by Gina Wilkins
Liam was so disoriented when he opened his eyes that it took him a little while to figure out where he was. His mind was clouded, probably by the drugs being pumped into his veins through an IV tube, making it hard for him to think coherently.
He remembered bits and pieces—being in the ambulance, bright lights in his eyes, concerned faces leaning over him. He remembered Anne, looking afraid. He remembered her voice, her tone reassuring even though he’d had a hard time focusing on the words. He sort of remembered waking up in recovery, then drifting out again. Had he dreamed that Anne’s father had hovered above him at one point? And then Anne, again. Looking increasingly tired and strained.
He had wanted to tell her to get some rest, but he simply hadn’t had the energy. He’d slept, waking only in brief, fuzzy snatches, and she had always been there. How much time had passed? Had she slept? Was she missing classes or exams because of him? He didn’t want that.
He should have gone back to New York, he thought, closing his eyes on a wave of self-recrimination. He shouldn’t have caused even more trouble for Anne. Even though he knew it was unreasonable, he felt almost foolish for having gotten ill at such an inconvenient time. He was oddly chagrined at being so weak and vulnerable at a time when he needed to be strong for Anne.
He forced his eyelids open again, blinking a couple of times to bring the room into focus. He sensed suddenly that he wasn’t alone, and he turned his head, expecting to find Anne sitting watch over him.
When he saw who sat there, he wondered for a moment if the meds were making him hallucinate.
“So you’re awake,” Henry Easton, Jr., said unnecessarily.
“I—Yeah.” His voice sounded rusty, as if it had been days rather than hours since he’d last used it. “Why are you here?”
“Anne wouldn’t agree to get any rest until someone agreed to sit with you. Since she was almost asleep on her feet, I told her I’d take babysitting duty for a few hours.”
“She, uh—told you?”
“That you’re my son-in-law? Yes, she told me. Eventually.”
Liam tried to read Easton’s expression, finding it very difficult to do so. “You’re okay with that?”
“Let’s just say you and I have some talking to do yet. But I’ll wait until you aren’t lying flat on your back.”
Liam shifted on the bed, then grimaced when his body rebelled. “I’d appreciate that.”
“How are you feeling?”
Liam’s succinct response made the older man chuckle. “Has anyone talked to you about your condition?”
“I think so. It’s sort of fuzzy. They took out my appendix, right?”
Easton nodded. “You’ve been out of surgery for about fourteen hours. You developed peritonitis. Almost waited too late to get treatment. You were pretty sick. The antibiotics seem to be working, though, so you’ll be back on your feet in a few days. Be a few weeks before you’re completely back to normal, though. Hope you weren’t scheduled to climb any mountains or wrestle any crocodiles during the next couple of weeks.”
“I don’t wrestle crocodiles,” Liam murmured, wondering if the man had ever actually seen his show.
“Mmm. Bet right now you feel like you took one on, huh?”
“And lost,” Liam agreed with a sigh.
“Go back to sleep, if you want. I wouldn’t harm a defenseless man.”
Maybe that quip was supposed to be reassuring. Liam gave his father-in-law one wary look before letting his heavy lids fall.
“I love her, you know,” he muttered as the drugs and pain drew him toward unconsciousness.
“So do I. Why else would I be sitting here now?”
He would think about that later, Liam decided, letting the darkness take him.
His head felt a little clearer when he woke again. He still hurt, still felt as though he’d been bulldozed, but he knew immediately where he was and why when he opened his eyes.
A male nurse smiled at him as he made notes of the numbers displayed on the vital-signs monitor beside the bed. “Hi, there. I’m Steve. How do you feel?”
“I’ve been better.”
“Are you in pain? On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain level?”
Liam wasn’t sure how one went about rating pain, but he made an attempt. “Four. Maybe five,” he added with a wince when he tried cautiously to shift into a more comfortable position.
“Okay. I’m putting something in your IV that should make you more comfortable. Let someone know if that isn’t enough, all right? We don’t want you lying here in pain.”
“Thanks, Steve.” When the nurse left to tend his other patients, Liam turned his head to look at the chair across the room, wondering if he would find Henry Easton still sitting there, hoping he would see Anne instead.
The chair was empty.
He was okay with that, he assured himself. Easton probably had to work. Anne had classes. He didn’t really know anyone else in the area. He didn’t need someone sitting with him every minute, anyway. He’d only had major, life-threatening surgery. If he needed anything, all he had to do was push a button and someone on the hospital staff would rush to his side. Probably.
His bout of self-pity was short-lived. Anne entered the room, carrying a lidded, disposable cup that might have held coffee. She smiled when she saw him looking at her, her gaze intently searching his face. “You’re awake.”
Why did everyone seem to feel the need to announce that to him? “Yes.”
“How do you feel?”
He kept his reply rather generic for Anne. “I’m okay.”
He glanced at the clock on the wall facing him. Two o’clock—and if he had his days straight, it was Friday afternoon. “Shouldn’t you be in class?”
“I skipped classes today. Haley’s taking notes for me. I’ve been sitting in here for the past few hours, since I relieved Dad. He said you’d been awake for a little while this morning.”
“Yeah. I was…surprised to see him here.”
Setting her coffee on the nightstand beside the bed, Anne stood gazing down at him, her expression hard to read. “I’m sure you were. I didn’t think you’d wake up while I was resting, but I wanted someone to be here if you did. Just to reassure you that you’d be okay.”
And she’d thought her father would be the one to offer that reassurance? Okay.
“Did you get any sleep?” he asked.
She shrugged, the purplish hollows beneath her eyes giving the real answer before she prevaricated, “Some. I napped in one of the recliners in the waiting room.”
So she’d sat with him all night after his surgery. He shook his head against the pillow. “You should have gone home to bed. And you shouldn’t have missed classes for me. I’m getting good care here. You should go on now and find your study group. You have to prepare for the next test. Maybe you can stop back in for a little while this evening. I’ll be fine until then.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m the one who decides what I ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’ do, Liam. It’s taken me a while to get to that point, but from now on, I don’t need anyone making decisions for me. That includes my dad—and you.”
He was a bit taken aback by her irritated response. “Uh—sure. Sorry.”
Her eyebrows rose in response to his aggrieved tone. “Were you expecting me to cut you some slack because you’re lying in a hospital bed?”
“Of course not,” he lied. “I was only trying to—”
“Trying to look out for me,” she cut in to finish for him. “Just like my family has always done. ‘Don’t get involved with anyone too early, Anne.’ ‘Don’t let anyone interfere with your studies, Anne.’ ‘Don’t let yourself get distracted from your education, Anne.’ ‘Don’t miss your classes or get behind in your work or fail to do your best on a test or take your eyes from the ultimate goal of surgery, Anne.’”
She leaned over the bed, her hands clenched on the metal railing, her gaze locked with his. “Well, let me tell you, Liam�
�just as I’ve already told my dad. All that advice and helpful guidance hasn’t been working so well. Because I’ve tried to please everyone and do everything everyone told me ‘for my own good,’ I broke up with the man I loved in college. I’ve worried myself sick through medical school for fear of letting my family down. I made the mistake of secretly getting married and then going to great lengths to keep that secret. And I let myself get so wrapped up in the pressure everyone was putting on me that I didn’t even see that my own husband was getting very ill right in front of my miserable and self-absorbed eyes!”
“You couldn’t have known—”
“I should have known,” she insisted. “I was more concerned about test scores and class ranking than I was about your illness. What kind of doctor does that make me?”
“You’re going to be a great doctor. You just have to get through the training, which is so damned hard that no one could possibly blame you for being overwhelmed by it.”
She didn’t look at all convinced, but he moved on, addressing something else she had said that was bothering him. “You said you ‘made the mistake’ of secretly marrying.”
She lifted her chin a little. “Yes. That’s what I said.”
He wondered grimly how he would rate the pain he felt now. There wasn’t a scale that went high enough to describe the ache in his heart after hearing Anne declare their marriage a mistake. “Does that mean you want a divorce?”
Anne gave a long, deep sigh. “You are such an idiot, Liam McCright.”
That was certainly not an answer to the question he had asked. But he felt himself relax somewhat in response to the gentle insult.
She could call him anything she wanted, as long as she didn’t change her mind about being married to him, he thought wistfully.
Watching as Liam seemed to draw back into the bed, his face almost as white as the crisp hospital sheets, Anne felt a moment of regret that she hadn’t waited to have this conversation later, when he’d had a little more time for recovery. But she was still so angry with herself—and maybe with him, as well—that he had almost died because of their lack of communication, she couldn’t wait any longer.
Concerned with his pallor, she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Do you need anything? Are you in pain?”
“I’m already having trouble thinking clearly. I’m okay for now.”
“Maybe we should talk about this later,” she said, but he shook his head.
“Now you’re the one saying what I should do for my own good,” he muttered.
She had to smile a little at that. “I guess I am. Sorry.”
His eyes were dark as they searched her face. “You, uh, you said our marriage was a mistake. Maybe you could elaborate on that a little?”
“I said the way we married was a mistake,” she corrected him. “The secret elopement. We—I should have had the courage to take those vows openly, whether anyone else approved or not. I should have told my parents from the beginning that I was seeing you, and that I would continue to do so without their permission. And, we should have spent more time talking and less time playing before we took the step of getting married. We were so intoxicated with the freedom and privacy that we had in London that we let ourselves forget about the real-world issues that would confront us later. Like our busy schedules. And my family.”
“I never meant to try to take you away from your family.”
“I think you did see it as a choice between you and them,” she replied quietly. “Maybe not consciously. But maybe—well, maybe you needed to believe that I would always put you first. I haven’t studied much psychiatry yet, but it isn’t hard to imagine you’d have abandonment issues, considering your childhood. The way your father left you, and then your mother died when you were still so young.”
He flinched, but she continued without letting him respond, “I understood why your own family background would make it hard for you to understand why I remained close to mine, despite my efforts to be independent from them. I just didn’t fully realize you would need to be reassured occasionally that I would never let them keep me away from you. Until we talked with Haley last week, I didn’t even realize you blamed them solely for our breakup in college, despite the quarrels you and I had back then that had little to do with them.”
A hint of color touched his pale cheeks now. He looked almost sheepish when he muttered, “I’m not a child. I don’t need constant reassurance that you aren’t going to leave me.”
She supposed his stinging male ego made him say that, but she knew it wasn’t entirely true. Maybe he didn’t need constant reassurance—but he needed to hear it occasionally. Just as she needed to hear from him that their marriage meant more to him than his career or his celebrity or his resistance to becoming part of her family.
His eyelids were beginning to grow heavy, as if he were fighting to stay alert for this ill-timed conversation. “Annie?”
She leaned closer. “Yes?”
“You were right, you know. I’m not all that brave. I’ve been afraid of a lot of things. I was afraid your parents—or someone else—would take you away from me. I was afraid of trying to fit into your overachieving and overinvolved family. I was afraid of finishing the book and having no other excuse to stay with you—and afraid it will bomb once it’s published. And I was so damned afraid that if I left this time, we’d have used up all our chances to make this work out between us.”
She didn’t know how much of that confession had been fueled by the meds dripping through his IV tube, but there was no mistaking the sincerity of his words.
She laid her hand against his face, speaking very clearly. “I love you, Liam. I always have. I always will.”
He reached out to take her hand, and though his grip was still weak enough to melt her heart, his voice was steady. “I love you, too. And I don’t care if the whole world knows it.”
“That’s good,” she said, blinking back a mist of tears. “I was told a reporter called the hospital this morning to find out if you’re really a patient here. I don’t know how the news got out, but it seems that it has. The hospital staff will keep your case confidential, but some tidbits will probably leak out, anyway.”
He looked unfazed by that revelation. “I’ll call my agent and my publicist later. They’ll handle it.”
“Whatever you think best.”
“Annie—” His words were beginning to slur a little, and his eyelids looked heavier.
“Get some rest, Liam. We can talk more later. We have plenty of time.” They would make the time, she promised herself. Whatever it took.
He closed his eyes, then pushed them open again to ask, “Annie—if we weren’t already married, and I asked you again now…?”
She smiled, knowing the medications were making him a little loopy, but answering the fanciful question, anyway. “I would say yes, Liam. Always. Forever.”
It seemed to satisfy him. Still holding her hand, he closed his eyes. “Me, too. Love you.”
She leaned over to brush a tender kiss across his forehead. “I love you, too, Liam.”
From this point on, she didn’t care if the whole world knew.
Epilogue
Even though the sun was beginning to set, it was still quite warm on this early July Arkansas evening. A sizable crowd had gathered on the sprawling back lawn of Henry and Deloris Easton’s home for their long-established Independence Day barbecue. Because of Deloris’s health, they’d had to cancel the event for the past two years, but she’d felt well enough this year to insist on reviving the tradition.
Reassuring herself occasionally that her mother was holding up well to the demands of hostessing, Anne mingled with the guests and quietly handled most of the supervision of the catering and festivities. The lawn was attractively crowded with red, white and blue decorated tables and party lights. Discreetly placed fans kept air circulating among the guests, who were heartily enjoying the abundant food offerings. A Dixieland band played on a small, portable stage
in one corner, adding to the festive atmosphere, but not so loud to interfere with conversation. All in all, she deemed the event a great success.
She glanced at a table where her study group friends sat eating and laughing. Her mother had insisted Anne invite those friends who had been so supportive in helping Anne survive the past two years of school, and they had all accepted. Connor was accompanied by his wife, Mia, and their daughter, Alexis. Haley had brought her friend Kris. James and Ron had come stag. Ron was actually being civil to Haley’s date, though Anne still had her suspicions about Ron’s feelings for Haley.
Things would change with the coming school year, Anne thought a bit sadly. After spending four semesters in the same classes, the group would be split up for rotations. Now that they had all taken Step 1, they wouldn’t need to study as a group. They hadn’t received their test results yet, but they were all cautiously optimistic that they had passed. The upcoming demands on their time would make it hard for them to get together very often on a social basis, though they had all promised solemnly that they would not let their friendship end with the change in their schedules. She hoped very much that it would prove to be true.
“Your friends seem to be having a good time,” Anne’s mother commented when their paths crossed at the drinks table. “Go join them. Everything’s going smoothly here.”
“I will,” Anne agreed. “I was just getting a glass of lemonade.”
Leaning only lightly on her cane, her mom smiled at her. “Thank you so much for all your help today, sweetheart. I don’t know how I would have gotten everything done without you. I’m so glad we decided to have the party. I’m having a wonderful time.”
Anne leaned over to brush a quick kiss against her mom’s soft cheek. “It’s a great party, Mother.”
Looking over Anne’s shoulder, her mom smiled more brightly. “I think it’s about to get better for you. Look who’s joined us.”
Turning, Anne caught her breath in surprised pleasure. “Liam!” she called out, waving to get her husband’s attention as he entered the gate to the back lawn.