Mending Hearts

2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Tyler

H er glossy dark hair fell around her like a curtain over the tin I used for garbage next to my desk. I was fairly certain my brain was five steps behind where it needed to be in this moment. Mia was pregnant?

Gently, I swept her hair back from her face, securing it at her nape in my fist while she dry heaved into the can. I tried to avert my gaze, pretty sure she didn’t want witnesses to this. Was this morning sickness? Emily, my sister, had been violently ill when she first got pregnant with Amir. She lost weight, a lot of weight, during the early part of her pregnancy. If our father hadn’t been a doctor, we might have panicked. Mia was already thin—bordering on too thin. Had she looked this gaunt a couple of months ago?

When she stood up, I released her hair, grabbed a box of tissues, and passed them to her.

“Pregnant?” My mind scrambled trying to process the confession.

She wiped her mouth and threw the tissue into the can. Her lips twisted as if she was annoyed, and she pressed her fingers into her forehead. Stooping low, she picked up her glasses from where she’d let them fall on the floor. “Yep. Pregnant. Don’t worry. I’m not keeping it. I can’t keep it. ”

“Oh.” The weight of her words settled faster than the initial revelation. “Um…” I searched for the right way to phrase my question. Was it possible to ask without offending her? Probably not. If the baby wasn’t mine, her trip here made no sense. But a child was too important to let assumptions lead the way.

“Yes, this baby is yours. Whatever you’ve read, whatever you’ve heard, I don’t sleep with random men all the time.”

The night of the Magic Men concert, she’d invited me back to her hotel after I stitched up her dress. I’d said yes because I was between relationships, because she was pretty, because my dad’s funeral was the next day, and anything that took my mind off that was exactly what I’d needed.

Afterward, I’d avoided searching for any information on her, on grilling Grady, on figuring out whether I shouldn’t have slept with her. Once a decision was made, there was no going back. Now, there were consequences, and I needed to face those head-on too.

“How old are you, exactly?” Inside, I cringed. My sisters, Emily and Maggie, would beat me with their shoes for this question. I should have asked it that night.

“You don’t know how old I am?” Her eyebrows went up in an almost comical look of disbelief.

“Do you know how old I am?” I countered, crossing my arms.

Her gaze traveled from my feet to meet my eyes. I remembered I’d liked her eyes. They were a strange blue-green, and they changed like a mood ring depending on how close she got to climaxing.

Jesus. Why did I let my mind wander there ?

“No. But I’m famous. You should know my age.” She gave me an assessing gaze. “No crow’s feet, no gray hair. There’s like a ten-year window here. I don’t know. Like, thirty?”

“Like thirty-five. Just had my birthday not long ago. I’m Grady’s age.” I cracked a smile.

“Oh, Lord.” Mia ran a hand down her face. “Another couple years and you could be my dad.”

“What?” All the blood drained from my face. My heart kicked once in my chest. Please don’t be underage. I should have asked. Or searched it up, or something. Fuck . So fucking dumb. She was famous. I should know her age. With all of the makeup and self-confidence, she’d seemed much older than she looked now, standing here with a bare face and a green tinge to her face. “How old are you?”

“I’m going to be twenty-one in a couple months. Too young to be a mother, that’s for sure.” She waved a hand around her head. “Also, my life is a circus. I can’t bring a kid into that.”

Relief coursed through me. Young, but legal. I could live with that. “So, you’re just here to tell me…” I cleared my throat, the words getting stuck there unexpectedly. “You’re having an abortion?”

“I thought you should know.” She shrugged and grabbed a lollipop from my tin, read the flavor, clutched her stomach, and put it back.

I couldn’t imagine she needed me to pay for the procedure. This whole conversation was surreal. Mia Malone was in my store, telling me she was pregnant. In one breath, she made me a dad, and in the next, she yanked it away.

A dad .

My father, who’d died at the end of October from a brain aneurysm, rose to my mind. Sadness swept over me at the realization that my father would never meet my future children, and would never know my wife. I’d had that thought before, but it had never punctured my heart quite so deeply. My father would never know this child or any other.

“Anyway,” Mia said, drawing me out of my head. “I wanted you to know.”

“Did you want me to go with you?” I took a step around the desk toward her. My mind felt full, stuffed with cotton batting. Thoughts jumbled together. Mia was here, pregnant, the baby was mine. If I woke up right now drenched in sweat, all of this a terrible dream, I’d be less surprised.

She shook her head, the layers of dark hair swaying against her shoulders. “No. I’m…I booked an appointment with someone. I’m here for the night and then I’m gone again.” Her gaze strayed from the surface of the desk to my face, and her blasé expression shifted for the briefest moment. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you. The trash can is there.” She pointed in the direction of my can. “If you’re going to be sick, too.”

Did I look sick? Shocked was more like it. Definitely shocked and not entirely sure what I should do or say. “Do you have someone to go with you?” She shouldn’t be alone. Too young to be a mother, probably too young to do this without support, too. “A best friend, a parent…” The color drained from her face.

“Lord, no. No one knows. No one knows .” Her hand landed on my forearm. “No one can know.”

“No one?” I remembered the entourage she brought to Little Falls in October for the benefit. Dancers, backup singers, bodyguards. A blond woman who must have been her manager had hovered in the dressing room, eyeing me with suspicion until it was clear I could really sew .

“I’m taking care of it. No one needs to know.” She met my gaze with an unexpected intensity.

I searched her face, trying to read her even though it was impossible. We’d slept together, but we were strangers. What could I hope to see in her eyes, in her face, other than a mirror of my panic and uncertainty?

“You’re sure?”

“You don’t know what my life is like. There’s no room in it for a baby. I can’t let all those people down.”

“Having a baby would let people down?”

She slid her glasses onto her face, shielding her eyes. I didn’t like the distance that simple motion put between us.

“Having the baby. Not having the baby. I can’t win.” She averted her face. “I don’t even remember your name.”

“You knew how to find me, but you couldn’t remember my name?”

“I knew you owned this place. You told me that night. At least that detail stuck.” She shrugged and looked toward the exit.

I furrowed my brow. Should I be offended that she couldn’t remember my name or impressed that she remembered I owned a secondhand shop? There were several ways she could have discovered my name. She knew Grady. They’d written songs together, and my sister was semi-famous ever since Grady had declared his undying love for her on stage. Mia was here, but she’d made no attempt to find out more information. I couldn’t get my head wrapped around what was really going on. Pregnant, but what else? “Tyler. Sullivan.”

“Sullivan. Right. Your sister is Maggie. Lord, my head is not in the right place.” She pressed her fingers into her temples. “Tyler. Tyler Sullivan.” My name rolled around on her tongue, as though she was testing it out. “I like it. ”

“Thanks?” I chuckled.

“You look like a Tyler. I should have known.” A real smile blossomed on her face.

For a moment, I eyed her, relishing the slightly lopsided beauty of her grin. “Probably should have known, yeah.”

She made a tsking sound and wagged her finger. “No slut shaming, Tyler. I could have been fourteen for all you knew.”

The blood drained from my face for a second time. “That’s not—that’s not funny. I don’t normally do that sort of thing.” I huffed in frustration. “I’m not a one-night-stand kind of guy.” In fact, she was only the second one I’d ever had. Relationships were my thing. I liked the permanence, the connection, the intimacy.

Mia puckered her lips and ran her hand through her hair, tossing it over to her other shoulder. “I wish I could say the same. I don’t do many repeats. Anything more is too much work, and I have enough of that already. And the breakup, the public spectacle of it…” She looked around the store as though suddenly remembering where she was. “I should go.”

At the realization she would walk out the door and I’d likely never see her again, I took a deep breath and tossed my lollipop in the garbage. I followed her to the door. “I don’t think you should do this by yourself.” I tried to search her face, to figure out if she was set on having an abortion or if she’d come here hoping for another outcome. We hardly knew each other. What other outcome was possible given the life she led and the one I had?

“I’m not telling my mother.” Mia pushed her sunglasses up her nose and fluffed her hair. “Anyone else is a liability. This can’t get out.”

“What about your dad? ”

“My sperm donor?” She laughed and shook her head. “Uh, no. He’s not around.”

Was she serious or making a joke? “Your mom used a donor?”

“Might as well have. He’s a total deadbeat. I never see him unless he wants money. Telling him about this would be like asking him to blackmail me. That’s not happening.”

“I’ll come with you.” I grimaced and put my hand on the door before she could push it open. “Tell me where, and I’ll be there.”

Mia sighed and tipped her glasses down, so she was looking at me over the top. “You don’t owe me anything. It was a mistake. Faulty condoms. Not even our fault. I can handle this.”

With a frown, I grabbed the back of my neck. I didn’t want to piss her off, but I didn’t understand why she’d come. We had no relationship. She wasn’t planning on keeping the baby. Even if the abortion came out years from now, I’d never have suspected I was the father. Something had motivated her to come. Loneliness? While her relationship with her mother might be a mystery to me, her relationship with her father was clear. One last idea came to me.

“What about a sibling?” I’d depend on Emily and Maggie for anything, would trust them with my deepest secrets, with my life.

“Nope. My mom was eighteen when she had me. She’s still searching for Mr. Right. If there’s a loser within five hundred miles, she’s on him like a dog on a bone, and what an expensive habit that is. Even losers don’t come cheap.”

“I’ll come with you. Seriously, Mia. Give me the place and time, and I’ll be there. I really don’t think you should do this alone.”

With an impatient sigh, she swept the bulk of her glossy black hair around, so it perched on her shoulder and cascaded down her arm. My fingers itched to tuck some stray strands behind her ear. She acted so cool and collected, I wasn’t sure she’d appreciate the contact. I couldn’t decide which version was the real one: the Mia I met the night of the concert or the one standing in front of me.

Pushing her sunglasses back onto the top of her head, she met my gaze for the longest time. I could see the indecision she was trying to hide. She might not want me there, but it was obvious she needed someone. Perhaps, like the night we slept together, I’d be good enough.

“New York City. Tomorrow morning before I fly out to meet the tour bus. I have the first appointment at seven-thirty. I don’t know the address.” She held out her hand. “Give me your phone.”

Out of my back pocket, I produced my phone and watched her punch in her contact details.

“You don’t have the clinic information on your phone?”

Mia glanced up from typing in her information to give me a wry smile. “Too many people have access to my calendar. I can’t do shit in private. I booked the appointment from my friend, Sarah’s, assistant’s phone.”

If I didn’t know better, I’d think Mia was imprisoned in her own life. She didn’t seem to have control over very much. “Are you happy, Mia?”

“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?” She passed me my phone without meeting my eyes. “All this money. All this fame. Pretty clothes. Pretty boys. Pretty songs.” A smirk rose to her lips. “I’ve got it all.”

With my phone clasped in my hand, I examined her. She was a mystery. Out the window, a familiar vehicle pulled into the lot. Danai from Zen Yoga climbed out of her car and approached the door. We’d been dating for the last three weeks, and I was supposed to meet her young kids tonight. Shit . I’d forgotten all about her in the chaos of the last hour with Mia .

Mia slipped her sunglasses back onto her face and followed my gaze out the window. “You know her?”

“Yeah.” I gave a curt nod. Tension radiated off me at a rate I knew would be noticeable. “You’ll text me the information for tomorrow. I’m serious. I want to be there.”

“Sure.” Mia’s gaze was glued to Danai as she approached the shop. “She doesn’t look much like me. I guess you don’t have a type.”

I had a type. But not a physical one. The differences between Mia, pale and slight, and Danai, brown and athletic, meant little. Uncomplicated, down-to-earth women who enjoyed long-term, committed relationships were my type. Danai had proven to be drama-free so far, and she’d said on our first date she was looking for something meaningful, not casual. So far, we were a good fit.

While Mia watched Danai, I studied Mia’s profile. Whatever else she might be, I was sure uncomplicated wasn’t it.

“Will she recognize me?” Mia ripped her gaze from Danai to stare at me.

“I don’t know.” We’d never discussed musical tastes. I’d seen and heard the crowd

the night of the benefit concert. People loved Mia. She’d been a tiny dynamo on stage. Did Danai worship her too? Possible, though unlikely.

“I should go,” she said, her voice rising in panic. “No one knows I’m here.”

“She’d never say anything if I asked her not to.”

“That’s not how fame works.” Mia laughed, but it was a bitter sound. “She’ll tell a friend, or her mom, or some other random person. They’ll tell someone else—friend, foe, whatever—and so on. Everyone sworn to secrecy, no one being secret. That’s how fame works. That’s how I get fucked over. So, no. I’m going. I’ll text you.”

She ducked out the door, her head down. Just before she slid into the car, our gazes locked as Danai rose on her toes and pressed a kiss to my lips. The frown on Mia’s face made me feel like I was doing something wrong. Guilt pinched, but I brushed it aside and smiled at Danai as she slipped past me into the store. I had no reason to feel guilty.

Mia’s car sped off out of the plaza, and I let the door click shut. Before turning to face Danai, I gathered my thoughts. I couldn’t meet her kids tonight if I was going to keep that appointment with Mia tomorrow.

“I’m going to have to cancel tonight,” I said when I turned around.

“Oh.” Danai’s expression was full of concern. “An emergency?”

“Yeah, family. I’m really sorry.”

“No, no. You gotta take care of your family first. Your mom, or Maggie, or Emily?”

I wandered behind the store’s counter, hoping something other than a lie would pop into my mind. I couldn’t tell her about Mia for more reasons than Mia’s privacy. Already, I was second-guessing going along with her plan without asking more questions.

Pregnant. With my child.

Of course, I’d been in enough long-term relationships to think about having kids. With at least one of those women, I would have been happy if she’d come to me pregnant from a birth control malfunction. But Mia being pregnant? So young, so different from the women I normally dated? This pregnancy didn’t feel like a happy accident, but instead a dreadful consequence of thinking with my dick instead of my brain.

“Emily,” I said when I realized she was still waiting for a response. “It’s just a lot, you know, with Omar and now my dad.” Inside, I cringed. She’d kill me for using her to lie to Danai, especially when I refused to tell her why I lied. I couldn’t have them meeting in passing and risk this conversation being replayed.

“I can’t even imagine.” She rubbed my shoulder. “We can do it another night. Don’t even give it a second thought. I hadn’t told my kids anyway.”

I nodded, but couldn’t meet her concerned gaze.

“I just stopped by to say ‘hi’ and to say I was looking forward to tonight.” She laughed and checked her watch. “I have a class in half an hour. Maybe we can get together tomorrow night instead? The kids are with their dad.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel tomorrow. Right now, my mind was buffering and failed to load, and I didn’t expect to reboot in such a short period of time.

My phone buzzed in my hand; with a frown, I read Mia’s message. Jesus. Already it was a fucking dramafest.

Don’t come. You seem happy. I’ll be fine. You’re not getting the clinic info.

I shoved my phone into my back pocket, and my jaw clenched. Why didn’t I ask what hotel she was staying at? If she was still in Little Falls, the list was pretty short. But if she was on her way to New York City, there was no way I’d find her.

“Everything okay?” Danai asked.

“I need to get going.” I grabbed my coat off the rack behind the counter. “I’ll walk you out.”

“You look stressed. Bad news for Emily?”

I shook my head, unwilling to drag my sister further into this web of lies. “No, that was a message from a supplier. Bit frustrated with them at the moment.” Understatement. There were few things I hated more than people deciding things for me. It was bad enough that Mia was having the abortion without discussing the choice in any detail. I’d been present at enough dinner conversations with my family as a kid to know it was her body and her decision. My father had been adamant and vocal about being pro-choice. But to cut me out of supporting her when she clearly needed someone? That wasn’t going to fly.

We walked out together, and Danai kissed me before sliding into her compact car. I climbed into my truck and drummed my fingers on the steering wheel while Danai drove out of the plaza. There was only one person I knew who could help. I hoped I didn’t screw this up.

I opened the glass door to Maggie’s pharmacy. Some days, she had a crowd of people getting prescriptions or asking questions. Thankfully, I’d hit a quiet moment. She grinned from behind the high counter, her long auburn hair tucked behind her ears.

“What’s up, big bro?” Maggie scribbled a note to herself and then stepped down from the high counter where she filled prescriptions to the cash counter closer to the front door.

“Grady’s still in L.A., right?” I grabbed the tin of lollipops Maggie kept for the kids of Little Falls or our nephew, Amir. Ripping the plastic off, I popped one into my cheek and stared at her.

“What’s going on? You only do that when you want a cigarette. And that only happens when you’re stressed.”

“Can Grady get in touch with Mia Malone and find out where she’s staying tonight?” I swirled the lollipop around my mouth. I’d called the local hotels on my way to see Maggie. I’d tried the alias she’d given last time she’d been in town. No luck.

“Mia Malone?” Maggie frowned, her dark-brown eyes full of curiosity. “Why would you want to talk to her? I thought you were dating Danai?”

I controlled my spike of irritation. Wherever Mia was, she wasn’t going to the clinic until tomorrow. There was no reason to get pissed off with Maggie, especially when I needed her help. “You know how this fame thing works, right? Secrets don’t stay secret. Is Grady good at keeping his mouth shut? I know you can keep a secret.”

“He understands how damaging gossip can be to a career, yeah. What’s going on? Is something wrong with Mia?”

I took a deep breath. “She’s pregnant. The baby’s mine. She’s getting an abortion tomorrow. I want to go with her, but she won’t let me.”

All the color drained from Maggie’s face and then rushed back in a blaze of red. “You and Mia Malone? When? Oh, my God. You slept with her? Tyler, she’s really young.”

I held up a hand to stave off her tirade. Thankfully, her shoes were still on her feet, so she didn’t intend to smack me for my behavior. Not that I didn’t deserve it.

“And you didn’t use protection? What if she has some kind of disease? Tyler!”

When she went to open her mouth again, I jumped in. “Cocksure Condoms fucked up. Faulty product. It wasn’t—we weren’t careless. It was the night of the benefit in October.”

“Oh.” Maggie stared at her laced hands, lost in thought for a moment. That night had been a big one for both of us. “A baby. ”

“Yeah.” The word banged around my head, not landing anywhere logical.

“You’re a dad.”

“For the next,” I checked my phone, “fifteen hours or so.”

“Are you okay?”

“The hell if I know.” I pulled the lollipop out of my mouth and stared at it before popping it back into my cheek. A cigarette would be so much better. But I promised Dad a few years ago that I was done smoking. No way I’d break my promise now. “She doesn’t want to keep the baby. I can’t blame her. We don’t know each other. She’s got an incredible career. It doesn’t feel like something I can ask.”

“Do you want to?”

“I don’t know.” I leaned against the counter and gazed out the big pharmacy windows to the street. “I’m thirty-five. I’ve always wanted to be a dad.”

“You’re at an age where having a baby makes sense for you. You’ve got stability, maturity, financial independence. You live in a town where you’d have a good support system.”

“Yeah, if only I could.” I mimed taking a baby from someone. “Here, Mia. Let me carry the baby for you.”

“Sure. Just ask Mia to have the baby and give it to you to raise.” She wagged her finger. “That was a dumb suggestion. Sorry. My brain goes to some weird places sometimes.” From under the counter, she produced her phone.

I turned back to the windows and let Maggie’s words turn in my brain. Even if Mia went for that suggestion, as crazy as it sounded, how would we keep something like a pregnancy a secret? And if we managed that feat, how would we keep a baby secret once he or she was born ?

“Tyler? Did you hear me?” Maggie tapped me on the shoulder.

“Sorry.” I made a whirling motion with my finger on the side of my head as I rotated to face her. “My brain is working overtime trying to sort out my feelings.”

“Grady got her on the phone under some songwriting pretense.” She handed over her phone with a text message on the screen. “Hotel name and alias.”

The hotel was a famous chain down the street from my secondhand shop. I frowned. When I’d called, I’d used the wrong alias. At least she was close.

“Are you going to talk to her?” Maggie plucked her phone from my hand.

“Yeah, at some point tonight. I need to get my head straight first.”

“Whatever you two decide,” Maggie said, “it’s a permanent decision. There’s no going back from it. You’ll be tied together through that child for the rest of your lives.”

I nodded and pushed off the counter to an upright position. Forever . I took the lollipop out and leaned over Maggie’s counter, dropping it into the trash.

“I hear you, Maggie. I hear you.”

I wasn’t sure if Mia would hear me out, but a plan was beginning to take shape.