken a bit of a turn after that.
“Jess, oh,” his mother said. I knew this was going to be an awkward call. I had no idea what Aston had said to his Mum about us, and that sort of freaked me out. “Everything ok?”
“Um, it’s fine,” I replied, “I just wanted to call and let you know that Aston’s broken his arm.”
“He did what?!” she shrieked into the phone.
I explained to her what happened with the horses, leaving out some of the bits about me driving his car. I didn’t want to worry her too much!
“He’s sleeping now,” I said, “He’s had lots of painkillers and is conked out.”
“Poor kid,” his Mum sighed, “You’ll take care of him, yeah?”
“Course,” I replied.
“He really likes you Jess,” she continued, “Whatever happened before, I do hope you both are past that now. You’re so good for him.”
“Thanks,” I said, “I’m trying really hard to be better than I was before. And so is he, I think.”
“You two will be fine,” she said. We spoke for another minute, with me promising that Aston and I would make our way up for a visit when we could before we hung up.
Next on the list was his band mates. I skimmed through the contacts on Aston’s phone, picking Marvin. I’d spoken to him the most, so I figured he’d be the easiest to chat to about this. Remembering Aston had said the other boys were Ibiza, I was prepared to leave a voicemail.
“AST!” Marvin shouted into the phone, surprising me that he’d answered, “Decided you wanted to join us instead of being shacked up with your girl in the middle of nowhere?”
“Marv, its Jess,” I said.
“Oh, hey. What’s up?” Marvin said sheepishly.
“Um, I’m calling to let you know Ast’s broken his arm.”
“You’re kidding right?” Marvin asked, his voice incredulous.
“No,” I said, “He fell off a horse.”
“Of course he did.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Why are you sorry?” Marvin asked.
“It was my fault,” I said, “I made him ride horses with me.”
“Jess, I wasn’t there but I’m positive that it was 100% Aston’s fault. He’s always doing dumb things.”
“No…I…”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Marvin said, cutting me off. “What’s done is done and now we’ve just got to get him healed up before our summer shows.” I hadn’t even thought about how he was going to perform with the cast on. Shit! “Tell Ast we hope he feels better soon,” Marvin added.
“I will,” I said.
We hung up after that, Marvin agreeing to tell the other guys so I didn't have to call them too.
Clutching Aston’s phone in my hand I wandered back into the bedroom, setting it on the side, kicking off my boots, and crawling into the bed. It was only then that I realized I was still in my riding clothes. It seemed like days had passed but it had only been a couple of hours since I was leading Peanut in a circle around the riding ring, with Aston sat on her back.
“Everything ok?” Aston mumbled as I cuddled close into his side.
“Yeah. I called your Mum and the boys.”
“I could have done that,” Aston said, wrapping his good arm around me and pulling me close to his side.
“I wanted to,” I said, “To apologize.”
“There is nothing to be sorry about,” Aston said fiercely, his eyes open as he stared over at me. “This is not your fault.”
“I know, but I still feel horrible.”
“Stop it,” Aston said, “You were amazing today. And I will admit this just once, I was actually kind of enjoying myself on the horse.”
“Really?” I grinned, leaning over him.
“Yes, but I’m never doing it again.”
“I’m never driving a car again. Unless I really have to.”
“I think we have a deal,” Aston said, closing the distance between us and kissing me tenderly. After pulling away I smiled down at him, nuzzling my head into his neck as he held me close, the pair of us drifting off to sleep. It was just late afternoon, but we were out cold for the rest of the night.
PART SIXTY SIX
*Aston’s POV*
“Ast,” Jess whispered in my ear, sending tingles down my side as her breath tickled my skin.
“Mmmm…” I mumbled, my eyes scrunched shut as I tried to get just a little more sleep. I was still actually exhausted from the previous day.
“Get up!”
“No,” I moaned.
“Come on,” she sighed, “Or I’m leaving you here while I go find food.”
“Bring some to me.”
“Oh no, you aren’t playing the wounded in bed card,” she said, “Or I’m making you stay in bed the rest of the weekend.” It was Sunday morning and we were still at the estate until the next evening. That would have been a good 36 long hours tucked up in bed, I knew I couldn’t manage that. She was too good at this!
“Fine,” I sighed, opening my eyes to see her smiling down at me. Clearly a good nights sleep had calmed her down, thank god! She’d been a complete mess with everything that had happened and it was starting to do my head in.
“Get up!”
I let Jess drag me out of bed and straight out of the room to the kitchen where she sat me down at the huge counter and went to look for food.
“I can’t believe we slept all night,” Jess exclaimed as she filled up the kettle with water.
“You slept all night,” I clarified.
“You were up? Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I was only up long enough to wander down here to find something to eat and take another round of painkillers,” I explained.
“Does it really hurt that bad?”
“It’s sore yeah,” I replied, looking down at the big bulky cast on my arm. To be fair it hurt like hell, but I didn’t want to freak Jess out too much. She still thought it was her fault.
“It looks like my Mum bought food to make brunch,” Jess said, scanning the contents of the fridge, “Maybe we should stick to a bit of our cereal and let her cook for us later.”
“Whatever you want,” I said.
I watched as Jess poured out two bowls of cereal and made two mugs of coffee. It was a bit awkward to eat the cereal; the break was on my right arm, which meant until the soreness died down I had to use my non-dominant hand for menial tasks like eating and writing.
“I need a shower,” I said as I gave Jess my bowl to finish up.
“How does that work?”
“What do you mean?”
“With the cast?” she asked, eyeing up my arm.
“I’ve got it under control,” I laughed. It wasn’t my first broken bone. I knew how to protect the cast from water.
“If you’re sure.”
I rolled my eyes at Jess, grabbing what I needed from the kitchen and heading up to her en suite. I’d never pegged her to be such a worrier, but she was surprising me with how she was reacting to this whole thing. I was sure part of it had to do with her thinking she’d done it to me, but all the same I was a bit touched by how she was fawning over me.
Once finished in the shower I laid on the bed as Jess sorted herself out, and then we wandered downstairs again. Jess had mentioned going for a bit of a morning walk since it looked nice outside.
“Want a coffee to go?” Jess asked me as she popped into the kitchen on our way out.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No.”
“You’re so addicted to that stuff,” I grinned, watching her do up a takeaway mug of coffee.
“Whatever, I’m not sharing.”
I grabbed her hand, pulling her towards me for a quick kiss before releasing her so we could head outside.
“Jessica!” her Mum called after us.
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to make brunch,” she said, confirming what we’d expected, “Should be ready in an hour.”
“Sounds good,” Jess smiled, winking at me as we pushed our way outside.
It was a crisp morning, but it had the promise of being even warmer than the day before. Miraculously there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and you could hear the birds already loving the day.
We walked for maybe thirty minutes, circling the estate as Jess pointed out different places she liked to play when she was younger. It was sweet of her to share her childhood with me, and I couldn’t help but be a little bit jealous at how awesome the estate was.
When we ran out of terrain to walk on we sat on a bench in a flower garden, Jess sipping her coffee as we chatted away.
“Why did you get a black cast,” she mumbled, trailing her fingers on my cast gently.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged, “It was black, purple, or white. I thought the white would just look dirty, and I didn’t really want purple.”
“But now I can’t sign it,” Jess sighed.
“Sign it?” I laughed, “What are we? Ten?”
“I thought you’d want me to sign it,” she pouted.
“Well it depends… what would you put?”
“I’m not telling now,” she winked, a cheeky smile on her face, “You got the wrong color.”
“What if I found you a pen that could write on this cast?” I challenged.
“Then maybe you'd see what I have to say.”
“You’re unbelievable,” I laughed, kissing her temple gently.
We sat in silence for a bit, looking out over the flower beds in front of us. “I’m sorry,” Jess said quietly, breaking the moment.
“About what?” I asked, turning over to look at her.
“The accident.”
“Oh my god,” I moaned, “If you say that one more time I might lose my mind.”
“But…”
“Jess, for the millionth time, this whole thing had nothing to do with any thing you did. It couldn’t be prevented. So please just give it a rest.”
“I just feel horrible,” she said, leaning her head on my shoulder as she touched my cast again. I sincerely hoped that she wasn’t crying again, but I couldn’t be too sure about her. For some reason this whole situation had really hit a nerve and she was entirely too emotional about it.
“I know you do, and I appreciate it. But seriously, you don’t need to feel bad about this. Just help me heal fast.”
“How?” she mumbled.
“Well…” I started, thinking of things I could make her do to help me out. If she was going to insist on being so sorry about everything maybe I’d just mess her about a bit to realize it was not a big deal? “I might need help around the house,” I started, “Cleaning and washing my clothes and that.”
“Ok,” Jess said quietly.
“And maybe help with the shopping,” I added, “I can’t write yet, so I might need help writing stuff down. Oh! And you can cut up my food when I eat.”
I felt Jess snort with laughter when I said that, “You’re taking the piss now right?” she asked wryly.
“Well…” I started, grinning over at her as she lifted her head off my shoulder, a scowl on her face as she realized I was making fun, “Maybe not with the cutting up my food bit. I might actually need help with that. At least today”
“Fine,” she laughed, leaning over and kissing me.
“Just relax,” I whispered to her as I pulled away and pressed a kiss against her neck, “We’re going to be fine.”