Macy had gotten to her feet and stood awkwardly off to the side, fingers clenched around the shoulder strap of her expensive-looking purse. Ghost was nowhere to be seen; he might be with Brian. They were only letting a few visitors in at a time.
“Any change?” Starla asked Candace once she stepped back.
She shook her head and wiped under both eyes, then pulled her sweater tighter around her. “He’s stable, but he’s still sedated.”
“Do you need anything?” Jared asked.
“Just for him to get better. Mom has Lyr, but Macy’s going to pick him up and keep him for a little while to give her a break.” Candace glanced back at her friend. Macy took the invitation to approach, smiling tightly.
“You’re letting Ghost around an infant?” Starla joked, then immediately wished she hadn’t. The last thing she wanted to do was get Jared started. But she didn’t think he had looked at Macy once, and now that she had walked over to them, he seemed exceptionally busy reading the visitation rules sign across the room.
“It’ll be good for him,” Macy said. As always, the lithe, leggy brunette was impeccably put together, a far cry from her ink-wearing, bald, smart-mouthed boyfriend. She was diamonds and designers when she wasn’t outdoorsy rodeo queen. Ghost was heavy metal and muscle cars. It was a union that would never make sense.
“I’ll pick him up around eight,” Candace said to Macy.
“Are you sure? He can stay the night with me if you need to be here.”
“No, he’ll have you up every couple of hours.”
“I don’t mind, Candace. You need sleep.” God, it was the truth. Candace looked as if she had aged ten years overnight. The skin under her weary, red-rimmed blue eyes was bruised. A newborn made for sleepless nights anyway, and now this had happened. The girl was on the verge of collapse, physically and emotionally, and she was between a rock and a hard place. Her own family was all but useless to her and Brian’s was as distraught as she was. Starla had seen the entirety of the Ross clan last night—Brian’s sister, Gabby, and her husband, Ian, had driven in from Dallas, arriving in the middle of the night. Just before dawn, his older brother and sister-in-law, Evan and Kelsey, had made it to the hospital after a long drive from Austin. Their collective grief and horror had been part of the reason Starla had to flee. And his poor parents…
Starla wanted to offer help. She wanted to do something. But she didn’t know shit about babies, and she was staying in a house that wasn’t hers, so she kept her mouth shut.
“At least let me stay with you, or both of you come stay with us,” Macy was saying. “I’ll handle baby duty while you rest. It’s fine. We’re here for you. Let us be.”
It was only cause for Candace’s eyes to fill up with tears again. “I can’t sleep without him next to me.”
While Starla fought her own waterworks, Macy only put a hand on Candace’s arm and said, “You have to, hon. You have to eat too. Let’s both go pick up Lyric, right now. Okay? I’ll feed you. You don’t need to be by yourself, and they’ve already told you that he won’t be waking up anytime soon.”
It would be good for Candace to get away for a bit. Yet Starla couldn’t help but wonder if Macy just wanted to escape Jared’s presence as soon as humanly possible.
“If something happens—”
“It won’t,” Macy and Jared said at the same time. Jesus, their minds even worked the same. At last, they shared a glance and an uneasy chuckle. The hallway doors opened, and Ghost walked in, followed by Evan and Ian. If Ghost was surprised or pissed or otherwise affected by Jared’s presence, he had the decency not to show it. But he took up his place beside his girlfriend, and he took it up fast, sliding an arm around her slim shoulders and hugging her to his side. Evan and Ian, both grim-faced, gave solemn greetings and headed out together, probably in search of coffee that didn’t resemble tar. It was the only thing that had been keeping any of them going.
“I was telling her she needs to come with us,” Macy said, looking up at Ghost. “We can pick up the baby and keep him while she gets some rest.”
“Cool.” With his other arm, he pulled Candace in close and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “’Cuz there’s nothing more tiring than waiting around this fuckin’ place. Come with us, and I bet you’ll feel a hundred percent better. Or at least sixty-five or something. He ain’t going anywhere, doll. He’s a hardheaded bastard.”
“I need to see him again before I go.” Candace looked hopefully at Starla. “Want to come with me?”
It was the last thing on earth she wanted, but it was what she’d come here for.
Starla nodded, and it was only then, when Jared gave her hand another reassuring squeeze, that she realized he had never once let it go. Even when faced with his beloved ex, he hadn’t pulled away or acted nonchalant. He’d stood at her side, so close she could feel him; she could draw strength from his nearness. But now, he let her walk that glaringly white and sterile mile to Brian’s room with Candace, after assuring her he’d be waiting whenever she was ready to leave. Telling her to take her time. He was willing to sit in that room with Ghost and Macy for however long it took—but maybe they would be merciful and go elsewhere.
“Wow,” Candace said quietly as they walked, still keeping her cardigan pulled tight as if she were freezing. “So…that’s happening?”
Starla was a long time answering. “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s happening.”
“You deserve someone nice.”
It was so fucking enormous in its simplicity that she almost laughed, but she was afraid she might burst out crying. Did she really deserve that? Or did she deserve exactly what she kept getting? Candace didn’t realize her husband was lying in a hospital bed because of Starla’s feelings for him. “Sometimes I wonder.”
Brian’s mother was with him—she’d hardly left her youngest child’s side. Now she stood by his bed, stroking his thick black hair. Mrs. Ross smiled weakly at the girls as they entered, the exhaustion plain on her lovely face. Her hair hung dark and limp. Starla had only been around her a handful of times, but the woman rivaled Macy in always appearing immaculate. Not so now. “He looks better,” she said in her Italian accent. Sometimes, when Brian was mad or animatedly telling a story, he had the barest hint of it himself. Most people who didn’t know his ancestry probably wouldn’t even notice. “His color’s come back.”
It was true. Last night, he’d been ghastly, and simply looking at him had scared the shit out of all of them. Now, if not for the tubes running into his arm and his nostrils, he could’ve been taking a nap. Starla couldn’t look away from him as the other two women talked quietly. The machines beeped a steady, patient rhythm. His chest rose and fell on its own, slow and strong. She let her gaze roam along his colorful ink patterns, feeling her bottom lip tremble. Come on, Brian, she thought. So many people here love you. She wished he would sit up and argue with them, tell them all to get the fuck out of his room and go to work; he was embarrassed to be seen flat on his back this way. Except Candace—he would want her here. He’d face any number of adversities as long as she was at his side. That was as it should be.
Maybe he was going to be okay. He just needed to sleep, to heal, and he would come back to them. He would come back to Candace and Lyric where he belonged.
As much as she loved them all, Starla would have to make sure she wasn’t around to see it.
Chapter Eighteen
“Can I talk to you for a minute?”
Jared’s words dropped like heavy stones in a still pond as Macy and Ghost both looked back at him. They had just turned toward the exit doors as Candace and Starla disappeared in the direction of Brian’s room.
“Me?” Ghost asked, seeing Jared was staring him straight in the eye.
“Yeah.”
Macy gave Jared an uncertain glance, one elegant eyebrow raised. “I’ll go wait in the car,” she said to her boyfriend. Then she looked up at him and murmured what sounded like “Be nice.” He smirked at her before she turned to go. Both men watched her until she disappeared through the doors, then Ghost went on alert. Jared could see it in the way his entire body tensed, the way he crossed his heavily inked arms, going on guard.
“So. What could you possibly have to say to me?”
Jared barely refrained from telling him to settle down before he popped a vein, but that might have gotten things off to a sour start. “Tell me what you know about this Max guy.”
Surprise briefly registered on Ghost’s face, but he covered it quickly. Starla must have only told the police her suspicions and no one else. “Starla’s Max? He’s an unbalanced head-fucked asshole. That’s what I know.”
“Starla’s convinced he attacked Brian.”
“It’s not beyond the realm of possibility. But Brian has no shortage of enemies, and I never really considered Max one of them. Hell, you can look at Candace’s family alone and find any number of people who would love for Brian to be out of her life.”