Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Connor

" T his is ridiculous," Ivy grumbled, her mouth pulled down into a pout, her arms folded over her chest insolently. "I told you guys I was fine. There was no need for you to take me to the hospital."

Rae bugged her eyes out at her friend from across the curtained off section of the emergency room we were currently tucked in. "Are you kidding me right now? Ivy, you fainted while standing at the middle of a hard-ass wooden staircase. It's a wonder you didn't kill yourself!"

I hadn't said a word in the past ten minutes as I paced the little room. My emotions were all over the place, tangled around my vocal cords and rendering them useless. I was angry and terrified, and I worried which of those would rush to the surface if I said anything before giving myself enough time to cool down.

I wasn't sure there had ever been a time in my life I'd been more scared than when Ivy's eyes rolled back in her head just a second before she passed the fuck out. If I hadn't already been starting toward her, she would have fallen down those stairs, and Christ only knew how much worse off she would have been.

As it was, I barely caught her in time. But it wasn't just the fact that she nearly took a tumble down a flight of stairs that scared me. It was that once I caught her and got her safely to the bottom, laying her out on the floor, I couldn't get her to wake up.

I didn't know what the hell was wrong with her, and it scared the shit out of me. She was paler than the last time I'd seen her, thinner too. She looked like she'd been sick for a while, and I fucking hated that I hadn't been here to help take care of her.

The reality was that it had only taken a minute for her eyelids to flutter back open, but to me, it felt like a goddamn eternity. Those eight seconds I spent on the back of a bull were nothing compared to the sixty it took for my butterfly to wake up. I didn't breathe for that full minute, my heart on the floor beside her and my throat locked up tight.

Even after she'd regained consciousness, she'd been sluggish and her words were slurred for a few seconds before she became clearheaded once more. When I announced I was calling an ambulance she'd freaked, argued that she was fine, it was just a little dizzy spell, but I didn't listen. I pulled out my phone, fully prepared to call 911 when she finally relented. She agreed to go to the hospital, but refused to do so in the back of an ambulance.

She started complaining the instant I picked her up and carried her out of the lodge to my truck. My knee screamed with pain at the added weight, but with Ivy's well-being in question, I was able to push it to the back of my mind. The complaining continued the entire drive to the hospital and hadn't stopped since.

"This had gotten ridiculous," Lennix scolded. When I made it clear I was the one who would be taking Ivy to the hospital, Lennix and Rae hadn't hesitated to jump in on the passenger side. I might have argued if I wasn't so focused on getting Ivy taken care of, but now I was glad for the extra company. The three of them could bicker while I tried to loosen the pressure that was currently crushing my chest. "You've been sick for weeks now. It never should have come to this. You should have seen a doctor as soon as this started."

The realization that she'd been sick even longer than I suspected and hadn't been taking care of herself made the panic-induced rage I was feeling at that very moment even worse. I wanted to strangle her for being so careless with her health, then wrap her up and hold her in my lap until she was feeling better again.

It struck me in that moment that this was the first time in my life I had ever wanted to take care of another person. Amber hadn't been much of a caregiver while we were together either, so the two of us had an unspoken understanding that whenever the other was sick, we'd just leave them be until they were better. It had worked for us. Or at least I thought it had. But the thought of leaving Ivy alone in her current state damn near bowled me over.

It wasn't going to happen. She could hate me all she wanted, but I wasn't leaving her side until I trusted that she was okay.

"It's just a stomach virus," she continued to argue. "There's nothing to be done. It just needs to run its course."

Rae snorted and rolled her eyes. "Forgive me for wanting to wait to hear what the doctor has to say."

She and I both.

A beat of silence passed through the small enclosure, and I could feel three sets of eyes on me as I continued to pace, feeling like a caged lion.

Finally, Ivy broke it, and what she said managed to piss me off even worse. "You don't have to stick around." When I dragged my gaze to her I saw she was looking directly at me. "I can get a ride home when I'm finished here." She was kicking me out. She was trying to do it politely, sure. But she was attempting to kick me out all the same.

"I'm stayin'," I grunted before resuming my worried pacing.

"Connor, that's really not necessar?—"

Her words cut off with a yelp when, one second I was across the room and the next I was hovering over her in that goddamn hospital bed, my fists braced in the flimsy mattress on either side of her as I leaned in so close we were practically nose to nose.

"You took a fuckin' decade off my life. I watched you faint right before my eyes and the only thing I could think was I might not get to you fast enough to keep you from hurtin' yourself. It took a minute for you to wake back up again, butterfly. A fuckin' minute , in which time, another seven years was shaved off the end of my life. So now you've cost me seventeen years. The last thing I want to do is yell at you when you're clearly sick, so please, I'm beggin', do us both a favor and let it go, because I'm. Not. Leavin' . Understand?"

"What in the fresh hell is happening right now?" Rae whispered loudly from behind me, but I was too busy staring into the eyes of the woman I realized I'd do anything for to pay the other two in the room any mind.

"Let me explain," Lennix started. "This here is an alpha cowboy exerting his dominance. It's something you're more inclined to see in these small towns than in the big city like you're used to."

"Ah, so that's what Zach's doing every time we get into an argument. I thought he was only being a stubborn pain in my ass."

"Oh, he's that too."

My eyes stayed locked on Ivy's big blue gaze as we both ignored the ridiculous conversation behind us. Finally, her throat worked on a thick swallow, her words coming out softly as she said, "O-okay. You can stay."

Goddamn right I could , I thought, but decided it wouldn't be smart to say that out loud.

The silent stare-down was broken a few seconds later when the curtain scraped along the rod as it was pulled open and the doctor walked in. I stayed rooted to the floor right beside Ivy's bed, bracing my feet shoulder-width apart and crossing my arms over my chest as I waited for what he had to say.

"Well, I've gone over your bloodwork and you're going to be fine."

"Told you," she blurted, her snide expression hitting all three of us.

"That isn't to say that what's happening isn't serious. You passed out due to extreme dehydration. Morning sickness is no joke, especially in the early stages of a pregnancy, so I'm going to write you a prescription for a medication that should make it easier for you to keep food and liquids down."

The doctor's voice suddenly sounded like he was beneath water, his words not making a damn bit of sense.

" Pregnant ?" Rae squeaked.

Lennix threw her hand out in front of her. "Whoa, wait. What ?"

Ivy's hand went up like she was a middle school student asking the teacher's permission to go to the bathroom or something. "Um, doctor, I'm sorry, but I think you might have the wrong room. I have the stomach flu."

All I could do was stand there like a fucking statue as a record scratched in a loop in my head. Pregnant. Pregnant. Pregnant it chirped before that terrible screeching sound. Over and Over.

The man's bushy white brows pulled together in a furrow of confusion as he lifted the chart in his hands. "You're Ivy Young, correct?"

"Yes, but . . . I'm not . . . I can't be . . ." She broke off on a little giggle. "That's not possible."

"I'm sorry." The doctor gave Ivy a gentle look before turning that same one on me. Like we were in this together or something. What the fuck was happening ? "I thought you knew. Ms. Young, you're eight weeks pregnant."

I wasn't sure how the hell I expected her to react, but it sure as hell wasn't to burst into hysterical laughter that lasted several seconds before she proceeded to pass the fuck out again.

Ivy

At least I was already sitting down the second time I fainted .

I was currently in the middle of the most epic freak-out I'd ever experienced in all my twenty-seven years, so I was looking for a silver lining wherever the fuck I could find one.

Pregnant.

I was pregnant .

I knew what the word meant, but the more I kept thinking it, the less it made sense. It was like when you repeated a word a bunch of times and it started to sound ridiculous; like fork or spelunking, or taint—the body part, not the verb.

Pregnant .

Nope. Still didn't make a damn bit of sense.

When I came to after my second fainting spell, I was stretched out in the bed with an IV hooked up to the back of my hand, pumping a clear liquid into my body. The doctor was still there, along with a nurse who was in the middle of checking my pulse, but my friends and Connor were gone.

"You're going to be fine, sweetie," the nurse told me with a reassuring smile. "Just a bit of a panic attack. That's all. It's totally normal."

"Really?" I asked dryly. "You have a lot of women come in here thinking they have the stomach flu, find out their pregnant, then pass out on a regular basis?"

She patted my shoulder affectionately. "Happens more often than you'd think."

Well, at least I was in good company.

"I sent your friends out so we could get you hooked up and start getting fluids into you," the doctor explained as he leaned over me and flicked an annoying pen light back and forth between my eyes. "I've administered some anti-nausea meds through your IV and once that bag is empty, you should be able to go home."

I closed my eyes and pulled in a steadying breath, the reality of my situation finally sinking in. "And the baby?" I asked quietly, bringing my hand up to rest on my stomach. "Do you think the baby is okay?"

He smiled and patted my hand. "Your baby is just fine. However, given how intense your morning sickness has been, I'd suggest scheduling an appointment with your obstetrician as soon as possible, but you have nothing to worry about. Once you're eating and drinking normally, you'll be shocked at how quickly you'll return to normal."

I dropped my head back on the paper-thin pillow and looked up at the ceiling tiles. After today, I wasn't sure what normal looked like. All I knew was that my life had irrevocably changed forever.