by Connie Cox
Eva had to admit she wouldn’t like it either.
“Ready?”
“Ready,” Mark answered from behind her.
With Aaron’s recent past, she couldn’t predict the kind of action the police might feel they needed to take.
Aaron gripped her arms a little too hard.
“It’s okay to be scared. Everyone gets scared, don’t they, Uncle Mark?”
“Yes, they do.” Mark cleared his throat. “And we all need help sometimes. Remember that, Aaron.”
“I will, Uncle Mark.”
Carefully, they walked in sync out of the gym.
Everything happened exactly like Eva had said it would—which was nothing short of a miracle.
As three policemen scrambled to cuff Aaron, Eva slipped her hand into Mark’s. “We’ll do everything we can to do what’s right for him.”
Mark held himself together until they loaded Aaron into the patrol car. The boy was streaked with dirt. He had muddy tear tracks down his cheeks.
It was the tears that broke Mark.
He wrapped his arms around himself, trying to find the strength to follow the squad car.
Then Eva wrapped her arms around him, too.
“It’s okay to cry,” she said as tears coursed down her own cheeks. His emotions made her love him all the more.
Mark nodded, his throat too thick to answer.
Eva drove while Mark ruminated on all he could have done, all he should have done, to prevent this.
She left him to his own thoughts as she drove to the hospital.
Once there, they checked in on Aaron through the glass. Handcuffed to the hospital bed, he already looked more settled in his mind at the restraints.
“That happens fairly often,” Eva explained to Mark. “Patients who were out of control often calm down when they no longer have to be responsible for their own actions.”
“He was such a cute, funny little kid.” Beside her, Mark reached for her hand. “Thank you for being by my side. I felt so helpless. So lost. Having you next to me gives me the strength I need to hold it all together. I couldn’t do what I need to do for Aaron without you here with me, helping me keep my head on straight.”
Through the wired glass he stared at the nephew he had failed.
As if Eva could read his mind, she said, “It’s not your fault. Aaron made bad choices.”
“I thought I was paying attention. But I didn’t even see the signs after you pointed them out.”
“Mark, as private as you are, you’re not going to like this, but it would help if you talked to someone. A professional counselor can help you through this.”
“You?”
“Not me. I’m too close to you.”
“Too close.” He searched her eyes. “How close?”
“This isn’t the most romantic time or place, but I mean this in good times and in bad ones.” Eva caught his hands. “I love you, Mark.”
I love you. That felt so—so full. So big. So much like the piece that had been missing from him all these years.
The words were out before he could stop them. “I love you, too.”
Then, because it felt so good, he said it again. “I love you, Eva Veracruz.”
She grinned at him. “That’s Dr. Eva Veracruz to you.”
“So where do we go from here?” Mark realized this was the most important question he’d ever asked.
Eva, being the take-charge woman he loved, had her answer ready. “After we get Aaron settled, we talk about marriage.”
“Will that talk include babies?” Mark could almost see a dark, curly-haired daughter or two to spoil.
Eva kissed his cheek. “Yes. Babies and families and boundaries.”
“Families that bind but don’t strangle, right?”
“Our families?” She arched a brow in mock surprise. “I have a feeling they’ll do a little of both. But that’s what we have each other for. So we can find and keep our balance, right?”
“Right.” Mark hugged Eva, needing some balance right now. “I love you, Eva Veracruz. In good times and in bad.”
EPILOGUE
EVA COULDN’T HAVE asked for a better wedding day. Her brother stood ready to walk her down the aisle to a beaming Mark, who looked so handsome in his dark suit.
On the balcony, a saxophone sang of joy and triumph of the soul.
She had opted to skip the traditional tux, knowing her brother could ill afford to rent one. Instead, Ricky looked very handsome in the jacket and tie he’d bought for his daughters’ christenings.
“You look nice.” He kissed her on the cheek.
“You, too.”
“That’s what Susan said.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “That’s why we were late.”
His two youngest daughters, dressed in leotards and tutus they’d picked out themselves, strained on either hand of their big sister as Selma, Eva’s junior maid of honor, led them down the aisle. Halfway down they decided to show off their cartwheel skills, despite their big sister’s best efforts to stop them.
They weren’t the best-behaved flower girls in the world but they were the cutest.
Selma looked very grown up in her first long dress and long white gloves like the debutantes wore.
Eva had themed it a fantasy wedding. Her family had followed orders and dressed accordingly.
Behind them, Susan, her matron of honor, wearing a sparkling halter dress that would have looked lovely in a ballroom, pushed Abuelita’s wheelchair in front of her.
Abuelita wore a tiara on her head. Selma had insisted she would like it. It seemed Selma was right. Abuelita kept forgetting whose wedding she was attending, but she was fully aware that she was center stage. Halfway down the aisle, she began waving to friends in the pews as if she were the Queen Mother herself.
Her family might not be dressed according to wedding etiquette but they thought they were beautiful. Eva agreed.
Since she’d missed her cue, Ricky tugged on the sleeve of her red silk dress, the one she’d been wearing when she’d first met Mark. “Your turn.”
“My turn,” she agreed.
Ricky would be doing double duty, acting as her escort then standing next to Mark as his sole groomsman.
It was an unconventional wedding procession but, then, they were an unconventional family.
More traditionally attired, Mark’s mother and her husband sat in the first pew. His sister and her newest boyfriend finished out the aisle, with Aaron between them. They had all been co-operating so well in their family counseling sessions that Aaron had received a day pass for the wedding.
Behind them sat Mark’s father, his wife and Mark’s three half-siblings, all in their mid-teens. It looked as if Mark’s dad had learned something about parenting since he’d left Mark’s mom.
Better late than never, Mark had graciously said.
The television station’s camera crew filmed the whole thing. It was her goodbye present.
While she and Mark had boosted the ratings, she’d turned in her resignation letter, anyway.
Unlike Mark, Eva wouldn’t even try to double-dip at two jobs at once. She didn’t have the type-A driving temperament.
Besides, they soon wouldn’t have much time on their hands outside the nursery.
Her gut instinct had prompted her to pee on the stick this morning. Definitely pregnant.
Tonight, she would tell him about the baby.
* * *
Mark watched Eva walk towards him in her scarlet dress. Was it possible she was showing even more cleavage than the first time she’d worn it?
As she stood across from him, he couldn’t stop staring, drinking her in, glorying in her becoming his wife.
She leaned forward an
d whispered, “I don’t think the society mavens approve.”
Mark leaned forward and whispered back, “It doesn’t matter what they think. I approve.” He stared down at her cleavage. “I very definitely approve.”
Ricky bumped him with his elbow. “Do that later. Right now, say your vows.”
Mark took Eva’s hand, loving that frisson of energy that shot up his arm. Loving that he would have the benefit of her special touch the rest of his life.
“I, Mark Chandler O’Donnell, take you, Eva Anita Veracruz, to be my lawful wedded wife and the mother of my child.”
He loved the shocked surprise in her eyes. She followed it up with that brilliant smile of hers.
He was in for a rocky ride as a protective parent if he had a daughter with her mother’s smile.
Afterward, at their reception, he took great pleasure in lifting his glass to their guests.
“May I present my family?” A feeling of contentedness filled him as he swept his glass around the table to include all Eva’s and his relatives.
His family had been broken and hurting and he hadn’t known how to heal it. But his wife, the doctor, had known exactly what to prescribe.
And he intended to spend the rest of his life thanking her for it.
Love. It truly was the best medicine.
“To your health and the health of your family!” he toasted his guests.
Eva leaned over and clinked her glass of sparkling water to his champagne flute. “To our family.”
* * * * *
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin ebook. Connect with us for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Subscribe to our newsletter: Harlequin.com/newsletters
Visit Harlequin.com
We like you—why not like us on Facebook: Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Follow us on Twitter: Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
Read our blog for all the latest news on our authors and books: HarlequinBlog.com
ISBN: 9781460314289
Copyright © 2013 by Connie Cox
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com