by Siera London
The repairs to both their houses were complete and their time in Waverly Falls had come to an end. Janna liaised with Thane when he arrived in Shell Cove. According to Janna, she would be pleased with the remodel. Gideon was silent as they entered the Shell Cove city limits.
He was distracted and for the life of her she couldn’t understand why.
“Gideon, nothing happened between me and Ian.”
“I know that,” came his terse reply.
“So, what’s with the silent treatment?”
“What did he say to you?”
“He thinks that we are good together and said he was happy you were finally moving on with your life. He said you’re stubborn. Which I’m discovering is an understatement.”
“Anything else?”
“No.” She was hesitant. Gideon visibly relaxed. “What’s going on, Gideon? What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s water under a very old bridge. Ian and I disagree on how I handled the situation until recently. It has nothing to do with you and me. My past won’t stay buried.”
“Nothing stays buried. Being a psychiatrist you understand that better than most.”
“Everything is taken care of. Change of subject, I know you love living near the water, if you had the option to build a house where would it be?” Lina leaned over the center console stroking his inner thigh.
“Hmm, interesting question doctor. You’re asking me to dream build a house with you?”
“I would love to live in Avondale. With its canopy lined streets, historic charm and water views it has everything I would want in a neighborhood.”
“How about we build the house of your dreams in Avondale?”
“Get out. You would give up your custom built bachelor’s pad for me?”
“That ring on your finger means I’m asking you to do a lot of sacrificing for me.” Lina pulled back then.
“Yeah, we need to talk about what this ring means to you. I know it belonged to your mom, and I’m honored that you want me to wear it, but…”
“There’s no but. The ring belonged to my birth mother. She would pawn it when we needed money. She once told me, no matter what happened, she would always come back for that ring. I found it in the Waverly Falls pawn shop when I was seventeen. So, as soon as you tell me you’re ready to get married, I’m going to make you my wife.” Oh God, he held onto the hope that his mother would return for him.
“Wow, I’m not…”
“Let’s not do this in the car, while I have to keep us alive, by paying attention. We will talk more when we get home.”
“You want to get married?”
“Yes, Lina. You sound as if you don’t believe me. I don’t go around asking for a woman’s hand in marriage to fill a lull in polite conversation.”
“I’m sorry. I either slept through your proposal or I was in a sexual stupor when I agreed to marry you.” She didn’t think she would forget her proposal. Was the sex that good? Yes.
Gideon abruptly pulled the car off the road. Arm propped on the steering wheel he turned to face her. Though he moved fast his touch was gentle when he touched her cheek.
“You have nothing to apologize for. I’m a moron.” Lina regarded him with more confusion.
“My birth family, never had much they could claim as their own. I think I inherited that trait. No matter how much money I made I still felt like I had nothing. Until I found you, Lina. That ring on your finger is mine. It’s a part of my soul and I gave it to you because you’re a part of me. I’m asking you to spend the rest of your life loving me. And I pray to God that you say yes, because I won’t live another day without you.” Oh God, she felt tears prick her eyes. She never cried.
“Yes.” She whispered. This was her dream come true.
“Yes to everything?” Gideon trapped her chin in his hand. “You gonna be my wife?” She felt his hands shaking.
“Yes.”
“You will marry me and we are going to build our home, together.” She gave a barely perceptible nod for fear her head would fall off her neck because the earth had tilted on its axis. “Say the words.”
“I’m keeping you, Gideon Rice.”
When they navigated the service road leading to Lina’s condo, Gideon broached the topic that loomed in the recesses of his mind since Lina had agreed to marry him. The last time he’d traveled this road it was littered with police squad cars, convertibles with the tops lowered and a broken down nineteen seventies style camper truck.
“I know you can move back into your place, but I’m asking you to come live with me.” She looked at him like he’d hacked her bank account.
“Living together…huh?” He could feel her withdrawing.
“Lina?”
“I heard you. You want the milk in the house, so you promise the cow a ring.” Did she think he was trying a bait and switch? That he would promise marriage then not deliver.
“Look at me, Lina.” She kept her eyes trained on the road ahead. “We are going to get married.”
“When?”
“Look at me.”
“You tell me when…we are getting married and I’ll gaze in your eyes all night.”
“Sweetness, we can live…” She opened the car door and stepped onto the pavement. Shoot, she moved fast. In the time it took him to release the seat belt and open the car door, she was at the stairs leading to her second floor unit. He ran in her direction, Gideon snagged an arm around her waist, hauling her in, close to his body.
“Pick a date.” She was stiff as a pipe against his chest.
“Did you hear me?” He squeezed her tight around the middle, willing her to believe in their love, to trust him. “Tell me when you want to be my wife.”
“Friday morning.” There was an underlying tremor in her voice. He realized it was doubt. After everything they had shared, she doubted him.
“What time Friday?” She spun in his arms, now they stood nose to nose with her on the step above his.
“Eleven thirty in the hospital chapel,” her voice had a light, far away quality.
“Why are we getting married in the hospital?” She smiled broadly at him.
“Because, then all the nurses can take an early lunch break to attend our wedding ceremony and Janna leaves next week. I want Ava, Janna, and Rebecca in the wedding.”
“Rebecca, too?”
“Yeah, considering how supportive she’s been of Ava. She’s an honorary sister.” Married by Friday. Would his woman ever stop surprising him?
Chapter 18
Lina was happy. Her mother was physically unharmed and she was marrying the man of her dreams. Deanie was more emotional than she’d ever witnessed, but she hoped that with time her mother would heal from the attack.
The traffic flow leading onto Shell Cove Medical Center Parkway was slow, but steady. It would be another ten minutes before she reached the medical complex. Lina pressed the audio controls on the steering column until her favorite R & B station tuned in. The morning music mix was one she’d heard before, she began to sing like she was getting paid to perform. Maybe, that’s why she didn’t see it coming.
A small side paneled sport utility vehicle T-boned into the passenger door of Lina’s purple Camaro convertible. Her grip on the steering wheel had slipped away before she realized she’d been hit. The harsh scrape of metal on metal hurt her ears. She felt the pressure of the fiberglass cracking as the car door buckled against the force and velocity of impact.
She smelled the stench of burning tire rubber as the other vehicle accelerated. The SUV continued to push the passenger door further into the interior of the car. Just as quickly as it started, the crushing pressure was gone. She remembered yelling for an emergency medical technician to call Gideon. Before she slipped into unconscious she remembered her mother. When Lina didn’t arrive for lunch her mother would worry. But it was too late, the dark abyss pulled her in.
A noise from the hospital room’s sitting area startled her from sleep. An ur
gent text message had pulled Gideon down to the emergency room. Had he returned? Straining against the effects of the narcotics, Lina channeled her strength into prying her eyelids apart. She had a new appreciation for the plight of patients who became addicted to prescription drugs as the morphine drip piped into her veins, life colored in a beautiful mind-numbing hue, literally.
She struggled to focus on the figure emerging from the shadows beyond the draped window. When the familiar chiseled jaw adorned with its signature two days of stubble came into view, the breath she inhaled, stalled in her windpipe. She would have fallen over the side if the bed rails weren’t locked into the upright position. His caramel colored eyes, the eyes that had once melted her heart, bore into her.
“Candy.” That voice can’t be real.
When her lips parted, she said one word, “Troy?”
“Hey Candy, I’m back.” She released the delivery button to the morphine pump with the swiftness of a cobra strike.
Gideon fumed at the man standing before him. This day was worse than Monday mornings before Lina came into his life. An emergency call had pulled him away from Lina’s bedside, then Ian had intercepted him before he could return to her. Gideon held onto his control by a thread. A thread that stretched thinner every time he thought about Lina being struck by that SUV. She could have been lying dead on the side of a road. She needed him and he wasn’t there.
“Ian I don’t care what it takes. You keep her away from Shell Cove. Someone is trying to kill the woman I love. Moments ago I found out my patient is in a coma because someone slipped Galaxy into her drink.” Gideon rubbed his forehead with his fingers, trying to ward off the ache in his head.
“I don’t have time for…her shit, Ian. Gideon had almost said her name aloud. “Not with everything that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours.”
“You have to deal with this. You can’t ignore your past because you moved to a new city! Technically, she can assess the property before she assumes ownership.”
“She can assess my house once I’ve left it. Not a moment sooner.”
“I’ll do what I can, but I don’t know where she’s located at the moment. I’ve forwarded the transfer of ownership documents to her attorney’s office.”
“I need you to take care of this for me, Ian. Lina will be discharged later today. I’m taking her home.”
“Gideon,” Ian’s authoritative tone pulled him up short. “Tell Lina about her now, before it’s too late. Neither of us would be under pressure to make this negotiation happen if Lina knew the truth. You’re giving her the power to hurt you again by keeping Lina in the dark.”
“And never the two shall meet,” Gideon offered in his own low tone. “The answer is no.”
“And why is that…Dr. Rice?” Ian’s voice had taken on a more menacing quality. “Was it so horrible having your fiancée meet your family? Did we embarrass you with our hillbilly, man mountain way of treating other people?”
“Heck no, why would you think something that terrible?”
“Because your past isn’t tainted. Your perspective of the past is the problem. Lina is stronger than you give her credit for. She’s committed to you. She trusts you. Trust her by sharing your life, all of it.” Ian said.
“Don’t tell me how to handle my woman.” Gideon snapped.
“Is that what you’re trying to do?” Ian shook head, staring at Gideon with sadness in his eyes. Gideon felt anger pulsing in his veins. It was his responsibility to protect Lina. Even if it was from himself.
“You picked the wrong woman to try and lead around with blinders on. She loves you the way you are. Lina doesn’t have a problem with you being adopted or accepting us as your family. But you do. You never wanted to be a member of this family. You rub father’s nose in the mud for taking you in, make sure he knows how much you resent him every chance you get.”
“You make it sound like I’m ashamed of you. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.” What a horrible child Gideon must have been for his own mother to walk away from him. The shame was his to bear.
“Aren’t you?” Ian ground out.
“I’m ashamed of myself.” Gideon said, his voice hitting the walls with the weight of a sonic blast. Ian stood there with his mouth open, like he couldn’t believe Gideon’s words.
“That’s one of the most ridiculous statements I’ve heard in a while, and I’m a lawyer.”
Gideon remained silent.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Ian stared at him, like he was waiting for Gideon to say he was joking.
“Yep,” Gideon said.
“You were a Marine for goodness sake, served your country with honor and went on to become a doctor. How can you be ashamed?” A furrow formed between Ian’s brows.
“Doesn’t change the fact that my mother didn’t love me enough to keep me. That I ended up being taken in by a neighbor that felt sorry for me.” Gideon stretched his eyes in shock when his brother gripped him by both shoulders.
“Ever consider your mother loved you enough to want to give you a better life? A life she couldn’t provide for you.” That hadn’t occurred to Gideon. He was far too angry at Jacob for making it easy for his mother to leave him. If Jacob hadn’t offered to adopt him, his mother would have been forced to figure out a way to keep them together.
“I know the story of your family. After your grandparents died your mother was a young girl left alone to raise an infant. Addicted to drugs, stints in rehab and jail, with you in and out of foster care. Dad respected your grandfather, knew it would break his heart to know his only grandchild had no one to depend on. So he and Mrs. Emma took you in, made you their own. And you hated them for it.” Gideon shrugged off Ian’s hold.
“It’s not that I hate them, but maybe my life would have been different if they hadn’t interfered.”
“Do you honestly think, mom and dad would have stopped you from seeing your mother if she had returned for you?” Gideon knew the answer to the question and it shamed him to admit the truth. “Let’s hear it, doctor of psychiatry.”
“No, they would not have forbid her from seeing me.”
“Exactly, so pull your head out of your pucker and start treating Dad with the respect that he deserves. He kept you safe, Gideon. Helped you reach your potential. Jacob helped all of us.” His muscles went taut as a wave of guilt and shame overtook him. The two emotions, together, shattered the bitterness he’d harbored for years.
“I’ve been foolish all these years, Ian.” He thought back to Jacob standing up for him with the reporter. The ease at which he’d welcomed Lina into his home. Yeah, he’d been a fool.
“I was going to say stupid, but I’m a lawyer. Its time to let the past go, instead of running from it.”
“All the time I’ve wasted. How can I ask him to forgive me?”
“Dad loves you. You’re his son. If you stop being a pecker head that would be a massive improvement. Inviting your family to the wedding was a step in the right direction.” Gideon released a hearty laugh, because Ian was right. His father was a humble man and when Gideon approached him, Jacob would welcome him. Just like he’d done the first day Gideon arrived on the ranch. Jacob wasn’t the problem. Gideon was the stubborn one. Not allowing their relationship to grow beyond that of ward and guardian.
“I’ll make things right with Jacob.”
“Good. Welcome back into the family, brother.”
“It’s good to be back.” Ian pulled him into a quick embrace and he allowed it. The life he wanted was within his grasp, so why did he feel like it was all about to be swept away? He needed Lina.
Troy Lawson’s ink-black curls were shorter than when she knew him. He had been her everything. He’d been on staff in the athletic department where she attended nursing school. Six years her senior, it felt chic for a soon-to-be college graduate to be living with a man who had a job and his own apartment. Looking at him standing in her hospital room was too much.
“You are luck
y I’m under the influence of pain killers, or BETAS and I would be prepping you for a hospital bed of your own.”
“That’s my Candy, always ready to take on the world single-handedly.” He smiled then, but it didn’t hold her appeal.
“I’m not your Candy. Showing up in my hospital room talking about you’re back. Where the hell have you been? Let’s start there.”
“I’ve always been close by.” He said.
“That’s not reassuring, considering I haven’t seen you in five years.” She crossed her arms over her chest, wincing as her sore muscles protested the movement.
The memory slammed into her. Returning to their apartment, only to notice hours later that his personal items were gone along with the oversized rose gold heart pendant suspended on a sterling filigree chain he’d given her. It was the only piece of jewelry he’d ever given her. He’d said it was the largest heart he could find, because that’s what he’d found in her.
“Well, I’m back now and I’ll tell you as much as I can about why I left.” Three soft dings rang out from the announcement speaker, before an automated voice called a code blue in the emergency room. He gave a brief glance at the door before settling his gaze back to her.
“Tell me why you came back.” She raised her eyebrows, waiting for his response. What reason could he possibly give her to justify his return?
“For you.” She leaned forward, looking deep into his eyes. His eyes burned with the truth of his words. The more she regarded him the more she couldn’t hide her confusion. She grimaced, befuddled by his presence and the truth of his words. Maybe he’d escaped from a psychiatric hospital. Only a lunatic would consider sneaking into a drugged, ex-girlfriend’s hospital room and professing his undying feelings for her, five years too late.