Choosing You (Thirsty Hearts Book 2)

by Kris Jayne

  Taryn thought to try again, but her first attempt took her strength. She stopped. The tornado around her slowed. People shouted incomprehensible words. She couldn’t move anything but her eyelids, so she willed them open.

  Staring into the face of a screaming stranger, Taryn realized where she was. The motion of the vehicle rocked the gurney to which she found herself bound.

  “Ma’am, can you hear me?”

  Taryn tried to speak, but could only manage a croaking moan. She furiously blinked her eyes and strained again against the straps holding her down.

  “Just relax, ma’am.”

  The ambulance shrieked around her, then slowed to a stop.

  She heard the flip of latches and was heaved forward into the warm blanket of evening air. More commotion swirled, and she closed her eyes to shield herself from disorientation.

  She had to focus. Wayne Nelson. The man in Jeff’s house. That’s where she’d seen him. The surveillance photos and mugshots in the investigator’s reports.

  Taryn flexed her hands into fists, then forced herself to relax like the unknown voice had instructed.

  “You’re okay.”

  Taryn repeated that to herself over and over to calm herself. Someone pulled at her arm, and she felt herself slipping beneath the noise and light faster than her self-admonishment could possibly allay her fear.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Stepping through the sliding glass doors of the hospital, Jeff couldn’t move fast enough to match the urgency he felt in his heart.

  The events of the evening turned over and over in his mind. The unknown number popped up on his phone. He’d waited seventeen minutes to listen to the voicemail because they were at dinner.

  A feverish intensity overtook him when he heard the words, “This message is for Jeff McConnell. This is Sergeant Amy Thompson with the Dallas police. There’s been a break-in at your house, and your fiancée Taryn was injured. She’s going to be fine, but she’s been admitted to the hospital.”

  The rest turned to a blur. There was the name of the hospital and a phone number, which Jeff called. The police had reached Taryn’s mother, who was on her way from Oklahoma.

  Someone had attacked Taryn, and she was undergoing tests so he couldn’t even speak to her. That’s all he knew. It took nearly half an hour for him to find his way to the right floor and the right nurses’ station.

  Eventually, he found a nurse who knew who Taryn was and where she was. Jeff barged down the hallway and into Taryn’s room, only to find it empty.

  Unable to get another person to tell him where she was, he decided to wait in her room and call his mother, who’d taken Olivia to her place for the night. Once he’d updated her with his limited information, he called the police officer back. Sgt. Thompson was headed back to the hospital to speak to him and hopefully to talk with Taryn.

  Knees shaking, Jeff paced the hospital room and waited for someone to arrive and tell him what had happened. That had lasted about five minutes before he went back down the long hallway to nurses’ station at the other end of the floor.

  “Are you sure she’s not in her room? I show that she’s in her room.”

  “I was just there,” Jeff barked, then clamped down his anger at the disorganization of the place.

  “Let me try the room.” The woman pressed a series of buttons on her phone and asked for “Ms. Lieber.” She carried on a conversation with someone and hung up the phone.

  “She just got back to her room, so you should head back.”

  Jeff turned and rolled his eyes. The Keystone cops routine would be hilarious except it could be life or death for the woman he loved. He thought about the last things he’d said to her and the doubt he’d expressed about their relationship. He’d put her off until tomorrow, which might not have come. He chomped his lip to stop the rise of emotion driving him to the verge of tears. Fear and ego—all of it went away. She had to be alright.

  Back down the hall and in her room, finally, he saw her. A neck brace collared her head. Bruises scattered across her face, and her left eye was swollen nearly shut.

  “Jesus. Taryn, what happened?”

  “I wanted to surprise you,” she whimpered. “I was going to make dinner.”

  “I texted you.”

  “I didn’t see it. I was already at your house. Then, Shannon…Her husband. It was him. I think. I couldn’t see his whole face. It happened so fast.”

  Taryn tried to turn her head to look at him, stopped, and winced. Jeff deposited himself on a stool at her bedside and put her hand in his.

  “We don’t have to talk about it. Are you in pain?”

  “Not really. I’m on medication, so it’s just dull, you know. I look like a horror movie.”

  “No, you don’t. You’ve never looked so good to me. Just knowing that you’re okay,” Jeff choked out. He leaned in and planted the lightest kiss on her purple cheek.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Not sure about Wayne Nelson. No one will tell me anything. Your house is a mess. I hit him, and there was a lot of blood.”

  Tears streamed down Taryn’s cheeks, and Jeff couldn’t hear anymore.

  “Don’t worry about him or anything else. Just rest. My mom wanted me to tell you she’ll be by tomorrow. Your mom is on her way.”

  “Hmm. Mom,” Taryn murmured. Her wakefulness slipped away.

  “I’ll be here, though. All night. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Taryn pulled herself to consciousness, peeling her eyes open. Everything in her body felt heavy and out of order. The stiff plastic enveloping her head made it impossible for her to look around and get her bearings. She knew she was still in the hospital.

  The nurses had checked on her every couple of hours all night, waking her and asking her questions. That alone had her exhausted. Never mind the concussion.

  Taryn fumbled for the buttons on the side of the bed to raise it and at least let her sit up a little. She blinked, training her eyes to her right.

  Sunny streams burst through the slats of the window blinds covering Jeff with stripes of light as he slept on a cot in the corner of her room. His sandy brown hair fell across his forehead. His full lips were slightly parted as he almost purred in his sleep. He’d stayed all night.

  Taryn thought about the nights they’d spent apart in angry misunderstanding. She vowed never to let that happen again. She loved him. She couldn’t lose him. However, she finally realized that instead of fighting for what they had, she needed to let go. She’d been gripping the wheel of their relationship so hard, tense and frightened ever since Shannon had come back. At the slightest sign of trouble, she’d kept overcorrecting and been swerving all over. That had to stop.

  First, though, she needed a drink of water. Everything in her head felt parched. Taryn located the nurse call button and pressed it. She didn’t want to wake Jeff up. He looked exhausted.

  “Look who’s awake,” the nurse sang a couple of minutes later as she pushed open the door. The woman paused to pump hand sanitizer into her palms and rub her hands together before approaching Taryn’s bedside.

  “Water,” Taryn sputtered and turned stiffly to her right to look at the nurse.

  “I’ll get your pitcher refilled, but I’ll also go ahead and swap out your IV bag. You’re getting fluids.”

  Taryn looked at the woman’s name tag.

  “Thanks, Nancy.”

  The woman smiled. “No problem. Glad to see your eyes open. The doctor will be in here to check on you in a few minutes. You’ll need to get your strength up. I think the police also wanted to come by and talk to you as soon as you were able. But if you’re too tired, let us know. Oh, and when your husband wakes up, let me know. I’ll get some food from the cafeteria sent up. There’s an order form in the bedside table.”

  “Oh, we’re not married yet,” Taryn corrected.

  “Not yet. But we will be,” Jeff insisted.

  Taryn twisted herself around to see Jeff pushing himself up to a sitting positio
n on his makeshift bed. He was rumpled, but sexy. The cotton of his T-shirt expanded across his chest as he stretched his arms over his head. He swung his feet onto the floor and yawned.

  Nancy raised her eyebrows and giggled. “Lucky you. I think it’s sweet when you have someone so worried about you that they’ll sleep on those awful cots we have. That’s love, darlin’.”

  The nurse winked at Taryn and left.

  “Did she say something about food?”

  “Yes. You want some?”

  “Hmm. That sounds so good right now, but come here first.”

  Jeff stood up and approached to the bed. He stroked the length of Taryn’s arm and leaned over, kissing each of her cheeks.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re sorry?”

  “Yes. I’ve been an idiot. I let all the hero dramatics with helping Shannon cloud everything else. I put you in a dangerous situation. You could have been killed. I’m more than sorry. I’m devastated.” Jeff’s words tumbled out. He placed his left hand on the crown of her head, caressing her forehead with his thumb.

  Taryn stared at him in silence. The dam broke on her emotions, and tears ran down her temples and the sides of her face, disappearing into the pillow propping up her head.

  “It’s not all your fault. I—” Taryn began.

  “Yes. It is. I should have been there to protect you. I should have been talking to you. We should have been doing this together. You were right. You were so right about how out of control this situation was. I didn’t see it.”

  “You’re here now. That’s all the saving I need. And as it turns out, I’m quite the scrappy fighter,” Taryn boasted and punched the air weakly with her fists. “I can handle myself if I have to, but I do want you by my side. Always.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather be out front if someone’s throwing punches.”

  “Deal. Should we shake on it?”

  “No. This deal has to be sealed with a kiss.”

  “Just a small one. My face hurts, and I’m in desperate need of a toothbrush.”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Jeff softly kissed her forehead. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” They soaked in the peaceful silence for a moment. “Hey, did the police say what happened to Wayne Nelson? I hit him hard over and over.”

  “They took him to a different hospital. You gave him a fractured skull, I think. That’s what the detective said. The police will be here at some point to ask you what happened.”

  Taryn’s stomach tightened. Surely, she wouldn’t be arrested. Jeff smoothed her knitted brow again with his thumb.

  “No worries. They know he broke into the house. No one is throwing you in jail on my watch.”

  “Good. I know I don’t look like it right now, but I’m way too pretty to go to prison.”

  “You look perfect.”

  Jeff kissed her again, and Taryn closed her eyes. A contented sigh escaped her lips. She grabbed Jeff’s other hand between hers. Taryn kissed it and pressed his palm against her cheek.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  “Ugh. I can’t wait to get out of here,” Taryn griped.

  She leaned back on the hard, foam hospital mattress and tried to stretch the restlessness out of her legs. Two nights in the hospital made her stir crazy.

  “They want to keep you one more night,” Annabelle Lieber informed her daughter.

  Taryn’s mother had arrived the morning after Taryn checked into the hospital.

  “Remember, you need to take it easy even after you get home. A concussion is nothing to play around with,” Jeff admonished, entwining their hands and circling her engagement ring around her finger.

  “Did you decide to stay at Jeff’s? I don’t feel good about your being at home in that high-rise building all by yourself.”

  “I have neighbors, Mom.”

  “Tell me you’re staying with Jeff,” her mother pressed.

  “She’s staying with me,” Jeff answered. “We decided that last night.”

  “We did,” Taryn agreed, smiling. “Are we going to order from the lunchroom or can we get some decent food in here? I’m so hungry I could eat my arm.”

  Taryn and Jeff tossed around lunch ideas, bickering sweetly. He teased her about using chicken fried steak as an emotional crutch, and she defended the virtues of cream gravy as a solution to life’s ills. Jeff’s eyes crinkled with good humor.

  She smiled at the lightness she felt, fighting through the dulled pain of the stitches lining the inside of her busted lip. Whatever had happened, having this connection to Jeff eased her mind.

  Taryn heard a soft knock on the hospital room door, and she turned her eyes in its direction. Turning her head still posed a problem. She had a crick in her neck like she’d slept upside down in a bat cave.

  “It’s the nurse here to tell me she was joking, and I can pack up and leave today,” she posited, grumpily.

  Annabelle got up and opened the door.

  “Hi,” a soft, slightly confused voice floated into the room. “Is this Taryn Lieber’s room?”

  Shannon. Jeff gripped Taryn’s hand.

  “I can ask her to leave.”

  “Don’t bother. She called me this morning when you were talking with the doctor. I told her that if she came early I’d still be here.”

  Jeff’s jaw dropped.

  “Hey. Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to see how you were.”

  “I’m doing pretty well, actually. Shannon, this is my mother, Annabelle. Mom, this is Jeff’s ex-wife, Shannon.”

  Annabelle shook Shannon’s hand stiffly.

  “I’m going to go see what they have in the cafeteria,” her mother announced and bolted for the door.

  Shannon’s phone call had come as a surprise. Taryn still didn’t trust her and thought Jeff needed to take a hard line on sharing custody with her until she proved herself. However, the woman had sounded truly shattered on the phone, weeping and apologizing. Then, she’s insisted on visiting Taryn and apologizing in her person.

  Taryn shuttled her misgivings for a moment. If the woman wanted to apologize, she’d let her. Jeff had explained how Shannon tipped him off about Kid’s plan to break into the house. At least Shannon had tried, and she wouldn’t be going anywhere. Taryn knew that.

  Never one to wallow, Taryn figured the sooner she and Shannon started figuring out how to be in the same room, the better, so long as the woman minded her p’s and q’s.

  The three of them sat staring at each other in silence until Taryn prodded Shannon with a question.

  “Have you heard any news on Wayne?”

  “Yeah. I called the hospital. Kid will be in for a while. You gave him a really good whack. They called it a depressed skull fracture. He had surgery yesterday. That’s all I know. I haven’t gone to see him, and I don’t plan to. As soon as he’s conscious, my lawyer is serving him with divorce papers. Now’s as good a time as any. He’ll be out of commission for up to six months, they said. And then there’s jail. I’m hoping he’s not out and about for a long time.”

  “You and me both,” Taryn sighed. Shannon teared up again.

  “I’m so, so sorry. Not that my sorry changes anything. This is all my fault,” she cried.

  “I wish you could have talked to us earlier about what you were dealing with, Shannon. But I think we’re all looking at things we could have done differently,” Jeff replied, looking at Taryn with his own apology in his eyes.

  “Shannon, you had your part to play, but don’t take on Wayne’s, or Kid’s, problems. He’s responsible for himself.”

  Shannon exhaled. “I suppose. I wanted to talk to you, too, Jeff. I told my lawyer to take back the papers we filed. When all this settles down, you and I can talk about what’s best for Olivia. I’m not going to fight you. I,” Shannon stammered, “I have a lot to work out on my own, and taking on Olivia even on a half-time basis, right now…You were right. I’m out of chances, and it’s past time for me to get my act together
.”

  Hallelujah, Taryn thought, but kept it to herself.

  “Have you thought about what you’re going to do?” Jeff asked her.

  “No. Not what I’ve been doing. I keep thinking about that art school you mentioned. But that’s a ways away. I don’t know. First, I need to move on from Kid.” Shannon closed her eyes, looking exhausted.

  “You’ll figure it out,” Taryn said.

  “Yeah, well, we’ll see. I don’t want to bother y’all any more than I already have. I’m real glad you’re okay, Taryn. You mean a lot to Olivia. You’re the only mom she’s ever known. I appreciate that. I know I haven’t shown it, but I do,” Shannon confessed, getting teary-eyed again. She tapped Taryn on the foot. “Take care now.”

  Once she left, Taryn turned to Jeff with raised eyebrows. “Will wonders never cease.”

  “Well, if she didn’t have a come-to-Jesus moment after all this, you’d have to wonder about her,” Jeff retorted. “It’s not all on her though. If I hadn’t been so stubborn, maybe you wouldn’t be in the hospital. If something had happened to you—”

  “It didn’t. I’m going to be fine,” Taryn interrupted. “So are we.”

  Jeff kissed the tip of her nose.

  “I have some making up to do, and you and I have a date with some smuggled in chicken fried steak. It’s not going to walk in here on its own.”

  “You are my lifeline to decent meals in the real world,” Taryn proclaimed. “If you brought me gravy and mashed potatoes, you would be my hero forever. And can you find my mom and send her back in? I have a feeling she’s hiding out until Shannon leaves.”

  “Whatever you want. I’m all yours,” he said before leaning in and touching his lips to hers.

  Epilogue

  A cool breeze drifted through the sycamores. Somewhere in the distance, Taryn heard the tinkling of wind chimes. All the drama of the past few months seemed a world away from this moment. Finally, she stood under an archway dappled with Gerber daisies, hand in hand with Jeff McConnell.