The Tough Love Groom: Texas Titan Romances

by Taylor Hart

  It’d been amazing to Felicity that, since the pressure of paying the mortgage had gone away, it was like her mother had found hope again. She’d been planting a garden, and she’d fixed up the yard. It was like she had found a new lease on life. It was amazing, how her father stepped up when her mother called him.

  Inner turmoil assaulted her. She did not want another surgery!

  Closing her eyes, she thought about Kade. Thought about being with him on the beach. She closed her eyes, and there they were, building a sand castle together. He was covering her with sand, and the memory felt cool, fresh, perfect.

  “Felicity.” But it wasn’t her father’s voice.

  It was Kade.

  She opened her eyes. Happiness filled her. “Hey!”

  There he was. Looking ragged and mussed and beautiful in the sunshine coming through the window. Guilt immediately filled her. He looked so upset.

  She pushed it aside. It would be better this way. His father was right. She was broken. Kade should move on, but dang he was beautiful.

  Kade looked at her father then her mother.

  Her mother went to him. “I wanted to call you, but she wouldn't let me.”

  “I’m getting out of here today,” she said quietly.

  Her mother moved to Kade’s side. “She is slotted to do a surgery in less than thirty minutes. Everyone is ready.”

  “No, I’m not doing a surgery.”

  Her father was next to her mother, holding up some paperwork. “She needs to sign these papers so the doctors can go in there and fix her valve. She can’t wait any longer.” He held the papers out to Kade.

  Her mother hugged him. “Please, talk sense into her.”

  Kade’s face was serious as he took the papers from her parents.

  Her father took her mother’s hand. “Let’s let them talk.” Her father looked so different. Felicity liked seeing him sober. A twinge of resentment fell through her, but she didn’t like him ganging up on her with her mother.

  She blinked and decided not to focus on that. She looked at Kade’s beautiful face and grinned, feeling warm again.

  Kade’s gaze locked with hers, and then he was by her side. He took her hand, evaluating her from the top and then going down, taking her shoulders and then her arms. “What’s happening?” His voice was soft, and she saw that laser-like focus, so like his father’s.

  She sighed, feeling woken after a long movie. "I passed out, and everyone’s turning it into such a big deal.” Tears filled her eyes and real terror began to creep into her. “I can’t do another surgery. They never work.”

  He stared at her, and before she could talk herself out of it, she leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips. She felt him give to her, knowing that for once he didn’t want to. He wanted to stay focused on the medical issues. She smiled and reached up, putting her hands around his neck and pulling him into her. Needing the sunshine. The warmth. She’d felt so cold.

  He didn’t push her away, but he stopped kissing her. He reached back and grabbed a chair with his foot and pulled it to her side.

  “I love how agile you are,” she said. “I also think you’re like sunshine,” she stated, knowing she should feel silly saying this to him, but she didn’t care. They’d given her some medicine a bit ago, and she wondered if it was making her loopy.

  He searched her face. “What is going on?”

  “They must have slipped me something,” she said quickly. She shook her finger at him. “But I’m not doing this surgery, Kade.”

  Tugging back, he frowned. “Why not?"

  She grabbed him harder. “That’s what I was going to tell you that day when we got back, right before you got the call about your brother. I was going to tell you that I’m done with surgeries, because they never really fix the problem, and it’s just … I’ve had way too many unsuccessful surgeries. Do you have any idea how hard it is every single time? They cut me open, pull out my heart, try to do something to fix my valve, but in the end, they just put it back in.” Her hand trembled, and she looked at it like it was trembling and it had no permission to do so, but she couldn’t stop it. “I’m done now. I just want to enjoy my life.” She turned back to him. “With you. What should we do next?” She smiled at him.

  He gave her a measured look. “Felicity, you need to do this. I don’t think your mother would want you to do it if it’s the wrong thing.”

  Tears burned into her eyes. She thought she’d cried enough, but she felt emotion in the back of her throat. She released him. “Please leave. If you can’t support me not doing the surgery, you’re just making my life harder.”

  He took her arms and pulled them back around his shoulders, his face intense. “No way, Song. No way. You’re not quitting on me.”

  The way he looked at her, like he could fix this, made her both happy and sad. “You’re not listening. Even if I got the surgery, it’s not guaranteed and every surgery that doesn’t work, weakens me.”

  The crease between his eyes deepened. “There’s always another play.”

  “No,” she said more harshly than she’d intended. She pushed him back, even though she was weak. “You can’t do that…it’s just like your dad.”

  Sitting up straight, any trace of sunshine was erased by a storm. “What happened?”

  She shook her head.

  “Felicity.” He growled.

  Knowing it was useless, she started telling him. “He wanted me out of the way, so he tried to send me off on some fake job in Reno, tried telling me he was getting me an apartment there.” She laughed, and it felt good, only suddenly she was crying. “Then he offered me a blank check. Isn’t that funny? I realized I was the poor girl in the movie where the rich parents offer to write a check for anything you want to get you out of the way, but it was me and my real life.” She laughed, and it sounded awful, even to her. Because she was hurt. Hurt and confused about how she’d let herself fall in love. “I love you, Kade.” She couldn’t believe she’d just admitted it.

  His eyes instantly misted. “I love you, too, piano girl.”

  Gently, she reached up and touched his face. “I should have told you the next surgery I need has a fifteen percent chance of working. Your father said I’m broken. He’s right.” Certainty filled her. “You should go. You should.” She pulled back her hand.

  He took her hands, tears in his eyes. “Don’t quit on me, Song. What about a transplant?”

  She shrugged. “I have to get this surgery first. If it doesn’t work, I’ll be put on the list. But …”

  “It’ll work.” Kade said quickly, wiping his eyes. “It has to.”

  She searched his face. “Kade, you were my first real Prince Charming.” She couldn’t stop the tears from running down her face. "Isn't that funny?” Now she laughed. “Isn’t that funny?” She repeated as she reached up and gently touched the soft facial hair on his face again. “I never thought I’d have a bratty, spoiled billionaire as my Prince Charming.”

  “Don’t forget selfish and entitled,” he said softly, picking up her hand and kissing the back of it, tears washing down his face.

  Despite the tears, the expression on his face wasn’t defeat. It was the same laser-like focus he had on the field. “Felicity, you’re right. I’m too bratty and selfish to ever give you up.”

  She shook her head. “You have to. I see that now. I fell in love with you. But”—more tears ran down her face—“you need someone strong, you should go.”

  Tears fell down his cheeks. “No, but I do need you to sign these papers because I need you with me.”

  She smiled. “Then the prince comes to save me?” All her resistance to the surgery was failing.

  He had both of her hands and he put them to her mouth and kissed them. “Please, Song, do this with me. I’ll be here. I’ll block for you.”

  Every worry and fear and vulnerability seemed to melt in his eyes. She never thought anyone could convince her to do a surgery again, but she hadn’t known what loving a go
od man could do to her.

  “Please.” He bent and kissed her forehead and then pulled back, getting the paperwork. “Sign here, Song. I’ll be here when you come out, and we’ll have everything together.”

  She reached up and took the pen, trusting in his blue eyes, putting all her fear aside. She scrawled the necessary signatures and tried not to think of the horribleness of surgery.

  Kade rushed out to the hallway and then back in to her, sitting next to her. “Okay, they said five minutes. You got this.”

  She turned to look at him, seeing he looked pale. “Are you going to throw up, Kincaid?” she asked, feeling peaked herself.

  He kept her hands in one of his and then took the other and put it on her forehead. “Hey, I always win a game when I throw up right before.”

  She found this funny and laughed. She could feel the loopy medicine taking a firmer hold.

  Then she felt different.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her.

  Suddenly, her heart monitor started beeping and going out of control.

  She felt herself falling, just like in her dream. “Kade!” She yelled but it didn’t come out like a yell, it came out muffled.

  “Felicity!” He kept her hand, but shouted and her parents ran in, and a bunch of staff ran in. She heard her mother yell out and reach for her as her father held her back.

  Then it was black.

  Chapter 28

  Two Days Later

  Kade didn’t know what time it was. He sat next to Felicity’s bed. There were tubes in her nose and down her throat. A monitor beeped in the background consistently. He supposed it should be comforting, that regular tone. But it wasn’t.

  They’d rushed her in for the surgery, but the valve had been too weak.

  A soft hand was on his shoulder. “I wish ...” her mother said again, for the fiftieth time. “We should have tried this surgery sooner, then she could have been on the transplant list sooner.”

  Felicity’s dad moved next to her. “Let me take you home, sweetheart. Kade will be here tonight, right?”

  Kade nodded, feeling empty and tired and wishing he could hold her to this world with the force inside of him, but knowing he couldn’t.

  Her mother inhaled sharply and bent and kissed Felicity on the forehead. “If she wakes while I’m gone, tell her I love her.”

  Kade nodded again, and her mother squeezed his shoulder.

  “Come on.” Her father took her by the arm, and they left the room.

  Kade didn’t feel like he’d really absorbed it. All of this.

  Her heart had failed, and she was on life support now. The machines were breathing for her and pumping blood through her body. They said she could survive on life support for an undetermined amount of time. The one thing they were sure of was that this heart would never beat on its own again.

  His mind had been going over and over everything he’d known, everything he’d learned the past four hours from her parents and doctors that she hadn’t told him. None of it made any sense to him. How had she looked so fine. Normal. Sure, she’d gotten winded, and she’d told him she needed another heart surgery. But this?

  He blamed himself. A sudden feeling of being lost assailed him. It was the same feeling he’d had the day he and his brother had stood by his mother’s bedside and watched her slip away from them.

  He bent his head and cried. Not the harsh sobs from when he’d found out Anthony had been in an accident. No, this was generated by all the things he may not ever have with Felicity.

  A life that had begun unfolding before him when he’d been with her. Her as a bride. Them with children. Playing on the beach at the castle. The floating feeling he had when she played the piano. The certainty he felt when he kissed her. This—this lifeless woman lying in front of him—was why she’d told him not to fall in love with her. More tears washed down his face.

  He felt someone enter the room before he saw them.

  “Son.”

  Anger surged through Kade.

  His father was next to him. “Anthony called me."

  Carefully, Kade stood. He gently let go of Felicity’s hand. He didn’t want to yell at his father in her room. “Out in the hall.”

  His father went, and Kade followed.

  Turning to face him, his father shook his head. “Son, I’m sorry.” His father, for the first time in a long time, he did look sorry.

  Kade didn’t care. Part of him wanted to fight, and his father was an easy target. So much to fight about. So many things over so many years. "You tried to buy her off.” Kade growled at him, but kept his voice down and moved into his father’s space. “You told her she was broken.”

  “I was wrong,” his father said quickly. “It was a test for her.” He shrugged and looked apologetic. “You don’t know how many girls haven’t passed that test.”

  Kade took a step back, feeling off balance. “You bribed the girls?”

  Cocking an eyebrow, his dad shook his head. “How do you think I got Sheena to quit bugging Anthony?”

  He stumbled back, and his dad grabbed him by the shoulders. He shrugged away from his father. He was going to explode. “Just go away.” He felt out of control and wild, like a crazed animal who would tear his father apart. He stumbled into the hallway wall and held to one of the walls for support.

  “Son.” His father’s voice was measured. “I remember when I realized I couldn’t do anything for mama. When we would lose her.”

  Kade looked up at his father, he never spoke of his mother.

  His father scowled. “I remember feeling like all of my power, money, fame, the big house I’d built for her, for all of you … What good were they because I was losing the woman I loved.” His voice sounded raw, and there were tears in his eyes.

  Kade didn’t know how to feel, what to think.

  His father smiled, and tears fell down his cheeks. He took a step forward and put a hand on his shoulder. “I know I’ve been a jerk. I know I am a man who thinks he knows what’s best for his sons.”

  It wasn’t often you had a heart to heart with John Kincaid, and Kade was confused and vulnerable.

  “I love you, son. I’m proud of you. I’m proud of the way you stepped up and took hold of the Anthony’s situation because I blew it. I admit it. When any of my family is hurt or injured, I get scared, and it comes out as anger. I yell, and I try to fix it, and it’s not the right thing to do. I felt the same way with your mama.” Another round of tears washed down his cheeks. “I’ll never forget how weak I felt the day she died because it wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  Tears washed down Kade’s face as his pain for his mother mixed with pain for the uncertainty with Felicity.

  His father wiped his face. “I determined that day,” he said slowly. “That I would never lose a Kincaid woman again if I could stop it.”

  His father met his eyes, and he saw fierce determination in them. He cleared his throat. “From what Anthony has told me, from my own research, and from the way I see my oldest son looking right now, there is no doubt that woman in there will be a Kincaid woman one day.”

  Kade nodded. “I want her to be.”

  His dad’s hand was on his shoulder. “Since the day you took that first date with her, I’ve known her situation.”

  This stunned Kade. “You had her checked out.” Of course, he had.

  “Yes.”

  It didn’t really surprise Kade. Of course, his father would do that.

  “When I discovered her situation, I put out feelers to all major transplant centers. She’s been on the list for a heart since then. I was notified an hour ago they have one.”

  For a second, Kade couldn’t register what his father was saying.

  “I called the head of heart surgery in Dallas an hour ago, and he’s coming to perform the transplant.”

  Kade turned to his father, every part of him alert and awake and ready to go to battle. “What?”

  His father sniffed, and Kade thought he actually l
ooked like he was on the verge of crying. “Call her parents to come sign forms, and they’ll do the surgery.”

  A rush of tears swept down Kade’s face, and he choked on stunned emotion.

  His father blinked, and tears ran down his face too. He took two steps to Kade and yanked him into a hug. “You know I would do anything for my sons. You know that. Kincaids don’t sit around. Kincaids don’t go down without a fight.”

  Kade let out a laugh of relief and hugged his dad, hating and loving everything about him. “Tough love.”

  His father looked confused. “What?”

  “Nothing.” He reached for his father and pulled him in, holding him tight.

  He’d always thought his father stopping at nothing was the most annoying quality he had, but today, it was the best.

  Chapter 29

  Felicity could hear someone yelling her name. At least, it felt that way. It was the same kind of muffled sound like she was at the bottom of a swimming pool. She felt like she was rising higher and higher and finally, she emerged from the water.

  “Felicity.” Her name sounded sharp and hurried.

  It was her Kade calling.

  Pain filled every part of her. She tried to open her eyes, only to find that hurt even more. Relief came instantly as she let herself fall back down into the depths.

  “Felicity! Felicity!”

  Why couldn’t everyone just let her rest in peace? “Uh.” She could only groan and tense herself against the pain.

  “She’s awake.” It was her father, which surprised her.

  All the memories of what happened suddenly rushed into her mind.

  Being at John Kincaid’s house, his offer of money, calling Mr. DaVinci, passing out in front of her house, and waking up in the hospital.

  It was fuzzy. Then she remembered Kade and the feel of his facial hair, soft against the skin of her hand and telling him he was her Prince Charming.

  Dying.

  She was going to die. That had been her last thought before everything had gone black.

  Now, she felt Kade’s hand on her head. “Felicity, can you open your eyes?”