Love Collides (Fate's Love #3) (15 page)

“You didn’t have any ID with you. But we have to ask. If you’re a minor, then we have to inform your parents.”

“I’m eighteen.” I rushed out a little too fast, and the nurse’s forehead crinkled.

She studied me for a second before saying, “Okay, well get some rest. The doctor will be in later to explain things to you. I’ll have someone bring you some water. Rest now.”

The nurse left the room, and I clamped my eyes shut, hoping it might shut out some of the pain. How was it you could miss something so much? Something you didn’t even have yet. I hadn’t even been certain keeping the baby was the right decision, but now I would never know. And at that moment, I realized how much I’d wanted the baby.
My
baby.

I squeezed my eyes tighter and let the pain consume me. It was the only thing I could do.

~

“Staci, the doctor is here now.”

“Miss Jameson.” The doctor smiled, but it was clinical—like everything else in this place.

“Hello,” I choked out. It was the same every time I tried to talk.

“I believe Nurse Marie explained a few things to you, but I’m here to fill in the gaps.”

“Is the father on his way?” He glanced back at the nurse.

“Hmm, the father isn’t on the scene, doctor,” Nurse Marie replied.

“Ahh, I see. Well, your family, then? You really shouldn’t be here alone.”

“She’s eighteen, doctor, and has requested that we not inform anyone yet.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Nurse Marie had quizzed me again about my age and calling someone, but I begged her to give me some time to come to terms with things before I called anyone. She was reluctant, but agreed to let me have one more night. I might have told her about the father—about what a cheating manwhore he was. It wasn’t quite the truth, but close enough.

“Okay then, shall we?” The doctor pulled up one of the chairs and perched at the end of the bed. “Yesterday, you arrived at the hospital experiencing blood loss and pain…” I winced. “We estimated you to be at almost twenty-four weeks gestation. We believe the placental abruption caused the onset of early labor. Unfortunately, we were unable to revive the fetus…”

Tears rolled down my face as I winced at his clinical words. Did he think I couldn’t remember everything? I closed down; his words became one jumbled meaningless string of sounds. Unviable. Blood loss. Recovery.

None of it mattered. Couldn’t he see that I was broken? To him this was just routine procedure, and to me it was everything. It was the difference between dark and light; happiness and sorrow. I turned my head to the side and closed my eyes.

“Doctor. Perhaps we could finish this another time?” Nurse Marie’s gentle voice said.

The doctor made an agreeable noise and the door clicked shut behind them.

I was alone.

Alone.

~

Later that afternoon, reality slowly started creeping up on me. Over twelve hours had passed since I should have arrived at home after my shift at the diner, and the twenty-two messages from Dad, Eric, Joel, and Tanner implied they were one step from calling the police. Luckily, my cell had been tucked into my pocket when I arrived. The battery was almost dead, but I was able to call Gina.

“Hello,” my voice croaked.

“Staci, what’s happened? Your dad came by. He’s not happy, doll. You need to get home.”

“I need you to come to North Florida Medical Center. Please.”

“Okay. I’ll get Harry to cover the diner. I’ll be there soon.” She hung up, and I sank back into the bed, blocking out the ache in my stomach.

Gina was an ask-no-questions kind of woman. As long as you worked hard and kept your fingers out of the tip jar, she was cool. And she was the closest thing I ever had to a mom. I just hoped she could help me out of this one.

Twenty minutes later, Gina breezed into the room. “Doll, what the hell have you gotten yourself mixed up in? These hoity-toity doctors wouldn’t tell me a damn thing. I had to pretend to be family, for Pete’s sake, just to get in here.”

“I- I-” Tears flowed down my cheeks like a river.

“Oh, doll. It’s okay. Whatever it is, it’s nothing that we can’t solve.” Gina perched on the side of the bed and enveloped me in her arms.

“I lost the baby.”

“Oh, doll. Shh.” She rocked me gently whispering soothing noises in my hair, and I imagined it was my own mom comforting me. Even though I couldn’t remember her.

After letting me cry my eyes dry, Gina asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

I shook my head. “Not yet, but I need you to talk to Dad. He can’t know, not now. Just tell him I went to a party and called to let you know I was fine, and that I’m scared to go home or something. Anything to buy me some time.”

My eyes pleaded with her. Gina knew how crazy protective my family was. It was the reason she gave me the job in the first place.

“Sure thing, doll. But what are you going to do about them?” She thumbed the door. “A nurse tried following me in here wanting their forms filled in.”

“I told them I was eighteen.”

“Shit. Okay, hmm, I’m your aunt. Got it?”

At that moment, Nurse Marie entered and smiled. “How are we feeling now, Staci?”

“Sore.”

“Completely normal. The doctor wants to come by to talk about what happens next, but I can see you have a visitor. Hello, I’ve been looking after Staci. I’m Marie.”

“Gina Gillick. Staci’s aunt.”

“Nice to meet you. We need to process Staci’s paperwork; is that something you can help us with?”

Gina flashed her a smile. “Sure thing. But we need to admit something. My niece might have told a little white lie. She’s not yet eighteen. She panicked. Her dad, my brother, is a little overbearing, if you catch my drift, and well, she didn’t want him finding out.”

Nurse Marie smiled sympathetically again. “Good thing you’re here then, Aunt Gina. Let’s get that paperwork filed.”

Ten minutes later, Gina breezed back into the room.

“You can thank me later. You’re officially now a patient of the North Florida Medical Center, and your dad has called off the search party. Although expect a grilling when you get home. He’s pissed. But he knows you’re safe, and he even thanked me for calling him.”

Relief washed over me.

“Thank you. I owe you big time.”

Gina smiled. “Doll, please. You just focus on you. I’m always here. Got it?”

***

On the walk back to Lou’s apartment, I let myself remember. It wasn’t something I thought about much anymore. The memories were imprinted. Engraved on my heart, but I didn’t relive them too often. I never forgot Dad’s reaction when I returned home. He grounded me for a month—removed all of my phone and computer privileges. Not that it mattered. I didn’t have anyone to call or text. Gina tried to get me to talk about what had happened, but I shut down. It was like the second I stepped foot out of the hospital, I closed that part of myself off. But one thing was certain. It was just me, myself, and I because I was never letting anyone in again.

Ever.

And I hadn’t. Not until Kade Ford. But was it enough?

I still wasn’t sure.

~ Kade ~

"Is she here?" I asked breathlessly after taking the stairs two at a time.

"Kade?" Confusion clouded Lou’s eyes. "Isn't she at your place? She left earlier and said that you were taking her to the airport tomorrow morning."

"Does it look like she’s with me?"

Fuck.

Something was definitely wrong.

Between Staci leaving my apartment this morning and the last twelve hours, something had happened. When she never showed as planned, I waited…and waited. Apparently, I waited until it was too late. But hindsight was a cruel fucking thing, and I wanted to believe there was a reason for her no-show. Like she’d fallen asleep or got hung up with Lou saying goodbye. I didn’t want to believe the voice at the back of my mind whispering that she was already gone.

I'd spent all afternoon replaying our last few encounters over and over in my head. There was nothing. No small sign that she was preparing to leave just like that or without saying goodbye. We were good. We were! But for as much as I wanted to believe this wasn't about us, the seed of doubt refused to stay quiet.

"She was flying back to Kaplan tomorrow, right?" Lou frowned. "Have you tried calling her?"

I shot Lou a look. Was she fucking serious? Of course, I'd called. I'd spent the last three hours texting and calling only to be met with silence or her voicemail.

"I don't understand. What happened? Everything was going well between the two of you, wasn't it? Did you screw things up?" Lou glared at me, daring me to prove her wrong.

“Because I can't keep it in my pants, right? Un-fucking-believable. Do you really think I'd do that to her? Nice, real nice, Lou," I ground out, anger flaring through me.

"Sorry. I'm sorry, okay. It's just, she seemed so happy and then this morning she got back and seemed... I don't know, sad. She wouldn't talk about it; she just spent the day in her room packing. When she finally came out, she said she was going to spend the night at your place."

Sad? After she left my apartment? A low growl formed in the back of my throat, and I wanted to pound my fist on the wall.

Why would she do this? After everything?

It made no fucking sense.

“Maybe Livy knows more? If she talked to anyone, then it would have been Livy.”

“Screw that; I’m going to the airport.”

“You think she changed her flight? She could be anywhere, Kade. On the Greyhound or train. Let’s think this through.”

Think it through? I’d driven myself crazy thinking it through. I needed to do something. It was already past ten and, according to Lou, Staci had been gone almost five hours.

“I’ve got to do something. Everything was fine.
We
were fine. She wouldn’t just run out on me like this. She wouldn’t…” My voice trailed off, and I flinched at the touch of Lou’s hand on my arm.

Just when I thought we were finally making progress, things had gone to shit in the blink of an eye.

Russ appeared in the hallway and drew his lips into a tight line. “Why don’t we call the airport and see if there was a flight out to Lafayette tonight? At least it will rule out that option if there wasn’t.”

If she’s definitely going home.

I nodded and followed them to their living room. Russ insisted on calling the airline. There was only one flight out to Lafayette Airport and that had been this morning. So it was unlikely that Staci was at the airport, which didn’t reassure me any. If she hadn’t caught a flight, she could be anywhere. And I had no idea where to start.

Lou was busy texting when her phone started ringing. My head whipped up in hope that it was Staci.

“Hello.” She shook her head and I sank back into the couch. It wasn't Staci. “No, he’s here. Wait, what? What the- okay, okay I’ll tell him. Yeah, I know. Okay, bye.”

Lou placed her phone on the end table and sighed. I knew that look; this wasn’t going to be good.

“Just tell me. What’s going on?”

“Staci text Livy. She’s gone, Kade. Back to Ecuador. She didn’t say much, just that she’s sorry she left without saying goodbye and not to worry.”

A bitter laugh escaped my lips, and I pulled my cell from my pocket and starting scrolling for her number.

“Kade. Don’t,” Lou said in a strained tone. “She asked Livy to tell you not to contact her. She wants space to work through some stuff. I’m so sorry, Kade.”

She wanted space. From me?

My chest cracked in two, and I dropped my head onto my fisted hands.

“Come on, man. Give her some time, shit will sort itself out.”

Rising to my feet, I was unable to make eye contact with either of them as I said, “I’m out. I’ll catch you later.”

I didn’t look back as I left their apartment.

~Staci ~

Five hours into the nine-hour journey, I was ready to demand the driver make a U-turn and head back to Gainesville.

What in the hell am I doing?

That was all I’d thought about. Livy had been calling every half an hour, but I didn’t answer. What could I possibly say to fix the mess I’d left behind? So I did the only thing I knew how—I shut it all out. Kade was right; shit got real and I got ready to run. It was just the way I was wired.

Except how did I shut out the one person who had started to mend the broken parts of me?

So, I did the worst thing possible. I dialed my messages and closed my eyes.

“You have four saved messages. First message.”

Kade’s voice rasped down the line
.
“You’re late. Don’t keep me waiting too long,
friend
.”

“Next saved message.”

“Me again. I’m starting to think you’ve blown me off… and not literally because I’m here. Alone. And my dick would have remembered if your lips had been wrapped around it. Fuck. Now I’m hard. Hurry.” Kade chuckled down the line. I could imagine his cheeky smile, the one that I usually worked hard to elicit.