Tyce pushed his phone back into the inside pocket of his jacket and pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.
"I need to sit up," Sage rasped. "I'm cold."
"They said not to move you," Tyce replied, his hand covering her stomach.
"I'm freezing, Tyce." Sage heard the distant wail of ambulance sirens and wrinkled her nose. "That for me?"
Tyce looked up and nodded. "Yep."
"I'm sure that's not necessary."
"What wasn't necessary was you going out on a freezing day and endangering yourself," Tyce growled as the ambulance pulled up beside them.
"I needed air," Sage protested.
"Then open a damned window!" he retorted as EMTs approached them.
"We're going to need you to stand back, sir."
Tyce stood at the young female EMT's command and Sage noticed that his jeans were soaked from the knees down. That meant, she supposed, that she was wet from tip to toe. Wet and cold. "Any cramping? Any signs that you might be bleeding?" the EMT asked her as he pointed a penlight at her eyes.
"Nope," Sage replied. "I bounced off my butt. Look, my apartment is right over there-if someone can help me up, then I'll go on upstairs and I'll be fine."
The EMT looked up and Sage saw him exchange a look with Tyce. "I strongly suggest that, because you are pregnant and because you are cradling your hand like a baby, you go to hospital." Sage nodded, sighed and looked at her front door, so near but so far away. She really, really needed that cup of hot chocolate.
"They x-rayed my wrist and I have a greenstick fracture, which is why I have this stupid cast."
"Are you allowed to have X-rays when you're pregnant?"
Tyce heard Linc's question and quickly realized that Sage was talking to her brother via speakerphone and waited to hear her answer. Stopping, he stood to the side of the partially open door to her hospital room and put his back to the wall, holding a small bag containing dry clothes and shoes. Luckily the hospital wasn't far from her apartment and Sage had handed over the key so that he could collect clothes for her to wear home.
"I checked-they said it was completely safe," Sage said, sounding bone-deep weary. Tyce ran a hand over his eyes, the image of her feet flipping up and her butt hitting the pavement with a loud thump playing over and over in his head. Okay, she hadn't been knocked by a car but she'd landed hard and he kept expecting to see blood soaking through her jeans.
Tyce felt his stomach lurch into his throat at the thought. Up until a few hours ago he'd understood Sage's pregnancy on a purely intellectual basis: his sperm, her egg, a baby later in the year. But when she fell, he felt bombarded with fear. How badly was she hurt? How could he fix her? What could he do? What if she lost this baby? How would she feel?
How would he feel?
Lousy, he decided. Sage's baby, he realized, their baby, wasn't something he wanted to wish away.
When had that happened? And how?
"Are you sure you don't want me to come down? I can be there in about a half hour," Linc said.
Tyce held his breath, waiting for her answer.
"I'm sure Tyce will see me home. He was with me when I fell."
"Then he did a piss-poor job of catching you," Linc grumbled.
"He was at my door and I was stepping onto the pavement. He's not Superman, Linc."
Silence fell between the siblings and Tyce straightened, prepared to enter the room again. He stopped when Linc spoke again. "If your right wrist is in a cast and if walking causes you pain, then you can't stay on your own."
Linc was right, Tyce thought. Sage needed help for a while and maybe he should be the one to offer to stay with her. Sure, living with her and not making love to her was going to be hellfire difficult but the reality was that they couldn't keep circling round each other. At some point they had to start dealing with each other. And it would be better for the baby if they managed to establish some sort of a relationship-hopefully something that resembled a friendship-before their child dropped into the world and their lives.
Tyce fully accepted that he was a loner, that he didn't need people but he was connected to his child and through that little person to Sage. He doubted he could give the child what he or she needed but, along with offering whatever financial support he could to Sage, he was prepared to try to be a dad. That way, he could look himself in the eye and say that he'd tried to be the best father he could. Part of this new role was looking after his child's mother. And if that meant moving in with her and helping out while she was injured, that was what he intended to do.
Seven
"Let me talk to the brothers and we'll draw up a roster so that one of us will stay with you until you can manage on your own," Linc replied.
"I'm not a hundred and three, Linc! I don't need anyone to stay with me. You know I hate having people in my space."
Tough, Tyce thought, despite the little spurt of sympathy he felt for her. He didn't like people in his space either but she'd just have to suck it up and deal.
"I'll stay with you tonight-"
That was his cue, Tyce thought. Nobody was staying with her but him. He walked into the room, dumped her clothes on the foot of her bed and walked around the bed to look down at Sage's phone into Linc's worried face. Taking it from her hand, he ignored Sage's annoyed "Hey!"
"Forget the roster, Linc. I'll be staying with her."
"Latimore," Linc said, his eyes and tone cool. "Is that what Sage wants?"
Judging by her annoyed and fractious expression, Sage would rather have a mutant cockroach move in but he didn't care. He was looking after Sage so that she could look after their baby.
And maybe you're also doing this because you need to know that she is okay on a day-by-day, minute-by-minute basis? Tyce ignored the errant thought. He looked at Sage, who was squawking her displeasure.
"Pipe down, Sage. It's a done deal, Linc," Tyce said before disconnecting the call.
Her eyes hazy with pain, Sage tried to skewer him with a look. "You are not coming home with me and you are not moving in!"
Tyce jammed his hands into the back pockets of his jeans, conscious that the bottom half of his jeans was still damp from kneeling on the sidewalk beside her. He opened his mouth to argue with her and then noticed her pale face and pain-filled eyes. Dammit, he hated knowing that she was in pain and that there was nothing he could do about it.
Arguing with her was a waste of energy: he was taking her home and he was temporarily, very temporarily, moving in. As he'd told Linc, it was a done deal.
Placing both hands on the bed on either side of her hips, he looked into her face. "No BS. How, exactly, are you feeling?"
Sage opened her mouth, shut it again and the heat of her sigh caressed his chin. "The baby is fine. I'm not at risk of miscarrying if that's what you are worried about," she said in a quiet voice.
She had no idea that he wasn't half as concerned about the baby as he was about her. The baby had its own custom-made airbag; Sage hadn't had anything between her and the cold, hard sidewalk.
"Sage..." Tyce used his knuckle to lift her face up, waiting until their eyes connected again before he spoke. "I know that but I want to know how you are feeling."
"My wrist is sore but bearable, but my tailbone is excruciating. It hurts to sit."
Tyce had to touch her so he cupped the side of her face. "Have you had some pain meds?"
"Just acetaminophen. They also gave me some cream to help with the bruising." She looked at her wrist, closed her eyes and sighed. "That's not something I'm going to able to manage myself."
Tyce laid his lips on her forehead, holding the kiss there for longer than necessary. She's okay, he reminded himself as panic clawed up his throat. She's okay...and the baby is okay... Breathe. When the unfamiliar wave of, God, emotion passed-yeah, Sage's superpower was to turn him to mush-Tyce pulled back and dragged a smile onto his face. "I happen to like your butt and I have no problem touching it, with cream and without."
As he hoped, Sage rolled her eyes and amusement touched her lips. She picked up her phone from the side table and sent Tyce an uncertain look. "Are you sure you want to look after me for a couple of days? Wouldn't it be easier if my family took turns to help me out?"
Tyce straightened. "Probably. The thing is, Sage, you and I need some time to talk, to get to know each other again. We didn't spend that much time talking three years ago."
She blushed and Tyce knew that she was remembering the hours, days they spent in bed...not talking. "In less than half a year," he added, "we'll have this child and it will be affected by everything we do, from how we talk to each other, treat each other, interact with each other. I genuinely believe that we have to try to find a sensible way of dealing with each other."