Melt Into You (19 page)

Andre gave a weary sigh and crooked a thumb in the direction of the dining area. “That’s the third phone call you’ve gotten in ten minutes. You may want to get it.”

Jace stalked across the room, his mind still spinning from the argument, and grabbed the phone. “Hello.”

“Finally! Where the hell are you?” his sister demanded. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you all morning.”

“I’m out of town . . . at a client’s. What’s wrong?”

“Mom’s in the hospital. They think she had a heart attack.”

“Oh, God.” All the air whooshed from Jace, and his grip tightened on the phone.

“She’s okay,” she added quickly. “They’ve stabilized her, but they’re doing a lot of tests to see what the problem is. She may need surgery.”

He headed toward his bedroom. “Which hospital?”

“The Baylor in Southlake.”

“I’m about an hour outside of the city. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Thanks,” she said, relief in her voice. “And fair warning, Dad’s on a rampage about everything—the ambulance response time, the nurse, you name it. He even snapped at
Wyatt
.”

“Jesus, the apocalypse must be near.” Jace couldn’t even recall his dad throwing a firm word in his oldest brother’s direction. Wyatt, with his genius IQ and oh-so-responsible nature, had never been able to do any wrong in his father’s eyes. Jace had been half-convinced his brother had come out of the womb a grownup. “Tell Mom I’m thinking of her and will be there in a little while.”

Jace exchanged good-byes with his sister, tossed the phone on the bed, and grabbed his bag off the floor to start packing his clothes.

“What’s going on?” Andre asked from the doorway.

“I’ve got to head back.” Jace explained the situation as quickly as he could while gathering his things and stuffing him into his duffel bag. “Can you tell Evan what’s going on? I hate running out like this.”

“I’m sure she’ll understand.”

Jace sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was leave Evan behind after all that had happened in the last day and a half, but he had to see for himself that his mom was okay. At least he knew Andre would take good care of Evan for the rest of the weekend. “If Evan agrees to the deal, tell her that I want her back here next weekend. No excuses. She has two months before she gets married. I plan to help her make the most of it.”

Andre smirked. “And I plan to show her why she shouldn’t walk away.”

Jace slung his bag over his shoulder and pushed past Andre to go back into the living room. “We’re not that good, Andre. Don’t make this into something it can never be.”

Something Jace could never be.

Good enough for Evan.

EIGHTEEN

Jace climbed out of his Dodge Viper, the only luxury item
he hadn’t been able to part with when he gave up his financial gig, and checked his watch. He’d made it to the hospital in half the time it would’ve taken a normal person to complete the trip. Sometimes a fast car and a roommate who could get you out of speeding tickets came in handy.

He hurried up to the floor his older sister, Leila, had told him their mom was on and found her and Wyatt talking quietly in the waiting area. Leila stood when she saw Jace approaching, pushing her hair behind her ears—something she did nonstop when she was stressed. She gave him a tight hug when he reached her. “I don’t even want to know how fast you drove to get here.”

“Don’t ask,” he mumbled.

She huffed as she pulled back from the embrace. “Thank God you finally answered your phone. You had me freaking out this morning that something had happened to you, too. Where the hell were you?”

“I had some business outside of town.”

Wyatt sniffed. “Yeah, right. Was the business blonde or brunette this week? Or maybe both?”

“Fuck off, Wy,” Jace said, shooting his brother an annoyed glance. “Not all of us want to spend our time jerking off to Excel spreadsheets.”

Leila raised a palm to each of them. “Can it, boys. This is not the time. Here comes Dad.”

Jace glanced over his shoulder to find his father stalking toward them. How the man managed to be in a full suit even though it was a weekend and his mother had supposedly been rushed to the ER in the wee hours of the morning was a wonder. Perhaps he’d taken to sleeping in them.

Jace knew the second his father registered his presence because his lip curled in that derisive way that seemed especially reserved for his youngest son. “Well, look who decided to show up.”

Jace ignored the remark, as he did most of the things his father said to him.

Wyatt rose from his chair when their father stopped in front of them. “How’s Mom?”

“She’s tired. Said they’ve poked and prodded her so much she feels like a head of cattle. They haven’t determined what the exact problem is yet, but I’m not sure if that doctor would know an ass from an elbow. I’ve requested a specialist.”

Leila sighed. “Daddy, that doctor was the specialist. One of the top in the field from what the nurse said.”

“Yeah, I wonder how much he paid her to say that,” his father muttered.

“Can I see mom?” Jace asked.

“Oh, so now you’re concerned?” his dad asked. “Seems she ranks pretty low on your list since you couldn’t even bother to get here until lunchtime. Wyatt’s been here since five and even Leila got here by seven and she had to drop the kids off at a babysitter.”

Jace clenched his teeth. “I got here as soon as I found out.”

Leila touched Jace’s arm. “She’s in room three thirty-three.”

Jace stepped around his father, trying to keep his smartass gene in check, and headed toward his mother’s room. He was here for her. Not to spar with his dad.

When he tapped on the door and peeked into the room, he was met with a view of his mother linked up to a tangle of beeping machines. Her skin was paler than he’d ever seen it and her light hair, always perfectly coiffed, was sticking up on end. The whole scene made his chest hurt. She looked like she’d aged ten years since he’d seen her.

Reid had told him how rundown his mom was looking, but Jace still hadn’t rushed over there to see her. He’d been a damn coward. Thank God she was okay. If she had . . .

His mom cracked open her eyes, cutting short his runaway thoughts, and gave him a soft smile when she saw him standing there. “Jason.”

“Hey, Mom.” His mother had always called him by his given name, insisting that she hadn’t gone through the trouble of picking out a name, only for it to be shortened.

“Your father told me you weren’t coming.”

He rolled his eyes. “Like I would miss the chance to drink free coffee and stare at hot nurses.”

She gave a little laugh. “Thank you.”

“For what?” He sat down next to her and captured her small hand in his.

“For not coming in here with the doom and gloom face. Your brother and sister are looking at me like I’m going to be playing cards with St. Peter next week. And don’t even get me started on how your father is acting.”

He gave her hand a squeeze. “They just don’t realize how tough you are. I know you’re not going anywhere. Anyone who can live with Dad this long can handle way worse than some lame heart attack.”

“You realize I’m never going to be allowed back in this hospital after your father is finished with them, right?”

“Guess that means you better stay healthy from now on, then.”

“Ugh, I’ll probably have to give up bacon. Not sure if that’s a life worth living.” She adjusted herself to sit up a bit more. “But enough about all this. I’m tired of talking about it. Tell me what’s going on with you. You haven’t been by in a long time.”

He frowned, guilt tugging at him. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been busy with the store. I landed a big contract and have been working on that.”

“Oh? Is that what’s got that light back in your eyes?” She nodded in his direction. “You look happier than you have in a while.”

He shrugged. “I guess so. It could mean a lot of money for the store.”

“Hmm.”
Her eyes narrowed, giving him that look that mothers had the patent on. “If money made you that happy, you never would’ve left your father’s business. What aren’t you telling me?”

He sighed, not sure if he should bring up Evan when his mom was in a fragile state. It was good news but he didn’t want it to stir up any of the negative memories of when Evan left.

“Spill it, Jason.”

He leaned back in his chair. “You missed your calling as a police interrogator.”

Her perfectly manicured brow arched.

“I saw Evangeline.”

He didn’t think it was possible for his mom to pale any further, but she did. She pulled her hand from his and brought it to her chest. “You found her? Is she—”

“She’s great, Mom. Beautiful, successful, engaged.” He almost choked on that last descriptor, but managed to get it out. “You wouldn’t even recognize her. I didn’t at first.”

She blinked hard, tears lining her bottom lids. Her voice was barely a whisper. “Thank you, Lord. I thought—”

“I know. Me, too.” He grabbed one of the paper cups from the side table and poured her a glass of water, worried that he’d stressed her too much with the news. “Here.”

She took the cup from him, her hand shaking a bit, and sipped. “How did you find her?”

Jace explained how he’d stumbled upon Evan in South Padre, but his mom seemed to only be listening with half an ear. He finished the story, and the room filled with the quiet beeping of the machines. He shifted in his chair and cleared his throat. “Maybe after you’re back on your feet I can bring her by so you can see how well she’s doing for yourself.”

She stared down at her water for a while longer, then finally spoke. “I doubt she’d want to see me.”

He frowned and leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his knees. “Why not? You two always got along.”

His mom looked toward the room’s only window, her whole body seeming to sag deeper into the sheets. “Because she has no reason to want to see me. I was just another person who failed her in her life. I knew how much support she needed when we signed up to have her in our home. But when she wouldn’t open up around me, I felt useless and fell back to working my crazy hours. I gave up.”

“She wasn’t exactly an easy shell to crack.”

“You managed to get by her defenses.” A humorless smile touched her lips. “That was always your gift. Wyatt the brilliant mind, Leila my artist, and you the big heart. You have a way of caring for people that makes it impossible for them to not let you in and love you.”

He smirked. “I think I got the short end of the gene pool on that one, Ma. And that superpower definitely didn’t work on Diana.”

She turned to him, her lips pressed into a thin line. “Don’t say that. Diana was a spoiled waste of space. And you think your brother or sister wouldn’t kill to have a little bit of your charisma? You have friends like Reid and Andre who would literally take a bullet for you. You have every woman you meet wanting to be part of your orbit. People are drawn to your kind spirit.”

Jace almost said that the woman thing wasn’t because of his spirit, but remembered he was talking to his mother. “I think they may have doped you up a bit too much there, Ma. You’re getting sappy on me.”

“All I’m saying is that when none of us could get through to Evangeline, you got her to let her guard down, to smile. I thought it was a good thing for both of you. You were showing your father and I you were capable of being responsible, and Evangeline had someone to relate to.” She shook her head and looked down at her hands. “But as time went on, I knew I’d made a mistake. I saw how you two began to look at each other. I sensed the shift, and I didn’t do anything about it.”

He sighed. “Mom, stop. What happened wasn’t your fault. I was old enough to know better. I should’ve had the strength to stay away.”

His mom didn’t say anything for a few seconds and when she lifted her head to face him again, her eyes were full of regret. “You were all she had holding herself together. When we kicked you out that night, the glimmer of light behind her eyes went out. She begged your father to let you stay, that she could go live somewhere else for a while. But your father told her she shouldn’t waste time being a martyr for you, that you’d have another girl in your bed by the next night, that she didn’t mean anything to you.”

Jace sucked in a breath.
“What?”

She swiped at the moisture on her cheek. “I should’ve stepped in and stopped him. Or at least stayed up with her that night and talked to her more. You’d made a huge mistake, but I knew you honestly cared for her.”

Jace put his head in his hands, his heart breaking for Evan all over again. He’d tried to sneak back into her room that night, apologize for the things he’d said, but she’d refused to open the window for him. Now he knew why.

“In the morning, there was a note tucked into my coffee mug. She told me she was sorry and for me not to be angry with you. She said she’d loved you and had wanted it to happen, but realized afterward that she’d made a mistake. She pleaded for me not to let your father kick you out for good—that you didn’t deserve to lose your family, not over someone worthless like her.”

His gut twisted. All those things he’d said to her that night and she’d still defended him. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about the note?”

She took a deep breath, and set the cup down, the beeping on her heart monitor ticking up a bit. “Because it was a suicide note, honey.”

Jace’s breakfast threatened to come up. He gripped the arms of his chair.

“I didn’t tell you because I couldn’t let you bear that on your conscience if she had gone through with it.” She shook her head. “You made a bad decision, but Evangeline was a fragile soul. That night was simply the tipping point. We all could’ve handled things differently.”

“So all this time, you thought she was . . .”

“Yes. And I’ve never forgiven myself for what happened. It was my negligence that started that ball rolling.”

Yeah, maybe she had gotten the ball rolling but his stupidity and his father’s hateful words had dropkicked that ball over the edge. His jaw clenched, imagining how Evan must’ve felt when his dad had told those lies about him. “She ran away thinking I’d used her. That everything between us had been a lie.”

“Well, hadn’t it been?” said a voice from the doorway.

Jace jerked his attention to the door to find his dad leaning against the jamb, newspaper tucked under his arm. Apparently he’d been standing there long enough to follow the conversation.

“Don’t think I didn’t know what you were doing back then—the kind of crowd you were hanging out with, the types of parties you were going to,” he said, stepping inside the room. “You were cycling through women like a chain smoker goes through Marlboros. Evangeline wasn’t anything to you except another conquest. She was just so desperate for someone in her life to love her that she read what she wanted to in the situation. I was the only one who had the guts to tell that poor girl the truth.”

Jace had spent a lot of his life angry with his dad, but as he stood across from him right then, he realized that the anger had finally morphed into hate. “She could’ve killed herself.”

“And whose fault would that have been?” he asked, his voice as cool as the gray of his eyes. “Whatever that girl has been through since she walked out our door—and I guarantee you the street wasn’t kind to a kid like her—has been on you, son. Your fault. Because no matter what we’ve tried with you, you’ve always managed to be a fuckup.”

His mother gasped. “Bill! Stop it.”

His father’s words sliced through Jace like a jagged hunting knife, skinning him until everything inside him felt bloodied and raw. He couldn’t even form the words to respond.

His father made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat as he headed toward his mother’s bed. He tossed the newspaper onto the rolling table, knocking over his mother’s empty cup. “I got you your paper, Sherry. Seems our son is now set on humiliating us in front of the whole damn city.”