Kendrick (Torey Hope: The Later Years #4)

by A. D. Ellis

  “Oh, I think it’s you who better be ready.” She bit her lip, causing heat to shoot through his veins.

  **********

  “She seems like a really great girl.” Zach knocked his beer bottle against Kendrick’s.

  “Yeah, she is.” Kendrick mused quietly.

  “What’s up, man?” Decker questioned.

  “Nothing, everything, I mean…,” he started, then trailed off.

  “What is it? You know you can tell us anything. Are you having second thoughts about the baby?” Sawyer cocked his head to the side, watching his cousin.

  “What? Oh hell no. No, I’m one hundred percent convinced that Jay and the baby are my future. I just…,” he stopped again.

  “Oh hell.” Luke laughed.

  “What?” Sawyer looked at his partner with sincere curiosity.

  “He loves her. Or he thinks he does. He’s not sure, he’s never felt this way before.” Luke smiled as he spoke. “Am I right? Is that what’s got you all tongue tied?”

  “Fuck you, man.” Kendrick’s retort was less than forceful. Rubbing a hand over his face, he sighed, “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. I don’t know if it’s love, but I do know I’ve never felt this way before in my life.”

  “Thinking about her at all times of the day?”

  “Wanting to tell her funny things that happen during your day?”

  “Smiling like a goof anytime you think about her?”

  “Knowing your life would go to hell if you had to live without her?”

  “Dreaming of holding her and kissing her, not needing sex, just wanting to be close to her?”

  “Thinking about the future and making her a permanent part of your life?”

  His cousins offered detailed descriptions of what he’d been feeling.

  “Yes, yes to all of that.” Kendrick turned exasperated eyes to the men he trusted with his secrets, his life.

  “Yep, he’s got it bad.”

  “For sure.”

  “No turning back now.”

  Sawyer walked to Kendrick, motioning to the others to join him. Laying a hand on his shoulder, Sawyer pretended to wipe a tear and sniffed his nose. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today as our dear Kendrick says goodbye to his former self. No more serial dating, debauchery, and meaningless sex. Today he becomes a real man, a man in love.”

  “Our little Kendrick is growing up. I never thought I’d see the day.” Decker patted his shoulder.

  “Fuck you all. I don’t remember making fun of you when you fell in love.” Kendrick knocked their hands from his shoulders.

  “Oh really? You don’t remember giving me a hard time about Luke?” Sawyer scoffed. “I seem to remember a huge scene at work where you and Zach had a few good laughs at my expense. And you definitely put Luke through the ringer when he came to you for some advice.”

  “Okay, maybe a little bit.”

  “And you don’t remember the incessant teasing you tormented me with when you found out Zoey and I were finally taking that next step?” Zach reminded him. “Pretending your eyes needed bleached when you saw me kissing her?”

  “Fine, fine, I get it. Paybacks are a bitch.” Kendrick chuckled. “But, what do I do about it? I don’t think she’s ready for the I love you stuff just yet.”

  “Just love her through your words and actions, even if you don’t think she’s ready to hear the actual words just yet.” Decker offered.

  “Yeah, man, I watched that girl tonight. She’s completely taken by you. And not just because you’re helping her out with the baby. Her eyes were only for you, she hung on your every word. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think she’ll kick your ass if and when you screw up, but I don’t think she’s as far off from loving you back as you think she may be.” Zach clapped him on the back.

  “Now, with all of that out of the way, Luke and I are going back to his place. We’ve got a night of hot…,” Sawyer started.

  “Whoa, that’s a bit more than we need to hear.” Kendrick held up his hands.

  “What? I was just going to say painting. We’re painting the living room at his place. Now after the painting…,” Sawyer laughed, pulling Luke close to his side.

  “Alright, let’s all head to our respective homes, rooms, beds. Merry Sexmas to all, and to all a great night.” Kendrick wagged his brows at them.

  Later that night, he enjoyed unwrapping Jay like a gift, and it was definitely a great night.

  **********

  A few nights later he stood in the garage at his dad’s house with his father, Uncle Nate, Uncle Kyle, Uncle Nicky, and all three grandpas.

  “So, how’s Jay? The pregnancy getting her down?” Grandpa Jack spoke after a sip of beer.

  “She’s doing well. Seems things are going just how the books say they will. She had a doctor appointment, we could hear the heartbeat. She started taking some prenatal vitamins. Right now all is good it seems.” Kendrick took a drink of his beer. He felt guilty drinking at home, knowing Jay couldn’t drink, so he saved his beer time for evenings in the garage with the guys.

  “Does she have horror-mones?” Nicky asked.

  At first, Kendrick thought his uncle had just gotten the word messed up. Nicky had always had some challenges, he probably didn’t realize he said the word wrong.

  “Yeah, the hormones seem to be making her a little crazy.” Kendrick chuckled.

  “No, call them the horror-mones because they will make her a horror. Carly always said she felt like a horror, and horrible, because of them. So we started calling them horror-mones. She was bad with Zach, but much worse with Aly. Like they were zombies coming back with a vengeance.” Nicky spoke seriously, not joking around at all, but it made the others laugh.

  “I’d second that moniker. Libby was pretty crazy throughout the pregnancy with Abby, but the twins were like double trouble with the ups and downs and tears.” Nate chuckled remembering his pretty, sweet wife during two pregnancies.

  “Ugh, yeah, Audrey was pretty much psycho for nine months with Megan. She actually was a little more centered with you Kendrick.” Jeremiah got a faraway look in his eyes.

  The grandpas all nodded in agreement.

  “Yep, just be ready for irrational ups and downs, back and forth, tears and smiles all at once. Don’t take most of it personally. It will be directed at you, but it mostly won’t be the real her.” Grandpa John advised.

  “Yep, it will be like a zombie taking over her body and mind, eating her brain.” Nicky nodded sagely. “I guess it’s more like a little baby zombie taking her over from the inside out.”

  “Josie was so shocked to find out she was pregnant after being told she couldn’t have kids, she reveled in every single bit of it. She was mostly just weepy the whole nine months. And she almost ate us out of house and home.” Kyle chuckled.

  Kendrick and the guys spent a few more minutes talking about what to expect. When they finally broke up, the Captain patted him on the back.

  “Just be there for her, hold her hand, rub her feet, let her cry or scream. Come drink a beer with us if you need to.”

  Kendrick headed home that evening with a nervous excitement about facing the next several months.

  Chapter 12

  Kendrick pulled his car onto the freeway heading back to Torey Hope. He’d been visiting a high school baseball coach a few towns over. He was hoping to get enough interest in a summer baseball camp, and wanted to tap into the neighboring towns’ school sports programs. His long term plans included The Center+ being where several high schools sent their students during the off-season to train. Along with that, he had plans for The Center+ to feed local talent directly into the high schools and nearby college programs.

  His meeting had gone well, but he was ready to get home to Jay. He smiled when he thought of how cute she looked sprawled out in bed that morning. The sheer camisole she slept in left nothing to the imagination. Her abdomen had started to swell slightly, and he couldn’t resist spooning behind her to rest his h
and on her teeny tiny baby bump.

  “Good morning, baby.” He’d whispered in her ear as he rubbed her belly.

  “Mmmm, good morning.” She mumbled.

  “Oh, yeah, good morning to you too, Pixie.” He leaned down to trail kisses along her belly. “Silly mommy thinks all my sweet nothings are for her. She better learn I’ve got to share my words between her and my baby pixie these days.”

  He’d looked up to find her a mixture of fire and tears.

  “Damn it, Kendrick, you can’t say things like that.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes.

  “Why not, Pixie?” He smirked.

  “Because it makes me cry and want to jump you at the same time.” She sniffed again, “Stupid hormones.”

  He’d kissed her thoroughly and made her promise to tell him all about her lunch with the girls when he got home later that night.

  He was four miles from the Torey Hope exit, less than ten minutes until he was pulling up to his new home with Jay. Dinner, cuddling on the couch, listening to her giggle about her lunch, whispers to the baby he was certain was a girl, and hot fast sex followed by sweet slow sex…the evening awaiting him was promising.

  The horn blaring to his left shocked him from his smiling daydream. A semi-truck, screeching tires, rolling that seemed to never stop, pain, fear, blackness. The promising evening ahead of him had just taken a devastating turn for the worse.

  **********

  The incessant beeping was beginning to piss him off, but the soggy wet blanket surrounding his brain wouldn’t lift enough to allow him to figure out where the damn sound was coming from. Giving in to the heaviness of his head, he slipped back into the darkness.

  **********

  The fucking beeping had to stop. His left arm was pressed against cool metal. Trying to breathe deeply made him feel like he was drowning. Eyes which may have been glued shut attempted to open, if only long enough to find the damn beeping and beat the shit out of it. But it was no use, the current of darkness swept him under again.

  **********

  At least this time he could hear voices over the beeping. Warmth covered his body, a blanket maybe? He felt a heaviness in his right hand, a presence at his right side, but his damn eyes felt as if cement had been poured into them. The voices seemed near, but only murmurs reached his ears, interrupted by the never-ending beeping.

  **********

  This time he was going to fight through it, he was going to overcome the darkness, stop the beeping, and open his eyes. But the pain shooting through his body had other plans. His stomach lurched, the beeping increased, and a moment later the ever-present blackness was back invading every corner of his mind.

  **********

  “It’s been three days, Doctor, how much longer is he going to be like this?” Decker’s voice was a life preserver, Kendrick clung to it.

  “I’m glad so many of his family are here today, I wanted to explain again about what Mr. Jordan is going through.” An unknown voice, maybe the doctor, spoke in an assured tone.

  Still unable to open his eyes, Kendrick focused his strength on keeping the pain at bay by not trying to move and fighting off the blackness threatening to devour his mind again. He focused on the voices, trying to make out the ones he recognized.

  “Mr. Jordan suffered several injuries in the accident. He was very lucky; had he not been wearing his seatbelt the accident could have had a very different outcome. He has a couple broken ribs, broken bones in both his leg and arm, a bruised spleen, a dislocated shoulder, and a punctured lung. Our most immediate concern, however, was the head injury.” The doctor’s list seemed to go on forever, and Kendrick felt as though each injury began to throb even more as the man’s words were spoken.

  “So is he in a coma from the head injury?” Sawyer. Kendrick felt his heart squeeze to hear another familiar voice.

  “He’s heavily sedated, but not in a coma. It’s possible he can hear bits and pieces of what we are saying right now, but we are keeping a steady stream of pain medication flowing for two reasons. One, we need to keep him still due to the extensiveness of the injuries. If he were feeling the pain right now he’d be more apt to toss and turn, be agitated.”

  Agitated. Yeah, that’s a good word. If the damn beeping would just stop maybe I could relax a little.

  “What’s the other reason?” Zach. He had a feeling his entire room was packed full of as many family members as would be allowed in to see him.

  “His body needs rest to heal, and we especially wanted to be able to monitor the head injury. At this point, we feel it’s a concussion, but no bleeding of the brain. We’d like to keep him sedated another twenty-four hours, then we’ll begin to decrease some of the heavier medications to see how he handles being more conscious. He may come out of sedation quickly or slowly, he may fight and struggle, or he may not. It’s sort of a waiting game at this point.”

  “So the head injury is bad, but not severe. What about the punctured lung, is he in immediate danger from that?” Katie.

  “No, the puncture luckily is only affecting a very small portion of his lung. At this point, we feel safe taking a wait and see approach with that injury. He has the extra oxygen on as a precaution, and we’ll watch for complications, but it appears the rib barely nicked the lung tissue.”

  Ahh, oxygen, that’s what’s on my face making my damn nose itch like crazy. I wonder how much it would hurt if I tried to lift my hand to scratch my nose.

  “I’ll let you all visit a bit longer, but the nurses will be kicking most of you out fairly soon. They usually let one person stay if the patient isn’t critical. After today, I’d say Mr. Jordan is in serious, but not critical, condition. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask the nurses, or save them for me when I make my rounds tomorrow morning. Like I said, I feel like Mr. Jordan will make a full recovery, and while he may not feel lucky for a while during his recovery, he’s a very lucky man to have escaped that accident with non-life-threatening injuries.”

  Kendrick felt the air in the room move as the doctor opened the door, and the remaining bodies shifted. His head felt heavy, throbbing, and he knew if he gave in to the quicksand pulling at his mind he could escape the beeping. But he wanted to hear the voices around him. Maybe just a brief moment of letting it take him under.

  **********

  He became aware of his surroundings again. Had he slept through the nurses kicking them all out? And who all was there? He forced his brain to block out the beeping which was like a tiny knife to his senses over and over again, and just listen for the words being spoken around him.

  “The police talked to several witnesses. What they’ve been able to gather so far is that one semi-truck driver fell asleep at the wheel, crossed the line making another semi-truck swerve. When that truck swerved it crossed into Kendrick’s path, bumping the front of his car just enough to send him skidding and rolling. The first impact was into the guardrail, but a lot of his injuries likely came from the several times the car rolled down the embankment.” Decker relayed the details of the accident to those in the room.

  Ah, so that’s why I feel like I’ve been run over by a steam roller. I basically have been.

  “Both truck drivers stopped, the one who fell asleep called 911. Seems he has a new baby at home, had been up late with her, just didn’t get enough sleep. Only took a split second for his eyes to be off the road, and there wasn’t much the other truck could do. By the grace of God, Kendrick’s car stopped rolling before it hit the water at the base of the embankment.”

  Kendrick listened a bit longer, gathering enough to realize almost every single member of his family was in the room. What about Jay? He hadn’t heard her voice, but he felt like she was there with him. If only he could wash the sawdust from his eyes and take a look around. He longed to see that beautiful pixie.

  Fighting to stay awake when his eyes were already closed proved more difficult than he could have ever imagined. He felt as though several members of
this family spoke to him as if in a dream, but when he finally woke from the deep darkness again, he could only remember bits and pieces like he was in a thick fog.

  He listened. Beep, beep, beep. He hated that sound, but it had become the background music to the little drama playing out in his life, so he decided he needed to just accept it. After all, the beeping was likely tracking his heartbeat, so at least it meant he was alive.

  “Here, sweet girl, I brought you a decaf tea. The nurse is going to bring you a cot to sleep on. You know he wouldn’t expect you to stay, you can go home if you’d be more comfortable.” Mom. Even as a grown man, hearing his mom’s voice was comforting.

  Decaf tea. It had to be for Jay. His sweet Pixie was with him.

  “No, I want to stay.” Her voice was tired, scared, but it was there with him and that’s what mattered.

  “Okay, I know he’ll be happy to see you when he wakes up.” His mom’s voice was to his left then. She leaned in close and he wanted to wrap her in a hug, but instead he just relaxed into the hand she cupped on his cheek. “You get some rest, baby boy. Tomorrow you’re going to start waking up a bit more, and you need your energy to start healing from this. I love you. Be strong.” A kiss feathered on his forehead, and then she was gone.

  Before he had time to focus on Jay, a wave of blackness swept over him again.

  **********

  He awoke to a giggle. Jay.

  “So your mom and aunts are fabulous, your grandmas are so sweet, and Katie’s grandma is a hoot. I think this baby is going to be the most spoiled child in the world, but I feel lucky to have so many people here to support us through it.”

  She stopped, and the silence threatened to invite the darkness to take over again.

  Her sniffle helped him fight it off.

  Why was she crying?

  “Kendrick, I was so scared. I was waiting at home for you to get there. I’d been watching the clock, just waiting on you. But when you were forty-five minutes late without a call, I knew something was wrong. About that time, Decker, Sawyer, and Zach showed up at the door. Good thing they are quick and strong because I’m pretty sure they are the only things that kept me from collapsing to the floor. I immediately thought you were dead. They assured me you were very much alive, just hurt, and got me here as quickly as possible.” She stopped again, but her thumb stroking his hand gave him enough to focus on so he could stay awake. At least for a while longer.