“Christ.” Dante ran a hand over his face, forcing himself to take several deep, calming breaths. He now knew exactly how Nick felt, because his own fists were practically itching with the need to punch someone, to inflict serious bodily harm on the punks responsible for what had happened to Cara - his sweet, vulnerable little Cara, who’d never hurt anyone in her life. She’d suffered through far too much for someone so young, and this morning’s vicious attack was beyond reprehensible.
“Leah mumbled something about a friend of Cara’s calling you?” prodded Dante.
Angela nodded. Her hands were trembling a little, even clasped tightly in her lap, until Nick took them between his own to still their shaking. “Yes, her best friend from college. Mirai. She was listed as Cara’s emergency contact on her insurance, and dashed right over here the minute she got the call. Nick and I had barely walked into the office when Mirai got ahold of me, and we came right over. But she’s left now, said something about it being her first day of classes, and that Cara would be furious if she missed attending. She’ll be back later today.”
“Okay.” Dante exhaled sharply. “And what’s this about her asshat father not having called back? What the fuck is wrong with that SOB anyway?”
Nick frowned, his dark brows furrowing together. “How do you know so much about Cara’s father?” he asked sharply. “And tell us again exactly why you felt the need to rush over here? I mean, I guess it’s nice of you to be so concerned about one of our employees, but a phone call would have probably sufficed.”
Dante hesitated, not sure if he really wanted to further provoke a pissed-off Nick right now. But before he could think up a believable response, Angela saved him the trouble - even while she opened up a giant can of worms in the process.
“He’s here because he and Cara were seeing each other for a while last summer,” she stated bluntly. “And I’m guessing he feels guilty about breaking up with her so he could get back together with Katie. Does that about sum it up, Dante?”
Angela was glaring at him now, but he’d rather face a dozen angry Angelas than a seriously enraged Nick. And there was zero question that his best friend was good and mad at this moment - at the punks who’d attacked Cara, at her useless father, and now at Dante. Unfortunately for him, he was the only one within striking range at this exact moment.
“You fucker,” hissed Nick, starting to rise to his feet. “I cannot fucking believe you had the balls to mess around with that - that little girl. She’s a kid, Dan, just a kid! And I lost count years ago of how many women you’ve had. What the hell were you thinking of?”
His voice had become louder and more forceful with each word that rumbled from his chest, and several other people in the waiting room began to turn and regard him with concern.
Angela tugged urgently at his suit jacket. “Sit down!” she demanded. “Right now. I’m going to tell both of you this just once, so listen up. You two are not going to get into this right now, understand? The waiting room of an ER is not where you get to hash all of this out. So knock it off, and let’s focus on the real reason we’re all here - Cara.”
Nick took his seat reluctantly, though the expression on his face was nothing short of murderous. Both men glared at each other for several minutes, with Angela unfortunately being stuck in the middle and thrust into the unwilling role of peacemaker.
Dante was the one to break the uncomfortable silence first, grudgingly admitting to himself that he owed Nick and Angela an explanation. “I never meant for things to go that far between us,” he muttered. “I was just going to take her out to dinner the one time, because it was her birthday, and I was trying to do something nice for her. That was going to be it. But, well…”
Nick rolled his eyes. “But old Casanova here couldn’t resist laying on the charm and getting another notch in his bedpost.”
“No.” Dante shook his head emphatically. “It was never like that with Cara, not at all. Hey, I’m not a complete bastard, Nick. Not like you were. I mean, before you met Angela, at least,” he amended hastily.
Angela gave him a tight smile. “It’s okay. I already knew what an asshole he was. Fortunately, that’s all different now or I would never have agreed to marry him, baby or no baby.”
Nick cuffed her playfully on the chin. “What can I say, Angel. I’m a changed man thanks to you, that’s the honest truth. But at least I did the right thing by you eventually - which is more than I can say for Dante.”
Dante winced at the accusatory tone of his best friend’s voice. “You’re right. I was a first class jerk. But without getting into all the private details of our relationship, I will tell you that Cara knew exactly what to expect between us. She’d be the first one to tell you that I never lied to her, never led her on. And when things ended between us, I tried to be as sensitive about it as possible, even though I know it hurt her a lot.”
Nick scoffed. “Well, of course it did, asshole. She’s just a kid, a babe in the woods compared to your other women. Compared to Katie. Speaking of which, how do you have the balls to be here pretending to care about Cara when you’re still involved with another woman?”
“I’m not,” assured Dante. “Involved with Katie, that is. As of last night officially. Things haven’t been the same between us since we got back together, and I’ve been seeing a whole different side of her this time around. Or I guess I just never wanted to notice it before since I was so blinded by her.”
Nick and Angela exchanged a look before he grinned at Dante. “What you really meant to say was that you were too dumb to notice it last time around,” corrected Nick. “See, if you had gone to Stanford like Angela and I did, you would have had a real education and been smarter about stuff like that.”
“Hah, hah.” Dante wasn’t about to debate the merits of their respective colleges, given that it would be two against one. “Book smarts don’t always equate to good old-fashioned common sense. Or listening to the advice your mother always gave you.”
Angela snorted. “Maybe your mother gave you good advice. Nick and I can’t say the same for ours. But why break up with Katie now? Did you two have a fight or something?”
“No. At least not until I told her it was over between us. Then she didn’t hold anything back, let loose with a string of insults that made my ears burn. I’m guessing Nick hasn’t heard some of the stuff she was flinging at me, even after spending all those years in NFL locker rooms. As for the timing of it all - I guess you could say the catalyst was seeing Cara at your wedding cozying up to her date. It sort of brought out the caveman in me, made me realize that I had real feelings for her. So I’m going to try and make it right between us now. If she’ll even agree to hear what I have to say that is. She’s pretty pissed off at me for some things I said to her at your wedding,” admitted Dante reluctantly.
“Hmm,” remarked Angela thoughtfully. “You know, I’m not even going to ask what you did to make her mad. But since Cara’s the nicest person I’ve ever known, it must have been something pretty rotten.”
Nick didn’t seem particularly happy even after Dante’s humble confession. “Listen up, buddy, and mark my words,” he warned, waggling a finger at Dante. “If you break that little girl’s heart again, I will make you regret you were ever born. Got it? I’m still so pissed about the fact that you got involved with her in the first place, and then made the bonehead move of the century by leaving her for that airhead Katie. So you’d better fucking make it right between the two of you again, or you’ll have to answer to me. And speaking of answering to me, what the hell is wrong with that loser father of hers? What sort of man gets a phone call - six of them, to be exact - saying that his daughter was mugged and taken to the ER and doesn’t immediately call back?”
Dante was about to offer up his own unfavorable opinion of Mark Bregante when a slim African-American woman dressed in hospital scrubs walked over to where the three of them were sitting.
“You’re here for Cara Bregan
te, right?” she inquired of Angela. “I think the nurse said you work with Cara.”
Angela nodded. “Yes, she works for my husband and me. Do you have an update on her condition?”
The woman, whose name badge read Rachel Selby M.D. - and who looked far too young to be an actual doctor in Dante’s opinion - nodded. “She’s being transferred to a patient room now, and we’ll be keeping her at least overnight. The CT scan we did of her head shows a definite concussion, but as long as she gets plenty of rest that should resolve itself over the next few days. We also did X-rays which determined she has two cracked ribs. Unfortunately, aside from wrapping them and giving her regular doses of pain medication, those will have to heal on their own. Aside from that, she’s got a number of bruises and scrapes, and I’m sure it will take her some time to get over the trauma of the attack. She’s been in and out of consciousness, though most of that is because she’s sleepy from the pain meds. But she was able to give a statement to the police officers earlier and seemed pretty lucid. Even recalled that she was able to zap one of the jerks who did this to her with pepper spray. Physically, she’ll be fine after some rest and just letting everything heal up.”
“Can we see her now?” asked Angela, already getting to her feet.
Doctor Selby glanced at the two men who flanked Angela, then back at her. “Not all of you at once,” she cautioned. “One, maybe two at a time, and then just for a few minutes each. She really needs to rest right now, that’s going to be the best thing for her. And don’t let her talk much, as even that can make the pain in her ribs worse. She’s in Room 424, but wait about ten more minutes before heading up there to make sure she’s all settled in. I’ll be in to check on her during afternoon rounds, and we’ll determine tomorrow morning if she’s ready to be discharged. Does she have anyone living at home with her? Between the concussion and the ribs, she won’t be able to stay on her own for at least a week.”
“She lives alone but she can stay with - ” began Angela.
“With me,” interrupted Dante. “She can stay at my place. I can arrange to work from home for as long as I need to and look after her.”
Angela looked dubious at this impulsive announcement. “Dante, honestly, I’m not sure that’s the best idea. Nick and I have plenty of room, and she might feel more at ease with us.”
Dante shook his head firmly. “The two of you just got back from your honeymoon yesterday, and the last thing you need now is a houseguest. Besides, you need to take care of yourself, Angela, and that baby. Cara’s going to stay with me.”
The doctor shrugged. “Look, I’ll leave the three of you to figure out the details. Or let’s have Cara decide what she wants to do. So long as she’s not alone, then it’s really up to her where she winds up. I’ve got to dash off now to see another patient, but one of the nurses can call me if something comes up.”
She hurried off then, leaving Dante to face a scowling Nick and an anything but convinced Angela.
“What makes you think that she’d want to stay with you if she’s that pissed off?” asked Angela calmly.
Dante sighed. “Guess I’ll have to convince her otherwise, huh? But if she’d rather stay with you, I won’t fight her on it. So now that that decision’s been made, how do we determine who gets to see her first?”
Nick and Angela exchanged a look, and he merely shrugged, silently leaving the decision up to her. She sighed, throwing up her hands in surrender.
“I’m too tired to argue with you, Dante. You can go in and see her first. But if she doesn’t want to see you, or you start upsetting her, forget about Nick kicking your ass, because it will be my foot doing the job,” she threatened.
Dante squeezed her hand. “If she really doesn’t want to see me, I promise I’ll leave immediately,” he assured her gently. “Let’s head on up, shall we?”
Despite Doctor Selby’s assurances that Cara would be all right after resting up and recovering for a few days, Dante felt like he’d just taken a blow to the gut when he saw her for the first time. She looked so tiny and fragile in the stark white hospital bed, an IV tube in her arm, and hooked up to a monitor of some sort. Her face was ghostly pale, save for the bruises that had already begun to darken her jaw and cheekbone. Small bandages covered the scrapes on her forehead and left forearm, and he guessed angrily that there were more scrapes and bruises hidden beneath the hospital gown she wore and the blankets that covered her body. The rage he felt at seeing her this way - bruised, bandaged, helpless - made him want to kick a hole into the wall, or throw the first heavy object he could find through a window. But he knew that violence and anger weren’t going to help Cara at this moment, so he took a few deep, calming breaths before murmuring, “Hi.”
Cara blinked sleepily, raising one eyelid to peer up at him as he stood by the side of her bed. Even as doped up as she so obviously was, though, she seemed startled to see him.
“Dante.” Her voice was barely audible, not much more than a hoarse whisper. “What – did - did Angela call you? Is that why you’re here?”
“No.” He pulled the guest chair up to the side of the bed, getting as close to her as he possibly could. Careful not to interfere with the various tubes and wires, he placed a hand gently on her shoulder. “Leah was the one who told me you were here. I went by the office this morning, determined to see you since you weren’t replying to my texts. I had something important to tell you, really important, and when you weren’t answering me, I realized it was going to have to be face to face. I figured you were still mad at me, and that’s why you weren’t answering my messages. But this - Jesus, Cara. This is the very last thing I expected.”
She nodded, her eyes closing tiredly. “Yeah, me, too. So much of it is still fuzzy to me right now. And - and it hurts to talk, to breathe. My ribs…”
Dante caressed her cheek tenderly. “Yeah, a couple of them are busted up, I’m afraid. And coming from someone who’s had their fair share of injuries from all those years of playing soccer, I can unfortunately tell you that it’s going to hurt like a bitch for a few weeks. Which is one of the reasons you need to take it easy and let someone look after you. Why you’re going to come stay at my place and let me be that someone.”
“What?” she asked incredulously, her head lifting up off the pillow in surprise. “Oh, ow!”
He grimaced as she clutched her ribcage. “Hey, take it easy, honey. Shh, just lay back and rest, okay? Guess I shouldn’t have sprung that on you without warning. But your doctor said you can’t be alone for the next week or so between the concussion and those ribs. And since I absolutely refuse to ever use that futon of yours again, you’re staying with me. In a very large, very comfortable king sized bed that doesn’t have to be folded out every night.”
Cara gazed up at him in bewilderment. “Um, I know I’m spaced out big time on meds right now, but aren’t you forgetting something here? Namely, your girlfriend? Remember her?”
Dante took her hand in his, the one that didn’t have an IV needle inserted in it. “Wish I could forget her, actually,” he admitted. “And I really, really wish I hadn’t let myself believe that she had changed, or that things would just go back to the way they’d been between us before she broke up with me. Speaking of break-ups, Katie and I are officially over as of last night. Done. Finito. For good this time.”
She gave his hand a tiny squeeze. “I’m sorry. Actually, I’m really not, but I’m sorry if you feel badly about it.”
He guffawed. “That’s one of the things I love the most about you, Cara mia. You’re always honest, always say what’s on your mind, and never pretend. And I’m handling it just fine, thanks.”
Despite her drowsiness, her eyes widened in shock. “Did - did you - what did you just say? That first part, I mean.”
Dante bent forward to press a little kiss to the tip of her nose, just about the only place on her beautiful face that wasn’t bruised or scraped to some degree. “Oh, you mean the part about how I lo
ve you? Oops, guess I sort of sprung that one on you, too, didn’t I? Yeah, it’s true. I’m crazy about you, Cara, and I think I have been from the start. And if I hadn’t been so stubborn, and so messed up over what had happened with Katie, I would have realized it a long time ago. And I don’t expect you to forgive me that easily, or agree to give me another chance, but I swear to you, Cara, that if you do I’ll do everything in my power to make it all up to you. And the very first thing I’m going to do - well, once you’re all recovered and up for the ride - is to take you to meet my mother. I told her about you, you know.”
Tears were glistening on her eyelashes, and he brushed them away with his thumb. “You did?” she asked in disbelief. “When?”
“Saturday. And you know what? I should have asked my mom’s advice a long time ago, should have brought you to meet her last summer. Because she would have told me the same thing then that she told me two days ago - when in doubt, follow my heart. And when I finally did, it told me what I think I knew all along - that I should have picked you, Cara. That you were the one who made me truly happy, the one I belonged with. So if you could possibly find a way to forgive me even a little, I promise to make everything up to you.”
Cara gave a brief shake of her head, wincing as even that tiny movement caused her pain. “You already have,” she whispered. “The moment you told me you loved me nothing else mattered. I love you, Dante. I have from the very beginning, even though I wasn’t supposed to.”
He pressed a soft kiss to her lips, then grinned as she promptly fell back asleep.
“So what you’re telling me is that you’d rather take your trophy wife on some little getaway to celebrate her birthday instead of flying out here to see your daughter who was viciously attacked earlier today? Wow, you know, when Cara told me about you, Mark, I thought maybe she might have been exaggerating a little. After talking to you for five minutes, though, I see it was just the opposite - she couldn’t begin to describe what a total waste of space you really are.”
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