Conklin's Foundation (Conklin's Trilogy) (27 page)

Buzz…
buzz… buzz…

My phone was vibrating on the nightstand.  Who would be calling me this late on Christmas?  Did everyone seem to forget what day it was?

I reached for the phone and tried to focus on the screen.  I quickly pulled the phone to my ear.

“Hello?” I
rasped, tiredness apparent in my voice.

“Hey, Becca.  It’s Ray.  We are at the hospital.”

What?  Oh, Heather!  The baby!
 

“Is everything okay?  Is she in labor?”

“Yeah, she is fine.  She has been having contractions since we left your parents’ house this afternoon,” Ray said.

Shit.  Of course Heather would go into labor when I was three hours away from home.  I quickly stood up, groggily making my way to the bathroom where my bag was.

“I’m in Chicago with Tyler so I won’t be able to get there for another three hours.  How far along is she?”

“Um, she is at a six.
” Ray said with uncertainty.

“Alright, I’m getting ready to leave now.  Tell her I will be there as soon as I can
.  You’re at Butterworth, right?” I asked, pulling on a pair of jeans.

“
Yeah.  Drive safe, Bec.  Sorry,” he apologized.

“Don’t
apologize; I would have been mad if you didn’t call.  Hang in there.” I smiled and hung up the phone.

I walked back out
from the bedroom, my eyes finding Tyler’s beautiful naked back.  The blanket was pulled up to his hips, his hand sprawled out where I had been laying.

  I came to the side of the bed an
d started to try and wake him.  I needed to leave, with or without him.  I would take his car if he didn’t wake up.  And at this point, I didn’t care if he wanted to come with me or not.

“Tyler, wake up.
”  My voice became louder as I shook his arm.

His head lazily lifted, his eyes slowly blinking open
.  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Heather is in labor.”

“Oh,” he said quietly.  He rubbed his eyes with the hand that was previously on my back.

“I have to go,” I said more sternly
than I meant to.

“Okay, we will go in the morning,” he
reached over to grab my hand.  “Come back to bed.”

“Tyler, she is at a
six.  I have to go now!  You can stay here and sleep if you want,” I grumbled with irritation.

He looked at me in confusion while sitting up.

“Where are your keys?” I asked, standing.

He quickly got on his feet.  “
Let me get dressed then we will go.  I don’t want you to drive back to Grand Rapids in the middle of the night alone.”

He got up and walked over to his dresser. 
I wanted to slap my eyes for watching him.  He had on his famous Under Armour boxers, navy in color, that showed off his defined backside.

“Okay, but we need to leave in less than five
minutes.  Heather is probably clawing Ray’s eyes out.”

He pulled on a
t-shirt and walked to his closet to find a pair of jeans.  “I will be ready in three,” he said as he tugged on his jeans then walked into the bathroom.

I rolled my eyes and followed him, reaching for my bag to get a shirt.  He was brushing his teeth and caught my eye in the mirror.  I looked away as I pulled out a shirt from my bag.  I couldn’t look at him right now.  I was too scared to
see what his eyes held.  Too afraid they would be shouting,
hey, I just screwed someone else, sorry!

I walked back into the bedroom to change my shirt and put on my bra.  I didn’t feel comfortable
changing in front of him after seeing Margo.

Uh, why did that woman have to show up on his doorstep?  We probably
would have been on round three when Ray called if she didn’t show up, and I wouldn’t be self-conscious to change my shirt in front of him.

He walked out of the bathroom and put his hand on my back just after I pulled
on my shirt.

“Ready?” he asked quietly. 

I nodded my head without looking at him then walked out the door.

“You fell asleep on me last night,” he said quietly as we walked off the elevator.

I didn’t say anything back to him.  Was he really going to open with that?  Him disappearing for 20 minutes with that woman without telling me deserved more of a conversation starter
than blaming me for falling asleep.

He reached for my door handle and opened it for me.  I slid in
to the Lexus, my eyes facing forward the entire time.  He hesitantly closed my door then proceeded to his side.

I pulled on my seat belt and stared out the window as Tyler started the car, pulling out of the ramp.

Tyler didn’t say anything until we got onto I-90.  “Sorry about last night,” Tyler mumbled. 

I held my gaze out the window.
  I was uncomfortable and crawling into the shell I made when I didn’t want to deal with my emotions. 

“
Are we going to talk about this?” he asked nervously.

“Shouldn’t you be the one
to start talking?  Your ex-whatever came knocking on your door on Christmas night all done up and in a tight dress, and you disappear with her for 20 minutes,” I bit, still staring out the window.

“I wasn’t with her for that long.  Some stupid teenagers hit all of the buttons on the elevator so we stopped at every damn floor.  Then the little bastards did it again on my way back up,” he said with irritation.

I didn’t say anything but hugged my chest and crossed my legs, getting as close to the passenger door as possible.  I wasn’t in the mood to have him try and touch me.  I still felt awkward and hurt.

“I would have told you if I knew it
were going to take that long.  I didn’t have my phone on me or I would have called.  I’m sorry,” he apologized.

“Where did you go with her?”
I asked quietly.

“Do you even know who ‘her’ is?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

I stared out the window. “I took a wild guess when I saw how old she was.”

I could almost hear Tyler chewing on his lip nervously.

“Where did you go with her?” I asked again with a little more force.

“
I went down to the lobby.  I told the lobbyist that she didn’t have access to come up to my floor anymore and that from now on has to be buzzed in by only me if she wants to come to my condo door.”

Did I believe him?  His story made sense, but what was all the thudding noises?

Ask him.

No.  I was too afraid of what the answer might be.  If he got caught in the moment, I didn’t want to know.  I didn’t want to lose my faith in him.
  I wanted to believe he wouldn’t do that to me.  I didn’t want to believe that he would break when she cracked her whip.

“Becca, you believe me, right?”
he asked, his voice cracking.

My phone rang again before I could answer his question.  I was thankful because I didn’t know whether I
could tell him I believed him while making it seem genuine.

“Hello?”

“Becca, are you almost here?” Heather whined into the phone.

“Heather, we are still two and a half hours away,” I said, straightening up in my seat.

She groaned again.  “Becca, I forgot how bad it hurts.  But I don’t want them to put those drugs in me.  I don’t want them to drug my baby….oh!”

I heard deep breaths and Ray
’s soft voice.  She must have been having a contraction.

“
Just breathe, Heather.  You did it with Josie, remember?  You can do it again,” I encouraged.  Finally a minute passed, and I heard Heather take a long, deep breath.

“Becca, I need you on my othe
r leg.  I can’t put up with mom. She stresses out the entire situation,” she pleaded.

“Heather, I will be there as soon as I can.  You will be fine.  Ray is with you, right?”

“Yeah,” she half cried “I’m sorry, baby…it just hurts…” I heard her muffled words to Ray.  It put a smile on my face.

“It will be okay.  I will get there.  Just d
on’t get to 10 before I’m there.”

“I’m at a seven
now, Becca!” she shouted.

“What?  You were just at a
six?  That wasn’t even a half hour ago!” I said, trying not to sound worried I wouldn’t make it in time.

“It’s not like I can control it!” she whined.

“I’m going as fast as I can, just hang in there.  You have Ray if I can’t make it.  Everything will be fine,” I soothed.  “Try to relax.  Have Ray give you a back rub, you know he will.”

“Okay,” she sniffed.

I let out a loud sigh as I hung up the phone.  Tyler glanced at me nervously.

A
rush of emotion ran through me.  How could I have gone away so far when my sister was so pregnant?  I had to jump on a red eye from Florida to be there for Josie’s birth.  I almost missed a final because of it.  Heather always wanted me because I was calm.  Because I could diffuse the crazy stress my family brought on, including my mother.  Heather and my mother’s personalities were too much alike.  My mother would say something stupid and Heather would snap at her while poor Ray would be stuck in the middle.

“Everything okay?” Tyler timidly asked.

“I don’t know if I’m going to make it in time,” I choked.

Tyler put his hand on
my knee and I flinched.  Why did his touch feel like a cigarette burn?  Even though I jumped when his hand found my knee, he kept it there.  His thumb slowly stroking the jean fabric helped to shed my uneasiness to his touch.

“We will get there in time.  Don’t worry,” he said
earnestly.

I lean
ed my head against the glass.  I was finally feeling some comfort from Tyler’s touch.  He moved his hand from my knee to my thigh, squeezing and massaging.

“Why don’t you sleep?” he
suggested.

I shook my head.  “I already made you wake up and drive me back to Grand Rapids at 2:00am, the least I can do is stay up with you,”
I replied, even though I was terrified to talk to him about last night.

“Then
talk to me,” he gulped.  “Tell me that you believe nothing happened between Margo and me last night.”

His grip on my thigh tightened as he glanced back and forth between me and the road.

I swallowed hard.  “I believe you,” I whispered.

“That wasn’t very convincing,” Tyler said, reaching for my hand and tugging it into his lap.
  “I love you, Becca.  I will never touch another woman the way I touch you.” He brought my hand to his lips, kissing each knuckle then held the back of my hand to his cheek.

I moved my hand from his grasp so I could caress his cheek.  I wanted to believe him, I really did.  But
the constant
thud
kept replaying in my mind, haunting my thoughts and telling me to rebuild the walls around my heart.

Chapter 15

Tyler picked up the speed after the third time Heather had called me.  She was dilated to an eight by the time we reached Grand Rapids.  I know she wasn’t moving as fast as she would have liked, but I was able to make it in time.

“She is at an eight,” I told Tyler after I hung up my phone.

He pulled into the hospital parking ramp.  Once the car was parked he turned to look at me.  “It really bothers me that I am a numbers person, and I have no
idea what you are talking about,” he said as he frowned.

I let out a small lau
gh.  “Sorry, I have been referring to her dilating.  You know, once you’re at ten is when you start pushing.”

Tyler wrinkled his nose as he stepped out of the car.  He took my hand as we walked to the elevator in the parking ramp. 
I was anxious to help my sister and preparing for the stressed and worried state my mother would be in.

Tyler squeezed my hand as he looked around the elevator.  His eyes were very tired.

“Tyler, you can go home and sleep for a little while if you want.  Even though Heather loves you, she will make you stay in the waiting room with my mother.  I would feel horrible for leaving you with her for who knows how long.”

Tyler shrugged his shoulders.  “I don’t mind.  Your mother doesn’t intimidate me.  I can close my eyes in the waiting room.”

I smiled to myself.  He would close his eyes, but my mother would worry his ear off so much that he wouldn’t be able to actually fall asleep.  Hopefully my father was still in town and able to sit with my mother along with Tyler once Heather booted her out of her room when I get there.

We asked a nurse
where Heather’s room was and trudged our way through the hospital.  Once we got to Heather’s room, I stopped outside and looked up at Tyler.

“Really, Tyler, you can go home.  You don’t have to deal with my crazy family at nearly 5:00am when you have hardly slept,” I said looking at his strong chest.  His Northface jacket was zipped up to his chin still from the chilly air outside.

“Becs, it’s fine.  I want to be here.  I will go find the waiting room, okay?  Come get me when you know more,” he said smoothly, holding both of my hands. 

We still felt awkward;
the visit from Margo loomed over us.

I nodded my head as I peeked up at him.  He leaned down and kissed my cheek as we heard a loud groan come from the room.

“That’s my cue,” Tyler said uncomfortably as he backed away from me.  He gave me his heart-stopping smile before he turned around to find the waiting room.  I shamelessly stared at his delectable behind in his lightly faded Diesel jeans.  Wow, was he fun to look at.  I heard another groan and turned to enter Heather’s room.

“Mom, I told you
I don’t want the drugs!” Heather whined.  Ray was sitting on the couch with his hand on his head, looking back and forth between my sister and mother with a nervous expression.

“Heather, it will calm you down.  Do you know how many babies are born with that medicine?  It will be fine!”

“NO IT WON’T MOTHER!” Heather shouted.

“Hey, what are you at?” I asked calmly, walking in
between my mother and Heather.

“Thank God you are here, Becca,” Heather nearly
wept.

My mother rolled her eyes.  “I’m trying to talk your sister into getting the
epidural.  She would be a lot more pleasant and a lot more comfortable if she would just give in and get one.”

“Mom, why don’t you go get her some ice chips,” I s
uggested, sitting down next to Heather.

“Good idea.
Your father is wandering around the cafeteria waiting for it to open.  Ray, do you need anything?” she asked sweetly.

“No, I’m okay
. Thanks though, Missy,” Ray said, moving over to the other side of Heather.

“Where is Tyler?”
my mother asked, stopping in the doorway with a puzzled look.

“He went to
find the waiting room,” I said, examining all of the IV’s and medical equipment Heather was attached to.

“I will go find him and see if he wants to join us.  I will be
right back, Heather.”

Heather closed her eyes and leaned her head towards
Ray, her face turning back into a wince.  I looked up at one of the machines and noticed she was having another contraction.  It still amazed me everything the doctors could track with their fancy gadgets.

“Our baby will be
here soon, sweetie.  Hang in there,” Ray hushed, massaging her head.  Heather just grunted and kept her eyes shut.

“How was meeting Tyler’s mom?” Heather asked as she came out of her contraction,
taking a deep breath.

“It was fine.  You were right, she is pretty eccentric, but I liked her.”

I told Heather all about the evening in between her contractions.  I told her about Tyler lying about what everyone would be wearing and the dress fiasco, and Mitch walking in on us making out and feeling each other up on his bed, and even Mary’s inappropriate La Perla gift card. 

“Hah!  That’s hilarious!  Although, a nice matching lingerie set would look good with that $80,000 necklace,” she teased.

I blushed while reaching for my neck, forgetting I had left it on.

“A
gift from Tyler?  Along with the earrings and bracelet?  Don’t think I didn’t notice your $150,000 of Cartier jewelry.”  She smiled.  “One hell of a Christmas present.  Did it come with a ring too?”

“Heather!”

She laughed and smiled, causing Ray to smile as well.

“Oh, Becca!  I’m just kidding!  I like how happy he makes you
though,” she smiled, reaching for my hand.  “I’m glad everything worked out between you two.  Just make sure you give me time to lose my baby weight before the wedding, okay?”