“I told them it was the judge’s idea and if they wanted to be at your wedding, they better get here in next forty-five minutes,” Luke said. “I sent Will to pick up Ellen. Carrie and Michael are already outside in the hall.”
Shane blew out a breath. “I’m going to get so much grief over this from the family, but it’s the right thing, Luke.”
“For the kids it probably is,” Luke agreed. “But I wouldn’t hang too many hopes on a great wedding night with your new wife.”
“I know she’s scared and upset, but I love her. This will be okay,” Shane said, more confidently than he was feeling at the moment. He wasn’t as nervous as Reesa, but he hated the idea of her being so upset over this.
“Judge Carlson was the big hurdle. I now believe you can make anything work out,” Luke said, slapping Shane on the back to get the boy out of his head. “Go console your wife-to-be while she’s signing her name on your marriage license and cursing you under her breath.”
Chapter 23
Reesa raised her head from the toilet bowl to find Jillian standing over her with a wet washcloth. “I’m really married,” she said sadly. Her head was hurting and her stomach was in turmoil.
“Yes, you are,” Jillian told her. “Just FYI, your new husband and his family are feeding the kids pizza. I like your ring though. That’s a nice chunk of gold for a man who draws pictures for a living.”
“His brother Michael made them,” Reesa said, standing up. “I have to lie down. Bad, bad headache. Need soda and migraine pills.”
“Already got them by the bed,” Jillian said, putting a supportive arm under her. “Let’s go, honey. The sooner you’re tucked in and passed out, the sooner the dizziness will go away.”
Reesa nodded. When they came out of the bedroom, Shane was sitting on the bed in his dress slacks, but with his shirt out. He looked rumpled and desirable. Reesa closed her eyes to block him out.
Jillian guided her to the edge of the bed, putting the soda and pills in her hands. “Fast now. Let’s not get sick again.”
Reesa did as she was told, took the pills, and then immediately lay down.
Uncaring of what Jillian thought, Shane crawled up the bed to lie next to Reesa. His need to soothe her was stronger than anything else at the moment. He felt so much relief when she curled into him that he had to fight not to cry.
“I’m sorry this made you sick, honey,” he whispered, stroking her hair. “Sleep. Sleep for a couple days. The kids are fine. I’ve got your back.”
“Need dark,” she said, hiding her face in his shirt as Jillian pulled curtains and turned out lights.
“Girlfriend does this now and again. Not often,” Jillian explained.
Shane was sure his guilty gaze said he understood he was a good part of the cause this time. “I’ll take care of her.”
“Of course you will,” Jillian said reasonably. “Otherwise, I’ll kick your ass.”
Shane smiled but didn’t laugh. “Thanks, Jillian.”
She nodded and left the room.
***
Shane had fallen asleep beside Reesa and it was three hours later when he woke up. Reesa hadn’t moved from the spot she’d started in, and Shane realized it had been their first time to fall asleep together. He wanted to kiss her, but didn’t want to risk waking her. It was alarming to see someone as tough as Reesa break under the strain of the day. The kids had been excited about their marriage, but Reesa had gotten sick in Jillian’s car on the ride home.
Shane sighed, wondering if he ought to just keep living at the condo for a while and wait for an invitation to live with them. He’d hate it, but he’d do it if it meant Reesa wouldn’t be as stressed.
Covering her up with a throw from the bottom of the bed so she wouldn’t get cold, Shane went to use the bathroom and then to find something to eat. He and Reesa both had totally missed lunch.
The kids were in the living room, talking quietly when he walked down the hall.
“Aunt Jillian went home to see our grandparents,” Chelsea told him. “Your suit looked good before you slept in it.”
“Thanks,” Shane said dryly, smiling at her teasing.
“Is Aunt Teresa still sick?” Zack asked.
Shane shook his head. “No, just sleeping. The stress really got to her today, but hopefully it’s never going to be that bad again.”
“I knew you’d show up at the last minute,” Brian said. “It’s what always happens in your novels.”
Shane snorted. “I hate to tell you Brian, but there was no impending doom taking up my time. My car got towed because I forgot to buy a stupid parking pass. I’ve had a few billion things on my mind lately.”
“Yeah, I know,” Brian said, pulling a folded piece of paper from his back pocket. “Here. I drew this last week. You were gone so I never got to show you. The next one will be better. People are complicated to draw.”
Shane took the drawing and saw a picture of Brian’s parents, a pretty good likeness to his mind. It looked similar to the picture on the bookshelf which Shane lifted his head to see. Brian’s art was strong when his vision of his subject was clear. The boy had a lot of potential.
“It’s pretty good for your first real portrait,” Shane said, handing it back only to have Zack snatch it. “You need a good set of charcoals with soft leads. They help get the shading right. We’ll see about picking you up a set soon.”
Zack looked at the drawing, and then passed it to Chelsea. When Sara stretched her neck to see it, Chelsea lowered it down.
“That’s my real mommy and daddy,” Sara said softly. “They died.”
Shane looked at them all, glad he was a legal part of their lives if not a completely legit one. This is what he could help them survive. It was the best use of his doctorate he could ever imagine.
“Yes, they did Sara, but I’m sure they didn’t want to leave you. No one ever wants to leave a princess,” he said. “Even when they have to go do work in the kingdom, they always want to come back.”
“You came back. Are you going to live with us now?” Sara asked, pushing the drawing away. It hurt to look at it. It also hurt to think Shaney might go away again.
“I’d like to live you,” Shane said softly, rescuing the drawing and handing it carefully to Brian. “That’s up to your Aunt Teresa, but even if I don’t, I’ll always come back to visit.”
“Aunt Teresa’s sick,” Sara said, frowning.
“Yes, she is. Did you guys leave me any pizza?” Shane asked, trying not to think about Reesa’s stress level as he headed toward the kitchen again.
When the doorbell rang, Shane turned around thinking it was one of his family stopping back by to check on them. He was surprised when he opened the door to Brentwood Addison.
“Hello, Larson. I came to see Teresa,” Brent said stiffly, sneering at Shane in a rumpled version of what he knew was an expensive shirt and pants.
“Reesa’s sleeping after a really stressful day. I don’t want to wake her, Addison. I’ll tell her you came by, and she can call you,” Shane said calmly.
“It’s about the job she’s starting with me next week. I’m sure Reesa would wake up to talk to me about it,” Brent informed him. He wasn’t leaving until he knew what happened in the custody case.
Shane looked over his shoulder at the kids watching him and Addison talk. Opting to step outside for some privacy, he tugged the door to close it after him.
“Look—I’m not waking Reesa up,” Shane said firmly, his tone not leaving it open for debate. “She’s really sick and needs to sleep off the headache from her stressful day. I’ll tell her you came by, and she can call you tomorrow.”
“You’re taking a lot on yourself making decisions for her, Larson,” Brent said coldly. “Don’t screw this up for her. I know Reesa needs this job.”
“Not any more she doesn’t,” Shane said dryly, holding up the hand with his wedding ring shining on it. “My wife doesn’t have to work unless she just gets tired of staying home wit
h the kids. Wrap your mind around that reality, Addison.”
Brent laughed. “You don’t honestly expect me to believe Teresa Callahan married you?” he said incredulously. “If that were true, she would have told me.”
“You know, I don’t fucking care what you believe. It’s going to be a matter of public record shortly, and you can find out for yourself. Now get your ass in your BMW and wait for Reesa to call you back when she feels up to talking to people. I am not waking up my wife,” Shane declared, fighting not to raise his voice any more than he already was.
Brent glared hard. “Okay, asshole—fine. I’ll leave for now. We’ll see what Reesa says when I tell her you ran me off.”
“Go before I forget to be nice,” Shane told him, hearing Brent swear as he walked away. “And that’s Dr. Asshole to you, dweeb.”
Shane yelled the last statement as Brent slammed his car door, then shot him the bird as he peeled out of the driveway leaving tracks of expensive sports tires behind. He only hoped all the noise hadn’t woke up Reesa.
He turned to go back into the house and saw the door hadn’t closed all the way. He swore softly to himself. Back in the living room, Shane saw too many innocent faces staring at him as if nothing was going on. Not a single question about Brent was zinged his way.
They heard everything, he decided sighing and wishing he had his father’s calm nature about such things. Well, it was probably for the best that they heard what he said to Addison. He wasn’t going to hide how he felt about Reesa from them. And he might need witnesses to defend his actions later.
“Shaney, you said a lot of bad words,” Sara whispered, not letting her sister shush her.
“Yes, I did, Sara. I’ll go stand in the corner as soon as I eat,” Shane told her.
Sara hopped up. “I’ll keep you company,” she said happily, skipping over to him and taking his hand.
“Anybody else got an opinion on what just happened?” Shane asked.
“Why? Are we going to start having intellectual discussions now that you have your doctorate? Do you want us to call you Dr. A, too?” Brian demanded, working hard to be as snarky as possible, which was hard when all he wanted was to laugh at how well Shane had handled dispatching the other man.
Shane grinned at Zack and Chelsea steadily trying not to crack up, probably figuring he was going to light Brian up again for his attitude.
“Brian, am I going to have beat respect into you every day?” Shane demanded on a laugh.
“Probably,” Brian answered, feeling satisfied with having made everyone laugh. He liked knowing he could diffuse tough situations, even for his new Uncle Shane.
Chapter 24
Reesa woke to daylight in her bedroom, but she couldn’t figure what was wedging her so tightly under the bedcovers. She could barely move. Shane’s chest was still on one side and she inhaled the remnants of woodsy cologne and warm male. Before she could let herself get too carried away with waking up next to him, she rolled slowly to her back and looked around.
Turning her head, she saw Sara sleeping next to her and Chelsea on the other side. When she looked up, the boys were just then sneaking into the room.
“It’s seven. We were finally getting desperate enough to come wake you. We wanted to ask if we had to go to school today,” Zack whispered. “None of us want to. Can we just stay home and celebrate?”
Reesa laughed softly. She didn’t want to go anywhere either, and she wasn’t ready to let any of them out of her sight.
“No one has to go today or do any work. We’ve all earned our hooky,” she said sleepily. She laughed softly as Zack and Brian quietly high fived.
“Aunt Jillian had to run out for an errand, but said to call her and she’d bring donuts for breakfast,” Zack said, perching on the end of the bed and whispering.
“Wonderful,” Reesa said, rubbing her tummy and laughing. “I think I completely missed eating yesterday. I’m starved.”
Just then a giant arm snaked across her middle and had her freezing mid-laugh. She turned her head to see Shane’s dark gaze staring at her in concern.
“Good morning,” he said. “You slept twelve hours. Feeing better?”
“Morning,” she said back, nodding against the pillow.
“Sara snores,” Shane complained, earning a grin from both Brian and Zack.
“I know,” Reesa said quietly, her hand absently rubbing his arm across her. This was a whole lot better than she’d imagined it would be.
Zack cleared his throat and drew her attention away from Shane. “So here’s what happened—Aunt Jillian slept in Chelsea’s room. Sara wouldn’t sleep in her room. Chelsea didn’t want Sara waking you up if she had a bad dream, so you had bed company most of the night,” he explained. “Sorry. It was out of my hands.”
Shane kissed Reesa’s temple as she laughed. “Same old, same old,” she said.
“I’ll get up and make coffee,” Shane told her, sitting up. “I’ll also use the boy’s bathroom. You can use this one.”
Reesa watched him roll out of bed and pad off in his sock feet around the boys still watching her.
“Are you really feeling better?” Brian demanded, hearing himself sound as demanding as Shane. It made him want to laugh, but he really did want to know.
“Yes. Much better,” Reesa said sincerely, sighing at the concern in the young boy’s very serious voice. “It was just a very bad headache. I think I want pizza for breakfast, and then donuts. Is there any pizza left?”
“There were three whole boxes left, but they wouldn’t fit in the fridge. It’s such a bad design. We had to put slices of pizza in plastic bags to get it all in,” Zack said. “There’s like a million of them in there right now.”
Reesa laughed at Zack’s frustration. He was going make a great engineer. “You are a good man, Zacharias Lansing,” she said. “Nice to know you have my back when I’m down for the count.”
Zack nodded. “You know I don’t mind, but I’m glad you hired a replacement player for our team.”
Reesa sighed and raised her hand with the shiny band on it. “Yeah—I haven’t quite gotten my mind wrapped around that one yet. But on the bright side, I do own you all now.”
Zack laughed at her teasing comment, and appreciated the pleasure in her voice. “And we love you for it, Aunt Teresa.”
“I love you all too,” Reesa said sincerely, rolling to the edge of the bed and sliding down to the floor. “I hate sleeping in my clothes. You feel so grungy the next day.”
“So what kind of pizza do you want?” Zack asked.
“I don’t care. Put half a million bags of it on a big cookie sheet and cover it all in foil. Put it in the oven at three hundred degrees for a few minutes. It will be ready when we are,” she said, heading to the bathroom. “It will no doubt get eaten.”
“I can do that. Brian can help me,” Zack said, smacking Brian on the arm, who was watching his sisters sleep.
“What? I like to watch them sleep. They’re being quiet and not complaining about anything for once,” Brian said. “Girls are noisy when they’re awake.”
“Yeah, well one day you won’t mind the noise so much,” Zack told him, laughing softly as they walked out of the room.
***
When Reesa came back from the bathroom, the girls were gone from the bed. Gone in search of breakfast probably, she thought. Lord knew that was all she could think about with her stomach growling at her.
While she was getting dressed, she saw a folded piece of paper on the night stand. Reesa picked it up to check what it was before throwing it in the trash. With so many drawing artists in the family now, she wasn’t really surprised to see her image on it. It was the super hero costume that stopped her. She knew then it belonged to Shane
Shane tapped on the bedroom door and came in when he didn’t hear an invitation. He wanted to make sure Reesa wasn’t still sick. When he saw her sitting the bed looking at his drawing of her, he walked softly around and sat down.
&nb
sp; “That’s the picture I kept trying to show you. I drew that the morning after we were together,” Shane explained. “I think I’ve told the story to everyone in my life except you.”
“You didn’t even know me,” Reesa said, looking up from the drawing into his face.
Shane tapped the paper with his hand. “I knew this about you. I don’t know how I knew it, but I did. I don’t question my intuition very often. I’d rather trust it, especially since it brought you to me.”
Reesa swallowed hard. “If you get killed or you leave me, I am never going to fall in love in again,” she warned him, her voice clear and firm, even if her eyes misted over.
Shane leaned forward and kissed her softly, the mint from her toothpaste tickling his tongue as he slipped past her defenses and had his way with her mouth for a moment. But he pulled away because the timing was bad and they weren’t straight yet.
They still hadn’t talked about yesterday. And he had to tell her about his fight with Addison.
“Knowing about your losses, I wish I could make you a promise that nothing will ever happen to me, but I can’t,” Shane said. “I just plan to love you the best I can for as long as I can. Sara has the same concerns as you do, so I’ll tell you what I keep telling her. When I’m away, I will always want to come back to you.”
He cupped her face and smiled at the gold band on his finger. “I really do love you, Reesa Callahan Larson. Give me some time, and I promise you will believe it too.”
“I will try my best to love you back,” Reesa said, turning her face into his palm to plant a kiss. “I’m just afraid.”
He reached out the other hand to hold her face so she couldn’t turn away from what there was between them.
“All heroes, no matter how brave and strong they are, get afraid now and again. Let me be your faithful sidekick. I swear I really want to,” Shane said.
Reesa laughed and sniffed. “How can I say no to the sweetest and most original marriage proposal I’ve ever had?”
Captured In Ink (Art of Love Series) Page 28