The Sweetest Fling (A Stupid Cupid Book) (19 page)

In that somehow endearing way of hers, Ashley snorted. Loud. Little ice chunks sprayed off her lips. “It’s the only answer. Jace won’t tell Tyler. Trust me. He has this thing where he needs to protect Tyler by always making him the popular twin, the smart twin, or the loved twin.”

“So you want me to give Jace truth serum?”

“Yes,” Ashley said, nodding. “Or ... no. Maybe Claire needs to tell Tyler. Or maybe they should do so together.”

“You want me to give it to both of them? Sorry, Ashley, but absolutely not. I might— and I mean a gigantic might here—be willing to slip a teensy little drop into one drink. But not into two.” There was such a thing as too much truth. She would not risk this match with that much honesty.

Period.

“So, how do we do it?”

Lawrence knocked on the door then peeked around the curtain. “Hey beautiful,” he said.

“Before we do anything, there’s a small matter of getting the stuff.” She’d have to get AJ’s help. Or break into his bedroom.

“Getting what stuff?” Lawrence asked, pulling a chair closer to Ashley’s bed.

“Donuts.”

“Jace already got some.”

“He’s here?” Ashley squeaked, holding her belly.

Millie didn’t need any more cues. She gave Ashley a quick hug, waved at Lawrence, who didn’t like her anyway, and get the heck out of there. On the way down the hall, she waved at Jace, mumbling about not being very good with hospitals. She got in her car. How much time did she have? A fifteen-minute drive over there and back. Enough time to get the stuff and mix it. Time to con one of them into drinking it. What was she going to do—tell AJ to get the serum?

That, apparently, would all depend on whether or not he was home. Because she saw now, Ashley was right.

The truth would definitely set Jace and Claire free.

~~

Chapter Nineteen

Just three hours into Ashley’s hospital admittance, her birth plan—outlined, color-coded, and distributed to all nursing staff—went up in smoke after one contraction. Ashley was contracting five minutes apart, and for each one, she gripped Jace’s hand as though it were an animal that she could strangle the pain out of. Then, once the contraction ebbed, she would sit up and examine the little machine scribbling lines that reminded Jace of a lie detector test.

Over and again.

And again.

“This isn’t even as bad as it gets,” Ashley said, again, shaking her head, again. “It gets worse. I’m only at a four. What happens at a seven? At ten?!”

Jace shut his mouth. He’d learned by his fifth attempt to placate Ashley that all the coaching in the world wouldn’t change the fact that it hurt. Bad. Jace could not even imagine.

They’d tried multiple positions and all the breathing techniques. And each hour crawled by more and more slowly. Each second of pain dragged through the room.

“I’m only four centimeters dilated,” Ashley said, lying back and pinning Lawrence with an accusatory look.

Lawrence apparently learned somewhere between the house and the car that his coaching, breathing, and whatever else his wife had planned out, was simply not going to work. He sat at the foot of the bed, massaging Ashley’s feet. She wriggled them away and shook her head at him.

“If I’m only four centimeters now, that means a centimeter an hour, give or take,” she said to no one in particular, with a doe-like look to her eyes. “That’s six more hours, probably more like ten since this is my first,, and that means ...” Ashley’s chin trembled.

Sheesh, if this rock of a woman lost it right now, he didn’t know what he would do. Ashley was the stern big sister made of more than stern stuff. She was Lawrence’s—sweet, quiet, enigmatic Lawrence—anchor.

If Ashley began crying, hormones raging, fatigue setting in alongside certain disappointment in her birth plan falling apart, Jace might, too. Hell, Lawrence might, too.

Where was Millie? Where was their mom? He glanced at Lawrence for help, feeling a sting in his eyes. Lawrence’s gaze held sheer terror. Great. He was scared. Well,
of course
he was scared. His rock was shattering, his baby was on the way, and no other person was allowed in this room, which felt smaller and hotter with each passing minute.

One tear slipped down Ashley’s cheek as her hand tightened around Jace’s. “Okay,” Jace said. “Here comes another. We’re almost to the peak. Just a little more.” Ouch! “Now it’s peaking, and steady, and,” he said, straining against the pain shooting up his arm. “Now it’s going down.”

Ashley exhaled. Inhaled. Exhaled. The contraction subsided, and the monitor showed a low, even line. “I’m getting an epidural.” Another tear slid down her cheek. “Let mother in here and lose a testical.”

“Okay. Got it.” Jace blinked several times. How much trouble would he get into if he broke his promise and let her give in? Screw it! She could hate him later for not talking her out of it. He couldn’t even remember why she’d picked him to co-coach anyhow. Something about keeping Lawrence from going berserk? Yeah. More like Ashley going berserk.

Slowly, he nodded. “Ashley, you can get an epidural. Whatever way you choose to do this, you can still do it. You can bring your baby into the world.” There. Close enough to the mantra she’d forced on him every day for the last six weeks. His minor tweaking of words seemed to work.

Ashley’s face took on a look of such pure relief that even Lawrence exhaled loudly, scrubbing a hand over his face. He sent Jace a nod of gratitude. “Should I go get a nurse?” he asked.

His deep voice resonated through the room, and Jace realized that they’d all stood silently, waiting for one of them to say the words. “Good God, yes!” Ashley said. The tension surrounding them burst and dissipated.

Lawrence stood. “No, wait. Can you go, Jace? Can you tell everyone it’s going to be a while?”

Within an hour of their arrival, Tyler, Davis, and both parents had taken up most of the waiting room’s space. Crap. Like Ashley needed anything else to go Sybil over.

* * *

Stepping in, he saw them. In the corner, eyes on each other, Tyler leaned in, listening to Claire. His heart lurched. Why was Claire here? Why was she sitting talking with Tyler? Oh God, was she telling him? Was she here to see Tyler? His feet stilled, unwilling to carry him forward to find out. As the door shushed closed behind him, Jace reached out and caught it.

Fear throbbing through his chest, sending hot ripples over his shoulders, he backed out of the room. In the hall, he leaned against the wall, wiping the sudden sheen of sweat from his brow.

A thousand panicked thoughts raced through him. He didn’t know what to think, but what his brain came up with was not good. What he’d said to Tyler before ordering him out, the uncomfortably blank stare he’d had earlier, and Claire’s reaction to Tyler’s discovery about Oliver blended in his mind, twisting and contorting.

In all his heartache, all these years the dormant part of him that feared Claire had actually loved Tyler woke up. Maybe that note had been no more than a means to let him down gently. She’d written of how amazing Jace was, of how lucky whoever captured his heart would be. Claire had written about bad timing. She’d said she wasn’t ready for the kind of relationship that Jace deserved.

Could it be that she just couldn’t face Tyler?

A rational part of Jace recalled the last weeks. It flashed with memories of wet, hot embraces, of moaning and pleasures and torment and bliss. And he calmed down enough to walk carefully back to Ashley’s room, smoothing his features.

Claire wasn’t here for Tyler. What they had was real. It had to be. But, that meant that she might break down and reveal the truth. No. She wouldn’t. Would she? She’d wait. It wasn’t her who should tell Tyler. It had to be him. Jace picked up his pace. He couldn’t think about it now.

He jerked his mind back to Ashley, to the baby, and entered the room just in time to help Ashley brave a very long, thick needle to her spine.

“What took you so long?” Ashley asked, waving her hand out for Jace to take. Lawrence held the other.

Less than ten minutes later, Ashley lay back on her bed, tubes and machines surrounding her, with the most serene smile her face.

Jace sat opposite Lawrence in a chair and rifled through the activity bag Ashley made in case of an emergency—hours alone with any married couple could certainly be deemed dire—like this.

His mind fixated on the scene from the waiting room. Claire’s hand on her chest, the soft shake of her head, and then nodding. Tyler putting his face in his hands, the pleading, hurt look in his eyes. If he didn’t know better, he’d say they were a couple ... breaking up.

“Did you see her?”

Jace’s gaze jerked back into focus and to Ashley. “I’m sorry,” he said, his face burning suddenly.

“Did you see Claire?” Ashley asked, as though it were the most natural thing to do so.

Jace frowned a little, thumbing at the door. “In the waiting room?” How would Ashley know what she’d just seen?

Ashley rolled her eyes and grinned. “No, of course not in the waiting room, unless things went better than I’d hoped, and you brought her or told her to come or something.”

Jace’s eyes narrowed further. He glanced at Lawrence, who only shook his head as though to say “I’m outta this one.”

“I told her where to find you, and assumed she did, or you wouldn’t have been in such a flutter the last twenty-four hours. So, what happened?” Ashley shifted her hands to her lap, looking ready for a good, long story.

Jace’s mouth fell open but words escaped him. No more than a sputter of breath came out. Could Ashley possibly already know about Claire? Impossible. No one knew, well, aside from the stomach-turning possibility that Tyler now did, no one.

Unless, Millie knew. Nah. she and Claire weren’t close anymore. And Millie still had a thing for Jace.

“Aflutter?” he finally said. And as he did, one ran through over his belly. “Men do not flutter, Ash.”

Ashley pressed her lips together and notched her head up and down. “I know far more about you than you will ever possibly guess. Now, spill it.”

Lawrence chuckled, covering his mouth, clearing his throat when Jace glared a warning his way.

“What?” Lawrence said.

“What’s going on here? That’s what!” Jace demanded, wishing his voice didn’t sound so rattled.

“Jace,” Ashley said. “I know.”

Jace gulped down the knot in his throat.

“I know. I’ve always known. So has Lawrence. And when she called Millie three days ago—or was it four?—we were happy to help. But, I’m dying to know what happened, and I’m too drugged to keep my mouth shut. Epidurals should be called something better, don’t you think? Endurables ...”

“Ashley!”

“What? Oh, sorry. Sidetracked. So, back to Claire. Did she find you?”

“Yes, she found me. But Millie? I thought ... nevermind,” Jace said. Did Ashley really want to know the truth? She wasn’t disappointed? Worried? “When you said you know, what exactly does that mean?”

Lawrence shifted in his seat. “Anyone with two eyes could see it, Jace.” He kept his voice soft. “Well, except Tyler. And your mom. And hopefully, your dad.”

“Davis knows?” he said, no longer in doubt.

“He’s first the one who noticed ...”

Ashley interrupted with a loud throat-clearing.

“Alright. Ashley said something first. The two of you on the dance floor at our wedding made it really obvious, but even before then ...”

“You should have seen the way she would watch you come and go from a room. I still say it’s all mom’s fault. It was her brilliant idea to put you on the couch.” Then she inhaled loudly. “Did you two ... you know ... back then?”

Jace frowned. “The couch? Did we what? Do it?” He felt like a teenager getting busted with a half smoked joint. Worse, the anticipated fury and disappointment he’d expected all this time, wasn’t coming. Which made it like getting busted and then being asked to share the joint, as though it were no big deal.

“Millie may have filled in a couple blanks. Look, Jace, it’s not a big deal,” Ashley said, stretching. “You like her, she likes you. We all know. So, spill it.”

“Tyler doesn’t know,” Lawrence said.

“He might, actually,” Jace said, scrubbing his face. “I just saw them in the waiting room. Talking.”

Ashley straightened a little. “Talking how? About what?”

“I don’t know.” Jace paced the room. “I left before they saw me.”

“Was Millie there?”

He stopped long enough to frown at his sister. “Why would Millie be there?”

With a shrug and a wave, Ashley dismissed him. “Lawrence, go find out.”

“Me? No. No way. I’m not the family spy.” Lawrence crossed one leg and settled back, firm.

“Sweetheart, come on. Please?”

“No.” He shook his head in long slow motions and laced his hands over his gut.

“He’s right, Ash. I’m the coward. I should have found out myself. I should go right now.”

“Uh, no. No, you shouldn’t. Don’t go anywhere near Claire. Yet.”

“If Tyler finds out from her instead of me. …”

“What does that matter?” Ashley said, waving her IV wrist through the air. “What matters is Tyler knowing the truth. The whole truth.”

The whole awful, wonderful truth. He hated this feeling. He didn’t know whether to be utterly relieved or scared shitless. Why did it feel like he was about to lose both Tyler and Claire? “I have to go talk to them.”

“Lawrence!” Ashley demanded. “Please!”