Back Where She Belongs(41)

“I don’t want you to leave.” He touched a strand of her hair.

“We’re playing with fire.” She started to tremble.

“I realize that.”

Tara knew that look, recognized the tilt of his head, the parting of his lips. The next move was obvious: his lips hot on hers, his hands searing her through her clothes. All she had to do was shift slightly forward, offer herself, and they would surrender to each other, to the yearning they’d felt since they had seen each other again.

Her cell phone buzzed. Just like the day of the funeral on the hummingbird terrace, she took out her phone and saw Rita’s cell number on the display. She almost laughed. “You won’t believe this, but it’s Rita again. She’s got a sixth sense for keeping me out of trouble with you.”

Dylan fell back, away from her. Smiling, she said, “Hi, Rita! What’s up?”

“You’ll want to get here as quick as you can,” Rita said flatly. “Faye went into cardiac arrest. They revived her, but she’s not stable. Her husband and your mother are on their way.”

Tara’s entire body went electric. “Is she dying?” Her voice cracked.

“Just get here. Are you safe to drive?”

“Am I safe to drive...?” She caught Dylan’s gaze.

“I’ll take you,” he said.

Ice cold, her head buzzing, she told Rita she’d be there and hung up. “Faye’s heart stopped,” she said, her tongue thick in her mouth. “They brought her back, but they don’t know if she’ll live.”

“Let’s go,” he said, standing, giving her a hand to help her up. He gave her her purse, then guided her into his garage and held the door for her to climb up into his SUV. She was glad he was with her. Faye and Dylan had been heart and home to her. Tonight she might lose one of them forever.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN



DYLAN PUSHED THE SUV above the speed limit, but Tara leaned forward, silently urging him to go faster. He roared through yellow lights and took turns so fast his tires squealed. It was warm in the car, but Tara was shaking with chills, gulping big breaths, her vision edged with gray. Every muscle was tight, as if her body believed that as long as she held on, Faye would, too. Don’t die, Faye. Don’t die. Please don’t leave me. The words were a mantra, a prayer in her head.

“If I lose her, I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said, staring straight ahead.

“She’s getting the best care there is. They’ll save her if they can.”

Tara hung on to his words, needing them to be true. Hurry! Hurry! She twisted her fingers in her lap as if that would make the wheels turn faster. Dizzy from lack of oxygen, she gulped more air, but it didn’t seem to help. She felt like she was breathing for Faye.

Dylan parked near the emergency entrance and they dashed inside, then had to wait for the elevator. She kept jabbing the call button as if that would make the slowest elevator on the planet get there sooner.

Dylan took her hand and squeezed it. “Whatever you need from me, you’ve got it. Anything.” His eyes brimmed with worry...and love.

Throat too tight to speak, she nodded. She felt abruptly steadier, stronger somehow, and her breathing evened out. She wasn’t alone. Dylan was with her.

In the ICU waiting room, Joseph and Rachel rose from their chairs to greet them, both ghostly pale.

“They found an aneurysm,” Joseph said. “She’s in surgery now.”

“How long?” Tara’s voice cracked.

Dylan put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed.

“No idea. We’re waiting for the surgeon to come out,” Joseph said.

Dylan walked Tara to a chair and they sat together. There were a half-dozen people in the waiting area, talking, reading or looking dazed. Dylan still held her hand. He rubbed slow circles on her back. That contact seemed to be the only thing that kept her sane.

They waited, the minutes ticking by like hours. Tara’s mother stared stonily ahead, her hair trembling from the tension in her thin body. Joseph fidgeted and paced, arms and legs disjointed as if he couldn’t feel them.

Finally a man in green scrubs stepped into the waiting area. “Joseph Banes?” He spoke to the room. Joseph stopped in his tracks. “That’s me.”

The rest of them jumped to their feet.

“It went as well as we could expect,” the doctor said. “She’s stable for now.”

“Is she still in danger?” Tara asked, her voice a thin thread of sound.

“Not immediately, no.” That was as encouraging as the man was going to get, Tara realized. Faye was alive. Tara had to hang on to that. As long as Faye breathed, there was hope.

“Can we see her?” Tara asked.

“Briefly, yes. If the ICU nurses give you the go-ahead.”

Joseph and Rachel went in first, her mother’s movements almost zombie-like. When they returned a few minutes later, Tara and Dylan took their place at Faye’s bedside. She looked terrible, her skin gray, all makeup gone, an elastic mark outlining her face from the paper cap she’d worn during the surgery. The gauze pad across her collarbone was stained with blood and Betadine. As if he could read Tara’s discomfort, Dylan folded under a blood-streaked section of sheet.

Tara picked up Faye’s hand. “Fight your way back, Faye. Don’t die. Please, don’t die.” Her voice trembled. She sounded like a desperate child, but she didn’t care. When the nurse asked them to leave, she let Dylan guide her into the empty hall.

“What if she dies?” she asked him.

“You’ll handle it,” he said, brushing her hair from her cheek. “You’re tough and brave. You’ll do what you need to do. And you have me. Don’t forget that. I’m here. Always.”

“You are,” she said. His steady gaze, his calm support made her feel like she could handle anything. “You are here.” Her heart filled up and spilled over. “I love you, Dylan. I never stopped loving you.”

He sucked in a breath, startled. “Same here. The more I deny it, the more I know it’s true.” They held each other’s gaze, letting their words sink in, grab hold, change everything between them.

When they rejoined the others, Joseph stood. “Your mother needs to go home,” he said to them. “Would you take her? I’ll stay the night.”

Tara saw that her mother looked ready to collapse. She made Joseph promise to call if anything changed, then they took her mother to Dylan’s Land Rover. Her mother seemed totally wrecked. All the way back, Tara tried to get her mother to talk, but nothing worked. At the house, Tara went around to help her mother step down from the SUV. She shook off her arm and got out shakily.

“I’ll make you some tea,” Tara said. “We’ll get through this together.”

“No, we won’t. I won’t have it. Not from you, I won’t.” Her mother’s eyes flashed fire. “I won’t have you hovering over me, pitying me. You don’t want to be here. You don’t belong here. Please go. Leave me in peace.” She stalked up the stairs.

Judith was coming down to meet her. “We’ll be fine, Tara,” Judith said, her voice kind.

“I have to get my car,” she said, still shocked by her mother’s words.

“Go on then,” Judith said.

Tara climbed into the front seat, numb and stung, grateful when Dylan drove off without a word. They were silent as they drove, though she felt his eyes on her often. She clenched all her muscles, fisted her hands, holding in her emotions. Her mother wanted her gone. She would not bend, would not forgive.

Dylan pulled up beside her car in his driveway. “Stay with me, Tara,” he said, his eyes holding hers. “Don’t go back there tonight.”

He wanted her with him, she knew that, but she was certain he was afraid she’d go back and confront her mother, and that would be a disaster.

“I’ll tell Judith,” she said, pulling out her phone.

“You’re smart to stay,” Judith said, then added softly, “I don’t know what got into her. I really don’t. She’s glad you’re here. I know that.”

Things were pretty bad when Judith felt the need to comfort Tara.

Inside the house, Tara turned to Dylan. His gaze held kindness and concern. “There’s a guest room, if you’d like. It’s got workout equipment, but the sheets are clean.”

She shook her head. “I want to sleep with you.” Tonight she needed to be held, to feel loved, to feel alive. She might lose her sister. She’d lost what little bit of her mother’s love she thought she’d had. She wasn’t about to lose Dylan, too. She needed him, needed his touch. In his arms, she would feel safe, she would fit, she would be home.

Dylan pulled her close and kissed her, sweeping her away from her fear and sorrow. Duster dropped to his belly beside them with a sigh.