Bad Apple (The Uncertain Saints MC #4) (10 page)

So I walked to the dock and down it, stopping when I hit the end.

Sitting down, I picked up the cane fishing pole that was sitting on the dock, then stood back up and walked to the trees to look for a worm.

I hit pay dirt when I found the Catawba Worm Tree.

Picking off a few succulent morsels, I walked back to my spot, hooked a worm onto the line via the tiniest motherfuckin’ hook I’d ever seen, and tossed it out there.

It wasn’t five seconds later that I caught my first fish, a tiny little Sun Perch that was the size of two of my fingers.

After removing him from the hook and tossing him back in the water, I flicked the pole back out and smiled when I felt another tug.

This went on for a good ten minutes before I felt like someone was watching me.

I didn’t turn around.

I knew who it was.

And if he wanted to watch, then more power to him.

I wouldn’t be talking to him.

We stayed like that for a long time. So long that I didn’t even realize how much time had passed before the cool afternoon turned into a chilly night.

“You gonna sit there all day?” Apple asked me.

I nodded, not answering.

“You’re wearing shorts,” he said.

I nodded again.

I sure was.

But that was because today was a nice seventy-five degrees, despite it being in the middle of January.

Something warm wrapped around my shoulders, and I turned to look at Apple.

But he was already walking away, and I could tell he didn’t want me to follow him.

And not having the courage to go after him, I let him leave.

Our visits continued like that.

We’d see each other, exchange a few words, and then go back to acting like neither existed.

I’d just about given up hope that he’d ever felt anything for me at all…especially when his act continued after two months.

But then the beginning of the end happened, leaving both of us reeling.

I’m always disappointed when a liar’s pants don’t actually catch on fire.

-T-shirt

Kitt

Two months later

I woke up on the floor alone in my house.

My school books were scattered around me like I’d tossed them up in the air just to see where they’d land.

And my head hurt.

As well as my shin, jaw, and tongue.

I got up, carefully, and made my way into the bathroom.

Everything hurt.

Even my teeth.

I saw exactly why everything hurt a couple of minutes later when I got a good look at my mouth.

“Ugh,” I said. “This is just great.”

My front tooth was broken off, and the only thing left was about half the tooth.

“Fucking perfect,” I said, drawing a deeper breath and closing my mouth.

Grabbing a four by four gauze pad from the medicine cabinet, I secured it with some medical tape and walked to my phone that was laying on the floor.

The first person I called was the dentist, because priorities, you know?

I followed that one up with two calls to Ridley’s office, receiving a promise from his secretary that she’d tell him as soon as he got through with his ‘very important meeting.’

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed the keys to Ridley’s truck and walked out the door.

The fact that I was driving meant this was pretty dire to me.

I’d gotten used to the fact that I shouldn’t be driving, but there was no way in hell I’d ever get a cab to take me across two county lines to the dentist.

Three hours later, and the fine new owner of a veneer for a front tooth, I made my way outside and up two blocks to the hospital.

No, I wasn’t thinking so clearly.

Had I been, I would’ve gone to the hospital first. Not to mention I wouldn’t have driven at all.

The first person I saw was a man about my age with a beautiful beard in gray scrubs.

“How can I help you?” He asked.

“I think I had a seizure,” I blurted.

His eyebrows rose.

“You think?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Name?” He continued, shrugging it off.

“Kitt Walker,” I said.

“Date of birth?”

The questions continued until he got to my explanation of what happened.

“When did this seizure happen?” He looked at me.

“Ummm,” I hesitated. “About three hours ago I guess?”

“You guess?” He spoke carefully.

I nodded.

“Uh-huh,” he said, turning back to his computer. “If you’ll just go have a seat in the waiting room, I’ll get someone with your shortly.”

I followed his directions and went to the plastic seats, choosing to go to the very end of the hall to where there were the least people coughing and crying.

I’d been sitting for over an hour and a half when I was finally called back.

At the same time my phone buzzed.

I pressed ignore as I walked to the pretty nurse who was holding a chart against her chest.

“Kitt Walker?” She asked.

I nodded.

“Follow me back,” she gestured with a clipboard, leading me not to the ER entrance, but a side door.

“We’re taking you to the minor,” she explained when she saw my questioning look.

I nodded and went along.

“Can you tell me what happened?” She pointed to the bed.

I nodded and held out my hand for her to take my blood pressure, then recounted the last couple of hours. Conveniently leaving out the part about me getting my tooth fixed first.

Priorities. I had them.

“Do you have a history of seizures?” She questioned as she pumped.

“Yes,” I grimaced. “I’ve had partial complex seizures since I was eight years old.”

She blinked.

“What medications do you take?” She continued.

I handed her the list of medications that I took and then said, “If you wouldn’t mind, I need to answer this before my brother sends out a search party.”

She nodded and took the list.

“I’m going to enter this into the computer and come back to draw some blood, okay?”

I nodded and answered.

“Where the hell are you?” Ridley asked with a shout.

“At the ER,” I explained. “I fell and hit my head.”

“It looks like you’ve trashed the living room,” he growled. “And there’s blood on the floor. Do you not think that warrants a telephone call, Kitt?”

I pinched my eyes shut and tried to count backwards from ten, but my brother had a way of getting under my skin.

“I’m sorry,” I said with false sweetness. “Next time I have a problem like this, I’ll be sure to clean up before I head to the hospital. And as a FYI, I did call. Twice. And I texted. Your lovely secretary answered and informed me that you were in on an important meeting.”

“I was eating lunch,” he grumbled. “And I came home to see if I could get you to wash my shirts. Two people spit and pissed on me today. I’ve gone through my two spare sets of clothes, meaning I have nothing to wear for tomorrow. Guess you can’t do that.”

“Guess you’ll have to figure out how to work the washing machine by yourself, big brother. I’m not quite sure how long I’ll be here,” I told him truthfully.

“Shit,” he growled, sounding annoyed. “I’m going to have someone drop me off there and I’ll drive you home, but I need to go to court. Are you sure you’re okay?”

I rolled my eyes.

We’d been there, done that. I knew the protocol. It’d be at least a couple of hours now, anyway. He had most likely until a little after five before I needed to be picked up, and the courthouse closed at four thirty.

“That’s fine,” I said. “I’ll be…”

“Ms. Walker?” A man’s voice cleared from the doorway.

“Gotta go, bro. Love you,” I said quickly, turning my attention to the cute doctor in front of me.

Something about him looked familiar, and I didn’t realize just what it was until he introduced himself.

“I’m Dr. Drew. The nurse said you had a seizure today,” he read from his chart.

Shivers raced down my spine at hearing that voice.

But it wasn’t his voice. It had to be his brother’s.

I studied him as he asked me questions.

Absently, I answered them, giving my full medical history while I studied his face and body.

He looked a lot like Apple.

Eerily so.

Where Apple had blonde hair that leaned toward more strawberry blonde, this man didn’t. There was no questioning that this man was a redhead.

And he had tanned skin, exactly like Apple.

It was weird looking at him. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a redhead with tanned skin before.

“What’s the date of your last…” Dr. Drew continued.

“Are you related to Apple Drew?” I blurted, interrupting his questioning.

His eyes, the same blue as the man I was comparing him to, smiled.

“Yeah,” he said. “Cousin.”

Ahhh, that made sense.

I would’ve thought that they were brothers, but cousins explained the resemblance as well.

“I thought so,” I said. “What was the date of my last what?”

He blinked, surprised at the abrupt switch of topics.

I shouldn’t have bothered asking him.

Apple was still ignoring me, and even now, two months after whatever that’d been in the bar happened, my heart still ached. It was harder than hell to think about, and any time I slipped and thought about all the fun I’d had with him, and then the sudden cold shoulder, my heart raced and an ache formed in my chest.

Meaning, I so did not want to talk to this man about his cousin.

“Last date of your menstrual cycle,” he repeated.

I blinked, confusion furrowing my brows.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I don’t have regular menstrual cycles and never have. But I think the last one I had was right before I started the semester, which would be in January.”

“It’s March. So you’d guess about two months?” He surmised.

I pursed my lips, shrugged, then nodded.

“Yeah,” I said. “That sounds about right.”

“What were you doing when the seizure started?” He studied me.

I winced.

“School work. In particular, I was reading about a case that we’re working on at school tomorrow,” I explained.

He nodded.

“Alright,” he murmured. “I’m going to hook you up to the monitor, and we’ll see how that looks. I doubt that we’ll find anything since you seem to be fine right now. From here, I would suggest you follow up with your regular doctor.”

I nodded, knowing that was going to be the stitch.

“And I’ll get your cut sewn up,” he said, standing up to peel the gauze back that I’d stuck to it earlier. “Looks like it’ll take about two or three stitches.”

“Doctor,” a nurse said from the door. “Here are the labs.”

The doctor held his hand out for them.

“Will you bring me the suture kit so we can sew her up?” He looked at the nurse. “Also, I want to go ahead and get some pain meds for her to take home. Can you go get me…”

He rattled off some letters and numbers, as well as a name that I didn’t quite understand.

But that could be because of the man that arrived at the nurse’s station about five feet from my door.

He leaned over and said something to the nurse, and the nurse pointed towards me.

“But doctor,” the nurse said. “The meds you just prescribed can’t be prescribed to pregnant women.”

Apple, who’d turned and started forward towards me, froze at hearing those words.

His eyes locked on mine, and they practically lit with an inner fire.

My heart, which had already been beating about ninety to nothing at the sight of him, took off like a rocket into outer space.

Jesus.
Christ
.

Fifty awkward minutes later, I was holding my discharge papers and a picture of my unborn child.

An estimated nine-week old fetus.

And Apple was at my side.

He led me to Ridley’s truck, and I didn’t complain when he strapped my seatbelt on for me.

Didn’t say a word until we were pulling up in front of my house.

Shutting the truck’s engine off, he got out and walked to the door.

“Thanks,” I muttered, pushing the door open before he could.

I caught a hold of my purse and slid it over my shoulder, then tried in vain to move around the large man.

“Excuse me,” I said tightly.

“Kitt,” he growled, and just that one word, on his lips, made my control break.

“I never knew…” I said. “I swear I didn’t mean to.”

He caught me up in his arms. “It’s okay.”

“No,” I cried. “It’s not.”

“It’ll be fine. We’ll figure this mess out,” he promised.

I stiffened in his arms, pulling away and swiping at the tears pouring down my cheeks.

“Mess?” I asked carefully.

His eyes studied me just as carefully.

“Kitt,” he said slowly.

I brushed his hand away.

“Me and my mess don’t need you.”

With that I walked inside, completely missing the devastation that broke out over his face.

One day later

I left the doctor absolutely terrified.

I’d first seen my OB/GYN to confirm what I already knew.

I’d next seen my seizure doc, who’d removed me from my medication and put me on a different one.

One that was safer for the baby.

Sweet baby Jesus.

What had I been thinking? I wasn’t a dumbass. I knew how babies were made.

However, I’d been hearing for years that the medication I was on practically rendered me infertile.

And I’d just once wanted to feel normal.

Why was that so fucking hard?

And then
this
happens.

My eyes went down to the paperwork in my hands.

Do not take this medicine if you are considering becoming pregnant.

Cleft lip. Heart problems. Genital malformations. Brain defects.

Jesus Christ, what had I done?

Can you see the ‘fuck you’ in my smile? I put it there just for you.

-Kitt to Apple

Apple

I watched her walk out of the hospital, her fourth visit this month, and wondered if I’d ever work up the courage to talk to her.

The one and only time I’d tried she’d completely shut me down.