by Lane Hart
“I think I can handle that,” I tell him. “Take me back to the room for more poking?”
“God, yes. I have to do another quick interview, and then I’m done.”
“How about I order room service and meet you up there?”
“Hell yeah,” he says with a quick kiss. “Guess I should let you get dressed. By the way, you, in that dress? So damn hot.”
“Thanks.” I laugh, picking it up from the floor. “And thanks for not ripping it up like the yellow one.” One night at his house, he ripped the material off me when we were going at it.
“What can I say? Yellow’s my favorite color, and it was see-through.” Senn chuckles while strolling naked across the room.
He’s massive and so freaking hot that I sigh in contentment just watching him get dressed. I wish this moment could last, this taste of happiness, like the three of us are a real family. Time is running out, but tonight I’ll forget everything except enjoying each second I have with this incredible man who loves me.
Chapter Seventeen
Senn
I wake up spooning Abby, which is probably a first. Usually she sleeps draped over me. My palm rests on her bare belly since we went another round last night after we ate. I move my hand around seeking out more pokes from the baby. Abby doesn’t stir from the contact, and her usual soft snores are absent. In fact, I’m not really sure if her chest has moved with her breathing.
“Abby?” I call her name while shaking her shoulder. Nothing. “Abby!” I practically shout her name and get no response. Jumping out of bed, I roll her to her back and keep shaking her. Blood covers her nose and face, soaking through her pillow and the sheets. “Fuck!”
I feel for a pulse on her neck, finding one, but it’s weak. With a shaky hand, I pick up the hotel phone and dial nine-one-one.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” the operator asks.
“My girlfriend won’t wake up. She’s pregnant and lost some blood. She needs an ambulance.”
“We have the address you’re calling from, and an ambulance has been dispatched.”
“Room 3178,” I tell her.
“I’ll notify the rescue squad. Until they get there, I need you to check to see if she’s breathing. Is her chest moving?”
I place my hand over her heart and hold my own breath while I wait to see if she takes one. When she does, I exhale in relief.
“She’s breathing,” I tell the operator. “Hang in there, Abby.” I sweep the hair from her face and notice her skin feels warm. Feverish. Fuck. How did I not notice her nose bleeding and her body radiating heat? How long has she been this way?
Since I’m naked and want to stay with her on the way to the hospital, I set the phone down and scramble around to put the clothes I was wearing yesterday on, then I open the door and step out in the hallway, ready to flag down the emergency responders.
I go back and forth from feeling Abby’s chest on the bed to the room door until finally a man and a woman in uniform come off the elevator with a gurney and a first-aid bag.
“Down here!” I yell at them, and they jog toward our room. Pressing my back to the wall to stay out of the way, I watch as they examine Abby. She looks paler than normal and almost lifeless as they work on her.
“How long has she been unconscious?” the female technician asks, and it takes me a second to realize she’s talking to me.
“I-I don’t know. We fell asleep…and I woke up, but she wouldn’t…” Fuck! I was so exhausted after the fight and sex that I didn’t notice…
“Does she take any medications? Any pre-existing conditions other than pregnancy?”
I grab her purse from one of the hotel chairs and start pulling out the prescription bottles I know are in there for nausea but don’t know their names, offering them to the tech. “She has cancer. Some type of leukemia. Myloid or something like that. I don’t remember.”
“How far along in the pregnancy?” she asks.
“Almost twenty weeks.” Abby was so worried about the twenty-week mark. God, I hope the baby’s gonna be okay too. This can’t be it. I can’t lose them both so soon. Not like this, without even a goodbye…
I quickly try to text Luke, which isn’t easy with the moisture clouding my vision. He instantly replies, telling me he’ll meet us at the emergency room. By then they’ve strapped Abby onto the gurney with a sheet covering her. A quick elevator ride later, and we’re in the back of the ambulance.
“How is she? How’s the baby?” I ask the male technician while I squeeze her hand, wishing she would wake up.
“The doctors will have to hook her up to the monitors,” is all he tells me. And then when we get to the hospital, they force me to wait in the fucking lobby.
Luke, Linc, Claire, Hailey, and Mace all show up a few minutes later and keep me from throwing chairs at the windows and breaking everything else…for the most part. My fist plows into the wall a few times.
Two and a half hours later, I’m about to go nuclear from being kept in the dark when a doctor finally comes out and tells us Abby is in stable condition but has been admitted for more observation. He says two of us at a time are now allowed back to see her.
Luke and I, of course, go first, taking the elevator to the fourth floor and following the signs to room 4203. My breath whooshes out of my lungs in relief when I see Abby’s eyes are open. She even smiles when she sees us.
“Hey,” she says, pressing the button to raise the head of her bed.
“Hey. How are you feeling?” I ask, going to the side of the bed and reaching for her right hand that’s free of tubes.
“Tired. My hemoglobin was apparently really low, so they’re giving me a few pints of blood. The baby’s fine. See?” She nods to a computer screen that shows a zig zag line and a number read out of one-hundred fifty two.
“Is that the baby’s heart beat?” I ask.
“Yeah, it’s strong, not too high or low. They did an ultrasound, and she was moving around like normal.”
“Good,” I say on an exhale. “I was so fucking worried about you. Both of you,” I tell her, bending down to kiss her forehead.
“I’m sorry,” she says softly.
“You don’t have to apologize for passing out on me. I should’ve noticed with the bleeding and all…God, you scared the shit out of me.”
“See, this is why you need two men in your bed, so both can keep an eye on you,” Luke teases. I really don’t want to hear his shit, though, mostly because I know he’s right. If he had been sleeping on the other side of her, then he probably would’ve noticed the blood or the fever.
I watch with barely contained rage as he kisses Abby’s cheek. He’s here because I told him what was going on; but at the same time, I’m still jealous as fuck watching him touch her. Abby squeezes my hand, drawing my gaze back to her face, like she knows what I’m thinking.
“Luke, could you go ask the nurse if I could have more ice chips, please?” she asks sweetly.
“Sure. I’ll be right back.”
“Thank you for calling him,” Abby says when he leaves the room. “He’s my best friend, but just my friend now, like he’s been for the last three or four weeks.”
“He said he went down on you,” I argue. “I’ve never got on my knees for my friends.”
“Oh, yeah,” she blanches, her face finally having a little more color to it when she blushes. “I forgot about that. But it won’t happen again.”
“Are you sure this is what you want? Just me?” I ask her, even though the words scrape my throat like razor blades. “Because I don’t want you to regret anything…”
With more strength than I gave her credit for, Abby grabs a handful of my t-shirt in her fist and pulls my mouth down to hers. Her tongue slips into my mouth, and then she kisses me like the tiny seductress tease that she is, making me forget that she’s in a hospital and that I’ve spent the last few hours worried to death about her and our daughter.
“You feel that?” she asks w
hen she releases the grip on my tee. “Because I do, all the way down to my soul. But only with you.”
Thank fuck. I know I could share her if I absolutely had to, but it wouldn’t be easy.
“I’ve got your ice, ice, baby,” Luke sings when he comes back into the room with a Styrofoam cup in his hands that he offers to Abby from the other side of her bed.
“Thanks,” she says to him with a smile. “So, um, it doesn’t look like I’m gonna make the flight this afternoon.”
“Shit, I forgot all about it,” I say. “How long do they think you’ll be here?”
“A few days, maybe?” she says with a shrug. “I would rather go home and see my doctors, but the ones here say that I’m too weak and dehydrated to travel.”
“Then I’ll stay here with you, too,” I tell her.
“Me, too,” Luke offers, and I’m proud of myself when I don’t shove him through the wall or bark at him to get lost. He’s worried about her, I know that, so it’s not fair to make him leave.
“Oh no you don’t!” Abby says with a shake of her head. “You’ve got a date tomorrow night that you better not miss,” she tells him, then to me, she says, “My sister set him and one of her friends up on a blind date.”
“Ha!” I can’t hold in my laugh when I see him cringe. I’ve never actually met Abby’s sister, Whitney, but she’s told me stories about her and her snobby friends. It’s also a relief to know Luke’s thankfully gonna be dating other women.
“I’m sure I can reschedule,” Luke says, fidgeting with his Clemson hat, spinning it around his head.
“No way!” Abby replies. “Get your butt out of here and on that plane. Senn’s gonna stay, and having one person stuck here in the hospital with me is plenty.”
The soft spot I have for this woman gets a little bigger when she tells him to go and doesn’t insist that I leave her, too. She wants me to stay with her, to be the one to take care of her, and it’s a nice feeling. No one has ever depended on me before.
“You sure?” Luke asks, and I somehow withhold my adamant response of fuck, yes.
“I’m sure,” Abby responds.
“Well, I’ve got a few hours. Do you want me to go back to the hotel and get all your luggage and bring it over?” he asks looking between the two of us, making me feel like a dick for hating him when he offers to do something so helpful.
“Ah, yeah, if you don’t mind,” I reply, pulling out a key card from my pocket and offering it to him.
“No problem. I’ll be back in a few. Take care, angel,” he says, giving Abby another kiss on her cheek before leaving.
…
Abby
There’s something about having Senn here with me that makes me feel better…safer.
“Thanks for staying,” I tell him. After Luke dropped off our luggage and a quick visit from Linc, Claire, Hailey and Mason, they all have to leave to catch their flight home.
“There was no chance of me leaving,” Senn says, palming my stomach to see if he can feel our little girl. “So, I was thinking,” he starts after a few silent moments. “When we get back, maybe you should come stay with me.”
“Okay,” I agree when his intense amber eyes meet mine again. “I’ll probably have to cut back on my hours at Happily Ever After, but I hope to keep going a few days a week, just so I don’t go crazy with cabin fever.”
“We’ll see what the doctor says,” Senn responds. “Don’t you have someone there to run it while you’re gone?”
“Yeah, Bree can take care of everything, even hiring someone else to help her, but I miss being productive.”
“While being productive is nice, we need you to be healthy, not wearing yourself out.”
…
The next two days go by slowly as my strength improves and I become more anxious to go home. Senn holds up well, trying to keep me entertained with playing cards or finding something to watch on the television. He only leaves the room when I make him go eat, and he always comes back with outside food for me. I tried to get him to at least get a room at a hotel to sleep in a decent bed at night, but he refused and has been sleeping on the cramped recliner next to my bed.
Tuesday night the doctor finally tells me that he’ll be releasing me the next morning, so Senn books us two seats on a flight home. He doesn’t let me walk a step leaving the hospital. I’m either in a wheelchair or in his arms until we get to the plane. I protest, but I don’t tell him that I’m not sure if I could make the long haul on my own two feet since it’ll just worry him.
When we land in Raleigh, Senn insists on dropping me at his house and going to grab us some dinner. I’ve just settled comfortably on the couch when the front door opens.
“That didn’t take long,” I say, looking over my shoulder expecting to find Senn. Instead, there’s a pretty, raven-haired woman in a black and white French maid outfit standing in the kitchen. “Um, can I help you?” I ask, jumping off the sofa to stand up and face her.
“Who are you?” she asks what should be my line since she just wandered into Senn’s house unannounced. Her eyes lower to my belly and widen when she realizes I’m pregnant.
“I live here now, so maybe you should tell me who the fuck you are,” I reply while reaching for my phone on the coffee table to call Senn and tell him some skanky bitch is in his house. Okay, so she’s not really skanky, but I bet she’s a bitch.
“I’m Nikki, Senn’s housekeeper for the past year.”
“What the hell are you wearing?” I blurt out since her outfit looks like something from a stripper’s closet. I’m pretty sure she’s wearing freaking garters. What kind of slutty maid is she?
“Senn likes it so much that he can’t ever keep his hands off of me. I come for him, you know, to clean his house twice every week,” she says with a bitchy smirk that I want to claw off of her perfect face. Here I am, twenty weeks pregnant, looking like something the cat dragged in after laying up in a hospital for three days, and she’s standing there looking like a tall, lingerie model. If she comes over twice a week, every week, when was the last time they were…together?
After the skank wanders off down the hall like she owns the place, I press Senn’s contact in my phone, calling to ask him what the hell’s going on.
“Hey, mama bear. Everything okay?” he answers.
“No. No, it’s not,” I reply tersely. “There’s a woman in your house!”
“A woman…oh, fuck, it’s Wednesday,” he mutters. “I’m sorry. I should’ve warned you that, um, Nikki cleans my house twice a week.”
“She implied that her biweekly responsibilities consist of much more than just cleaning for you.”
“Oh, um, well,” he stutters instead of denying it, making me want to pitch my phone through his big screen television.
“Senn?” I ask. “Have you been fucking her?”
“Shit. When I get back, I promise I’ll explain–”
“No! I want your explanation right now!”
“So, let me start by saying that I haven’t fucked her since…”
“Senn!” I yell when he pauses for too long.
“I’m trying to think to give you the exact time, but it’s not like I wrote them down or shit. Maybe guys do need a fuck diary—”
“How many times since the beach?” I interrupt him to ask.
“Just like, um, twice?” he says, sounding uncertain. “Maybe only once, but I don’t want to undersell it, so it could’ve possibly been twice at the most.”
Tears tumble down both my cheeks at his admission.
“Abby? Are you still there? I’m so fucking sorry, but I’m trying my best to be completely honest with you. It was right after the beach, after I found out about Luke and you told me that you didn’t want me in the baby’s life. And it was definitely before the night I stayed with you and him. After that, there have been zero times. I swear.”
Lowering the phone from my ear, I end the call without another word. She wouldn’t have come over dressed like a slut if
she wasn’t expecting him to fuck her today. I really need to get out of here, especially with her prancing around looking all perfect
Chapter Eighteen
Senn
She hung up on me.
I stare down at my phone in disbelief. How did things go this shitty in a matter of seconds?
After trying to call Abby back three times in a row that go to voicemail, I know she’s obviously pissed at me and it wasn’t a dropped call.
Driving back to the house, I try calling Nikki.
“Hi, hon,” she answers sweetly.
“You’re fired.”
“Wh-what?” she asks.
“Get out of my house now and don’t ever come back.” I barely refrain from cussing her out, but this isn’t her fault, it’s mine. I fucked her. I let her keep coming over. I didn’t tell Abby about her. I’m so goddamned screwed. And Abby really doesn’t need this shit stressing her out right now, the same day she just got released from the hospital.
When I pull up in my driveway, I’m relieved that Nikki’s car is gone. But walking inside, my heart sinks. Abby’s gone, too. It’s worse than I thought. She’s not just pissed at me, but she’s probably hurt and that makes me feel like such an asshole
I call the first person I would expect her to call, mostly just to get back at me.
“Hello?” Luke answers.
“Abby with you?” I ask, straight to the point.
“Ah, no. She’s home? When did you guys get back?”
“Just a few hours ago, but she’s upset with me, and now I don’t know where she is.”
“Sorry, man. I haven’t heard from her.”
That makes me feel a little better that she didn’t go off with him just to hurt me and make me jealous.
“Any idea where she might be?”
“Uh, maybe with Bree or her sister?” he offers.
“I’ll check her office, and then her parents’ house if she’s not there.” I doubt she’s at her parents’ house since they’ve been ignoring her. Which is really fucked up because she’s sick and all; but from what Abby’s said, her family is anything but normal. Sort of like mine only they’re rich instead of poor. I guess money doesn’t always buy happiness.
