Tough Enough (Tough Love Book 3)

by Trixie More

  “Tess,” Sophia said. Two weeks had gone by since she’d stepped off the elevator on Doug’s floor and heard the first shot.

  A series of thuds shook the ceiling of her parent’s kitchen.

  Sophia was rooting around in the little drawer in the fridge. There was a half-used pack of bacon and some plastic-wrapped cheese slices, a bit of Brie that had seen better days and some sliced ham in a plastic tub. She pulled out the ham. “Tess, is this any good?”

  Tess was sitting at the little desk area, writing out the shopping list. Her hair, more gray than anything these days, had a shaft of sun on it. “Mm-hmm.”

  “You’re not looking.”

  Tess turned around. “Oh. Who knows. Open it and see.”

  “Some housekeeper you are,” said Sophia, but she was smiling. Tess could never have been called demure, which was one of the things that Sophia liked best about her.

  “I do what they pay me to do, and frankly, you and I are the only ones who’ve looked in that drawer in months.”

  Another thump sounded from above them, but neither one paid any attention. Sophia peeled back the lid and sniffed.

  “Ugh.” She dumped the contents and put the tub in the dishwasher. Wiping her hands, she turned to the cabinets, pulling out a can of tuna fish. She set about opening it and mixing in mayonnaise.

  “Do you even know if he’ll eat that?” Tess asked.

  “Don’t know, don’t care,” she said feeling a bubble of happiness that she could be so free with her words, knowing that the man in the room above them wouldn’t expect either himself or her to feed the other. She plopped the salad on some toast and added lettuce.

  “Pretty fancy for a girl who doesn’t care,” Tess observed.

  “What? Toast and lettuce? I’m going to eat it if he doesn’t,” Sophia said. She licked the spoon and put it in the dishwasher.

  Tess got up from her seat and walked to a cabinet on the other side of the massive kitchen. She returned with a jar of roasted peppers. “In that case, you should make it the way you really like it,” Tess said.

  Sophia gave a cheer for the peppers and added a layer, tucked under the lettuce. “Thank you,” she said in a singsong. Another small crash shook the ceiling.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me...”

  “Oh, go,” said Tess. “And make him stop.”

  “Not. Possible,” said Sophia primly and away she went to visit her patient. Tommy had fallen with the gun beneath him and in his struggle with Doug, it had gone off, hitting both of them. The bullet had gone through the meaty part of Doug’s thigh, missing the major blood vessel there, winging a nerve, ripping up his muscle. He didn’t say it, but Sophia believed it pained him every time he walked. At least the wound was healing.

  In the bedroom, the love of her life was sitting on the edge of the bed, his red hair growing in, not quite in any type of style, his beard thicker than ever. His left eye stared off into the abyss. She tipped her head to the right a bit, feeling her gaze soften, her chest feeling a little fragile, as if it would constrict at any moment.

  “Do not pity me,” he said.

  “Well, I do,” she said. “You’re dumb as a post.”

  He laughed at that, a sort of surprised huff. “You’re such a snob.”

  She smiled broadly and plopped the plate on the dresser, flinging herself into the stuffed chair by the window.

  Doug pushed off from the bed and retrieved the blue exercise band he’d been farting around with, limp-hopped over to the closet door, causing a series of bumps she was sure Tess heard. Then he shut the closet, tied the band to the doorknob, probably for the tenth time if she had to guess, and pounded his way back to the bed.

  “There’s a thing called a crutch,” she said.

  “That’s what I’m trying to get rid of.” He grunted as he sat again. He bent over, tying the band around his foot. Sophia got back up and took half the sandwich. After all, there were red peppers on it.

  “You have to get out of here,” she said, settling back in the chair. “Are you going to eat the sandwich I brought?”

  He glanced over his shoulder and frowned. “Where’s the rest of it?” He glanced at her. “Oh.”

  His attention already back on his craft project, he started to do a leg lift. The doorknob turned, the door opened, and his foot crashed to the floor.

  “You’re not very bright but you are persistent,” she said. She didn’t have an ounce of pity for him. She’d learned if she tried to help him, he’d just start some other silly project. He was very active for a guy stuck in a bed.

  Doug appeared to give up for the moment, shut the closet and hobbled to the chest, taking up his half of the sandwich. He leaned his right hip against the furniture, his left foot barely on the ground. Red hair made a fuzzy aura around his lower thighs, his running shorts slipping on his hips, the edge of his bandage showing there. He was wearing the same T-shirt he’d worn yesterday.

  Still, when he stopped and looked right in her eyes, she felt her impractical pulse speed up. Would it always be like this if they had more time? She didn’t think it would be a very productive way to live, but she wished with all her heart she could find out.

  “Thank you,” he said. “For everything.”

  Sophia looked down to keep from letting all she felt make her into the silly school girl she’d never been. “I’m happy to do it, you know that.”

  “I do,” he said evenly. He seemed to have no problem believing in her.

  “I wish you’d shower and shave though.” She smirked at him.

  He quirked his eyebrows at her. “I know that too.” He grinned, and he looked carefree for a moment; it made her heart glad to see it.

  “How much longer before you can...you know,” she said.

  He feigned innocence, which was rather optimistic of him given who he was. She smiled to herself.

  “Host a bedroom rodeo?” he asked. She giggled.

  “I don’t approve of cruelty to animals,” she said.

  “Oh. Oh ho. How ‘bout I help you go heels to Jesus? No? Hang twenty toes? Go all in?” He was walking toward her and she jumped out of her chair.

  “You stink! Go shower!” She laughed, looking for a way past him. There was only one way out.

  “Hide the bishop?” he said. Now he was grinning, and she could tell he was trying hard to think of another one.

  “Not one step closer. Forget I asked!”

  “Host a pants-off dance off?” He guffawed even as he said it.

  “You’re proud of yourself for that?” She eyed up the bed. She could make the leap in two steps but would he catch her before she got across? “Forget I asked.”

  “Oh no, I never forget a single time you’ve asked for it, young lady.” He lunged at her and she shrieked, giggling and leaping to the bed. He was around the other side in a flash, hopping to beat the band.

  “Beat the band!” she howled as she dodged back the other way.

  “What?” He was trying to catch her heels as she jumped free. “That sounds like something done alone!”

  “Exactly!” Sophia raced for the door and he caught her around the waist. “Let me go!”

  He nuzzled the back of her neck and squeezed her tight to him.

  “Beast!”

  He laughed and opened his arms. “You win. I’ll shower.”

  “And I’ll change the sheets,” she said, turning to him and wiggling her eyebrows. “And then?”

  “Yes?”

  “You can get some rest,” she said. She fled from the room, laughing as his groan followed her down the hall.

  She was dreaming again. Doug could hear her in the next room, gasping in her sleep. Her parent’s house was a magnificently redone two-story farmhouse style beauty with solid walls, but he seemed to wake up at the slightest sound these days. Somehow Doug had become tuned to Sophia like she was his own private Wi-Fi. She was strong and resilient during the day, far more than he was. Black moods seemed to swamp him unpredictabl
y during the daylight, but at night, their roles reversed. Doug pushed back the comforter and slid from the bed, waving his hand until he found the cane she’d hung there. He didn’t want to wake the household with his thumping.

  Chilly air washed over his bare chest, legs, and feet as he squinted in the dark. His contact lens case was on the dresser, but he didn’t want to wait to put it in. He needed a pair of glasses. Another change.

  Moving quickly, he ran his fingers along the wall until he came to her door, turning the knob as he’d done for the last couple weeks and pushed it open. The gasps and tiny, frightened cries had stopped already, so that was good.

  Moonlight came through her window, and he smiled. She never performed any bedtime ritual. His illustrious litigator fell into bed with her makeup on, her jewelry on, the blinds open as if she’d used up every bit of the day and arrived here just in time to collapse. Sometimes she went out like a light right on the couch with her laptop on her chest.

  He loved her.

  The bed dipped as he sat on it. He pushed Sophia’s hair back from her face. In the dim light, she looked like a pale oval, a bump for a nose, but his mind recalled every detail of his Sophia, his Athena. Brushing a thumb over her brow, he felt the deep furrows there, the way the delicate wings of her eyebrows dipped toward each other. He trailed his fingers lightly down to her mouth, feeling the tension in the muscles around her lips. She reached up a hand, turned her head slightly, and pressed a kiss to his palm.

  Doug ran his hand behind the cool column of her narrow throat and gave the spreading muscles at the base a gentle squeeze. He heard her head move on the pillow, and she gave a satisfied moan. He let himself rub her back for a bit, moving slower and slower until her breathing evened out.

  She didn’t want to get too close to him, neither did she want to disrupt her parents, so she stayed in this room, one door away from him. He felt himself smile ruefully. The pain of knowing her this well was going to do what starvation, prison, Carl Johansen, Ed Walker, Janice, and Tommy couldn’t. It was going to be the death of him. He leaned over and kissed her cheek lightly.

  “You’re the best person I’ve ever known,” he whispered to his Athena. Then he levered himself up and felt his way back to his temporary room, where the drawn blinds kept out all the light.

  In the daylight, with his contact lens in, his clothes on, and his phone vibrating against the oak table in the kitchen nook, things seemed less raw. His barrister was all professional now, her hair smooth and glossy, her makeup crisp and perfect, her nails polished taupe. She had a new light gray trench coat on, expensive flats on her feet, and some kind of sharply creased navy dress pants.

  “I’m going,” she said. Behind her, Tess hid what he guessed was a smile behind the flat of her hand. He winked at the old woman.

  “Well, does that mean you think I’m sufficiently recovered to be by myself today?” he asked, keeping his face as stern as he could.

  Her mouth drooped a bit, and inside him, he allowed a bit of pride at that. He let his voice go lower because his Athena seemed particularly susceptible to that.

  “Come back soon,” he said.

  A tiny flush washed her perfectly shaped cheeks, making her even more stunning. Doug couldn’t care less. He was watching her eyes, the longing in them, the beauty there.

  She stepped toward him and pressed her impeccably painted lips against his own rough mouth. She moved, so her cheek was pressed to his, and she whispered in his ear, “Work hard today.” He groaned. He deserved that. With a secret smile, she turned and walked to the door. Tess followed her, waving her fingers at Doug, a cheeky grin on her face as she shut the door behind them. There was one person in this house on his side, it seemed. Although why the housekeeper thought he was right for Sophia, he couldn’t fathom.

  His phone rang again, and he saw it was William. He answered it.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, Carl’s got some timing. I just got the court dates for the civil case. Now that you’ve got something to lose again, he’s on this like water on a beach. He just keeps coming back,” William sounded totally disgusted. “You just figured out where the money landed. You haven’t even got it yet.”

  “It’ll be quite a while before the courts get that money moved back to the business,” Doug said. “He’s just getting in line first.”

  “Haven’t you suffered enough?” William burst out. Doug glanced through the sparkling square panes of glass in the big bay window beside the table. Outside Sophia was getting into the black Mercedes Tess would drive her to the train in. She stopped with one hand on the car door and looked back at him. He couldn’t tell if she was smiling or not, but she waved at him, and he gave her his best smile. He wanted to give her his best; today was as good a time as any to get started.

  “Yes, William,” he said as he watched her get into the car. “It appears I have.” He walked to the door, went onto the porch and waved goodbye to her. “Now, here’s what I want you to do.”

  Chapter 33

  “Did you know?” Ben pressed his phone to his ear. The noise of the traffic on West Forty-Seventh was crazy.

  “Did I know what?” Sophia sounded like she was laughing.

  “Marley told me I’m Karito’s father. Did you know?”

  “Really? Ben, I’m-I’m—not surprised exactly. I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t a bit hurt, but no, I didn’t know for sure. When my adult brain kicks in, I’ll be happy for you. For all of you.”

  “You didn’t know?”

  “Ben, you’re nuts. How would I know? When Marley told me she’d slept with you once a long time ago, I wondered, but that was only like a week or so ago. So, what’re you going to do?”

  “I’m going to ask her to marry me,” he said. He knew in his gut that was what he needed to do. “But I’m going to have to stop being mad first.”

  “How romantic,” Sophia said dryly. “Knock her over with a feather with that one. What’s the matter with you, Ben? Romance? Doing it right? You’re usually so much better at that emotional stuff.”

  He rolled his eyes, but he felt his face heat a bit. Sophia. She could always land a good verbal jab when she wanted to. He stopped. The store he was looking for was right here. “Was that because you’re hurt?”

  “Maybe.” She sighed. “I have no right to be.”

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “For what?”

  “For loving me enough to be hurt,” he said.

  “Oh Ben.” She sounded like her old self for a moment, soft and compassionate. “We’re terrible together, and...well everything, but I do love you.”

  “I love you too, Sophia,” he said. “I always have.”

  A big exhale and the Sophia he used to know was gone again. “Well, good. Now go make an honest woman of someone who’s not me.”

  He laughed. “I plan to, you’ll see.”

  This could not be so.

  He was right there, two people ahead of Marley, and stopped still on the sidewalk. She could hear him talking. He was telling Sophia he’d always loved her.

  I just finished figuring out how to explain myself to him and he’s already back to her, Marley thought. Maybe she should just turn around, pretend she didn’t hear it, forget about this man who made her crazy. He’d closed his phone and was pushing the button on a gated shop. They were on West Forty-Seventh street. Every New Yorker knew what that meant—diamonds.

  “No,” she said and hurried after him.

  The jeweler glanced at the window for the twentieth time.

  “Don’t let her in,” Ben said. The buzzer rang—again.

  “You’d think she’d give up after the fifteenth try,” the man observed wryly.

  “I KNOW,” Ben replied in a singsong drawl. They both laughed.

  “Really,” the jeweler said, “couldn’t you just step outside and calm her down? Please?”

  “Nope,” Ben said. “First of all, I’m mad at her.”

  “But the ring is for her
?”

  “Of course,” Ben said, grinning. “Of course, I’m going to marry the woman who makes the most amount of noise and trouble. Anything less is just…too lonely.”

  The jeweler nodded and looked away.

  A little to truthful, Ben thought. Fuck it.

  “Okay, now. Get the other one.”

  “You’re marrying two women?”

  Ben smiled. “You could say that.”

  Finally! He was paying the man. How long did it take him to pick out a ring for that skinny rich girl? He shouldn’t have wasted his time. There was no way Marley was going to let him give her ring to Sophia.

  She bounced on her toes as Ben came toward her, holding up three little brown bags with tiny handles, all tied up with fancy ribbon. He was smiling at her, and the smile went all the way to his eyes. The man looked himself again. He looked young.

  Marley hoped she never saw him look the way he had last week at Mastrelo’s. But, if it took Sophia to make him happy again, he better not get used to feeling so...uppity.

  He opened the door and put a foot through, and she launched herself at him, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him outside. From the corner of her eye, she saw the jeweler coming to the window. Nosy old man. He had no business even selling Ben that ring.

  “You can’t do this!” Marley said when the door shut safely behind Ben.

  “Hello to you too,” he said. “When did you get here?”

  Oh! Impossible man.

  “You know I’ve been ri’ here. I saw the whole time!” She stopped and peered at him. “Hey, are you still mad at me?”

  “Yep.” He gave the p a little pop.

  “‘Cause you don’t look mad at me,” she said. It would be good if Ben wasn’t mad. Unless, of course, he wasn’t angry because he no longer wanted her. That would be terrible. She chewed her lip.