Free Just Say Yes (Just Say Yes #2) by Jen Andrews

everything to them about the accident, the move to Sonoma, the ex-wife. Everything .
    “Zoey, please don’t take this the wrong way, because you know I love you,” Jess said. “But think about it from his point of view. His entire family was taken from him in a split second. He goes to work one day, a newly married, happy man, after that he comes home to divorce papers lying on the table. No warning, no nothing.”
    Jess sat down on the bench next to me and continued talking. “Then he meets you, falls head over heels in love with you and you end up in the hospital. You were just standing on the sidewalk, Z.” Jess stopped talking then picked the conversation back up after a moment. “I feel terrible because I told him you wouldn’t wake up after you were hurt. I shouldn’t have said that, but I didn’t know about his family. Oh Zoey, he asked me if you were dead .”
    She sighed heavily, a pained expression on her face and tears in her eyes. “Shit!” She stood up and walked off again.
    My brain went into overload as I absorbed everything she said. It began to sink in and make sense. I thought back to some of the things he’d said and done when I tried to get him to talk to me.
    He kept running his hands over his jaw the way he did anytime we talked about his family, or the accident that killed them.
    Did he think about what happened to me in the same way he thought of the accident that claimed his parents and sister? Fuck, why didn’t I see it clearly before?
    That was it…he thought of me as his family. Because I am…and he is mine.
    God, I’m such an idiot.
    His family was killed in a huge, tragic accident and all I was doing was standing on the sidewalk, talking to my friends. I was just standing there minding my own business. If things had gone a different way, my life could have ended. I could’ve been thrown further out into the street, been hit by a moving car, and killed. I’m sure to him, the possibilities of what could have happened to me were endless.
    “Z, what are you going to do?” Sasha asked.
    Another tear rolled down my cheek, dropping onto the wooden deck at my feet. “I don’t know, Sash. I feel so stupid.”
    Jess came back over, her cell up to her ear and she was talking to someone. Apparently, we were close enough to land to receive cell service again, so I made a mental note to call Dr. Jensen.
    “Here she is,” she said into the phone before handing it off to me.
    “Who is it?”
    “Z, just say hello.”
    The corners of her mouth turned up in a tiny smile when I put her phone up to my ear and said hello as she’d instructed me to.
    “Zoey, are you alright?” asked the deep, accented voice I loved so much.
    “No,” I admitted honestly. I sighed with relief at the sound of his voice. Tears stung my eyes again and trickled down my cheeks. I didn’t know what to say to him, so the words “I fell” spilled from my lips.
    Jesus, Zoey, is that all you’ve got? Tell the man you love him and made a big fucking mistake.
    The silence on the line worried me. “How are you?” I asked him, to end the dreadful quiet.
    “Not good,” he answered softly. “Are you hurt?”
    Just my heart. “It’s only a few scrapes. A crowd swarmed around me and I had a panic attack. Everyone wanted to see the whale so they started pushing and shoving to get to the railing. I got slammed in the ribs and couldn’t breathe,” I rambled, because I didn’t know what else to say.
    “I miss you,” he said finally, interrupting me.
    My chest ached because I missed him too. All I wanted to do was go home, but knew that if I did, we would be right back where we were when I left…drifting further away from each other.
    “I’ve thought a lot about our talk the other night and I think you’re right. We should take some time apart,” Andy said, his voice dejected.
    No! A jolt of emotional anguish shot through my entire body.
    “I’m sorry if I pushed you too hard, Zoey. I didn’t mean to. I