“I MEAN, IN ALL HONESTY,” Stephanie laughed. “Who does that?”
Calder chuckled, too. He’d been listening to her explain the antics and craziness that went on behind the scenes of a pageant and found himself enjoying every word she said.
First of all, she knew how to tell a story. He appreciated that. Drove him mental when someone had the floor and all they did was spew verbal bullshit.
And secondly, it was easy to lose himself in the sound of her voice. He liked how easily she switched from a Southern twang to ranch-hand delivery, and the fact that she didn’t hesitate to fling about dirty words. It was refreshing.
Their meal had been outstanding, making him quite pleased that he listened to Ria’s advice and gotten them a reservation at a recently opened, quaint Mom & Pop restaurant.
Of course, sitting across from her wasn’t exactly a hardship either. The sleeveless black lace dress with the strand of black pearls draped several times around her neck was ladylike and sexy-as-fuck at the same time. He’d been imagining slowly pulling the zipper down on the back of the dress and putting his hands all over her skin.
And as if that wasn’t enough of a distraction, she’d worn a pair of shoes that were fueling all sorts of decadent thoughts which he was having trouble pushing aside. Maybe if she didn’t kiss like an angel, he wouldn’t be battling a case of blue balls.
The phone in his suit jacket vibrated. Normally, he’d ignore it. Wasn’t everyday he got the chance to have dinner with a drop-dead sexy and very good-looking woman. But something niggled at him so he reached for it with an apology.
“Sorry. Half the fucking world knows we’re at dinner so if someone is calling it better be important.”
Stephanie waved him off with a dazzling smile. “Oh, go ahead. I know what it’s like,” she said as she picked up her phone which had been within her eyesight all evening and cocked it his way to make her point.
Accepting the call, which he noted was from his nephew, he said “Yo,” for a greeting and sat back in his chair to see what crawled up Alex’s shorts.
“Calder,” he heard his nephew bark. “Don’t speak—just listen. I’m assuming Stephanie is right there so don’t do or say anything to alarm her. I’m at Community Hospital with Drae and Meghan. Tori collapsed earlier and we brought her in to be checked out. She was stable the whole way here but who the fuck knows when there’s a baby involved, too.””
“Mmmm hmmm,” he answered so Alex would know he understood.
“Are you in town?”
“Yep,” he answered.
It was hard to miss the relief in Alex’s voice when he hurriedly said, “Oh, thank God. I’d suggest you wait to tell Stephanie something’s going on until we have more info but knowing her, she’d have my balls brass-plated and hanging from her keychain if I tried to hold her off.”
Calder snorted. “Smart man.”
“So anyway—tell her, don’t tell her—your call, man. Whatever. Just get over to the hospital as soon as you can, okay?’
“Will do. Thanks for calling.”
He pocketed the phone and returned his dinner companion’s easy smile. Fuck. So much for his horny-guy imagination. Shit just got real.
“Everything alright?” she asked. “You seem…”
He made a split second decision and blurted out what he knew. “Tori’s in the hospital. Alex says she’s stable but we have to go. Now.”
He watched as every drop of color drained from her face. Then she shuddered, sucked in a breath, and he saw a shimmer of tears gathering in her eyes. He remembered what she went through, losing her husband at such a young age, and figured that hearing the word hospital in connection with her only child might fuck with her head.
“Stephanie,” he muttered sharply to bring her back to the moment. “She’s fine, but we should go.”
She barely moved a muscle during the five minutes it took to call the waiter over, take care of the bill, and leave the table. He realized that the calm, unruffled composure she showed was a mask for whatever she was feeling. Putting an arm protectively around her waist, he guided her swiftly from the restaurant out to the car and got her settled. Ten minutes later, after the short, silent ride, they arrived, parked, and made their way to the emergency room.
DRAE WAS LOSING IT. EVEN though he understood that he couldn’t be in the room while Victoria was being examined, it was killing him not to be with her. He was scared out of his fucking mind, which meant that she was most likely terrified. What in the hell was going on?
He’d ignored Stephanie and Calder when they arrived. Although glad to see Victoria’s mother on the scene, he just couldn’t do chitchat at the moment. It was taking all his energy not to spin out of control and shatter into a million pieces.
Finally, their doctor waved him from the waiting room, and out into the hallway.
“Mr. St. John. Your wife is resting comfortably at the moment.”
Before he could bust out with the obvious question, he was told, “The baby is fine.”
Okay. He could maybe breathe again. But they weren’t entirely in the clear, something that the doctor’s serious face told him.
“What’s going on, Doctor?”
“Well, in the simplest of terms what we have here is a pregnancy-induced blood pressure episode. Her pressure dropped quite suddenly, which is what caused your wife to briefly lose consciousness.”
“Is that normal?”
“Truthfully, Mr. St. John, when it comes to pregnancy, what’s normal?”
Drae shook his head in understanding. “What happens now?”
“We’re keeping her overnight and will be running a few more tests. Right now the baby is fine, but if your wife shows further signs of pressure or additional complications, this could put stress on the fetus.”
“Additional complications?” Oh Jesus. He was going to hyperventilate. This was his worst fucking nightmare.
“Don’t borrow trouble,” the doctor told him gently. “I know that sounds scary but most of the time, all that’s needed is a bit of caution. The thing is, with you living so far from the hospital, I just think it’s in Victoria’s best interest, and that of the baby, too, to stay put and let us monitor the situation.”
“I want to see her.”
“Of course. She’s being moved into a private room. You’ll be able to sit with her, but we don’t suggest allowing other visitors just yet. She needs to stabilize and relax, okay?”
Drae was conflicted with this news. “She’ll want to see her mother,” he muttered.
“Actually, she rather specifically and in quite colorful terms made it clear to everyone in the exam room that your presence was required and no one else’s.”
Colorful terms? Yeah, he bet.
“Look, you go give your people an update and the nurse will come for you when your wife is settled. I suggest preparing for a long night. We do this all the time, Mr. St. John, so you just focus on Victoria, and we’ll handle everything else. She’s frightened and needs you to reassure her.”
“Understood, Doctor,” he said with an outstretched hand. They shook briefly then the white coated physician returned to the nursing desk, leaving Drae to stand there, hands on hips, head hanging while he took it all in.
WHY ARE HOSPITAL WAITING ROOMS such an uncomfortable shit show? Calder mused while doing everything he could think of for Stephanie. He could tell it was killing her that she wasn’t able to talk to Victoria, but it was Drae’s place, as her husband, to be the one by her side.
Alex and Meghan were pacing slowly up and down a long hallway with Meghan peeking in on him and Stephanie every few minutes. Despite learning that Tori was stable and being closely monitored, that information did little to vent anyone’s anxiety. Especially when they’d all been subjected to a side of Draegyn St. John that nobody knew. He was agitated, nervous, and so close to crying that it was shocking.
Hours had ticked by, and except for the encouraging smile and occasional thumbs-up from the nursing staff, they had no new information. He’d removed his suit jacket and draped it about Stephanie’s shoulders when he saw that she was trembling, and while she’d said, “Thanks,” she’d been mostly silent since.
She looked so desolate and alone, hunched inside his big jacket, her eyes filled with worry and concern. She was a single parent and had been for a long time. The strain that put on a person’s heart and mind had to be staggering.
Deciding it was fucking ridiculous to act like he wasn’t more than just a little involved with the woman was just plain stupid, so he took a seat next to her on the uncomfortable couch and eased his arm about her shoulders. Though none of this was about him, he was deeply affected when she immediately softened and accepted his supportive embrace.
“So, Duchess…” he drawled.
Her head snapped in his direction, the first time she’d fully looked at him in hours, and said, “Duchess?”
“Calling you Queenie almost got me neutered, so I’ve been searching for a suitable alternative.”
Luckily, she smirked.
“You don’t strike me as the baby-cakes type, and I’m betting kitten might lead to an ass kicking so Duchess just felt…mmmm, right.”
She relaxed against him and smiled. “Oddly, I might like that. It’s different and not too sappy. But what’s your nickname, then? Moondoggie?”
Moondoggie. I may be falling for this woman, he thought. “Did you just tag me with a surfer name from the sixties?”
Stephanie shrugged while she laughed. “That I did. And no smart ass comments about pulling that particularly obscure pop culture reference out of my butt.”
“Oh Duchess—you really are one-of-a-kind. Were you visualizing me on a long board, surfing by moonlight?”
“Actually, my thought process was a lot simpler. The only other surfer reference I could come up with was that Patrick Swayze movie, Point Break. His character was named Bodhi and that didn’t seem to fit—so….Moondoggie it is.”
Calder sniggered and pulled her closer. “Sounds like a cheesy chick book—Moondoggie and the Duchess.”
She sighed and suddenly her heavy mood returned. “Chick books,” he heard her mutter. “Tori loves that stuff—the cheesier the better.”
“Everything is going to be fine,” he assured her. “But it’s going to be a long night. Don’t you think we should head home, get a good night’s sleep, then come back in the morning?”
“I don’t know what to do,” she admitted. “I know they won’t let me see her. Not yet anyway. Just wish Drae would come out and give us an update. Leaving just doesn’t seem like a good idea till I know what’s really happening. She may need me.”
The universe must have been listening because Alex stuck his head in the door and told them, “Drae’s coming.” Stephanie bolted from the chair so fast she almost knocked him over.
Grabbing his jacket off the floor where it fell when she got up, he followed her into the hallway and found Drae anxiously talking to Alex and Stephanie. Meghan was nowhere around.
“They’re having a tough time stabilizing her blood pressure,” he was telling them. Calder didn’t like the way that sounded, but kept his comments private, moving to stand close behind Stephanie so she’d know he was right there.
“She’s upset. Exhausted. And every time she settles down, they’ll come in to check her vitals and boom—the anxiety returns.”
“What can we do?” Alex asked.
He saw Drae look at Stephanie sympathetically and mutter, “Nothing. It’s all about wait and see now.”
“I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but you all should really head home. I’ll call if anything changes. No use in everyone camping out here.”
Drae turned to his mother-in-law and took her hand. “Don’t want you to be alone, Mom,” he said. “Maybe you can go to the big house for the night?”
Calder didn’t stop to consider what he was about to say, just stepped up and told them both, “I’ll take care of Stephanie. You take care of that wife, okay?”
“That okay with you, Mom?”
Didn’t come as a surprise when Stephanie folded her son-in-law into a big hug. That they referred to each other in familial terms was a big indicator to how dramatically their relationship had changed. For the better.
“Don’t you worry about me, son. You just take good care of my baby girl. Will you let her know I was here?”
“Victoria knows you’re all here,” Drae said as he looked at each of them. “But where’s Irish?”
“She’s downstairs in the coffee shop. It’s easier to talk on the phone down there. Her phone kept buzzing. Endless texts. Everyone’s concerned.”
Drae nodded, but he was clearly distracted. “You guys have been great,” he muttered. The emotion evident in his voice was moving.
Alex, who knew Draegyn better than anyone except perhaps Victoria herself, clapped his wartime brother on the shoulder. “Would do anything for you and Tori, bro.” They quickly embraced then just as quickly separated as guys usually do.
It was Stephanie who started giving orders next. She told Alex to alert Meghan that they were leaving for the night and instruct Drae to get back to Tori and give her plenty of hugs and kisses from each of them.
Calder watched as the two stepped down the hallway, deep in conversation. It was good to see them hanging tough together in the face of Tori’s crisis.
Alex, on the other hand, was showing signs of a struggle. He cared for Tori. Was close to Stephanie. But where Draegyn was concerned—those two had an unbreakable bond. Brothers from different mothers, they sometimes joked. And Cameron, too. The three of them breathed the same air sometimes.
“Think he’ll be okay?” Calder asked.
“Don’t fucking know,” Alex answered. “That little woman is his everything. Honestly, Unc—Drae’s vulnerable for the first time in his life. What’s happening is a lot to take in. And just as hard to watch from the sidelines.”
They left not long after that. He and Stephanie walked hand-in-hand, behind Alex and Meghan—all of them silent and pensive as they made their way in the elevator to the parking garage.
Meghan hugged Stephanie by the side of the car, then hugged him, too, whispering, “Take care of her, Calder.”
Everyone’s nerves were shot, and seeing the fall of tears on Red’s face and the anxiety in her expression was what he thought about during the drive back to the Villa.
Instead of taking Stephanie to the big, empty St. John house, he took control of their unusual situation and headed straight for the casita. She’d be spending the night with him, where he could keep an eye on her, and that was all there was to it.
“Mmmm. Where are we?” she asked, half in the bag, after the car stopped and he turned off the engine.
“My place,” he told her. “You were dozing off, and I figured it was best if we stayed together tonight, Duchess.”
“Oh,” she mumbled while rummaging about for her purse. “Okay, I guess.”
It was a little like dealing with a sleepy toddler once he got her into the small, cozy house. She’d stayed there previously, so she knew her way around—and just slipped off her shoes once the door closed, tossed her bag on the sofa, and completely slumped in place. She had nothing left.
“Bedtime m’lady,” he said as he steered her toward the bathroom. “You’ll find a stack of clean t-shirts in the cupboard next to the linen closet. Help yourself. You need a drink or anything?”
She shook her head and fussed with her hair, clearly questioning what they hell they were doing. Best address the elephant in the room and get things settled.
“Yes. We’re both sleeping in that bed, and that’s all we’ll be doing. Just relax and let me take care of you. This is the lean on me portion of the program. Remember?”
Shooing her into the bathroom before she could respond, he shut the door between them and said, “Let me know if you need anything.”
Twenty minutes later, when he walked back to the bedroom to check on her progress, he found her sound asleep in his bed. Wearing his favorite Ron Jon Surf Shop t-shirt. It was going to be a helluva night.