Hanging up, he sent a text message instead.
D: I love you. In Paris. Is Cain okay?
He opened the door of the limo and saw his band mates already inside. “What are you doing here? I was going to meet you at the venue!”
“We figured you should have a homecoming, brother.” Jordan grinned up at him, and Drake couldn’t stop the goofy grin that flitted across his face.
“Thanks, guys. I told you I’d be back.” He slid into the car and closed the door.
“And now we have hungry fans waiting for your song for Grace. They’ve been pissy you weren’t here for the last two shows. Face it, man, you’re now one of our singers,” Toby remarked as the limo pulled away.
“Ah, I sorta thought that was a one-time thing…” Drake muttered, embarrassment coloring his cheeks.
“Yeah, apparently chicks really dig the deep, love me songs. They want it. And what better city than this one to sing about love, huh?” Jordan smirked.
“You’re really gonna make me do it, aren’t you?” Drake groaned and clapped his hand over his eyes.
“Oh, hell yeah. You’re opening.” Kyle chuckled, obviously enjoying his discomfort.
“Has Grace heard it yet?” Toby asked, and Drake shook his head.
“No. There wasn’t time. I was more worried about the baby and her than this song.”
“So did you tap that ass?” Toby spanked the air in front of him and bit down on his bottom lip. “Please tell me you hit that.”
“You’re so immature.” Drake rolled his eyes.
“Oh shit, you didn’t hit that? What the hell, man?” Toby’s eyes went wide and his mouth fell open.
“It wasn’t the right time. I’m not a heartless bastard. I was worried about Cain, and I still am. When the time is right, we’ll be together. Not before then. It’s not just going to be about fulfilling carnal needs this time. That happened the last time, and we messed ourselves up. Not this time,” Drake insisted.
Toby’s eyes went even wider. “You really love her.”
“Yeah! I wouldn’t have just left…”
“No, no!” Toby interrupted, putting his hand up. “Like I knew you were worried about the kid being dead. We all seriously thought you were just going to tap that ass and come back if all was good. Now you’re telling us this shit is deep and real, and you’re talking like you’re contemplating putting a ring on her hand and making her yours.”
A slow smile snuck across his lips, and Drake lowered his eyes from his best friend’s intent gaze. “Maybe, man.”
The limo went into an uproar. “I knew it!” Louie shouted. “Gimme my fifty bucks!”
Jordan huffed and pulled his wallet out. “God dammit!”
Kyle sat there with a smug look on his face. “I knew it too. I just didn’t take a bet on it.”
“Oh, shut up!” Jordan barked.
Toby held out a fist for him to bump, and Drake did. As their fists touched, Toby muttered, “Well played, son. You’re the first.”
“You’ll be next,” Drake retorted playfully.
Toby sniffed and withdrew his fist. “There will be none of this settling down mess for me. I like women. All flavors of women. Chocolate, vanilla, butterscotch, caramel. Mmmm, I love the ladies.” He licked his lips and grinned. “I’ll take a triple scoop of all that action.”
Drake shook his head and laughed. “No, you’ll meet someone who tops anything you’ve ever known, and that will be it.”
“Don’t you wish that shit on me! I plan on sowing my wild oats as long as I can.” Toby shuddered in horror.
As the limo rolled to a stop in front of the venue, Drake tossed one last remark at his best friend before he exited the car. “You’ve been cursed.”
He ignored Toby’s muttered profanities as he waved to fans and signed a few autographs. They hurried to the backstage and got changed for the show. Drake checked his phone before he placed it on his dressing room table. A text from Grace made him smile.
G: Sorry I missed you. I came home to sleep. I was so tired. Gonna shower and go back to Cain. I haven’t gotten a call from the hospital, so I assume he’s well. Have a good show.
D: I will. Sending love to you both. Talk later. X
G: Sending love back. Break a leg. ;)
He slid the phone in his pocket and finished getting ready for the show. A knock came at the door and a girl peeked in. “Two minutes!”
“Coming!” Drake promised her, buttoning the last button on his navy blue shirt. His acoustic guitar was waiting for him, and he smiled at his band mates. “We ready to do this?”
“Let’s rock it.” Toby pumped his fist in the air, and they rushed on stage to exuberant applause.
Drake positioned himself on the stool in front of the mic and waved at the crowd. “Thank you all for being here tonight. I’m sorry I wasn’t here for a couple of shows, I had some things I had to take care of. I’m here with you tonight, and I’m so glad to be. Let’s get this show started with a song I wrote for the woman I love. Saving Grace.”
He strummed the guitar and sang the sweet song, pouring his heart out to the crowd. He could hear people singing along, and it shocked him that people already knew the song he’d written and performed only days before. They moved seamlessly between songs, giving the fans what they wanted and making it memorable for them.
As the last song came to a close, they took a bow, and Drake waved to the crowd. “Thank you, guys, for making what we do possible. Without you, we’d be nothing. We love you!”
They left the stage, and Toby let out a whoop. “God damn, that feels so good! It feels like it used to, just on a larger scale!”
Drake grinned and pulled his phone from his pocket. His smile faltered as he realized he’d somehow pocket dialed Grace and that a call was running. Putting it to his ear, he mumbled, “Grace?”
“That was…amazing.” Grace gasped.
“I didn’t mean to call you. I guess I didn’t shut the screen off before I put it in my pocket.”
“I was in the shower and my phone was ringing, and I thought I reached out and hit end call. I guess it answered and I heard you singing. You were singing something so beautiful…I just stood there in the shower listening. It was amazing,” she breathed, and Drake coughed nervously.
“I-uh…that was your song.”
“Wait, you butt dialed her and she finally heard it?” Toby squawked, clapping him on his shoulder and leaning close to the mouthpiece to yell. “Hey, Grace baby, he wrote that for you! Who would’ve thought our Drake had it in him?”
“Sorry, that was Toby,” Drake apologized, pushing his friend away.
“Tell him I said hi. I loved my song.”
“Well I didn’t plan on you hearing it that way…” He glanced over at Toby, who was spanking Jordan’s ass and laughing. “Oh my God, can I call you back when I’m not surrounded by thirteen-year-olds?”
Grace laughed then, the musical sound balm for his heart. “Yes. I want to hear this song again. Just me and you. I’m on my way to the hospital now.”
Drake turned away from the guys and murmured sweetly, “I love you.”
“He loooooves you!” Toby yelled out. “He wants to put a ring on it and take you to bed and make babies with you!”
“Please ignore them. I’m sorry,” Drake groaned.
“Do you?” she asked simply, and Drake panicked, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I-uh, gotta go, sweetheart. I love you.” He hung up the phone and ran for Toby, who was hightailing it down the hallway.
“Drake and Grace, sittin’ in a tree, f-u-c-k-i-n-g!”
“I’m gonna kill you, asshole!” Drake promised him, and Toby laughed harder.
“Gotta catch me first!”
“You sleep sometime!” Drake yelled, and Toby burst through the door going out to the limo. His eyes danced with mirth, and he stuck his tongue out at Drake.
“Love ya, brother!”
Drake narrowed his eyes and pasted
a smile on his face, pretending he didn’t want to strangle the dorky grin off Toby’s face while the fans watched. As they entered the limo, he grabbed him around the neck and rubbed his knuckles on top of Toby’s head. The car rolled away, and he continued his assault.
“Ow! Ow! Uncle, uncle, uncle!” Toby yelled. “Bastard, I forgot you have knuckles from hell!” He rubbed at the top of his head with a pout.
“Don’t mess with Grace, dammit.”
“Noted. Jesus Christ, I might want to use my brain one day,” Toby whined.
“Why? It’s not like you’ve ever used it before today. Twenty-nine years wasted. What’s the rest of your life?” Drake quipped, still very pissed with Toby for messing with her.
“Ouch, dude! Shit, okay, I’ll never mess with her again. Sorry,” he muttered sheepishly.
“Okay. I’m sorry too. You have your moments of intelligence. You did save our career,” Drake admitted.
“Okay, so we’re cool?” Toby asked hopefully.
“We’re fine.” Drake reassured him.
“Well, shit just got tense.” Jordan laughed nervously. “We know not to mess with your girl.”
“Damn right,” Drake snapped. “She’s off limits.”
“Noted.” Toby smirked, rubbing his head.
Chapter Seventeen
As Grace arrived at the hospital, she ignored the paparazzi. Her guard kept her safe as she made it inside. Hurrying to the NICU, she found something that surprised her. Cain was no longer on the ventilator, and he was awake. “Dad! Why didn’t you call me?”
“You needed sleep. I dozed off in the chair. When I woke up, he had a grip on the tube and yanked it out before I could stop him. The doctors came and put that nose thingie on him and said we could try bringing him fully out of sedation. So they did, and well, here we are! Surprise!” Damien grinned sheepishly and patted her shoulder.
“He’s doing okay off the ventilator?” Grace asked, her heart pounding in her chest.
“He’s lying there looking at you, isn’t he?” Damien retorted.
Grace reached into the bed, and Cain grasped her hand. “Oh, sweetheart,” she murmured, her eyes filling with tears. “I want to talk to the doctor.”
“Let me get the nurse. I bet she can call him.”
Grace nodded slowly, unable to form coherent sentences. She just stared down at her little boy. It had been two weeks since she’d seen his crystalline blue eyes and his sweet smile. “Oh, Cain. What am I going to do with you? Pulling your own tube out? You couldn’t be patient?”
A giggle escaped her lips as he smiled right then, as though he knew exactly what she was saying. She stared at him closer and carefully moved his lower lip. His first tooth was coming in, right on the bottom gum. “Well, look at that! You’re growing up on me too. I can’t even go home and get some sleep without you doing all kinds of fun stuff.”
“Grace?” She turned and smiled at the doctor and her father.
“He is doing okay?” she pleaded, her heart thundering in her chest with panic.
“He’s doing amazing. He pulled out the tube on his own and is doing great with just his nasal cannula. I have a feeling he can go home soon too. It won’t be long now. When he’s done with his antibiotics, I’ll be ready to let him go. Just another couple of days. He’s got no fluid on his lungs, nothing. I think it was wise that we waited as long as we did. We’ve had some very tiny preemies go through hell after their PDA surgeries. Infection, more surgery, et cetera. He did have the diaphragm seize up on him, and that’s fairly common. When he pulled the tube out, we did notice that his cries were very weak. His vocal cords are most likely damaged. We’ll want to see how he’s eating before we let him go. I’m thinking he may require his liquids to be thickened for a while, and you’ll be adding an ear, nose, and throat specialist to your repertoire of doctors for this remarkable young man. I’d like to see how he does this evening with a bottle,” he explained.
“We can give it a shot. Will his voice get better?” Grace asked.
“It should. It will take some time, though. He’s doing amazing.”
“Can I hold him?” Grace pleaded.
“Absolutely. Sit down, and I’ll get him for you.”
Grace rushed to sit in the chair beside his bed, and as the doctor lifted him, she held out her arms for her son. His weight was familiar and comforting as she sat back in the chair. “I wish we had a rocker in here.”
“You know, we do have some in the feeding room. I’ll get you one.” He disappeared and came back quickly, carefully carrying a wooden rocker. Grace stood, and Damien helped to switch out the chairs for them.
“Cain loves to be rocked,” she explained as she stared down at her little boy and pushed his hair back.
“Then rock him to your heart’s content. I’ll be back to check on him tonight.”
Grace smiled down at Cain, who reached up with a hand for her. She kissed his palm and whispered, “You’re amazing.”
The soft click of a camera made her freeze and she glanced up in horror, only to see Damien taking a picture of them. “Sorry, the moment was perfect,” he murmured apologetically.
Grace chuckled weakly. “I thought a paparazzo had snuck in.” She looked at the picture Damien had taken and smiled. “Send that to my phone, and we can send it to Drake.”
“Things are doing okay with you two?” Damien asked casually as he sat in the chair next to her and fiddled with his phone.
“Things are going well. He’s back on tour with the band. He’ll be back.” Grace rocked the peacefully snoozing baby slowly.
“Good. Where do you think you two are going to end up?”
“I don’t know. I like his doctors here, and I love living with you,” Grace admitted. “It would be very hard for me to consider moving.”
“Well, you guys can cross that bridge when you come to it.” Damien patted her leg gently. “And now, this Grandpa is off to get himself some sleep. It’s been quite a night. I wonder if that boy knew you were gone and decided to raise hell. We’re going to have to watch him when he gets a bit bigger, I can already tell he’s going to be a little terror.” He bent, and Grace smiled as he kissed her on the cheek and then kissed Cain’s forehead.
“We’ll deal with it when it comes. I hope he can eat.”
“Ah, you’ll regret wishing for him to eat when he’s a teenager.” Damien chuckled. “Boys are never full.”
“I’ll be grateful for it. Because he made it.” Grace insisted. “See you later, Dad, I love you.”
Grace shifted in her seat and slipped her phone out of her pocket. She smiled at the picture of her and Cain and sent it to Drake’s phone with a text.
G: We miss you. Guess who pulled his tube out?
D: Is he okay?
G: Yeah, he’s breathing on regular oxygen. We’re going to try feeding him later.
D: That’s awesome. I’m exhausted, babe, I gotta catch some sleep, we fly out in five hours.
G: I love you. Safe travels.
D: I love you both.
Grace pressed her phone to her chest and pretended she was hugging Drake instead. One of these days we’ll be together and make it work out. She rocked her boy and counted her blessings, one at a time. Christina made this possible. Would we have had a second chance? Probably not without her meddling in things. I would love to know how she got an e-mail to him in the first place on the day she died. I guess that’s probably one of life’s little mysteries we’ll never know.
She pressed a kiss to Cain’s feather soft cheek and tears filled her eyes as she continued to think. I’d give anything to have you here with me now, Christina. It’s not fair that I have all this and not you. If it was your plan for Drake and me to make a family for Cain, I promise you I will. He will be happy and loved.
A few hours later, a nurse came into the room with a bottle. “We’re going to try and get him to eat. Let’s see how he does with regular formula and a slow flow nipple. If he has some issues, we’ll
thicken the formula. Let’s cross our fingers.”
Grace took the bottle from her, and Cain’s eyes lit up as he saw the bottle. Having a feeding tube for a couple weeks hadn’t been fun. Luckily, he hadn’t forgotten what a bottle was all about. He grasped the bottle with greedy hands and helped her hold it. She chuckled and eased the bottle back, making him slow down a little. “I know, it’s been a while, but you don’t have to be a piglet.”
The nurse hovered over them, her keen eyes watching the monitors. “I think he’s doing okay.”
Grace pulled the bottle from him again and frowned as his face crumpled and he began to cry, a soft, dinosaur growly rasp. “Oh, don’t cry, piglet. Here, here. Shh…” She gave him back the bottle and rocked him slowly. His blue eyes became unfocused and his suckling slower and slower as he dozed. “His cry is funny sounding.”
“It will be for a little while. It’s a good sign that he’s able to drink from a bottle. His heart rate hasn’t dipped, and his oxygen is steady. I’m going to let the doctor know. We may be able to pull his feeding tube too.” She smiled excitedly and left the room.
Grace stared down at the dozing baby. “Well, aren’t you just making leaps and bounds?”
Over the next two days they continued feeding him with a bottle, and on the evening of the second day, Cain’s feeding tube was removed from his nose. There was much rejoicing, not that Cain had any idea why everyone was so excited.
Grace snapped a picture of Cain without the little tube running into his nose and sent it to Drake.
G: Lookit! Someone lost their feeding tube!
D: I’m so proud! Is it stupid I’m sitting here showing the guys and acting like he just won a Nobel Peace Prize?
Grace chuckled and typed back.
G: No, I think it’s great.
Raising Cain Page 11