A Diamond in the Dark

by Sassie Lewis

  “Dad, I’m sure they’re doing everything they can for her.” Ethan. He was still in the room too. Good.

  “We have given her pain meds, sir. But I’m afraid the ones that pregnant women can take aren’t as strong—”

  “What!”

  Tia whimpered at the sound of Jack’s booming voice. Rolling over, she vomited onto the floor.

  “That’s it! If you don’t leave the room, I’m going to call security.”

  “Come on, Dad, let’s sit in the hall.” Ethan literally pulled him from Tia’s room.

  * * * *

  Jack was… He was… He had no clue what he was. Pregnant. How was she pregnant? She said she wasn’t seeing anyone.

  “How?” He turned to ask his son.

  “Umm, Dad, I don’t think I really need to explain how someone becomes pregnant to you,” Ethan said on a chuckle.

  Fucking smartass kids. They might be grown men, but they knew better than to show him any disrespect. “Ethan, why do you seem so calm about this?” When he didn’t answer, Jack grabbed him by the scruff of the shirt, lifting him off his seat. “Answer your father, boy. Why do you seem so calm about this? Is it your baby?”

  Out of the corner of his eye he could see Rick rushing toward them. Jack hadn’t been this pissed off with one of his boys since he had caught the twins smoking pot at fifteen. After the tanning he had given them they hadn’t been able to sit for a week. At the moment he was minutes away from showing Ethan his fist, up close and personal, if he had touched Tia.

  “Christ no. Dad. No. Calm down.” Ethan slumped back onto his chair when Jack let go of his shirt, one of the buttons having been ripped from it. He was relieved to know that his son hadn’t crossed that line with Tia, but it didn’t help with his anger.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Rick asked.

  “Did you know your sister’s pregnant?”

  “What! Christ. Is the baby going to be okay?”

  “I’m only going to ask you this once. Do either of you know who the father is?” He could see the hesitation in both. A father always knew when his kids were hiding something from him. And these two were definitely not telling him what he wanted to know.

  “If one of you doesn’t tell me soon... Don’t think for a minute that either of you are too old for me to get the strap out.”

  “Shit. It’s not my place to be telling you this, Dad.” Jack really didn’t care if it wasn’t Ethan’s place to tell him. Tia was his daughter, and he needed to know who had knocked her up.

  “Ethan, the longer you take in telling me, the madder I’m getting.”

  Ethan finally looked him in the eyes. “Axton and Tia have been seeing each other for about a month.”

  “Fuck, Ethan, he has enough to worry about without you telling him this now.”

  “Mind ya business, Rick. He thought I was the baby’s father.” Ethan, usually the calmer of the two, got into Rick’s face. “And how the fuck do you know about them anyway?”

  “Jimmy Doland had her cornered in town the other day—”

  With that Jack slapped the back of both their heads, stopping them from speaking. He had just found out that Tia was pregnant with his brother’s baby, and his idiot sons were busy arguing with each other.

  “You knew about this too, Rick?”

  “Yeah, Dad. Like I was saying—”

  “Enough!” Jack looked at the other two, sitting in chairs across from Tia’s room. “Did you two know about this?”

  Tiny nodded, but thank Christ Leonie said no. Jack didn’t know how he’d take it if she’d kept something like that from him. Looking back at his boys, he couldn’t think of anything to say. His fucking brother had been sleeping with someone he thought of as his daughter.

  Leaving his boys bickering outside Tia’s room, he took Leonie’s hand and headed to the other end of the hallway.

  “Fuck!” Ethan exclaimed.

  “Yeah, the shit is gonna hit the fan when Axton gets here.”

  “Shut up, Rick.”

  * * * *

  Ax was starting to get antsy. It was half past one, and Tia hadn’t shown up yet. Instead of waiting for her, he decided to go over to the main house to see what was holding her up. He spent the next forty minutes not being able to find anyone. When he asked one of the hands where everyone was he’d said he wasn’t sure but that Troy would know. Well, great! He hadn’t come across their foreman Troy either. He headed back to his place, wondering where the hell everyone was, and getting pissed at Tia for not coming over like she said she would.

  Walking in his front door, he slammed it behind him, angry because he hadn’t been able to find anyone. He raced to answer the ringing cellphone he’d left sitting on the kitchen counter, hoping she had a good excuse. “Tia?”

  “Ax, it’s Ethan. You might wanna get over to Mason Memorial—”

  “What? Why? What’s happened?” His stomach had fallen through his feet—that feeling you get while riding a roller coaster—with the assumption that something had happened to Jack. They might not be exactly talking at the moment, but he was Axton’s brother, and he loved him. Ethan’s next words had him almost vomiting.

  “Tia. She came off her horse and has a bad concussion.”

  Ax had ran out of the house the moment Ethan had said Tia’s name, making the normally two-hour drive to Mason in about an hour and fifteen minutes. Pulling his truck into two spaces, he ran into the hospital.

  Ax flew down the hallway, in the direction the nurse had pointed, and saw Ethan sitting outside what he guessed was Tia’s room. Before he could enter the door, Jack was in front of him, blocking his way. “Move, Jack. I need to see her.” Instead of moving out of his way, Jack threw a punch that had Ax flat on the ground, the back of his head meeting with the laminated floor.

  “What the fuck!” His brother was looming over the top of him.

  “You knocked her up.”

  It could have been the hit to the head, but Ax had no idea what Jack was talking about. “What?”

  “Pregnant, Axton, Tia is pregnant. She’s not one of your two-bit whores. You can’t be fucking around with her. She’s a member of this family. Who do you think you are to be playing with her like that?”

  She’s pregnant. Ax smiled as he stood up. I’m gonna be a daddy. He didn’t see the fist flying at his face again, but it didn’t put him on his ass this time. “Hit me again, Jack, and I will put you down, old man. Now get outta my way.”

  “You have no right, Ax—”

  Axton cut him off. “I have every fucking right.”

  “Says who?”

  “This!” Axton responded, throwing the small velvet box he had been carrying around for the past week at Jack’s face. As Jack fumbled to catch the box, Axton stormed past him and marched into Tia’s room, remembering at the last moment not to let the door slam behind him.

  She looked so small on the hospital bed, with black circles under her eyes that he could clearly see in the dimly lit room.

  He walked over to the bed, pulling the chair as close as he could, and sat down, holding her small hand in his much larger one. As he brought her hand to his mouth to place a kiss on top of it, a nurse walked in to check Tia over. “Is she going to be okay?” His voice was a little croaky from worry. Tia hadn’t stirred when he touched her, and she looked half dead.

  “She’ll be fine, hun. She’ll have a headache for a few days, but she should be able to go home in a day or two.” The older lady smiled at him.

  “And the baby? Will the baby be okay?”

  “Well, she is only really early on, so I would say if she doesn’t spot over the next twenty-four hours it should progress as any normal pregnancy. Sorry, but that’s the best I can give you at the moment. Can I ask, are you the baby’s father?”

  “Yes…I… We… We didn’t know about the baby.” Jesus Christ, I’m gonna be a daddy.

  “Then congratulations to you both.” After checking a few more things she went to leave. “Wha
t’s your name, son?”

  Being thirty-six, if anyone else would’ve called him son he reckoned he might’ve been a little pissed off, but seeing as the nurse looked to be in her sixties, he’d figured she was old enough to have a son his age, so instead of being offended, he smiled at her. “Axton, ma’am.”

  “Axton, she’ll be fine. Feeling a little sorry for herself, yes. But fine. So stop looking like she’s about to die. Okay?”

  “I’ll try.”

  “Good. I’ll bring you an ice pack on my next round. That face of yours is going to be a pretty shade of purple by tomorrow.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  When the nurse finally left the room, Ax lifted Tia’s gown and kissed where their baby was growing. It was at that moment that Jack walked in. “If you’re here to punch me or warn me away from her, fuck off.” He settled Tia’s gown back into place.

  “I came to give you this back,” Jack said, placing the ring box on top of his and Tia’s joined hands. “You know yellow’s her favorite color?”

  “Yeah, she told me.”

  “It’s a beautiful ring, Axton. She’ll love it. Look, all I can say is I’m sorry. The only explanation I can give you is that I’m a little shocked. She’s always been like a daughter to me.”

  “I had today all planned out. I was gonna ask her to marry me. Then we were going to come and talk to you,” he said, shaking his head at the memories of the crappy week he’d had. “I’ve had the most fucked up week. Everything went wrong, and now Tia’s hurt.” His voice was beginning to crack with the emotions he was feeling. Scared and happy, combined with worry over the woman he loved being hurt, and now he’d just found out that they were going to be parents.

  He wasn’t a praying man, but at that moment he prayed that nothing else went wrong. His fingers, toes, and even his balls if he could have, were crossed hoping that the bad luck he’d been having was past, and only good things were coming their way from now on.

  “It’s not your fault. Luke’s in the waiting room, and he filled me in on all the goings-on. Seems like y’all had a hell of a week,” Jack said as he pulled the other chair over. “I was talking to the doctor just before you arrived. Tia told Ethan that she was a little dizzy before she went for a ride. They ran a whole heap of blood tests and stuff once they found out she was pregnant. Apparently her blood sugar was really low.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “Well, they said it’s was too early to tell if it was from the pregnancy or not, and as they were already giving her glucose, through that thingy there,” Jack said, waving toward the drip-line running into Tia’s hand. “They said that any reading they did now wouldn’t be accurate, but if she still has dizzy spells after this, it could possibly mean early onset gestational diabetes.” Jack picked up her other hand, placing a kiss on her knuckles. “I don’t know much about diabetes, but I do know all pregnant women have to get tested for it. It’s something that can happen during pregnancy.”

  “How do you know all this shit, Jack?” He didn’t look at his brother, he couldn’t take his eyes off Tia.

  “You forget, Axton, I have three kids. You’ll learn it too.” Jack stood up to leave the room. “Make her happy and she’ll be your everything. It’s the way it works with the women you love. Doesn’t matter what we do, where we live, or how much we earn, as long as you make her happy.” In a voice almost too low for Axton to hear, the next words out of Jack’s mouth were clearly a threat. “Keep her happy, Ax. That girl has been the daughter I didn’t get to have. She could never replace Becca, but she sure as shit filled a hole that was in my heart. Brother or not, if you hurt her heart, I’ll cut out yours.” With that Jack walked out the door.

  Jack had nothing to worry about. If he ever hurt Tia, he’d do the deed himself. Ax opened the little box, revealing a three-and-a-half carat, princess cut, yellow diamond, set in a white gold band. The jeweler had said that having the diamond in white gold, instead of yellow, would set the color of the stone off. Axton really didn’t care; he just wanted to see it on her finger.

  He slipped it on and kissed it. It looked huge on her tiny hand, but at least it would be noticeable. Everyone would clearly be able to see she was his. As he sat there looking at the ring he’d just placed on her finger, he realized that the tiny woman lying in the hospital bed was his diamond. She’d made a darkness he hadn’t been aware was inside of him sparkle and come back to life. Linking their fingers together, Ax put his head on her stomach, kissing it once more.

  He fell asleep listening to her heartbeat through the monitor.

  Chapter 17

  Tia came awake slowly. She could hear the heart monitor beating in time with her own heart. Her head wasn’t feeling as bad as it had been. Instead of a stampede going through her brain, it was more like an extremely bad headache. The nausea had settled down, causing her tender stomach to rumble with emptiness.

  Slowly, she opened her eyes. It hurt, but didn’t make her feel like she was going to vomit. The room was illuminated by a soft glow coming from the bathroom, and although empty of food her stomach felt heavy. She looked down her body. Well, that would explain the heavy feeling—Ax had his head resting on her tummy while he slept, his dark hair cascading over his face.

  She must have been out of it for a while this time. The hospital seemed quieter. She couldn’t hear people running up and down the corridor or nurses chattering away.

  Lifting her left hand, Tia yearned to touch that soft, beautiful hair of his. She had missed running her fingers through it. Her hand stopped mid-motion, and she lifted it closer to her face, the act taking more effort than was normally required to perform the simple motion.

  Even with slightly blurry vision, she could make out the beautiful—what she thought was a yellow diamond—ring on her left ring finger. It was huge! She was going to catch it on everything. It was with that thought that Tia understood the significance of the finger it was on. Slow much? Well, she did have a concussion.

  She lowered her hand back down, running her fingers through his hair. She tried to smile at his eagerness at putting the ring on her finger while she was sleeping. Christ, it hurt to move even the smallest muscles in her body, and her throat started to protest. A drink was needed, but moving her head to find one was less appealing than dealing with the dry feeling in her mouth.

  * * * *

  Ax awoke to the feeling of Tia running her fingers lightly through his hair. His back was killing him. He’d fallen asleep about midnight after the nurse had come in to let him know that she was heading home but the new one should be by shortly to check on Tia.

  She hadn’t stirred much through the night. When they had performed their check she had fluttered her eyes open then they’d closed. That had worried him, but the nurse had assured him it was normal—her body was resting so it could heal.

  He lifted his head from her stomach to look into those beautiful eyes he had missed seeing the past week. The black circles around them had deepened in color since he’d first seen them.

  “Hey, baby. How are you feeling?” He ran the tip of one finger over her temple, brushing away a strand of hair.

  “Thirsty.” Her voice cracked as she tried to speak.

  “The nurse said that if you asked, you could only have some ice chips. They don’t want you drinking yet, in case it makes you ill.” He looked at the glass he’d filled earlier, but all the ice had melted. “I’ll go and get some for you.” He kissed her nose then went to fetch some more.

  Opening the door, he stepped into her room. Ax thought she had fallen back to sleep. She was resting peacefully now, where before she had been moaning. This time the only sound coming from her was her deep rhythmic breathing. As he sat down on the uncomfortable plastic chair, Tia’s eyes fluttered open. Getting one of the ice chips out, he ran it over her lips to moisten them before he put it in her mouth. He did this a few more times, until she’d finished four of the largest chips from the cup.

  “Much
better. Thanks.” Her voice was croaky, probably from all the vomiting she had done.

  She ran her gaze over his face in a fashion that felt like a physical caress. A glimmer of distress crossed her face before she slowly lifted her hand until her cool palm rested gently against his abused face. Needing to be closer to her in any way possible, Axton cupped her hand with his own, the added pressure reminding him of the bruises on his chin.

  “What happened to your face?” It took a while for her to get all the words out.

  With his free hand, Ax placed another ice chip in her mouth as he answered her. “Jack.”

  “Why?”

  “You, us, the baby.”

  “Oh!”

  “Are you upset?” Ax didn’t know how she would feel about having a baby. She was probably too hurt to have really thought about it yet.

  “Upset. About what?”

  “Being pregnant? Are you upset that I got you knocked up and we’re going to have a baby?”

  “No.”

  A wave of relief washed over him.

  She took a slow inhalation before she spoke again. “You?”

  His heart pounded in his chest at the panicked sound that filled her voice. Wanting to reassure her that he couldn’t be happier, Axton lifted the bottom of her hospital gown and placed a loving kiss over where their baby grew.

  As he settled the gown back into place he noticed that the lines of pain that had been there while they were talking were now accompanied with a little trickle of sweat. “I’ll call the nurse.”

  Ten minutes later Tia was sleeping, the pain meds the nurse had just given her working quickly.

  He was feeling better now that they’d been able to talk. The nurses had roused Tia about every two hours, but during those times she wasn’t overly coherent so this was the first time she’d spoken.

  Ax was woken by a nurse softly shaking his shoulder. She was a pretty little thing, but she had nothing on his Tia. “What time is it?” He gave a big yawn.

  “It’s ten-thirty, sir.”