By the time we got to the hospital, I was beyond ready to put some distance between us, and I made sure Damien and my two youngest sisters were between us at all times on the walk inside.
Thankfully, most of the paps had cleared out, making it easier to get into the building. But there were still a few hanging around, trying to get a picture of everyone coming and going so they could sell them to the highest bidder. None of them would get a factual story, though. Aunt Harper’s magazine was the only one that would have the exclusive on her husband’s and brother-in-law’s surgeries.
Despite the less chaotic entrance, Seller’s security was still in full force, and Braxton gave many of them nods as we passed.
Arella led the way to the private room Mom had told her Daddy had been moved in to, and as soon as we walked in and I saw Daddy sitting up in a chair next to the window, my knees went weak.
He looked pale, but there was a grin on his face as my siblings and I swarmed him. I let the younger kids hug him first, but before Arella could get her chance, I was throwing my arms around him as carefully as I could and burying my face in his long dark hair, a sob breaking free because I was so damn happy to see him awake.
He wrapped his arms around me gently, patting me on the back with his hands. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” he murmured softly beside my ear. “Daddy’s fine now. I promise.”
That only made me cry harder. I was almost sick with relief that he was doing so well after such a major surgery. There could have been any number of complications, but other than looking tired and in a little pain, he seemed in good spirits and healthier than the last time I saw him.
“Good gods,” a deep voice said from behind me as the door opened. “What’s all the ruckus in here?”
Lifting my head, I watched as Uncle Shane slowly walked into the room. A happy cry left me, and I ran across the spacious private room to throw my arms around him. He groaned, then laughed, and I felt him kiss the top of my head. “Easy, kiddo. I’m a little breakable in spots right now.”
“Sorry,” I mumbled, easing my grip on him. Lifting my head, I blinked back the tears. “Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you so much. You… You saved him.” I buried my face in his chest again. “Thank you.”
He gave me a squeeze, and I felt him kiss the top of my head again. “Anytime, sweetheart. Anytime at all.”
“Hey, I’m the one who should be getting all the love,” Daddy complained, but he was smiling when I left Uncle Shane to walk back over to him. Arella stepped back from hugging him, and I sat on the arm of his chair, needing to be as close as I could get to him.
Braxton offered the tote of food to Mom. “Not sure if they can have this yet, but Nevaeh and Arella made soup.”
She gave him a small smile. “Thanks. This will be perfect.”
“Ah hell, I am starving,” Uncle Shane said, rubbing a hand over his lower abdomen. “Harper was only letting me have broth earlier. That’s why I snuck over here in hope Lana would feed me.”
“Shouldn’t you be in a wheelchair or something, Uncle Shane?” Arella asked him, worry wrinkling her brow.
“Nah. Doc said to move around as much as possible. Hurts to breathe, but walking isn’t an issue.” He moved closer to Daddy and me. “How are you feeling, brother? You sure as hell look better than you did yesterday, that’s no lie.”
Daddy nodded. “I feel better than I did. Like you said, it hurts to breathe. But honestly, I haven’t felt this good since the car accident.”
Hearing that made me breathe a little easier, and I was able to dry my tears as the room slowly filled with other family members. Eventually, Aunt Harper appeared and dragged Uncle Shane back to his own private room, telling him he needed to rest. His stay in the hospital would be considerably shorter than Daddy’s, but he still had a few days to go before he would be released.
When Aunt Emmie showed up with Mia and Barrick, I decided it was time to get some coffee.
Braxton stood when I announced my intention. “I’ll come with you.”
“No,” I told him, keeping my voice cool.
“Kitten,” he started, a warning in his tone. “You shouldn’t go alone.”
“I’ll go with you, Nevaeh,” Jordan offered, rescuing me, and I quickly latched on to it along with his arm. “Arella, you want something?”
Her brow furrowed when she looked from him to me and down to the way I was holding on to his arm like a lifeline, before shaking her head. I wanted to roll my eyes and yell at her that I would never do any of the things she was obviously thinking, but I clamped my mouth shut.
“Mia?” he asked his best friend.
“N-no thanks,” she murmured, but her big green eyes were on me, silently pleading for me to forgive her.
Jordan pulled his arm free and then placed his hand at the small of my back. “Text me if anyone needs anything. We’ll be back in a few.”
As we walked out the door, I heard Daddy demanding, “Someone better tell me what the hell is going on with her. Right now.”
My shoulders slumped because I could only imagine what everyone was saying about me as we left. Beside me, Jordan gave me a pat on the back and pressed the call button for the elevator. “You know, I was kind of jealous of how big your family is. I’m an only child, but I always wanted at least one brother or sister. Then I see how crazy and nosy your family is at times, and that jealousy evaporates like smoke.”
“You’re part of this crazy family regardless of being an only child,” I informed him. “Doesn’t matter if you’re only Mia’s best friend. You’re one of us.”
He grinned. “Yeah, I’m not going to complain too much about that. It has its perks, being considered family of Emmie Armstrong.”
That had me snorting out a laugh as we rode down to the cafeteria in the elevator. “I suppose it does.”
We were both quiet until after I’d gotten my cup of coffee and he’d made a cup of tea. I frowned as I watched him make it the exact way I knew my sister loved to drink hers.
“She’s half in love with you,” I blurted out before I could stop myself, then slapped a hand over my mouth. Fuck, I hated my inability to keep thoughts in my head at times.
Jordan jerked in reaction to my announcement, causing hot tea to slosh over the rim of the cup he was adding honey to. Cursing, he shook out his rapidly reddening hand. “What are you talking about?”
I sighed heavily and dropped my hand. “Arella.” There was no use in lying about it. “She looks at you like you hung the moon. And while I know you feed off that kind of adoration from the masses of the female population who fall at your feet with just a flick of those pretty, long lashes of yours, my sister doesn’t know the score like they do.”
“Arella isn’t one of the masses to me,” he said, his voice becoming all growly.
“Good. But she’s also young. Too young for anything, serious or otherwise. You’re free to do whatever you want, with anyone you want. Except her.”
He glared at me angrily. “You honestly think I would do something like that? She’s my friend, Nevaeh. Like Mia—”
I held up a hand. “I sure as hell hope not. I know about you and Mia.”
He cursed viciously. “That was a one-time thing. She was hurting, and things got crazy. It was long before Barrick even came into her life, and it will never happen again.”
“I didn’t say it would,” I told him frustratedly. “I’m just saying you’ve never had a purely platonic relationship. And considering how my sister feels about you, I can’t see you starting with her.”
“Okay, first, Mia and I are completely platonic. I didn’t think of her that way before we had sex, and I don’t think about her that way now. And I don’t think of Arella in that way either.”
A soft gasp had us both turning to see Arella standing only a few feet away, Braxton right beside her. Tears filled her eyes as she looked at Jordan as if her heart was breaking. “Y-you slept with Mia?” she whispered, her voice cracking.
Jordan’s face paled, and he took a step toward her, causing the uncovered tea to slosh him again. But he didn’t seem to feel the sting of the heat burning his hand this time. “Arella—”
Her tear-glazed eyes went from him to me. “I really can’t believe you, Nevi. Braxton’s not the only guy in the world who can wait years for the one they love. There are plenty of other good guys out there just like him. Why did you have to go put your nose in my business?”
“I’m sorry,” I tried to apologize. “Arella, I only wanted to—”
“If you say ‘protect me,’ I’m going to scream. Everyone wants to protect everyone else in this family. Yet they don’t know how to keep their damn noses out of everyone else’s business and worry about themselves for once. Maybe if they just left things alone, everyone wouldn’t be so miserable all the time.” With a huff, she turned her glare back to Jordan. “And just for the record, I’m not in love with you. You don’t have to worry, because I don’t want you like that either.”
Turning, she walked away without a single glance back.
Jordan went after her, dropping the cup of tea in the trash on his way out the door. I watched them, feeling guilty for having stuck my foot in it. If I’d kept my mouth shut, my sister wouldn’t have been so upset.
Braxton walked over to me. Taking my coffee from my hand, he lifted it to his lips and took a sip. “Your dad wants to talk to you,” he said when he handed my cup back to me.
I should have known he would. Not much got by him, apparently not even when he was less than twenty-four hours out of a life-changing surgery.
Chapter 23
Nevaeh
Daddy’s room was empty of everyone except him when Braxton opened the door for me a few minutes later. For some reason, I felt nervous as I stepped inside and the door closed behind me. It was just him and me in the huge room, and I wiped my sweat-dampened palms on my jeans as I walked toward him.
He was still sitting in the chair where I’d left him earlier, his jaw tense as he watched me approach.
“Hi, Daddy,” I greeted with a nervous smile.
Something softened in his blue-gray eyes when he saw how anxious I was, and he nodded to the chair beside his as I neared. “Sit with me. We need to talk.”
I sat on the edge of the chair, turning my body to face him.
“Has anyone ever told you what a fuckup I used to be, Nevaeh?” he asked after a moment.
I blinked at him from behind my glasses. “You could never be a fuckup, Daddy.”
His laugh was self-deprecating, and he shook his head, causing his long hair to fall into his face. “Trust me on this, sweetheart. I was the biggest fuckup in history. The day I realized your mom loved me the way I loved her was the same day she left me. That was when I checked myself in to rehab for the first time. Sure, I’d gone plenty of times before, but it was never my choice. Losing her made me open my eyes and realize I was tired of letting my addiction mess up my life.”
I frowned at him, still unable to picture him the way he was trying to paint himself. “What did you do to make Mom leave you? I mean… I just can’t picture the two of you breaking up. You get upset when you’re away from each other for more than a few hours at a time.”
His face twisted with pain, but I didn’t think it was physical discomfort. And when he spoke, it was choked. “I cheated.”
“Stop lying, Daddy,” I snapped at him. “You would never do something like that to Mom. Never.”
He shook his head. “But I did. Look, I’m not going to fill your head with everything that happened. Most of that is only your mom’s and my business. But the truth is, I fucked up, and it cost me seven months with my Angel.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I demanded, confused as to why he was revealing something I never would have known about his and Mom’a relationship if he hadn’t told me.
“Because I want you to see that even when a man loves a woman as desperately as I love your mom, we can still make mistakes.” He reached for my hand and gave it a firm squeeze. “Braxton told me what happened. All of it.”
“Daddy—”
He held up the other hand, the one with the IV in the back of it. “I’m not saying what he did wasn’t wrong. Honestly, I’m not. I understand why you’re upset. I do. Don’t think I’m making light of what you’re feeling, Nevi. Because even right now, I want to kick his ass for hurting you.”
“Then what are you saying?” I muttered.
“What I’m saying is…” He paused and shook his head. “Over the last few years, I’ve watched that boy. And before my eyes, I saw what he feels for you blossom into something lasting. After a while, I stopped worrying so much about you being so far away from us because I knew Braxton would move heaven and earth to keep you safe and happy. He loves you. And don’t you lie and say you don’t love him just as much.”
“I wasn’t going to lie. Yes, I love him. I don’t want to, but I do.” Which was why my heart hurt so much.
“You have to know that he isn’t going to marry this Darcy chick,” he chided. “You know him better than that. He loves you too much to even look at another person, least of all marry someone else.”
“I know,” I whispered, because I did know. It wasn’t so much that I thought Braxton would actually marry Darcy. It was that he kept everything from me. That he broke his promise.
“Then why—”
“Why are you on his side?” I cried. “He’s the one who broke my heart. Not the other way around. Braxton lied to me. He kept all of this to himself after he promised we wouldn’t have secrets from each other.”
“Because I’ve been in his shoes.” His voice rose as he spoke. “I lost the woman I love because I was dumb and drunk, and I will regret it until my dying day. And I don’t want you or him to go through that hell, Nevaeh. He made a mistake, and he regrets it.”
“But how am I supposed to trust him not to break every other promise he makes to me?” I asked desperately, twin tears spilling down my cheeks. “How do I put my trust and faith in him not to break my heart again and again?”
Daddy’s brows rose. “How many has he broken before now?”
“What?”
He leaned forward and grimaced in pain, but he cupped my chin and tilted it up so he was looking into my eyes. “How many promises has he broken before now?”
That gave me pause, and I quickly thought back through any promises Braxton might have made in the past. “He… He never made me any promises before this one.”
“Bullshit.”
“Daddy, I swear, he never made me any other promises. This was the first.”
“You’re wrong, sweetheart. He’s made you and me plenty. Keeping you safe was the first one he ever made me. Not once has he broken that. And he might not have made you any promises aloud, but trust me when I say his eyes have made you plenty.” He gently released me and sat back, groaning in discomfort. “I think you owe it to yourself to give him one more chance, Nevi. Just one more. And if he fucks up again, if he breaks your heart even once more, then I’ll kill him.”
A choked laugh escaped me, because his voice was suddenly dripping with venom and menace. “Daddy, you know I love you, right?”
He took hold of my hand again, giving it a squeeze. “You couldn’t possibly love me as much as I love you, Nevaeh Joy. But yeah, I know you love me.”
—
When I opened the door, I wasn’t surprised Braxton was standing there waiting. He leaned back against the wall, his face blank as he gazed straight ahead without seeing anything. As the door closed behind me, he blinked and focused on me, life returning to his handsome face as he straightened.
“Are you hungry?”
Eating wasn’t exactly the first thing on my mind, but at the mention of food, my stomach growled hungrily, making his lips tip up with amusement.
“I’ll take that as a yes. Let’s go.” He took my hand without asking and guided me toward the elevators.
“I really don’t thi
nk I can stomach cafeteria food right now,” I told him as he hit the button for the first floor, where the cafeteria was.
“I would never make you eat hospital food, Kitten.” The doors opened again, and we walked off, my hand securely in his.
Outside, there was a small line of cabs, and we walked up to the first one. He got in first, something he always did when we went anywhere in a cab or Uber. The one time I’d tried to get in before him, he’d growled at me how dangerous it was. It had melted me, and instead of rolling my eyes at him in annoyance, I’d promised never to do it again.
Leaning forward, he told the driver where to take us then sat back. I shifted on the seat, unsure what to say. But when I finally opened my mouth to speak, he lowered his head and brushed a kiss over my lips. “Don’t,” he murmured. “Just let me have a little longer with you. One more meal. Please. That’s all I’m asking.”
Lifting my hand, he pressed it to his chest as he leaned back, and I quickly snapped my mouth shut.
The driver stopped in front of one of my favorite restaurants, a little Italian place that looked like a hole-in-the-wall but served the best food. My parents used to take us there when I was younger, and they would tell us the story of how they had dinner there before they even started dating. It was the same story every time, one that wasn’t even very romantic given that Mom was only seventeen at the time and Uncle Shane was a third wheel. But I loved that damn story, and the food was amazing.
There was no way Braxton had known about this place on his own. I’d never told him about it. Which meant Mom must have.
As we entered, a hostess came out from behind the podium with a welcoming smile on her face. “Table for two?”
Braxton nodded, my hand still pressed to his chest. I could feel how hard his heart was pounding, and it worried me that he was going to have a heart attack if he didn’t calm it down soon.
The hostess beamed at him and picked up two menus, leading the way to a quiet booth in the back. With the promise of sending someone to take our order quickly, she left us alone.
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