by Taylor Hart
Walking into the house, he checked his phone again. It was odd he hadn’t heard from Felicity the last two days. Granted, he knew she had a life, but he had to see her.
He’d planned on hopping in the shower and then going over, but he went to his garage and hopped in his Jeep. She would just have to see him looking like a fool in love.
When Kade pushed the doorbell at Felicity’s house, no one answered. Tentatively, he looked around, noticing Felicity’s car was there. Adrenaline coursed through him, and he wondered where she was. They couldn’t be at the store or something, right?
He texted her again. It was probably the twentieth text he’d sent. He stood in front of her house and tried to call her. No answer. Knowing she would hate him doing this, he called Mr. DaVinci.
On the second ring, DaVinci said, “Kade,” a bit breathlessly.
“What?” He had the feeling he was about to get bad news.
“Well, I thought you were calling because of Felicity.”
He stumbled back, holding to the side of Felicity’s brick house. “I am.”
“I have no idea why she quit—”
“What?”
“But it appears she’s still covered with our insurance. Dallas General Hospital called.”
He didn’t wait to hear it all, instead sprinting for his Jeep and firing it up. “What hospital?” In one moment he wished for his helicopter, and in the next he figured Felicity would say only bratty, spoiled, entitled billionaires think things like that.
“I sent her to talk to your father about an issue, and when she came back, she quit.”
“My father!” Kade snapped. He yanked around the stick shift and got his Jeep on the road and on the way to the hospital.
For a second, no one said anything
“Talk!” Kade roared, speeding.
“I thought your father would have told you. She refused to work for him.”
As Mr. DaVinci explained, the moment like one of those movie scenes when the character is reacting and acting but all the sound is lost. The realization that her heart was weak, that she had a condition, hit him. He dropped the phone and thought about a million things that could go wrong for her. He thought about her beautiful red hair, her smile, those eyes that cast a spell on him. He thought of the way she’d told him he was a bratty, spoiled, selfish, billionaire. The way she treated him like a normal person.
Getting onto the freeway, he headed to Dallas General Hospital. As he drove, he realized why Anthony and Felicity both meant so much to him. They’d never wanted anything from him.
Tears fell down his face. He dropped his hand and felt around for his phone, picking it up and putting his ear to it.
“Kade. Kade.” He heard Mr. DaVinci.
“What room?”
“Number 304.”
Kade shut off the phone and called his brother.
Chapter 27
Felicity sat in her hospital room, looking out the window. She couldn’t help thinking how much she would have loved to have her parents getting along like this, if only it weren’t because they were united against her.
“Felicity.” Her father stood next to her, gently picking up her hand. He was sober. He’d taken a shower. He actually looked like a normal human being. “We need you to do the surgery. Your heart isn’t functioning well.” The paperwork was gripped in his other hand. “They’ll be coming for you in just a little bit. Everything’s in place. Please, just sign the papers.”
Jerking her hand out of his, she shook her head. “Just stop talking to me.” She knew it was stupid and childish to refuse, but she couldn’t do the surgery. “It’s not certain the surgeon can fix it.”
Her mother stood next to the window, looking over the city. “Felicity, I need you to have faith.” She turned to face her, tears on her face. “I know you’re afraid, baby, but you can do this.” Moving to her father, they held hands.
Her father had tears in his eyes. “Felicity, you gotta do this. Your mom and I need you.”
It’d been amazing to Felicity that, since the pressure of paying the mortgage had gone away, her mother had found hope again. She’d been planting a garden, and she’d fixed up the yard. It was like she had found a new lease on life. It was amazing how her father stepped up when her mother called him.
Inner turmoil assaulted her. She did not want another surgery!
She took a breath and thought about Kade. Thought about being with him on the beach. She closed her eyes, and there they were, building a sand castle together. He was covering her with sand, and the memory felt cool, fresh, perfect.
“Felicity,” a man said, but it wasn’t her father’s voice. It was Kade.
She opened her eyes. Happiness surged through her. “Hey!”
There he was, looking ragged and mussed and beautiful in the sunshine coming through the window. He looked so upset, too.
She pushed the guilt aside at not calling him. It would be better if he didn’t have to go through all this with her. His father was right. She was broken. Kade should move on … but dang, he was beautiful. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling.
Kade looked at her father, then her mother, who apologetically said, “I wanted to call you, but she wouldn’t let me.”
“I’m getting out of here today,” Felicity said quietly. “So it doesn’t matter.”
Her mother moved to Kade’s side. “She is slotted to do a surgery in less than thirty minutes. Everyone is ready.”
“No, I’m not doing a surgery.” Felicity said quietly.
Her father brandished some paperwork. “She needs to sign these papers so the doctors can go in there and fix her valve. She can’t wait any longer.” He held the papers out to Kade. “If she doesn’t try this surgery, she can’t be put on the list for a heart transplant.” His voice held desperation. “We need her to try this surgery.”
Her mother hugged him. “Please, talk sense into her.”
Kade’s face was serious as he took the papers from her parents.
Her father took her mother’s hand. “Let’s let them talk.” Her father looked so different. Felicity liked seeing him sober. A twinge of resentment fell through her, but she didn’t like him ganging up on her with her mother.
She blinked and decided not to focus on that. She looked at Kade’s beautiful face and grinned, feeling warm again.
Kade’s gaze locked with hers, and then he was by her side. He took her hand, evaluating her with his eyes from the top to bottom. “What’s happening?” His voice was soft, and she saw that laser-like focus, so like his father’s.
She sighed, feeling like she’d woken after a long movie. “I passed out, and everyone’s turning it into such a big deal.” Tears filled her eyes, and real terror threatened to rise within her. “I can’t do another surgery. They never work.”
He stared at her, and before she could talk herself out of it, she reached up and took his shirt and pulled her to him, kissing him gently on the lips. She felt him give in to her, knowing that for once he didn’t want to. He wanted to stay focused on the medical issues. She kissed him more, needing the sunshine, the warmth. She’d felt so cold.
He didn’t push her away, but he stopped kissing her. He reached back, grabbed a chair with his foot, and pulled it to her side.
“I love how agile you are,” she said. “I also think you’re like sunshine.” It sounded silly, but she didn’t care. “I think the nurse gave me some medicine that won’t let me shut up.” It also made her feel more relaxed, she smiled.
He searched her face. “What is going on?”
“But I’m not doing this surgery, Kade.”
Tugging back, he frowned. “Why not?”
She grabbed him harder. “That’s what I was going to tell you that day when we got back, right before you got the call about your brother. I was going to tell you that I’m done with surgeries, because they never really fix the problem, and it’s just … I’ve had way too many unsuccessful surgeries. Do you have any idea how
hard it is every single time? They cut me open, pull out my heart, try to do something to fix my valve, but in the end, they just put it back in.” Her hand trembled, and she glared at it like it had no permission to do so. “I’m done now.”
He gave her a measured look. “Felicity, you need to do this. I don’t think your mother would want you to do it if it’s the wrong thing.”
Tears burned in her eyes. She thought she’d cried enough, but she felt emotion in the back of her throat. She released him. “Please leave. If you can’t support me not doing the surgery, you’re just making my life harder.”
He took her arms and pulled them back around his shoulders, his face intense. “No way, Song. No way. You’re not quitting on me.”
The way he looked at her, like he could fix this, sent her emotions tumbling. “You’re not listening. Even if I got the surgery, it’s not guaranteed, and every surgery that doesn’t work weakens me.”
The crease between his eyes deepened. “There’s always another play. Your father said you can get on the transplant list.”
“No,” she said more harshly than she’d intended. She pushed him back, even though she was weak. “You’re pushing me, just like your dad the other day…”
He sat up straight, any trace of sunshine erased by a storm. “What happened?”
She shook her head.
“Felicity.” He growled.
Knowing it was useless, she started telling him. “He wanted me out of the way, so he tried to send me off on some fake job in Reno, telling me he was getting me an apartment there.” She laughed, and it felt good, only suddenly she was crying. “He offered me a blank check. Isn’t that funny? I realized I was the poor girl in the movie where the rich parents offer to write a check for anything you want to get you out of the way, but it was me and my real life.” It sounded awful, even to her. She was hurt and confused. “I love you, Kade.” She confessed.
His eyes misted. “I love you, too, piano girl.”
Gently, she reached up and touched his face. “I should have told you I had made up my mind I was done with surgeries. Your father said I’m broken. He’s right.” She pulled back her hand. “You should go. You should.”
He brushed his thumb over her fingers, tears in his eyes. “You’ll get the transplant if this doesn’t work.”
Terror filled her. “Surgery is horrible. And then I’ll be put on a list, that’s not a guarantee.”
“The surgery will work,” Kade said quickly, wiping his eyes. “It has to.”
She searched his face. “Kade, you were my first real Prince Charming.” She couldn’t stop the tears from running down her face. “Isn’t that funny?” She reached up and gently touched the soft facial hair on his face again. “I never thought I’d have a bratty, spoiled billionaire as my Prince Charming.”
“Don’t forget selfish and entitled,” he said softly, picking up her hand and kissing it, tears washing down his face. Despite the tears, his expression was the same laser-like focus he had on the field. “Felicity, you’re right. I’m too bratty and selfish to ever give you up.”
She shook her head. “I fell in love with you. But … You need someone strong. You should go.”
“No, I need you to sign these papers because I need you with me.”
She smiled. “Then the prince comes to save me?” All her resistance to the surgery was failing.
He took both of her hands in his and kissed them. “Please, Song, do this with me. I’ll be here. I’ll block for you.”
Every worry and fear and vulnerability seemed to melt in his eyes. She never thought anyone could convince her to do a surgery again, but she hadn’t known what loving a good man could do to her.
“Please.” He bent and kissed her forehead and then pulled back, getting the paperwork. “Sign here, Song. I’ll be here when you come out, and we’ll have everything together.”
She reached up and took the pen, trusting in his blue eyes, putting all her fear aside. She scrawled the necessary signatures and tried not to think of horrible surgery ahead of her.
Kade rushed out to the hallway and then back in to her, sitting next to her. He looked pale. “Okay, they said five minutes. You got this.”
“Are you going to throw up, Kincaid?” she asked, feeling peaked herself.
He put his hand on her forehead. “Hey, I always win a game when I throw up right before.”
Felicity laughed. She could feel the loopy medicine taking a firmer hold, and the world started to fade.
“Are you okay?” he asked her.
Distantly, she heard her heart monitor start beeping wildly. She felt herself falling, just like in her dream. “Kade,” she tried to yell, but it came out muffled.
“Felicity!” He kept her hand but shouted for help, and her parents rushed in along with a bunch of staff. She heard her mother yell out and reach for her as her father held her mother back.
Then everything went black.
Chapter 28
Two Days Later
Kade didn’t know what time it was. He sat next to Felicity’s bed. There were tubes in her nose and down her throat. A monitor beeped in the background consistently. He supposed it should be comforting, that regular tone. But it wasn’t.
They’d rushed her in for the surgery, but the valve had been too weak.
A soft hand was on his shoulder. “I wish …” her mother said again, for the fiftieth time. “We should have tried this surgery sooner. I should have insisted. Then she could have been on the transplant list sooner.”
Felicity’s dad moved next to her. “Let me take you home, sweetheart. Kade will be here tonight, right?”
Kade nodded, feeling empty and tired and wishing he could hold Felicity to this world with the force inside of him, but knowing he couldn’t.
Her mother inhaled sharply and bent and kissed Felicity on the forehead. “If she wakes while I’m gone, tell her I love her.”
Kade nodded again, and her mother squeezed his shoulder.
“Come on.” Her father took her by the arm, and they left the room.
Kade didn’t feel like he’d really absorbed any of this. Her heart had failed, and she was on life support now. The machines were breathing for her and pumping blood through her body. They said she could survive on life support for an undetermined amount of time. The one thing they were sure of was that her heart would never beat on its own again.
His mind had been going over and over everything he’d known, everything he’d learned the past four hours from her parents and doctors that she hadn’t told him. None of it made any sense to him. She looked so fine, normal. Sure, she’d gotten winded, and she’d told him she needed another heart surgery. But this?
He blamed himself, drowning in the same feeling of loss he’d had the day he and his brother had stood by his mother’s bedside and watched her slip away from them. He bent his head and cried. Not the harsh sobs from when he’d found out Anthony had been in an accident. No, this was generated by all the things he may not ever have with Felicity.
A life had begun unfolding before him when he’d been with her. Her as a bride. Them with children. Playing on the beach at the castle. The floating feeling he had when she played the piano. The certainty he felt when he kissed her. This was why she’d told him not to fall in love with her. More tears washed down his face.
He felt someone enter the room before he saw them. “Son.”
His father.
“Anthony called me.”
Carefully, Kade stood. He gently let go of Felicity’s hand. He didn’t want to yell at his father in her room. “Out in the hall.”
His father went, and Kade followed.
Turning to face him, his father shook his head. “Son, I’m sorry.” His father, for the first time in a long time, looked truly sorry.
Kade didn’t care. Part of him wanted to fight, and his father was an easy target. There was much to fight about, so many things over so many years. “You tried to buy her off,” Kade growled, b
ut he kept his voice down and moved into his father’s space. “You told her she was broken.”
“I was wrong,” his father said quickly. “And the money was a test for her.” He shrugged and looked apologetic. “You don’t know how many girls haven’t passed that test.”
Kade took a step back, feeling off-balance. “You bribed girls I’ve dated?”
His father shrugged. “How do you think I got Sheena to quit bugging Anthony?”
He stumbled back, and his dad grabbed him by the shoulders.
He jerked away from his father. “Just go away.” He felt out of control and wild, like a crazed animal who would tear his father apart. Shaking, he stumbled into the hallway wall and leaned against it for support.
“Son.” His father’s voice was measured. “I remember when I realized I couldn’t do anything for Mama. I remember the day the doctor told me we would lose her.”
Kade looked up at his father. He never spoke of his mother.
His father scowled. “I remember feeling like all of my power, money, fame, the big house I’d built for her, for all of you … What good were they? I was losing the woman I loved.” His voice sounded raw, and there were tears in his eyes.
Kade didn’t know how to feel, what to think. It wasn’t often you had a heart-to-heart with John Kincaid.
With a teary smile, his father took a step forward and put a hand on his shoulder. “I know I’ve been a jerk. I know I am a man who thinks he knows what’s best for his sons. But I love you, son. I’m proud of you. I’m proud of the way you stepped up and took hold of the Anthony’s situation, because I blew it. I admit it. When any of my family is hurt or injured, I get scared, and it comes out as anger. I yell, and I try to fix it, and it’s not the right thing to do. I felt the same way with your mama.” His breath hitched. “I’ll never forget how weak I felt the day she died, because it wasn’t supposed to happen.”