Page 45 of Mending Hearts

“Katie. I loved Katie.”

“But you stopped loving her?” A dangerous question.

The frustrated sigh he didn’t bother to suppress was surprising. “It’s not a switch, Mia. It doesn’t just flick off one day. Love left untended withers. It’s a living thing—you gotta water it and care for it and look after it. Neglect it? And it’ll go away. What choice does it have?”

“So, who neglected it? You or Katie?”

He shifted in the doorway and crossed his arms. “Maybe we both did.” His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he retrieved it. “David just texted. He can meet us at the hospital in an hour.”

I grabbed my phone from the charging station in the bathroom and scrolled through my schedule for the day. Not that it mattered. As soon as I got back from meeting with David, I was canceling everything. With a deep breath, I sent a text to Taryn and Rebecca asking for a meeting.

“What are you thinking?” Tyler’s voice was quiet.

I was tempted to lie, to brush him off. But he rarely did that to me, even when I might deserve it. Meeting his gaze, I shrugged. “That I’m about to blow up my life, and I’m not even that upset about it. Maybe I really do need a break.”

“You work hard. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone work harder than you.”

He rested his hand against the bathroom counter, his body so close I caught another whiff of jasmine. I was starting to love that smell—wantedto bathe in it. When I glanced up, there was a tenderness in his gaze that tugged at my heartstrings. It was a look I could get used to, one that made me feel special, important. Other people looked at me like I mattered, but it always felt like it was my superstardom drawing them in. They had stars in their eyes. He was looking atme, seeingme, caring aboutme. The real Mia.

On my tiptoes, I pressed my lips to his, set down my phone, and slipped my hands into his hair, drawing him closer. He met my kiss with a hunger I hadn’t expected. He lifted me easily onto the edge of the counter, our lips never breaking contact. He stepped between my legs, his hands sinking into my hair.

“I could kiss you all day,” he murmured, deepening the kiss again.

I wrapped my legs around his waist, tugging him closer. “I like your thinking, Pretty Boy.”

“Doctor first.” His lips broke from mine. “Quit your job second.” His lips found mine again in another searing kiss that made me wish we could stay on this bus all day uninterrupted. “Then more of this.”

I withdrew from him, and we stared at each other, his gaze straying back to my lips, and I ran my thumb along them. “You make it sound so easy.”

“I know it’s not.” He leaned in and brushed his lips against mine again.

“I need to get ready, or we’ll be late.” My phone buzzed beside me. Taryn and Rebecca had agreed to the meeting when I got back from my doctor’s appointment. “One for the road,” I said, giving him a quick kiss before hopping off thecounter.

Doctor David liked to talk, and I was having trouble focusing. The baby was fine, so the rest of his words were noise. I understood what I had to do, even if Tyler was asking every question he could think of in support of staying on the tour. Sort of sweet for him to try so hard to give me options. Except I was fine with being done.

Against my will, my attention strayed to the fourth, largely silent, person in the room.

Katie.

Every time I glanced in her direction, the naked longing on the other woman’s face was a neon flashing sign. Embarrassing. She should try to hide her emotions or at least hide them from the woman carrying Tyler’s child, for God’s sake.

The sadness in Katie’s eyes wasn’t for a love that had faded into something else like Tyler claimed, and his rigid posture meant he was keenly aware of her too. Fascinating and frustrating. This room was like being with Taryn and Rebecca when they were engaged in a silent feud over something. Why was there still so much weirdness between them? How did the doctor miss the tension?

I was about to burst from curiosity and something much darker, an emotion I wasn’t keen to name, when one of Tyler’s questions caught my attention.

“Can you summarize what you think she can and can’t do physically? We want to be absolutely clear.”

With a frown, I tilted my head at Tyler and then looked at the doctor. We’d been over this already. “No more aerial stuff, right? Lots of rest.I heard all that. Obviously, I have to quit the tour.” I met Tyler’s soft gaze and basked in his caring for a moment. Then what he was dancing around clicked. “Tyler just wants to know whether we can have sex. Is that off the table or…?” In my peripheral vision, Katie straightened, and Tyler slid me an annoyed glance. Whatever. It was a valid question and what we wanted to know. Baby was fine. Great news for Tyler.

Tyler squeezed my hand, but I had no intention of meeting his gaze. I could tell from the rigid way he was holding himself that he wasn’t happy right now. He’d get over it, especially if his three-step plan from earlier worked out like I hoped.

Doctor David’s uneasy chuckle filled the room. “As far as intercourse goes, there is no medical reason you can’t.”

That was a strange way to phrase it. Perhaps the doctorwasaware of his daughter’s lingering feelings. “Good enough for me.” I shifted my butt on the crackling paper until I could get down. Now, I just had to quit the tour. A chill slid down my spine at how awful the next few hours would be. “David, is it possible to get a medical note?”

“You want me to lay all this out on paper?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Not exactly.” I winced. “I was sort of hoping for a diagnosis of exhaustion or depression or mono or something?” I put my hand up in a stopping motion. “Not pregnancy. I’m doing Tyler a favor. It’s no one else’s business.”

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