And Then You Kiss

by Heather A Buchman

  “Tucker, wait.”

  He couldn’t wait. He needed to get as far away from Jace as he could, before he did something that would only make it worse.

  “Don’t leave. Let’s talk about this.”

  Talk about it? Was he kidding? Talk about it now? Seven years. That’s how long it had been, and Jace wanted to talk about it now? No, they wouldn’t be talking about it now.

  Tucker had the truck turned around and was about to head back down the mountain when Jace stepped out in the road in front of him.

  He stopped the truck, opened the driver’s door, walked to where his brother stood, and swung with everything he had in him. When his fist connected with Jace’s jaw, he fell backward. Tucker grabbed his shirt, steadied him, drew back, and hit him again. This time he was sure he’d broken Jace’s nose.

  He went to grab him again, but made the mistake of looking in his brother’s eyes this time. He couldn’t stand what he saw in them.

  “Get the fuck out of my way Jace, or I’ll run you over.”

  He walked back to the truck, put it in gear, and pulled forward. Jace was standing near his own truck, trying to stop the blood flowing out of his nose. Tucker didn’t give a shit; he kept driving.

  ***

  Blythe gasped when Tucker walked into the room. “Tucker…is everything okay?”

  “No. It isn’t. But it doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

  Tucker ran his hand through his hair, and streaked blood through it when he did.

  “Tucker! Your hand is bleeding.”

  He looked at his knuckles. Yep, they were bleeding. “It’s nothing. It’s fine.”

  Blythe reached her hand out to him. He walked over and took it.

  “How can you keep doing this?”

  “What?” she asked.

  “Reaching your hand out to me.”

  “I’ll never stop.”

  “Why not?”

  “Tucker, how can you not know?”

  He knew, but he needed to hear her say the words. “Tell me,” he said.

  She looked him in the eye and pulled him closer to her.

  “Tucker, the reason I won’t ever stop is because I love you. And when you love someone, you never stop reaching out to them.”

  ***

  Jace wasn’t sure what to do. He’d never felt so lost. All these years he hoped Tucker would move on from that night, find a way to get over it. He should have known he wouldn’t. At first, Jace waited to tell him until he was out of the hospital. He told himself it would be easier after some time passed.

  Each time he decided to tell him the truth, he found another excuse to put it off. Soon it seemed as though it was too late. He’d put it off so many times, that it got to the point that he couldn’t explain to Tucker why he’d waited so long.

  He should have a doctor check out his broken nose, but he didn’t know where to go. There was only one person he could think of to call who he figured wouldn’t make him answer many questions about what had happened. He hoped he could reach her. And that she was close enough to help him.

  “Hey, it’s Jace,” he said when Lyric answered. “Sorry to call so early.”

  “It’s okay, I’m up. Uh, you don’t sound too good.”

  “Yeah, that’s why I’m calling. I think my nose is broken.”

  “Oh my lanta! What happened? You practicin’ at six in the morning or somethin’?”

  “Nah. This had nothin’ to do with a horse.”

  “Uh oh. That doesn’t sound good either. Okay, where you at?”

  “It might be better if I came to you. Where are you?”

  “I’m at the house.”

  “You are? I didn’t see your car when I left.”

  “I got here a few minutes ago, but now I’m dying to know when you left that you didn’t see my car. Damn, did I ever hook up with the right folks. Followin’ along with all your drama makes my life look like a walk in the park.”

  “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.”

  Jace hadn’t thought there would ever come a time that he’d willingly tell anyone what happened the night of Tucker’s accident, but for some reason, he knew Lyric was the first person he was going to tell.

  “Let’s meet at the Speedtrap. Know where that is?”

  He did. It was a coffee place only a couple doors down from O’Malley’s, right on the main drag.

  “I’ll be waiting out front,” Lyric said before she disconnected the call.

  “Hey there,” said Bree. “I didn’t know you were here.”

  “Yeah, I just got here. And, uh, sorry ’bout this, but I’m leavin’ again.”

  “Now? You’re leaving again now?” Bree looked over at the clock on the stove. “But it’s six in the morning.”

  “Had a friend call. In a bit of trouble, gotta go bail him out.”

  “Of jail?”

  “No, not that kind of trouble. But, I don’t have time to get into it right now. I gotta go get him.”

  “Uh, okay. Well, bye then.” Bree was pouting.

  “Sorry Bree. I’ll see you later though. I’m going to see Blythe, at least that’s what I was planning on.”

  “She’d like that.”

  “Okay, I’ll catch up with you later. And, by the way, you don’t look so good. I think maybe you should go back to bed for a few hours. Get some more rest.”

  Bree laughed. “Thanks Lyric. Nice to know I can always depend on you to tell it like it is.”

  “Tell like I see it. Bye!” Lyric was out the door before Bree decided she wanted to come with her or something equally disastrous.

  “Holy smokes!” she said when she saw Jace. “You aren’t kidding your nose is broken. Jeez! What’s the other guy look like?”

  “Not a scratch on him, except maybe where his hand connected with my face.”

  Jace’s nose was swollen to the point where Lyric might not have recognized him. “We gotta get you to an emergency room.”

  “Uh, okay. But is there another hospital other than Memorial?”

  “I think so, but why? Wait, you know what? Never mind, forget I asked. Get in the truck, and I’ll see if I can figure out the next closest.”

  Jace wanted to thank her, but it hurt so much to talk, he didn’t want to keep trying.

  “Thanks,” he managed.

  “You got it. I tell ya, someday I am gonna write a book about you crazy Rice boys, might even throw Patterson into the story.”

  “Not funny.”

  “Wasn’t tryin’ to be. I am gonna write a book. You guys are too good of characters to pass up. Mark my words, it’ll be a runaway best seller.”

  Jace added Lyric’s book to the long list of things he didn’t want to think about right then. In fact, he’d love it if he could stop thinking completely.

  ***

  The next closest hospital wasn’t that far from the one Blythe was in. Lyric pulled up to the emergency room door and told Jace she’d park while he checked in.

  Her phone pinged, this was turning into a very busy morning. She checked the number. It was Bullet’s. She didn’t have time for her brother right now, she was busy dealing with another twin. Bullet really screwed up this time, and even though Lyric told him she wasn’t going to help him out, she had. He’d have to try to handle things on his own for a little while. If she didn’t force him to, he might rely on her for the rest of their lives. He needed to grow up, and her stepping in all the time was keeping him from doing so.

  Jace wasn’t in the waiting room when she came in. The woman at the desk asked if she could help her with something.

  “Nah, I’m waitin’ on the cowboy with the broken nose,” she answered.

  The woman smiled. “Even with a broken nose, you can tell he isn’t bad to look at.”

  “I heard that,” Lyric smiled. He was pretty nice to look at, but she was staying far away from that man. First of all, he was trouble, she could feel it seeping off of him. Second, there was something between Jace and Bree, it w
as obvious to everyone but the two of them. There was a fine line between love and hate, she’d said the same thing to Paige.

  Watching the two of them vacillate between the two emotions was exhausting.

  ***

  “Where do you want me to take you?” Lyric asked Jace when he came back out to the waiting room. He didn’t look much better than he had when he’d gone in. In fact, he looked worse. His nose was packed with something, and he held an ice pack up to it.

  “Back to my truck.”

  “Sure you can drive?”

  “No. Probably not.”

  She couldn’t take him to the house. She knew that much. If Bree saw him like this, who knew how she’d react. If she took him out to Billy’s, Renie wouldn’t react well either.

  “Are Billy and Renie at the ranch or are they in Crested Butte?”

  “They’re in Crested Butte. Liv had the baby yesterday, or was it the day before. I have no idea, days are kinda runnin’ together on me.”

  “You have a key?”

  “Nope, but I know where they keep it.”

  “Think they’d mind if you crashed there?”

  No, they wouldn’t. In fact, they thought he was staying there, but last night he’d fallen asleep on the couch with Bree. He wished now he hadn’t left her this morning. But Tuck needed him, and he had to go to him, even if it meant his secret was now exposed.

  He may have severed his relationship with his brother forever, but in doing so, he may have finally given Tucker what he needed to move on with his life. If he did that, he’d be able to be with Blythe and his baby, like he should be.

  “You wanna talk about it?”

  Did he? No, he didn’t want to, but he needed to.

  “Guess I better.”

  Lyric had been at Billy and Renie’s house enough to know where they kept the booze. She pulled out the bottle of Jack and set in on the kitchen counter in front of Jace.

  “How you feelin’?”

  “Been better. Although it’s been a long time since I have.”

  “Let’s hear it.”

  Jace took a deep breath. He’d never told a living soul the story he was about to tell Lyric. He’d buried the words so deep, he wondered if he could pull them out of where he kept them hidden.

  “When Tuck and I were in high school…” he began.

  ***

  “We’re going to let you go home, but understand, you have to stay on bed rest or we’ll see you back here.”

  “I understand.”

  The doctor looked at Tucker. “Will you be the one taking care of her?”

  Would he? He assumed so, but where? He had a lot to figure out, and he needed to do it in a hurry.

  “We can stay with my parents,” Blythe reassured him.

  “For now.”

  “You should call them and let them know.”

  “Right, right. I’ll call them.”

  Blythe wanted to giggle at how flustered Tucker was. She’d never seen him this way. And it didn’t have anything to do with what had happened earlier. He was flustered about her, and their baby. She watched him, until he finally looked her in the eye.

  “Nervous?” she smiled at him.

  “Uh, yeah. Terrified might be a better word for it,” he smiled back at her, then he got a more serious expression. “I don’t want anything to happen to you Blythe. I couldn’t stand it if something did.”

  “Nothing will.” She took his hand. “I promise.”

  Tucker called Blythe’s parents, hoping Mark would be the one to answer the phone. He wasn’t, but Paige said she’d put him on. He could tell by the tone of her voice that Mark must’ve told her about their talk.

  “We’ll leave now,” Mark told him. They were there before the nurse came back in and to go over Blythe’s discharge instructions.

  Chapter 19

  “You’ll stay downstairs,” said Paige. “You’ll have it to yourselves, unless you need us.”

  Her parents’ house had three floors, as many of the homes in that part of Colorado did. Upstairs there were four bedrooms and a loft that served as her mother’s office. On the main floor there was a large kitchen with an eat-in area big enough to seat fourteen people at a long table made of reclaimed barn wood that had benches on either side of it. There was also a formal dining room, a living room, music room, and a guest room.

  On the lower level, there were three more bedrooms, a family room, another smaller kitchen, and her father’s recording studio. There were sliding glass doors off the family room that led directly outside where there was a hot tub.

  She and Tucker would be comfortable downstairs as long as they needed, or wanted, to stay there.

  “Is this okay with you?” he asked when her parents went to get their car from the parking lot.

  “It’s a perfect solution if you think about it.”

  “I could try to rent a place, but we’d have to furnish it, and—”

  “Tucker, relax. We don’t have to figure everything out today. My mom and dad have plenty of room. It’ll help too, having my mom close by.”

  He had to admit that would take a load off his mind.

  “Where’s Jace?”

  “I have no idea,” he practically growled. “I don’t want to talk about Jace right now.”

  She let it go for now, but Jace had been her rock over the last couple months. She asked him whether the fight he’d gotten into was with Jace. He told her it was, and that he didn’t want to talk about it, but it hadn’t been about her.

  Blythe couldn’t imagine what it could have been about if not her. She’d let it go for now, but she wouldn’t be able to stand the two of them being at odds if she could do anything about it.

  When they got to the house, Tucker insisted on carrying her inside. Paige went ahead of them and turned down the sheets in the bedroom.

  “Can I get you anything to eat baby?” she asked once Blythe was settled.

  “I’m starving.”

  “How about you Tucker?”

  Tucker’s stomach rumbled at the mention of food. “I guess I am pretty hungry, now that you mention it.”

  “You got a bag or something?”

  “What?” Tucker asked Mark.

  “You know, clothes, that kind of stuff?”

  “Uh, no. I left where I was in a big hurry so…”

  “Jace got some stuff you could borrow?”

  Blythe looked at Tucker, worried about how he was going to react.

  “Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ll go out later and pick up some stuff of my own.”

  “I’ll go see if I can find something in the meantime,” Mark told him.

  Her mom and dad left, each on a different mission.

  “Come here,” Blythe said to Tucker, and patted the bed next to her.

  “I’m more nervous now than I was at the hospital Blythe. I don’t want to do anything to hurt you.”

  “Then get over here and hold me. If you don’t, you’ll hurt me more.”

  When Paige came back, she found them both sound asleep. She put the tray of soup and sandwiches on the counter in the kitchen. It would be there when they woke up.

  She couldn’t help herself, she couldn’t take her eyes off them. She’d never seen her daughter look so peaceful. It was as though Tucker was all she needed to complete her. It was a sight she wasn’t ever sure she’d see with her youngest daughter. Mark found her leaning against the door jam of the bedroom when he came down with clothes and other essentials for Tucker.

  “Whatcha’ doin’?”

  “Looking at them.”

  Mark put his arm around Paige’s shoulder and looked over her head.

  “They look happy.”

  “Tired, but yes, happy.”

  “Let’s go before we wake them.” Mark led Paige toward the stairs.

  ***

  “Wow,” Lyric put her rested her elbows on the counter in front of her and put her head in her hands.

  Maybe he’d been wron
g to tell her. Maybe she was judging him. God he wished she’d say something other than wow.

  She stood up and put her hands on his shoulders. “I gotta tell ya, as bad as this seems to you, and as bad as it seems to Tucker, it’s something you have to talk about, and get it over with. Rosa wasn’t who Tucker thought she was and he needs to know that.”

  “I’m not who he thought I was either.”

  “Gotta say, you were a shit, but come on, you were what? Seventeen, eighteen?

  Jace let out a huge breath. He hadn’t realized how long he’d been holding it.

  “I’m not sure he’ll ever forgive me.”

  “He will Jace. Maybe not as quickly as you want him to, but he will.”

  ***

  Bree left the hospital in a huff. No one bothered to call her to tell her sister was being released. She had no idea where anyone was, and no one seemed to care where she was. She checked her phone every couple of minutes, to see if anyone was trying to get in touch with her. And no one was. Jace was probably with Blythe, even with Tucker back, her sister would remain his number one priority.

  Bree called her mom, and then her dad, but neither answered. Blythe’s phone went straight to voice mail. She wouldn’t call Jace, even if she had his number, which she didn’t. And Lyric seemed to be operating in her own world, coming and going at all kinds of crazy hours.

  There wasn’t anything she felt like doing alone, so she’d go back to the house, and wait. Maybe moving home hadn’t been such a good idea, but there wasn’t anywhere else for her to go. She and Zack hadn’t made a home anywhere else. When her eyes filled with tears, the rest of her filled with anger. There had to come a time when she stopped feeling sorry for herself, might as well be today.

  Instead of heading into Palmer Lake, she turned the car around and got on the highway heading to Colorado Springs. She’d either stop and see what was playing at the movie theater, or she’d keep going south and maybe walk around downtown. She needed to learn to do more things alone, she’d be spending a lot of time that way in the foreseeable future.

  ***

  “They’re at Paige and Mark’s. Paige said they both fell asleep about ten minutes after they got there.” Lyric told Jace.