Chapter 27
Garrett
I text Rory when I get to the hospital, but she doesn’t reply immediately, so I pay for parking and head inside.
I run into Owen’s wife, Kerry, at the elevators.
“Garrett!” She gives me a hug. “Nice to see you twice in one day. I just left Dani. She’s in good hands with Rory and Aiden.”
“Aiden?”
“Aiden Schmidt. Head of obstetrics here. Happened to be on call today.”
I nod, but a weird tension coils at the base of my neck. “Are they still busy with Dani?”
“I don’t think so. You can head up and collect your girl.” She waves good night as she heads for the door. “See you tomorrow!”
Right. Cousin lunch at the diner.
The elevator doors are slow to close, and the button takes forever to light up even after I press it twice.
Time silently ticks by in pulse-thudding seconds. The car creaks to life and starts to rise.
Rory and Aiden.
It’s completely irrational, I know that, but even before the elevator doors open, I know I’m going to be jealous of this guy who Rory chose to spend Christmas Day with, because she’s so fucking desperate to prove that she doesn’t hate her job.
Why the fuck did I say that to her?
With everything else that’s happened today, I’d shoved the mental replay of our fight this morning to the back of my mind, but it all comes raging back when I turn the corner and see Rory with her elbows on the nurse’s station outside Dani’s room, a tall silver-haired man in scrubs and a white lab coat leaning over her.
Both of them laughing.
I don’t hate my job. You shouldn’t have said that.
No fucking shit. I sent her running right back to it.
And as I stride toward them, it gets even worse.
“Why, are you going to offer me a job?” she teases.
He grins. “Is that an option?”
She shakes her head. “No.” Then she catches sight of me, and her eyes go wide. “Garrett, hi.”
The doc holds out his hand and gives me an easy smile. “Aiden Schmidt.”
Don’t crush his hand in your fist, I think as I shake his hand. I manage to stay civilized. “Garrett Kincaid.”
“Ah, yes. A Kincaid, of course. Nice to meet you.” Then he taps the counter right next to Rory’s elbow. “See you tomorrow. I’m assuming you’ll barge in on rounds, too?”
“For sure. I want to hear how that breech delivery goes.” Her eyes are fucking twinkling as she waves goodbye, then turns to me. “Dani’s asleep, if you were hoping to see her.”
I shake my head. I only wanted to see you, I could say. It would be the fucking truth. But I don’t make her eyes light up the way work does, so I keep that to myself. “It’s fine. Your mom’s got Christmas dinner in a holding pattern back at the farm.”
Her face pinches tight, all the joy disappearing in an instant.
“I, um, talked to them. About this morning. We cleared the air on it being awkward, so nobody’s going to bother you about it when we get there.”
She snorts. “Sure.”
“No, for real.” I hunch my shoulders up and shove my hands in my pockets to keep from grabbing her. “I know you don’t want to come home tonight. Or at least, I know it’s complicated. Everyone is hard on you, and nobody listens. Including me.”
“Not including you.” She lifts her hand, then tentatively reaches for me, sliding her fingers into the open gap of my unzipped coat. “You see me, and hear me, even when I don’t hear myself.”
The relief I feel when she closes her hand around the front of my shirt is enough to bring me to my knees.
“I don’t know about that,” I manage to say. “I saw how happy you were when I stepped off that elevator.”
A flare of surprise flashes across her face, followed immediately by her brows pulling in. “What did you see?”
I glance around. We’re all alone. But this is hardly private.
“It’s okay,” she whispers. “I want to know how you see me.”
“You were relaxed, and joking.” I swallow hard. “And I had a beat of irrational jealousy. I love hearing you laugh, do you know that?”
She tips her head to the side, her gaze fixed on my face. “You make me laugh.”
“I haven’t for a long time. I mostly just make you mad.”
She huffs a little chuckle under her breath. Not the kind of laugh I meant, but I’ll take it. “Yeah, well, that might be true sometimes, but it’s not true all the time. And there’s zero need for you to be jealous.”
Pushing up on her toes, her hand tightens in my shirt, and she tugs me down towards her.
“I’m sorry about fighting this morning,” she whispers before she brushes her lips against mine.
Her kiss is soft and sweet and chaste, but it’s enough to make my head spin. I groan her name against her lips, then finally give in to my desperate desire to put my arms around her.
“I hate fighting,” I whisper against her hair. “And I’m sorry for the boneheaded present.”
She takes a deep breath, then lets it out. “I told Dani about it. She called me a prude.”
“You’re not a prude.” I laugh softly. “You’re a little she-devil when you want to be. And I—” I love you for it.
But I cut myself off.
“Come on, let me take you home. I have something really wild to tell you.”
She tucks in under my arm. “Kerry said there was something, but she refused to spill the details.”
That puts the A Kincaid, of course into some context, I suppose. “So I went to Owen’s place this afternoon, and this big, brawny cowboy answered the door. Introduces himself as Zane. Zane Kincaid. It turns out, we have a whole branch of the family out west.”
“What?” She stops and stares at me. “How?”
“It’s a really long story, and he says a lot of it isn’t his to share, not yet. But my dad’s sister is alive and well, and has four grown boys.”
“And they all have her name?”
“Now they do, yeah. They grew up with a different name, but their father was an abusive piece of shit, and as adults, they all took her name.”
“Oh my God.” She throws her arms around me and gives me a tight squeeze. “That must have been so intense to learn.”
“Rocked my world, that’s for sure.”
She guides me into a nook halfway down the hall and gently presses me against the wall. “Was it just him?”
I sag back, nodding. “He’s taken the lead. He found Owen, and they connected a month ago. He flew out to surprise everyone today, and we’re going to organize a trip out West to meet our aunt at some point soon.”
“Wow.” She searches my face. “How do you feel?”
“Overwhelmed.”
“Of course.”
“It, um…” I swallow around an unexpected lump in my throat.
“Yeah.” She steps in close and leans against me, giving me her warm little weight.
I close my eyes and lower my head to rest my cheek on the top of hers.
“I wish my dad was still alive,” I manage to get out.
“Me, too,” she whispers back.
“This morning feels like so long ago.”
She exhales slowly. “It really does.”
“I need to tell you something.” I wrap my arms around her in case she wants to bolt. I’m not letting her do that. “I told your dad that we’ve been struggling since the spring. I needed him to know that when he told you that you might lose me, that was pushing on a bruise.”
“Oh.”
“I told him in private. And it’s a variation on the truth, in a way.”
“I told Dani the whole truth.”
I shift so I can see her face. “You did?”
She nods, her eyes darting as she searches for my reaction.
Both of us uncertain. But oddly on the same page. It’s a good feeling.
“That’s good.” I take a deep breath. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to.”
“You tried to tell me that it would be okay.”
“You were scared. I get it.”
“I’ll tell my family, too. As soon as we get back.”
That makes me laugh.
“What?”
“I just yelled at them all to not let anything touch the sacredness of Christmas Dinner for you, and you’re going to race in like a wrecking ball.
” I catch her chin and stop her from protesting.
“A beautiful, perfect wrecking ball. Let’s go tell them that we broke up.
But we’re also going to tell them that we’re working out our differences and they shouldn’t be surprised if they find us sleeping on the same couch tomorrow morning. ”
Her eyebrows lift, and her cheeks pink with pleasure. “Are we working out our differences? I thought you ordered me a detachable version of your cock because we needed a clean break?”
I groan. “I was too hasty in thinking that.”
“We can’t continue like we were.”
“We won’t.” I kiss the tip of her nose, then lift her face another inch so I can cover her lips with mine.
“We’re going to keep talking. And we aren’t going to stop until we get it right this time.
So you can tell them when we get back to the farm, or later, if you want.
It’s Christmas, Rory. All I want for the last few hours of the holiday is for you to be genuinely happy. ”