He was back a couple of minutes later with a warm washcloth he pressed against her, and then used to clean her. He went back into the bathroom, returning quickly to slide into the bed beside her.
He helped her off his brother, and then pulled her close.
Jillian nuzzled his neck. “How’s your hand?”
“Forgot all about it until after my climax. Now it hurts like fucking hell.”
“Aww. I’ll get you some Tylenol.”
“No, baby. I’ll do it. But thank you.” David kissed her and eased from the bed. He headed into the bathroom just as his brother came out.
Robert took a few minutes to make the bed, with her in it. Jillian smiled. Now that’s something I can get used to.
“You’re looking very smug, Ms. Gillespie.”
“No, not smug, Dr. Jessop. Just very, very content.”
“Good.” David came back into the room. In moments, she was the filling in a man sandwich, a position that she liked very much.
“It’s late,” Robert leaned down and kissed her. “Time for sleep.”
“Absolutely time for sleep,” David agreed.
Jillian said nothing, but she did wonder how long she would actually get to sleep before they woke her up again.
* * * *
Robert waited patiently for his twin to see things his way. It didn’t usually take quite this long. Fighting his grin, he chalked his brother’s stubbornness up to the fact that their woman seemed to be bringing out the latent Dom in him.
“Fine, then.” David practically growled the words, and then he removed the bandage he’d just put on to cover his stitches. He thrust his hand at Robert and said, “I’d like to remind you that I, too, am a doctor. I’ve got a diploma, and everything.”
“Yeah, but you’re just a pussy doctor. I’m an everything-else doctor. So suck it up.” He turned the lamp on and brought his brother’s hand closer, so he could verify that the wound was indeed without any signs of infection.
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe David when he said it was fine. The problem was more that David’s accident the day before had stirred up all those need-to-be-in-control-and-make-sure-everyone’s-okay issues he thought he’d dealt with pretty well.
Christ, I hope working in Waco doesn’t stir up that hornet’s nest all over again. Robert had been reasonably certain that once he took himself out of the environment of the inner-city emergency room, his issues would be completely resolved.
Jordan had told him the situation in the ER that night had just exacerbated the traits he’d had all his life. And while he’d followed that man’s directions as they’d worked together, he’d never fully accepted that his feelings of responsibility for all and sundry went that deep. It didn’t make sense. He knew it didn’t make sense. No man was responsible for the decisions of others. And no man, certainly, was responsible for the absolute safety of everyone in his life.
He knew all that in his head. Why couldn’t he transfer that knowledge to his heart?
Robert had dreamt last night, when he’d been pretty certain he was way too exhausted to dream. He’d felt himself sliding back to that ugly time, when the ER had exploded and he’d damn near lost not only his sanity, but his life.
Good had eventually come from that incident—for himself, and for one other person, too. He’d met Jordan Fitzpatrick, and not only made three lifelong friends in him, Marcus, and Chastity. He’d begun on a path that had brought more positives into his life than he could ever list.
One other person had been helped in the aftermath of that tragedy.
Bobby Barnes’s little brother had turned completely away from the gangs. Jimmy Barnes had begged his mother to get them both out of the city. He wanted them to go to her parents who lived in rural Indiana. She’d wanted to do that for him, but there had been a rift between herself and folks, a rift that she hadn’t known how to mend.
Robert and David had stepped in and opened the lines of communications there. Two months after she’d buried her oldest child, Lillian and Jimmy Barnes left the city with all its bad memories behind. Robert had kept in touch, just an e-mail now and again.
Lillian was working only one job now, and helping to care for her elderly parents. Jimmy had made the honor roll at school.
“Well, doctor, am I going to live? Do I get to keep my hand?”
Robert looked up and met David’s gaze. His brother’s tone had been mockingly somber and Robert chuckled. “Yeah, it’s good. How does it feel? Honestly?”
“It hurts, it itches, and I can’t make a fist—which for the moment means I can’t hold certain instruments. Hopefully it will heal before I have to report for duty in Waco.”
“Those slices weren’t deep enough to cause any muscle or tendon damage. It’s just going to take a bit of time till you’re back to normal, I think.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry, Robbie. I’m still feeling stupid that I hurt myself in the first place. I don’t know why the hell I’m so snarky about it.”
“You’re snarky because I pushed your buttons.” He grinned at David, and then ducked when his brother pretended to aim a punch his way.
After applying some more antibiotic spray to the area of the stitches, Robert re-bandaged his brother’s hand.
“Seriously,” David said, “In light of my accident, I’m surprised the dads decided to follow through with their plans and take the day off.”
“They know you’re a good doctor, regardless of the fact that you’re a somewhat clumsy man.”
“You’re a real funny guy. What I meant was, they so rarely have taken any time off over the years.”
Robert slapped his brother on the back. “They have to learn how to do that now, because Mom has been dropping some pretty heavy hints about all the traveling she wants to do. As it was, she told them yesterday that they had better not come up with any last-minute emergencies. She’d been looking forward to going to San Antonio and spending the night there for almost a month.”
David grinned right back at him. “Mom said she wanted to have dinner on the River Walk. And I know that she’s going to get her way about the vacations, too, because you know what the dads always say.”
Robert waited outside the exam room for David to join him. “I do indeed,” Robert said as they headed toward Jillian. “Happy wife, happy life.”
“That sounds like a great philosophy to live by,” Jillian looked up from the reception desk, and Robert felt everything inside him smooth out. Just looking at his woman seemed to set his world right side up and help him feel more in control.
Maybe there was hope for him after all. Maybe, on the weekend, he’d call Jordan and talk to him for awhile.
He refocused on Jillian. “I think you’ll find it’s a philosophy most of the husbands in Lusty embrace.”
The sound of brakes screeching shattered the silence. Robert spun around toward the sound, and took one step forward, toward the glass front doors. He didn’t immediately recognize the Jag that pulled up.
He did, however, recognize the men jumping out of it, and the woman they carefully helped.
He made it to the door in time to open it, standing back as his cousin, Joshua Benedict, hurried in carrying his wife, Penelope. Robert blocked out the sound of her sobbing and the frantic words of her husbands. His eyes had already zeroed in on the blood soaking the front of her clothes.
“Room one!” David shouted. Robert followed behind Alex, Penelope’s other husband. By the time he entered the room, Josh was easing his wife down onto the exam table. Alex stood by his brother, the two men on Penelope’s left, by her head.
Robert knew neither he nor David even considered asking them to leave.
Jillian rushed in pushing the cart that held blood pressure and heart monitors as well as the fetal monitor.
Josh and Alex helped get their wife out of her clothes. Jillian moved like a whirling dervish, pulling out bed pads and a sheet to cover the pregnant woman with. They used actual cotton sheets here becau
se Grandma Kate had once said that paper was inadequate. Robert tended to agree with her.
Penelope continued to cry and berated herself despite the way her men tried to soothe her. “I’m such an idiot. I’m such an idiot. My mind was off in the clouds, not on the ground in front of me. I’m so sorry. Oh, God, what have I done? What have I done?”
Robert washed his hands quickly right after David did, and then moved toward their patient, all his focus on Penelope. “It’s okay, sweetie. Hush, now. None of that. You’re here, we’re here, and it’s all going to be fine. I want you to look at those husbands of yours right there beside you who love you, and I want you to breathe. In, and out, nice calm, steady breaths. That’s the way, sweetie.” Robert worked to assist his brother, attaching the little nodes for the various bits of technology while David sat on the stool Jillian had pushed over to him and set about to examine their patient.
Alex moved around his brother so they were both ranged over her by her head, standing close. He bent down and kissed her, then laid his hand on her head.
“We’re lucky, angel. David was the head of the OB-GYN department at a big Chicago hospital. I bet he’s seen everything. We’re in good hands.”
“I have indeed, and you certainly are.” David looked up at Penelope. “How you doing there, Penelope?”
Penelope had calmed down from the very edge of frantic she’d been on since they brought her in. “Bloody hell. I’m scared. I’m so scared. I want this baby so much. And I’m so damned mad at myself.” Penelope’s words emerged with a decidedly British accent.
Just then the sound of a fetal heart beating emanated from the monitor, and the Benedicts all seemed to sigh in relief at the same time.
Robert placed his hand on her baby bump and watched as David worked, angling the bright light Jillian rolled closer, using some of the cotton batting she set out to soak up and clear the pooled blood so he could see what he was doing.
“What happened?” Robert kept his hand on her belly, feeling the movement and the contraction that had just started.
“I tripped. I’d wanted to bring the basket of laundry in off the line because I was worried it was going to rain. But I tripped, and I fell. It’s my fault. I’m supposed to take care of this tiny baby and it’s all my fault. He’s not even born yet and already I’m a horrible mother! Oh, God. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. All my fault.”
“No, no, sweet thing. You just hush now.” Robert checked his watch, and then reached up with his other hand and stroked her hair. “Things just happen, sometimes, sweetheart. I’m sure you’ve been taking very good care of yourself and your baby. Cut yourself some slack, Penelope. You’re only human. Things happen that we don’t foresee, that’s all. We’re not clairvoyant, after all. All we can do is all we can do. We can’t control every single waking second of our lives. All we can do is do the best we can to handle what life tosses at us.”
Wise words. True words. Well, hell, maybe I should listen to myself sometime. Robert shelved the thought. This wasn’t the time for a personal aha moment.
“I fell, and then I felt something tear inside me, and then…I saw the blood and I screamed.”
“When did you have your first contraction, Penelope?”
Josh and Alex both jerked their heads up at that. Robert met their frightened gazes with a steady one of his own. He gave them points for quickly controlling their expressions.
“In the car, on the way here. Crap, I’m supposed to time them…”
“You’ve had three since you’ve been in here, and they’re about five and a half minutes apart.”
“I’m going to do an internal exam, okay?” David looked up at Penelope and her husbands. He briefly met Robert’s gaze.
“Go ahead.” Penelope nodded, and then looked at Robert just as another contraction started. She inhaled deeply and began breathing through the contraction. David stood up, and Jillian was there with a rubber glove for his left hand, and the lubricant he would need.
Robert felt his heart kick up a beat. David suspected something was wrong—he knew that by the look in his eyes.
David watched and waited for the contraction to end, and then he eased his hand under the sheet.
Joshua tilted Penelope’s face until she was looking at him and his brother. “We love you, pretty Penelope, more than we have words to tell you. You’re ours, forever. Whatever happens, we’re in this together. Okay? No more blaming yourself. You are the best wife, and the best mother in the world. Period.”
“I love you both, too. Very, very much.” Her bottom lip quivered.
Robert saw the tears in her eyes, but he also felt the calm that had come over her. If his guess was right, she was going to need that calm.
Then David confirmed it.
“Well, mom and dads, this baby is coming today. There’s just one small problem, honey.” He looked up at Robert. “Two, actually. This little bundle of joy is determined to greet the world, feet first—and his heartbeat isn’t what we’d like it to be.”
Robert understood the implications immediately.
“What does that mean?” Joshua asked.
“It means that we’re about to turn this exam room into an operating room,” David said.
Robert ran his hand over Penelope’s tummy. When she looked at him, he said, “David hurt his hand yesterday, so I’ll be conducting your C-section today.”
Chapter 19
Joe Grant awoke slowly, conscious of three things at once. His throat felt bone dry, his left shoulder hurt as if someone had taken a jackhammer to it, and the scent of jasmine filled his head.
He felt her before he saw her. She had hold of his hand, and had fallen asleep, her head on the bed beside him.
It wasn’t a dream, after all.
He’d thought he dreamt her, the way she’d smoothed her hand over his forehead, and then kissed him so sweetly. The way she’d told him, in a no-nonsense voice he kind of liked, that he had better damn well recover perfectly and he was never to get shot again.
He’d seen her tears, in his dream, and he’d had no doubts that she loved him completely.
He lay quietly and tried to put together the pieces of the puzzle of what had happened. He knew he’d been shot, and the bullet had come dangerously close to his heart. But the rest was fuzzy. The memory felt like fragments, like a photograph suspended in time that someone had torn into a dozen pieces.
They’d been following up on an investigation, he and Mel Collins, looking in to allegations that a Dallas man was involved in a human trafficking ring. They’d knocked on the door at the address they’d been given. The inner door had been ajar. He and Mel had drawn their weapons, identified themselves, and attempted to enter.
The interior of the room beyond the door had been dark, and the only thing Joe had seen was the flash of the gun as it had been fired, aimed at him.
He’d never been shot before.
“And it had better not happen again, either.”
He didn’t realize he’d said that aloud. He looked down, into Michelle’s sleepy gaze. She stood up, kissed his brow, and then reached for the cup of ice water beside his bed.
She held the straw for him while he sipped.
“Not too much,” she said, her voice just above a whisper. “You still have anesthetic running around in your bloodstream. Too much will make you sick.”
He resisted the urge to gulp, pulling away from the soothing liquid sooner than he really wanted to.
“What time is it?”
She checked her watch. “Ten after two in the afternoon. I didn’t mean to doze off. I was tired.”
His woman looked beautiful, but exhausted. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Have you been here all night?”
“Just since 4:00 a.m. when they moved you out of ICU into this room.”
“Jesus, woman. On top of the drive here, you’ve been up all night? Did you even get yourself a place to stay?” He wondered at the look on her face. She almost looked guilty about something.
“Well, actually, I didn’t drive here,” she said. “Henry Kendall flew Peter and me here in the helicopter. And, um, this is Dallas, so I don’t actually need to get a room. My family has a suite at the Kendall Plaza.”
Joe loved the way Michelle blushed. Her fair skin looked sun-kissed and her pale-blue eyes sparkled. “Hmm. Helicopter rides and a hotel suite. Are you trying to tell me that you’re rich?”
Her smile gentled, and the expression in those pretty eyes made his throat ache, despite the water he’d just sipped.
“I wasn’t truly rich, not really.” She sat back down on the chair she’d so recently slept on. When he held out his hand, she gave him hers. “Not until you told me that you loved me.”
“I do love you. And I really don’t care if you’re rich, or not.”
“Good.” Michelle shrugged. “It’s not something I think about overly much, because, well, to be honest, most of the people who live in Lusty are rich. Our parents all raised us to work, and make our way, and pay it forward. The trust funds…well, they’re there, and to be used. But we don’t flaunt it.”
“So it’s not much of a gift on my part, then, if I tell you that once we’re married you can feel free to quit working and get that advanced English degree you want.”
Michelle tilted her head to the side. “Are we getting married?”
“Christ, talk about clumsy.” Joe scrubbed his right hand over his face. He had planned on waiting for just the right moment.
Lying here, knowing that he’d nearly been killed—he figured a man couldn’t get a more right moment than this.
“I think you’re right, that damn anesthetic is still running through my bloodstream. Come here, sweetheart.” He pointed to the bed beside him, on his right side.
She stood and maneuvered until she was sitting beside him, facing him, and managed it without letting go of his hand.
“Michelle Parker, I love you with all my heart. I’ve never said those words to a woman before, because no other woman has ever touched my heart the way you have, and no other ever will. Michelle, will you please marry me?”
Love Under Two Doctors [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 22
