And Then You Kiss

by Heather A Buchman

  The other thing he was feeling was the overpowering urge to talk to someone in his family. It didn’t matter who, his mom, his dad, or his brother. Any of them. He missed them so much. But if he contacted them, they’d try to talk him into coming back. And that was something he couldn’t do.

  Chapter 15

  Blythe was settled in her room, taking a nap. They hadn’t gone shopping, but concentrated instead on getting everything unpacked. Paige and Mark came and helped too. It was almost six o’clock before they finished.

  “I didn’t realize she had this much stuff,” Paige said.

  “When was the last time you were in her bedroom?” asked Bree.

  “God knows.”

  “It was packed full of crap.” Bree thought again how much Blythe took after their dad. No matter where they went, he wanted to buy something. Her mom started saying no before he even set foot in a store.

  Jace had been quiet most of the day. She couldn’t help but wonder what was bothering him. Maybe that they were moving Blythe in with them instead of him. Yeah, that’s what it had to be.

  “Who’s hungry?” Mark asked.

  “I am,” answered Paige. “Are you cooking or buying?”

  “Buying definitely. I’m too tired to cook.”

  “Good. I want to have someone bring me a nice glass of wine, a fabulous meal and then clean everything up when I’m finished.”

  Sounded good to Bree. “Jace, will you join us?” She hated the hesitancy she heard in her own voice, as though she was afraid he’d say no.

  “Of course. Sounds good to me.”

  Funny that he used the words she thought. Although it wasn’t as though she’d thought anything unusual. She was making too much of it.

  “How about you Lyric? We’re buying,” added Mark.

  “Should we check and see if Blythe wants to go with us?” Lyric asked.

  “Yeah, or if she wants us to bring her back something.” Jace and Bree both started toward her door.

  “You go,” she said.

  “No. I’m sorry. Your house. You go.”

  She did. Blythe was sound asleep when she went in the room. She hated to wake her. She’d leave her a note and tell her to call when she woke up. If she didn’t call, Bree knew what she liked; she’d bring her back something.

  Jace was outside with her dad when Bree came back out. Her mom and Lyric were looking at her, but neither said anything.

  “What?”

  “Interesting.”

  “Not that again. What’s interesting Lyric? Spit it out.”

  “Oh nothin’.”

  “It’s something, or you wouldn’t have brought it up.” Bree didn’t miss the look that passed between Lyric and her mom as they walked out the front door.

  ***

  Blythe woke in a cold sweat. Her stomach was cramping. She got up and made her way into the bathroom. Blood. Oh no. God no. She couldn’t be losing the baby. Where was everybody? Why was she here alone?

  ***

  When they came back from dinner, Bree found her in the bathroom, passed out on the floor.

  “Call an ambulance!” she screamed.

  Jace came racing in. “What happened?” He stopped when he saw Blythe on the floor. “Oh God, no.” He scooped her up and carried her out of the bathroom. He could hear the sirens already.

  ***

  Tucker got a chill. Someone walked across his grave, that’s what his grandmother would’ve said. He couldn’t shake the feeling. There were only two other times in his life he felt this way. They were the worst two days of his life.

  He didn’t care what it cost him, he had to call Jace. Something was terribly wrong and he had to find out what.

  He pulled out his burner phone and punched in Jace’s number. It rang and rang on the other end. No answer. Tucker tried again. And again. After the fifth try he left a message.

  “It’s Tuck. Call me,” was all he said.

  ***

  They took Blythe to Memorial Hospital and straight into the emergency room. Paige and Mark were with her. Bree paced in the waiting room. She looked frightened. Jace wished he could comfort her, offer her some reassurance, but he was as frightened as she was. Every so often, their eyes met, but there was nothing either of them could say.

  Lyric was back and forth between the waiting room and outside. She couldn’t sit still. Jace saw her on and off her phone; he wondered whom Lyric was talking to.

  Jace pulled his phone out to check the time. There was a clock on the wall; he didn’t know why he thought his phone would say a different time than the clock did.

  Five missed calls, and one message, all from a number he didn’t recognize. He tried to slip the phone back into his pocket inconspicuously. He’d wait a couple minutes, until Lyric came back in, then he’d go out and listen to the message. He looked at Bree, who was watching him.

  “Did you hear from him?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Did he leave a message?”

  “I think so.”

  “Listen to it.”

  He didn’t know how Bree knew, but she did. He pulled the phone out and listened to the voice mail. It was Tucker all right, and he wanted him to call him back. What the hell was he going to tell him? He didn’t know what was going on himself.

  “What should I do?” he asked Bree. The question slipped out before he even realized what he was saying.

  “Call him. Tell him. And then tell him to get his fucking ass here as fast as he can.”

  “But what—”

  “Call him Jace. Now. Call him.”

  Jace went outside. He couldn’t call Tuck while Bree watched him, and listened.

  “Hey,” Tuck answered.

  “Where the fuck are you?”

  “I’m nowhere.”

  “If I could I’d reach through this phone and beat the shit out of you. Now answer me. Where the fuck are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Well get your ass here as soon as you can, no matter what it takes to make it happen.”

  “What’s going on Jace? At least tell me something.”

  He heard the desperation in his brother’s voice. Where did he start? What did he tell him?

  “You’re about to lose your baby asshole.” Jace hung up. There wasn’t anything more he could say. It was up to Tuck now. He either came or he didn’t.

  “Well?” Bree asked the minute he walked back in the door.

  “He’s on his way. I think.”

  “You think?”

  “It’s up to him now Bree.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “Enough.” Jace hoped it was enough to get his brother here. He prayed it was.

  ***

  His baby? What was Jace talking about? He couldn’t have a baby. He’d only been with Blythe since before Thanksgiving. Then the accident happened. There couldn’t be a baby. But Jace wouldn’t fuck with him about something like this. If his brother said there was a baby, there had to be one. And if there was a baby, it had to be Blythe who was pregnant.

  He left the bar. He didn’t bother to tell anyone he was leaving. He didn’t go back to his room to get anything. He kept his ID and his money strapped to his body. He couldn’t afford to lose either of them, so he kept them on him at all times. There wasn’t anything else in his room he would need.

  When he got to the private airstrip, he went into a stall in the men’s room and pulled out what he thought would be more than enough incentive for someone to agree to fly him out tonight. Immediately.

  Five hours later, they landed on another private airstrip outside of Colorado Springs. It was amazing what you could accomplish with enough cash. It was 3:00 AM and there was a car waiting for him. Tucker called Jace.

  “I’m here. Where are you?”

  “Memorial Hospital.” Jace hung up on him again.

  Twenty minutes later Tucker pulled up outside the emergency room. He wouldn’t have known where to go, but he saw Jace outside wa
iting for him.

  “I’ll park it. Go inside. And beg them to tell you something. You’ll have to tell them you’re the baby’s father.”

  His head was spinning so fast he grasped the door and held on until he was sure he could put one foot in front of the other. He saw Bree and Lyric standing inside. Both looked as though they wanted to kill him. He understood how they felt; he wanted to kill himself more than both of them put together.

  He watched as Bree walked over to the desk. She was pointing at him.

  “You’re sure?” the nurse asked as he approached the desk.

  “Yes. I’m sure,” Bree answered.

  “Come with me then,” the nurse said as she led him through the double doors.

  Blythe was in a room. The door was closed, but the nurse told him to go in. Paige and Mark were with her. Tucker closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

  The look on Paige and Mark’s faces mirrored that of Bree and Lyric a few minutes before. Neither spoke to him. Paige walked out of the room.

  “What’s happening?” he asked Mark, praying Blythe’s father would grant him the grace of telling him.

  “We almost lost both of them tonight. But for now, they’re both stable.”

  “Both?”

  “Blythe and your baby you sonuvabitch.” Tucker could feel the rage coming off of Mark as he walked past him and out the door.

  There was a chair next to the bed. He sat in it, and held Blythe’s hand. It was so cold. He looked at her, up and down, and saw the swell of her stomach. He laid his hand on it and her eyes opened. She put her hand on top of his and closed her eyes again. He thought maybe she hadn’t woken up completely. Maybe he imagined her opening her eyes. But no, he knew she had seen him when tears began to streak down her cheeks.

  He didn’t move for three hours. Periodically someone would come in to check on her, but they didn’t speak to him. They’d check her pulse, and her blood pressure, and then leave again.

  He had no idea what was happening, but Mark had said they were stable. Unless someone told him differently, he’d wait.

  An hour later, Blythe woke up again. “Why are you here?”

  “Jace called me.”

  Jace called him? That meant Jace knew how to get in touch with him all along? Oh God. Blythe felt as though her heart was being ripped out of her chest. Jace, the one she trusted, the one she believed in, had been lying to her.

  “Get the hell out,” she spat.

  “Blythe, I’m so sorry—”

  “Get. Out.”

  Monitors starting beeping and a nurse rushed in.

  “Her blood pressure is spiking. You need to leave,” her voice was low and soft, but the way the nurse said it, she might as well have been screaming at him.

  “What’s going on?” Jace asked when Tucker came back out the double doors.

  “Blood pressure. They wanted me to leave for a minute.” Not exactly the truth, but he had every intention of going back in as soon as they’d let him.

  “Have you talked?”

  “Not very much.”

  Jace pulled his brother by the arm, away from Blythe’s family.

  “Talk. Now.”

  “She asked me why I was here, that’s about it.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “I told her you called me.”

  Jace’s head was spinning. Tucker told her he’d called him? He hadn’t called him; he’d called him back. Up until a few hours ago, Jace hadn’t known how to reach him. He could only imagine what Blythe must be thinking. She must have thought he was lying to her. That he’d betrayed her. He had to get in to see her to explain.

  When he approached the nurse in the waiting area and asked if he could go back, she asked him his name.

  “No. I’m sorry. Ms. Cochran has left explicit instructions that neither Jace nor Tucker Rice be permitted in to see her.”

  “But—”

  “If I’m forced to, I’ll have security remove you from hospital property.”

  Jace noticed that Bree, the last person he wanted to overhear their conversation, had.

  “What have you done?” Bree wasn’t looking at Tucker, she was looking at him.

  He took her arm and guided her away from Tucker. That clearly wasn’t the right thing to do. Bree jerked her arm away from him. “If she’s refusing to see you, there must be a good reason,” her voice was venomous.

  “It’s a misunderstanding.”

  “Right.” She started to walk away, and Jace grabbed her arm again. When she spun around him, he was sure she was going to slap him. By the look on her face, she intended to, but stopped herself.

  “She thinks I called Tucker. Which I did, but as you know, I called him back. There’s a big difference.”

  Bree was thoughtful for a minute. “So she thinks you knew where he was all along.”

  “Exactly.”

  “And did you?”

  “Bree, you and I have had our differences, but you should know that if I had known where Tucker was, I would’ve said so.”

  She looked skeptical, but the look of hatred that had been in her eyes moments before, was gone. She was at least considering he was telling the truth.

  “Bree Fox? Is there someone here named Bree Fox?” There was an orderly standing by the double-doors leading back into the emergency room calling her name.

  “I’m Bree Fox,” she answered, walking in his direction.

  “Your sister would like you to come back.”

  “Please Bree, tell her. Please,” Jace implored.

  She turned and met his eyes, but didn’t answer.

  “Are they still out there?” Blythe asked her.

  “Of course they are sweetie, and they aren’t going anywhere.”

  “They need to. I’ve had it with the two of them. I don’t want anything to do with either one of them.”

  “Blythe, you know I am not Jace Rice’s biggest fan, quite honestly, I don’t like him. But even I believe he’s been telling the truth. If he’d known where Tucker was all this time, he would’ve said so.”

  “Oh bullshit Bree. Come on. The two of them have been using me in a tug-of-war since the day I met them. Jace saw this as his opportunity to win me over. Tucker’s gone, he’s the hero. God, how can you not see through it? I can’t believe he has you snowed.”

  “I mean it Blythe. Tucker called him, and Jace called him back. I saw it all unfold. I watched it.”

  “Did you hear their conversation?”

  She hadn’t. Jace had stepped outside when he called Tucker. But that didn’t change what she believed to be true.

  “Uh huh. Right. Look, it doesn’t matter anyway. Tucker is back, so Jace is off the hook. It makes no difference that I don’t intend to have anything to do with Tucker. Jace can get back to his Romeo cowboy ways. His obligation to take care of his brother’s cast off and her bastard child are over.”

  “Blythe!” Bree gasped.

  “What? Tellin’ it like it is Bree. Those two are trouble. I’ve known it since the first day I met them. I knew it was a game all along. My mistake was that I let my guard down and actually had sex with one of them. I’ll pay for that mistake for the rest of my life.”

  “You can’t mean that. Blythe you couldn’t possibly think this baby is a mistake.”

  “No, not the baby. The baby’s father. We may be tied together by this child, that’s if Tucker doesn’t disappear again, but otherwise, I plan to have as little as possible to do with the man or his family.”

  Bree knew Blythe was reacting out of anger, and hurt. She wasn’t being rational, but she was also laying in a hospital bed and had nearly lost her baby. No one should be expecting her to be rational.

  “What have they said about the bleeding?” Bree asked, in an effort to change the subject, at least a little.

  “They said I have partial placenta previa. Mom said she had it when she was pregnant with me. I don’t understand it, but for now I’m on bed rest.”


  There wasn’t anything about Blythe’s condition or pregnancy that was getting any easier. First she’d been immobilized by the surgeries on her leg and arm, now she would be confined again due to the pregnancy. She knew her sister well enough to know she must be going batty from it. She would have been herself.

  “Will they let you go home at least?”

  “I think so, but they’re waiting to run more tests. I may have to have a blood transfusion.”

  Chapter 16

  Tucker had gone outside to wait. He couldn’t stand being in the waiting area with Blythe’s parents. He knew what they thought of him for leaving. He had his reasons, and seeing Blythe in that bed, knowing she and her baby were still at risk, made him want to catch the first plane right back out of there.

  But he couldn’t. This was something he couldn’t run away from, even if he believed they’d be better off without him. At the very least, he had to make Blythe understand why he left in the first place. After she heard what he had to say, she might decide she didn’t want him to stay. It had to be her decision, or one they came to together. He wouldn’t walk out on her and the baby unless he knew it was what she wanted.

  As of right now, she didn’t want him there, but she didn’t know the whole story. She needed to know why first, and then he would respect her wishes, whatever they were.

  Bree came back out the double-doors. Jace stood.

  “Mom, she wants you and Dad to go back in now.”

  Paige and Mark went in the doors Bree came out of without speaking to Jace or even acknowledging he was still there.

  “This isn’t fair,” he muttered. “Were you able to talk to her?”

  “Yes, I talked to her, but I didn’t get anywhere.”

  “But you know I’m telling the truth.” He squinted his eyes at her. “Or is this your way of getting rid of me?”

  Bree’s daggers were back. “How dare you accuse me of anything, especially lying to my sister? How dare you?”

  “Gotta admit, she’ll believe whatever you tell her. You haven’t made your feelings about me a secret.”