Resurrection_a ROCK SOLID romance by Karina Bliss

Author:Karina Bliss [Bliss, Karina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Karina Bliss
Published: 2018-06-16T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Moss followed the signs to the oncology ward and was redirected to intensive care. At the reception desk, a nurse took his name and checked a visitor list.

“I doubt I’m on—”

“Along the corridor, first door to your left.”

“Thanks.” He swallowed nervousness as he approached. How do you commiserate with a woman you barely knew?

Jess lay in a bed, a scarf over her head, no eyelashes, no brows. Colorless. Without her name on the door he would never have connected her with the vibrant blonde he’d met in a bar last year. Hooked up to monitors and drips, with a nasal tube feeding her oxygen, her eyes were closed.

As he hesitated, unsure whether to wake her, her lids fluttered open, as though even that effort was a struggle. She saw him and relief lit her features, followed by an anxiety he couldn’t quantify.

“It came back,” he said.

“Yeah.” Her voice was a croak. She gestured to the water glass on the trolley beside the bed. Realizing she wouldn’t have the strength to sit by herself, he gently lifted her upright. Against his palm, her vertebrae felt as fragile as a baby birds.

A tiny sip and she removed her mouth from the straw. He eased her down. “I’m so sorry, Jess.” He didn’t know what else to say. A dirty weekend and some too-frank conversations over eleven months ago weren’t something to build small talk on at the best of times. Why had she phoned him now after ignoring his calls?

Immediate prospects were good but his cash flow was shit. What he hadn’t spent from his time in Rage, he was using to pay bills and invest in T-Minus 6. He should be celebrating that success, not thinking of ways to find a few grand if she needed money for treatment.

“I’m sorry, too.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I’ve upset you.” He was fucking useless at giving comfort. “I’ll go.”

“No.” She used her elbows to push up from the bed, her brown eyes panicking and her breath rattling in her chest.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stay.” Flustered, he pulled up a chair. “Please, Jess, lie down.”

Collapsing against her pillows, she held out a thin hand.

Full of pity, he took it. “You want me to call someone?”

Shaking her head, she used her free hand to grope for the button on a pump attached to her IV. For a half minute, maybe more, they sat in silence waiting for whatever she’d dosed herself with—morphine?—to kick in. Her eyes never left his face. Moss suffered, wanting to leave, compelled by human decency to stay. Slowly her breathing eased.

“I have to tell you something.” Her voice was stronger, quivering only on the last word. “We had a baby.”

The words made no sense so he laughed.

Her fingers tightened convulsively on his. “Two months old.”

She was hallucinating, she had to be. Still smiling, he squeezed her hand. “Jess, you said you got your period,” he reminded her.

“I…” She swallowed hard. “I lied. When you phoned I thought you might try to talk me into an abortion.

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