And Then You Kiss (Crested Butte Cowboys Series Book 3) (23 page)

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 was 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.

“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 wrong 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.

“How’s Blythe?”

“Good. She’ll be on bed rest for a while.”

“Did she say anything else?”

“She said the two of them seemed happy. Peaceful. Oh, and she told us to stop over later if we wanted to. I didn’t say one way or another.”

“She knows we’re together?”

“Jace, it isn’t that unusual. We’ve all been spending time together lately. It might not be a good idea for you to see Tucker until he’s ready, but everything isn’t a conspiracy, ya know.”

“Was Bree there?”

“Ya know, she didn’t say anything and I didn’t ask.”

“Someone should call her.”

Lyric disconnected the call without leaving a message. “It went straight to voice mail,” she explained.

Jace wanted to tell Bree the story about Rosa himself. He didn’t want her to hear it from Tucker, or from Blythe, or from anyone else. He didn’t know why it was important that he be the one to tell her, but he felt as though he had to. And after he did, he’d leave. There wasn’t anything here for him any longer.

Billy was getting settled back in Crested Butte and would expect him to get back to training as soon as he could. Rodeo season was heating up, and they had to get out on the road if they planned to make any headway this year.

***

“Did you talk to Bree?” Mark asked Paige.

“No, her phone must be off.” Paige left Bree a message, and texted her. She told her Blythe was fine, and settled in. She added that she hoped they’d see her later.

“I’m sure she’ll call as soon as she sees your text. Maybe she’s still sleeping.”

Paige doubted it. If she didn’t hear from Bree in a couple of hours, she’d start to worry. For now, it was best to assume she was busy, or sleeping like Mark said.

***

“I’m starving.”

“Me too, what time is it anyway?”

“After two. Mind if I go and get somethin’?

“How bad do I look?”

Lyric motioned for Jace to move his hand away from his face. The swelling had gone down a lot. He was still a little black and blue. “Good enough to go with me, if you want.”

Jace couldn’t sit still, and he didn’t feel like drinking anymore. If Tucker wanted to talk to him, he didn’t want his brother thinking he had gotten drunk because he was feeling sorry for himself.

“Yeah, I’ll go with you.”

***

Bree decided to get something to eat after the movie ended. There were tables she could sit at in the bar. It was the middle of the afternoon, she might even be the only one in the brewery.

She saw Lyric walk in before she saw Jace. If she’d seen him first, she wasn’t sure she would’ve recognized him. He must’ve been the friend Lyric had to go and help this morning. Interesting. Maybe she
had
dreamt he climbed in bed with her last night.

Jace saw her too, and she could sense his discomfort. If she hadn’t already ordered, she would’ve gotten up and left. He touched Lyric’s arm and motioned in Bree’s direction. The two of them walked toward her.

“Hey there, can we join you?” Lyric asked in her typical upbeat way.

“Uh, sure.”

“Hey,” said Jace, looking sheepish.

“Hi.” Bree didn’t acknowledge that he looked any different than he had the last time he saw her. He hadn’t called her for help after all. Maybe he’d gone out, gotten drunk last night, and ended up on the wrong side of a fight. That was probably it. He’d gone to drown his sorrows over her sister.

Lyric excused herself after they ordered a beer. “Be right back,” she winked.

“Where does she always go?” Bree asked.

“I don’t know, listen, I wanted to talk to you. This isn’t easy.” He ran his hand over his face.

Bree stood and threw a twenty-dollar bill on the table. “Look, I know you’re in love with my sister. You don’t need to confess it to me. We can go back to not wanting to be in each other’s company starting now.”

“Wait—”

The pain meds, combined with the alcohol he consumed at Billy’s impaired his reflexes. Bree was gone before Jace realized what was happening.

“What happened?” Lyric asked when she came back to the table. “I saw Bree pulling out of the parking lot. She looked as though she was in a hurry. Did something else happen to Blythe?”

Jace’s head was still spinning. “I don’t think so.”

“So…what happened?”

“I don’t know. She said something about me bein’ in love with her sister and not wanting to be around me.”

“She’s got it bad.”

“What? Who’s got it bad?”

“Bree.”

“What the hell are you talkin’ about?”

“C’mon now Jace. She’s crazy about you. Open your damn eyes.”

***

“How’s your mom?” Blythe asked Renie when she called.

“Better than Ben,” she laughed. “He’s a nervous wreck. Keeps saying he doesn’t know how to raise girls.”

“I can’t wait until this baby is born.” Blythe was only halfway through it, and she was on bed rest. The next few months would be mind-numbingly boring if she had to stay in bed the whole time. After she hung up with Renie, she should call Lyric, and see if there was anything she could be working on for RodeoChat.

“Do you need me to come back?” Renie asked her.

“No, your mom needs you now. I’ve got plenty of people looking out for me here.”

“So how is it?”

“It’s great, but something happened between him and Jace.”

“What?”

“Tucker wouldn’t elaborate.”

“Huh. Weird.”

“Yeah, that’s what I think.”

“Well when you find out, call me and tell me, okay? I feel so out of it over here on the other side of the mountains.”

When they hung up, Blythe called Lyric.

“How ya doin’ little mama?”

Blythe laughed. “I’m good, thanks. I’m home, well, home at my mom and dad’s house. I’ll be staying here for a while I think.”

“I was gonna come and see ya later. I talked to your mom earlier, she told me you left the hospital.”

“About that, I’m going to be on bed rest for a few weeks, maybe longer. I wanted to see if your offer to help with RodeoChat was still good.”

“Of course it is. Oh my lanta, I can’t tell you how much I need your help. I’m runnin’ too fast chasin’ all these dreams, can’t keep ’em all straight I got so much goin’ on.”

“Good, because I think I’m going to have a lot of time on my hands.”