And Then You Kiss (Crested Butte Cowboys Series Book 3)

by Heather A Buchman

Why not? He wasn’t sure it would help, but wasn’t Blythe worth the try? “Okay.”

  “Is there anything else you want to tell me before we head back?”

  “I’m sorry I left. I honestly believed I was doing the right thing for everybody. I didn’t know she was pregnant. If I had, I like to think I might’ve done things differently, but I can’t say for sure.”

  “Another honest answer,” Mark put his hand on Tucker’s shoulder. “That’s progress.”

  Chapter 17

  Tucker was still sitting outside, on that damn bench, when Jace came back. He didn’t care what his brother said, he’d pick him up and throw him into the truck if he had to.

  “Still keepin’ the bench warm?”

  “Nah. I’m ready to go.”

  “You are? Why didn’t you call me or somethin’?”

  “I was enjoying the quiet a little longer.”

  “Did you try to see her?”

  “I saw her.”

  “You did? Did she kick you out?”

  “She was sleeping. I didn’t want to wake her. There’s time.”

  Jace was as confused as he was impressed with Tucker’s attitude.

  “Can we get something to eat?”

  “Uh sure. I ate, but we can get you somethin’.”

  “Anything is fine. I don’t care what. Then I need to sleep.”

  Jace drove across the street, where there was a deli. He reserved a room in a hotel not far from the hospital. Tomorrow they’d try again to get Blythe to talk to them.

  Tucker was asleep before Jace came out of the bathroom. Fully-clothed, boots still on, stretched out diagonally across the bed.

  It took Jace longer to fall asleep. He hoped his brain was fried enough that he wouldn’t dream tonight. He wanted to sleep, like the dead, as long as his body would let him.

  ***

  Blythe was finishing breakfast when Renie walked in the hospital room.

  “Good morning!”

  “Good morning to you too. Where’s that sweet little girl?”

  “With your mom. She’s practicing the grandma thing.”

  Blythe laughed. “I wonder if she’ll let the baby call her grandma.”

  “I think your mom will come up with something unique.”

  Renie was right. Her mom would never settle for something as mundane, and typical, as grandma. It would be as interesting to see what name she came up with for herself as it would be to decide what to name her baby.

  Oh God, she had to think of a name for the baby. Tucker should have some say in it, shouldn’t he? And what would the baby’s last name be? Would it be Cochran, or would it be Rice?

  She hadn’t thought about any of this while Tucker was gone. It was far too complicated. Had she gone the traditional route, like Brooke had, she’d be married already. Her husband wouldn’t have left her for the first four months of her pregnancy, and she wouldn’t have to worry about what the baby’s last name was. She hated to think Brooke was right about anything. But if she’d been here, Blythe would’ve had to agree with her. Good thing she wasn’t. That made Blythe laugh.

  “What?”

  “I was thinking about the lectures Miss Brooke would be subjecting me to if she was here.”

  “Oh gosh…” Renie started mimicking some of the things they both thought Brooke would be saying.

  Bree arrived in the middle of it. “You two sound like Brooke,” which only made them laugh harder. Blythe was holding her stomach she was laughing so hard.

  Bree had to laugh. It was good to see her sister happy.

  “Renie, I wish you could stay closer to home. You’re good for her.”

  “I won’t be gone that long. I promised my mom I’d help when the baby’s born, but as soon as I can, I’ll come back, I promise.”

  “Sorry to put a damper on the mood in here, since it’s so nice to see you having fun, but I’ve been asked to tell you that the Rice brothers are downstairs.”

  “Ugh, no, don’t be such a buzz kill.” Blythe was still smiling at least.

  “Tell me how you’re feeling about them.”

  Renie’s expression got serious. She pulled a chair over closer to the bed. “I talked to Jace last night.”

  “Yeah, and what did Jace have to say?”

  “He didn’t know where Tucker was. You have to know that. He wouldn’t have lied to you. That isn’t who he is.”

  “There’s a part of me that knows that, or at least wants to believe it. The truth is, I’m so mad at both of them. Sometimes I wish I never met either one of them.” Blythe stopped for a minute and rubbed her belly. “But if I hadn’t met them, I wouldn’t be having this baby, and right now, this baby is the most important person in the world to me.”

  Bree started to cry. Her little sister sounded so grown up, so mature, and so grounded in having this baby.

  “Oh don’t cry! You’re gonna make me cry. And I’m not sad. I’m mad. And if I cry, it’ll be pathetic. I want to be mean, and stubborn, and make Tucker Rice pay for…”

  For what? For hurting her? Leaving? She didn’t know what she wanted to make him pay for, or why.

  “Do you want to see him?”

  “I don’t know. I do, and I don’t. I’m mad, I’m not kidding about that. I’m hurt. And I’m scared.”

  “What are you scared of sweetie?” Bree asked the question, but Renie reached out and took Blythe’s hand.

  “That he won’t want to stay.”

  “I don’t think it’s about want,” Renie said. “The key is in getting him to talk about what happened. Obviously there was another accident. I’m guessing that whoever the girl was, died in the accident. I think we’ve all figured out that much.”

  “I would say you’re right,” added Bree. “But there’s gotta be more to it.”

  “It’s the more to it that you have to try to get him to talk about.”

  “There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to know. I mean, what if he really loved her? What if he loved her more than he loves me? Maybe that’s why he keeps leaving, what he wants is her, and he can’t have her, because she’s dead. And he thinks he wants me, but then when he’s with me, I don’t measure up.”

  “No, that isn’t it at all. Not even close.”

  Bree and Renie had been so focused on listening to Blythe, they didn’t hear the door open or Tucker walk in.

  Renie released Blythe’s hand and stood. Bree stood too. They both looked at Blythe, who nodded her head that it was okay for them to leave.

  “What is it then?”

  This was it. This was his chance to tell her. He took a deep breath and sat down in the chair Renie vacated.

  ***

  Jace was pacing when Bree and Renie got off the elevator.

  “Is he up there?”

  “Uh, good morning Jace, how are you?” joked Renie.

  “Yes, he’s up there,” answered Bree, giving him a break.

  “How is she?”

  “Mad at him, but willing to listen I think.”

  “I hope he’s willing to talk,” added Renie.

  Me too, thought Jace. Although Tucker wasn’t the only one who needed to talk. He needed to tell his brother the role he played in what happened that night. And after he did, he wasn’t sure he’d see Blythe, or the baby, or any of these people again. If Tucker refused to forgive him, it would be Jace’s turn to leave.

  Renie’s phone pinged and she pulled it out of her pocket. “Oh my God,” she shouted. “My mom’s water broke. I’m here and my mom is having her baby. Shit. What am I going to do?”

  “I’ll drive you there,” Jace told her.

  “You’re sure? I mean, should we drive? By the time I caught a flight, we could be there already. I’m so nervous. I have to go pick up Willow. She’s with Paige and Mark.”

  Jace chuckled. “Let’s get on the road. The longer you stand here, the longer it will take us to get there.”

  “Tell Blythe, will you Bree?”

  “Of course—now
, go!”

  “And call your mom and tell her we’re on our way.”

  “I’ll tell her to have Willow in the driveway, ready to go.”

  “Thanks! Oh my gosh, my mom is having a baby.”

  When they got to the hospital in Gunnison, her mother was still in labor. She hadn’t missed it. “Do you mind?” she asked Jace, handing him Willow, and running toward the delivery room.

  “Of course not,” he answered, not that she could hear him, she was running as fast as she could.

  “Okay, little girl, this is new for me. Let’s see what we’ve got in here for you to play with.”

  Renie had two bags packed with stuff for Willow. She told Jace to leave one in the truck and bring the other one in. When Willow got tired, he could put her in the car seat and take her for a short drive and she’d fall asleep. He laughed when she told him not to leave her in the car alone, and if they sat in the parking lot while she slept, to make sure the car didn’t get too warm.

  “She doesn’t have too much faith in me, but we’re gonna be fine, aren’t we Willow?”

  Willow smiled at him and started talking. She wanted him to read her a story, he understood almost all her words that time. He was making progress, or maybe she was.

  Three hours and many snacks later, Willow screeched when she saw Renie walking toward them. “Mamamama!” she yelled and held her arms out.

  “Well?”

  Renie was smiling from ear to ear. “As she predicted, she had a little girl. She’s beautiful Jace.” Renie had tears in her eyes. “Oh, I’ve got to call Billy!”

  “Right here sweet girl,” Billy walked in as if on cue. Renie ran over and threw her arms around him. “Sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “Mama cryin’,” Willow explained to Jace in a very matter-of-fact way. “Mama happy dada’s here now.” She was talking to Jace as though he couldn’t possibly understand the nuances of life.

  “Glad to see you were able to keep our baby alive Rice.”

  Renie slugged him. “Leave him alone. He did great.” She looked at Jace. “Thank you, I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

  “My pleasure, and I mean that sincerely.” Jace ruffled Willow’s hair. “We had fun, didn’t we Willow?”

  Willow looked at Renie. “We had fun Mama.”

  “Hey, what’s her name?” asked Billy.

  “Caden Avery,” answered Renie.

  “Ah now, isn’t that a pretty name.”

  Renie loved the way Billy made the simplest words sound so beautiful.

  “I should call Paige and Mark. And who else? There must be other people I’m supposed to call.”

  “Didn’t she give ya a list?”

  “Oh you’re right, she did. What would I do without you Billy Patterson?”

  “You ain’t never findin’ out darlin’.” He kissed her long and hard enough that it made Willow giggle and Jace blush.

  ***

  Bree threw her keys down on the kitchen island. She opened up the fridge, but didn’t feel like eating. She sat down on a stool by the island and rested her chin on the hands.

  “What’s up?” asked Lyric in her little too happy way.

  “Nothing.”

  “Oh. Let’s see, what could this be about? Jace maybe?”

  “Jace? Why would anything be about Jace?”

  “Come on, I see the way you look at him, and the way he looks at you. There’s more to the story than you two not liking each other. You fight because you’re both fighting the attraction.”

  “That couldn’t be further from the truth Lyric. Jace is in love with my sister. As for me, may I remind you that my husband died less than six months ago? Attraction isn’t something that’s part of my vocabulary.”

  Bree got up, stormed off to her bedroom, and slammed the door behind her. She threw herself on the bed and started to cry. Even she didn’t know where her angst was coming from, but she knew it had nothing to do with Jace Rice. It was more that her life was in flux, she didn’t know what she was supposed to do next.

  Why had Zack volunteered for that deployment, and why did he, of all people, have to die? Those were questions that plagued her non-stop. Thoughts of Jace Rice did not plague her, there was no reason for her to give the man a second thought, let alone a first.

  ***

  Tucker wished Blythe’s gaze wasn’t quite so penetrating.

  “I’m waiting,” she said.

  “I know you are. This isn’t a story I’ve told before Blythe. I’m trying to figure out where to start.”

  “Start at the beginning.”

  The beginning. That would’ve been all the way back to elementary school. The day the teacher announced to the class there was a new girl who would be joining them.

  ***

  Her name was Rosa, and she was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen. Her last name was Rodriguez, which meant she’d be sitting right behind Tucker, since his last name was Rice. Jace sat in front of him.

  He learned, over time, that Rosa’s family lived in Basalt, but since her mother drove into Aspen for work every day, they enrolled her in a school in town. Rosa never believed she fit in with the other students, who came primarily from wealthy families. Her mother worked for one such family, as a housekeeper. It wasn’t until they were freshman in high school that Rosa started coming out of her shell, and that was after going to school with most of them for several years.

  She was often off on her own, and Tucker watched her. He was the same way, sometimes anyway. There were days that he didn’t feel like hanging out with his friends, he wanted to get lost in his art. There wasn’t anyone he liked to draw more than Rosa. Her black hair and almost black eyes were such a contrast against her pale skin that flushed a pretty shade of pink whenever he talked to her.

  “I want you to call me Rose,” she said to him one day.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t like Rosa. It’s too…ethnic.”

  “But it’s you,” he said. He ran his finger over her cheek when he said it, and she leaned her head into his hand.

  “Rosa—beautiful Rosa. Please don’t try to change who you are. You’re perfect.”

  She blushed again, and that was the first time he kissed her.

  Her parents were very strict, and were opposed to her dating a boy from Aspen, but Tucker was relentless. He made excuses to come and see her in Basalt on the weekends. He sketched her all the time, and for Christmas, he gave her parents a portrait he painted of her. They accepted him after that, and while they were still very strict with her curfew, they did let her go out with him.

  Rosa’s brother, in particular, didn’t like Tucker, or Jace. He’d gone to school in Basalt and worked the ski area. Both Tucker and Jace were on the ski team so they ran into him almost every day. He’d scowl at them. The day Tucker tried to start a conversation with him, all he said was that they should leave his sister alone.

  Tucker didn’t understand what he’d meant by that. Why had he said they should leave her alone?

  “She’s got a mind of her own,” Jace said that day. His brother looked as though he was trying to start a fight with Rosa’s brother, so Tucker pulled him away.

  Jace’s reaction surprised him, and they argued. Tucker told him that he could fight his own battles and he didn’t need Jace to intervene. It was important to Tucker that Rosa’s family liked him, welcomed him, accepted him.

  It was one of the worst fights the two brothers ever had. Tucker could feel Jace’s anger, and he didn’t understand it. It didn’t make sense to him. The only thing he could surmise was that Jace resented how much time he was spending with Rosa. That still didn’t explain why he fought with Rosa’s brother.

  When they were in their senior year of high school, Tucker approached his father the night before Thanksgiving. He wanted to ask Rosa to marry him at Christmas. He wanted them to be married right after graduation. His father wasn’t opposed to Rosa, he told him. H
e liked her, but Tucker was too young to be married. His parents were in agreement that Tucker should finish college before he thought about marriage. If he and Rosa still wanted to be wed then, they’d have his parents support.

  Tucker had been invited to Rosa’s house for Thanksgiving, and he went, hoping to have the chance to talk to Rosa’s father. If he felt differently, perhaps he could get his own parents to change their minds.

  Rosa’s family was more against it than Tucker’s was. Her father sat Tucker down and told him it would never work between them. They came from two different worlds. Once Tucker went away to college, he’d see that more clearly. Rosa would never fit in his world. Tucker insisted her father was wrong. The economic differences in their families didn’t matter. Her father was intransigent. He refused to discuss it further, and asked Tucker to leave.

  He was angry, very angry, and he didn’t want to upset Rosa, so he left. On his way to the truck, he saw her brother standing not too far from it. As he usually did, he tried to ignore him. With the mood he was in, getting into an argument would likely result in something much worse.

  “Cabron,” he said to him when he walked by. “Telling my father you want to marry my sister. You think Rosa loves you?”

  Tucker kept walking, trying not to react.

  “You think you’re the only pendejo who comes around to see her? You’re wrong, and you’re the same—assholes, both of you.”

  Tucker didn’t know what Rosa’s brother was talking about. He figured he was trying to rile him further. When he got in his truck, he threw it into gear and drove away, his tires laying rubber on the road as he did.

  He drove and drove that late afternoon. He went up to Independence Pass and hiked to the top. He sat there, trying to get his temper under control, until the sun began to set.

  He drove back to Basalt, hoping to talk to Rosa. He needed to see her, she was the only one who could calm him down.

  When he drove up to the house, he saw two figures standing near the back shed, it looked like a man and a woman, in a heated embrace. He stopped the truck and started to climb out. He startled them. And then, he heard Rosa gasp. She was with another man. She was running toward him, calling his name. He remembered backing away, turning and getting into his truck.