“HELL’S BELLS, MOM! YOU LOOK amazing,” Tori exclaimed with a wide smile lighting up her face.
Stephanie had stopped by the master bedroom on her way to dinner with Calder because she was nervous as shit and wanted some feedback from her daughter.
The thought made her smile. Imagine. Asking for dating advice from one’s grown child.
“Uh,” Drae mumbled. “Yeah. Um…maybe I’ll just go and maybe make some dinner? You know. So you two can talk.”
She’d never heard the normally cool and confident man sound so weirded out. Yeah, she knew. It was weird. Mother-in-law dating boss’ uncle. Like that happened every day. He looked like he wanted to jump and couldn’t get out of the room fast enough.
Tori started snorting with laughter once he was out of earshot. “Mom!” she cried happily. “This is so awesome. Like, if you marry Calder,” Stephanie went wide eyed as Tori positively vibrated with glee, “then that would make Draegyn somehow related to Alex. I mean come on! What could be better than that?”
Oh, my dear, sweet baby Jesus, she thought. It was just a date. Not a commitment ceremony. Should be no big deal, as in N-B-D.
But truth was, she’d felt like a nervous teen getting ready for a big date, trying on and discarding half a dozen outfits before finding one she liked. And now Tori was all but making the seating arrangements for a family wedding. Anxiety began churning in her gut.
Maybe she should cancel. After all, what were they actually doing? Was a relationship with Calder even a possibility? Lord, she was frustrated. Out of her emotional comfort zone. Afraid of making a mistake. Worried she’d regret it if she walked away.
Tori must have picked up on her inner turmoil ‘cause she reached out, snagged her by the hand, and tugged. “Mom, come on. You don’t have to be nervous. Calder is a great guy. Do you really think the Major would let him anywhere near you if he wasn’t the real deal?”
Whoooooa. Stephanie hadn’t thought of it that way. Not really. She agreed with Calder that Alex and Meghan were matchmaking, but until just now, all of that seemed like a silly, benign one-off. But it was deeper than that. Tori was right. The honorable man she knew and trusted would never do anything questionable where she was concerned.
“Why does everyone just automatically assume that Calder and I should be together? What is that all about?”
Well, that pithy comment certainly earned her the raised eyebrow and scowl she got.
“Really?” Tori drawled sarcastically. “You can’t think of any reason why?” Throwing up her hands, she made a sound of exasperation, reached for something on the nightstand, and then handed a small object. A mirror.
“Need a reason why? One of them is in that mirror. Take a look, Mom. You’re a grown-up, yes—but you’re young, beautiful, stylish, easy to be around. It probably mystifies people why there isn’t a flock of drooling men chasing after you.”
She snatched the mirror back and tossed it aside. “And then there’s Calder.” Tori shrugged. “To me, he’s a lot like Alex. May not look it but I suppose because I’ve worked with both of them, I see the similarities. I think he’s genuine, and I think you can trust him. He isn’t blind, Mom. He sees who you are and he knows Draegyn from way back, who I might add would also be butting in if he thought Calder was a dick.”
Well, damn. She was right about that, too. Any reservations she kept finding to shut Calder down were being picked off one by one.
“So, do I look alright, shugah? Not too much?”
“Oh God, Mom. No. Seriously. You look amazing.” Tori slumped against the bed pillows as if all the energy in her drained away.
“Sweetie. What’s the matter?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Tired. Hungry. The usual,” she muttered. “Need to nibble on something and maybe have a TV nap. You know how I love to sleep through Entertainment Tonight.”
Stephanie’s phone chirped. It was Calder. He’d be out front in five minutes.
She stepped up to the bed and gave Tori a big kiss and as much of a side hug as their positions would allow. “Five-minute warning,” she said drily.
Tori pushed her away with a comical grunt and hooted, “Mom! Stop messing around. Go bag the hot surfer guy.”
“See you later, shugah,” Stephanie drawled, grabbing her bag off the chair and heading for the door.
“We won’t wait up!” Tori hollered. The next thing she heard was more laughter.
The evening certainly was starting out well.
“NO. PEEPAW IS NOT A word. Nice try.”
“Sure it is,” Drae assured his wife with a sincere headshake. “You know. Peepaw?”
When she blank stared him, he bit back a grin. “What? No?”
The hair curling around her shoulders fluttered back and forth as she shook her head with a flat, deadpanned expression.
They were playing Scrabble spread out in the center of the giant playpen they’d constructed for their day in bed. Victoria was leaning against the headboard, a fluffy pillow or two at her back, and he was half-reclining on his side with his head down near her feet. The game sat on its box so the spinning board moved easily.
He rearranged his letters and studied the board. Not for the first time he thought about the advantage his wife had in these sorts of games.
Shuffling some of his tiles, he absently murmured,” Not fair you know. Making me play this game with you. Sucks being married to a woman with a PhD. in Smarty-Pants.”
She smacked his arm with her foot. “Sucks does it? Fuck you!”
He laughed and grabbed it before she could draw the foot back, which got her instantly squealing. She hated being tickled. It drove her bat-shit crazy.
“No! No!” she screamed, giggling between squeals.
Without warning, Drae raised her foot and started kissing and tonguing her toes.
“Suck and Fuck,” he laughed when he saw her eyes light up. “I’ll add that to the honeymoon bucket list.”
She smiled at him, as she had done all day. But that smile was vacant and practiced. Also as it had been all day. She was working overtime trying to manage his anxiety, and he was dancing on the head of a pin trying to read her condition, minute-by-minute.
“I’m bored,” she said sullenly. “Maybe I should get up and move around. I think lying around starts to make me crazy.”
Why the fuck couldn’t he do more to help her with this burden? She was making a baby with her body and all he could do was stand by. A feeling of useless, helplessness was battering his nerves. This little woman, who loved so fiercely and who seemed like she’d been pregnant for a year, was a hundred times stronger than he would be in her situation.
They walked slowly, his arm securely around her bumped out waist, and made their way to the nursery. It was after all, her favorite destination. Plus, spending time in the room seemed to always make her feel better.
“Oh look, honey,” she said pointing at a new lamp that had the pale greens and purples as the rest of the room. “Betty gave us that at the shower. Isn’t it sweet?”
Before Drae could answer, he felt her shift heavily against him and stiffen. She mumbled, “Oh my,” then reached out a hand and just like that slithered to the floor in a sort of mind-numbing slow motion.
Somewhere inside him, the screaming started…
“HEY—GOOD NEWS,” ALEX ANNOUNCED when Meghan shifted again.
They were relaxing in the family room, sitting side by side on the enormous sofa, and he’d been noting for the past twenty minutes or so how restless and antsy she seemed.
Trying to take her mind off whatever was causing the edginess, he launched into a detailed account of what was happening with the yoga studio.
“Now that the slab for the adobe modular has been poured, we’re good to go. If they keep to their schedule, you’ll have a brand new yoga dojo to set up real soon.”
“Oh. Great.”
Click, click, click…she was scrolling through the TV channels in about an absent a fashion as that mumbled answer was.
Alex sighed and tossed his iPad onto the coffee table. Made him crazy when she was like this. Distracted. Vague. Wasn’t like her at all.
“Come here,” he gestured, patting his thigh. “Come tell Daddy what’s wrong.”
He knew she’d groan at his use of the term Daddy so he was prepared to bite back the grin he felt aiming for his face. She threw the remote control down and quickly scooted onto his lap.
With an arm draped about his neck, she leaned into him for a gentle hug. “I’ve got Daddy issues enough as it is,” she pointed out, chuckling. “So there is no way I’m calling you that. Fuhgeddaboudit!”
Good. He got her laughing immediately.
“Tell me what’s up, beautiful. I’ve been watching you,” he said.
Wrapping some of her long curls around his fingers, he gave a teasing yank. “You’ve been through the entire channel guide half a dozen times, clicked past the History Channel twice without stopping, even though there was one of those documentaries on that you like so much. All signs of your head not being in the game. Time to share, baby.”
“I’m distracted, I know,” she admitted with a slight shrug.
“And?”
Meghan laid her forehead against his. When she spoke he inhaled her words. “Ever just have that gnawing feeling that something isn’t quite right?”
Fuck. Who didn’t? “Yeah. All the time during the war. Not so much now.”
Alex rubbed his hand reassuringly up and down her back, offering comfort. “Maybe it’s just a letdown after the weeks of activity leading up to the holiday.”
“I hope that’s all it is. Really,” she snorted humorously. “Don’t need any more on my plate right now.”
The phone chose that moment to go off with a ringtone easily identifying for him that it was one of his brothers. “Better get that,” he mumbled while fishing under her legs and into his pocket.
“Got a woman on my lap so this better be good,” he answered playfully.
“Alex? Jesus. I need you—like stat!” he heard Drae yelling. Reminding him of earlier days when they’d been Special Forces guys, he heard the panic and fear in his brother’s voice, which got all his internal alarm bells going off at once.
Reflexively sitting straighter into ready-go mode, he asked sharply, “What’s wrong?”
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Drae hollered. “It’s Victoria. She passed out or something, man. Like—I don’t even know what happened.”
Dislodging Meghan from his lap, Alex stood, grabbed her hand and started walking from the room with the phone still at his ear.
“We’re on our way. Is she conscious? Give me more detail, Draegyn,” he bit out.
Meghan gasped but never faltered, picking up speed as they quickly headed for the front door.
“Yeah, yeah. She’s on the sofa but dude—she doesn’t look good. It’d take too long to get an ambulance out here. Better alert Ben to get one of the SUVs fired up. Or a van. I don’t fucking know!” he snarled. “Just something she can be comfortable in.”
Grabbing a set of keys off the console table near the front door, he gestured for Meghan to get her phone as they dashed out to the driveway.
“Just calm down, bro.” Alex told a clearly panicked Drae. “We’ll be there in four minutes. Where’s Stephanie?”
“Mom?” he sounded like he was trying to remember what planet she was on. “Oh, uh—she’s out to dinner with Calder. It’s just me here.”
Of course! Why not, Alex thought.
“Okay. I’m hanging up now so I can drive. Help is on the way.”
Levering up into the truck, Alex made sure Meghan was secure then punched the gas and sped off down the road.
“Tell me,” she said quietly.
He sensed the frantic worry in her voice. Only hearing one side of the conversation had probably scared the fucking shit out of her.
“Tori passed out. Drae says she’s conscious now but he’s dead-panicked and wants to call an ambulance. Look, text Ben and tell him what’s happening. Ask him to get a van or something else big like that down to Drae’s.”
He appreciated that she didn’t fall apart or start blubbering. Probably her teacher experience taking over. Time for talk later—right now it was all about assessing the situation, marshaling resources, and getting whatever help they needed.
They flew down the winding road at supersonic speed, pulled up and stopped near the front steps, leaving plenty of room for Ben to get another vehicle into position.
Meghan was out of the truck and running for the door at least a dozen paces ahead of him.
They found Drae and Tori on the second floor in the nursery. She looked like bloody hell—way too pale and with a wild-eyed and terrified expression—while he was visibly shaking.
“Girlfriend,” Meghan quipped with a calmness he knew she was faking. “You’re a little late for Halloween if what you’re trying to do is scare us shitless.”
She moved swiftly to Tori’s side, taking one of the little woman’s hands in hers and giving Alex a look that said Not good.
Shit.
With his fiancée evaluating the situation with Tori, he motioned Drae aside where they could talk quietly.
“Details first.” It was Alex’s way of reminding Draegyn that he needed to be clear-headed.
“Okay,” the other man muttered. “Right. Details. Let’s see. She’s been weird the last couple of days, but mostly she just kept saying it was because she was uncomfortable. Um—she’s eaten, so that’s a good sign. We did nothing all day ‘cause she felt lousy so it’s not like she’d done too much. We were in the nursery and next thing I knew she dropped like a rock.”
“How long was she out?” he asked. “And did she hit anything on the way down?”
Drae glanced anxiously at his wife. “No. She went straight down but I was right there and broke the fall. She was completely out for at least a minute.”
“Anything else?” Alex prompted.
His brother visibly paled. “Yeah. Think I’m going to throw up.”
He grabbed his arm and gave a slight squeeze. “Hang in there, bro.”
Alex caught Meghan’s worried frown and hurried them back to the ladies.
With a practiced tone that the former commanding officer in him knew so well, his fiancée took control of Tori and of them. He was reassured knowing that she could hold her own in a crisis.
“Gentlemen,” she began. “This situation requires a doctor.”
Alex felt Drae stiffen at his side. He put his hand on his shoulder for reassurance. Meghan shot him a meaningful look that let him know he was in charge of keeping the worried father-to-be calm.
“Find out what Ben’s progress is,” she said to him with an absolute calm that he knew she was in no way feeling.
“Draegyn,” she snapped briskly so he would know she meant business. “Find Tori’s purse, grab whatever you need—then let’s get her downstairs. Might as well bring one of those rolling chairs up here. That way she won’t have to walk at all. We’ll roll her to the elevator and then out to the driveway.”
Alex was impressed when Drae didn’t hesitate—just broke into a fast sprint to do what he’d been told. After two lightning fast text messages, he found out that Ben was two minutes away in a conversion van the agency sometimes used to drive clients around.
Going to his assistant, who at the moment looked very small—although hugely pregnant—and quite terrified, he crouched down at her feet and reached for one of her hands.
“How you doing, little Mommy?” he inquired gently while rubbing her cold fingers.
It told him a lot about how worried she was when Tori groaned, “Alex. Something’s wrong—I just know it.”
He saw the concern on Meghan’s face and tried not to lose his shit.
“You okay with riding to the hospital, hon?”
“Don’t have much choice,” she murmured as her hand flew to her side.
“What was that?” he demanded. “Are you in pain?”
“No, it’s not pain,” she reassured. “But something is going on in there.”
Alex stood. “Meghan?”
His accelerating heart rate calmed the moment his woman touched his arm. She was breathing deeply and steadily—willing him with her eyes to do the same.
Drae came bursting back to the room pushing a chair to Tori’s side. They all gathered round and gingerly eased her from the loveseat onto the wheeled chair then made slowly for the elevator. Tori clutched at her husband’s hand like it was a life preserver.
Whatever was going on had shot whatever post-holiday tranquility Alex had hoped for right to hell. By the time they arrived at the hospital, having followed along behind the van—his nerves were shredded. The medical staff went into emergency mode the moment Tori was wheeled in, sweeping her quickly away to an exam room while he, Meghan, and Drae stood by.
“Somebody better call Stephanie,” Meghan muttered.
“I’ll take care of it,” he told her and wandered into the waiting room to make the call.