Chapter 26
B y the time I reach Brigham and Women’s, there is a zoo of media camped outside. It’s like déjà vu from when my mother was in this same hospital over Thanksgiving and after pulling in and valet parking, I push my way through the bedlam of photographers and barrage of questions.
I’m not alone either. Just as I arrive, so do Luca, Raven, Landon, Elle, and Stella.
Their terrified eyes and pale faces very likely match my own.
Especially when they get a better look at me.
My clothes are stained with blood and vernix and amniotic fluid.
My hair is all over the place and likely just as stained as the rest of me.
If “wreck of a man” had a place in Urban Dictionary, it would hold my face as a cautionary tale beside it.
“Are you okay?” Raven races over to me, jumping up at me and throwing her arms around me. Not giving two shits that I’m as gross as I am or even if we’re photographed.
“I’m fine. Sort of. I need to make sure they’re okay and then I will be.”
She drops back down to her feet, her hand on my chest over my pounding heart. “You are a hero, Kaplan Fritz. You saved baby Owen’s life and possibly Grace’s. You saved this family by saving them.”
I plant a kiss on her forehead. “Love you.”
That’s all I got for now.
We head inside the hospital, hugging and talking in quiet murmurs as we take the elevators up to the labor and delivery floor.
Carter had sent out a text to our sibling chat during the delivery and everyone is here, crowding the waiting room with anxious eyes and pacing feet. Amelia races over to me, wrapping me in another hug. “You’re a gross-ass mess, but I don’t think I’ve ever loved you more than I do in this moment.”
I chuckle, hugging my soon-to-be sister-in-law back. “It was all Grace. Truly. She was magnificent. Where are they? Are they okay?”
Rina smacks my back, pulling me away from Amelia into yet another crushing hug.
“She’s okay. Oliver is with her because he wouldn’t leave her side despite her yelling at him to stay away from her vagina.
The doctor is examining her, and the nurses are getting her cleaned up while the NICU team assesses baby Owen.
Carter was all over Grace and didn’t want to leave her, but neither of them wants Owen to be alone, so he’s there with him.
” She pulls away, her hands on my shoulders as she gazes up at me with tear-soaked happiness.
“Have you ever seen Carter cry? Like never, right? The man was weeping like a child. It’s the best. But likely Owen will have to stay in the NICU for a bit because he’s small and was born in the back of a car and fuck, Kaplan.
” Another smack, this one on my chest. “He’s alive . Because of you .”
I swallow, trying for a smile but not quite getting there. What went down in the car is still rattling me to my bones.
“Wow, look,” Stella calls out, drawing all our attention to the television affixed to the wall. “You’re all over the news, Uncle Kaplan. You and Uncle Oliver.”
Layla, Amelia’s little sister snorts, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, they’re saying you performed surgery in the back of your car to deliver Owen. Because that makes a whole lot of sense.”
Before I can comment, something hard slams into my back, jerking me forward a couple of steps and knocking the wind from me.
Strong arms clamp around my chest. “You absolute motherfucker.” I grin, spinning around and hugging Carter who is crushing the life out of me.
“Thank you,” he whispers to me, tears clogging his voice.
“Fuck, Kaplan. Thank you so much. I… I just—”
“I know.” Because I do. I pat his back. “They doing okay?”
He pulls away, wiping at his eyes that are glowing in a way I’ve never seen on him before. “They’re good. Owen Kaplan Fritz is a champ.”
“Owen Kaplan Fritz?”
He nods, and yep, now I’m choked up. All the emotion I had been tamping down and shoving away springs like a geyser up my throat and through my face.
I grab my brother and haul him back into my chest, gripping his back and clutching him tight.
Now he’s laughing because I don’t do this. Get emotional.
“He’s good? He’s really good?”
“He’s good, man. Already nursing on Grace and only requiring a nasal canula to help him breathe. No mask. No vent. Four pounds, three ounces. Monster dick.”
I laugh, a knot I didn’t know I had unfurling in my chest. Releasing Carter, I scrub at my face and slap my brother on the shoulder. “As you’d expect from a Fritz man.”
“Absolutely. I’m going back to them, but I wanted you to know they’re both great and I love you and thank you.”
I give him another hug because apparently hugs are my new thing, and when I turn around, I’m met with a pair of green eyes I had been hoping to see since my awful lunch today.
The reason I was in the car in the first place.
My mother cups my face in her cold hands and stares up at me.
No words. They’re not needed. Her face showcasing every ounce of wonder and love and gratitude that’s flowing through her.
Octavia Abbot-Fritz loves her people with an unrivaled fierceness.
“I was coming to talk to you. About Millie.”
She smiles softly up at me. “I heard all about your lunch today. Catherine called me.” Catherine is Millie’s mother.
Oh, I’m sure she did.
“She’s a fucking nightmare, Mom. How on earth could you have wanted me to be with her? Did you know she believed we were headed toward an arranged marriage?”
For once she doesn’t comment on my language. “Kaplan, this is neither the time nor the place to discuss this. I understand your position on Millie and we’ll talk about it later.”
“Are you angry about the lunch? About what I told her?”
“Angry is not something I could ever be with you in this moment.”
I need to tell my mom about Bianca. About Bunny. But right now, I can’t find the words. She feels like a secret. One I want to keep for myself. Just for a bit longer. Especially after all this.
“I love you, Kaplan,” she continues. “And I am so proud of you. Not just for what you did tonight. You are a brilliant doctor and a wonderful man with superior instincts. Keep following them and don’t be afraid of where they’ll lead you.”
I nod, swallowing thickly.
She kisses my cheek, wiping away the stain of her lipstick after. “Now go home and get yourself cleaned up. You’re a mess.”
She smirks and then saunters off, joining my father who gives me the I’m proud of you, son, nod. I return it and then head for the exit. Only home isn’t where I want to be.
I need to see my girl.
Just thinking about her calms my racing blood.
Bunny, she always had that effect on me.
I’d have a rough shift or feel lost or out of sorts and then I’d text or call or her or even email.
She was just a kid, but somehow that made talking to her easier.
She saw life so differently than I did and I clung to that.
I’d tell her the most ridiculous of my thoughts.
Trusted her in a way I trusted few others.
Loved her like a little sister until I saw her again and everything flipped in an instant.
Now she’s the woman who has consumed my every waking hour for weeks. I don’t know what’s happening. I just know I need her. I need to fuck the raging beast thrashing inside me out. I need her touch and sounds and breath and body. Her. I need her.
There is no going back.
Not to who I was before.
Not to how things used to be.
With purpose in my stride, I press the button for the elevator.
I haven’t talked to Bianca all day other than our quick text exchange and I’m itchy.
Maybe it’s the aftereffects of what happened tonight.
Maybe it’s not knowing where her cousin is—Fairchild is working on it and promised he’d have answers by tomorrow morning.
Maybe it’s the worry that she didn’t listen to me and went off to Chelsea in the middle of a storm in the darkness of night.
Maybe it’s that I just need to fucking see her.
Whatever it is, it has me ringing her bell with a bit more intensity than I typically would.
“Hello?”
“It’s me.”
She doesn’t ask what I’m doing here. The door just buzzes, allowing me passage inside, where I jog up four flights instead of using the elevator because it was slow as fuck when we used it this morning. This morning. What a world that has happened between then and now.
I raise my fist to pound but she’s already there, flinging the door open and staring up at me with such sweet innocence and painful wrath I need to taste all of it on her. My hand glides along her face, my fingertips in her hair and I crash my mouth down on hers.
A startled gasp gives me access to her mouth and I take full advantage, my tongue twirling with hers as I walk her backward into her apartment and kick the door shut behind me.
Spinning her around, I press her into it.
Flipping the latch on the bolt to lock it, I grind against her, not affording her an inch of space between us.
Her hands are all over me. In my hair. On my face. Down my neck. Squeezing my shoulder. She breaks the kiss, panting as she asks, “What’s going on?”
Can she feel it? My urgency. The desperation swimming through me. The wild chaos living, breathing, growing in my chest.
I go to kiss her again, but she pushes me back. “What’s all over you?”
I glare down at myself.
“We were driving out to my parents’ compound when Grace went into labor in my car. I delivered my premature nephew tonight.”
She sucks in a breath, holding me closer, her face wrought with unease. “Oh god. Are they okay?”
I nod. “They are now, but there were some very scary moments with Owen. I’ll tell you more about it later.” My forehead falls to hers, the tip of my finger tracing the beautiful lines of her face. “He’s in the NICU and Grace and Carter are with him.”
“Are you okay?”