Scandal:The Complete Series(96)
I nod. “Don’t talk.”
“I was a rotten husband and father, but I loved you both. Always.”
My eyes blur. The more he talks, the weaker he sounds. The words come to my lips effortlessly. “I love you, too, Dad. I always have. Now stop talking, keep your strength.”
His lips part in a smile. “Ah, little Ella, you just made me a happy man. This will always be one of my best days, even if it’s my last.”
“You can’t die.”
“Every man dies, sweetheart. But not every man dies happy.”
He starts coughing, blood escaping his lips.
“You can’t die,” I keep saying through sobs. “You can’t die.”
A hand on my shoulder, strange voices and then a familiar embrace. Jax. “Step back, baby, the paramedics are here. Let them do their work.”
It is a strange thing to realize you love someone when their life hangs from a thread. I bury my face in Jax’s chest, letting my tears run freely.
“I told him I loved him,” I say.
“I think he already knew that,” Jax says, squeezing me tighter, letting me know he loves me, too. “But it’s always nice to hear it one more time.”
—sixteen—
Ella
Four Months Later – Thanksgiving Day
I wake up next to Jaxson’s warm, naked body. His skin runs smooth over his rippling abdominal muscles, stretched with every breath he takes. The skin on his ribs and back has healed, only some rough spots and pink scars left to remind us of his ordeal.
My stomach growls. We’ve been having too much sex lately and not nearly enough food. It’s good we’re having a decent meal later today at Mia’s family’s place. My mother’s in town, staying at my apartment, so we’ll pick her up, too.
Cooking isn’t my forte and Jax is so sleep deprived after having been on the set for two whole weeks shooting his first big screen film ever that he deserves to sleep in.
I tiptoe out of the room in the white t-shirt I slept in after I kiss him on the lips and go straight for the kitchen to make some coffee. I open a window and peek outside. It’s a nice fall day, a little overcast but calm and clean.
The phone rings right as I break an egg into a bowl for an omelet.
It’s Tanner.
“What’s up?” I say.
“Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Miss Wade.”
“Oh, that,” I say. “Happy Thanksgiving, Tanner. Now tell me why you really called.”
Tanner is still very, very pissed about what happened the day we were shot at. He feels responsible for the way Wolf manhandled me. I can’t even count the times he told me he failed me. I keep telling him that even the best lawyers lose some cases but that only seems to make him angrier.
“It’s your father,” he says. “I thought it fair to warn you that he plans on showing up today.”
“Thank you,” I say. “His timing usually sucks but I think today is a day not to judge. We’ll be fine.” We will be. I don’t think even my mother will mind.
The bullet that went through Carter got lodged in his lower back. He has had a hell of a time trying to get back on his feet with intensive physiotherapy and rehabilitation but he’s alive and has decided to stick around for as long as it takes. He was even granted a few conversations with my mother.
Revenge can drive a man crazy. Carter knows that so he holds no grudge against Esposito. The need for revenge destroyed Rick. He got twenty years in prison even though Carter didn’t testify against him.
I turn on the TV to watch some news when Jax shows up, his eyes still sleepy, wearing his sweat pants.
“Good morning, sunshine,” he says with a yawn.
“I’m so sorry, did I wake you?”
He shakes his head. “I’ve slept for what? Six hours? In my recent line of work, that’s heaven,” he says, pulling me in for a kiss.
“Hey,” I say, “you’re on TV.”
Jax turns to watch as a picture of him from a recent photo shoot shows up on the screen, followed by that of Angel Mars, his sexy, beautiful co-star in the film he’s shooting.
“Are the two dating?” the reporter wonders, listing all the reasons why that could be true.
“Jesus,” I say, frowning. “I’m so sick and tired of this constant speculation about who you’re dating. Can’t they see I’m right there, next to you, everywhere you go? Am I invisible or something?”
Jax chuckles. I guess it is funny that this is what I consider to be a problem these days. It beats being hunted down by professional assassins.
“I have a solution,” he says, squeezing my ass for a moment.
“Unless you quit acting and modeling and the rest, I don’t know what that could be.”