She was the first to pull away, sending me a gentle smile afterward. “Don’t worry,” she repeated. “I won’t leave your side, Jasper.”
Quinn
“I don’t understand,” the specialist murmured as he looked over his chart. “Your illness checks off a few boxes, but not enough for me to diagnose a specific thing. We can’t even figure out what it is, let alone why your symptoms are recurring so suddenly. It doesn’t make any sense. This reminds me a little of what we sometimes see in patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Symptoms can flare or go dormant sporadically, and it can be difficult to know when it will happen. I’m going to order some more bloodwork and see if we can get to the bottom of this.” He gave Jasper’s shoulder a firm pat, smiling sympathetically as he excused himself from the room.
I sighed, clutching Jasper’s hand tightly. Since arriving at the hospital earlier, Jasper’s symptoms had gone away again. The three of us began making our way out of the doctor’s office. Jasper was completely silent, aside from thanking Nigel after he’d walked us to the car and relieving him of his duties for the day. Jasper asked the driver to take us back to the manor before rolling up the partition and sitting back with a quiet sigh.
“Thank you,” he murmured a few moments later.
“For what?” I furrowed my brows.
“Coming here with me. Holding my hand throughout the visit.” He smiled. “It was great to have you by my side today.”
I looked down, playing with our fingers as I shrugged. “If you’ll let me, I’ll always stand by your side, Jasper. No matter what.”
“I’m not going to hold you to that.” He shook his head and let out a bitter chuckle. “You should live a full, happy, stress-free lifewithouta boyfriend who’ll probably be bedridden for the remainder of his.”
“Don’t talk like that,” I scolded. “If you were able to regain your health once before, you’ll be able to do it again.”
“That was a fluke.” He sounded as tired as he looked, and I frowned as I stared at the side of his face.
“Jasper, stop! If I have to strap you onto my back and force you to walk around like that, I will. Although, I do hope we won’t have to resort to that. I’m in my twenties, but I already have all the back pain of a seventy-year-old,” I grumbled, smiling as he laughed. A sudden laugh that had ripped its way out of him before he’d had the time to stop it. A genuine laugh. The best kind. “You sure do have a lot of nerve thinking you could do away with me so easily. Bedridden or not, you won’t be able to get rid of me, and if you try, I’ll just have to sic my niece on you.”
Another laugh bubbled up and flowed out of me and he finally looked at me. “I don’t think I could deny Janiyah anything. You either.” He rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. “Quinn, I’m sorry I walked away from you and–”
“It’s water under the bridge. I understand why you were upset. I’m sorry I accused you of cheating without giving you the chance to explain things.”
“Water under the bridge,” he mimicked, smiling. “Quinn, I have to be honest. It may not be the right time to tell you, but I can’t hold it in any longer. I love you. I’m in love with you and I have been for a while now. I understand if you don’t feel the same way, but I—”
“You weaseled your way into my life and I’d been trying to get rid of you.” I smirked. “But not anymore. I love you too, Jasper.”
“I knew it! You couldn’t resist my charisma.”
I rolled my eyes, waving him off. “You know, I wanted to thank you again for the house you gifted us with. It was incredibly thoughtful of you.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I’d do anything for you. I hardly remembered its existence until Gran’s fall.”
“Has anyone told you how awesome you are?”
“No, but it’s never too late to start.”
I rolled my eyes at his response and we both chuckled.
“I haven’t seen the place—”
“Why don’t we go right now?” He smiled, tapping on the partition. He asked the driver to turn around and gave him the address before rolling the window up again.
“You didn’t have to do that!”
“I wanted to! I want to see your reaction to it! I think you’ll love the kitchen.”
“Yeah?” I grew even more excited as I imagined what it looked like.
“It’s very spacious and there’s a large pantry which I made sure would already be filled with practically everything you would need. All the stainless steel appliances you would want, too. A toaster, a crock pot, nonstick pans, a Keurig coffee machine–”
“Are you trying to get me heated?” I practically moaned, smiling widely as he threw his head back and laughed. “It sounds like a dream!”
“I was hoping you’d think so. Honestly, I worried you might not like it all that much. I mean, you work so hard at the restaurant that I figured you might be getting sick of having to even step foot in the kitchen once you got home.”
