Tate pressed his lips to her knuckles, feeling her warm skin. His tears wouldn’t stop. They ran down his cheeks and landed on her bed. He brought her hand to his cheek, and placed his other, shaking, hand on her stomach, on top of their child. Looking at her face, he bit down hard on his lip as he willed himself not to scream out in pain.
Leaning over, he gently kissed her forehead, then leaned in close and said, “Baby, please, I need you to come out of this. I need you to wake up, look at me and tell me you love me as much as I love you. I need you to tell me we’re pregnant and when you are due. I need you to tell me what you want, a boy or a girl, because we never discussed that. I want a girl, someone as beautiful as you, with my humor, or maybe your humor, because I think you are funnier than I am. I need to know, baby. I can’t do this world, this place, without you. I need you. Please, please, come out of this. Please. I love you. I do, Audrey, so fucking much. I love you. I hope you can hear me and know that I do. I do, so much.”
His tears splashed along her skin as his heart broke into pieces. He didn’t simply want her anymore. He needed her. He needed her smile, her laugh, her commentary during their shows. He needed to taste every cupcake she created. He needed to taste her lips after a long day on the ice or after a long road trip away from her. He needed to feel her naked scrumptious body against his every single day. He needed to make her his wife. He needed her to grow their baby, so that he could help her nurture it when she brought it into the world. He needed her to know he was going to love her with his whole being, every day, for the rest of their lives.
He needed her.
Placing her hands back down, he sank into the chair next to the bed and watched as her chest rose and fell with the sounds from the ventilator. Running his fingers through his hair, he gripped the strands and pulled, welcoming the pain while feeling like his world was ending.
“Sir, are you staying with her through the night?”
Tate looked up at the doctor and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Did you ask her family?”
The doctor nodded. “They said to ask if you wanted to.”
Tate wanted to run to Nora, William, and Fallon, wrap his arms around them and thank them. They had given him the ultimate gift, because he wasn’t sure how he was ever going to leave her.
Nodding, Tate said, “Yes, I need to stay.”
Chapter 28
Fallon stood in front of a pair of windows, looking out onto the Nashville skyline. It was so beautiful, and so sparkly as people lived their lives, not a care in the world, while her heart slowly broke from the pain of having no answers about her sister. It was close to midnight, and the doctors expected some kind of change by now, but there wasn’t any. Clutching her neck, her phone sat loosely in her other hand. She had called Susie to check on Aiden and to ask her to keep him through the night until tomorrow, when they knew some more answers. Thankfully for her, Susie was on vacation from her job and was a good neighbor who had no problems helping them out.
Tears pooled in Fallon’s eyes as she thought of how to tell Aiden about Audrey. He wouldn’t understand, and it killed her to think how scared he was going to be. Audrey was his world, as she was Fallon’s. How would any of them survive if she didn’t make it? When she felt and then saw a pair of strong, tattooed arms come around her waist, she crumbled against Lucas, holding onto him as if he was the life jacket she needed.
“Baby girl, everything is going to be okay,” he whispered against her neck.
“I’m so scared, Lucas, so fucking scared,” she cried as his grip on her tightened.