Merrily in Love

by Melissa West

  Kylie yawned again and leaned back in the chair. “Just for a few minutes.” Her eyes closed before she’d consciously decided to close them, and she felt warm breath against her temple, then a swift kiss to her forehead, before she drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 13

  “How did you get her to sleep?”

  Brady glanced over to find that the nurse who had been in the room when he first came had returned, a clipboard in her hand. He pushed off the wall, where he’d been leaning for the better part of an hour, because when he sat down, he couldn’t see Kylie. She kept mumbling in her sleep, her face tensing before relaxing again, and he feared she was having a nightmare.

  When they were teenagers, she used to get them a lot, and he would smooth a hand over her hair until she relaxed and fell back to sleep. Now, he did the same, but with each touch, he found himself falling deeper and deeper into her trance.

  “I helped her into the chair, exhaustion seemed to do the rest.”

  The nurse grinned, then walked over and checked on Franny, then jotted some things on her clipboard. “Kylie didn’t tell me she had a boyfriend.”

  “She doesn’t, or—I’m not. Just a friend.”

  Her right eyebrow lifted. “Who’s by her side in the middle of a Friday night after Thanksgiving? I call that a boyfriend, but feel free to call yourself whatever you like.”

  He didn’t argue with her, partially because he liked the sound of the word.

  “How is she?” he asked, nodding toward Franny.

  “Stable. And lucky. But she will be okay.”

  Releasing a breath, he leaned back against the wall, just as Kylie’s phone pinged once, then twice, then vibrated. He peered over, at first certain he shouldn’t look, but then he caught what was on the screen. It wasn’t a text. It was a notification.

  REAL N FEEL IN STOCK, WALMART, BROWN HAIR GIRL DOLL

  The toy was in stock at Walmart!

  Brady quickly took out his own phone, opened Safari, and opened the Walmart app. He typed in the toy’s name, and options populated the screen, but as he scanned down the list, he realized every one of them was out of stock. Dang, that lasted all of five seconds before the toy was snatched up and the stock depleted again.

  “Man.” He quickly ran a search on Toys “R” Us, and then Target, with the same results as Walmart, all out of stock, but then he remembered that Kylie said Target received a few each day.

  Which meant they would receive a few today.

  Checking the time, Brady felt a new sense of purpose. He couldn’t fix Franny, he couldn’t guarantee that she would be okay, and he couldn’t take away that pain. But he could go stand in line at four thirty in the morning at a Target that wouldn’t open until eight in an effort to fulfill Rena’s Christmas wish, and in turn, Kylie’s.

  He bent down and kissed Kylie’s forehead again, then slipped from the room. The hospital hallway was quiet, the nurse’s station empty except for Franny’s nurse, who was bent over her phone, a smile on her face.

  “Hey, sorry to interrupt you,” he said as he approached.

  She glanced up, the smile still in place. “No, sorry. Just a text from my fiancé. Anyway, what can I do for you?”

  “A text caused that big of a grin?”

  The nurse shrugged. “Hasn’t anyone ever made you so happy that little things make your day? Even a simple hello?”

  Brady swallowed. He could think of someone.

  “Right. Well, I need to be somewhere and will be gone for a few hours. Can you let Kylie know that I’ll be back if she wakes? I’d text her, but I’m afraid it would wake her up.”

  “Of course,” she said, then she took Brady’s number, and he headed for the elevator.

  * * * *

  Kylie woke with a start, her heart racing, her cheeks wet from tears she hadn’t remembered shedding. She blinked once, then twice, and her focus adjusted from sleep.

  The heart attack.

  The hotel room.

  That was all part of the dream, too, but her dream ended at a gravesite, Franny’s name etched into the gravestone.

  Needing more proof, Kylie pushed to standing and laid a hand over Franny’s heart, felt the beating, and watched the rise and fall of her chest. She was alive…for now.

  The thought was enough to cause her own heartbeat to pick up speed again, her thoughts racing in search of a way to fix this, but there was nothing she could do. Nothing!

  She hung her head and tried to remember that this wasn’t Franny’s last day. This was a bad day, a horrible, horrible day. But it wouldn’t be her last day…horrible or otherwise.

  Life was full of good and bad days, some so hopeless you wondered how you would go on. Kylie knew―she’d had a few of those herself. And that was when she remembered that Brady had been there when she went to sleep. But where was he now?

  Turning back for the chair, she picked up her phone, hoping to find a text from Brady to let her know where he’d gone, something, but instead she found a notification that the Target closest to Crestler’s Key had received a few Real N Feel dolls.

  Her chest heaved as she took in each word. Franny was sick and there was nothing she could do to change that. Brady broke his promise and left her―again―and there was nothing she could do to change that. But damn if she was going to give up on finding Rena’s doll.

  Quickly, Kylie grabbed her coat and rushed from the room, pocketing her phone in the effort.

  “Hi there,” she said to the new nurse at the station. “My name is Kylie, and I’m Franny Waters’s goddaughter. She’s in room 245.” Kylie pointed to the room.

  “Yes, dear. I’m Sue, and Lauren filled me in about your godmother. Is there something I can do for you?”

  Kylie drew a breath. She didn’t want to leave, but she needed to do this. Her sanity was a thin string, ready to snap. She needed to do something to prove that life still held promise and hope. “I need to grab something really quick. Can you please call me if anything goes wrong? Anything at all?”

  “Of course. It’s just after seven. Your godmother may sleep for a bit longer. But I will call you if she wakes.”

  Kylie glanced back at the room, when the nurse placed her hand on Kylie’s. “It’s okay. She’s in very good hands. Go do what you need to do. For you.”

  Nodding, Kylie fought back her emotions. “You’ll call me?”

  “I will call you. Promise.”

  And that did it. “But see, someone else already made me a promise today, and he broke it. And Franny is here, and what if she wakes and I’m not here, and then she―she―” She sucked in a breath, and the nurse stood and took Kylie’s other hand.

  “She will be okay. You will be okay. But it sounds like you could use a breath. It isn’t selfish to take care of yourself. You matter here, too.”

  The halls were busier now, nurses doing their rounds, doctors popping into rooms. It reminded Kylie that Franny had survived the night. Day was breaking outside.

  “Go. I will call you. And I never break my promises.” She winked, and Kylie said a quick thank you before rushing to the elevator.

  Christmas music hit her ears once inside, and she tried to remember that this season wasn’t about worry or fear. It was about miracles and love and a general feeling that something greater existed in this world than just ourselves.

  The doors pinged open and Kylie ran for it, bursting from the main doors and running with all she had to her car. It wasn’t until she turned the ignition that she realized the time―seven thirty.

  Seven thirty, no. Target opened at eight, and Kylie was easily twenty minutes away. The line would be around the building. Heck, by that point, it would probably be circling the building over and over again.

  Doubt and hopelessness crept up, but then she glanced up and caught a young boy helping an older man to the main door of t
he hospital. She watched the boy, assuming maybe he was a grandson or relative of some kind, but then the boy ran off to his mother’s waiting hand, and they walked hand-in-hand to her car.

  A stranger. The elderly man was a stranger whom the boy chose to help out of kindness.

  Kylie wouldn’t give up on this. Not today or tomorrow. Rena was getting this toy. Besides, it was the Sunday after Black Friday now, which meant church. There was a slight chance that few would show up at Target so early when they needed to be at church later.

  The idea made her feel better, and she cranked up the Christmas music as she sped down the highway.

  In no time, she was pulling into the Target parking lot, and to her excitement, it wasn’t nearly as packed as the last time she’d been there.

  Parking, she locked her car and grinned―until she caught the line. Target had adjusted it this time, switching to a different entrance so she hadn’t seen it at first. But it was there: dozens of people, maybe thirty in total, all waiting for the toy.

  She took another step, then another, not really sure why or what she would do. Maybe she would just wait and see. Maybe they received a giant truckload. Maybe…

  But then she scanned the crowd again, taking them all in one by one. The parents huddled together, the two moms teaming up together, the―

  Kylie stopped cold, blinked once, then twice. His eyes were locked on her, his hands in his pockets. It was freezing out there, no warmer than thirty, and he was standing there in nothing more than a gray pullover. But that wasn’t the most shocking thing about him being there. It was that he was first in line. First. Which meant he had to have arrived hours ago. He’d frozen there in that pullover for hours…all for her.

  Her heart couldn’t take it.

  So instead of asking what he was doing there or making a joke or walking away for fear of what her next step might mean, she sped up. One foot, then another, the chill in the air forgotten, the Christmas music from her car still in her head, her eyes never leaving his.

  “You…”

  “Yeah.”

  “But that’s…”

  “I know.”

  Her heart pounded as the surge of emotions overcame her, and then in one more step, she was to him, her hands cradling his face as her lips met his.

  A burst of sparks zipped through her, radiating out from her chest, while her mind went fuzzy. Brady went still at first, and then he smiled against her lips and pulled her closer, his arms wrapping around her. His lips were cold against hers and he tasted like cinnamon, and as his cold nose brushed against her cheek, the kiss deepening with his tongue sweeping inside her mouth, claiming her all over again, she had one thought and one thought alone: finally.

  After far too short a time, Brady pulled back and ran his hands over her face, a giant question mark on his.

  “I don’t understand,” he said. “I mean, I’m not complaining, but I’m not understanding. Where did this come from?”

  Kylie shook her head and pulled him against her again. She unzipped her coat and forced his arms inside and around her so she could warm him. “You’re freezing. How long have you been here?”

  He shrugged. “Since about five, I guess. Maybe a little before.”

  Tears pricked her eyes as she took in his flushed face, his lips cracked from being out there so long. “You don’t have a coat. What are you doing out here?”

  “I saw the notification on your phone, and you were so worried with Franny. I couldn’t help you, couldn’t help her, but by God, I could come out here and stand in line for this toy. So, I told the nurse to let you know I was going and took off. I was the first in line.”

  A breath released slowly, and Kylie felt like an idiot. Of course he told the nurse. “The nurses switched shifts. Lauren left, so when you weren’t there, I thought…”

  Brady’s gaze dropped. “You thought I broke another promise.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  His eyes flew back up to her. “You’re sorry? I did this, Ky. Me. I never told you how much you meant to me back then. I didn’t even talk to you about my school choices, what I wanted to do. Then I threw it at you that I was going halfway across the country, and I just assumed you’d go with me. I didn’t even stop to ask you, to talk about it. It’s my fault.”

  “No,” Kylie said, shaking her head again. “I shouldn’t have walked away. That’s all I seem to be able to do any time things get bad. When I get scared. I run. Well, I don’t want to run anymore. I just…I just want to be with you.”

  A slow smile curved his lips and he bent his head toward her. “I’m going to kiss you now, but seeing as how you did it first, I’m thinking there’s permission here.”

  She laughed. “Yes, unlimited permission.”

  He kissed her, harder this time, the kiss saying everything they’d wanted to say for years now. They walked away from each other, but it wasn’t over―their love hadn’t ended.

  The doors opened, and Kylie pulled away from him to find a man in a manager’s shirt appear. “Good morning,” he said to the crowd. “We’ve unpacked all our boxes and we received only one Real N Feel doll. It’s a girl.” His eyes then fell on Kylie and Brady. “Your daughter is going to be a happy little girl.”

  “Ah!” Kylie screamed and wrapped her arms around Brady again, neither of them even correcting him about the reason they were there for the doll.

  “For the rest of you, I’m so sorry. I know the manufacturer is fighting to keep up with demand. We will receive them every day, and it is first come, first served, with each person able to purchase only one doll. Please try again tomorrow.”

  The crowd groaned from behind them and slowly dispersed, but Kylie and Brady were all grins. The manager motioned to the doors. “You can come on to customer service to purchase it.”

  “Thank you. Thank you so much,” Kylie said.

  “Thank him,” the manager said. “He was here before me this morning.”

  Kylie eyed Brady, his hands still so cold. “I will never be able to thank you enough for this. You have no skin in this, yet you came out here for Ally and Rena.”

  “No,” he said. “I came here for you. I messed up once, Ky. If you’ll let me, I’ll prove to you that I won’t take you for granted again.”

  She grinned. “Second time’s the charm?” She pulled out her credit card to buy the doll, when Brady waved her away.

  “I’ve got this.”

  “But…”

  “Let me do this.”

  Kylie rose onto her toes and kissed him again. She could get used to this.

  Chapter 14

  “Let me tell you, if you think I’m going to just lay up in this bed and let you tell me what to do all the time, you have another think coming.” Franny glared at Kylie, who had just tucked her into her bed at home, turned on the TV to the Hallmark Channel so she could watch one of those Christmas movies she loved, and set a bottle of water beside her bed.

  “I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I’m trying to take care of you. And to do what your doctor asked. And to ensure you live a few more days to put up with me.”

  Franny rolled her eyes. “I’d just as soon find my grave this second than follow that diet.”

  It was the same thing she’d said for the last three days, while they kept her in the hospital, running tests and getting her to the point where she could safely leave. Her blood pressure was off, which she claimed was because they wouldn’t leave her alone and she was stressed out. She’d been tense and difficult the entire time, so very unlike Franny, but then it wasn’t every day that one suffered a heart attack and had to listen over and over about how it was preventable.

  “You have heart disease.”

  “So? Are you seriously going to stand there and tell me that by this point I wouldn’t be riddled with some other disease if not this one? I can’t live my lif
e in fear of sickness, trying to prevent this thing from getting worse and hating every minute of it. God set my life’s plan the moment he put me on this Earth. A little exercise ain’t going to prevent my death.”

  Kylie exhaled slowly. “Maybe. Maybe not.” It was an argument they’d had many times. Franny believed, like many Christians, that lives were set the moment we were born, every detail etched in some book up in Heaven. But Kylie was more progressive in her beliefs. She thought God gave us this life, but that it was up to us to treasure it, take care of ourselves, and make the most of it.

  “I’m not having this talk with you right now. It’s my body. If I want cheesecake, by God I’m going to eat it.”

  “You realize you went from sane adult to insane old person in a matter of days, right?”

  Franny pulled back, clearly offended. “You better take that back.”

  “You need to ask yourself what you would want for me. If I were in the hospital and the doctor gave me a strict diet to follow in order to keep me living, would you want me to follow it? Would you force me to follow it if needed to keep me here?”

  At that Franny leaned back in her bed and crossed her arms, her face twisted in annoyance. “Where is the remote?”

  Kylie fought back a smile and sat down beside her on the bed. “Right here. Do you need anything else?”

  “Yes, you to go somewhere else. And don’t even pucker that lip. You’ve been up under me every second of every day for half a week now. Don’t you need to see that man that keeps coming by and grinning at you?”

  “I haven’t―”

  “You have. And I’m tired of it.”

  Okay, so maybe there was some truth to what she was saying.

  After she and Brady had left Target with the doll, they grabbed coffee and went immediately back to the hospital, only to find Franny awake and as ornery as ever. Three days later, those nurses were probably thanking God when Franny left.

  Brady came by each day to check on them both, and it became apparent to Kylie that he cared about Franny, too. He tensed when Franny seemed in pain and rushed to her side every time she asked for something when he was there.