UNBROKEN (Friends, Lovers, or Nothing Book 5)

by Jackie Chanel

  Eddie still looked a little doubtful, even when I told them that I’d foot all the expenses, including paying the producer.

  “If we can get it done in two weeks, maybe she’ll use it. Y’all think we can get everything done in two weeks?”

  “When has it ever taken me two weeks to finish a song, E?” I asked, mildly irritated.

  “Don’t try to show off for you new friend,” Erica scoffed. “You don’t want me to go there ‘cause you can’t even write a song in two weeks.”

  “Good thing I don’t have to write this one,” I snapped. “You’re the one who—”

  “I think my manager can free up my schedule some so I can participate,” Cash interrupted.

  I laughed loudly, not even meaning to. “Cash, my man, you didn’t know that your manager is my manager too?”

  He shook his head. “You’re with Roxy. I’m signed to Apryl Cox.”

  “You will quickly learn that when you’re signed to anyone at Steele Management, Roxy is your manager whether you like it or not,” Wild Mike informed him. “I’m signed to Apryl too but you wouldn’t know it from the way Roxy stays all up in my business.”

  “She doesn’t bother me and Toy,” Eddie boasted.

  “I wouldn’t fuck with a bitch named Toy either,” Erica howled. “Like, her real name is Toy. Not short Toya or anything. Her name is Toy. You gotta be a bad bitch to be a white girl walking around with a name like Toy and people actually take you seriously.”

  I vaguely heard Erica welcoming Cash to the Steele Management family because my phone kept vibrating in my pocket. When I saw Delilah’s face on the screen, I stepped outside to take the call.

  “I’m in a session, Dee—”

  “Shut up,” she interrupted. “Listen to me and do not freak out until I’m finished.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Sunny’s in the Emergency Room at UCLA Med. She—”

  “What the hell happened?” I yelled. I was already crossing the yard to get my keys and wallet out of the house.

  “I told you not to freak out until I finished,” Delilah snapped. “What happened is that she passed out while we were working. We were doing a model fitting and she just fainted. I called 911.She came to afterwards but the paramedics brought her here to get her checked out. You might want to come up here as soon as you can.”

  “I’m on my way,” I told her and put the phone back in my pocket.

  My hands were shaking as I grabbed the back door handle and slid the kitchen door open. I hollered for Mona. She came out of her office and met me in the foyer with her keys and purse already in her hand.

  “Delilah just texted me,” she said. “Come on, I’m driving.”

  We climbed into her Camry and Mona peeled out of the driveway like she drove for NASCAR. Normally, it would take a miracle from God for me to be a passenger in a car that Mona was driving but I was grateful for her today. I could barely think, let alone drive in LA traffic. One terrifying thought after another flooded my head.

  If Sunny came to, why did the paramedics think she needed to go to the hospital? What if she was having a miscarriage and Delilah didn’t want to tell me over the phone?

  I had a couple of friends who lost their baby early in the pregnancy. Cody’s wife lost theirs at eleven weeks. Melinda still hasn’t gotten over it. Lord, how will I help Sunny through something like that?

  But what if she’s not having a miscarriage? What if it’s something else, something that could kill her like an aneurysm or heart attack?

  “Shit!” I yelled and pounded the dashboard.

  “Aiden, we don’t know what happened.” Mona tried to calm me down. “Sunny has been stressing herself out these last few weeks. I’m sure she hasn’t been taking care of herself properly. This might not have anything to do with the baby.”

  I prayed that she was right but who knew? I won’t calm down until I see Sunny and talk to her doctor.

  Mona pulled up in front of the ER entrance. Kirk, Sunny’s other assistant, was standing outside the doors waiting on me. I practically ran up to him.

  “Where is she? Is she okay?”

  “She’s okay,” Kirk answered. “They admitted her and put her in a private room because they knew you’d be coming. Just come with me.”

  I followed Kirk up to Sunny’s room while Mona parked the car. I threw the door open and almost burst into tears. Sunny was lying in the bed smiling and trying to keep her phone out of Delilah’s grasp. She didn’t look like she was dying at all.

  “Gimmie the goddamn phone, Sunny!” Delilah shouted angrily. “Your doctor said you need to rest and relax and this is not relaxing.”

  I exhaled a relieved breath and walked over to the bed. I took the phone from Sunny’s hand easily and handed it to my sister.

  “What the hell happened?” I asked softly as I leaned over to kiss Sunny’s forehead.

  “I’m fine,” Sunny insisted. “I told them that all of this wasn’t necessary.”

  “You scared the shit out of me!” Delilah snapped and turned to me. “Her doctor said she’s severely dehydrated, anemic, and her blood pressure is through the fucking roof. Hence the reason for that and those.” She pointed to the IV in Sunny’s hand and the monitors beeping quietly.

  “She is working herself to death,” Kirk co-signed. “She is in that studio all day and night every day. She barely stops to pee, let alone eat anything. We bring her food that sits untouched for hours. All she does is work and drink Starbucks. It’s ridiculous and she doesn’t listen to anyone when we tell her to go home and get some sleep. She knows we can handle her clients but no,” he dragged out. “She has to be there micromanaging and not eating.”

  “Are the two of you seriously telling on me right now?” Sunny asked angrily.

  I stared down at Sunny. I was trying so hard not to be pissed at her. No fashion show was worth this!

  “Are you fuckin’ with me on purpose?” I said in a low voice. “Did I do something to piss you off?”

  “You and you, get out,” Sunny said to Delilah and Kirk. “I need to talk to Aiden alone.” She didn’t say anything else until she and I were the only ones in the room.

  “I didn’t mean for this to happen. Honestly, it’s not as bad as Dumb and Dumber made it seem. I’ve just been in the zone. This is the busiest time of the year for me and everything is coming together with the New York show and I’ve got a lot of clients that are going to be in New York…” her voice trailed off. “You understand what it’s like to be in the zone, right?”

  I shook my head slowly. “I don’t give a fuck about any of that, especially your clients, Sunny. What did they say about the baby?”

  Sunny looked down at her belly and rubbed it.

  “I had to tell the paramedics that I’m pregnant. They called Dr. Margolis. She came and did a sonogram. She said the baby looks fine but she wants me to be on bed rest, Aiden. I’m only twelve weeks. I can’t be on bed rest for the next six months!” Sunny whined.

  I sat down in the chair that Delilah had vacated and held Sunny’s hand. “You should have thought about that before you decided to starve yourself and not get any rest,” I replied. “If Dr. Margolis thinks bed rest might be good for you then you should listen. You can’t be selfish now because this isn’t about just you anymore. You have to take care of the baby. Come on, Sunny,” I groaned. “You’re a grown woman. You don’t need to be told this. Baby, I don’t want to be that dude who forces his woman to eat and checks on her every ten minutes. Please don’t make me be that dude.”

  “God,” Sunny huffed. “You and your sister are so damn dramatic. I’m fine. The baby is fine. They just want me to have this IV overnight and I have to take my prenatal vitamins.”

  “You haven’t been taking your vitamins?” I shouted. “Damn it, Sunny! When did you get so irresponsible?”

  “Don’t start with me,” she snapped. “I didn’t do this on purpose! Do you think I want to be lying in a hospital overnight? If
you’re going to just sit there and yell at me, then you can leave too!”

  I couldn’t think of anything else to do besides yell so I stood up and walked out of the room. She frustrates the hell out of me! I’m glad she’s okay but damn! This is an unnecessary worry that neither of us need right now.

  I want to believe that after her New York show, she’ll go back to being the responsible, health-conscious, non-crazy person she was but I can’t be sure that she will. If I can’t trust her to take care of herself until then, how can I let her fly to New York then spend ten days in Paris and Milan?

  I met up with Mona, Delilah, and Kirk in the waiting area. I asked Mona for her car keys because I needed to get out of the hospital for a minute.

  “Where are you going?” Delilah asked.

  “In-N-Out. That girl is going to eat a cheeseburger today. You wanna ride?”

  “How about I drive and you let Mona drive her own car home?”

  Delilah fell in step with me as I strolled angrily down the hall. I heard Mona and Kirk yell for us to bring them back some food, like I’d really forget to feed my assistant.

  There were about five members of Hollywood’s most annoying gang standing outside of the ER doors. They hopped to attention as soon as Delilah and I stepped outside.

  “Aiden! Aiden! Delilah! Over here!”

  “Aiden, who were you visiting?”

  “Aiden, is it Sunny? Is she okay?”

  “Get that fuckin’ camera out of my damn face, Jonathan,” I snarled.

  The young man stepped back a few feet and lowered his camera. I respected that since he’s one of the few that actually listens when I say back up or demand that they don’t take pictures of my daughter. I decided to give him a money shot when I come back. But for now, my only focus was getting to the car so I could feed the mother of my children since it was obvious that she couldn’t be trusted to do it herself.

  ***

  Sunny was out of bed and standing in front of the bathroom mirror when I walked back into her hospital room with a bag of In-N-Out burgers and two liter bottles of Smart Water. I hadn’t calmed down and seeing her out of bed did absolutely nothing to help. I didn’t say anything though. I just unpacked the food while she dragged her IV stand back to the bed and sat down.

  “Aiden, I’m sorry,” Sunny spoke quietly. “I’m so glad you came back because I was just about to call you.”

  “Yeah, well, I wasn’t going to leave you up here by yourself.”

  Sunny leaned over and grabbed my hand, stopping me from spreading out the cheeseburgers and fries on the little bedside tray.

  “Aiden, I really am sorry,” she repeated.

  “What exactly are you sorry about, Sunny? In this relationship, we’re way past the days of blanket apologies. I need specifics.”

  “I really messed up and I know I scared the hell out of you. I scared myself. I have to take better care of myself. I will take better care of myself. I promise.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. “Will you forgive me?”

  I couldn’t resist her eyes. They were the color of honey tonight, filled with an anxious longing for my forgiveness.

  “Eat every bite of this and I’ll consider it,” I told her.

  She smiled softly and reached for one of the burgers. “Thank you.”

  We ate in silence. I guess Delilah didn’t return Sunny’s phone because it was super quiet in the room. Normally, her phone made noise with some notification every few minutes until she turned it off at night.

  When Delilah and I returned to the hospital, she and Kirk went back to work. I told Mona to tell Cash and the band what happened and set up another day for us to record and to have Paulie call me ASAP. I didn’t plan on leaving the hospital at all.

  Sunny ate two cheeseburgers and half of her fries before she claimed to be full. I helped her get comfortable in the bed. Dr. Margolis and a nurse came to check on her but other than that, we weren’t bothered for hours. We watched some reality shows but we didn’t talk until Sunny asked me to get in bed with her. I wasn’t thrilled that the first bed we shared in a week was a hospital bed but I got in beside her anyway. She laid her head on my chest, near my heart, while I played with her hair.

  “Aiden,” she said after a few minutes. “We need to talk about something.”

  “About what?”

  “I want to get married.”

  “We are,” I replied. “In a few months.”

  “Let’s get married tomorrow.” She said it so easily, so seriously, that I had to sit up.

  “What are you talking about, Sunny?” I exhaled loudly. “We cannot get married tomorrow. We don’t even have a venue yet.”

  Sunny sat up and moved my head so that I was looking directly into her face. She wasn’t smiling. She was definitely not joking.

  “Okay, talk,” I demanded. “Where is this coming from?”

  “I started thinking about it the other day,” she admitted. “We can’t get married in a few months. You can call me vain or shallow but I don’t want to be pregnant at my wedding. I want to dance and drink and celebrate marrying you just like everybody else. I won’t be able to party with my husband and our friends on our wedding night if I’m six months pregnant. I’ll probably be too tired to do anything except eat. And,” she continued. “I’m not wearing a maternity wedding dress. That is out of the question. I’m only doing this once, Aiden, and I’ll be damned if I wear off the rack.”

  Oh, the horror, I thought to myself. I held back a laugh because Sunny still wasn’t smiling.

  “We agreed not to wait until after you have the baby. We’re both going to be too busy. Why are you backing out of that date now?”

  Sunny shook her head vehemently and began to explain that she can’t have another kid out of wedlock on her conscience. She was going to drive me crazy. I don’t know why I didn’t expect this conversation as soon as she insisted I ask her parents for her hand in marriage. These days, Sunny’s all about doing things the “right” way.

  I rubbed my temples. “So, let me just process what you’re saying. You don’t want to get married on the date that it took us two weeks to agree on, the date that fits perfectly into both of our schedules. And, you don’t want to wait until after the kid is born either so your solution to all of this is for us to get married tomorrow?”

  Sunny just nodded. I could tell by her face that she thought it was a brilliant plan so I played along.

  “Okay, Sunny, let’s pretend this isn’t crazy. How are we supposed to do this? What’s your plan?”

  “I was thinking that we can drive up to Santa Barbara after they release me tomorrow. We can get a marriage license when we get there and get married at the courthouse. Since Dr. Margolis is forcing me to take a few days off, we can just tell everyone that we’re going away for the weekend.”

  “And what about after? Are we still going through with the wedding?”

  “Of course,” she said as if having two weddings wasn’t the most absurd thought she’d ever had. “No one has to know about this marriage except us.”

  “Another secret?” I pointed out. “What is with you and secrets?”

  “It’s not about keeping secrets. I just know that I still want a wedding but I want to be married before I give birth. There’s nothing wrong with that, Aiden. Can we please do this?”

  “Alright.” I shrugged. “We’ll do it.”

  “Thank you.” She grinned. “I love you.”

  “You better.”

  Sunny lay back down in her same position. Every now and then, she’d chuckle but when I looked down, her eyes were closed. After the fourth time, I demanded to know what she was giggling about.

  “Tomorrow, I’m gonna be your wife,” she giggled again.

  “Goodnight, Sunny,” I replied.

  “Sunny Rain Tyler,” she whispered to herself. “I like the sound of that.”

  “Go to sleep, Sunny, before they don’t let you out of here tomorrow.”

  Sunny closed
her eyes and wrapped her arms around my waist, carefully as to not yank out her IV needled. A few minutes later, the rhythm of her breathing changed. She was falling asleep. I turned off the television and leaned back with my hand resting behind my head. The sun was beginning to set over Los Angeles and there was this strange mix of pink, purple, and orange light being cast around the hospital room. I twirled a stand of Sunny’s hair around my finger.

  Sunny Rain Tyler.

  Yeah, I like the sound of that too.

  ***

  After another precautionary sonogram and a stern talking to, Dr. Margolis released Sunny. Sometime during the night, Mona had my Mercedes brought up to the hospital so I took Sunny to her house to pack after calling my mom and informing her that I was taking her soon-to-be daughter-in-law away to get some rest this weekend. Of course, my mom thought it was the best idea I’ve ever had.

  After Delilah told her about Sunny passing out, my mother was on edge. To ease Dina’s worry, I made Sunny talk to her and explain in detail what happened and what the doctor said. I didn’t even care that Sunny wasn’t thrilled that I told my mother that she was pregnant. Roxy, Tracy, Mona, and my mom are still the only ones who know anyway. Her pregnancy isn’t even noticeable.

  “The last time I got married, I was wearing sweat pants and a hoodie,” I complained as I sped up the 101 towards Santa Barbara. “This time I’m wearing basketball shorts.”

  “No one said you couldn’t change into something more formal if you wanted,” Sunny replied. “Besides, since when do you care about what you’re wearing? It’s not like I’m not going to have to fight you into a tux for the big wedding.”

  “This just feels like déjà vu,” I joked lightheartedly. “We don’t have a pre-nup either. Aren’t you afraid that I’m just marrying you for your money?”

  Sunny patted my knee and laughed. “Joke’s on you then ‘cause I’m broke as hell. I gave all my money to Sarah Mclachlan and the ASPCA.”

  “I bet you did,” I snorted.

  “But for real, I’m sure that between Jade and Roxy, one of them will figure out how to legally backdate a pre-nup.”