Crossing the Line

by Long, Samantha

  After he left, Charlotte and Luke said goodbye, and Halle made her promise to call if she needed anything.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  VICTORIA REALIZED that she and Nick were essentially alone now. The tension stretched across the room, brushing along her skin.

  He cleared his throat. “I know now probably isn’t the best time, but I wanted to apologize for not telling you about Trevor.”

  Victoria exhaled. He looked so right, so good sitting there, and she wasn’t sure how to tell him how much she missed him. “I may have overreacted a little. I value honesty so much, and I believed you’d be honest with me.”

  “I know.” Nick’s face was somber. “I didn’t mean what I said about you just being a notch. You’re more than that to me. And Luke made me promise not to say anything. He’s had a crush on Halle ever since high school and was afraid if I told you, it would kind of ruin his chances with her.”

  “He has a crush on her?” Victoria couldn’t help but smile. “I could kind of see it at the barbeque when he talked with her. But I don’t understand how you telling me would ruin his chances with her.”

  “I don’t either, honestly.” Nick said. “But I couldn’t promise that, which was before you and I got involved, and then go back on it.”

  “I guess.” Victoria glanced down at her daughter, so pale and bruised. “You’re right, though. Now isn’t the time to discuss this. We can talk about it later.”

  “Will we?” He stared at her, his eyes searching her face.

  Her heart raced. Was he as anxious as she was? She nodded.

  He blinked, smiling a little. “Do you want me to stay, keep you company?”

  She wanted it more than anything, but didn’t think it would be good for Helena to see him as soon as she woke. She’d already been through enough stress. “No thanks. I think I need to focus on her tonight.”

  “I understand.” He stood. “If you need anything, give me a call.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her forehead.

  Victoria let the sensation of his lips on her again wash over her as he left. She almost called him back to the room, but refrained. She had to stick by her decision, for Helena.

  * * *

  Later, after her parents dropped off the bag and left, Lydia came in to check on Helena. Victoria had fallen asleep with her head next to Helena’s legs, holding her hand, and sat up when Lydia placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “How are you doing?” Lydia smiled down at her.

  “I’m okay.” Victoria blinked the drowsiness away. “Is it time to wake her up?”

  “Yes.” Lydia walked around to the other side of the bed. “I want you to try to wake her up. I’ll check her pupils, her vitals, then let you talk with her for about fifteen minutes. If she’s okay, then we can allow her to go back to sleep.”

  Victoria brushed a strand of hair softly back from Helena’s forehead. “Baby, it’s time to wake up.”

  Helena’s eyelids fluttered but didn’t open. Victoria clamped down on her panic and tried again. “Helena, I need you to open your eyes.”

  After a few seconds, Helena did. Her eyes opened, the hazel color a little dim. It took a minute for her to focus on Victoria, but when she did, her eyes watered. “Mom.”

  “Hey.” Victoria whispered. “How are you feeling?”

  Helena swallowed, looked around and saw Lydia. “My head hurts. My body hurts.”

  “I know. Can you let Lydia check you out for a minute?” Victoria asked.

  Helena nodded slowly.

  Lydia took out the penlight and checked her pupils, then asked her several questions like her birthday, name, and the city she lived in. When she was satisfied that Helena was okay, she charted it and left.

  “Mom. I’m sorry.” Helena grasped Victoria’s hand. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes.

  “It’s okay, baby. You don’t worry about anything right now.” Victoria brushed a hand across Helena’s forehead, wishing she could ease her daughter’s pain. When she realized how close she came to losing her, the only thing that assuaged that ache was to touch Helena, to realize that she was there and alive.

  “No, please listen.” Helena squeezed her eyes shut. “I heard what Grandpa said about Dad. Is it true?”

  “About your Dad?” Victoria’s eyes blurred as tears rose. She forced herself to blink them back, to be strong for Helena. As much as she hated her daughter’s attitude, she didn’t want her finding out about her dad this way. “Baby, please don’t worry about him. You need to rest and feel better.”

  “Did he really say he wasn’t coming to the hospital because of a dinner with Candace?” Helena turned her head on the pillow to look Victoria in the eyes. “Tell me the truth. Please.”

  Victoria let out a long, slow sigh. “Yes. He said that to Grandpa.” She wouldn’t have chosen today to be the day that Helena realized the truth about her father, but apparently she believed Wes when he spoke of it.

  “Does he really not care?” Helena let a sob loose and then held her hands to her head where pain blossomed.

  “Baby.” Victoria rubbed her arm and kissed her cheek, anything to get her to calm down. “I need you to forget about this right now. I know it’s hard because you love him, but you’re only making your head hurt more.”

  Lydia came back in and administered more drugs into Helena’s IV. Whatever they gave her helped out, because after a few minutes of silence, Helena drifted off to sleep.

  It amazed Victoria that Roger hadn’t even been the slightest bit worried about their daughter. That he couldn’t care less that she’d been in a car accident and was in the ICU. That violence rose in her again, and she bit her lip to keep it in.

  Throughout the night, Lydia came in and woke Helena up with Victoria, talked to her for a few minutes, then let her drift back off to sleep. By the next morning Dr. Black was okay with Helena going home. Helena sat silently in a wheelchair next to the counter as Victoria signed the discharge papers. She stayed silent on the drive home.

  Once they got inside the house, Helena laid down on the couch.

  “I’m going to grab you a pillow and a blanket.” Victoria laid their bags on the floor. “Do you want to watch TV or a movie or anything?”

  “I love you, Mom.”

  Victoria turned from the movie case to look at her daughter. Helena smiled through her tears when Victoria beamed. “I love you, too, sweetie.”

  “Can you call the aunts and ask them to come over?” Helena asked. “I want to see them.”

  “Sure.” Victoria texted both of them. “Now, a movie?”

  “How about Beauty and the Beast? We haven’t watched that in a long time.”

  Victoria pulled the DVD out of the case and popped it into the player. “That is an excellent choice.” She grabbed a blanket and pillow from the hall closet and covered Helena up, making sure she was comfortable. “I’ll get you some water and your pain medicine. Be right back.” She set her phone down on the couch and returned within a few minutes to see Helena’s secret smile.

  Halle and Addie arrived within ten minutes and both snuggled up on the couch with Helena and Victoria. Halfway into the movie, Helena nodded off on Halle’s shoulder.

  The sisters snuck into the kitchen so they wouldn’t wake Helena.

  “I went and stayed with Mom and Dad last night, figured they could use a distraction. They were worried about Helena and pissed about Roger.” Halle snapped her mouth shut at Victoria’s sudden look. “What?”

  “Last night Helena heard Dad after he got back from his call with Roger. We thought she was asleep. She asked me about it the first time the nurse woke her up. It tore her up inside.”

  “What did you say?” Addie asked.

  “The only thing I could. To not worry about it right now.” Victoria shook her head. “He is such a bastard.”
/>
  “I can punch him, too. The offer still stands,” Addie half-joked.

  “I’d love that, except I’d miss out on hurting him.” Victoria laughed at her sister’s surprised faces. “I can’t help it. He makes me violent.”

  “I see that.” Halle cocked her head to the side. “So, Nick came to see Helena and you last night. How did that go?”

  “He apologized. He told me that there was a reason, a promise that kept him from saying anything.” Victoria avoided Halle’s gaze. She didn’t want to give Luke’s crush away. “I can understand why he did what he did; I just don’t know if right now is the best time for a relationship.”

  “You should’ve thought about that before you fell in love with him,” Addie pointed out.

  Victoria knocked her coffee over when she jumped. “What?”

  Halle shared a look with Addie as she grabbed a towel. “We’re your sisters. We can tell these things.”

  “That’s not fair!” Victoria placed her palms to her heated cheeks. “I only realized this with certainty after our fight. This is really not fair.”

  “I say you go for it,” Addie told her. “I know I’m not one for commitment or anything of the sort, but Nick seems like a great guy, unlike Trevor or Roger, and he truly cares about you and the girls. He wouldn’t have shown up at the hospital if he didn’t.”

  “He wanted to stay last night, to keep me company,” Victoria said. “Do you think he could still want a relationship after I basically told him I didn’t believe in him?”

  Halle nudged Victoria’s shoulder with her own. “I could tell by the way he looked at you in the hospital that he still wants one. He misses you.”

  Her sisters were right. She needed to go to him. “Will you sit with Helena while she’s asleep? I’m going to text him and see if he’s home. Go talk to him.”

  “I don’t think that will be necessary,” Addie said with a mischievous grin. “Helena texted him from your phone before we arrived. You’ve got about five minutes before he gets here.”

  Victoria’s hands flew to her hair. “I haven’t showered. Wait—Helena texted him?”

  “Yep. Apparently she thinks you two should work it out.”

  Victoria digested that and then asked, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier he was coming?”

  “I wanted to see the panic in your eyes.” Addie laughed at her.

  “Bitches.” Victoria reluctantly smiled. “I’m going to at least change.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  NICK STOOD ON Victoria’s porch, knots in his stomach. He kept licking his lips. They felt dry. His throat felt dry. If his heart pounded any harder, he might just have a heart attack. He’d already planned on coming over, but when Helena sent him the text, he jumped to go. He had to make Victoria realize that she was it for him. That she was his total knock out.

  His hands shook when he knocked on the door. He mentally called himself a coward, but damn. He’d never done anything like this before. Never wanted to call a girl his own. Especially one who might turn him down because he lied to her. At least he had an unlikely ally.

  “I’ll get it,” he heard Addie call from inside.

  Great, was she going to punch him like she did Trevor? As the door opened, he straightened, trying to appear confident. Addie’s eyes narrowed on him, assessing. “You look like crap.”

  He frowned. “What? I showered and changed. I had to work earlier. I can’t help that.”

  She laughed. “I’m just kidding. Your face was hilarious, though.” She stepped back, allowed him to come inside. “She’s in her room, getting dressed. Your best bet is to ambush her there.”

  Nick nodded and tried to hide his shaking hands. He really didn’t like being this nervous. He passed Halle and Helena on his way to Victoria’s room. Halle shot him a wink, and Helena’s eyes were closed. He reached Victoria’s door and paused. The door signified a line. Did he want to cross it? Once he did, there was no going back. No single nights, no one-night stands.

  Hell yes, he wanted to cross that line. He pushed the door open and stepped inside, shutting it softly behind him.

  Victoria spun around, wearing a cami and short boxers, her hair sticking up everywhere. “Damn. I thought I had more time.”

  He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. “You look beautiful. You are beautiful, just like this.”

  “Oh.” Victoria licked her lips. “So Helena texted you.”

  “Yeah.” Nick didn’t move. She seemed skittish, just as nervous as he was, and he didn’t want to push his side, have her completely shut him down. “Is that okay?”

  Victoria smiled shyly. “I was going to call you in a little while. When I’d had a shower and changed.”

  The corner of his lips rose. “I like your look now. Like when I used to wake up next to you. I miss that.”

  Victoria’s breath hitched at the solemn look in his eyes. “You do?” She wanted to be articulate, but the way he stood there watching her intensely made her feel naked, like he could see past all her barriers.

  “Oh, yes.” Nick stepped forward, stopping only an inch away from her.

  She could feel his body heat, and her own reacted, but she reminded herself that they had to talk first. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

  He let his fingertips trail down her arm, watched the goose bumps pop up. “Do what?”

  She swallowed. She couldn’t concentrate when he touched her like that. “To let you back in.” His hand fell away, and she barely stopped herself from leaning into him.

  “Tori, I’m sorry I kept what was going on with Trevor from you. It was wrong; I know that. I knew it then, but Luke was adamant.” Nick hoped she saw the regret on his face, the desperation in his eyes. “I won’t do it again. I’ve learned my lesson. Watching how much it hurt you tore me up inside. I’ve barely survived these past weeks.”

  Victoria let his words wash over her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head on his chest.

  “Before I met you, I was going through the motions. I just didn’t realize it. I went through life doing what I needed to do, having meaningless one-night stands, and my soul became numb to anything that felt good. That was good for me.” Nick tilted her chin up so that he could look into her eyes. “You woke me up. You breathed life back into me, and I don’t want to go back to that old life. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to be your partner, forever, one you can put your trust in. A rock in the storm. I want to help you raise your daughters, not that you need help. I want to be yours, and yours alone.”

  The breath left Victoria in a rush. No one had ever spoken to her this way, with this sort of raw truth. Nick was baring himself to her, becoming vulnerable in a way he never had. “I want that, too. I want to be your partner, the one you can talk to, the one who can wake you up every day of our lives. But if you lie to me again, I will kick you out of my life, out of the girls’ lives.”

  He nodded. “Good, because I respect that. And I won’t. Luke will just have to trust that you’ll keep his secrets, too.”

  Victoria rose on her tiptoes and kissed him. The pressure of his lips on hers was so right, so normal, that she wrapped her arms more tightly around him. He pulled her closer, drawing the kiss out. She pulled back, breathless, and said, “We can figure out all the details later. We can take this slow, that way both of us can adjust to being in a real relationship, because what I had with Roger was nowhere close.”

  “I love you, Tori.” Nick kissed her forehead, her cheeks, the corner of her mouth. “More than anything.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips.

  “I love you, too.” Victoria’s smile broke through. “Now, let’s get out there. Lucia will be home soon, and I know my sisters are dying to hear what I said to you.”

  Nick took her hand and led her out of the room. “I’m going to have to get used
to sisters.”

  “You won’t. I’m not even used to them, and I’ve lived with them all my life.” Victoria laughed. Things had a way of turning out for the best. Maybe she’d had her relationship with Roger so she could appreciate Nick more. Now, her sisters needed their happily ever afters.

  About the Author

  I’m a multitasking mom of four. When not writing/doing laundry/changing diapers, I like to catch up on episodes of Supernatural and Castle. If you can’t find me in front of the computer, I’m most likely watching my DVR.

  I’ve been writing since the first grade, where I wrote a one-page story titled If I was an Indian. My warrior husband was going to be the best hunter, I was going to live in the best teepee, and apparently, I was having an affair with the chief. Racy, I know.

  Of the things I’m addicted to, sweet tea, movies, and books top the list. My favorite authors include Nora Roberts, Lauren Kate, Kresley Cole, and Gena Showalter. Few of many I love.

  Thanks so much for reading!

  Sam :)

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  Author’s Other Works

  YA Paranormal Series

  Awakening (The Guardians, #1)

  Sacred (The Guardians, #2)

  Coming Soon

  Addie and Finn’s story

  Taking the Heat

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