“I can walk,” I grumbled as a nurse appeared with a wheelchair. Could they not see it was just a shoulder wound?
“It’s procedure,” she shook her head at me. “Why are cops and firemen so stubborn?”
As I watched Tiff get wheeled away, I said a silent prayer that everything was going to be fine. She didn’t get hit, so once the doctor cleared her, she should be able to leave. I felt sure it was just a panic attack. That’s what all the signs pointed to anyway.
ooooooooo
Tiffany
“I’m fine,” I murmured as the doctor shined a light in my eyes.
“Did you hit your head?” He ignored my disgruntled disposition as he probed and prodded me.
“I don’t remember,” I sighed as I glanced down at my lap. They’d made me change into a gown, and the room was chilly.
“Do you remember blacking out?” he murmured as he switched to my other side. He scribbled something down on the clipboard sitting on a nearby table before looking up at me. He tucked his pen in the pocket of his white coat before seating himself on the stool next to the gurney they called a bed.
“Bits and pieces,” I shrugged. “I’ve been under a lot of stress lately. I think it just all hit me at once.”
“I’d like to run some tests if you don’t mind.” He watched me for a reaction. “You might be low on iron or several other things. Have you been eating normally?”
As he watched me, I couldn’t help but feel like I was being judged. I fidgeted on the bed as I twisted my hands together in my lap. I wanted to get out of here and go see Jase, and this guy seemed to be on a mission to check every part of me over. “Sure, I guess. I mean I’m not on some crazy diet if that’s what you’re asking.”
He gave a quick jerk with his head before standing. “The nurse will be in here in a few minutes to draw some blood. Once we run those tests, if everything comes back normal, you can leave.” He began walking toward the door of the small room I was in. “Relax, Tiffany; he’s fine.”
“What?” My head snapped in his direction.
“The officer you came in with. That’s who you’re worried about, right?” He smiled this time as if he knew a secret about me or something.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I leaned back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling, waiting.
It seemed to take forever for the nurse to come and do the blood draw, and even longer for the test results to come in. I couldn’t imagine what all they were testing for. I was a healthy young woman. I’d been involved in a shooting. Anyone would have reacted the way I did. It was natural, right?
I picked at the edge of the sheet covering me as I waited. I’d already counted the ceiling tiles and the various bottles sitting on the counter. I wondered if it was possible to die of boredom.
“Miss Warner?” the nurse called as she stuck her head in the door. I pushed myself to a sitting position as I waited for her to enter. “How have you been feeling lately? Any tiredness?”
“A little,” I shrugged. “I bartend. It can be demanding at times, but other than that, fine I guess.”
“When was your last menstrual cycle?” She pulled the chair over to sit beside the bed. I thought for a minute. As I counted back, I realized I’d missed last month. Things had been so crazy with Jase and the case that I’d just assumed it was stress back then. It had happened before, and I was on birth control.
“I’m on birth control,” I gaped as I stared at her. “I don’t really have a cycle, just some light spotting occasionally.”
“What have you been using as a backup?” She scribbled something down on the file in front of her.
“Nothing,” I mumbled. “I’m not,” I paused as I swallowed, “pregnant, am I?” My palms started to sweat and I could hear buzzing in my ears. My heart was racing as the piece slowly began to fall into place.
“According to this test, you are.” The nurse smiled softly as she reached for my hand. “We’re going to do an ultrasound just to make sure. Sometimes, we do see false positives, but not very often.
I swallowed as I nodded numbly. What was Jase going to think? We’d been doing better, but there was still that lingering fear in the back of my mind that he was going to shut me out again. He’d see this as me forcing a future on him, and he’d run.
I watched as the nurse disappeared through the door, and I attempted to get a hold of my emotions. I couldn’t let this worry me yet. I needed to be sure. The nurse said they’d had false positives. Hell, who was I kidding? This wasn’t false. I knew deep in my heart that Jase and I were going to be parents, but my brain kept arguing with me.
“Hey, beautiful.” His voice startled me, causing my eyes to fly to the door. Jase stood there with his left arm in a sling as he smiled at me. I fought the tears that were trying to spill as he moved across the room slowly. “They said I could come back,” he shrugged his good shoulder. “Well, I showed them my badge, and they let me back,” he grinned but his face fell as he watched me.
I didn’t know what kinda reaction I was giving off. It was three in the morning, and I was exhausted. “Everything ok?” He drew the words out slowly as he came to sit beside me. I nodded numbly as I looked away.
“They’re still running tests,” I murmured. “I need to tell you something.” I sucked in a deep breath and squeezed my eyes shut as I prepared to let the words fly out of my mouth. Before I could, the door to my room opened and the nurse returned. This time she was followed by a technician pulling an ultrasound behind her.
“This will only take a minute, sir. Can you step out?” She motioned to Jase before she began to lower the bed I was on so it was flat.
“He can stay,” my lip trembled as Jase’s confused expression stared back at me.
“What’s wrong, baby?” He reached out and cupped my jaw as he watched the tech set up the machine beside me and take a seat near my feet. I saw the pieces slowly come together, and his eyes softened.
“They think I’m pregnant,” I whispered. The words were barely audible, and my voice cracked as I swallowed. I tried to look away, but he tugged my chin toward himself and smiled.
“It’s ok,” he whispered.
“No, it’s not,” I gasped as I let the tears fall. “I love you, and I want this to work, and this wasn’t supposed to happen, and I just, what are we going to do?” My thoughts were jumbled as they tumbled out of my mouth, but Jase’s grip tightened as the tech went to work.
“The baby will be too small to see from the outside, so we’ll have to view from the inside,” she smiled as she put some clear jelly on a wand that looked way too big to fit inside me. “Just try to relax, and we’ll see what we can find.”
I tried to relax, but it was not comfortable in the least. I was tired, and scared. The tech was gentle, and after a few minutes, she grinned up at me. “You see that right there?” she pointed at a blob in the screen. It was pulsing slightly and she waited for me to acknowledge it. I nodded slowly as I stared at where she was pointing. “That’s your baby. Congratulations.”
I didn’t say anything in return, only glanced over where Jase was staring wide-eyed. He was chewing on his bottom lip as he held my hand. His thumb was lightly caressing the back of it, and I heard the breath he sucked in before he slid closer to me. “We’re gonna be parents,” he mumbled as his face moved closer to mine.
“What does this mean?” I sniffed as I turned to watch him. We’d been so wrapped up in each other that I’d failed to notice that we were alone until now.
“What do you want it to mean?” His expression softened as he reached up to push a loose hair off my forehead.
“Do you hate me right now?” I whimpered. “Because I didn’t plan this.”
“Baby, I could never hate you. I love you,” his voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “I love you so much. You’ve given me more than I ever thought I could have.” He shifted and groaned lightly as he released me to tug at the sling on his arm.
“I used to dream of ha
ving the life my parents had. I wanted the wife welcoming me home from a long day. I wanted the kids playing in the yard as I climbed from my car in the evening. I wanted the laughs and the joys that come with having a family. I never thought I’d be able to though. After my parents died, I thought the world was cruel, and I’d never be given the chance. I didn’t want what happened to them to ever happen to me. I didn’t think I could open my heart to love. You’ve changed that.” He sighed as he leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to my lips. “You’ve shown me that I can have it all, and I want it all...with you.”
“What are you saying?” I peered up at him as he leaned over me.
“I’m saying I’m happy about this. I’m saying I love you,” he paused and swallowed before pressing on. “I’m saying let’s get married.” He waited a minute before he glanced away. “I didn’t plan on it happening this way. You deserve a better proposal than this, but timing has never been right with us.”
“It’s perfect. All of it,” I sat up and turned to wrap my arms around his neck. “I love you too.”
“Is that a yes?” he chuckled.
“It’s a hell yes,” I giggled as I pulled back.
“Just what I wanted to hear. Let’s find that doctor and spring you from this joint. I want to sleep in my own bed tonight,” he sighed.
“Its morning now,” I glanced at the clock on the wall and noticed that before long, the sun would be rising.
“Bar’s closed today while the CSI’s gather evidence. You and me are going to spend it sleeping and maybe a little celebrating,” he chuckled as I sent a glare his way.
“What?” he laughed. “You didn’t think that this little injury was going to keep me from making you shout my name at the top of your lungs, did ya?”
“Guess not,” I smiled as he disappeared through the door on a mission to get me out of here. I wasn’t sure how he would feel tomorrow after all this sank in, but I hoped that what had just happened wasn’t a dream but my new reality. This was a promise, a promise of tomorrow.
Chapter 18
Jasen
It took a week after the shooting for the bar to re-open. Dev was cleared, and things were starting to get back to normal. We hadn’t told anyone about the baby yet or about us getting engaged. Tiff had said that she wanted to keep it between us just a little longer. She didn’t want our little bubble to burst, whatever that meant. I was just happy things were getting back to normal, if we even had a normal. Normal wasn’t the same for us as it was others. Our normal was chaotic.
Today, I wanted to share something with Tiff that I’d kept to myself for far too long. I was in her kitchen trying to fix something for us to eat. My shoulder was still healing, and I’d been having a hard time doing much having only one good arm, but I was trying nonetheless.
“What are you doing?” Tiff came around the corner and paused in the doorway of the kitchen/ living area.
“I’m trying to feed my family,” I growled as I attempted to scramble some eggs one handed.
“I can do that,” she mumbled as she began to shuffle in my direction. She was yawning and rubbing her eyes as she slowly pushed me to the side.
“I know you can, but I wanted to cook for you today. You’re always doing things for me,” I sighed as I let her take over. Ever since this shoulder injury, Tiff had been doing more, and I was doing less. It pissed me off that I couldn’t take care of her when I felt like I should be.
“I’m pregnant,” she glared up at me as she began to whisk the eggs, “not sick. I can cook and take care of myself just fine.”
“I know, baby, but I wanna take care of you.” I stood behind her and wrapped my good arm around her waist. Her stomach was still flat, but the knowledge that in a few months, she’d be round with my baby made me a little possessive. “I just want you to take it easy,” I soothed. “Things can happen, and I don’t want to chance that.”
“I’m fine,” she groaned as my palm flattened right above the elastic of her panties.
“Just fine?” I let my fingers slowly slide down and dip inside.
“Mmmm hmmm,” she mumbled as her hand paused and the stirring stopped. Her hips started to press back into me, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You couldn’t take care of this by yourself, could you?” I teased as I lowered my chin to her shoulder and waited for her quick retort. Tiff and I were good at the banter. That was how we’d started up all those months ago. I’d say something that I knew would get her going, and she never let me down with her sharp tongue. Now, I just did it because I knew that getting her worked up always led to us fucking like jack rabbits.
“Actually,” her breath came whooshing out as she stepped toward the counter, putting a little space between us. “I can,” she flipped her hand in the air before glancing over her shoulder at me.
“Excuse me?” I scoffed.
“I’ll call Bob,” she shrugged as her face sobered. “What do you think I did all those nights I came home alone? Or better yet, while you were gone?” She chewed her lip and refused to make eye contact. “A girl’s gotta have a backup plan.” She picked up the bowl with the eggs and turned toward the stove, ready to pour the eggs in the pan I had sitting there.
“Who the fuck is Bob?” I growled as I stomped over behind her and squeezed her hip possessively.
“My boyfriend,” she shook her head as if it meant nothing and shrugged me off. “We’ve been together for years. He’s one of the few who can get me off. He’s never let me down in the past,” she looked back at me, her face completely stoic.
“You better not still be seeing him,” I roared as I felt my face heat with anger. She was pissing me off and didn’t even seem to care. It was as if what we had was tainted with the knowledge that she’d been fucking around with somebody else the same time as me.
“He’s no threat to you Jase, I promise,” she snickered as the eggs began to sizzle in the pan.
“Damn right, he’s not!” I growled. “I wanna meet this fucker,” I began tapping my foot on the tile floor.
“Ok,” she shrugged as her head tipped to the side. “I’ll introduce you after breakfast.”
“What?” I gasped.
“Ok, fine. I’ll introduce you now.” She quirked her head to the side, and I swear she looked like she was going to laugh at me. The blood was rushing in my ears, and I was breathing deeply as I tried to control myself.
“What do you mean now?” I growled through clenched teeth.
She tossed her head back as she turned off the stove and brushed past me. Laughter erupted from her as she half skipped/ half ran into the bathroom. She yanked open the bottom drawer to her vanity and pulled out a black silk bag.
“This is Bob,” she giggled as she opened up the bag and pulled out a bright pink vibrator. “He’s very dependable, and he has never let me down.” She stood back up and held it out in front of her. “Wanna shake his hand?” she giggled louder this time.
I have no idea what my face looked like right then, but the feeling of relief filled me. “I can’t believe you had me believing...” my voice trailed off as I looked away from her.
“Do you really think I could do that?” She sobered as she placed Bob back in his hiding spot. “I thought you trusted me?” Sadness replaced the teasing as she flattened her palm over my heart. “You were gone for over a month, Jase. I had to use something,” she whispered. “Sam has one too if that makes you feel any better.”
“Ahh, yuck!” I balked. “I don’t want to know what she does or doesn’t do when Dev’s on the job.” I shook my head in disgust as a tremble ran through my body. “But Bob? I don’t get it.” I was racking my brain. Tiff had never mentioned this before, and I knew if I wasn’t as tired as I was that I might have figured it out, but I’m a guy. Guys don’t think like girls. We don’t use fucking code words for things. If we want sex, we just ask for it.
“Bob,” she rolled her eyes. “Battery operated boyfriend,” she giggled as her head fell to
ward my chest, and she placed a light kiss there.
“Why didn’t you just say, hey Jase, I have a vibrator that I use?” I grumbled.
“Because this was so much more fun,” she giggled before looking up at me. “Wanna go eat the eggs before they get cold?” She stepped back and tried to move around me.
“Only if you promise to let me watch you and Bob together after breakfast,” I grinned as I wagged my brows.
“Men!” she groaned. She paused as she stepped toward the door. “If you’re sure that you’d rather it be him than you, I’m ok with that.”
She pranced toward the kitchen, leaving me standing there watching. ‘Fuck yeah, I’m ok with that’, I thought. I’m totally ok with that. I’d never seen Tiff touch herself before, and the idea of it had my dick hardening. I don’t know why it turned me on so much, but maybe the fact that we’d gone three days without being together had something to do with it.
ooooooooo
Tiffany
“I don’t know if this was such a good idea, after all,” I grumbled as I adjusted myself in the seat. We were sitting in Jase’s car, me behind the wheel.
“You’ve been begging me to drive this for months. You’re never gonna learn unless you try,” he shook his head. I’d wanted to learn to drive his car since we first met. He’s always driven or taken the bike. Now, with his arm in a sling, I was finally getting my chance. “Here,” he thrust the keys in front of me.
“You’re not going to yell at me, are you?” I glanced over at him as I slowly clasped the keys in my fist.
“Don’t wreck my clutch, and I won’t have to.” He narrowed his eyes on me as he shifted in the passenger seat, trying to get comfortable. “Nobody’s ever driven her except me. She’s used to a soft touch.”
“She?” I scoffed as I turned to face him. I knew his Camaro was his baby, but he was being ridiculous.
“She,” his head bobbed confirming what he said as he reached up and caressed the dash.
“Oh brother,” I groaned. “What if I hit something?” I glanced over at him sheepishly.
Promise Me Tomorrow: Book 3 in the Witness Series (Volume 3) Page 14