Chapter 12
Jack drove Lisa and himself back to the house. When they got to the front door, Lisa stopped Jack from opening it.
"Wait!" Lisa put her left arm in front of Jack. "I need a minute before I go inside."
"Okay," Jack said as he stepped back from the door. "We don't have to do this. We can go somewhere else for dinner. I can get plates, and we can eat out here. I'm willing to do what you need, but I really think we need to go inside and have dinner with the family. Let's just get over this hump and if it's terrible, we'll figure something else out. How does that sound?"
Lisa looked up at Jack. "Okay. Let's go in and have dinner. I'm probably making too big a deal out of it. How bad can it be?"
Jack patted Lisa's back. "Hopefully, it will be a fun family dinner. Let's go in before Lou sends out a search party for us."
The couple went inside, but Lisa was standing in the entryway looking unsure. Jack guided Lisa to her chair and helped her with it. He then sat down in his spot at the table. Everyone else slowly made their way to the table.
Once everyone had taken their seat, Lou stood up to make a toast. "Before we start eating, I wanted to welcome Lisa back home. I know all of this has been crazy and overwhelming, but just know that we are thrilled to have you back here at Heartland." Lou held up her glass and everyone else held up theirs. "To Lisa," said Lou.
Everyone else echoed, "To Lisa."
Lisa sat there feeling a little uncomfortable, but moved that they would welcome her home like this. "Thank you, everyone," Lisa responded. "I may not remember this home, but you all have made me feel very welcome. I really appreciate it. It has made a really difficult situation a little bit easier."
Just then Tim and Jessica walked into the house. Tim spotted Lisa and stopped in his tracks. "Lisa! Welcome home!" Jessica came to stand next to him. "Oh yeah, you don't remember me. I'm Tim. I'm Jack's son-in-law and this is my wife, Jessica."
Jack grumbled. "Ex son-in-law. I'm not Jessica's father."
Lou rolled her eyes at the two men. "I had a feeling you'd be here for dinner, Dad. Have a seat, you two.
Tim and Jessica sat down at the table. Tim looked over at Lisa. "So Lisa, how are you doing?"
Lisa looked up in surprise. "I'm…I'm good. I mean, it's hard to do things for myself right now and the pain meds make me sleepy. However, I'm not in the hospital and I'm alive. I think the hardest part is constantly learning new things about yourself that you never imagined. For example, I learned today that I know how to fish, and do so willingly. I didn't see that one coming."
Tim laughed. "You both get each other to do things that neither one of you would do without each other. Did Jack tell you he's been to polo matches and fox hunts and taken two step classes for you?"
Lisa looked at Jack and back over at Tim. "No, he didn't. We haven't gotten to those stories yet. It hasn't been that long though and my pain meds really do make me sleep a lot."
Tim looked down the table at Jack with a smirk on his face. "So when are you going to get another truck, Jack? It's gotta be killing you to drive a Porsche and not your old truck. Although that truck was a vast improvement on the last one. At least it didn't leave you stranded on the side of the road all the time."
Jack scowled at Tim. "I don't know. It hasn't exactly been a priority lately. I'll get it done eventually. Lisa just got home from the hospital yesterday. It hasn't even been a week since the accident. I haven't even seen my old truck. Does anyone know what happened to it? I've been kind of distracted and haven't even thought about it."
"The police probably know. Why don't you check with them tomorrow?" Lou suggested.
"You aren't thinking about driving that truck still are you?" Tim asked. "I know you don't like change, but I'm pretty sure that truck isn't driveable considering how hurt Lisa is."
"No, I'm not thinking about driving it again, but we left bags in the back of the truck. And all our fishing gear was back there. I'll call first thing in the morning to find out what happened to my truck so I can see about getting our stuff back. I just grabbed Lisa's purse from the cab and got into the ambulance. All I cared about was making sure she was okay."
Tim put his hands up. "Hey, no judgment here. You are probably doing better than I would be if anything happened to Jessica."
Jessica smiled at Tim and then addressed Jack. "He's right. You are doing amazingly well with all of this. Tim would be antagonizing everyone, trying to make them give back my memory."
Lisa's phone went off just then. "Sorry. I need to check this." Lisa got up from the table and walked into the kitchen to look at her phone. It was a text from Edwin saying that he was available the next day to come over and meet with her any time after noon. Lisa texted back with the suggestion that they meet at 1 and asked that he bring her laptop from her office.
After Lisa sat back down at the table, Jack leaned over and quietly asked, "Did you hear back from Edwin?"
Lisa quietly responded, "I did. I suggested he come here at about 1 tomorrow afternoon and asked that he bring my laptop. I need to get familiar with my business again. It's probably not that different, but I need to know what's happening with my horses and what we have going on."
Amy couldn't help but overhear their conversation. "Do you need me here for the meeting, Lisa?"
"Oh, yes. Sorry," Lisa apologized. "I didn't check to make sure that time works for you."
"It's fine. I got a lot done today with my client horse and tomorrow will just be about reinforcing what he learned today. I can be here to meet with you and Edwin whenever," said Amy.
Jack noticed everyone kind of watching Lisa and wanted to take the pressure off. "So how was Banff, Jessica?"
Jessica got excited to talk about her photography and told everyone about the sights she saw and how fun it was to practice her landscape photography more. Soon everyone was chatting away and sharing about their day.
After dinner was done, Lou brought out a pie and some ice cream for dessert, and then everyone just sat around the living room and kitchen talking when they were done eating. Lyndy sat on the couch in between Jack and Lisa. She leaned against Lisa while everyone was talking.
Amy went to move Lyndy, but Lisa put her hand up. "It's fine. She's not bothering me at all." Lisa put her arm around Lyndy. The little girl snuggled into Lisa's side and eventually fell asleep.
Jessica noticed the sweet scene. "I wish I had my camera."
Lisa laughed. "Please, don't take any pictures of me looking like this. I don't need to remember what I look like now. Although, she is pretty cute. I'm glad she feels comfortable enough with me to cuddle like this. What a sweetheart."
Eventually everyone went to their rooms and Tim and Jessica went back to the loft. Jack and Lisa were still sitting on the couch. Jack wanted to go to sleep, but if Lisa was still up, he would be too since his bed was where they were sitting. She seemed deep in thought and he wondered what she was thinking about.
Jack leaned over to Lisa and said, "Penny for your thoughts."
Lisa didn't realize that she had kind of spaced out. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about my meeting with Edwin tomorrow. I don't even know how to tell him that I have lost all my memory from the last 17 years. It seems crazy. I might not believe it if it wasn't happening to me."
Jack scooted closer to Lisa and patted her knee. "That's why both Amy and I are willing to be there for the meeting. We can back you up. You don't have to do this alone."
"It's crazy to me that I feel like I've only known you for 5 days, but I'm already so dependent on you and the family. I'd be lost without you right now," Lisa said quietly.
"You're in this situation because of me. You'd still have all your memories if I hadn't gotten distracted while we were driving home." Jack couldn't shake the feeling that it was all his fault. He loved Lisa so much and it killed him to think he was responsible for everything she was going through.
"You never said what distracted you," said Lisa.
Jack looked down at his hands and then got the courage to look back at Lisa. "I was singing along to the radio. It was a love song and I was flirting with you. It was a really happy moment followed immediately by one of the worst."
Lisa felt for Jack at that moment. She could see how much he was blaming himself for the accident, but she didn't think it was his fault. "You have to stop blaming yourself. I grew up in rural Alberta too. I know that deer can just run in front of your car and there's nothing you can do. How many people do you know who have hit deer, elk, and moose on the highway? It happens. So please stop blaming yourself."
Jack sighed. "I'll try, but I can't promise that I'll be successful. I just really hate seeing you hurt. I'd do just about anything to fix everything for you."
"That's sweet of you to say, but you can't change what has already happened, so please give yourself some grace here," Lisa insisted.
"I know that I can't change it, but it doesn't stop me from wishing that I could. I hate that you got hurt while I was driving. Seeing you unconscious in the truck, not knowing if you were even alive, was one of the worst feelings in my life." Jack pictured it again and wanted to erase the image from his brain.
"I can only imagine what that must have been like. Like I said, you can't change it so give yourself some grace. It's not like you did it on purpose. It was an accident. They happen. That's life sometimes." Lisa pulled out her phone to look at it and realized how late it had gotten. "Oh my! I need to take my pain meds and get to bed. It's late."
"Yeah, I need to get to bed too. I'm just going to go into the bedroom and change into my pajamas and get clothes for tomorrow while you get ready for bed." Jack went into the bedroom and shut the door.
Lisa went into the kitchen and got her meds and some water. She was noticing that she didn't need the medication as often and she was happy about that. After taking her medication, she went into the bathroom and washed her face and brushed her teeth. Coming out to the living room, she saw Jack making up his bed on the couch. It hadn't occurred to her that he didn't have anywhere else to sleep and she felt guilty for not realizing it. She almost suggested that they just go ahead and share their bed, but she wasn't quite ready for that big of a step.
Jack looked up when she entered the room. "Bedroom is all yours. Sleep well. I'm going to go brush my teeth and get some sleep."
Lisa stood there looking at the couch for a second, wondering if she was making the right decision. Ultimately, she knew it would be a bad idea to share their bed. She didn't want to lead Jack on if she didn't have those kinds of feelings for him. Plus, the family would know and might get the wrong idea as well. When she heard the water turn off in the bathroom, she rushed into the bedroom and shut the door. She got into bed and quickly fell asleep.
Jack got into his makeshift bed on the couch and settled down to go to sleep. He felt like he was making progress with Lisa, but he didn't know for sure. It felt like they were friends again and he was pleased with that development in only five days. He fell asleep wondering what the future days would bring him.
To be continued
Author's note: Thank you so much for all the reviews. It has really helped me stay motivated to write. My updates have slowed down a little bit because I had several chapters already written when I started posting. All I had to do with those chapters was do a little editing and then I could post them. I'm trying to stay a couple chapters ahead of when I post so that is part of the reason why the updates have been slower. I'm writing as much as I can, but I've had a little writer's block as well.
I know some people have expressed worry about Tim. He was on his best behavior here in this chapter. He really only pestered Jack about the truck and having to drive a Porsche. In my mind, Jessica made him promise to not be antagonistic and to be kind. Give him time, though. He's Tim. He can't help himself sometimes.