by Beth Ehemann
“Oh, don’t get all crazy now.” I shook my head. “It’s not our home. It’s one hundred percent your home, I just agreed to stay there . . . for now.”
He licked his lips and grinned, staring straight ahead as he pulled out of the hospital parking lot. “Are you ever gonna just agree the first time, or is it always going to be a fight with you?”
I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t seen any other men in nearly a week, but at that moment he looked extra hot, and I was happy he didn’t want me to leave.
As we pulled up to the house, a man was walking across the front yard on his way back to a white van parked in the street. He gave us a quick wave as we drove up to the garage.
I looked nervously at Andy. “Who’s that?”
“Gloria’s new best friend.”
“Huh?”
“You’ll see in a minute.” He laughed and shook his head.
I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.
He parked the car in the garage and laughed again. “Calm down. It’s a good thing, I promise.”
We walked into the house, through the mudroom, into the kitchen, and immediately, just like my first night in the house, my nose was assaulted. This time it was different, though; it wasn’t pot roast or mashed potatoes. It was flowers.
Andy moved to the side, and my eyes bulged at the dozens of flower arrangements that covered every square inch of the kitchen. I scanned the room slowly, left to right, my mouth frozen open in shock. Pink roses, yellow daisies, purple lilacs . . . you name it, it was there.
“These are all for me?” I asked incredulously.
“Unless I won Miss America and no one told me, yes, they’re for you.” Gloria snickered as she walked over and kissed me on the cheek. “Welcome home, honey. Good to have you back.”
“Thanks,” I said flatly, still taking in all the flowers.
“Pretty amazing, huh?” Andy said. “They’ve been coming in for a couple days now, and there’s no end in sight.”
“Who are they all from?”
“No idea. We didn’t feel right opening the envelopes without you,” Gloria said as she stirred the huge pot of vegetable soup on the stove top. “Maybe after dinner you guys can read some of them. The kids have been begging for a couple days now.”
I set my stuff in my room, laughed at the ten additional bouquets in there, and met everyone at the kitchen table.
“This looks amazing, Gloria, but you guys don’t have to have soup just because of me.” My jaw was still a little sore, and chewing on a big steak didn’t exactly sound appetizing yet. I pulled out the chair at my usual spot next to Becca and plopped down.
“I wanted soup!” Becca said cheerfully.
“Me too!” added Logan.
“Well, all right then. Let’s dig in.” Andy clapped his hands and rubbed them together as he picked up a large ladle.
“Daddy! You forgot,” Becca called out just as he dipped the spoon in the large pot of soup.
His head jerked slightly as he frowned at her. “Forgot what?”
She reached her right hand out to me and her left hand out to Logan without saying a word.
It took two seconds for Andy to realize what she meant, and when he did, he pursed his lips together, nodded, and took my and Gloria’s hands in his own. We all dipped our heads, and Becca began.
“Thank you for our food. Thank you for our house. Thank you for our family. Thank you for milk. Thank you for Gloria not putting celery in the soup. Thank you for my new boots. Amen.”
I pinched my lips together to stifle my laugh. No matter how many times I heard that little girl pray, if that’s what you could even call it, it never failed to make me laugh. Everyone fell right into place, laughing and talking about their days as they shoveled soup in their mouths.
Sitting around that table, with those people—my people—made my heart swell.
After dinner I offered to help Gloria clean up, but as usual, she smiled and told me to go away.
Andy, the kids, and I all huddled in the family room, curled up on the couch together.
“How was your first meal at home?” Andy relaxed back into the couch as he twirled Becca’s hair in his fingers. She’d been attached to him ever since we walked through the door.
I let my head fall back against the couch. “So good! I’m stuffed!”
“Okay, who’s ready to open some of these cards?” Gloria chuckled as she came into the room. “You guys are going to be at this for hours!”
“How do we do this? Does it matter which flowers they come off of? Do I send a thank-you card for flowers?” The questions fell from my mouth one after the other.
Andy stared at me with raised eyebrows. “I’m thinking given the circumstances, people are going to understand if they don’t get a thank-you card from you.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I shrugged.
“Can I get the cards?” Logan asked, hopping up from the chair and scampering into the kitchen.
Becca was right on his heels. “Me too!”
“Be careful!” Andy hollered after them. “I really don’t want any flowers or water spilled or vases broken.”
“Okay!” they called back in unison.
Andy turned his attention my way. “I meant to ask you . . . when is your dad going to be here full-time?”
I took a deep breath, exhaling loudly. “Soon! He’s aiming for next week, actually.”
“Does he need a place to stay?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Since I’m not using it, I told him to stay at my house until he decides where he wants to live and whether he wants to buy or rent.”
“Good,” he said firmly.
I furrowed my brows at him. “Good?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, his eyes piercing into mine. “The longer he stays there, the longer I get to keep you here.”
I rolled my eyes and started to give him a smart-ass response, but Becca and Logan came running back into the room, each carrying a handful of tiny envelopes and cards.
“We got as many as we could.” Logan grinned, dropping them into a little pile on the coffee table.
“I’m pretty sore and tired from all the excitement today.” I struggled to keep my eyes open through a big yawn. “You guys want to read some of them out loud to me?”
As the kids knelt at the coffee table, huddled around their individual piles of cards, Andy scooted in close and tucked me in the crook of his arm. Gloria reached down and grabbed the crossword puzzle book she’d been working on for weeks and busied herself with that. Logan tore open the first card.
He squinted, reading it silently at first.
I leaned into Andy and whispered, “We should get his eyes checked. Has he had that done recently?”
A smile as big as I’d ever seen formed on Andy’s sexy mouth. “Look at you.”
“What?”
“That was a very mom thing to say.”
“Oh.” My stomach flipped. “Sorry, I just meant that—”
“Dani.” He reached up and rested his fingers on my lips gently. “What I said was a good thing. Quit apologizing.”
“It says . . . Get well soon and heal quickly, Dani. We love you!” Logan read slowly.
“Who’s it from?” Andy asked.
His mouth fell open, and his blue eyes grew huge as he stared down at the card. He’d never looked more like his father than at that moment. “The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders!” he squealed.
“I love those girls,” I said.
“Me too. Hubba, hubba!” Logan wiggled his eyebrows upside down.
“Logan!” I exclaimed as Andy’s shoulders shook from laughing.
They spent the next twenty minutes or so taking turns tearing the cards open and reading them. Logan had to help Becca with a few of hers because of the big words.
“This one says . . . Hang in there, boss. Love, Kyle Keegan,” Becca read slowly.
“Aww, that was sweet. Bet his mom sent it,” I joked. Andy let out a lou
d belly laugh.
“Whoa!” Logan’s eyes bulged again. “This one has a swear word.”
I rolled my eyes. “Is it from someone named Sadie?”
“Or Viper?” Andy added.
He shook his head. “It says . . . I’m not done yet, b-word.” His eyes lifted to his dad’s, and my whole body froze. Gloria gasped and dropped her crossword book. Andy stood so fast I nearly fell over in his spot. As he marched over and took the card from Logan, reading it again silently, I prayed that Logan had somehow misread something. The second Andy’s eyes shifted to me, I knew. He didn’t have to say a single word, and I already knew. But how? He was in prison. Detective Larson was very skeptical that he’d be able to bond out, and even if he did, Larson promised to call us immediately.
The room started spinning as my mind raced with possibilities. I vaguely heard Andy ask Gloria to take the kids upstairs and put them to bed, but then the voices went fuzzy, drowned out by the blood whooshing through my ears.
“I’m gonna go call Detective Larson and figure out what the fuck is going on. I’ll be back.” I nodded as he walked from the room. At least I think I nodded, I don’t even remember. Everything was finally returning to normal and I felt safe in my own skin, and just like that, with five words from Logan’s mouth, it was all ripped away again.
Logan. Becca.
My mind switched gears to them. I was worried they’d think they had done something wrong or that they’d be scared. I understood why Andy rushed them away the way he did, but I wanted to make sure they were okay. I made my way up the steps as fast as my body would allow and ducked into Becca’s room.
“Hey, sweetie,” I said as I sat on the edge of her bed. The covers were pulled all the way up to her chin, and she had a slight frown on her face. “I just wanted to tuck you in and say good night, okay?”
“Is Daddy okay?” she asked. “He looked really mad.”
“Yeah, he’s fine.” I brushed the loose blonde hairs off of her forehead. “Sometimes things happen, and they make adults mad, but your dad is fine, and I’m fine. You don’t worry about all that yucky adult stuff, okay?”
Her face relaxed as she gave me a small smile and nodded. I bent down and kissed her forehead. “See you in the morning, babycakes.”
“Good night, Dani.” Before I even left the room, she rolled over and faced the wall. I stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame as I watched her little body move up and down with each breath. As worried as I was all over again for my own safety, the thought of him harming one hair on Becca’s head made muscles I didn’t even know I had tense up.
“Good night, Logan.”
I peeked my head in the hallway just as Gloria was closing his bedroom door. “Is he still up?” I asked.
She nodded. “What about her?”
“She’s out.” I shook my head as I walked toward Logan’s bedroom doorway. “I’m gonna talk to him for a quick second.”
“Okay, I’m heading down.”
I got to Logan’s door and leaned in close, listening for just a second before I knocked.
“Come in,” he called out.
I opened the door, and he squinted as the bright hallway light hit him in the face. “Sorry.” I closed the door quickly.
“What’s wrong?” He started to sit up.
“No, no. Nothing. Don’t get up,” I said, sitting down at the end of his bed. “I just wanted to say good night and make sure you were okay. Things got . . . kinda weird down there.”
“Yeah. Really fast, too.”
“Yep.” I took a deep breath and puffed my cheeks out. “Are you okay?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. I’m just worried. If he’s not in jail, is he gonna hurt you again?”
“Oh, baby. Don’t you worry about that. Not for a second. First, we don’t even know if he’s out or if that was some weirdo playing a sick joke. Second, if he is out and he did send that, they’re gonna haul his butt right back to jail, okay?” I tried to give him a reassuring smile, but I doubt I was very convincing at that point.
His mouth opened wide in a big yawn. “Okay.”
“You get some sleep, dude. It’s been a long couple of days for all of us. I’ll be here in the morning when you wake up.”
He gave me a toothy grin and nodded. “Good. I’m glad you came back here.”
“Me too.” I bent down and kissed his forehead, messing his hair up as I stood.
“Dani?” he called out just as my hand was on the doorknob.
“Yeah, buddy?” I turned back to his bed, his face glowing orange from the Minnesota Twins night-light that was plugged in next to his bed.
“I wanted to say . . . that . . . I love you.”
A huge lump appeared in my throat, and I couldn’t speak past it. I swallowed as fast as I could. “I love you, too, Logan. A lot.”
His cheeks plumped with a smile as he snuggled deep into his comforter and closed his eyes.
I made my way down the stairs slowly, mentally preparing myself for the worst, even though I didn’t know what the worst could be. Andy was pacing the kitchen with his cell phone at his ear. He looked up as I came in and held one finger up to me, signaling he’d be off in a minute. I sat down at the kitchen table and peeked into the family room. Gloria must have gone to bed.
“Okay . . . Yes . . . As soon as possible . . . Okay . . . Bye.” He turned his phone off, tossed it on the kitchen counter carelessly, and ran his hands through his hair. He walked to the kitchen table, too, but instead of sitting, he stood, resting his hands on the back of the chair next to me as his head fell in between them.
“Well?”
He lifted his head and stared straight ahead, avoiding my eyes. “Well, he’s still in jail. He’s never left, and he hasn’t had any visitors other than his attorney.”
“What?!” I cried out. “How can that be? Cole must have hired Javier. Cole had to have sent these flowers.”
“I have no idea.” He shook his head back and forth. That angry vein was pulsating in his forehead so hard that I thought it might explode. “They’re going to send a car over here to park outside overnight, and I’m heading there in the morning to talk to Larson more.”
“I’m going with you.”
“No, you’re not.” He finally slid his eyes over to mine. “You’ve been through enough. You need to rest.”
“Stop being so fucking bossy. This is about me, and I have a right to know what the hell is going on, probably even more than you do.” I snapped a little harsher than I meant to, but I refused to back down. “I’m a grown woman who handled herself just fine before you came along, Andy. Don’t treat me like some delicate flower who can’t fend for herself.”
His face tightened, and he pressed his lips together as I spoke, but after a second, he relaxed again. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I stood up and walked over, lifting his shoulder so he would stand up straight. As soon as he did, I wrapped my arms around his waist. His heart thumped against my ear as soon as I laid my head on his chest, a sound that had grown to soothe me. At the moment it was beating a little faster than it should have been, but it was still soothing nonetheless.
“Can we go to bed, please? Upstairs? Together? For the whole night?” I murmured, desperate to feel his arms around me until the morning.
“Are you kidding?” he scoffed. “Did you really think letting you sleep without me was even an option? I’m fucking bossy, remember?”
CHAPTER 37
Andy
I hardly slept at all. Between getting up to check and make sure the police car was still parked out front and staring at Dani as she slept, I had less than three hours of sleep the whole night. At one point I thought I heard something down in the kitchen, so I grabbed one of Logan’s bats from his room and tiptoed down the steps. If not for the glow of the fridge light, I probably would have clobbered poor Gloria to death. To say that I was on edge was putting it mildly.
By the time my alarm
when off in the morning, I was already awake and turned it off immediately. Dani groaned and shifted in her sleep but didn’t open her eyes. Within seconds, her breathing evened, and she was passed out again. At least one of us was able to rest. And if I had to pick, I was glad it was her. She still had a long road of recovery ahead of her and I wanted her body to have whatever it needed.
I heard Logan and Becca chattering as they went down the steps, so I carefully slipped my arm out from around Dani’s waist, tucked her back in, and snuck down after them.
The sun was shining brightly through the two-story entryway, the kids were giggling in the kitchen, and other than the police car parked in the front of the house, it seemed like any other fantastic September morning. I glanced at the clock on the oven as I sailed into the kitchen.
Seven oh two.
I had to be at Detective Larson’s office in an hour, and the thought of leaving Dani to sleep crossed my mind. I was worried that Larson wouldn’t be as candid and honest with her sitting there, but then I remembered the ass chewing she gave me the night before, and I realized she would do even worse to him if she felt he was withholding information.
“Morning, guys.” I tried to sound as normal and cheerful as possible.
“Daddy!” Becca sang happily, leaping into my arms.
“Good morning, Mr. Shaw,” Gloria said as she pushed scrambled eggs around the pan.
I sighed. “Gang, raise your hand if you think Gloria should call me Andy.”
Becca, who would agree with anything I asked her to agree to, raised her hand as high as it would go. Logan, who was half asleep on the other side of the table, raised his hand, and mine followed. “Look at that. One, two, three. You’re outnumbered. Andy it is.”
Gloria turned and shot me a glare that was the equivalent of your mother using your middle name, and I decided to shut up.
We were just finishing up breakfast when I heard her footsteps in the hallway. Dani appeared in the doorway. Her eyes were puffy and her hair looked like a slightly tamer version of Medusa, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. The T-shirt she was wearing had slipped down, exposing her shoulder like it always did, driving me absolutely insane. I had to force myself to remember that my kids were in the room and squash the daydream I was having of throwing her on the kitchen table and making love to her right there.