BLAKEAston was the perfect cure for my terrible mood when I was finally done for the day. After Danny and Dustin left, I had to meet with the key staff members of the New York branch to make plans for their immediate future.I could hardly leave them without a manager after theirs left under a cloud of suspicion. I quickly learned that many of the employees suspected he was up to something, but didn’t know what. It seemed he’d treated them all like shit and I was relatively sure that none of them were in on the theft with him.Nothing we found in his records indicated he was filtering money to anyone else in the branch, and my instincts told me the others were clean, so I focused on the future instead of interrogating the rest of them. We would be keeping a close eye on the branch. If Dustin was in cahoots with someone, I would find out soon enough.Without giving them too much detail, I told the staff Dustin had been fired, and I appointed Grace, his longtime assistant, as the inter
BlakeWild laughter erupted from Dustin’s mouth as he shook his head. “You’re not half the man your brother is. Soon enough, he’ll get what’s rightfully his and so will I. There’s nothing you can do about it, you motherfucking piece of shit. Mark my words, I’ll be back.”“You’re causing a scene, Dustin.” I cast an apologetic look to the people around us, but Dustin didn’t seem to care. He was drunk and deranged, obviously completely out of it.When he got closer to our table, I noticed that his pupils were nothing more than pinpricks and his eyes were bloodshot and watery. “Don’t take another step closer, I’m warning you.”The hostess and the waiters were all frozen in place, hushed like the rest of the patrons watching the scene unfold in front of them. I only hoped their security wasn’t as useless, but there was no one in sight yet.“Or what?” Dustin shouted, spit flying as he jabbed his finger at me and then toward Aston. “You or your little whore over there going to make me?”The
ASTONThe last thing I remembered was some man slinging insults at me while Blake and I were at dinner. Before the pain started, I’d been pretty sure it was Dustin. As I was about to stand up to form a united front with Blake against the drunken thief, an intense pain ripped through my body.I only remembered flashes after that.Blake coming to me in the restaurant. Getting much less jolted than I should have as he ran out with me in his arms. Bright lights as I glided down some kind of hallway.The smell and the shouting told me I was in a hospital as the pain slowly subsided. A round faced doctor with red cheeks and curly gray hair had appeared in the room like magic, only seconds after I was wheeled in.She gently pressed her fingers on my stomach when I told her I was pregnant, got an ultrasound machine wheeled into the room at what seemed to be the speed of light and took some blood before she disappeared.It all happened so fast, I wasn’t even sure it was real. Outside my room,
AstonAfter a couple of minutes, Blake whispered. “Get some sleep, Aston. I’ll be right here. I’ll wake you the minute the doctor comes in. Wild horses and ten packs of rabid wolves couldn’t drag me away.”I trusted him to stay, but I shook my head anyway. “I can’t sleep. Not until the tests come back.”Blake glanced at the ultrasound machine still beside the bed. “Have they used that already?”“They did,” I told him, trying to remember if the doctor had said anything. But she hadn’t. If she did, I couldn’t remember it. “The doctor took all the film with her, and the flash drive that was in it. At least I think so. I can’t remember properly, Blake.”“That’s okay,” he said, soothingly. “Don’t worry, Aston. They didn’t know you were pregnant when we got here, I’m sure they’re just getting someone to take a look.”“I told them I was pregnant,” another tear rolled down my cheek.“So did I,” Blake replied, his tone quiet and even. “I gave them all the details for the doctor in Florida, too
BLAKEWhen I woke up, Aston was still sleeping beside me. She was still a little pale, but there was some color back in her cheeks and in her sleep, she didn’t look as worried anymore. She was peaceful, almost like nothing had happened.I didn’t risk moving a muscle for fear of waking her. The doctor said she needed rest and I wasn’t going to interrupt what she was getting now.When they wheeled her away from me in that hospital, it was the most frightened I’d ever been in my entire life. I nearly lost my mind when they told me I had to wait outside. It took way too long before I finally managed to get to her again.Just thinking about it shook me up. I wasn’t afraid to admit how scared I was. It was right up there in the top two worst moments of my life. Second only to the day I realized Mom was gone for good, that she wasn’t just out shopping and she wasn’t coming back.Even then, I had been so young that it was hard to understand exactly what her leaving meant. The concept of growi
BlakeBreathing the humid air deep into my lungs, I heard horns honking and the sound of construction nearby. It was never truly quiet in New York, no matter how high up you were. Letting the energy flow into me from the city far below, I waited another minute before making the call.Dad answered fast, just like he always did. “Blake. How are you?”“I’m good, Dad. You?” I dragged my hand through my hair and wished I had better news for him.“Recovering,” Dad grunted. “The doctor says I’m doing well, but he won’t keep his damn nurses at the hospital. Says they’ll keep checking up on me for another couple of days at least. It’s driving me nuts.”“They’re only trying to help.” Only Dad would be going stir crazy in a house the size of his with people clamoring to take care of him. “It’ll all be over soon enough.”“Yeah, well that day can’t come soon enough.” His voice was a low grumble, impatient sounding. “Where are you?”“I’m still in New York,” I told him. “I found Danny. Fired Dustin
ASTON“It’s been days, Blake. Days!” I hated the tinge of whine in my voice, but there was no helping it anymore. Since the hospital, Blake and I had been cooped up in the hotel room. For four days, if he could have gone to pee for me he probably would have.It was sweet and all, everything he was doing for me, but I couldn’t take it anymore. The first few times I asked to get out of the room, he found effective ways to distract me.Blake could be very, very distracting when he wanted to be.Only after he called the doctor to make sure it was alright for him to be distracting me like that.It was mortifying that he called Doctor Steele to ask if it would be safe for us to—do stuff, in bed. I wasn’t like Tiffany, talking about sex openly and unashamed. I didn’t have nearly enough experience to be that nonchalant about it.Maybe someday I would be able to call up a doctor as confidently as Blake had, and just come right out with it and ask her if it would be okay to have sex. Worst of a
AstonAs long I got out for a little while, I would be fine. Blake had spent the last few days not only telling me how much he loved and cared about me, but showing me. His reluctance to go on this walk was yet another example of how much he wanted to take care of me, but he needed to trust that I could take care of myself, too.I knew what I needed, wanted and I wouldn’t push myself too far. A short, relaxed stroll was what I needed right now.Out on the curb, Blake looked up and down the street. “Which way do you wanna go?”Narrowing my eyes, I thought about which way we’d gone that night when we ran into Dustin at the restaurant and pointed in the opposite direction. “Let’s go that way.”We started walking hand in hand at a comfortable pace, heading down the sidewalk. Blake didn’t let go of me for a second, as though nothing could happen to us while he was holding my hand. I never took him to be a guy for public displays of affection, but I was enjoying this one.We hadn’t had many