Fire and Midnight

by Sandra Renee Appet

  Jane turned to face what looked like a fresh-faced kid in a white coat.

  “I’m Dr. Peters, the attending ER doctor. I’ve been with Tyler since they brought him in. He’s a lucky guy. And you two look like you could use a cup of coffee. If you’ll come with me, I’ll fill you in.” Dr. Peters lead them to a small waiting room attached to the ER, where he carefully explained Tyler’s injuries. “He’s stable, now. We’ll move him to a room upstairs in the morning and monitor him over the next day or two. If all checks out he can go home soon.”

  “Thank you,” Nick said. “We’ll check into a hotel and come back in the morning. I think we could both use some sleep.”

  Jane finally allowed the fear she kept lodged in her shoulder blades to begin to melt away. Relief left her feeling spent and empty. She dropped her paper coffee cup into the trash and rubbed her eyes. She’d have preferred to curl up on one of the uncomfortable chairs and spend the night at the hospital with Tyler, but she knew she’d need to be alert and focused in the morning. Besides, she didn’t have the energy to argue with Nick tonight, about the hotel or anything else. Tyler was going to be fine. It was all that really mattered.

  They said good night to Tyler and drove in silence to the same hotel they’d stayed in when they visited during their college search. Back when Tyler’s school choice was the most important thing on her mind. Back when she was oblivious to her husband’s infidelity. Had she been too focused on other things, treating Nick and her marriage as an afterthought? Was that why he’d strayed?

  Jane’s exhausted body begged her to keep her mouth zipped. A hot shower and a comfortable bed were all it could handle, at the moment. But her pride reared its fierce head.

  “What made you do it?” she asked, breaking the silence.

  “Hmm? Do what?” Nick asked, shifting his car into Park.

  “What made you have an affair?”

  Nick’s eyes widened. “You want to talk about this now?” He turned the engine off and pulled his key out of the ignition.

  “No, I don’t want to ‘talk about’ it. I just want a simple answer.”

  “There is no simple answer.”

  She felt her temper stir. “Give me something. The first thing that comes to your mind.”

  “I don’t know. The excitement, I guess.”

  Jane nodded. After almost twenty years of marriage, “exciting” wasn’t in the top ten qualities she’d have used to describe their relationship. Wasn’t that true of most people, unless they were one of those couples that did crazy stunts like base diving together? “Fair enough.”

  “I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’ll never stop caring about you.”

  She opened her car door. “Flip the trunk of your midlife crisis, please.”

  A hearty chuckle escaped from Nick, a sound she’d missed over the past few months. He pulled their suitcases out of the trunk and stacked hers on top of his. Then the two of them shuffled into the lobby and stepped to the front desk. “We need a room for two nights,” Nick told the young woman behind the desk.

  “Two. We need two rooms, please,” Jane said.

  The desk attendant’s gaze bounced from Jane to Nick.

  “Are you sure you want to be alone?” Nick asked.

  “Quite sure.”

  “Jane—”

  She turned to him, and her eyes burned with anger.

  He nodded and flipped his credit card on the counter. “We’ll take two adjacent rooms, if you have them. Both can go on this card.”

  The woman slid two sets of room access cards across the counter. “Take the elevators on the right to the third floor. You’ll find your rooms on the left. Complimentary breakfast starts at seven. Enjoy your stay.”

  Jane followed Nick into the elevator, then stole a glance at him from the opposite side. He looked tired, with his hair slightly mussed and his clothes rumpled. She was sure she looked even worse. “Thanks for picking up my room.”

  “Not a problem,” he muttered.

  “And thank you for waiting for me, today. You’re right. I would’ve been a mess, driving out here on my own.”

  “That wasn’t an option, as far as I was concerned.” The elevator doors opened, and Nick dragged their suitcases down the hall. He left Jane’s luggage in front of her door and moved to the next room. “Good night, Jane,” he said, and closed the door without waiting for her response.

  ****

  “What a difference a good night’s sleep makes,” Jane said, dropping her purse on the chair next to Nick’s in the hotel lobby. “I called the hospital earlier, and the nurse said Ty’s on his second breakfast.” She didn’t mention that she’d called the ER before she went to sleep.

  “I spoke to them, too. Maybe we should coordinate before calling, so we don’t waste their time relaying Tyler’s status twice,” Nick said from behind the newspaper he held close to his face.

  Mister “I’m Feeling Young in My Red Sports Car” must’ve forgotten his reading glasses, Jane reflected wryly, then said, “I don’t think it’ll be an issue, since he’ll have a room today. We’ll be able to call him directly. I’m just going to grab a cup of coffee to go, and we can head over.”

  Nick was quiet in the car on the way to the hospital, but his funk seemed to lift once they found out that Tyler had already been moved to a room and his condition downgraded. Nick and Jane got to his room as the doctor was making his rounds. He’d examined Tyler and seemed pleasantly surprised by how well he was coming along.

  “When can I get out of here, Doc?” Tyler asked.

  “I’ll come back tomorrow morning. If all is well you can probably leave tomorrow with restrictions. You’ll have to take it easy while those ribs heal. You’re a very lucky man. Don’t press your luck and try to do too much or you’ll end up back here.”

  “Got it. But is there anything you can do about the food in this joint?”

  As if on cue, Tyler’s roommate, Mark, walked in with bags of what smelled like greasy burgers and fries.

  “Dude!” Ty exclaimed, brightening. “You brought me Curly’s?”

  “Since we never made it there yesterday, I figured I owed you.”

  Jane stood from one of the two chairs in the room. “You have lunch with Ty and Nick and I will check out the hospital cafeteria.”

  It was a choice they soon regretted. In the end, they each filled Styrofoam containers with greens from the salad bar and found a table.

  “So,” Jane said as she speared a cherry tomato with her fork, “what are we going to do about Tyler?”

  Nick looked up at her blankly. “Do? What’s to do?”

  “He may want to come home for a while to heal. Maybe we should talk to the school about freezing his status and letting him take the rest of the semester off.”

  “Don’t you think you’re getting ahead of yourself?”

  “I have to think ahead, Nick. I’m a single parent now. It’s not like he has the option of staying at your one-bedroom bachelor pad.”

  Nick shoved his salad away and shifting closer to her. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” he said, resting his elbows on the table. “You’ve made your point. Now, let’s stop this charade and get back together. Things would be much easier.”

  She stared at him in disbelief. “‘Convenience’ is not a reason to get back together.”

  Nick shrugged. “Realistically, it is. Chances are pretty slim that you or I will find someone else, especially…” Nick’s voice trailed off, and his gaze moved from her to his hands.

  Jane stiffened. “Especially … what? Especially me?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “No. But you were about to.” Counting to ten did no good at all. Jane pushed back her chair and stood up. “I’m going to the ladies’ room. I need to cool down, before I take action on a sudden desire to pour my soda over your head.”

  Turning on her heel, she stormed away, pushing the bathroom door open hard enough to make it bang against the wall.

/>   Mercifully, the stalls were all empty. Jane clasped both sides of the sink and stared at her reflection. Dark circles still decorated the thin skin under her eyes. She sighed. Maybe a dab of concealer would make her look slightly more human.

  Jane felt for her purse, which usually sat on her hip when she crossed it over her chest, and realized she’d forgotten it at the table, in her haste to remove herself from Nick’s venom.

  It was the final straw. As hard as she tried to resist them, hot tears stung her eyes. She fled into the farthest bathroom stall and locked its door, shutting herself away from prying eyes as the weight of the past day and a half caved in upon her, forcing sob after sob from her aching chest.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ryan strolled the same path each morning to Vine, but his steps weren’t as light as they’d been a few days ago. Reality had set in. Jane had gone and not taken him up on his offer to try to make things work between them.

  A long-distance relationship would have been possible, if they’d both been willing. He’d been very willing, but she obviously wasn’t, or she would have met him at the restaurant instead of taking yesterday’s flight.

  For one magical second, Ryan’s breath caught in his chest as he approached Vine and saw a set of women’s legs extending from the bench outside. Unfortunately, the legs belonged to his sister, Maya.

  Stung by disappointment, he made no secret of the anger that still churned in his belly over the way she’d treated Jane at the party. “What do you want?”

  His sister looked startled. “Still mad, are we? I’m sorry, Reyo. I was just surprised you brought a date to the party. You always come alone. Besides, Tilly was so excited to see you,” Maya confided with a wink.

  “Tilly needs to find someone a little closer to her own age,” he said as he slipped the key into the lock and opened the door.

  “I could say the same thing about you. How old is what’s-her-name, anyway? She must be pushing forty-five.”

  “Her name is Jane, and she’s nowhere close to forty-five. And even if she were, who cares? I don’t, so why should you,” Ryan bit out and shook his head. “Why do you have to be such a bitch, Maya?”

  “I’m only looking out for your best interests. You’re a good-looking, successful business owner and a hot commodity.” She laughed. “My girlfriends drool over you. All women do. Can’t you see that? You should be out partying every night with young beautiful girls, not entertaining aging businesswomen who come to town looking for a good time.”

  Ryan glared at his sister. He wasn’t in the mood to battle with her. “What are you doing here anyway?”

  “We have to talk about Tio’s seventy-fifth birthday. I tried stopping by yesterday morning, but you were busy with some blonde. You do move on quickly, little brother. At least that one seemed closer to your age. Anyway, I think we should have his party here—”

  Ryan shook his head in confusion. “Hold on. I don’t know what you’re talking about. What blonde?”

  “The one with the suitcase. She was sitting right there at the bar.” Maya pointed toward the window.

  “That was Gretchen’s sister. She just got into town and was waiting here for Gretch. You really like to jump to conclusions. What do you think, I’m some sort of man-whore?”

  Maya raised her eyebrows, and Ryan was about to give her a piece of his mind when his gaze rested on the bag she’d set on the floor. He bent and pulled the jacket from the bag. The last time he’d seen it, he’d draped over Jane’s shoulders at the hotel. His mind raced. “How’d you get my jacket? Wait. Was Jane here, yesterday?”

  Maya’s gaze wandered around the bar, and Ryan could almost see her mind at work, cooking something up. After a few seconds, she blew out a breath. “Yes, she dropped by to see you, yesterday, but, like I said, you looked like you were busy. She and I had a little talk, and then she left for the airport.”

  “What’d she say? Or maybe the better question is what did you say to her?”

  “Look, Reyo, it’s time we stop pretending. I know you’re one of those male escorts and she was your client. I think she was getting pretty attached to you, so I explained the deal to her.”

  Ryan narrowed his eyes. “What makes you think I’m an escort?”

  “A friend of a friend told me, a while ago. They were set up with you through a service. She recognized the last name and asked me if we were related. Damn it. You couldn’t at least have used a different last name?”

  “First of all, I was an escort. ‘Was’ as in past tense. I did it for a while, to raise cash to buy the restaurant, and, well, for other things.” He was so close to informing Maya how much she’d benefited from his work. “Second, Jane was not an escort client.”

  “Really? She certainly didn’t seem surprised when I started talking about it. She tried to be all self-righteous, telling me she wasn’t the type to do that and I needed to stay out of your business, but then she just got real quiet, like it all made sense. And then she left.”

  Ryan paced the floor. So much pent-up anger flowed through him that he wanted to punch something. “She was right. You need to stay out of my business. Get out, Maya,” he said coldly, and glared at his sister.

  She looked unfazed. “I’m sorry, but it was for the best. She’s not in your league. Now Tilly, for example—”

  “Out! Get out of my restaurant.” Ryan had never laid a hand on a woman out of anger, but at that moment he wanted to grab her arm and push her out the door.

  Fortunately, Maya seemed to realize that he was serious. She shuffled to the door like a scolded puppy, then turned at the threshold. “I suppose this isn’t the right time to talk about the party.”

  If Ryan had been capable of shooting daggers from his eyes, his sister would be pinned to the wall. Without another word, he strode to his office, slammed the door and locked it to be sure he wouldn’t have to see her face again anytime soon.

  His thoughts moved to Jane. More than twenty-four hours had passed since she left, and he could only imagine what she was thinking. He wasn’t entirely sure what Maya had said to her, but he knew it wasn’t good. Maya could be downright vicious.

  Ryan pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. He’d saved Jane’s number, even though he’d told her he wouldn’t. After making his feelings clear, he had left the decision of whether she wanted to continue seeing him up to her.

  He ran his fingers through his hair. Why hadn’t Jane walked in and confronted him instead of believing Maya’s lies? Damn, he needed to know what was going on in that beautiful head of hers.

  He tapped her number, and the phone began to ring. And ring. And ring. He supposed he should hang up, but the thought of hearing her voice, if only on her voice mail recording, made him stay on the line.

  “Hello?” a man’s voice answered.

  Ryan checked the screen to confirm he had the right number. “Hello. May I speak to Jane, please?”

  “Jane’s not available. May I ask who’s calling?” the voice asked. Was it his imagination, or was it tinged with a slight edge?

  “This is Ryan Zeigler. Do you know when Jane will be available?”

  A long pause followed. “Listen, Ryan. I know who you are, and you need to leave my wife alone. Our son was in a car accident, and she’s dealing with a lot, right now.”

  “Your wife?”

  “That’s right.”

  Jane was still married? He rubbed his palm over his face. “I’m sorry to hear about your son.”

  “Our hands are full. It would be best if you didn’t contact her again.”

  “I’d like to hear that from Jane.”

  “Look, I’m her husband. I think I know what’s best for her. Don’t call her again.”

  Click.

  She was still married? He dropped the phone on his desk. Why hadn’t he seen this coming? Jane saw him as a male escort, a man whose sole purpose was to help her escape from her everyday life, nothing more.

  She didn’t want him. She n
ever had.

  She’d only wanted the fantasy. Just like Camille. Just like all the others.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jane found Tyler sitting up in bed, finishing his breakfast. She moved to the side of his bed and kissed the top of his head. “Looks like you’re getting used to hospital food.”

  Tyler laughed. “It’s so bad, I’m actually looking forward to eating at the school cafeteria again.”

  It was the first time here that she’d heard him laugh without a pained expression. “Feeling better?”

  “Much better. Doc said I can get out of here today.”

  “Yeah, we should talk about that.” She sat on the edge of the bed. “I think you should take the rest of the semester off and come home with me to recover. You can go back in the spring.”

  Tyler pushed his tray away. “What would I do at your apartment? I don’t know anyone there. I want to stay at school. My friends will help me. Mark even stopped at Student Life and told them about my accident. They said they can make some accommodations for me while I heal, like letting me do some of my work online until I’m okay to walk around campus for the whole day.”

  It wasn’t what Jane wanted to hear, but she had to admit what he said made sense and she was pleasantly surprised he had taken the initiative to figure it all out. “Sounds like you’ve given it some thought.”

  Tyler nodded. “When you guys sold the house and moved into your own apartments, I felt a little lost. But I like it here. It’s where I belong right now.”

  A twinge of guilt slithered up her spine as Nick walked into the room. “They’re discharging him later today. The nurse gave me a couple prescriptions for Tyler.”

  Jane squeezed Tyler’s hand and stood. “Let’s get them filled and pick up a few things before he’s released.” With a wave to her son, she led the way to the parking lot.

  Over the course of the past couple of days, Jane had seen to it that most of her conversations with Nick occurred in public places. Now, she chose the privacy of the car to unload the emotions boiling up within her.