“You heard me,” he stated, his eyes trained solely on Jay’s narrowed eyes.
Katie watched as her ex-fiancé debated his options in silence. Time seemed to stop, and she held her breath. She pleaded to him with her eyes to avoid making a further scene. Not just because of her embarrassment, but because she wasn’t ready to have to explain this aspect of her life to Chad’s parents—which she no doubt would have to do now.
Jay’s eyes were still locked with Hayden’s, but when they flickered over to meet hers, she flinched at the hatred blazing back at her. “I’ll call you later, Katie. Be sure to answer your damn phone.”
He turned away from them to head back down the hallway, shaking his head.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” Mason called after him, looking abashed.
“Not your fault, Mase,” Jay replied over his shoulder. “Not your fault at all.” Katie didn’t miss his fast glance at her before he turned again and disappeared around the end of the hallway.
“Well, that was...enlightening.” Hayden was watching Katie carefully now, and when she turned to see him, Katie was almost certain she could see the glimmer of amusement at the corner of his mouth. Had it really taken a public confrontation with someone he didn’t know just to bring out a little humor in the man?
“That’s one word for it,” Katie mumbled. She hated that Jay had finally said something she agreed with. He was right; this wasn’t Mason’s fault.
But it sure as hell was hers.
She was still staring down at the end of the hallway where Jay had disappeared when Jillian’s voice rang out sleepily from behind her.
“Drift off to sleep for half an hour and you all abandon me. What’d I miss?”
***
Within fifteen minutes Katie and Chad’s family were back in the waiting room, huddled into one corner. A man about Katie’s age sat in one of the chairs closest to the entranceway. It had always struck her funny that most people, when faced with being in a waiting room with a stranger, will choose to sit as far away from that individual as possible. Out of respect, avoidance, or sheer ignorance, she wasn’t sure. Maybe it was simply human nature to give strangers a wide berth.
Elaine had proceeded to take Mason on his trip to the vending machine, and he now sat perched beside her enjoying a cinnamon bun from a plastic package. In the wake of Jay’s appearance, she’d quietly asked Hayden to accompany them, and he did so without hesitation. Katie didn’t blame her, but she felt guilty for having been a part of something that set the poor woman on edge.
She tried to thank Hayden for intervening, but he waved a hand dismissively during both attempts.
“I don’t take kindly to bullies,” he stated simply. Katie saw his eyes dart to Mason, and her heart swelled at the realization that he had been protecting him.
Katie hesitated then, unsure if it was the right or wrong thing to do, but she slipped over to the chair beside Chad’s father, slouching low in the vinyl seat so she could rest the back of her head on the backrest. “Chad’s going to be okay,” she whispered to him. “I truly believe that. I know they said they don’t fully know what they’re dealing with—”
“You’re damn right they don’t know what they’re dealing with,” Hayden chuckled in a low voice. “That boy’s a Kirkwood. He’s got more determination and stubbornness in him than he knows what to do with, even if it is mostly just to spite me.”
Katie’s eyes widened, both from her surprise at the humor on his face and the conviction in his voice. She finally gave him a small smile in return. “Well, Dr. Vale did say that it was now up to him and his determination. They’ve done everything medically and surgically possible to help him along this far.”
“Then he will be fine.”
She turned and met his gaze squarely. The eyes that stared back at her were soft, and it shook her.
Had she and Chad’s father finally found something that resembled a common ground?
“Will you tell Chad the truth now, when he’s awake?” She was careful to say when, not if.
“You know, it’s funny,” he began, casting a glance down the row of chairs. When he didn’t see Elaine or Jillian looking his way, he continued—even though both Hayden and Katie knew that his wife and daughter were hanging on his every word, even if they didn’t look like they were paying attention. “I have asked myself daily for the last decade why in the hell I’ve refused to tell him after all this time. Would it have made a difference if I’d just been straight up with him all those years ago?”
“And have you figured out the answer?”
Hayden nodded, looking down at his hands. “I ask myself that question every day, and I come up with the same answer every day. It’s simple. I don’t want Chad to have to live with the truth.”
Katie mulled this over in her mind. “Are you absolutely sure he doesn’t know what really happened?”
“If he did, why would he spend more than ten years not speaking to me? Trust me, Chad doesn’t know the truth about that night. Beating his own father, selling his own prized possession for a fix. I have lived with that, just so he doesn’t have to. Then, I was content for him to blame it all on me. Somehow, that was just easier for me to cope with.” Hayden let out a long sigh, years of withheld feelings and secrets bubbling to the surface.
“And now?” Katie asked him quietly. She didn’t want to draw attention to it, but she could see the man’s weathered hands beginning to tremble in his lap. Her eyes roamed in the direction of Elaine. Chad’s mother quickly lowered her focus back to Mason, not wanting to be caught listening in.
“I didn’t want him to live with the truth, Katie. But now? Now, I would tell him absolutely everything I’ve wanted to say over the past twelve years if it meant he got to live at all.”
A flicker of white in her peripheral vision made Katie turn his gaze away from Hayden and his tender confession. Dr. Vale had taken the seat across from them, one chair away from Mason.
“I wasn’t eavesdropping, Mr. Kirkwood, and I apologize if you think I was. However, I thought I should address the comment I heard you say on my way over here. You’re son, Chad, is going to live, sir. I can assure you of that.”
Katie let out a relieved sigh, her eyes closing briefly just to soak in the comfort she found in the doctor’s affirmation. When she opened them, Hayden was nodding toward the doctor thankfully.
“I can also assure you of one more thing,” Dr. Vale added, his eyes flitting over the features of each of his patient’s family members.
“And what’s that?” Hayden questioned.
Dr. Vale let a slow grin spread across his face. “He’s awake.”
***
Chad’s family and Katie couldn’t get to their feet fast enough. They all began to talk at once. Jillian was trying to find out if Chad knew what had happened to him, while Elaine was pleading with the doctor to let them see him. Tears glistened from the corners of every eye in the room, including Mason’s. The young boy had obviously missed the initial announcement, but he was smart enough to deduce what was going on. And he was smiling from ear to ear.
Dr. Vale held up his hands, motioning for them to lower their voices. Thankfully, he was chuckling lightly. It was obvious that Chad’s state of consciousness had permitted him some relief as well. “I know you’re relieved, excited even. And you should be. However, Mr. Kirkwood has a long way to go yet, physically speaking. He is awake, and he is talking, but he is groggy and still heavily medicated.” He sounded like a school teacher laying down the ground rules for his unruly students. “I know you want to see him, and I am going to allow it.” Elaine let out a gasp of happiness, her hand coming up to her chest as tears began to fall from her eyes again.
“However,” the doctor continued. “No one is to say or do anything—anything—that may upset him right now. Small talk, well wishes, but that’s it. We have yet to advise Mr. Kirkwood of his medical state, as he’s only been lucid a brief amount of time. Am I understood?”
Everyone nodded. Dr. Vale g
ave a curt nod as though to confirm the negotiation complete, and then waved them to follow him.
Elaine patted Mason’s shoulder but guided him toward Katie. She may have been elated at her son’s triumph in recovery, but she still knew better than to choose herself whether or not Mason would go in with them to see him. Hayden and Jillian followed her closely, but Jillian stopped abruptly when she became aware that Katie wasn’t behind her.
“What are you waiting for?” she asked. “Come on.”
Katie waved her away. “It’s all right. Mason and I will stay back. You guys go ahead. It’s been a reunion more than a decade in the making.”
Jillian smiled, the first really genuine, heartfelt smile Katie had seen her wear since her arrival in Nashville, and she disappeared down the hallway toward Chad’s room.
“Why can’t we go in and see Chad?” Mason asked, looking up at her forlornly.
Katie knelt down on one knee and hugged her son tightly. “We can, Mr. Mase. I promise. But Chad and his family haven’t seen each other in a really long time, so it’s best if we let them see him first, okay?”
“But we haven’t seen him in a really long time, either,” he whined, making Katie laugh. Tears flooded her eyelids, but she managed to blink them back. It did seem like forever since she’d seen Chad’s smile or heard the tinge of accent he’d adopted from Nashville. She could only imagine how long that felt to a seven-year-old.
“I promise. We’ll see him soon.”
Katie settled into the chair nearest the toy box again, convincing Mason to show her how to play the hockey game on his Nintendo DS. He was just illustrating how to use the left and right keys under his thumbs to make the hockey player on the screen move whichever way he wanted it to, when Jillian came bounding around the corner, her hands pressed into the wall.
“Come and see Chad,” she instructed, her eyes slightly wide.
For a moment she wondered if something was wrong, but Jillian would have looked much more panicked if that were the case. “I will when you and—”
“He’s asking for you, Katie,” she blurted out. “Just saying your name. Repeatedly.”
Katie’s eyes blinked in rapid succession. “Oh.” She lowered her gaze to Mason. Though she knew she shouldn’t, she gripped his hand tightly on the way toward Chad’s room. The way the little boy’s jaw was set, clenched together, she could see she would never win the argument to see Chad without him.
With each step down the hallway, Katie could feel her heartbeat growing faster. What would Chad say? If he blamed her—and he was justified to do just that—it would reduce her tears, despite how warranted his blame was. But Jillian’s story of that fateful night twelve years ago rang through her mind, and Katie’s thoughts redirected themselves.
What if he didn’t remember at all?
He obviously remembered her, and relief flooded through her. But his truck crashing through a red light, the reasons he’d been so distracted...
As they rounded the corner into the hospital room, Hayden was just on his way out. The expression he wore was neutral, but his eyes gave him away. What had happened? There was no time to ask questions, though. Chad’s father passed her wordlessly without even a glance at her.
“K-Katie.”
The hoarse, weak voice stopped her, and she planted her feet just inside the doorway. She knew what to expect when it came to his battered appearance, but the sound of his desperate, crackly voice sent a surge of emotion pulsing through her veins. Until that moment, she hadn’t been able to admit the truth even to herself—she’d been unable to believe she would ever hear that voice again. Instinctively, she gently pushed Mason further behind her, wanting to protect him from the feelings that were capsizing her sense of reasoning.
“Katie. She d-didn’t, right?”
The question caused both Elaine and Jillian to step back from the hospital bed, their eyes turning to peer at Katie in askance.
“P-please. She didn’t.”
Katie stepped forward, nudging Mason with an encouraging smile toward Elaine, who understood enough to reach a hand out and hold the boy back with her, giving Katie the space she needed. She pressed her hands against the edge of the bed, holding herself steady. A tear escaped her eyelid, leaving a small wet streak down her cheek as she tilted her head to look at him.
Chad’s eyes were swollen, reddened, and only partially opened, but she saw to faint blue color she’d been craving, and a faint smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “Chad, hey. It’s me, I’m here.”
“Katie.” He croaked her name out, but his body was rigid with the strength it took to utter it. “Please t-tell me...”
“I didn’t. I swear, I didn’t.” She knew what he meant. If what he needed to hear right now was that she hadn’t married Jay, then she would make sure he heard whatever he needed most. Right now, hearing his voice, no matter how weak it was; he was telling her what she needed to hear, too. She cast a quick glance toward the end of the bed and saw Elaine and Jillian staring at her with arched eyebrows and confused looks.
“He isn’t the only one with a sordid back story,” she mumbled, shrugging slightly.
A deep, relieved sigh came from Chad’s opened mouth, and his body visibly relaxed. “Thank God,” he breathed. “I w-want it to be me.”
It wasn’t the most romantic of proposals, but Katie would take it, smiling through her tears at him. She no longer cared who was listening. “Me too, Chad. Me too.”
Chapter Seven
Rejuvenated by Chad’s consciousness, paired with the carrot muffin and large cup of steaming coffee in her hands, Katie paced up and down the length of the waiting room. Mason, too, seemed more full of life since seeing Chad in his wakened state. He’d remained quiet while in the hospital room, and Chad hadn’t addressed him in any way—which meant he hadn’t seen him, because Katie couldn’t imagine Chad not greeting her son with at least a hello—but, nevertheless, he seemed to have more color, and more animation in his eyes. That lifted Katie’s spirits a bit, too.
“I can’t believe he woke up, only to kick us all out so he could talk to the doctor by himself.” Katie was addressing Jillian, and the brunette lifted her head at the sound of her voice.
“Nothing will ever surprise me when it comes to Chad,” she smirked. “He’s so independent, I’m shocked he didn’t wake up and decide it was time to get up and start booking concert dates or something.”
“Oh, please. He’s not that bad,” Katie chuckled, sliding into the seat beside her.
“Okay, maybe not. But he’s going to fight the doctors—and us, for that matter—every step of the way now. I’m thinking the forecast shows an impending stubbornness storm headed our way with a good chance of tempers flaring and feelings getting hurt.” Jillian shrugged.
Katie didn’t disagree with her. In fact, considering the unresolved issues and twisted family dynamic they were all a part of, she wondered if they wouldn’t be lucky to get away with only hurt feelings and a few arguments. She lowered her gaze to the pile of papers Jillian had spread out in front of her. Without Mason to keep her company—he’d gone with Elaine and Hayden to their hotel room, the room she’d chosen to split the costs on so she and Mason would have somewhere to find reprieve from the confinements of the hospital without having to resort to going back to Jay’s apartment again—she felt unsure what she should do while waiting to hear from either Dr. Vale or Chad himself. “What have you got there?”
Jillian raised her head again. Seeing Katie nod toward the paperwork in front of her, she let out an audible sigh, running her hands through her hair in exasperation. “Invoices. These ones are the bills for Chad’s care he’s received so far.” She pointed to another pile. “Those ones are quotes for forms of rehabilitation and inpatient costs that he may subsequently have to undergo. Chad would absolutely freak out if he knew the hospital had released all this to Mom and Dad.”
Katie averted her eyes, not wanting to intrude on a private family matter. Unfortun
ately, she could see, even from her vantage point, that the numbers printed on the invoices consisted of more than a few digits each. Extra zeroes were good when it was a cheque coming in, but not so good when they were on a bill requiring payment. “I can’t imagine,” she stated bleakly, but didn’t elaborate. She’d been referring to the probable astronomic bill amounts, but didn’t doubt the anger Chad would harbor knowing his parents had been handed the invoices for his hospital stay, especially when he was still very much an inpatient, and would be for quite some time.
“Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure one top-10 song on the country charts isn’t going to cover these invoices, not even if Chad’s been ridiculously frugal over the years. Know any billionaires, by chance?” Jillian laughed, but lines of worry creased her forehead.
“I can’t say that I do, sadly. I’m sorry.”
“So,” Jillian pushed the papers into a pile and shoved them, folded, into her coat, hanging limply from the back of her chair. “You didn’t what?”
“Pardon me?”
Jillian grinned. “You told Chad you didn’t. What does that mean? He was sure worked up about it.”
“Ah, yes.” Katie knew it was coming, but Jillian certainly hadn’t wasted any time in asking. “I almost married my ex-fiancé.”
“Oh, that is sordid,” she beamed, nestling into her chair further, getting comfortable in preparation for the full story. “That’s the guy who was here earlier?”
“Yes. Mason’s father, Jay. He works at Mercury Records.”
“And the plot thickens,” Jillian smirked.
Katie swallowed hard. “Oh, you have no idea.” She thought about telling her about Liz, how she’d left Chad for Jay, and in some ridiculous twist of fate, she’d met Chad because of it, but thought better of it. “We’re the stuff country songs are made of,” she laughed. “And that isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
“But you love Chad.” It wasn’t a question.
Katie was caught off guard by the straightforwardness. It was the first time any member of Chad’s family had questioned her about their romantic status. “More than you know.”
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