Beers, Lies and Alibis (Warblers Point Series Book 2) (10 page)

Five missed calls? Then it hit her, Booker was talking to Finn on the phone. Her stomach dropped as she reached over to where Booker was holding the phone to his ear. She ripped the phone out of his hand as well as the charger that was attached to the wall. Booker scrambled to get back on the bed after her abrupt movements had sent him barreling off of it.
 

“Finn? Finn are you there?” Fiona yelled into the phone.

“I’m here, baby girl.”

“Finn, what’s going on?”

“There’s been a fire.”

Fiona’s heart plummeted to the floor as she thought about the pub going up in flames. All their hard work, completely destroyed. Then she thought about what Booker said, someone was hurt…Liam.

“Is Liam okay?” Fiona said in a panic, as her throat started to seize on her.
 

“Liam is fine, Fiona. You need to calm down.”

“But the pub, Finn. We worked so hard…”

“It wasn’t the pub, baby girl.”

Then what the hell was it? At that moment, the room started spinning on her, once the severity of the situation hit her.
 

In the distance, Fiona could hear Finn saying, “The Sleeping Potato caught on fire. It was one of the cabins in the back, which then spread to two other cabins. Thankfully, no one was in them. Ma was able to call the fire department in time before it hit the main house, but I need you to know that Da didn’t take the fire very well. His heart seized on him, baby girl. He needed to be rushed to the hospital where they performed surgery on him.” Finn cleared his throat. “There were some complications and uh, he’s in a coma, Fiona.”

The phone dropped from Fiona’s hand as she took in everything her brother was telling her. Her dad was in the hospital, unresponsive. She had to get to him, she had to see him, hold his hand and tell him everything was going to be okay. If he heard her voice, he would come back, she knew he would. She was his little girl; if anyone could bring him back it was her. She was sure of it.
 

She heard Booker talking to Finn on the phone as Fiona got out of bed and started packing random articles of clothing into her duffle bag. She needed to get to her dad; she didn’t care what time it was, she needed to see him.
 

“Baby?” Booker asked.

***

Booker watched Fiona run frantically around their room, shoving clothes, cosmetics and pretty much anything she could get her hands on into her giant duffle-bag suitcase. The minute Booker heard Finn’s voice so early in the morning, he knew something bad had happened. For a second, Booker almost thought it had to do with Blaire, but now that he thought about it, that theory didn’t make much sense since Finn and Blaire had not spoken to each other in months.
 

Wanting to ease some of the pain that was running through Fiona’s body, Booker grabbed Fiona by the shoulders to pull her into a hug.
 

“NO!” she screamed. “Get off of me. I need to pack.”

Shock wasn’t a good enough word to describe Booker’s reaction to Fiona’s outburst. His entire body flushed as he tried to think about what the hell just happened. He wanted to comfort his girl; he wanted to be there for her, but apparently she had other thoughts as to what she wanted and he wasn’t in the picture…that was for damn sure.
 

She scurried around the room and continued to pack things until she seemed satisfied with her collection of mismatched clothes, toiletries and the occasional knick knack from the dresser. She ran her hands through her hair and then ran off to the bathroom. The shower turned on as her clothes were flung to the ground.

Cautiously, Booker walked into the bathroom and caught sight of a very naked Fiona, tapping her foot and waiting for the water to get warm.
 

“Baby?” Booker asked. She didn’t acknowledge him; she just continued to tap her foot and check the water temperature with her hand, each time shaking her head in disgust at the still-frigid water.
 

“Baby, you’re making me nervous. Can you please…?”

Fiona shot her head up and looked Booker straight in the eyes. “Don’t you dare even think about talking to me right now.” Fury laced her voice as she stared him down with a look that would scare Satan himself.
 

“I don’t understand…”

“You don’t understand? What don’t you understand? You’re the reason why I’m not with my family right now, why I’m not holding my dad’s hand, bringing him back to us. You, Booker. You’re the reason why I’m so damn depressed and miserable. I should be there,” she screamed. “I should be there with my family, but instead I decided to chase some stupid dream of being with you and look where that brought me. My dad is in a hospital bed! In a coma!”

Fiona dropped to the floor right next to where Booker’s heart was lying and put her head in her hands as she cried uncontrollably to herself.
 

Booker had no clue how to react. Frankly, he was flabbergasted, gob smacked, as Mary Margaret would say. The minute Fiona blamed Booker for her being so miserable, Booker felt like his heart was split in two and dragged around a very large patch of thorn bushes.
 

She couldn’t really believe that, could she? Could she really be that miserable and depressed? He knew that the last couple of weeks had been tough, but he thought things were looking up now that they had a weekend coming up to spend with each other. Plus, the craziness was going to end soon. He was almost done with all the production and promotional demands. He’d explained that to her.
 

Not wanting to have his problems become the main focus of the night, he decided to suck up his pride that was so brutally smashed by his girl, and help her. She was hurting; she needed him.
 

Booker turned off the shower and sat down next to his very naked girlfriend. Putting his arm around Fiona, he pulled her reluctant body closer into his. No matter what she said to him, he was going to brush it aside because she was hurting. There was no way she meant what she said.
 

Placing a kiss on Fiona’s head, he said, “I will call Jeff and get the private jet ready. You can take off whenever you want.”

She just nodded her head as she stood up, turned the shower back on and got in, not worrying about the temperature this time. Booker thought about joining her, but knew that would be a bad decision. So instead, he watched her wash her body incredibly quickly and then held out a towel for her when she stepped out of the water two minutes later.
 

Fiona stepped into the towel and started drying herself as Booker talked to Jeff, his pilot, on the phone. Everything was all set and they would meet at the airport in an hour.
 

Booker grabbed Fiona’s bag and was headed out to the garage when she said, “Where’s your bag?”

Knowing the next couple of minutes weren’t going to go very well, Booker dropped her bag and pulled her into his arms.
 

“I’m going to have to meet up with you this weekend, babe.”

“What?!” Fiona pulled away instantly. “My dad is in the hospital and you are not going to go with me to be with him?”

Completely deflated, Booker lowered his head in shame. “Fiona, I have no choice in the matter. I wish I could go, believe me, but I just can’t right now. I have two more commitments that I have to make and then I’m all yours, I promise.”

“This isn’t about me and needing attention, Booker. This is about me wanting my boyfriend to be by my side while my father battles for his life.”

There was no way of getting out of his commitments and there was no way Fiona was ever going to forgive him for not being there for her, but there was literally nothing he could do. It was out of his hands.
 

“Babe…”

“Don’t.” Fiona held up her hand and grabbed her bag that she struggled greatly with. “Just drive me to the airport so I can get to my family, so I can be with people who care about me.”

Booker tried to ignore the dig Fiona threw his way, but the entire drive over to the airport Booker constantly thought about how he was letting Fiona down and that, if there was any way for him to be there for her, he would. Something in the back of his mind kept telling him if he didn’t get on that plane with her, he could kiss his entire relationship with Fiona goodbye. Too bad he had a signed contract that he couldn’t break, or else he would do anything to hold on to the one thing in his life that made him happy, that made him live.
 

***

So many thoughts ran through Fiona’s mind as she waited for the plane to take off. The pilots were still warming up the plane and making sure everything was set, the flight attendant was not looking too thrilled about the middle of the night flight and Booker was outside of the airplane talking to someone as he paced the tarmac.
 

Fiona just wished he would leave because she couldn’t stand the thought of seeing him, but not being able to lean on him for comfort. She knew he was talking to someone about the production commitments he had, but she wasn’t hopeful. She had seen the look in his eyes back at the house; he wouldn’t be taking the flight out to Warblers Point with her.
 

She couldn’t worry about Booker right now, though; she needed to focus on her family and especially getting to her dad. He was such a strong man, never did she think she would be flying out to Warblers Point in the middle of the night because he had a heart attack, let alone be in a coma.
 

Tears trickled down Fiona’s cheeks as she thought about what he must look like in the hospital, hooked up to a bunch of machines, wearing a hospital gown and looking completely helpless.
 

Growing up, he was such a strong and stoic figure in her and her brothers’ lives. He was dependable, he took care of the family and whenever they were together as a family, he always tried to make the most of their time because he loved them all. Her mom might be the heart and soul of the family, but their dad was the glue. He was the one who held everyone together, made them work out their problems so their mom never got upset and he was the one who would sit by your side when things weren’t going your way. Now he was in the hospital, completely helpless.
 

Booker popped on the plane and spoke quietly to the pilots as they nodded their heads. Once Booker was done talking to them, he turned to the flight attendant and asked for some privacy. Nodding politely, the flight attendant went to the back of the plane, leaving Fiona and Booker completely alone.
 

Kneeling down in front of Fiona, Booker grabbed her hand and said, “I just got off the phone with the studio execs…”

“You don’t need to tell me the rest,” Fiona interrupted. “I know you have to stay here.” Even though she said the words, secretly she wished she was wrong; secretly she hoped he was going to wrap her in his arms and say he would stay with her.
 

Instead, Booker lowered his head in shame. “I’m sorry, baby. There is no way for me to get out of it. Believe me, I want to be there for you, for your family. It’s tearing me in two sending you back to Warblers Point on your own.”

Tears continued to fall down Fiona’s face as she tried to look at anything besides the look of sorrow in Booker’s eyes. She needed him and he was making her feel guilty for being mad at him. How did that even work?

“Just leave. The longer you stay on the plane, the longer it’s going to take for me to get back to my dad.”

“Please, don’t be mad at me.”

“I’m not,” Fiona said, with an empty tone.
 

“Then look at me.”
 

Gathering every ounce of willpower in her body, she turned and looked Booker in the eyes. The sight in front of her made her stomach fall to the ground. Fear raced through his features as he searched her eyes.
 

“Please understand my position. Please know that if I actually had the choice, I would be there with you.”

Fiona just nodded her head because she knew he would. She knew it was killing Booker to not go back to Warblers Point with her, but what was making her mad and second-guessing their relationship was the fact that he didn’t give up everything to be with her. She knew it was a selfish demand, but she couldn’t help it. She would drop anything to be with Booker, to help him if he needed it. Hell, she left her entire family and flew across country to be with Booker so he could still work and be with her at the same time.
 

“I will be heading out to Vermont first thing Saturday morning, okay?” Fiona just nodded her head again, not able to use her voice due to the fact that she was so choked up. “Do you still want me to come out on Saturday?” Booker kissed her hand as he searched her eyes once again.
 

“Yes,” she squeaked out, as more tears fell down her face.
 

“Shit, baby, I’m so sorry. Please understand that. I…” Booker ran one of his hands through his hair as he gathered himself and tried to decide what to say. “I can’t believe I have to leave you right now. I swear to fuck I did everything possible to be with you baby. I promise you.”