A Heart Decision (22 page)

Annie lounged in the chair near the head of Tyler’s
bed, her face glowing as if she’d won the lottery. “About six
o’clock this morning, he opened his eyes for a moment.”

“It was more like his eyelids fluttered,” Ben
clarified.

It was a good sign, but not enough to get too
optimistic. Annie either didn’t understand or didn’t want to admit
that Tyler could remain exactly the way he was for the next fifty
years.

Sabrina hugged her sister-in-law. “That’s great. Why
don’t you let Ben take you home for an hour to shower and nurse
Sam?”

Annie glanced down at her chest. “I’m not sure I
have much for him. I think the stress may have dried up my
milk.”

Luke squeezed her arm. “Even so, the kids need to
see you. We stopped to reassure them on the way here, but they’re
still scared.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I’ve been calling them
every couple of hours.”

Sabrina patted her back. “We know you want to be
here for Tyler, but it could be days before he fully regains
consciousness. Now that his condition has stabilized, you have to
make the kids your priority. Just go hold them for a few minutes.
We’ll call you if anything changes.”

Ben took Annie’s hand pulled her out of her seat.
“I’ll bring you back as soon as you’ve showered and put on some
fresh clothes.”

“I look and smell that bad, huh?” Annie’s mouth
curled in a half-hearted smile. “I guess I’d better go then. I
don’t want to scare my husband back into a coma when he wakes
up.”

Once the two of them left, Sabrina sank into the
chair Annie had vacated. She reached over and squeezed Luke’s hand.
“I want to thank you for letting me read the letter from your
dad.”

“Pretty heart-wrenching, huh?”

“Yes, it was. But it helped me understand how hard
this must be for you. I’ve only seen your circumstances from a
woman’s perspective.” She reached over and stroked his cheek. “You
have to cope with your situation the best way you can, and if you
feel like you have to do it alone, I’ll respect your wishes. I’ll
hate it, but I’ll leave if you ask me to.” She drew a deep breath
and closed her eyes. “I don’t ever want you to feel like you have
to end things the way your dad did in order to spare me.”

The muscles in his throat visibly convulsed. “I
don’t want you to go, Princess,” he whispered, his voice thick and
husky. “But you love kids, and I want you to be a mother.”

“We have Tyler and Annie’s kids to love, and your
Explorers, and Dusty and Mopsy.”

One corner of his mouth lifted in a sad smile. “It’s
not the same. I know you. You want to feel a new life move inside
you, to hear your baby cry the first time, and nurse him—or her. I
wish I was a man who could give all of that to you. Ben can.”

“You mean things like morning sickness, backaches,
labor pains, and walking the floor with a colicky baby?”

“Yes. He loves you as much as I do. And he can give
you kids and
anything else you could possibly ever
want
—including fifty years of happiness that I may not be able
to.”

“Thank you very much for thinking I care what Ben’s
billions could buy me.”

“And thank
you
for deliberately misconstruing
what I meant. I know you’re no gold-digger, Brina. I also know you
love Ben deeply, or you never would’ve agreed to marry him. A week
ago, you believed you could be happy with him. All I’m asking is
for you to remember that.”

“That was all before you admitted how you feel about
me. It’s you I’m
in
love with. My heart doesn’t beat faster
when Ben walks into the room. My toes don’t curl when he kisses me.
And I don’t want to rip his shirt off his back several times a
day—or I would’ve already done it.”

“Passion isn’t the only important thing in life,
Brina. There’s companionship and security.”

“How can
you
, of all people, say that, Mr.
Insatiable?” she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Ten minutes after
you finish banging my brains out, you’re ready to do it
again....and again. And I’m just as bad, encouraging you.”

A satisfied smile curled his mouth. “It has been
good between us, hasn’t it? I’m not saying that making love to you
isn’t the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I just don’t want
to deny you the chance to have a family.”

“So, then, let’s get a sperm donor and have a
baby—assuming I can even get pregnant. There’re plenty of women who
can’t. If nothing else, the last two days should’ve proved that if
something ever happens to you, our children, no matter how we have
them, will be well taken care of. Don’t you think Ben and Tyler
would look after me and our kids the same way you would
theirs?”

He glanced at Tyler. “How’s that for incentive,
buddy? If you don’t get out of that bed and prove you’ll cover my
backside, your sister will become an old maid with no
children.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “Are you saying you’ll
marry me and we’ll have a family together?”

“No. That’s not what I’m saying.” Luke brushed her
hair back from her face. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I can’t promise
anything right now, other than I’ll think about it. But first you
have to promise me something in return.”

“What?”

“If I ultimately decide I can’t handle what you’re
proposing, you’ll marry Ben instead.”

Her mouth dropped open momentarily. “You have to be
kidding! How can I promise something like that, knowing you’re in
love with me?”

“Because if you don’t, then I won’t even think about
marrying you.”

“You and Ben are both unbelievable!” she shouted,
belatedly remembering she was in a hospital. She lowered her voice
several decibels. “Normally, you’re threatening to punch each other
out. But ever since my birthday party, all the two of you have done
is try to pawn me off on each other. You really make a girl feel
loved. You can be such an insensitive jerk sometimes.”

“I know.” He drew in a shuddering breath. “But I’m
also a jerk who loves you.” His fingers plowed through his dark
hair. “Hell, Brina, it makes me want to puke to think of my
friend—or anyone else—making love to you. You saw how upset Ben was
when he realized we’d slept together. This is damned hard for both
of us.”

“And you think it’s been a picnic for
me
?”
She rammed her thumb into her chest.

“I’m sure it hasn’t been. But when a man loves a
woman—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” She pushed herself out of her
seat, dramatically sweeping her hand in the air. “He does whatever
he has to in order to hold on to her. Or, at least, that’s what the
Percy Sledge song claims.”

“Exactly. But that all depends on whether it’s
beneficial for
her
.” He reached over and took her hand.
“Percy also made it clear that when a man
really
loves a
woman, her happiness comes before his. No matter how much it might
kill him to do what’s best for her.”

In truth, it sounded more like an echo from his
dad’s letter than the ’60s song.

She yanked her hand away from his and stomped toward
the door. “If you and Ben don’t stop putting my welfare first
because you
think
you know better than I do what will make
me happy, I won’t marry either of you!”

“Maybe that would be best,” he called after her as
she stormed out to the hallway.

If she found someone else, at least it wouldn’t
threaten his friendship with Ben.

~*~

Sabrina rushed away from the ICU so fast she nearly
bowled over a tiny woman.

She grabbed the woman’s arm to prevent her from
falling. “I’m so sorry! I should’ve watched where I was going.”

“It’s all right, Sabrina. I’m sure you have a lot on
your mind right now.”

She wiped her eyes and peered at the woman with
light brown hair and sky blue eyes. “I’m sorry, you look familiar,
but—”

“Casey Lambert. We met at Tyler and Annie’s Fourth
of July barbeque. My fiancé, David, is their kids’
pediatrician.”

“Oh, right.” She smiled down at Casey’s now nearly
flat stomach. Back in July, the woman had been pregnant. At the
time, Annie had mentioned that Casey was serving as surrogate for
her sister who had suddenly divorced Dr. Lambert, leaving Casey
carrying her ex-brother-in-law’s baby.”

“So you and David are getting married?”

Casey nodded. “Thanksgiving weekend. I was just
heading to Tyler’s room to see how Annie is doing.”

“As well as can be expected. She’s not here right
now. We talked her into going home for a few hours to see the kids
and change her clothes.”

“You looked upset when you came charging out into
the hallway. Is everything all right? Tyler hasn’t taken a
turn—”

“No, it’s nothing like that. I was supposed to get
married Christmas Eve.” She closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. “Now
I’m not so sure I am.”

“It sounds as if you could use a friendly shoulder.”
Casey smiled. “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

A polite decline hovered on her lips until she
looked into Casey’s sympathetic gaze. “Sure, why not. But seeing as
I’ll be bending your ear, I’ll buy.”

She followed Casey to the hospital’s cafeteria and
spent the next hour explaining her situation. She concluded by
saying, “It’s not like it’s my last chance if I don’t get married
in December. I don’t
have
to have a Christmas wedding. Luke
just keeps pressuring me to marry Ben right away.”

“He obviously realizes how long you’ve been waiting
to have a family. Maybe he wants to see you settled so he can stop
feeling guilty about letting you down.”

“But I’m in love with
him
.”

Casey silently watched her for a moment. “Right
after our daughter, Jamie, was born, I thought David was still in
love with my sister. I was completely prepared to step aside for
her. Fortunately, it was just my hormones and overactive
imagination making me think that. But if David
had
chosen
Brianna over me, I think I would’ve settled for a comfortable
relationship like you say you have with Ben, rather than face an
empty chair at the dinner table every night and raising my daughter
alone.”

“You’re saying you think I
should
marry
Ben?”

“No. I think you should do everything you can to
persuade Luke to be your husband. But if you fail to convince him,
then, yes, I think you should grab whatever happiness you can with
Ben—especially since you love him.”

“I do. But it’s not the same.”

Casey reached across the table and laid her hand
over Sabrina’s. “You never know. In time, you may fall as deeply
in
love with Ben as you are with Luke right now. For
centuries, people tied the knot in arranged marriages that
eventually became love matches.”

“I know. That’s where my head was before I knew Luke
returned my feelings.”

“So?” Casey shrugged. “If he decides he can’t marry
you, despite loving you, nothing has really changed, has it?”

“No. I guess not. Except that now I know he loves
me.”

“Then I think your answer comes down to whether you
want to live the rest of your life alone and childless if Luke
ultimately insists on remaining single. I’m not saying Ben is your
only other option, but you just admitted that you love him as much
as you can love anyone other than Luke.”

Sabrina stared at the table for several minutes.
She’d already come to this decision last month before she accepted
Ben’s proposal. “I do care for him,” she finally whispered. “And I
don’t want to spend my life alone.”

~*~

Luke stared at the acoustic tile ceiling, brooding
while he waited for Sabrina to return.

What the hell did he have to think about?

He knew damn well Ben would take care of his family
and be there for Sabrina if he got sick. For that matter, knowing
his buddy, Ben would probably offer to donate his sperm so Luke
could have children with Sabrina.

Maybe
that
was the problem.

He wanted to get Sabrina pregnant himself. In the
traditional way. He didn’t want her carrying some other guy’s baby
unless it was absolutely necessary. The only way he could be sure
of that would be to have the blasted test and then, if he’d
miraculously escaped his dad’s fate, have his vasectomy reversed.
Unfortunately, after so many years, the odds of success would be
low.

Just before noon, Annie rushed into the ICU with Ben
hot on her heels. Once again, her hair was a glossy cap of dark
curls, and she’d changed into a pair of jeans and a pale blue
polo.

“Any change?” she asked breathlessly.

“No.” Luke shook his head. “His condition’s about
the same.”

“Where’s Sabrina?” Ben asked.

“I acted like an insensitive ass, and she walked out
on me.”

A second later, Sabrina strolled back into the room.
“I went to have a cup of coffee with David Lambert’s fiancée,
Casey,” she explained, proving she’d overheard their conversation.
She smiled at Annie. “Casey stopped by to see how you’re doing
while your friend was trying to blackmail my brother into
consciousness.”

“With what?” Annie stroked Tyler’s face and pressed
a kiss to his forehead.

“He basically announced he wouldn’t marry me if
Tyler doesn’t recover enough to take care of me and our kids if he
gets sick.”

Luke shrugged. “He promised me an ass-kicking if I
don’t marry her. Why should I worry if he’s not gonna follow
through?”

Ben crossed his arms over his chest and towered over
Luke’s wheelchair. “Because, after all these years, you should know
that, as Tyler’s friend, I consider it my duty to fulfill any
obligations he’s unable to. Even though I’d prefer for Sabrina to
choose me to be her husband, I
will
kick your ass for her
brother. So make up your mind, damn it! Are you planning to marry
her or not?”

“Maybe.”