And Then You Kiss

by Heather A Buchman

  ***

  Blythe went to her parents’ house. She felt bad about not being able to move into the house in Palmer Lake with Lyric, but until she got through the remaining surgeries, her parents thought it was best that she stay with them.

  It was nice that Bree was at the house. Her parents pushed her to do physical therapy, which she hated. When Bree was with her, she’d let her slack off. Bree would spend the hour talking instead of making her do her exercises.

  “You have to have surgery anyway,” she’d say. “You can do the physical therapy after that.”

  Blythe agreed. What was the sense when she’d only have to start all over again after they put the new pins or rods or whatever other bionics they were going to put in her.

  Renie visited, but she didn’t bring Willow with her. She was afraid the little girl would do something to hurt Blythe.

  “You could stay longer if you brought her. As it is, you have to leave after an hour because you have to get back to her.”

  “I’ll bring her next time,” Renie would say, but she never did.

  Lyric, who had settled into the house in Palmer Lake by herself, came to see Blythe almost every day. She was able to do some RodeoChat work, until either the pain got so bad that she couldn’t concentrate anymore, or she’d take something for it that made her groggy.

  Jace came to see her almost every day too. She never asked him about Tucker. She had no idea what he wanted to talk to her about before the accident, but it didn’t matter now. As he had before, he left. From what she could tell, no one had heard from him, no one knew where he was. She didn’t blame him for the accident, but it hurt that he didn’t seem to care whether she was okay or not.

  “How about a movie today, maybe get some lunch afterwards?”

  Jace tried to get her to go out, get some fresh air, but she didn’t feel up to it. Until her leg healed more, she had to use a wheelchair to get around. The cast on her arm went all the way from her shoulder to her wrist. It was uncomfortable, and it made her miserable.

  It didn’t seem to matter to Jace. He took her bad moods in stride, which only made her irritated with him.

  “Listen, you don’t have to come and see me. I’m fine. Aren’t you supposed to be out chasing girls on the rodeo circuit or something?”

  When he laughed, it made her want to punch him.

  “Billy and I will be headin’ out soon enough, and we’ll be chasin’ eight seconds more than girls darlin’.”

  “Billy maybe. But you can’t convince me you aren’t gonna be hooking up with a buckle bunny or two.”

  “You been talkin’ to Lyric or somethin’?”

  As a matter of fact she had. And it was Lyric who asked her why Jace was hanging around so much.

  “You two together again?”

  No, they weren’t together. How could Lyric even ask her that? She’d had sex with Tucker for God’s sake. And honestly, being around Jace was becoming harder and harder. Looking at him, she thought about Tucker, they were twins after all. Whenever she thought about him, she got angry. And when she did, she couldn’t help but take it out on Jace. The meaner she got, the nicer he was to her. When he left, he’d kiss her forehead, or her cheek. It drove her crazy.

  “I don’t want you to visit me anymore,” she told him, at least every few days.

  It never stopped him. He might take a day or two off, but then he’d be back, as though nothing had been said between them.

  Blythe asked her mother to put a call into her doctor. The medicine she was taking was making her nauseous, and she wanted to see if he could switch her to something else. Instead of calling in a different prescription, he asked Paige to bring her into the office.

  “How complicated does he have to make it?” she asked her mother. “Has he ever been in a damn wheelchair? Does he have any idea how hard it is for me to come into his office? Why couldn’t he call something in?”

  “I don’t know baby,” Paige was trying to be patient with the increasingly irritable Blythe.

  When the doctor asked her to pee in a cup, Paige was sure Blythe would take his head off.

  “Is he kidding?” she asked after he left the examination room. “How in the hell am I supposed to do that?” She pointed to her right arm, the one in the cast, and then at her leg. “Somehow I’m supposed to be able to hold a cup and pee in it?”

  “I think you’ll need help,” her mother said, trying to be gentle.

  “Argh! I spent the first two weeks having to have someone help me every time I had to use the bathroom. I’m tired of it. Forget it. Let’s go. I’ll take Tylenol.”

  Paige wouldn’t budge and made Blythe give the doctor a urine sample. “You’ll get through this.”

  Blythe wished she’d asked Bree to come with her rather than her mother. Bree was easier on her. Blythe might’ve even been able to talk Bree into giving the sample for her, so she didn’t have to.

  They’d been waiting over a half hour when the doctor finally came back in. Blythe started to say something, but stopped when mother put her hand on Blythe’s good shoulder and squeezed.

  He sat down on the stool and wheeled closer to her.

  “Blythe, there’s something we need to talk about, and it’s fairly serious.”

  As if everything she was going through wasn’t serious enough. What now? Her leg wasn’t healing properly? She had to have another surgery? What did that have to do with peeing in a cup?

  Paige sat down. Why was her mother sitting down? And why did she look so pale? Blythe turned back to the doctor.

  “Well, what is it? Spit it out for Christ’s sake.”

  “You’re pregnant.”

  Oh my God. That wasn’t what she expected him to say. Was he joking? Did he say that because she was being such a bitch? She looked into his eyes. It didn’t look like he was bullshitting her.

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Are you saying you haven’t had sexual relations in the last few months?”

  What was he saying? Her mother was in the room. “Yes, I have,” she answered as quietly as she could. “But I’m on the pill?”

  “Are you still taking it?”

  Well, no. She hadn’t been, not since the accident. But she also hadn’t had sex since the accident.

  “Do you remember when you stopped taking it?”

  She thought back. It was a bit of a blur. Between being with Bree when Zack died, and the funeral…all the traveling. Oh no. She couldn’t remember taking the pills with her to California when she flew out there the day after they found out about Zack. And then, with everything going on, she hadn’t remembered to take one since.

  “As I suspected,” he said without her needing to answer. “I would guess you’re close to two months along.”

  “Closer to three,” she answered. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. She’d only been with Tucker one day…and night…and then the next day. Then they’d gotten into the accident. The math was easy.

  “It makes what we have to talk about even more urgent.”

  “What?”

  “Blythe,” he began. “You need to consider the trauma your body has been through in the last three months. You’ve had multiple surgeries, medications, x-rays…”

  “What you are saying?”

  “We need to take into consideration that the fetus may have been compromised. We didn’t take any of the precautions we would’ve had we known you were pregnant.”

  Compromised? What the hell did that mean?

  “There are tests we can run, certainly, but this early in the pregnancy, we can’t be sure any will be indicative of how the baby will be as we get closer to full term.”

  Blythe stopped listening. She was pregnant. With Tucker’s baby.

  “I’m sure you’ll want to give it some thought. Give the office a call to schedule an appointment when you’ve decided what you’d like to do. You can also call this number if you have any questions.” The doctor handed her a business card. He wro
te a phone number on the back of it. “That’s my private service. If you leave a message with them, I’ll call you back as soon as I’m able to.”

  “I’ve already made my decision.”

  “Blythe—”

  “It’s okay Mom. It doesn’t matter what any test says, I’m having this baby.” It was Tucker’s baby, and she was having it. She rubbed her good hand over her belly.

  “There are things you should consider,” the doctor continued.

  “There isn’t anything for me to consider. I’ve made up my mind, and my decision is final.”

  “I have to warn you, there is still a chance the baby will abort itself, and you’ll have a miscarriage. As I said, we have no way of knowing what kind of damage the fetus has sustained.”

  Damage. That’s what Jace said about Tucker, that he was damaged. Blythe knew there was nothing wrong with their baby. The baby wasn’t damaged. No one could tell her otherwise.

  Blythe sent a text to Jace on the way home, asking him to meet her at the house, if he could. His truck was in the driveway when she pulled in.

  “Hey you,” he said, walking up to her mother’s car. He reached in and picked her up.

  “You don’t have to carry me.”

  “I don’t? Gotta tell ya, it’s easier to carry you than it is to push that damn wheelchair.”

  He had a point.

  “Where were you?”

  “At the doctor.”

  He kicked the front door open with his foot and carried her over to the couch in the living room.

  “How did it go? Any news on the next surgery?”

  “No, but there’s some other news.”

  “What’s that?”

  No point in beating around the bush. Maybe this news would push Jace or his parents to try harder to find Tucker.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Jace felt the air leave his lungs. He wasn’t sure how long it took before he was able to take another breath. Blythe was pregnant. Jesus.

  “Nothing to say?” she asked him.

  “Taking it in,” he answered.

  “Where is he?”

  “I have no idea. I wish I did.”

  “You better figure it out.”

  He heard her. She wanted him to find Tucker. He understood. He hoped and prayed he’d be able to. He had no idea where he would even start.

  ***

  Todos Santos. Not deep enough into Mexico, but it was a starting point. Tucker got a job as a bartender, not that he needed a job from a cash standpoint, but he needed enough of a cover to blend in, so no one paid attention to him. There were studio apartments available for resort staff, so he had a place to live.

  He longed to paint, but he never stayed sober long enough to do it. It seemed as though he drank as much liquor as he poured for guests of the resort, yet it was never enough.

  ***

  “Got a minute?” Lyric asked Bree.

  “Sure. What’s up?”

  “What are you gonna do?”

  “Do? Um, in regard to what?”

  “With your life?”

  Bree wanted to tell Lyric it was none of her business, but honestly, it was a good question. She had no idea.

  She’d been living in limbo. First she lost Zack, and then Blythe got in the accident. Her days became a routine of spending time with her sister, or with her mother and father. It wasn’t a routine she could continue. It wasn’t that she had any place else to go, but she knew it was time to make some changes.

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Lookin’ for a roommate.”

  Bree knew her parents had given Lyric a break on the rent for the house in Palmer Lake she’d planned to share with Blythe. Bree doubted they would’ve changed their arrangement with her.

  “Why?”

  “Little too big, and quiet for me.”

  While it wasn’t a big house compared to her parents’ house, the one she’d grown up in, it was certainly big compared to the houses she and Zack had lived in.

  I was thinkin’ maybe you’d be ready to get back out on your own. ’Bout time, don’t ya think?”

  Yeah, it was about time. And why not? When Blythe was ready to move in, Bree could find another place. In the meantime, it would get her out of the rut she was in.

  “Plus, with baby and everything…I can’t quite imagine Blythe will still want to move in.”

  “Baby? You’re having a baby?” Oh Lord, what had Bree almost gotten herself into?

  “Not me. Blythe.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I guess you haven’t talked to her this afternoon.”

  “No, I haven’t. In fact, I just walked in the door when you asked me if I had a minute. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her, or my parents.”

  “Sorry, I guess I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “It’s okay. But, you don’t mind if I go talk to Blythe now, do you?”

  “Course not. We’ll talk again later.”

  “Yes. We will.”

  Blythe was having a baby? Bree didn’t know what to think about that news. No idea.

  ***

  “You’re sure?”

  “Absolutely sure. I’m having this baby Bree. I don’t care what the doctor says; I know there isn’t anything wrong. I can feel it.”

  “You can feel the baby?”

  “Yes…no. I mean, I can’t feel it moving or anything. I just know. I know you don’t believe me, but…it doesn’t matter whether anyone believes me or not. I’m not changing my mind.”

  “I’m not saying you should. I asked if you were sure. You won’t get any argument from me Blythe.”

  ***

  Bree called Lyric and told her that she decided she would like to move in with her. Zack had been gone three months, and while she wasn’t ready to move on with her life yet, she recognized it was time to move out of her parents’ house.

  Bree loved the house in the glen. It was built into the side of a hill. Behind it was a trail that went up Sundance Mountain to the reservoirs above the town of Palmer Lake.

  Once a vacation spot for the Vaile family, they did their best to gentrify the mountain town. In the 1920s, they established the Rocky Mountain Chautauqua Assembly, making Palmer Lake a destination point for many. People from Colorado Springs and Denver, as well as elsewhere in Colorado and Midwestern states, arrived on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad.

  The purpose of the Chautauqua Assembly was to provide entertainment, education, inspiration and outdoor recreation to enrich people’s lives. The Chautauqua Movement flourished in the United States from 1874 into the 1930s. At its peak, over 400 locations around the country held an annual summer Chautauqua Assembly. Like many others, the Rocky Mountain Assembly fizzled by the end of the thirties.

  The Palmer Lake Historical Society had reinstated the assembly in recent years. The one-day event included a Vaudeville show, dinner theater, old-fashioned baseball game, historical walk, nature walk, ice cream social, and church service in the Pinecrest Church, the original location of the assembly.

  Palmer Lake had suffered from the drought in the last couple of years, and the town struggled to maintain its former glory, without much success. The beauty remained however, making it one of the nicest places to live on the Rampart Range. The holiday traditions were a big part of what made Palmer Lake so special. And despite the difficult economic climate, they remained.

  During the Great Depression, the town’s residents erected a five-hundred foot, five-point star on the side of Sundance Mountain above the lake. Each year since then, the star was lit from December 1 to January 1.

  When Bree and her sisters were little, they’d join as many as five hundred other people on the annual hunt for the Yule Log. Another Palmer Lake tradition started by the Vaile family in the 1930s. The hunt was held the first weekend in December. It started at town hall, where residents would gather, sing Christmas carols, and drink wassail and hot chocolate before donning red and green capes to b
egin their trek into the forest.

  Sometimes it took a few minutes to find the eight-foot notched log; sometimes it took as long as an hour or two. Whoever found it was given the honor of riding the log back up the steep road, to town hall, the ropes pulled along by other revelers. Twice in her life, her father had been the one to find it, so she and her sisters got to ride the log.

  ***

  “What are you gonna do?” Lyric asked her over breakfast the next morning.

  “I’m sorry, I was lost in thought. What did you ask me?”

  “I asked what you were going to do.”

  “I don’t know. Go see Blythe.”

  “After that.”

  “I don’t know. Come home. Why?”

  “Bigger picture Bree.”

  “Haven’t thought about it.”

  “Do you think maybe you should?”

  Once again she considered telling Lyric it wasn’t any of her business. But when she turned to answer, she caught the look on Lyric’s face. She was smiling. It made Bree smile too.

  “Got any ideas for me? You certainly look as though you do.”

  “Well, as a matter of fact…”

  “Go on, you’ve gone this far, no reason to hold back now.”

  “What would you have done with your life if Zack hadn’t died?”

  Damn, this girl was direct. Even her parents hadn’t gone there. No one asked her anything about Zack, or their plans, or what she wanted to do now, or in the future. It was as though everyone expected her to continue to live this life of monotony.

  “I was this close to finishing my master’s degree,” she answered.

  “In what?”

  “Sociology.”

  “And what were you going to do with it?”

  “Has it occurred to you that this isn’t any of your business?”

  “Nope,” Lyric said as she got up to get herself another coke.

  “It’s eight in the morning, how much of that stuff do you drink?”

  “Lots.” Lyric didn’t miss a beat. “So back to this degree. What were you gonna do with it?”

  Bree decided it would be less painful to simply answer Lyric since she doubted the girl would ever give up.