Fragile Love (Fragile Series, #3)

by Lexy Timms

  At least he’s got a plate of fruit, she thought, happily sitting back with her coffee. Her phone vibrated on the table, and she snatched it up in half a second. It was an unfamiliar number, and she knew exactly who it was.

  Please, no. “Hello?”

  Hearing her tone, Cayden looked up, his mouth full of grapes.

  “Is this Lillian Warren?” came a female voice.

  “Yes, it’s me.”

  “Miss Warren, this is Angela from St. Therese Medical Center. We are calling since your number is listed as the primary contact for Mr. Andrew Waters.”

  “Is everything all right?” She felt that awful emptiness in the pit of her stomach.

  “Miss Warren, there has been an incident with Mr. Waters during his routine procedure scheduled for this morning. The doctors have requested that you come to the hospital as soon as possible.”

  The world went dark.

  “Miss Warren?”

  “I’m coming,” she replied, but her voice was hoarse. She hung up and looked at Cayden, her eyes full of tears. “We have to go. Now.”

  Chapter 02

  “WHAT HAPPENED?”

  “I don’t know, Cayden!” she shrieked, going pale. Cayden watched her make a slightly conscious effort to lower her voice. It didn’t help much. “It was the hospital They said something happened to Andrew this morning during the procedure!”

  The old man sitting a couple of booths away leaned out to look at what was causing the racket. Cayden gave him a thumb’s up; the man pursed his lips and turned back to his coffee and newspaper. Something hadn’t gone right at the hospital. Cayden’s concern was for Lillian right now, though. She looked ready to pass out.

  “Stupid doctors,” Lillian said to herself, standing up and almost knocking her plate off the table in the process. “They said this was routine and there weren’t going to be any complications.”

  “There’s never zero risk of complications, Lil.” Cayden stuffed a huge piece of cantaloupe into his mouth and stumbled out of the booth, rushing to catch up with her.

  “Just last night they said nothing should happen. They were pleased with Andrew’s strength. He’s supposed to wake up in no time and be better.” Her feet pounded on the floor with each step. She turned toward the lobby door instead of toward the elevator.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To the car, Cayden! We have to go!”

  “I have to get the keys, Lil,” he said, trying to keep his voice level to calm her down.

  “You go get the keys, then. I’ll be waiting by the car.” She stalked off, and Cayden noticed she didn’t have her purse. All she had was her phone.

  She’s really serious about being here for Andrew, he thought, stepping into the elevator. I mean, I knew she was. But I guess I didn’t realize how important he was to her.

  He didn’t want to feel negative towards Andrew, but it seemed like every time he and Lillian got close something happened that put Andrew in the way of their relationship. It wasn’t fair to think, and yet he couldn’t stop himself for pursuing the thought. First it was the simple visit when he happened to have business in Hanneston, and when he arrived at Lillian’s house he walked right past Cayden like he was invisible.

  That was the first thing that came to mind when he thought of Andrew.

  Ease up, he told himself, quickly unlocking the room door. That visit did get better towards the end. It ended up not being horrible. Still not ideal, but— He groaned. Don’t be so negative.

  The keys and Lillian’s purse were right inside the door, so he was almost instantly back on his way downstairs. The guy never asked to get in a car wreck, he told himself. Lil is probably freaking out since the same thing happened to Amelia.

  She was waiting by the car and was visibly impatient. “Would you hurry?” she called, knocking on the car door.

  Cayden fumbled for the button, and as soon as the car was unlocked Lillian clambered in. He had to jog the rest of the way, so she wouldn’t have to wait more than a second.

  “Come on, let’s go,” she urged, fidgeting in her seat.

  “I’m coming, Lil.” He started the car and turned around as he backed up, taking extra care to check for people behind him since the parking lot was unfamiliar.

  “So slow,” she murmured, but it was plenty loud enough for him to hear.

  “Lil,” he stated, “I’m checking behind us. I’m staying chill to get us there safely.”

  “Yeah, but this is urgent, Cayden. Something happened to Andrew and I need to get there. NOW.”

  “I understand, Lil, but if I drive like crazy and speed up I’m more likely to get us in an accident, and then we would be in the same place as Andrew!” He regretted the words as soon as they came out of his mouth, but she was being ridiculous.

  “I can’t lose Andrew, too, dammit!” she yelled, letting out a sob and burying her face in her hands. Cayden was taken aback at how suddenly her mood had shifted. Unsure of how to comfort her, he reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. She was shaking from fright.

  “We’ll get there in just a minute,” he said. “I’m going to get us there very soon.”

  “I can’t lose Andrew, too,” she whimpered, sagging against the car door. “I’m so sleepy.”

  “We’ll come back here later after everything is settled. Then we’ll sleep for a long time.” The idea sounded deliciously appealing to him, but he imagined it sounded even better to her. She had gotten less than five hours of sleep last night. Partially my fault, he admitted. Mostly my fault, fine. But she loved it. And she enjoyed breakfast, too. That gave him an idea. “Hey, when we get there, I’ll buy you coffee. What do you want?”

  “Nothing,” she returned.

  “Come on. They have a full-on espresso machine. I can get you a latte...”

  No reaction from Lillian.

  “Cappuccino?’

  Her shoulder twitched.

  “Uh...” He tried to think of what else they had. “How about a mocha?”

  Very slowly, she turned her head to look at him from behind her unbrushed hair. “Maybe a mocha would be nice.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about,” he smiled. “We’ll talk to the docs and then I’ll go get you a mocha. With whipped cream.”

  She didn’t smile, but he knew she was sending “yes” vibes to the whipped cream. He schemed a plan to drizzle chocolate on the top, too. Goodness knows she hasn’t been getting enough calories the past few days; her mind is going ninety to nothing at all hours of the day and she needs to take care to keep her physical strength up.

  They said nothing more until they pulled in to the hospital parking lot. He dropped her off at the front door. “I’ll come find you as soon as I find a spot.”

  With a nod, she flew out of the car and bolted into the hospital. He had to drive around for a minute to find a free space, and discovered one far away but in the full sun. Perfect, he thought, hoping it would keep the car warm against the cold autumn air.

  He should’ve walked faster to go find Lillian and be there to support her. He knew it, and the guilt crept up on him like a ghost. But Andrew. Dismissing him during the visit. Then staying with Lillian right after the argument—she swore there was nothing between them, never in the past and never in the future. He could only trust her. And now, right when she agreed to get back together, something dramatic happens. Something involving Andrew always seems to tear the focus away from our relationship and growing together. He almost had to slap his face to make himself snap out of it. He didn’t try to get in a wreck. Lil is just being a good family member. Better than most families are to their own blood, probably.

  Thinking about being there to hold her through her misery motivated him to pick up his pace. When he came out of the elevator on the floor where Andrew’s room was, he looked both ways and listened, searching for some evidence of Lillian. Everything was oddly quiet; nothing seemed out of order and there was no immediate sign of chaos. The people working behin
d the desk were typing away on their computers. A couple of doctors passed him, holding their files and chatting about something that had happened over the weekend.

  He wasn’t sure what to do, so he went back to Andrew’s room. She must be there, he thought. If Andrew’s procedure is over he must be there, too. Something in him felt a tinge of worry about what had happened. If it was something bad, his relationship with Lillian was about to change forever.

  Almost holding his breath, he knocked on the closed door to Andrew’s room. It was quiet inside, and then he heard a sniff that undoubtedly was from Lillian.

  She was sitting in the chair next to his bed, her body tense but drooping at the same time. Andrew was lying there, almost in the same position he was last night. “Are you okay?” Cayden asked. “Where’s the doctor?”

  “I already talked to him.” She turned and smiled sadly, wiping underneath her eyes with the back of her hand. “Everything’s okay now. It got scary there for a minute, but he’s going to be okay.”

  “What happened?” Cayden stood behind her and rubbed her shoulders.

  “Ouch! Too hard.” She sniffed. “After his procedure, they were bringing him back here and he suddenly gasped awake. His body was so shocked that he went into cardiac arrest.”

  “Oh, man.” Cayden looked at Andrew, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Thinking about him in cardiac arrest within the last couple of hours was impossible. “They got him stabilized?”

  “Yeah, quickly so they said, thank goodness. Oh, Cayden, that feels so good. Right there. Do you feel that knot?”

  “I definitely feel it.” The bulge in her muscle was big enough that it felt like someone had embedded a little pebble under her skin. “I know a stretch to help.”

  “Are you being sexual with me?”

  “Shh, Andrew will hear you.”

  “Actually, he might. He’s awake now. I mean, not now. But he’s not unconscious anymore.”

  Cayden shuddered at the thought of Andrew hearing their banter.

  “He’s really deeply asleep, so you have nothing to worry about. He has a lot of recuperating to do.”

  “You know exactly what I’m thinking.”

  She reached her hand up to her shoulder and put it on top of Cayden’s. “Thank you. Hey, what about this stretch? My back is killing me.”

  Cayden circled around to the front of her and took her arm, bending it up very slowly. “Do you feel the pull?”

  “Yeah,” she winced. “All the way down my side, too.”

  “Good. Hold it for a few more seconds.” He looked straight at her closed eyes, at the way her lips surrounded her mouth, at the shape of her teeth as she made the painful face. “All right, you look like you’re being tortured.”

  “I might as well be,” she retorted, lowering her arm. “That’s my stretching face. It always hurts.”

  “That shouldn’t hurt so bad. Seems to me like we need to do a lot more stretching.” He winked.

  “I can think of some stretching we can work on.”

  “We’ll go over some exercises when we get back to the hotel.” Smirking, he stood up and patted the top of her head. “Now, how about I go get you that mocha?”

  Lillian beamed. “Sorry about the panic early. I just...” She glanced at Andrew. “I don’t want to lose him, too.”

  “It’s okay. No need to apologize.” He felt like he should be saying sorry to her, for the unfair thoughts he’d been thinking about the poor guy lying in the bed. “I’m just glad Andrew’s okay.”

  THE BED WAS TOO COMFORTABLE. When she lay down, the mattress felt like it reached up with squishy arms that hugged her body. The blanket was the puffiest she had ever come across, and did nothing to help motivate her to get up in the morning.

  As she sprawled there, taking up eighty percent of the bed and forcing Cayden to the edge, she sighed out loud.

  Cayden grunted. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice muffled. His face was squashed against the one pillow he was given compared to Lillian’s three.

  “I don’t want to get up.”

  “What time is it?”

  She twisted her head as far as it would go and, out of the corner of her eye, saw the red numbers on the little clock. “Eight-thirty.”

  “How much sleep did we get?”

  “About seven hours, I think.” She smiled to herself. They had left the hospital around ten last night, after Andrew’s parents basically forced them out—rather, forced Lillian out. They had commanded her to leave and get a good night’s sleep. Since Andrew wasn’t unconscious anymore, they had insisted on staying through the whole night to be there when he woke up.

  She and Cayden had gone for a snack at a nearby diner. They hadn’t been hungry—well, she hadn’t—but after a long day at the hospital, their stomachs were cold and the poster of a steaming bowl of minestrone on the front door of the restaurant seemed to be a message from the universe that this was the perfect place to end the night. They ate without talking much; she was so overwhelmingly relieved that Andrew was getting increasingly better each time the doctors checked on him. There were no words to describe how it felt— knowing that, although she lost her best friend in the same hospital, she wasn’t going to lose Amelia’s brother to a very similar accident.

  They got back to the hotel and tried to sleep after long, hot showers, but her mood was on the rise and things had gotten frisky very quickly. After all was said and done, as sleep was rapidly enshrouding them in a dark cloud, she had realized how exactly much Cayden meant to her. Even despite their distance and her constantly pushing him away, he had never lost his motivation to be with her.

  She wished she could see herself the way he saw her, and as she fought the urge to go back to sleep this morning she sent all the good energy she had out into the sky that one day this wish would come true.

  “Breakfast!” Cayden shouted, springing up and pouncing on top of her. “I need bacon, Lil. Come on.”

  She rolled her eyes sarcastically. “Is that all you can ever think about? Food?”

  Making sure his face looked extra innocent, he nodded. “Yep. Food and sex. You know I’m a simple man.”

  “I do know, indeed.” Lillian licked her lips and scanned her eyes down his body. “Now, get off me. My stomach is growling, too.”

  Cayden obeyed and headed for the bathroom. Before getting up, Lillian checked her phone. There was a missed call from Andrew’s parents from about an hour ago. Heart pounding, she played the voicemail.

  “It’s not bad, don’t worry!” came his mother’s voice cheerfully. “I just wanted to let you know that he’s woken up.” Lillian heard her sniff emotionally. “He’s okay, Lillian. We’ve got him back. No need to rush here. You’ve been here the whole time and I want you to have a good morning. He’ll be here when you get here.”

  Tears gathered in her eyes as she stood and walked over to Cayden, who was in the middle of brushing his teeth. Without a word, she wrapped her arms around him from behind and wiped her eyes on his free arm.

  “What happened?” he asked through a mouthful of foamy toothpaste. His body stiffened, braced for the impact of hearing something else negative.

  “He’s awake,” Lillian whispered, kissing Cayden’s arm. “Andrew woke up earlier this morning. He’s back.”

  “Really?” Turning to face her, Cayden propped his chin on the top of her head. “That’s awesome, Lil. I’m so happy.”

  She smiled and took a deep breath. “Me, too. Now let’s go get some breakfast and then head back over there.” Cayden saw a glassy look come to her eyes for a moment before she wiped another tear away. “My family’s okay now, Cayden,” she said. “Andrew’s still here. We’re all okay now.”

  THE LOOK OF PURE HAPPINESS on Lillian’s face overtook her entire body the whole time she was with the conscious Andrew. Cayden tried not to be jealous of it. He knew it was totally unfair. But the happiness on her face, had she ever felt that with him? Or because of him? He wasn’t sure.


  She had been shaking from excitement after breakfast—although, in retrospect, the amount of coffee she chugged probably had something to do with her energy spike—so Cayden had to drive to the hospital again. The drive there had been much less stressful than it had been the day before. Lillian bounced up and down in her seat, trying to ease some of the jitters that possessed her, but nothing helped. Cayden dropped her off at the front entrance again, and she practically fell out of the car before it even stopped.

  “See you inside—” he’d called, already feeling the tension rise inside him. Now that Andrew was awake, he would have to share her with him until they left Rodney to go back home. Cayden knew he would probably have to go back to Los Angeles before Lillian left Andrew’s side. The guy is family to her, he kept reminding himself, but the way she hadn’t even heard him as she ran into the hospital at full speed did nothing to help him feel less of an edge about the situation.

  Scowling to himself, he had driven around to find a parking place and didn’t hurry to go inside. So many people in the small room, he grumbled silently, pressing the button for the elevator. He’s okay now. Maybe tomorrow it will be time to take Lil back home. He felt his inner pessimist start to surface, but tried to shove the negativity back down. Lil doesn’t need negative thoughts right now.

  He walked into the hospital room, to see Lillian sitting on the edge of the bed, grasping Andrew’s hand. His eyes were open and, although he looked beyond tired and still slightly bruised, a hint of a smile was on his face.

  Yeah, smile away, man, he thought. Holding my girl’s hand like that sure does make you happy, I bet.

  Andrew’s parents and Lillian looked up when he opened the door, and big grins crossed their faces. “Cayden!” Andrew’s mother exclaimed, giving him a little hug. Andrew’s dad shook his hand and thanked him for being there.

  “No problem,” he returned, shifting his attention to Andrew. “Hey, man,” he greeted, stepping forward and holding out his hand.