by Tamie Dearen
Josh saw Brad straining to watch him without moving his head, so he pulled up a chair and sat eye-level with him. “I hope your memory is functioning again, because this is a long story. I’m hoping I’ll only have to tell it once.”
*****
“And so you see, I kept my promise. I didn’t tell Brad what you told me, and I got him to agree to look for work somewhere else.” Ben found no encouragement in the look of shock on Grace’s face. Thank goodness she was still a bit groggy from the medication. Maybe she wouldn’t remember anything he told her. He glanced over his shoulder where Olivia leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. At least no one else was in the room to witness his confessions.
“You told him I was going to have plastic surgery?”
“No, no, no. I only told him you considered it. And only as a way to escape the stalker. I told him I’d already talked you out of it.”
“Oh great—that’s so much better.” Olivia laughed at her sarcasm, but it didn’t seem funny to Ben.
“I still don’t understand,” said Grace. “What happened to Brad? How did he get hurt?”
Olivia spoke up, “Brad went to the school to talk to you and heard you’d gone to have surgery—plastic surgery.”
“I can’t believe that girl seriously thought I was having plastic surgery. Has she never heard sarcasm before? I was so obviously kidding, and my principal went right along with it.”
“Brad believed it because he’d already heard it from Mr. Storyteller, here. He wanted to stop you, but he didn’t know where you were. And you texted him to call you, but you had his number blocked. And then when he got your last message, he figured out you were at Mercy General. He found you in the waiting room and was in the process of kidnapping you when he fell on the sidewalk and knocked himself out.” Olivia pulled up a chair and sat beside her sister’s bed.
“Not quite the knight in shining armor,” said Ben. “But at least it proves he cares.”
“Emily said it was obvious he was using his body to cushion you from the fall,” Olivia remarked. “And Claire wanted me to remind you she’d be glad to take Brad off your hands if you aren’t interested.”
“No one is taking him off my hands. I think it’s kind of romantic he tried to save me, even if he did fall while he was doing it.”
“Well, you’re not back together yet,” said Olivia. “And Ben still needs to go confess the truth to his brother.”
“If you look at this whole thing objectively, everything has worked out rather well,” said Ben. “I mean, my methods were a bit unconventional, but I managed to get the results you wanted without breaking my confidence. Right? Doesn’t that count for something?” He tried to read Grace’s expression. He knew he was in trouble with Brad. No big deal—he was always in trouble with his brother. But he couldn’t stand having Grace mad at him. When she smiled at him, he felt the tension flow out of his shoulders.
“Yes, it counts for something.” She arched her brows. “But you’re not off the hook. When you said you would ‘think of something’ you didn’t say you were going to make up something that involved me. Your ‘something’ was only supposed to be about Brad.”
“But Grace,” said Olivia. “You got yourself in this mess when you weren’t honest with Brad in the beginning. You should have just talked to him.”
“Ha! Easy for you to say, Miss Perfect. I don’t see you with a boyfriend. You’re not any better at relationships than I am.”
“I think you’ll find I’m quite skilled at what I do. I keep all of them at arm’s length. I don’t have time for them. I’ve got nursing school, and then I’ve got—”
“The M-CAT and medical school,” Grace interrupted. “I know. I’ve heard it plenty of times. Are you going to wait until you’re in your thirties before you date a guy seriously?”
“What’s wrong with that? In my thirties, I’ll have my career going and I’ll be more mature.”
“All the good ones will be gone by then,” Grace quipped.
Ben observed the exchange in silence, but he couldn’t help grinning.
Olivia gave his arm a playful punch. “What are you smiling about?”
“I was thinking I might enjoy having a sister.”
*****
“Don’t worry, Grace. You look fine,” said Ben.
She pulled her hands down from her hair and held them at her sides, her hands balled into fists. She wasn’t ready to see Brad yet. Why had she agreed to go with Ben?
“Could you slow down a little? My legs are a lot shorter than yours.”
“Oh, sorry. I promise he’ll be so glad to finally get to talk to you, he won’t care about anything else. In fact, I’m hoping he won’t even ask me to explain my story.” Ben shortened his stride as he patted her on the back.
“I don’t know. What if he’s mad? I didn’t talk to him for a long time. I know I had a good reason for it—or at least it seemed like a good reason at the time—but he doesn’t know that.”
“I’m telling you, he won’t care. Stop worrying.”
“Maybe I should wait until he’s released from the hospital.”
“No, I already told Josh I was bringing you. Brad will be disappointed if you don’t come.”
She rubbed her sweaty palms on her pants and followed Ben through an open door. Josh was sitting in a chair talking quietly on his cell phone. Then her eyes fell on Brad, and her heart clenched. There he was lying in a hospital bed, so still he almost looked dead. And he’d hurt himself trying to protect her. Within seconds, her eyes were swimming.
“Hey Grace. Come here, baby. I can’t lift my head.”
“Why not? Is your neck broken?” She moved to stand beside him.
“No, I had a spinal tap, so I need to lay flat on my back to prevent a bad headache. Well, in this case, to prevent my headache from getting worse.” He reached out to take her hand, pulling her fingers to his lips and pressing a tender kiss. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“I’m sorry you’re hurt.” She squeezed his fingers.
“I’m just glad you didn’t mess up your face.”
“Eh-hem,” Ben cleared his throat. “Looks like you don’t need me. I guess I’ll leave you two alone.”
“No you don’t,” said Brad. “Why would you tell me she had a stalker when it wasn’t true? You knew how upset that would make me. Why would you make up something like that?”
Ben chuckled. “I thought by now you wouldn’t be so gullible. No, wait—I’m kidding. It was Grace’s fault... She wouldn’t let me tell you the truth. I had to do something. And the way I see it, you should be grateful. My story was ultimately what brought you back together.”
“Are we back together?” asked Brad, his eyes searching hers. “I still don’t know why you broke up with me again. I told you I wouldn’t push you or say the L-word anymore.”
“It seemed like the only alternative at the time, but well... After I talked to Mom I realized I was trying to control things.”
“What things? What were you trying to control?”
She glanced at Josh who was still concentrating on his phone conference with intense tones. Good—he wasn’t listening. She lowered her voice.
“I didn’t want you to stay in New York for me. I knew you were wearing yourself out working here, and you couldn’t move to a better position as long as you stayed here.”
Brad frowned. “I’m not wearing myself out here. I love my work, and the hours aren’t that bad. I need the experience before I can hope to head up an emergency medicine department anyway.”
“But I think you’re working too hard. You hadn’t been sleeping well, and you looked really tired.” She didn’t want to bring up the fact Josh would be in line to get the department head position.
He began to chuckle. “You’re right—I haven’t slept well in months.”
“You see, I was right.” Grace stuck out her chin. “I’m a woman and we’re sensitive to these kinds of things.”
“Yeah,
but you were wrong about the reason. It’s not work—it’s you. I haven’t slept well since you first broke up with me. You screwed up my mind.”
“What? Are you saying I’m the reason you look so bad?”
“I didn’t know I looked that bad.”
“You do!” Ben smirked; “You look like...” He stopped, glancing at Grace, before he continued. “Uhmm, you look like something that comes out of the south end of a chicken.”
Brad rolled his eyes toward his brother. “Thanks so much, Ben. As always, your input is so helpful.”
“I’m sorry I tried to control everything myself. I’m kind of used to being in charge. Yesterday, Mom told me everything would work out if we made the decisions together.”
“I wish you would’ve talked to your mom a long time ago.” His smile was devastating. How could she have kept herself away from him for so long?
Grace leaned over to press her lips gently against his forehead.
“Really?” he teased. “After risking my body to save you from the evil plastic surgeon, all I get is a forehead kiss?” He pulled on her arm, reeling her in. “Come here.”
She pulled against him, her face burning with the knowledge Ben was watching them, but she didn’t resist too hard. She really missed kissing him. He was grinning and she was giggling as she let him win the battle. His hand slipped behind her neck, dragging her face toward his waiting lips.
“Brad?” A feminine voice interrupted their game. “What’s going on?”
Grace jerked out of his grasp, straightening to stare at Kara Dickson.
“Kara? What are you doing here?” Brad asked.
She ignored his question. “Are you back with her? I can’t believe it! When we made love this afternoon, you told me you weren’t dating anymore.”
Grace felt the blood draining from her face, as revulsion boiled in the pit of her stomach. She looked at Brad, waiting for him to deny the accusation.
“Kara, I don’t believe that happened,” said Brad. “In fact, I don’t even remember being at your apartment.”
“You don’t remember? You don’t remember being with me?” Tears began to streak down her face. “You don’t remember any of those things you said to me?”
Josh stashed his phone and stepped forward to take Kara’s elbow. “Dr. Dickson, this isn’t the time—”
“Not the time?” She shook her arm from his grasp. “When is the time? After I find out I’m pregnant? We didn’t use protection, so it could happen. What were you planning to do? Did you think I would get an abortion? Because I won’t do it!”
Grace didn’t realize she was moving until she heard Brad’s voice calling behind her, “Grace! Wait, Grace! Don’t go!”
*****
Brad was struggling against Josh, who was holding him down. “Don’t move! You can’t move! I’ll go after her! Just promise me you’ll lay here!”
“Please,” he gasped for breath. “Please stop her. Bring her back.” He felt a sharp pain in his chest as if someone had ripped his heart from his body.
“Okay. Just don’t move!” Josh flashed a deadly look at Kara before running out the door.
Brad squeezed his eyes shut, embarrassed to realize there were tears on his cheeks. He felt a cool hand caressing his arm and opened his eyes to find Kara at his bedside. He jerked his arm away. “Don’t touch me!”
“How can you say that? How can you simply turn your emotions off like that? You said we had something special—something real.”
He had no answer for her. Part of him didn’t believe her story, but he couldn’t remember most of what he’d done that day. If he’d truly slept with her, he would despise himself. He wouldn’t even use the concussion as an excuse. A chill of death settled in his bones. Life was cruel to tease him with hope and jerk it away.
“Hi. I’m Ben. Remember me?” Ben had a silly grin on his face as he offered his hand to Kara.
“Yes, Ben. I remember meeting you at the Marshall’s dinner.” She smiled and Brad was reminded of Kaa in Jungle Book. He half expected her to break out into a round of Trust Me.
“So Brad’s finally found a girl who’ll take him—flaws and all. It’s been so long since he dated Leah.”
Brad speared his brother with his eyes and growled a warning, but Ben ignored him.
“I didn’t notice any flaws,” she proclaimed. “In fact, he’s got a great body.”
“Runs in the family,” Ben said, puffing out his chest. “But his tattoo on his hip didn’t bother you?”
Brad would have beaten his brother if he could have moved from the bed. He yelled, “Ben, wh—”
“No Brad.” Ben laughed out loud. “I’ve got you this time. You can’t make me be quiet, Bro. I’ll just take her outside and grill her. Anyway, you should thank your lucky stars. I can’t believe you found a girl who doesn’t care.”
“I like tattoos,” said Kara. “It didn’t bother me at all.”
“You don’t mind he’s got another girl’s name on his hip? It’s not like he can change ‘Leah’ into ‘Kara’. It’s a permanent thing.”
“Uh... No... I suppose it bothered me at first. But then I realized it simply means he’s extremely devoted. Maybe someday he’ll have my name tattooed over his heart.”
“Let me get this straight,” said Ben. “You saw that tattoo and you had sex with him anyway? Didn’t you at least make him explain it?”
“In the heat of the moment, I didn’t want to stop and talk.” Kara winked at Ben. “I mentioned it afterward, and he explained Leah was from a long time ago.” She shrugged. “I’m not the kind of girl who’d hold something like that against a guy. How many years did you say it had been?” She held Brad’s gaze with an expectant stare, waiting for his answer.
“I didn’t say,” said Brad.
“Yes, you did. You explained about dating Leah and breaking up with her, but I don’t remember how many years you said it had been.”
Brad smiled. “I don’t think so, because Leah was my dog. I did love her a lot, but I didn’t date her.”
Her smile faltered. “I guess you were confused from the concussion. Or maybe you were embarrassed you had a dog’s name on your hip.”
Brad turned to Ben. “Okay. You’ve totally redeemed yourself. I hereby forgive you for all the lies you told me.”
“All of them? Awesome.”
“No wait—just the lies about Grace.”
“Too late. You said all of them, and I’m holding you to it.”
Kara’s face was turning redder by the minute. “I’m telling you, you really did say Leah was your girlfriend. You just don’t remember it.”
Ben began chuckling. “Kara, the gig is up. There’s no tattoo.”
Her jaw dropped, “No tattoo? I mean... I knew that. I was just...” Her eyes narrowed on Ben’s. “You! You’re a—”
“I wouldn’t complete that thought if I were you,” said Brad. “I think you’d better cut your losses and leave now. And believe me, you’ve got some losses built up.”
Her gaze was cold. “You don’t know what you’re throwing away. We could have been good together.”
“I thought you might want to know, I recorded our conversation.” Ben winked, wagging his cell phone in his hand. “I’m just sayin’...”
*****
Josh caught up with Grace before she made it to the end of the hall. “Grace, wait. Let me talk to you. You need to know some things about Dr. Dickson.”
She gave no resistance when he led her to a consultation room. She sat quietly, studying her fingernails.
Wishing he could reveal everything he knew about Kara Dickson, he finally decided to keep it simple.
“She’s dishonest—you can’t trust anything she says. It’s quite possible she made the whole story up. We have no way of knowing Brad slept with her.”
She regarded him with wide eyes, but didn’t respond. He tried to imagine what she was thinking. But she was a woman—she could be thinking almost anything.
/> “Grace, did you hear me? I said it might not even be true.”
She sat up straight and lifted her chin. He detected only a slight tremble in her chin when she spoke. “By the rules of logic, you’re saying what she said might actually be true. Right?”
He groaned. “Technically, yes. But since when do women think logically? It’s just Brad was totally out of it today after he hit his head. He doesn’t remember anything. Nothing he said or did made any sense whatsoever.”
She pressed her lips together, giving a small nod and lowering her head to hide the tears that began to puddle.
“But Grace, the only thing he thought about from the moment he woke up until now, was you.”
She looked up through her lashes with wide eyes. “Really?”
“I’ve never lied to you, and I’m not about to start now. I can tell you truthfully I got really tired of having him ask me where you were, over and over and over again. Especially when he couldn’t even remember who I was.”
One corner of her mouth kicked up. “He didn’t remember you?”
“He didn’t remember me or anyone else. He couldn’t remember his own name. He certainly didn’t remember Kara Dickson. But he kept asking about you. Where were you? Were you okay? Only you, Grace. Only you.”
He watched her trace the seam on the arm of the chair with one finger, while she chewed on her cheek. “I love him, you know. I won’t stop loving him. Even if I find out he slept with her. I know he wasn’t in his right mind.”
It wasn’t until Josh released a breath he realized he’d been holding it. “That’s great, Grace. Come back with me and tell him that yourself.”
“But Josh.” Her brows knotted on her forehead. “If she’s pregnant with his baby... that would change everything. Not because I wouldn’t love him or I couldn’t forgive him, but because of the child.”
“He wouldn’t marry her, Grace. He would support the child and be a father, but he wouldn’t marry her. Could you love a man who had a child with another woman? If it was a man who loved you with all his heart? One who broke all of his own rules to save you from some imaginary threat and then busted his head to protect you from falling?”
