NFH 02 Perfection (33 page)

"It really is though," Jason readily
agreed.

"I really don't know how Haley puts up
with you."

Jason sighed heavily as he patted his
own chest, "Adores. Me."

"Uh huh," Trevor agreed absently as he
tried to figure out the best way to grovel to a woman. He'd never
done it before. Usually within the first thirty seconds of a fight
with a woman he'd simply walk away, but there was no walking away
from Zoe.

She was everything to him.

"I'd bring one of the puppies with you
to butter her up," Jason said, standing with Max in his arms.
"Here, take this one."

Trevor took the puppy and started up
the stairs only to pause halfway up. "Where are you
going?"

"To give you some privacy," Jason
said, heading towards the hallway door. "And to rummage through
your kitchen to find something to eat before I pass out. You people
aren't taking very good care of me," he bitched as he left with
Toby hot on his heels. By now the dog knew the signs of a Bradford
on the prowl for food and was making damn sure that he was there to
take care of any crumbs left behind.

Petting Max, he slowly climbed up the
stairs, wondering what the best way to go about groveling. Begging?
On his knees? Promises to buy her the world? Because he'd do all
that and more. He loved her and wanted to take care of her and show
her how good it could be between them.

He paused at her closed door,
wondering if he should knock or state his case behind the
protection of the closed door where his balls would remain safe.
After a slight pause and a silent apology to his balls in advance,
he opened the door, more than ready to take his punishment like a
man and frowned when he didn't encounter any flying books or
yelling.

"Go find mommy," he said, putting the
tiny pup down.

As he followed the puppy as it ran
full speed towards the bathroom he wondered if maybe he should hit
the pound and get another dog for her since she really loved dogs
and he loved the look on her face when was getting puppy kisses.
Maybe he should......

All thoughts of what he should do
raced from his head as he spotted Zoe crumpled on the floor, lying
near a small pool of blood. His heart dropped in his chest as he
raced to her side, somehow remembering to be gentle with Max as he
picked the dog up and moved him to the side. With a shaky hand he
reached out and checked her pulse, praying and promising everything
he had if she was okay.

She had to be okay.

He sighed with relief when he felt her
pulse. "Baby? Zoe? Sweetheart," he said, resisting the urge to
shake her, but barely. From what he could see she'd fallen and he
didn't want to hurt her anymore.

"It's okay, Zoe," he said, wishing
he'd been a fucking man and come after her and begged her to give
him a chance when she ran out of the room instead of acting like an
asshole. This was all his fault, he realized as he went to grab his
phone out of his pocket only to remember that he took it out of his
pocket and placed it on his aunt's kitchen table so that he
wouldn't get it wet while he was doing dishes.

He needed to get her help, but he
didn't want to leave her, he couldn't. For the second time since
Zoe became a part of his life he was happy that he hadn't had the
walls insulated.

"Jason!"

*******

"Sir, you need to calm down," the
triage nurse said, probably for the hundredth time that
hour.

"I'll calm down when you let me in
there to see her," Trevor said, trying to pull out of his uncle and
Jason's grasp as they tried to drag him away from the front
desk.

"If you'd just have a seat, I'm sure
someone will be with you in a moment," she said in that annoyingly
calm tone that made him want to tear the place apart with his
hands.

"That's what you said an hour ago!"
Trevor snapped. "I want to see my girlfriend or at the very least
have someone tell me how she is!" he snapped, fighting to get out
of the restraint so that he could storm through the double gray
doors and find Zoe.

For three of the longest hours of his
life he'd been forced to stay in the emergency room's waiting area
while doctors did god only knows what to Zoe. When his family
wasn't reassuring him that she'd be okay or offering to get him
something to eat they were taking turns trying to restrain
him.

Never in his life had he appreciated
his family more than today. When word got out that Zoe was hurt,
every single one of them came running, except for Haley who'd been
forced to stay away because no one wanted to take the chance of the
babies catching a bug in the waiting room. He hadn't been pacing
the waiting room ten minutes when the first flood of Bradfords came
storming through the doors demanding to know how Zoe was. They
didn't all know her, most of them hadn't met her, but she was
important to him so that made her important to them. Plus it
probably didn't hurt that she'd tipped them all off about the
buffet last weekend.

"Let's go have a seat before she calls
the nice security officers on you again," Jared said as he
half-dragged/half-shoved Trevor back to the waiting room where a
fresh group of Bradford males looked ready to take him to the
ground if he moved so much as an inch out of the room
again.

For a moment he actually considered
going for the doors again just so they'd beat the shit out of him
and give him a bed inside so he could go look for Zoe. Then he
realized he wouldn't do much good for Zoe if they knocked him out
or the nurse had him restrained to a bed since he was acting a bit
insane at the moment.

"We should have lied about her
family," Jason said, rubbing his hands down his face in
frustration. "I should have told them I was her brother so I could
find out what the hell was going on."

"I tried telling them that Zoe was my
daughter, but the ice princess manning the desk wasn't having it,"
Jared said, looking like he'd aged ten years in the past three
hours.

"I honestly don't know how she's
managed," Jason said.

"Managed what?" Trevor said, glaring
at a rather rotund man who stepped in his line of sight. The man
noticeably started when he spotted Trevor and thankfully moved the
hell out of his way so he could keep his eyes on the
door.

"Being alone," Jason said softly. "I
can't imagine how she did it all these years, having no one and
nothing."

"She's not alone," Trevor bit out.
"She has me."

"Until you fuck up again that is,"
Jason mused, looking thoughtful.

"I'm not going to fuck up again," he
said between clench teeth.

His uncles, all six of them, sighed
long and heavy. "Yes, you will," they pretty much said in unison so
he decided to turn his glare on them, but only for a moment. He
needed to keep his eye on the door so he could grab the next person
who walked out wearing a hospital ID.

"You're a Bradford," Jared said with a
careless shrug. "We always fuck up."

"That's not exactly helpful," Trevor
said, quickly losing all those warm fuzzy feelings he'd had about
his family five minutes ago.

"But it's the truth. We all fuck up
when it comes to our women and you will too. The key is to make her
love you more than you piss her off," Jason added. "It's a very
delicate balance."

He shifted in his chair to scowl at
his cousin. "How exactly is that helpful?"

Sighing heavily, Jason threw his arm
over Trevor's shoulders and gave him a hard squeeze. "Don't worry.
Once she gets over her crush on me, I'm sure she'll forgive
you."

"You do realize that Zoe thinks you're
insane, right?" Trevor asked distractedly as he threw another look
at the double doors.

"But the point is that she does think
about me," Jason said and Trevor appreciated the man's efforts to
distract him from his worry. It was sweet really.

"
Shit
," Jason gasped, dropping his arm
from around Trevor's shoulders to grab his side. "Bastard," he
said, sucking in a breath.

Trevor stood up and gave his cousin a
solid clap on the back. "Thanks for trying to cheer me
up."

"Not a problem," Jason said, coughing,
which only made Trevor feel kind of bad for elbowing the man in the
ribs, but he quickly got over it when he saw the double doors open
and a nurse and doctor roll a barely with it Zoe out in a
wheelchair.

The doctor, a tall man who looked to
be in his early forties, spoke with the triage nurse who threw him
a dirty look and gestured their way. Trevor didn't wait for the
doctor to approach. He rushed over to Zoe, barely pausing to shove
a few of his cousins out of his way.

Seconds later he was dropping to his
knees in front of the wheelchair, forcing the nurse to stop. His
stomach clenched into a knot when he spotted the white gauze taped
to her temple. He reached out to smooth the gauze over and offer
her some comfort.

"Baby, I'm so
sorry-
ow
!" He
pulled his hand back, trying to shake off the slight sting. "What
the hell was that for?" he snapped, making her wince and grab her
head and making him feel like an asshole. Of course her head
hurt.

"Don't," she sucked in a breath,
"touch."

"I won't. I'm sorry, sweetheart," he
whispered softly, too afraid to raise his voice and cause her any
pain or discomfort. "Let's get you home where I can take care of
you. Okay?"

Of course the stubborn woman shook her
damn head, well, tried to at least. "Go away, Trevor," she said,
noticeably wincing.

"Shh, baby, try to relax. You don't
have to say anything. I'll take you home and take care of
you."

"I.....don't want......you," she said,
sucking in a breath. "Go...away."

Instead of getting mad, which under
normal circumstances he probably would have done, he leaned over
and pressed a kiss to the back of one of the hands that was holding
her head tightly. If he didn't know that she had a head injury and
was obviously out of it, he might have taken that personally, but
he knew she loved him.

How could she not? He was so damn
giving after all, he thought as he ducked out of the way before her
blind swing could connect with his jaw. He ignored his family's
obvious amusement and decided he'd use her, hopefully, temporary
little disabled state and show her just how giving he really
was.

Chapter
28

"It's over," Zoe said,
again.

"Uh huh," Trevor said, not really
paying attention to her as the stubborn man carefully placed a tray
on her lap. "My aunt dropped some food off last night, but you were
asleep and my uncles and cousins were here to help out and everyone
got hungry," he said with a shrug.

"So they dropped off more food, but
unfortunately you slept all day and I got hungry and you made me
nervous because you slept so damn much," he said accusingly like
she'd fallen asleep the second Jason placed her on Trevor's lap in
the back seat of Jared's car and hadn't woken up until about twenty
minutes ago on purpose.

At first she'd been a little confused
to find herself in Trevor's bed, but the dull pain in her head and
the memory of what happened in the emergency room helped her wake
up pretty damn quickly. Although she had absolutely no idea in hell
what she was going to do, she knew she wanted to figure things out
privately in her own apartment where she could freak out and this
was definitely a moment to freak out.

What the hell was she going to do now?
she wondered, worrying her bottom lip. She was in a nonexistent
relationship, well, was. That was over so she'd probably have to
move out soon and that would take up a chunk of the money she'd
saved. Thank god she hadn't gone through with her vacation plans
because then she'd really be screwed, even more that is.

At least she had a good paying job and
health insurance for a little while longer, but once the babies
came she couldn't really expect Jared to hold her job for her,
especially since she'd probably be out of commission for quite some
time.

Twins.

When she messed up, she
really messed up. Instead of just getting knocked up she
really
got knocked up.
She was either going to end up living in her car, which was barely
running these days or be stuck on welfare and that was a dead end
she refused to go. She wasn't going to end up like her mother and
her kids were not going to end up in foster care because she had no
choice.

No matter what she would not be losing
her babies, she decided as she pressed a hand to her stomach,
whishing she could feel some kind of proof that they were really
there. It would be nice to feel some kind of connection to her
babies so she could draw strength from them to do what she needed
to do. She'd tell Trevor about them, but she wasn't expecting much
from him as far as she was concerned.

Oh, she knew he'd take care of the
babies and they'd never want for anything, but she wasn't so sure
she'd survive being forced to see him every time he came to see the
babies and she knew damn well the man wouldn't be able to stay away
from his children. She would never stop him, but when he started to
date again or god help her, decided to get married it would kill
her.