Fade to Black (10 page)

Chapter
Twelve

Lily
lost track of how many times she’d asked and begged for God’s help in the past
thirty minutes since she received the phone call. Those thirty minutes felt
like a thousand lifetimes. She sat in Devlin’s car rocking back and forth,
knowing she had to get to her son. Her eyes went back and forth between the
time on the dashboard and the road to see how close they were to the hospital.
She had to get to him; her fingers ached from twisting them together over and over
again.

“Please, please, please let him
be
okay. Oh, God, please let him be okay.” She pressed her
fists into her stomach, hoping not to throw up in Devlin’s car.

“He’s going to be fine. We’re almost
there.” He reached over and ran his hand over her back.

“You don’t know that. You don’t know if
he’s going to be okay. You can’t tell me that.” She was beating herself up for
going away with Devlin, not being closer to her son. If she’d been in town
she’d already be at the hospital. But no, she had to go away to have sex with
Devlin.

Before Devlin could respond, they pulled up
to the hospital. Lily was out of the car before it came to a stop, running to
the door and throwing it open. At this point she didn’t care if Devlin was
behind her or not. Her only focus was getting to her son. As soon as she found
out which room he was in, she took off down the hall. She was almost to his
room when Devlin grabbed her from behind and spun her into his warm chest.

“Let me go, I have to get to him.” She beat
her fists on his chest.

“Not like this. Stop it. You’ve got to calm
down. Don’t let Leo see you like this.”

“I can’t calm down. Not until I see him.”

“Lily.” He grabbed her tighter with one arm
and forced her to look at him. “Lily. You
have
to calm down. Being this upset isn’t going to help anything or anyone.”

Looking into his eyes and being surrounded
by his strength and warmth, she knew he was right. She tipped down her head and
rested it on his chest. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down.
With his hands running up and down her back she knew she wasn’t alone. He was
going to be here with her to make sure Leo was okay. It wasn’t up to her to be
the sole responsible party, the one making all the decisions. He’d help her.
She could lean on him to get Leo and herself through this.

“Thank you.” Looking back up at him, she
rested a hand on his cheek. “Thank you for being here.”

“There’s no place else I’d rather be. Now
let’s go see your boy. He has to feel better soon. I have a new video game to
kick his ass in.”

“Boys and their games.”
She shook her head.

“Damn straight.” He squeezed her and placed
a kiss on top of her head before he let her go.

~^~

Devlin leaned up against the wall outside
of Leo’s room. They were keeping him overnight to make sure he wasn’t
dehydrated. His head thudded against the wall when he tipped it back to help
relieve the pain in his neck and shoulders. All those years playing a doctor in
a hospital was completely different than being on this end. Those roles he took
where he was a parent never could have prepared him for the fear that went
through him when Lily answered the phone to learn they were rushing Leo to the
hospital.

He knew he shouldn’t be feeling this
strongly for the boy, for both of them, actually. Although he always prided
himself on being a loner and never needing to depend on anyone, it would appear
things were changing. He always called the shots and now it would seem he was
powerless to walk away from Lily and Leo.

Shaking his head, he pushed off the wall
and started walking down the hallway. He’d told Lily he was going to get them
some coffee, as neither of them
were
going to get any
sleep tonight watching over Leo. He was so lost in thought he never noticed who
he walked right by. Hayden Dahl hid partially in the shadows watching him.

~^~

Lily spent a sleepless night at the
hospital worried about her son and thinking about everything that had happened.
Her thoughts centered
around
how Devlin fit into their
lives and how her actions made it so she wasn’t there when her son needed her.
She’d never forget the sound of her son’s voice on the other end of the phone
when she demanded to talk to him as he rode in an ambulance to the hospital. He
was so scared, and she hadn’t been there for him.

When they arrived home the next afternoon,
she settled her son into bed before she went out to start the coffee. Her steps
paused when she saw Devlin already making it.

“Thank you.” She sat down at the table,
dreading what she was going to say. “Devlin… this isn’t going to work. We shouldn’t
have gone away last night. We should have kept our relationship light, as
friends.” When he didn’t say anything, she glanced up through her eyelashes at
him. She cursed the fact that he was an actor and she couldn’t tell what he was
feeling. “Well, I guess we’re on the same page.” She couldn’t sit there while
he stared at her. Standing up, she walked to the refrigerator to get the
creamer for her coffee.

“What-” She was spun around and backed into
the counter.

“Where is this crap coming from?”

“Well… you know…”

“Yeah, I think I know exactly what you’re
thinking.”

“Well, you have to-”

“I don’t ‘have’ to do anything, but what
you ‘have’ to do is get out of your head and back into your heart. Shit happens,
babe. Even if you had been here alone, the same thing would have happened last
night. But you refuse to see that. You refuse to admit that it helped having me
there with you, to help you. You think you can deny what’s between us?” He
leaned in close to her and said, “Go ahead and try.” He pulled her closer and
captured her lips with his.

Since he was always so calm and
laid
back, his anger surprised her. She automatically opened
her mouth in a gasp when he grabbed her. He took the opportunity to slide his
tongue into her mouth. Losing all rational thought, she grabbed onto him and
pulled him in closer to her. When he backed away from her, she whimpered and
slowly opened her heavy eyes to look at him, questioning why he stopped.

“Go ahead, tell yourself what we have is
nothing, and you can just throw it away. Call me when you come to your senses.”
He strode out of the room and softly closed the door behind him.

Lily eased herself into the chair and
stared at the door. Somehow even in his anger he’d remembered Leo was sleeping
in the other room and didn’t slam the door. Her heart knew she was a lost cause;
she’d fallen for him. Her head, on the other hand, needed to analyze everything
and wasn’t ready to make any statement. As an added issue, now she had her
pride in the way.
Call me when you come
to your senses.
Really, for a smooth talking movie star who had dated a lot
of women, Devlin still had a lot to learn about them.

~^~

A week later, Dory came over with the sole
purpose of talking some sense into her. “Can you pull your head out of your ass,
please?” Dory slapped her upside the head.

“What the hell?” Lily said.

“Call him already.”

“Oh, no.
Not a chance.
That jerk
needs to call me first.
Besides, this is exactly why I never wanted to be in another relationship. It’s
too much work. I have a son and a business to run. I don’t need to be running
after a man.”

“
Mmm
hmm…”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means. Call him, you ass.
You know you want to.” When she didn’t say anything, Dory took the dusting rag
out of Lily’s hand and sat her down on the closest chair. “Who has known you
forever? Who has always been there for you? Who is the one who loves to tell
you when you’re being an ass? Me. Now listen up. Pull.
Your.
Head.
Out.
Of.
Your.
Ass.
And.
Call.
Him.”

“Wow, you’re so eloquent.” Lily tried to
stand up. “How many times did you use the word ass?”

“Oh, hell no.”
Dory pushed her back down in the chair. “I’ve sat here and watched you mope
around for the past week. No more. Suck it up and be happy. Just because you’re
a single mom doesn’t mean you can’t be happy.” Dory shoved Lily’s cell phone
under her nose. “Do it.”

Lily sat there glaring at Dory and the
phone, remembering when they first exchanged numbers how she felt all excited
like she did in high school when the cutest boy in school acknowledged her. She
wouldn’t cave no matter how terrible she’d felt for the past week. Of course
the dreams she’d been having of Devlin didn’t help the situation. She had tried
pushing herself physically so she’d be exhausted and hopefully fall into a
dreamless sleep. It wasn’t working.

“Come on, Dory, I can’t call him. I’m not
going to be one of ‘those women’ who chases after a man, especially a famous
movie star. Everyone knows he doesn’t do serious relationships. How many times
has he said to the press he’s never going to get married? No, it’s better now.
I’ll admit I miss him, and Leo misses him, but it’s better to end it now
before… before we fall in love or something.”

“Oh, sweetie, don’t you know? You’re
already in love with him.”

“What? No… you’re crazy. We haven’t known
each other long enough. We have different lifestyles. It just… it just wouldn’t
work out.” Lily sat there begging Dory to understand with her eyes.

“You keep telling yourself that.”

“Fine, I will. Now can I get up and finish
dusting?”

“Oh, you mean the same dusting you’ve been
doing twice a day every day for the past week? By all means, dust
away,
try to wipe Devlin out of your life as easily as the
dust.”

Lily narrowed her eyes at Dory, who
squinted back at her. This was an old battle of wills they’d had for years.
They both jumped when the phone Dory was still holding out to Lily rang.
Blinking, Lily looked down at who was calling, then back up to Dory. Without a
word, she picked up the phone and turned it around for Dory to see Devlin’s
name on the screen.

“Answer it!”

With shaking hands, Lily pressed the answer
button, stood up, and started pacing. “Hello.”

“Lily.”

“Devlin.”
When he didn’t say anything right away, Lily turned back toward Dory and
pointed at the phone with curiosity showing on her face. “Devlin, are you still
there?”

“Sorry, yes I am. I told the heads about
your gallery, there happens to be a new scene in my movie which your place
would be great for. You’d get paid for the use of it, and it’d only be for one
day. I thought you’d be able to put the money in Leo’s college fund.”

Lily’s sighed. She really thought he was
calling to talk to her about seeing her again. “Umm… yeah… that’d be fine.”

“Great, they’ll be there next Tuesday.
Someone from the studio will be calling you to set everything up.”

“Sure.
Great.
Will
you be in the scene?”

“No, I won’t be.”

“Oh, okay. Well, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” He paused. “Lily…”

“Yes?” She tried to keep the excitement out
of her voice.

“How’s Leo?”

Her shoulders slumped, and then she kicked
herself for being disappointed because he asked about her son and not her. Maybe
Dory was right, she
was
already in
love with him. “He’s doing
good
.
Really
good.”

“Tell him… tell him he should be getting
something in the mail tomorrow.”

“Sure. He’ll be excited. Well, if that’s
it…”

“I should get going, I’m due on set.
But Lily…
I’ve missed you.”

Lily sat down hard on the floor. “I’ve
missed you, too,” she whispered.

“If you’d like, I might be able to come up
with the crew on Tuesday. You know, to help explain things to you. And maybe to
spend some time together.”

Dory sat down behind her and Lily leaned
into her. “Yeah, that’d be great.
Real nice.”

Dory whispered, “Real smooth there, Walker,
real smooth.” She grunted when Lily elbowed her.

Devlin laughed softly. “Tell Dory I said
‘hey.’”

“She heard… and Devlin?”

“Yes, Lily.”

She could hear the smile in his voice and
it made her next words easier to say. “I can’t wait until Tuesday.”

“Me too.
See you soon.”

Lily sat there with Dory, looking at her
phone.

“You have to take a chance,” Dory said.
“You’re one of the strongest women I know. Look at everything you did with Leo.
You can do this. You’ll kick yourself later if you don’t.”