When Worlds Collide (My Kind Of Country Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Table of Contents

  WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

  Copyright

  Publisher’s Note

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Acknowledgments

  WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

  Copyright © 2017 by M. Lynne Cunning

  All rights reserved.

  Second edition.

  Cover design by Fifth Ink Designs

  Fifth Ink Publishing, LLC.

  Iowa

  www.fifthinkpublishing.com

  No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, scanning, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Please do not partake in or encourage piracy of copyrighted works in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting this author’s hard work.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to locales, events, or actual persons—living or dead—is purely coincidental.

  Publisher’s Note

  Thank you for purchasing When Worlds Collide, the third and final book in the My Kind Of Country Series, by M. Lynne Cunning. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. We just want to let you know that When Worlds Collide is not a standalone. Who I Am With You (Book 1) and What We’ve Become (Book 2) in the My Kind Of Country Series, are to be read prior to When Worlds Collide. Again, we thank you for your purchase and we hope you enjoy the story!

  Sincerely,

  Erica M. Christensen

  Owner, Fifth Ink Publishing, LLC.

  Chapter One

  Katie paced across the waiting room outside the intensive care unit. She didn’t know what else to do now, just as she hadn’t known what else to do for the last sixteen hours. Sleep evaded her, though she managed to doze off for brief periods at a time once Barry had offered to take Mason’s sleeping form back to his place for a few hours to let him get some real rest. At first, she’d been reluctant—she didn’t know Barry that well, after all—but when the doctor came back out to the waiting room to inform her that Chad’s condition seemed relatively stable, and that nothing had changed, the hushed chatter had managed to wake the boy. Mason had quickly started to cry, the reality of why he was there in the hospital washing over him all over again. After that, she relented. She couldn’t bring herself to call Jay and ask him to come and get him. Jay hadn’t offered when he’d graced her with his presence earlier, anyway. It broke Katie’s heart to see her son so gutted, so hurt and worried for his friend. Katie could relate, but there was something so absolutely crushing about watching a young boy weep for a grown man.

  Now, without Mason to focus on, the walls may as well have been closing in around her. The copious amounts of coffee she’d drunk over the last few hours weren’t helping, and Katie wasn’t sure she had ever been so helpless in her entire life. If drinking coffee and staying awake in case something changed or Chad’s family showed up was the only way she could do something for Chad, then she would do it.

  She was just about to head back to the cafeteria to get another cup of terrible coffee when a voice caught her by surprise.

  “Katie?”

  She turned, coming face to face with a woman who, though shorter and sporting longer hair, definitely resembled her brother. “Jillian?”

  The woman smiled, a crooked but polite twitch of the lips, and it struck Katie how much the mannerism mirrored Chad’s own little grin she’d come to adore. She was still staring awkwardly when she realized the woman was holding out her hand.

  She shook it, not really sure what to say. Jillian knew her brother was in critical condition, knew she’d gotten her contact information from Liz, and realized that Chad and Liz were no longer together. At least, she did now. When Katie initially called her, she’d been awkwardly forced to inform her of that fact, only making the conversation more humiliating by not knowing what to say when Jillian had quickly questioned who she was. Katie ended up describing herself as his good friend; feeling like it would be some kind of betrayal to Chad to call herself his girlfriend after everything that had happened. The situation was only bound to get worse.

  “Yeah, I’m Jillian.” She pulled her hand away slowly, shoving it back into the pocket of her denim jacket. “My mom and dad should be here in another few hours. Their plane was delayed.”

  The way Jillian’s eyes scan her, up and down as though searching for some kind of answer, made Katie nervous. She knew what the woman was thinking. Who are you to my brother?

  “Good. I mean, visiting hours are in a few hours, but I’m sure they’ll let you see him if you want to.” Katie’s voice sounded uneasy, even to her own ears. She felt like a teenager under the scrutiny of some kind of parental figure, about to face the punishment for sneaking out her bedroom window without permission. If only that was all that had happened. If only it was that easy to confess.

  She was relieved when Jillian left her standing in the waiting room by herself to go talk to the nurse. Lucinda, the nurse Katie had been contacted by, and whom she’d come to have a passing acquaintanceship with, had finished her shift hours ago. Otherwise, she would have directed Jillian to her.

  She kept herself busy by checking her cell phone. The ringer was off, wanting to be respectful in the hospital setting. Good thing it was, too. She’d missed two calls from Jay. No other missed calls or texts were waiting for her, and she tucked the phone back in her pocket, not wanting to have to face the text from Chad she’d been unable to delete.

  Katie, don’t you dare do this. I’m coming to find you downtown. Just...do not marry him. I love you too much for that.

  Chad’s words weren’t only a reminder of the love she’d almost thrown away. They were also proof that this—his accident and his injuries—were her fault. He’d been on his way to find her, frustrated with her misguided decisions and preoccupied with the hurt and anger from his cruel-tongued conversation with Jay. Her actions—her bad decisions—had led to Chad almost being killed.

  And he could still die, yet.

  Fear gripped Katie’s heart at the thought. Please, no. But entangled in her fear was another emotion, stronger and just as deeply rooted within her.

  Anger.

  Anger at Jay, for his manipulating ways. His disgusting sense of entitlement. His sly and unneeded underhandedness.

  Anger at Chad, for not being careful. For not being okay. For ma
king her fear that she may lose him for good.

  But mostly, anger at herself. For letting Jay manipulate her time and time again. For hurting Chad repeatedly. For ever putting Chad, the man she loved, in a situation where he could wind up fighting for his life.

  There was no other way around it. This was all her fault.

  And Chad was paying the price for her mistakes.

  ***

  Katie slipped silently to the cafeteria, bringing back two Styrofoam cups of coffee. She thought it was best to leave Jillian alone with the nurse and let her break down or deal with her emotions however she sought fit, without the watchful eyes of someone she barely knew. When she came back into the waiting room, though, Jillian was sitting there alone, bent forward with her elbows on her knees, her gaze fixed absently in front of her.

  “I brought you coffee.” Katie’s voice sounded loud in the sterile silence. “I mean, if you drink coffee. I guess I should’ve asked.”

  Jillian looked up, obviously expecting her return. She offered her a wry smile. “Who doesn’t drink coffee? If they don’t, I wouldn’t trust them. Uncaffeinated freaks.”

  Katie’s lips twitched upward, relieved at the joke. She could feel the tension lift a little between her shoulder blades, and she handed her the coffee cup before taking a seat on an orange vinyl chair across from her. There was a small rip on the armrest, and Katie focused on it. “Did you get to see him yet?”

  Jillian ripped the plastic tab back on the lid of the coffee cup, nodding. “I was only in there for a minute or two. Told him to keep fighting, and that I was going to kick his ass when he was feeling better for making all of us worry like this.”

  There was that little smirk again, and Katie let out a long breath. “You guys get along well, then, I take it?”

  “Better than he and Dad do, that’s for sure.”

  Katie let the silence grow between them again, unsure if she should ask her to elaborate. In the end, she figured she’d either find out now or find out when Chad’s parents arrived. It was probably better to know what she was about to contend with before they showed up. “Chad and his father...there’s tension there. He mentioned it once to me, but I don’t know the particulars.” Somehow, it made Katie feel better to clarify that Chad had never divulged his family secrets to her, and she thought maybe Jillian wouldn’t see her as someone who was trying to be part of a family she actually had no part of. After the words were out, though, she wondered if his sister would see her lack of insight as a sign of the distance between her and Chad, and that maybe Katie and Chad weren’t truly as close as she’d thought they were.

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Jillian stated simply. “We’ve all fought tooth and nail with him for years, trying to get him to talk about anything that actually matters.” She gave a hollow laugh, making Katie swallow hard. “If he even mentioned our dad to you at some point, that’s saying something. He’ll usually avoid the subject like the plague if he can.”

  “Like I said, he never said much.” Only that his father sold his only guitar out of spite and didn’t back him up when he left for Nashville, she thought. It felt like an invasion of privacy to admit she knew that, though, so Katie remained quiet, only nodding in response.

  She was about to stand and head outside beyond the emergency room doors for a little fresh air and a quick phone call to Barry to see how Mason was doing, but a sharp cuckoo sound of a bird rang loudly from Jillian’s pocket, catching her attention. Katie watched as she pulled the phone from her jacket.

  “Shit, I forgot to turn the ringer down.” She swiped her finger across the screen, and Katie could see the woman’s eyes move from left to right as she read whatever was displayed there. “They’re here. I should go meet them. Don’t want Dad getting lost on his way from the rental car to the building.”

  They’re here. The words struck Katie with the force of a crushing blow. She wasn’t sure she wanted to meet his parents. Not like this, anyway. What was she supposed to say? Hi, I’m the woman your son is in love with—the woman who loves your son—but after toying with his emotions, I was going to marry my ex-fiancé, whom I despise, just because it was easier on me. Oh, and your son is fighting for his life because of me, because I broke it off with him via a damn text message, and I was too much of a coward to tell him about my plan to marry someone else. Yeah, that would go over really well.

  Either way, Chad’s parents were there. And there was little Katie could do about what they did or didn’t think of her.

  She watched as Jillian rose and disappeared out the heavy glass doors that led to the parking lot. Katie ran her hands down her face.

  Let the judgment begin.

  Chapter Two

  Katie wouldn’t deny that she was a coward. She’d been a coward when she sent Chad the text message saying she couldn’t be with him—no real explanation, no phone call or face-to-face meeting—and she was being a coward now. Instead of waiting for Jillian to return with her parents in tow, she disappeared down the other corridor, heading back toward the cafeteria. It was the opposite direction in which Jillian had gone.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t want to meet them. In all honesty, a small part of her was curious about the people who had raised such a headstrong and talented man such as Chad. But, to see them, to have to look them in the eye and know what she’d done to their son...

  Katie was a coward.

  She tugged her cell phone from her pocket, huddled in the corner of the cafeteria. The room was almost full, a vast difference from when she’d made the room her refuge in the middle of the night the night before. Then, she’d cried, a flood of hot tears she thought would eventually drown her from the inside out if she didn’t release them. There hadn’t been a soul in the room to witness her breakdown, and she was thankful for that. Now, however, the loud murmur of the collection of voices was fortifying. She wasn’t alone, but she wasn’t being watched or assessed, either.

  Katie let the blanket of voices fade into the background as she took a minute and called Barry’s number, filling him in that Chad’s condition had remained stable overnight. She spoke with Mason, the young boy’s voice giving no note of concern at being with Barry. He’d been allowed to play in the recording studio earlier this morning while Barry drank a coffee. Mason was excited to let her listen to what he’d recorded. A get-well-soon message for Chad, he called it.

  The thought made Katie’s heart constrict. It was such a childlike thing to do, and Katie wished for a fleeting moment that she were as optimistic as her son was about Chad’s recovery. In the end, Barry hung up after advising her that he and Mason would be heading back over to the hospital in an hour or so, once he’d dealt with the massive amount of phone calls, emails, and flesh and blood reporters staked outside his place wanting comments or details on Chad’s medical status.

  The media would be eating it up. Katie hadn’t thought of that angle. Chad had many people who knew him, worked with him, and cared for him, but he also possessed a fan base, people who didn’t know him directly but would hang on every word the newspapers, television, and radio stations reported, purely out of loyalty to Chad Ashton.

  The thought of newspaper reporters vying for any scrap of information they could get caused bile to rise in her throat. The damn newspapers had been what got them into this mess in the first place. If she’d known one strategically angled photo and a few paragraphs of presumptuous words could ultimately cause such a series of catastrophic events, Katie wouldn’t have given those reporters the chance. She didn’t regret going to Chad’s apartment or being with him in any way, but she would have been more careful, saving their embrace and soft words for somewhere other than the busy sidewalk where anyone could see them. Somewhere where those tender touches and consoling whispers couldn’t be used as ammunition against them.

  Damn you, Jay.

  Katie couldn’t bring herself to contemplate that train of thought more. She had enough to concentrate on right now. Chad’s parents were only a
few hallways away, and meeting them was something she could only avoid for so long.

  She slipped out the cafeteria door and made her way back down to the waiting room. Jillian was back, with a middle-aged man and woman seated on either side of her.

  Katie was already intimated by the thought of Chad’s father. But a man who would sell his son’s prized guitar in a spiteful bid for alcohol was someone Katie couldn’t help but wonder about. And fear, just a little bit. He evoked that same level of intimidation in appearance, too; taller than Chad, and stockier in build, with hair that may have once been a solid sand color but was now mostly gray, and lines that etched into his facial features around hardened, cautious eyes.

  Eyes that were staring back at her in an identical questioning stare.

  Katie cleared her throat, taking a step toward Chad’s family hesitantly. “You must be Chad’s parents. I’m Katie.” She held her hand out to his father, hoping the trembling in her fingertips wasn’t as obvious as she thought it was.

  The man stood, hauling his weight from the chair unsteadily. He reached out and shook her hand, squeezing her hand tightly before letting go again. “I’m Chad’s father, yes. Call me Hayden. This is my wife, Elaine.”

  “Jillian has told us so—” Elaine, a woman who’d aged gracefully and kept her hair meticulously highlighted and simply styled, stood to join her husband, jutting her hand out to grasp Katie’s hand before she’d managed to pull completely away. The words were already partially out of her mouth, but the woman must have realized how untrue the statement would be. Katie couldn’t help but feel bad for her.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Kirkwood. And Mr. Kirkwood. You must have so many questions.” Katie squeezed her hand and awkwardly let it go when the woman held on longer than she expected. No one seemed to know what to say next, and for the first time, she was aware of the Christmas carols being played in a hushed volume on the television. This poor family was being ripped apart, and Christmas was less than two weeks away. Suddenly, the pain and tragedy that came from Chad’s car accident seemed to quadruple.