Torn (29 page)

Was it possible to step inside another person’s soul? Because that’s what it felt like now –– Tyler knew her so well, he had to be a part of her. It was the only explanation. Like now, as his fingertips stroked the curve of her lumbar vertebrae, making her purr like a kitten –– she’d never known that spot existed. How had he known?

“I wasn’t sure until the first ultrasound, when the technician was able to determine their exact age. I counted backwards…” Her short laugh was unfocused and rippled through him. “Strange to see their conception on the silver screen.”

Tyler held her tighter. “I watched that scene tonight, wondering… I know I apologized then…” He pulled back to look into her eyes. “I’m not sorry now,” he repeated.

Chelsea’s smile was small but warm as she reached up and ran her fingers through his golden locks, leaving a tingling trail where her nails touched his scalp. “It’s hard and going to get harder… And it’s going to hurt like hell to tell him… But I know I’ve been graced. Gifted with a double blessing in addition to the girls I’ve been gifted with already.”

“So you are going to tell him.”

“Of course. Tyler, I should have told him from the beginning. I was all set to –– but I wanted to tell you first… By the time I’d worked up the courage to call, I couldn’t reach you. Later I found out that it was because my timing sucked –– the pilot had just ordered all phones off.”

“Anyway, I couldn’t reach you to tell you, and I didn’t want to tell Jake before I’d had a chance to talk to you first. But news travels warp-speed in a small town. And Jake came home that night knowing I was pregnant and assuming he was the father. I lied by omission that night. It escalated from there.” Her smile twisted, became rueful. “You know, in that weird, snowball kind of way that only lies and fear can accomplish? My only excuse is that I don’t want to hurt him. I love Jake. He doesn’t deserve this.”

Saying nothing, Tyler nodded. After all, what
could
he say? They both knew she was right. Jake didn’t deserve this… but he did deserve the truth.

He took a step back, picked up her hand and clasped it, linked their fingers. “Speaking of Jake…” Somehow he managed to say the name without guilt squeezing his throat, “He’s bound to be wondering what’s taking you so long.”

“Yeah, she followed some guy in a weird shirt into the men’s room. They’ve been in there a while but I didn’t want to inter––“ The clerk coughed again. “I mean, I didn’t want to bother ––“ The clerk’s face flamed red at the sudden stillness on Ty’s face.

“I-I’m s-sorry…”

Tyler shook his head, forced a smile as he steered Chelsea out of earshot. “Thanks, man.”

But one look at her beautiful, suddenly anxious face told him she’d heard enough. “Shit. She’s telling him –– if she hasn’t told him already.”

Tyler swore. It felt good, so he did it again. And again. How could he have allowed himself to be suckered by her? You’d
think
that after spending a good eighteen years in Hollywood, he’d know better. He turned on his heel, his goal the men’s room. “Wait here, Chels. I’ll be right back.”

But she ignored him and trailed him as he strode across the wide hall with its florid, red and black paisley carpeting. From behind Tyler’s broad shoulders, she heard her husband’s voice, using a tone she’d never heard before.

The door jerked open and Jennifer Green flew out, running straight into her ex-husband. She heard Tyler ask his former spouse:
“What have you done now?”
But her eyes were on her husband and the naked pain she read in his eyes when he spotted her. Jake’s eyes closed on his new, blank face, and Chelsea’s heart broke. “Jake…”

He knew.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

J
ake stepped through the restroom door, dropped the bag of fish and the cup of soda into a nearby trashcan, and kept going. Fuck Hollywood. Chelsea could have it. He was going back home to his daughters and Montana. Chelsea could kiss his sweet, mellow, good-guy ass.

Through the roar of blood in his ears, he dimly heard Chelsea calling after him. A moment later, Jennifer Green cursed her ex as she streaked past. Watching the vivacious, vampiric blonde shove open the exit door on her way out, Jake laughed to himself. That bitch. She even stole his grand, dramatic exit.

No matter. He was outside now, enjoying the crisp, November air, ignoring the media as flashes went off around him like lightening. He saw Jennifer get behind the wheel of her Rolls and turn the key in the ignition. Music, in poor taste and obnoxiously loud, blasted from the car. He fought the urge to cover his ears with his hands and kept going. Halfway across the street, don’t stop now.

“Jake!”

Sighing, he turned around, saw Chelsea trying to run over to him. She was at the curb. He frowned, started to walk back. She couldn’t possibly catch up to him, but she’d try, and he didn’t want those babies hurt. He’d come to think of them as his. He loved them already, had actually looked forward to their birth in spite of his declarations that having two was having enough.

Ty’s babies
, a voice whispered viciously in his head. Its mockery distracted him and he failed to notice the reverse lights glow ivory on the back of Jennifer’s car, failed to see Chelsea step off the curb behind the gleaming, white vehicle.

“Jake!
Please!”

Stereo blasting, Jennifer floored it. It was the piercing shriek of burning rubber, its thick, sour odor, that snapped Jake back to attention. His eyes flared wide with fear. “Chelsea!”

The sound was sickening, the eerie, too-soft
thump
as vehicle met body. It wasn’t nearly explosive enough to fill the empty void of terror Jake’s heart as he watched his love, the mother of his children, hit the ground a second before two tons of metal covered her, blocking her body from his line of vision.

But he was moving. In two seconds flat, he was at her side as Jennifer flew out of the vehicle and ran over.

“Oh, shit! Jake, I swear! I didn’t see her –– I didn’t know she was there!”

He ignored the starlet and looked up to see Ty Benson racing through the theatre doors, talking fast but clear into his cellular. In one fluid motion, the older man had pocketed the tiny phone and was on his knees beside him, reaching for his wife. He saw how Ty’s hands itched to pull her out from under the car, yet he knew they shouldn’t move her.

“An ambulance is on the way,” Ty informed him, his famous eyes moist and full of love as he looked at the fallen woman.

Chelsea was unconscious. A nasty scrap, bleeding and complete with an ugly bruise, just over her right temple explained why. “She must have hit her head on the curb when she went down,” the actor murmured.

“No shit, Ty.” Jake reached under the car to feel his wife’s pregnant stomach. “The babies are still squirming around as much as ever. That’s a good sign.”

Ty, watching Chelsea’s husband feel his wife’s abdomen, gritted his teeth. “Good.”

Jake’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the man his wife had fallen in love with. A camera flashed, immortalizing the moment, and distracting Ty out of his possessive stance. “Fucking paparazzi,” the actor growled. Jake noticed him glaring at his ex, who was holding an impromptu press conference, no doubt stating that she hadn’t backed onto the other woman on purpose. She probably didn’t, but gee, how convenient.

Sirens, faint at first, grew louder as the EMS and the police arrived. The paramedics wasted no time in getting Chelsea stabilized and out from under the car.

“Careful, she’s pregnant.” Ty cautioned the obvious, and Jake rolled his eyes as the star-struck emergency medical crew nodded in unison.

“With twins,” Jake added as he climbed up into the ambulance to ride with his wife.

Ty started to hoist himself inside as well, but was stopped by an apologetic EMS worker. “I’m sorry, but only one person is allowed to ride with the patient.”

“And she’s
my
wife,” Jake added, smug.

“But she’s carrying m––“ Ty bit down on his tongue, hard, as Jake glared at him from the confines of the vehicle, daring him to say more. Choke on it, asshole.

Ty stepped down from the tailgate. “I’ll follow. Which hospital?”

“Osteopathic General,” the paramedic replied.

The dual doors of the ambulance slammed shut in his face but instead of wasting time thinking about that, Tyler raced over to one of the standing limousines at the curb.

The limo driver’s eyes widened in surprise and, chuckling, he got out of the long stretch vehicle. “Be my guest. But you break it, you bought it.”

“Understood.” Tyler slid behind the wheel and buckled his seatbelt. He gripped the steering wheel and took a deep breath. Close to fifteen years had gone by since he’d last been at the wheel of one of these inflexible monsters.

“We just need to take your statement, Ms. Green,” one of the cops –– a young woman –– stated, as her male partner opened the door for the famous actress.

“Just ask my husband. He was here. He saw the whole thing –– Ty?”

“Isn’t he your ex-husband, Ma’am?”

Ignoring the officer, Jennifer’s gaze swept through the crowd, and Tyler decided he’d seen enough. Gently, he pressed the gas, and the great machine rolled forward. He was being extra careful not to attract attention as he started to drive away from the scene. But his ex caught him anyway.

“There he is! He’s in that limo!”

Tyler took off.

Chapter Thirty

J
ake looked at his wife’s graceful hands as the paramedics took her vitals. How had their life become so complicated? How was it that a long-standing joke between him and his wife became the very thing that he knew would end their life together?

He picked through the doors of his mind until he found the memory he was looking for.
Jake, you’re too confident in my love for you. I think you need to show a little jealousy now and then. Otherwise, who knows? I may run off with Ty Benson… Hey! Stop laughing! Ty Benson is my fallback plan. And see what a fair wife I am? You can have whomever you want as yours…

What action had been taken that had tweaked fate in this manner? Sure, Chelsea had always been a fan of the actor, had thought from his pictures and his interviews that he was a gorgeous, smart guy. A guy that… What were her exact words? Ah yes:
A guy that would be fun to hang with.
Her ace in the hole, so to speak.

Neither of them had taken her words seriously. How could they? Ty Benson was a billion light years away on a planet called Hollywood. If Chelsea was to have met him, how come she didn’t back when both she and the actor lived in New York City? Why now? How is it that she lives to the left of Nowhere, and
now
Ty Benson sweeps into her life? Jake would have figured them to have an ice cube’s chance in hell … Yet, here they were. And, thanks to Jennifer Green, he couldn’t hide from it anymore.

What on Earth were the odds?

“Jake?”

The soft whisper filtered through his musings, and he looked at his wife. She watched him from the gurney, her eyes dark and mournful, yet he could see the love inside their depths. Love for him. But in love with Ty Benson. Damn him.

“Jake… I’m so sorry.”

Jake’s shoulders rose and fell as he sighed. “I know.” And he did. Chelsea was sorry for hurting him, sorry that she was no longer in love with him… But it was also clear she wasn’t apologizing for falling in love with Ty Benson –– of all people.

“I didn’t… mean for this to happen.” Her voice was soft, and Jake noticed what she didn’t say –– the word
want
instead of
mean
. He wondered if she even noticed the omission.

Chelsea closed her eyes for a moment. When she next opened them, they shone from sadness. “Because I love you. Because you mean everything to me –– Jake, you’ve been my best friend for so long… How could I do this to you? To us? And also because…”