“No way.”

Danny’s words made everyone laugh.

Within minutes, Danny held a steaming plastic pipe in his mouth and was inhaling the medicine deep into his lungs.

The tension in Jack’s shoulders eased, and Jessie’s frown and the lines of worry on her face faded.

Soon Danny wanted to sit on the gurney without his mom holding him. Jessie sat him down and took a seat next to Jack. Poor Danny, Jack thought. He must have felt like he was under a microscope with the two of them staring at him, waiting for his next move. Once Danny finished inhaling the medicine in the plastic pipe, the nurse returned and turned off the oxygen.

One of the clerks stepped into the room and gathered insurance information from Jessie, which she handed over quickly. The whole process of documenting her state-funded insurance and the billing for her part of Danny’s expenses was quickly finished up and pushed aside.

By now, Danny had curled up on his side and closed his eyes.

“Thanks for coming, Jack,” Jessie said, sitting beside him.

He glanced down at Jessie’s tired face and put an arm around her. “I’m glad you called me.”

She settled into his arms, much to his surprise.

“Monica is away and I still haven’t got my car back.”

“When did it break down again?” He should have had Max take care of all the issues with her car.

“Remember my date from hell?”

Like he would ever forget it. “Saturday?”

“Car died on the way home. I walked the last three miles.”

Dammit. He shuddered, thinking of her walking at night by herself. Jack squeezed her closer to him, trying to take away all her misery. “You should have told me.”

She yawned. “So you could come to my rescue again? It has to be getting old by now. I’m not usually so darn helpless.”

“Are you kidding? You feed my ego, lady. There’s nothing better for me to do than to take away all the bad things that happen.”

Danny had fallen asleep, and for the first time since he walked through the door to Jessie’s apartment, the boy didn’t look like he was struggling.

“You do. Take away the bad. Tonight I started to panic. If you hadn’t answered…”

“Hey, I did. We’re good. Danny looks better already.”

Jack settled in and stroked up and down Jessie’s arm until both mother and son were nodding off and falling asleep.

Jack placed Danny into his bed and pulled a sheet over him. Jessie kissed her son and stepped out of the room.

It was three in the morning.

“I don’t know how I’m going to make all this up to you.”

“You already have, Jessie.” Jack glanced around the living room. “I’ll just rest up here on the couch.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m sure Danny is going to be fine now. The doctor thought he’d sleep till morning without any problems.”

Jack sat on the sofa and toed off his shoes. “If it’s all the same to you, I’m staying. Save me the trouble of turning around and coming back should there be a need.”

Jessie looked as if she wanted to argue, then shook her head. “OK. The sofa pulls out into a bed.”

“I’m fine on the sofa.”

Jessie disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a pillow and a blanket. “You sure?”

He took his jacket off and winked. “Positive.”

“OK,” she said. “G’night.”

“Good night, sweetheart.”

Jessie smiled before turning and walking to her bedroom.

Jack tossed the pillow on the side of the sofa and unfolded the blanket. Too keyed up to lie down, he sat there for a few minutes and listened to Jessie walking around in her room.

The dark Christmas tree was nearly as bare as it had been a week ago. It was wrong. The lush one that sat in his penthouse suite at The Morrison was what Jessie and Danny deserved. He was starting to forget why he kept his disguise as a poor dreamer. All his half truths and bald-faced lies were getting too carried away.

Tonight while Jessie slept in his arms and Danny snoozed on the gurney, Jack realized how much he’d fallen for her. For both of them.

All of the signs of falling in love were there. For some strange reason, the “L” word didn’t worry him in the least. Perhaps with a different woman he’d feel closed in, trapped, but not with Jessie. The way she looked at him, called him when she needed him. She laughed at his jokes and listened when he needed to talk. The gentle sway of her hips and toss of her hair fired his blood with want.

Even now, Jack heard her tossing in her bed in the other room. He should just go in there and tell her the truth.

Jessie, he’d say. All my life all I ever wanted was for a woman to want me for me. For who I am and not my name or the money I make. Then I walked into your diner, and you took my breath away. I had to know that you would love me for me. I can’t let you go on thinking I’m some dreamer who couldn’t make you happy if you gave me half a chance.

How hard could those words be? They sounded good to him, and he’d been fantasizing about saying them for weeks.

Jack heard the coils in her bedspring squeak and he stood.

Get it over with.

Yet the closer he moved to the door of her room, the more his stomach twisted.

The door was open. Probably so she could hear Danny if he called out.

She shifted on the bed and punched her pillow.

Jack watched her do this a couple of times and smiled. At least he wasn’t the only one having trouble getting to sleep. Jessie shifted again and then tossed her covers off. “Dammit,” she whispered.