The Ninth Floor (17 page)

“Would you
mind if I stayed in town, too?”

“Do
you
want to stay, or are you doing it because you think that’s what I want?”

He sighed. “I
want to be here because this is where you are. I don’t know if I want to be
here for the rest of my life, but I can figure that out later.”

“So long as
you figure it out, and you’re honest about it.”

“I swear.” I
nodded, and Briggs smiled and took my hand. “A new start for both of us.”

I took a deep
breath, considering my options. “I’m seeing Jack. Does that bother you?”

“Of course it
does. Would it bother you if I were seeing another girl?”

“Yes.”

He nodded and
grimaced. “Keep seeing him though. If I can’t win you back with a little
competition, then maybe it wasn’t meant to be.”

I withdrew my
hand from his and leaned back against the couch. “Are you going to keep living
with my parents?” I made a face.

Briggs
laughed. “God no. They follow me around, asking questions about you and my
family. And I think your brother hates me.”

“Yeah,
maybe—but you totally deserve it.” I giggled just a little. Briggs nodded. “Can
I stay here tonight? On the couch, of course, since we haven’t even been on our
first date.”

“Yes, and you
can take the dogs out for their bedtime walk.”

It was so easy
having him around. We were so used to each other’s habits that we almost had an
unspoken language. It was like a dance I had always known. Briggs didn’t try to
take advantage of the situation at all either. He only gave me a small peck on
the cheek when we said good night.

As I fell
asleep, a dog on either side of me, I wondered what on earth I was going to say
to Jack.

My conversation with Jack came
earlier than expected. He dropped by before work, bringing coffee with him.
Briggs was out walking the dogs, but I knew he’d be home soon. The couch had a
crumpled cover and pillow on it. I wasn’t going to be able to hide anything.

“We need to
talk,” I told him, ushering him inside.

“Sure, shoot,”
he said, brushing his lips against mine.

“Two things.
First, I spoke with Briggs last night—”

Jack went
stiff, taking a step back. “I thought you were spending time with your brother.”

“I did. Blair
and I spent the day together and had dinner, but Briggs stopped by late,
wanting to talk.”

Jack’s eyes
fluttered to the couch, and his eyebrows shot up.

I nodded.

“What are you
trying to say, Ryan?” His voiced changed. It was deeper, slightly withdrawn. He
was about two clicks away from drawing the completely wrong conclusion.

“We had a good
conversation. It cleared up some stuff for me, for both of us.” I didn’t really
know how to say the next part, so I decided blunt as possible was best. “He
wants a second chance.”

Jack pushed up
his glasses. “And you told him it’s too late?”

“It’s not that
easy. I owe it to him—” Jack started to object, but I waved him off. “I told
him I was seeing you too, and that I don’t intend to stop, but Briggs was my
first love. I can’t not give him another chance.”

“Damn it,
Ryan.”

“I’m sorry.”
Jack looked so furious, I was confused. “I just, well…I need to be sure.”

He closed his
eyes and inhaled deeply. “Things were going so well. I was thinking we could go
out of town for a weekend together, have a romantic getaway. Move our
relationship further.”

“I told you I
needed to take this slow.”

He shook his
head but didn’t say anything.

“Now, of
course, whether we keep seeing each other is ultimately up to you. I wanted to
put all the cards on the table.”

“You want to
date us both?” He shook his head again. “How is that fair to either of us? I’m
too old for this, Ryan. I like you. I just want to be with you. I don’t want to
date a girl who’s dating someone else.”

I felt bad for
him, but if he made me choose right away, I couldn’t be sure I’d choose him.
Briggs was so much of my life that I couldn’t just walk away. “Do you think
this is fair to me? Do you think I wanted for Briggs and me to fall apart over
a simple misunderstanding? Do you think I wanted to find out you
lied
to
me?”

Jack tilted
his head, and I could practically see the wheels turning behind his eyes. “What
did I lie about?”

“Have you lied
so much you don’t know?”

“No. I’m just
baffled.”

“I spoke to
the nurse last night.”

Jack drew in
his breath and nodded slowly. “I didn’t want to worry you. You’ve been so
preoccupied with the ghost stuff that I didn’t want to feed into that. What she
said wasn’t possible. I have to run tests and verify some details, and I didn’t
want to upset you until I knew.”

“That’s
unacceptable, Jack. What else have you lied about to not worry me?”

“Nothing.”

“You have no
idea how much I want to believe that.”

“That’s not
fair.”

“But it’s how
I feel. I can’t be in a relationship with you if I can’t trust you, and we were
getting pretty damn close when you lied right to my face. How do I know you
aren’t lying about everything? The way I see it, I’m dealing out second chances
right now. It’s up to you if you take it.”

Jack frowned
and paced a little, looking back at me occasionally like he’d like to argue but
kept thinking better of it. Finally he shrugged. “Fine. But you have to go on
real dates with me.”

“Fine.”

“And no more
slow.”

I shook my
head. “I can’t promise that.”

“No more
telling me to go slow then. What happens, happens.”

“Fine.”

He gave me a
lopsided grin. “What are you doing tonight?”

“I’m working
on the apartment.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Dinner with
Briggs.”

Jack frowned. “Saturday?”

“So far, I’m
free.”

“Can I have
the whole day?”

“I have things
I need to do.”

“Late
afternoon, plus dinner then.”

“Sounds good.”

Briggs walked
in then, a smile freezing on his face as he struggled to be gracious. Sid and
Nancy gave Jack a couple warning barks to let him know they had an eye on him.

“Good to see
you again, Jack.” Briggs held out his hand after quieting the dogs.

“Can’t say I
feel the same,” Jack said, but he did shake Briggs’s hand. “But if it’s what Ryan
wants …” He let his voice trail off.

Briggs raised
an eyebrow and they gave each other commiserating looks before turning to me.

“Well, this is
awkward,” I said. “It was nice seeing both of you, but I think it’s time for
everyone to leave—and just so we’re all clear, tonight is completely mine. No
calling, no dinners, no coming over for late night talks, nothing.” I pushed
the guys toward the door, and when I’d shut it behind them, I leaned against it
for just a moment. What on earth was I going to do with the two of them?

I shook my
head and finished getting dressed. I decided to some time with Sid and Nancy, hoping to miss Jack’s rounds with Bee and feeling okay about that because I knew
Blair would be there. The dogs and I hit the dog park. It wasn’t crowded, but
they had a good time romping and playing with each other.

After about
fifteen minutes, my cell phone rang. I dug it out of my purse and answered just
before the voice mail picked up. “‘lo?”

“I think you
should come here.” Blair’s voice sounded strange on the other end.

“Why? What’s
happening? Is Bee okay?”

“Um, I’m not
sure. Physically she’s okay, but she’s really upset about something. She keeps
saying ‘She jumped out the window, she jumped out the window.’ I asked her who,
and she just looked at me like she’d never seen me before and asked, ‘Where’s
Ryan?’ in a voice that wasn’t hers.”

“Have you
looked at her feet?”

“What?”

“Humor me.”

“Okay,” he
grumbled, and I heard a door open and movement. “Hi, Bee. I have Ryan on the
phone. She’s on her way. She just wants me to look at your feet.” Bee was
mumbling in the background, but I couldn’t understand what she was saying.
Blair’s voice covered hers completely when he asked, “What am I supposed to be
looking for?”

“Never mind,
they’re obviously fine. I’ll drop off the dogs and be right there.”

Before Blair
could reply, I heard what sounded like a scuffle. There was a grunting noise.
Then Blair shouted, “Hey,” though he sounded far away. The phone got staticky,
and suddenly a voice I didn’t recognize filled my ear. “Don’t come here, or you’ll
die too. You’ll die, you’ll die, you’ll die, you’ll die— She jumped off the
building, she—”

The phone went
dead. I whistled for the dogs and they bounded back to me.

“Come on. In
the car,” I told them and dialed Blair back with shaky fingers, but my call
went right to voice mail. I took the dogs home and found a note pinned to my
door. Just what I needed. I didn’t even bother to look at it. I shoved it into
my purse and drove to the hospital in record time.

When I got
there, squad cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring surrounded the north
end of the old section of the complex. The side Bee was on. I ran into the
hospital before the police, who seemed to have just gotten there too, could
close off the entrance. I pushed the elevator button several times, but the
damn thing was moving so slow I couldn’t stand the wait. I headed for the
stairs, running up them as fast as I could. Barreling through the door on the
tenth floor, I didn’t even care if I ran into someone. Everything was eerily
quiet on the floor. I didn’t see any of the normal bustling of morning doctors
and nurses. I charged into Bee’s room.

Bee was lying
on the bed, breathing normally—peacefully even—and Blair, Jack, and about four
nurses stood at the window, staring out. “What’s happening?” I asked, trying to
catch my breath.

Blair and Jack
turned, and Blair came over and threw his arms around me, trembling. “It’s been
a horrible morning,” he said, squeezing me until I couldn’t breathe. “Where were
you?”

I pushed him
away gently. “What happened? Who was that on the phone?”

Jack cleared
his throat and looked from us to the door then back to Bee in a clear
indication he didn’t want us to talk in front of her. I led Blair to the
waiting room, and we sat in the hard chairs. Blair cleared his throat, his eyes
rimmed in red. “I checked her feet like you told me to, and I was about to say
goodbye when she came out of nowhere. Bee hit the phone out of my hand and
grabbed it before I could get it back. Then she hissed something into the phone
and threw it against the wall.” He produced the pieces of his broken phone. “About
this time, the racket had gotten the nurses’ attention. They came in with Jack
and were trying to sedate her when she started laughing hysterically. Then she
went completely limp.” Blair’s hands shook as he tried to clasp them together.

“I thought she
died. Jack and the nurses looked startled. Jack even took her pulse. But she
was sleeping, just sleeping after all of that. That was when all the commotion
started. Codes were coming over the intercom and everyone went to the window.
Someone jumped, just like she said, Ryan.
Someone jumped.
”

I hugged
Blair. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I should’ve warned you. She was a little
strange yesterday morning too. Jack said it’s the cirrhosis.”

“This wasn’t
just a
little
strange.”

“I know. If it
was like yesterday, she’ll be fine this afternoon and won’t remember anything.
I know it’s hard, but today will get better.” I patted his leg. “I’m going to
go back and talk to Jack. You want to come?”

“I need just a
minute.”

I nodded to
Aiden as I walked out, and he gave me a slight acknowledgement. The crowd had
dispersed from Bee’s room, but Jack was still next to her bed. “What happened?”
I asked him. “Is she okay?”

“She seems
fine. I just don’t understand these bouts.” His eyebrows knit together. “They’re
…bizarre even considering her condition.”

“And the
woman?”

Jack shook his
head.

I took Bee’s
hand and squeezed. Her eyes fluttered open. “Ryan, dear, when did you get here?”

“Just now. How
are you feeling?”

“Tired.”

“We’re going
to run a few tests today, Bee. Are you up for that?”

She nodded.

“Okay, I’ll
schedule them. You rest.”

We watched
Jack walk out and Bee smiled at me. “Things are going well with Dr. Sadler?”

“Well,” I
said, making a face, “it’s complicated. Briggs is sort of back in the picture.”

Bee raised her
eyebrows, but before she could say anything, Blair’s voice came from behind me.
“What was that?”

I shook my
head.

“‘Cause I know
my sister didn’t just say the man who broke her heart and treated her like shit
is back in the picture. I noticed he didn’t come home last night. Where did
Briggs stay, Ryan?”

I frowned. “Not
that it’s any of your business, Blair, but he stayed at my place—on the couch.
He was tired of being at Mom and Dad’s, not that I blame him. We talked a lot
of stuff out and—”

“And
what
?”

“And now I
just don’t know.

“What about
Jack?”

Bee shushed
Blair. “Leave her alone. Ryan has to make up her own mind about where her heart
is. She’s loved Briggs for a long time.”

“Exactly.”

Blair shook
his head. “I’m still going to kick his ass.”

“Fine, but
after that, please talk to him. Get to know him a little. I’d like your honest
opinion.”

Blair nodded. “Fine,
but I’m not going to like him. I can already tell.”

“He’s not
going to take me away, Blair. I’ll still be here when you come home for summer
vacation.”