Twenty-Five
Izzy
Izzy carried a tray of drinks outside and set them on the glass patio table. Just then, her youngest brother-in-law performed an unnecessarily exaggerated cannonball into the pool, causing a riot of laughter from her children floating nearby, always entertained by Uncle Dean. She could only roll her eyes in response.
Tanner’s arms slid around her waist from behind, and he began planting soft kisses along her neck. “Hey there, sweetheart.”
She shivered, annoyed and excited all at the same time. It really wasn’t fair the effect he still had on her. In some ways, even stronger than it had been when they were younger. A grin spread over her lips. Her only consolation was knowing just how much she could still tease him.
Izzy turned in his arms and gave him a long, lingering kiss before he broke away, peeled off his tank top with a wink and joined his brother and the kids in the pool. So incredibly unfair.
Valiantly trying to think of anything other than the water dripping down Tanner’s broad chest and muscular abs, Izzy wandered over to the grill where her father-in-law methodically flipped the burgers. “Need any help?”
His gaze swept over the all the supplies lined up on the stand beside him. “Naw, Iz, I’m good, honey.”
She shrugged and stood on her tiptoes to offer Mike a peck on the cheek. “Okay, I’m going to go check on Mom then.”
“It’s okay for you to relax too, you know, Iz.”
Izzy grinned in response. “Now, what kind of fun is that?”
Just then Izzy spied Tanner in the pool, raking back his wet hair and laughing at something Noah said. Her grin faded and her mouth went dry. Her fingers itched to play with each strand. Her thoughts involuntarily went back to the past few weeks and the reminder of just how much she loved him and appreciation for the effort he put in to changing for her, for them, hit her with unexpected force.
She turned to go into the house before she burst into uncontrollable sobs on her in-law’s patio or jumped into the pool fully clothed to throw herself into Tanner’s arms.
Yes, he had done something wrong. Yes, he had spent the past several years with his priorities so far out of whack it had changed both of them and affected their entire family. And yes, it hurt even worse knowing he had nearly done the same thing her father had so many years ago.
Izzy slid the glass door shut behind her and leaned against it with a sigh. But he wasn’t ignoring the problem. He was owning it. Fixing it. And making sure she knew exactly how he felt and where she stood in his life.
She didn’t need another week of dates to make up her mind. She already knew.
A grin played about the corners of her mouth. And she would make absolutely sure he knew tonight.
Voices from the den to the left pulled Izzy’s attention away from her happy, contented thoughts. She loved all of Tanner’s brothers, but arguments and schemes always abounded when they were together, especially on the rare occasions Wyatt was home.
She walked silently to the doorway, intent on finding out which it was and shutting it down before they created any headaches.
“You need to figure out a way to get rid of these, Wyatt.”
Her brows drew together. Connor sounded anxious, a strange tone for him. He was usually the peacemaker.
“They aren’t mine,” Wyatt argued. “I got tagged in the pictures on social media but there is no way for me to get rid of them.”
“Don’t you have a manager or something that can talk to her? Get her to listen to reason?” Connor’s voice was hushed but panicked.
Wyatt scoffed. “You expect some random chick looking to attach herself to me in any way possible to get her fifteen minutes of fame is going to listen to reason? Connor, she’s only going to pay attention to dollar signs.”
Izzy could hear one of them—Connor?—pacing the room. “Then pay her off.” His voice rose. “I don’t care what you have to do. You weren’t here, Wyatt. Things weren’t good. But look at them, they’re happy. If Izzy sees those pictures…”
An icy feeling washed over her from head to toe. Pictures? Of what? Of who? And then realization hit. Tanner and her. She clapped a hand over her mouth, nausea welling inside of her. Her heart and her head went to battle, one needing to know, to see, to gain all the facts and the other wanting to run away and forget she’d ever heard a single word.
Her head won. She marched into the room, one hand extended. “Show me.”
Both brothers paled, eyes wide at her sudden presence. Had it been any other time, any other circumstance, she would have laughed at their reaction.
Connor was the first to gain his voice. “No, Iz, you don’t need to see these.”
She pinned them both with an equally vicious glare. “He is my husband. This is my life. I need to know. I deserve to know. Now show me the pictures.”
Wyatt gulped and handed his smartphone over with a shaking hand. “Izzy, this can’t possibly change anything. You already knew.”
But knowing and seeing were two vastly different things. She swiped her finger to the right, her breath coming in shorter bursts, scrolling through the pictures. The completely innocuous and meaningless ones only fueled her anger, knowing something much worse lay in wait.
And then she saw it. The phone slipped from her grip and fell to the red area rug with a thud. A hand landed on her shoulder but she recoiled from the touch, tears filling her eyes. She backed out of the room needing to escape, needing to leave, needing…something she couldn’t even begin to identify.
“Izzy, please.” Connor’s normally calm voice was anxious. “Please, sit down, let us get Tanner and—”
“No!” She screamed the single word. “No, you are not getting Tanner.”
She turned and ran through the house, fleeing out the front door. Izzy thought she could move past it, and when she was just this mythical thing, maybe she could, but now she was real.
And she had put her hands in Tanner’s hair. The exact same way Izzy always had. The one thing that had always been special, just between them.
She fell to her knees beside the SUV parked in front of the house, leaned her forehead against the hot metal of the door and sobbed. It had been special. It had been hers. And now it was gone.
***
I will be fine. The twins will be fine.
Izzy repeated the mantra over and over, trying to muster the conviction she’d used on Tanner.
She couldn’t suppress the giggle that bubbled up when Tanner walked through the door dressed in scrubs, complete with a mask and cap. “Just when I thought I’d seen everything.”
His blue eyes twinkling above the mask, he sauntered over to stand in front of where she sat sideways on the operating table. “Maybe I should have gone to medical school instead of that whole MBA thing.”
Izzy grasped his shoulders and curved her back outward the way she had been instructed, resting her forehead against his abdomen. “Nope. I love seeing you in a suit. And I love negotiating with you even more.” The last word ended on a gasp as the needle pierced her skin.
His hand stroked down her hair. “And I love everything about you, sweetheart.”
As soon as the small tube was placed in her back, she felt like a whirlwind of activity broke out around them. Before she realized it, she was laid down on her back, her right arm was strapped down, and a paper sheet hung over her chest, blocking her view.
Izzy turned her head to the left, just as much to make sure Tanner hadn’t left as to speak to him. “Baby, remember, you need to go with the twins, okay? Promise. Promise me you will go with them and stay with them until I’m allowed to move.”
For several long minutes, his only response was silence, his brows drawn together. “I promise. I’ll go with them.”
She relaxed then and rolled her head back so she could stare at the ceiling and continue to remind herself that everything was going to be just fine.
Even though she couldn’t feel anything from her chest down, she began to feel an odd sensation of pulling and tugging.
After what felt like an interminable length of time listening to mindless chatter between the doctor and nurses, a tiny, writhing baby was held up over the paper curtain. “Congratulations, it’s a girl!”
A fraction of the breath she had been holding released when a squeak sounded from her daughter and they whisked her away to be cleaned and examined.
She turned her head back to Tanner and smiled. “Ava Marie. Don’t forget.”
He merely nodded in response, and for the fourth time since they first met, she saw a tear escape his eyes. Her heart clenched at the sight and her own threatened to fall, although she could scarcely believe she had a single one left after the past two days of nearly incessant crying.
Moments later, a smaller, much more vocal baby was held up. “And a boy!”
Izzy sought out Tanner’s gaze again. “Noah Michael. Don’t worry and don’t leave them, okay?”
He paused for the briefest of moments, and Izzy was certain he’d argue, he’d say something. But he just nodded and kissed her forehead through the cloth mask before trailing after the two cots already leaving the room, each with their own team affixing tubes and monitors as they went.
She tracked him as long as she could without being able to pick up her head. Her mind began to race with questions. How long before she could go see the babies? They both cried, so that meant they were okay, right? Were there twenty fingers and twenty toes?
Her head felt oddly light and, despite trying to form words, her mouth didn’t seem to want to work. Izzy’s heart began to race. Why couldn’t she talk?
Her vision blurred and she blinked a few times, trying to focus on the ceiling. Her breaths turned shallow, and she was certain she would hyperventilate any moment. The monitors to her right began to ring out an alarm, and she heard an oath from the foot of the bed.
The anesthesiologist that had placed her epidural leaned close to her ear and spoke in a calming tone. “I’m going to put this mask over your face, honey. Take a few deep breaths and you’ll start to feel sleepy.”
She tried to ask why. She tried to ask what was wrong. She tried to ask why the doctor was yelling out that she needed more A-positive. That was her blood type.
Just before her vision darkened and all the sounds around her ceased, she could have sworn she heard the panicked voice of the doctor saying the bleeding just wouldn’t stop and they needed permission from the next of kin…