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“That Kylee’s a nice girl,” West said, stabbing his fork into the pie with brutal ferocity. “She’s had her eye on Cole for a while.”
“Yeah… ever since Nash and Porter got married,” Cole muttered, “so like, two months. She’s not too particular.”
“Still, she comes from a good family, and…” West swallowed the pie with difficulty. “Not a trace of scandal there at all. You’d have a happy life with a woman who wants to live out her days in Harvest Ranch. A good farm girl, who knows how to run the land.” Eva realized with a jolt that West’s words were meant solely for her. Her ex-fiancé could care less what Cole thought of Kylee. “Can you imagine breakfast in bed with her?”
Eva straightened in outrage.
“Sounds like she’s perfect for you,” Cole said. He hadn’t touched his pie.
West didn’t answer, just gave him a sidelong glance while he finished up his piece. “I need to head out soon, so Eva, why don’t you…?”
The phone rang, interrupting Eva’s intention to ferociously reject his offer of a ride back home in his private jet. She’d take an Uber all the way to Nashville to avoid another uncomfortable encounter with West if she had to.
A call on the landline usually meant news on their momma. Cole picked up the phone. “Hey, Dad,” he said. His hand tightened on the receiver. His shoulders hunched. The last day and a half had been hard, but now she literally saw him going into shock before her eyes.
West stood up. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Momma,” Cole rasped. “Her new heart’s failing. The drugs she was taking to suppress her immune system caused some sort of complication, and they can’t reverse it. She’s opting out of an emergency transplant. She doesn’t think she’ll survive it.”
West’s face had turned a chalky white. “Is she awake?”
Cole nodded into the phone. He was still trying to take in what his father was saying.
“Can we talk to her?” West wrestled the phone from Cole, directing all his fear and frustration at their father. “What do you mean she’s waiting for us? Is she in pain?” West grunted out in frustration. “We’ll be there. We’ll be there!” He hung up the phone, turning to Cole. “She wants to see us while she’s still…”
Cole was already gathering up his jacket. West snatched up the keys to his car.
“I’m so sorry,” Eva whispered.
West didn’t answer. His momma’s losing battle with her heart was too much for this day. He shot for the door, glancing back once at his childhood home. His eyes skipped over Eva to the dog. “Lizardman, come!”
The eager puppy seemed to sense that his master needed him and charged forward.
Cole was still in his wet clothes. She was too. His hand clenched against the doorframe when he followed his brother out onto the porch. “Wait for me to change,” Cole called out.
“Forget it,” West shouted back. “I have clothes in my jet!”
Cole had tried to wear his older brother’s clothes this past week when Eva had messed with his laundry. It hadn’t gone over well, but there wasn’t a doubt that West would leave them all if they didn’t go now. Eva didn’t even try to ask what she was supposed to do. West would desert her the second he could.
Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, she rushed after Cole as he took the steps two at a time. He ushered her into the back of West’s Lexus and slid into the seat next to her, his eyes glistening with untold pain. The Slade men were completely gutted, their earlier fight forgotten with the possibility of losing their momma.
Looking to the side, she saw her familiar pink-and-yellow luggage on the edge of the seat. “You already packed for me, West?” Anger flared through her, but she couldn’t give it an outlet right now. West wasn’t in the right frame of mind to fight with her. He merely shrugged.
He’d been desperate to peel her grasping fingers from his brother. She let out a breath of disbelief. At least she had some clothes to wear, though she knew that barging into their momma’s hospital room wasn’t her place. She burrowed deeper into Cole’s arms. He glanced down at her. “They want to put her into a medically induced coma because of the pain,” Cole said, “but… she refuses to let them touch her until she sees her boys.”
West pushed on the gas.
Cole kneaded his forehead with his fingers. “Dad said that he’s been trying to get ahold of us for at least an hour. Hudson’s already on his way over. I guess Nash and Porter cut their vacation short. They said they felt something was off.”
“They felt this?” West sneered. “Maybe they should’ve told the doctors, huh? Huh! They couldn’t have known this. No one did!”
Eva watched in shock as West grew increasingly unhinged. Tears pricked at her eyes as this unspeakable pain became hers. West would never invite her to feel this with him, but it drowned her in its misery all the same.
Cole’s lips tightened. “This all seems so unbelievable. The last time I talked to her, she sounded so healthy.”
West’s jaw clenched. Obviously he didn’t want to talk about it, even as they rushed to see their momma for what could be the last time. Sorrow and anger streaked across West’s face, each passion fighting for control and neither coming out the victor. He’d doneeverythingto fight his momma’s outcome, and still, it hadn’t been enough.
Eva rubbed Cole’s arm. He leaned into her, casting her a grateful look as he let her console him—just another difference between the two brothers—as he allowed her to share his pain with her. Cole pressed his head against the back of the seat, squeezing his eyes shut. She noticed the tears. He wasn’t afraid of them.
