Learning to Be Little Again(61)

I felt so confused! He had been the perfect boyfriend and daddy before my accident. What had happened to him? I didn’t want him to leave, but if he was going to be treating me like this from now on, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay.

After I took care of my needs, I carefully stood up on my right leg, pulled my footie pajamas back on, hopped to the sink, and washed my hands the best I could with one of my hands in a cast. Once I finished that, I started to hop to the door and saw he was standing outside. Without asking, he picked me up again and carried me into his bedroom, placing me on the bed. Then he left the room once again.

I was so upset. He was going to leave me and it was all of my fault. I curled up in a ball, grabbed my teddy that he must have brought in here, and I began to sob my heart out. All I’d wanted was for him to reel in his overbearing attitude, and instead he was leaving me. It was all my fault.





Chapter Twenty-Five





I was an idiot, plain and simple. How could I treat Juliana like that? A part of me knew I was being too controlling, but every time I had closed my eyes, I pictured her in that hospital bed, with all of her bruises and broken bones.

She was going to leave me now, and it was all my fault. I couldn’t let her leave me. So doing the only thing I could think of, I called Jackson.

“Hey, Robert. How’s it going with Juliana?” he asked, answering his phone on the second ring.

“Jackson… I screwed up and I need your advice.”

He chuckled. “I’m sure you couldn’t have messed up too badly. Tell me what you did.”

So for the next ten minutes, I told him everything that had happened since I’d visited Juliana in the hospital.

When I finished, Jackson sighed. “Crap, man! What got into that head of yours?”

“I know. I just couldn’t help myself. I kept picturing her in that hospital bed. I just wanted to take her home and keep her from feeling any more pain.”

“You screwed up royally, my friend. Samantha and I are on our way over.”

I paused, wondering if that was the best idea. What would happen if they got here and Juliana begged Samantha and Jackson to take her home? That would break my heart.

“Do you think that’s the best idea? I kind of wanted to deal with this problem before I involved anyone else.”

“Believe me, man, you need all the help you can get. I’ll bring Samantha over and she can talk this through with Juliana. Then you and she can talk. Afterwards, the girls can have some play time together.”

“Alright. That does sound good.” I just hoped Juliana would be okay with it.

“Great. Then I’ll have to go get her royal sleepyhead up and out of bed.”

“Okay. I’ll make some breakfast for everyone.”

“Great idea. Okay, we’ll be over in a few minutes.”

We said our goodbyes and I took a deep breath. All hope was not lost for Juliana and me. Maybe if Samantha talked to her and let Juliana blow off some steam, when I went to talk to her we could figure out a way to get past this.

With that decided, I got to work making breakfast.



* * *



I’d just finished crying, my nose was all stuffed up, and my eyes felt so swollen when I saw Samantha at the doorway. She walked into the bedroom in bright pink footie pajamas and she was carrying Molly in her arms.

“Oh, Juliana,” she said before she got on to the bed and gave me a hug. For whatever reason, this started my waterworks again and I began to sob as she kept hugging me and telling me that everything was going to be okay.

When the tears stopped once again, I turned towards her, confused about why she was here.

“Here, you’ll probably want some of these,” she said, handing me some Kleenex. She helped me sit up to blow my nose, and then she threw the used tissues out and placed some pillows behind me so I could sit up.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I hadn’t called her and I didn’t know why Robert would. Probably so they could take care of me after he dumps me. I felt new tears start to fall down my cheeks.

“No more crying, Juliana. Let me explain some things first,” Samantha said, dabbing my cheeks with the Kleenex.

I nodded, letting her know I wanted her to continue.

“Robert called Jackson this morning. He was nearly crying himself. He told Jackson everything that happened after he brought you home from the hospital. Jackson told him that he was an idiot, and then Jackson told me what Robert said.”

She paused to let me process all of this. I couldn’t believe that Robert had called Jackson almost crying. I couldn’t understand why he would be crying if he was going to dump me. And I didn’t think it was nice of Jackson to call Robert an idiot. Though, I guess deep down, I knew he was being one.