Sweet Distraction: Stag Brothers Book 1

by Lainey Davis

  “Alice,” I rise, walking around the table. She looks at me, and as if in slow motion I see her start to fall. “Alice!” Her eyes roll up in her head and she pitches forward. Her temple catches the corner of the table. I reach her as she hits the ground, a stream of blood flowing from her forehead.

  “Stag? What’s going on here?” The room is on their feet, everyone crowding around Alice.

  I develop tunnel vision. I pull her onto my lap. She’s still unconscious. “Juniper, call 911,” I bark out. Alice groans in pain and brings her hand to her temple. I pull the pocket square from my suit jacket and press it against her cut. I’m not sure if she needs stitches. There’s so much blood.

  I feel someone’s hand on my shoulder, but I won’t let go of Alice. I need to know if she’s all right. The paramedics arrive and peel me from Alice. Juniper puts her hand on my shoulder again. I hear her this time. “Tim,” she’s saying. “Tim, she just fainted.”

  I nod. She’s going to be fine. “Because this happened at work, they’re going to take Alice to Mercy hospital to get checked out.” Juniper keeps talking and I realize we are still in the conference room. The Cavs are still here, retainer contract unsigned. “Would you like me to go to the hospital with Alice or would you like to go?” Juniper pauses. She meets my eye, and I know she knows Alice is more than an employee to me. “Maybe you should go to deal with the paperwork? As her boss?” I nod, and don’t look back as I sprint down the hall after the paramedics.

  Twenty-Three

  ALICE

  M y head is pounding. I’m going to be sick. I roll onto my side and dry heave--I haven’t been able to eat anything all day. I didn’t want to tell Tim I felt sick to my stomach. Today was too important. Oh shit, what have I done? I remember going into the conference room with lunch, thinking I could go lie down in my office if I could just make it through this one task.

  I didn’t really think I had a stomach bug. What happened? As I take stock of my surroundings, I realize I’m on a gurney. I open my eyes and see Tim’s face, deeply concerned. “What’s going on?” I croak.

  He kisses my hand. “We’re in an ambulance, babe. You fainted. You’ve got a nasty cut.” I hear the siren, realize the jolting feeling is the ambulance rocking as it hurries down the cobbled side streets behind Stag Law.

  “Your meeting,” I whisper. “I ruined your meeting.”

  “No, baby. You didn’t. Your health is the most important thing. Juniper’s got those guys eating from her hand right now.”

  The paramedic clears her throat. “Ma’am,” she says, coming into my eye line. “We’re going to take you in for some imaging when we arrive. We need to know if there’s any risk you might be pregnant.”

  I shake my head. “I’m on the pill,” I say, putting my hand to the source of the stinging pain on my forehead. I feel a bandage. The paramedic must still be talking. She’s looking at me, expectantly. “I’m sorry. Could you repeat the question?”

  “I asked whether you’re using your contraception as prescribed. Nevermind. We’re going to draw some blood from your IV and do a test.”

  IV? I glance over to Tim, who looks even more deeply concerned. The paramedic explains they’ve been giving me IV fluids because I showed signs of dehydration. She pulls a vial from one of the shelves in the ambulance and fills it with blood from my IV access.

  We arrive at the hospital and are rushed back to a room, where a nurse helps me onto the bed. A crew of people flock around, asking me questions, shining lights in my eyes. They determine that the cut on my head can be closed with glue, and I close my eyes while everyone works around me. I’m just so tired.

  “Are you the father?” I hear a voice as I drift back to awareness.

  “Excuse me?” Tim sounds upset.

  “The father.” I open my eyes. A smiling young woman in a lab coat stands at the foot of my bed with a chart. “Of Mrs. Peterson’s baby! I’m the resident, Dr. Shaw. My notes tell me she’s expecting!” Before I can register what she’s saying, she walks toward me. She continues, “Normally we’d like to do a CT scan to rule out concussion, but it’s not really advised for the first trimester. Do you know how many weeks you are, Mrs. Peterson?”

  I feel like I’ve been pushed into a dark tunnel. “It’s miss,” I say, stunned.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Miss. Miss Peterson. I’m not married. Did you say pregnant? I don’t understand.”

  She looks puzzled, glances over at Tim, then back to me. Tim looks as though someone has slapped him across the face. “Well, Miss Peterson, your blood test came back positive. Did you not know you were pregnant?”

  “There must be some mistake,” I say, shaking my head until the room starts spinning. “I’m on the pill.”

  Dr. Shaw looks at her notes. “I see you’re taking a low dose pill. Those are very sensitive to timing—you have to take it at exactly the same time every d—“

  “I know how the fucking pills work,” I spit at her. I’m trying to make sense of what’s going on but everything seems impossible. “I have an alarm on my phone every evening.” I cover my eyes with my hands. This can’t be happening.

  “Alarm? Fuck!!” Tim pounds on the bed rail with his fist. “Can you give us a minute, Doctor?” Tim’s voice quivers. I open my eyes to see Dr. Shaw backing out of the room. Tim grabs my hand. “Alice...the first night you stayed over...you were asleep…”

  Tim confesses that he shut off my alarm, thinking my covert secret phrase was about my nephews. That was what it took. One night. I mean sure. We had sex like 4 times that day I missed my pill…Now I’m pregnant? Pregnant by a man I’ve only known two months.

  I groan. “I think I’m going to be sick again,” I say and lunge for the pink basin on the table. Tim steps back as I dry heave into the bowl.

  “Alice...what do you want to do?”

  I pause in my retching to look at him. “I can’t really think about that right now, Tim.” I flop back against the bed, hoping Dr. Shaw comes back. “Tim, can you call my sister for me? She works in this hospital.”

  “We need to make some decisions here, Alice. Decisions...shit.” He rakes his hands through his hair, cursing and muttering under his breath. “How could I be so stupid?”

  I scoff and then sigh. “I’m not going to terminate anything if that’s what you’re talking about, Tim.”

  He holds my gaze for a long time. Then he reaches out and strokes my chin. “We’re going to have a baby then.” His eyes are wide with wonder, and he gazes at me like I’m some foreign creature.

  Tim has the nurse page Dr. Shaw and asks them to find my sister, who comes sprinting into my room a few minutes later. Dr. Shaw has come and gone. I’m diagnosed with a bruised head and morning sickness, with instructions to start prenatal care ASAP.

  Privacy laws mustn’t hold for hospital staff because my sister knows everything when she skids into my room. “Alice what the hell?? Pregnant??” She grabs my hands and looks over to Tim, who is now collapsed in the wooden chair like a deflated scarecrow. “Timber fucking Stag, you knocked up my sister!” Amy helps me out of bed and hands me my bag. “I’m going to send you the number for the midwives. Carol has been there so long she caught us AND my boys.”

  When Tim sees that we are leaving he scrambles to his feet. Amy keeps talking. “You have to wait to tell Dad until I’m there to watch. Oh. And Ryan. Please wait for Sunday dinner and just blurt it out in front of everyone.”

  “Aim, I’m so glad my crisis is so amusing to you.” She steers us toward the exit as Tim calls for his driver to come pick us up.

  My sister pulls us both in for a hug. “It’s not a crisis! It’s a baby!” She claps her hands. “You’re both adults and you have homes and decent jobs. This is going to be amazing. I promise.” I wish I could share her confidence. Or even make sense of what I’m feeling right now. I huddle against Tim as we wait for the town car. He’s wooden and unyielding, gritting his teeth like he can chew right through this challenge.


  When Joe pulls up, I don’t even wait for anyone to open the door. I collapse into the back seat and close my eyes until we start moving.

  “Wait, where are we going?” Joe is headed west along the Allegheny River, not east toward my house.

  Tim looks at me, utterly perplexed. “I’m taking you home. To rest. So we can talk.”

  “Tim, I want to go to my house, to sleep in my bed and to think.”

  Tim shakes his head. “Alice, we need to talk this through. This is ...you’re not thinking clearly and… Alice! A baby. Our baby…”

  My head is pounding. I can’t think. “Joe, please take me to my house.” Tim starts to protest, but I cut him off. “I just really need to be alone right now, Tim.”

  When we finally pull up to my house, I’m surprised to see both my brothers are home, but then I remember it’s late afternoon and we’ve been at the hospital since lunchtime. When Tim opens the door and I climb out, my brothers leap from the porch and come running to me.

  “What the fuck, Alice? Who hurt you?” My brother Ryan balls his hands into fists, glaring daggers at Tim. “Stag, if you so much as laid a finger on her, I swear to Christ I will end you right now.”

  “Relax, Ry. I just fell at work.” Tim’s mouth opens, but no sound comes out. I glare at him. “Tim drove me to the hospital and I’m fine. No stitches even. I’ll probably have a black eye, though.” I’m babbling again. My brothers don’t seem quite appeased, but I’m so exhausted and I’m feeling another wave of nausea. “Look, guys, I just want to go to bed. Tim, I’ll see you on Wednesday.”

  “Alice, wait.”

  “No. I really just need to go to bed.” I start to walk into the house.

  He moves to follow, but Dan puts his hands on Tim’s chest. “She said she’s good, dude.”

  “Alice, I’ll bring your things over later. Please call me when you’ve slept.” He looks desperate, and part of me wants to go to him, but if I stay upright another second I’m going to puke and cry all at once. I close the door, hurry up the stairs, and collapse into my bed.

  Twenty-Four

  TIM

  P regnant.

  Alice is pregnant.

  I got my girlfriend pregnant, and we haven’t even had a conversation yet about whether she is my girlfriend.

  All through my teens, I expected this to happen to my brothers, probably Thatcher. Part of me waited for this type of phone call in college. And now I’m the idiot who fucked a girl with no protection. And what the hell was I thinking, shutting off her phone alarm and not telling her? I never let myself assume anything...so much for following my own advice.

  I don’t even recognize who I’ve become.

  Shit. The meeting.

  “Joe, can you take me back to the office?”

  He looks at me in the mirror. “Are you sure, Mr. Stag? You’re not looking so hot.”

  “Joe. Office. Now.” I don’t have time for people’s assessments. I need to get hold of Juniper Jones.

  “Right away, sir.” We head west, Joe avoiding the highways and finding a back road to avoid the rush hour traffic. I pull out my cell and breathe a sigh of relief that I’ve got Juniper’s number. Donna must have programmed it in for me.

  I punch the screen to call her up and, almost like she was waiting for my call, she answers after one ring. “Tim.”

  “Juniper. Give me some good news.”

  “Tim, how is Alice?”

  Shit. Of course she’s concerned about Alice. Everyone probably is. Alice knows everyone, knows their food preferences and knows the names of their damn grandmas. I breathe deeply. “Just a cut and a shiner. She’ll be back on Wednesday.”

  “Everyone will be so relieved,” Juniper says. She covers the phone and shouts this news. “We all have been hanging out waiting to hear an update. I tried calling Mercy, but of course they wouldn’t release anything. I even told them I was her attorney, but I was very relieved they insisted on protecting Alice’s health information--”

  “Juniper! The Cavs! What happened??”

  “Oh! Oh, Tim. It was fine. You know they were so impressed with everything this morning. They took the contract with them to review, which is customary, but I’m certain they’ll come back with a yes and a retainer check tomorrow.”

  I exhale the stress of the past few weeks, the part of my mind that focuses on work feeling much needed relief. Juniper continues. “Should we give some thought as to who will service this account? It will mean a lot of travel to Cleveland and our scan of the news lately seems to indicate we’ll have our work cut out for us with the hookers and blow, as Steve so delicately put it.”

  It never occurred to me that anyone other than myself would handle this client. I delegate the less prestigious work, but this has been the prize I’ve been eyeing ever since I got my brother Ty back and signed. “Juniper, I really appreciate how you handled that meeting today. You were poised and professional and, really, quite excellent--”

  She cuts me off. “Tim, if I can be blunt, I’m not interested in taking on this client. The travel would take away from my training time.”

  Shit. She thought I was buttering her up to give her the Cavs. “Of course, Juniper. I plan to work this client personally. I was just making sure to praise your work in getting them here.”

  “Oh.” There’s silence on the other end. “Well, thank you, Tim. While I have you, I really want to discuss the ideas I mentioned for the firm.”

  “Juniper, I’ll be at the office in ten.”

  “You’re coming back today?”

  “Yes. What do you mean?”

  “Well, I just thought...don’t you want to stay with Alice?”

  “I’m not interested in pursuing this line of conversation right now, Juniper. I’ll see you in ten minutes.” I hang up on her. Things have never been this complicated for me. Just keep my nose down, work on the plan, account for all potential complications. Even with our dad drifting in and out of the house, I managed to keep our financials together, keep my brother Ty in private school for hockey. I scoff at the memory of forging my father’s signature each month to deposit our mother’s life insurance payments while he drank away his sorrows in one dive bar or another. At least they had their ducks in a line before she passed so we didn’t lose the house.

  And here I am about to have a child, unable to even get my shit together at work let alone my personal life. This shouldn’t feel so complicated. Haven’t I already provided for my family? Haven’t I already made sure my brothers found success? Even if my middle brother defined that differently from the rest of us. I shake my head, twist my fisted hands in my eyes to clear the cobwebs. I need to sit at my desk where I can think.

  Juniper meets me at the door and we walk and talk. I’m only half paying attention to her ideas. I’m sure they’re good ones, and I actually trust her to pursue them, so I don’t file that as urgent. Instead, my mind drifts to the Cavs contract and what I need to do to make sure Alice and the baby are safe, protected, and cared for. I settle into my chair and start to work out the logistics of my plan.

  Twenty-Five

  ALICE

  I wake up to my sister rubbing my leg. “Al, babe, let’s talk.”

  I sit up and collapse against her chest. Her strong hands rub my back and she mutters soothing words into my hair. I’m the only one of the Peterson kids to inherit my mother’s curls. Unruly and wild, just like Dad always says she was. “Hey,” a thought occurs to me. “Do you think the baby will have curly hair?”

  Amy laughs and I burst into tears again. It starts sinking in that a real human is growing inside my body right now. A baby our mother will never meet. “Amy, what am I going to do with a baby?”

  She laughs. “What do any of us do with babies? You’ll do the same thing you did with my babies. He or she will hang out and watch baseball with Dad and the uncles. But shouldn’t you also be talking about this with Tim?”

  “Oh God, Amy, I am so overwhelmed. I love where things ha
d been going with him. But now everything is going to change. And Tim hates kids. You should have seen how he reacted when the kids were at the office.”

  “Alice,” Amy’s hand is firm on my shoulder. “I’ve seen him with the boys. He’s great with kids. It sounds like he just doesn’t like surprises. Remember how I told you not to just take the boys to work with you?” She flips on the light and reaches into the pocket of her scrubs.

  “Here.” She says, handing me a card. “This is the number for the midwives. This is the same practice Mom saw for each of her pregnancies. I wouldn’t imagine going anywhere else.”

  I exhale. This is too much reality for a Monday. “Hey, Aim?”

  “What’s up, Al?”

  “I just want to go to sleep for now, ok?” She kisses my forehead and slips out, turning off the light. I sink into the mattress and sleep until mid-morning.

  It’s strange being in the house alone during the day. There’s no commotion, no noise. Everyone is at work or school. I’m alone with my thoughts and that appointment card for the midwives...and a phone that seems a little too silent. I guess I was expecting Tim to call by now. I make myself a cup of coffee, wonder if I’m allowed to have coffee, and decide to call and ask before I do anything else.

  The nurse schedules me for an intake appointment and answers all ten thousand of my questions. I’m relieved to learn there’s really nothing in my life that needs to change apart from cutting out craft beer and turning off the now-useless alarm reminding me to take my birth control pills. They email me some information and a recommended book list and I decide to spend the day reading it all and shopping at the bookstore. All in all, I’m feeling much better despite the nasty bruise. With some careful adjustment of my curls and a scarf tied around my hair, I’m able to hide most of that when I head to the bookstore.

  I return home an hour later to see Tim sitting on my porch with his head in his hands. He looks...not good. His hair stands on end and he’s wearing the same suit as yesterday. “Jesus, Tim, are those spots of my blood from when I fell?” His shirt is stained. I’ve never seen him look like this.