And Then You Kiss (Crested Butte Cowboys Series Book 3) (18 page)

“Huh? Um, nothing, why?”

“You have a funny look on your face.”

Uh oh. Busted. “Somethin’ I need to do, that I forgot about.”

“Interesting.”

“What?”

“The look on your face.”

What look did he have on his face? But now that she mentioned it, he was far more worried about the physical reaction the rest of his body was having. If she noticed that, she’d know exactly what he’d been thinking about.

And what made it worse, if that was possible, he wasn’t just thinking about sex, he was thinking about sex with her. What was wrong with him? He’d made a commitment to her sister.

“Jace, are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. I gotta get somethin’ out of my truck. Be right back.”

He came back in a few minutes later.

“What did you need to get?”

“Huh?”

“You said you had to get something out of your truck, but you didn’t bring anything back in with you.”

“Oh, right. I left it at Billy’s. Uh, that’s what took me so long, I was looking for it.”

“Well what was it? If it’s something important maybe my dad has whatever it is and you could borrow it.”

It wasn’t something he needed to get, it was something he needed to get rid of, namely the raging hard-on he had. And there it was, coming back again. He was doomed.

The door from the garage opened and Paige walked in with the rest of the gang following her. Thank God.

“Sorry we missed you sweetie. How long have you been here? You could’ve come and joined us.”

Yeah, she could have, if Jace had been willing to tell her where they were. Instead, he was acting so strangely. Maybe their truce was coming to an end.

***

Sexual frustration.
That’s what Tucker felt when he woke up a little past noon. The weird part was, he had no desire to have sex. With anyone.

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.

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 waiting 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.