Page 35 of The Chase
Kurt stepped closer to the bed. He snagged her hand quickly. He wanted to touch her all over, to make sure she was in one piece. He’d heard about the wreck from news alerts on his phone, stating the mayor of Value and his pregnant sister were in an accident. He’d known immediately that it washer.
“I got here to you as soon as I could. I drove straight back from Fort Worth, and got the girls settled with Marie, and now here I am.”
“You could have called. I’m sure one of my family members would have given you an update. If you asked nicely enough. Genny would have, probably. Maybe. She’d be the most likely.”
“I didn’t want tojustcall. I needed to be here. With you.” Kurt settled into the chair next to the bed, his heart finally settling back in his chest. She had a slight bruise over her eye, and she moved a bit more gingerly than he wanted to think about. But she was okay. He could breathe again.
“Playing the part, darling?”
“I couldn’t breathe right until I knew you and the baby were okay. Please, don’t make me leave.” He settled into the chair next to her. He just wanted to look at her. “How are your brother and sister-in-law?”
They were the ones expecting the baby, he thought she’d told him. The mayor and his wife. With all the kids. Girls. Kurt had met George Hiller and his family before. “How is their baby doing?”
Anything could have happened out there today. Hell, Kurt knew just how that man would have felt.
“Babies. Ronnie had twins. Boy and a girl. They are beautiful and perfect and healthy. Just a little small. They are okay. Thank God. We…it was close for them.”
“I’m glad to hear that they are healthy, honey. I’m sorry this happened to you today.” He wanted to hold her. To get that scared look out of those eyes.
She yawned and just looked at him. “So…you can leave now. You have done your duty. Now, git.”
He looked around. There were signs someone was in with her; the chair had a blanket in it. Kurt just settled himself rightin for the night. Well, that was his spot now. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She tried to argue quietly—her sister-in-law was in the room next door, she said—but Kurt was very stubborn when it mattered. His woman was in the hospital. He wasn’t leaving her when she needed him.
Kurt just wasn’t.
He stood again, then stepped up to the bed. “I’m not leaving you here alone, honey. I’m just not.”
“Oh, go soak your head.”
He knew she could have security kick him out. But he suspected she wouldn’t do that. Greer didn’t like to make a scene, for one thing. Dirty of him to play on that when she was obviously tired, but…
His woman was in a hospital bed. He wasn’t going anywhere.
Kurt took the boldest move of his life—and slipped his arm beneath her back. And just held her. “I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere. It’s going to be okay. I’ll make sure of it.”
She didn’t push him away.
Her arms tightened around his neck.
Kurt just held her tight, for as long as she would let him.
He never wanted to let her go.
28
She had been weak.She’d been released from the hospital the morning after the wreck. And there he had been. Waiting. She’d let him drive her home after the ultrasound was finished. She had not let him go in there with her. She’d had Aubrey next to her instead
She’d needed to do it alone. Greer had been feeling a bit weak and clingy and that was not the kind of person she wanted to be. So…she’d told Kurt he had to wait. That she was going in by herself. He hadn’t argued—but he’d made her agree that he could drive her home after.
He’d left long enough to go home and shower and had shown back up to get her—with two precious little girls. He had driven her home, and just…invited himself right in.
Before she’d known it, she’d been in the rocking chair with little Bronte in her arms, while Bristol played with George’s younger two daughters and Calvin. Kurt had disappeared into a side room with her dad and Gene and hadn’t come out for hours. When he had…he’d looked sick. All he’d said when she’d asked was that her father had told him things about his brother that Kurt hadn’t known.
She suspected they hadn’t beengoodthings. And…she hated that it had hurt him.
He’d loved his brother—like she loved hers. Of course it had hurt him to know what Kevin Chase had really been like. She’d watched him hug Bristol close, then he’d taken the baby from Greer’s mom, who had been holding her, and he’d thanked her parents for what they’d tried to do for his brother. And then Kurt had taken his girls home.
