by K E Lane
I smiled slightly when she'd left. "You've made yourself quite a fan club. Of course, that doesn't surprise me - I'm rather fond of you myself."
Robyn toyed absently with the thin blanket on my bed, staring down at it. "The staff here - especially the nurses - they've been great to me…letting me sit with you when it was against the rules, keeping me in the loop about what was happening…Gail even let me stay after your brother laid down the family only policy, but when he saw me in your room…"
"Sorry about Sebastian," I said with a wince. "He can be…trying."
She chuckled and stroked my hand. "That's very diplomatic of you." Her face turned concerned and she looked up at me. "I heard you two went at it this morning…are you okay? Sounds like it was quite the argument."
I shifted on the bed. "Let's just say no one can push my buttons quite like Sebastian…he's my brother, so on some level, I love him, but mostly I just want to kick his teeth in."
She raised a surprised eyebrow at that, and then looked down at our hands, picking mine up and bringing it to her lips before placing it carefully back on the bed and meeting my gaze. "I also hear that he was blaming me for this…" she stepped back from the bed and wandered over to the window. "And really, he's right. If you hadn't known me, if I hadn't left…" She paused, looking out the window, and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Caid. I'm so, so sorry."
"Sorry for what?" I asked with a frown. "For inviting me to spend the weekend with you? For loving me?"
She turned quickly and her eyes flew to mine. "No! God no! Loving you…I'll never be sorry for that. It's the only thing I've done right in this whole mess."
I smiled slightly, trying to lighten her sudden melancholic mood. "I hardly consider it a mess, and I can think of a few other things you've done right…"
I was rewarded with a tiny smile before her face saddened. "I just feel like this is my fault somehow…"
Well, that line of thinking definitely had to go. We had enough problems without her dragging a truckload of unnecessary guilt around for god knows how long.
"Damnit, Robyn, that's bullshit and you know it. Did you attack me? Club me with a walking stick? Kick me? Punch me?"
She visibly flinched.
"Did you?" I pushed.
She shook her head. "No," she said in a voice that was barely a whisper, "but…"
"No!" She blinked at the vehemence of my voice. "No buts. This is no one's fault but the man who did it. He did this. Not you. Do you understand me?"
After several long moments, she finally nodded.
I released a slow breath, suddenly very tired. "Good. Now get over here and kiss me."
A small smile played on her lips as she moved to the bed and looked down at me. "So demanding," she murmured, and leaned in to brush feather-light kisses across my forehead, cheek and finally my lips.
I closed my eyes and sighed. "God I love you."
When I opened my eyes, she was smiling that smile; the one that made it hard for me to breathe. "I love you too, baby. I'm sorry it took me so long to say."
"And now you've told me twice in ten minutes…" I reached for her hand. "I feel like I've won the lottery or something."
She laughed quietly and raised my hand to her lips. "I love you, Caidence Harris."
I closed my eyes and relaxed back into the pillow with a smile. "Oh my," I murmured. "Three times in ten minutes. Look Ma, I'm a millionaire."
She chuckled. "I don't know about that…" she paused, and I felt her lips touch my forehead again. "But I know of one who's available if you want her," she whispered.
I opened one eye. "A millionaire, huh?"
She shrugged nonchalantly. "Not as big a deal as it used to be, but yeah."
I opened the other eye and regarded her thoughtfully. "She hot?"
She blinked and let out a surprised bark of laughter. "Depends on who you ask."
"Uh-huh." I pulled her forward against the bed and released her hand so I could rest mine on her hip and brush my thumb lightly against the warm skin just above the waistband of her jeans. "Depends on who you ask?" I repeated skeptically. "Just who are you asking? Dead people and live people?"
She laughed again and I closed my eyes with a happy sigh, loving the sound of her laughter and the contented warmth it caused. She brushed a hand through my hair soothingly and I relaxed under the caress.
I jerked awake a little later, not knowing if it was seconds that had passed or minutes, but the warmth of Robyn's skin was still under my fingers and I stroked absently, opening my eyes to find her looking down at me pensively.
"So," she asked hesitantly. "Do you want her?"
It took me a second to realize what she was talking about. When I did, I smiled slightly. "The hot millionaire?"
She smiled, but her eyes were worried, and I could tell she was unsure of my answer. She actually thought I would say no? Crazy woman.
I squeezed her waist. "Yes, I definitely want her. More than I've ever wanted anything in my life."
"She'll be very happy to hear that," she told me with a wide smile, and leaned down to kiss me lightly on the lips. "Now close your eyes and go to sleep."
"M'kay." I let my eyes flutter shut. "Love you."
"I love you too, Caid."
I smiled and snuggled into the pillow.
##
"Caid, baby…wake up." Soft lips pressed against my forehead. "Let me see those gorgeous eyes…"
The low, husky words were whispered in my ear, drawing me from sleep and bringing an involuntary smile to my face. I did as I was asked and opened my eyes, rewarded for my efforts by a soft smile and dark eyes hovering inches from mine.
"Ah…there they are. Good morning." She kissed my forehead again. "I need to head to the set, but I wanted to tell you I was leaving. Are you really awake? You're not going to go all Fatal Attraction on me because you didn't remember I said goodbye, are you?"
I blinked sleepily at her, my smile widening as I remembered what she had told me...she loved me. Robyn Ward loved me.
Hot damn.
I yawned and lifted my hand to stroke her hand. "I'm awake. Your rabbit is safe." I looked around the room. "What time is it?"
"It's 4:30…"
I furrowed my brow. "You stayed all night? Did you get any sleep?"
"Some," she said with a shrug, but I doubted it. She looked tired and drawn, but her eyes were shining happily as they looked down on me. "I wanted to be here when you woke up. I'm sorry I have to go…I'd rather stay with you, but I'm walking on thin ice with Lynne as it is."
I gingerly shifted my body on the bed, twisting until I was facing her. "Rob, you know I understand…I'm just sorry if all this has screwed things up for you…"
"Shhh…" She reached out and let two fingers hover just above my lips. "No sorrys, okay?" I nodded and she leaned in for a brief kiss before pulling back. "Everything's fine, I just don't want to push any more than I have to. Can I come back tonight?"
I glared at her. "If you promise not to ask stupid questions like that one."
"Ooohh." She smiled. "Kinda feisty at four-thirty in the morning, aren'tcha?"
I did my best to waggle my eyebrows, despite the pain it caused. "Stick with me, baby, and you'll find out just how feisty I can be at four in the morning."
She suppressed a chuckle and a dark, elegant eyebrow inched up her forehead. "Is that so?"
"Uh-huh."
"Well, I certainly need to stick around for that. Guess you're stuck with me for a while."
"Lucky me." I smiled up at her.
"Lucky me." She grinned down at me. Our eyes locked, and both of our smiles faded as electricity sparked between us, along with something deeper. "I love you," she said softly.
"I love you, too."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath at the words, smiling radiantly. "I wonder if I'll ever get used it."
"To what?" I brushed my fingers across her cheek, and she opened her eyes. "To hearing someone loves you?"
/> "No baby…" She leaned down to brush her lips across my cheek. "To actually believing it."
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
"Eroto what???" Liz looked at me blankly, the normally flawlessly smooth skin of her forehead furrowed in perplexity.
"Erotomanic Delusional Disorder." I repeated. "With…" I scrunched my face up, trying to remember what Detective Fischer had said. "Uh…attached Narcissistic Linking Fantasies."
She blinked. "Uh-huh. And is there an English translation for that? Something us simple folk can understand?"
We were sharing a carafe of coffee on the small back patio of the guest cottage on Liz's estate, talking and enjoying the cool morning air as had become our habit over the past twenty-three days since I'd been released from Mid-Key Medical Center. Liz had insisted I use her cottage as a place to rest and recuperate out of the public eye, and I had taken her up on her offer with very little argument. Since then, these early morning coffee sessions had become something of a ritual; every two or three days Liz would show up at the cottage door after my morning walk - running was still too painful - and her morning swim, carafe in hand, and we'd talk for an hour or so, until the coffee was gone. This morning when Liz knocked on my door, I'd just gotten off the phone with Detective Fischer.
I smiled slightly and took a sip of coffee. "Mm-hmm. Basically what it means is that Todd Massey thought he had some kind of relationship or friendship with Robyn, and the stories about Josh dumping her for me…that really pissed the guy off, insulted her and by extension, him. So that anger had been building up for weeks, and when he saw her with me, the supposed reason Josh had dumped her, he just…snapped"
She blew on her cup absently and nodded, her eyes flicking from my face to my splinted wrist. I had done a lot of healing since leaving the hospital - my face had returned to its normal size and shape, the welts from the cuts on my face had gone down and lost the angry, swollen red of a new injury, the large metal and bandage splint on my wrist had been downsized to an easily removable light-weight vinyl and canvas splint, and most of the bruising had faded to a faint, slightly jaundiced yellow - but evidence of Todd Massey's 'snap' was still very visible.
"And they're just going to ship him off to some loony bin? No trial for what he did?" She wrapped both hands around the mug, tapping gently with one long, blood-red nail.
"It's not official yet, but that's what it sounds like since they doubt he's fit to go to trial. And he's continued to be violent in custody, attacking two cell mates before they transferred him to a mental health facility that deals with that kind of thing." I delivered the information dispassionately, suppressing the churn of emotions that talking about Todd Massey and the attack brought on.
"And how do you feel about that?" Liz said carefully, watching me with concern.
I sighed and rolled the tension out of my shoulders. "To be perfectly honest, I'm relieved. The detectives and the DA think that with the violence of the assault and his behavior since the arrest, it will be a long, long time before anyone has to worry about him walking the streets; longer, they think, than what he might get if he actually went to trial."
"Maybe that is better, then."
I shrugged. "I think so…I wasn't looking forward to living through it again, and the media attention a trial would have brought…" I shuddered for emphasis. "I'm finally starting to be a non-entity again with the press - I'd like to keep it that way for a while."
I had thought the amount of attention I garnered for 'dating' Josh Riley had been intense, but I'd learned being attacked by a clinically insane erotomanic delusional with narcissistic linking fantasies ranked much higher on the scale of newsworthy things a celebrity could do to get attention. And add the extra titillation factor that the object of the attacker's fantasies and obsession was Robyn Ward, whose boyfriend I had recently stolen, and who I had been spending the weekend with when I was attacked…the fervor had been insane, and the speculation, mind-boggling. Rumors of a lesbian affair between Robyn and I had surfaced, but seemed to stem from previous rumors fueled by the season finale kiss and not by any new information. With nothing new to keep them alive, they never gained a good foothold, and although they never disappeared altogether, there was far less speculation in that area than I had expected, and I was glad to be proven wrong about the Monroe County Sheriff's Office's capacity for discretion.
"Yes, things do seem to be calming down," Liz mused. "Paula said you two swung by your house yesterday when you were out, and it was relatively press-free."
I nodded. "Nary a photog in site. My hydrangeas are decimated, and the front landscaping is a mess, but it was a beautifully empty mess."
"And the rest of the trip?" she asked casually, "everything go alright?"
Yesterday's trip with Paula was only the second time in twenty-three days that I'd left the fenced confines of Liz's estate. I knew Liz was concerned by my reclusiveness, but she hadn't pushed, and for that I was grateful. Last week, I'd finally forced myself to leave the property, accompanying Risa on a brief trip to the grocery store, and yesterday I'd tagged along with Paula as she ran some errands for Liz at a crowded shopping center, just trying to get accustomed to being surrounded by strangers again.
"Everything went fine…better than fine, really. I'm still a little jumpy, but it wasn't as bad as I expected, once I got over the initial weirdness of having people in my space. I'm actually thinking that I should move my ass home and stop hiding out here, especially now that my house is press-free. I've taken advantage of your generosity for long enough. I was thinking of moving early next week."
Liz paused in mid-sip and lowered her cup, reaching out with one hand to touch my arm. "Caid, you're not taking advantage of anything. You know you're welcome to stay as long as you want." She pulled her hand away and returned it to her cup. "I've enjoyed having you around, actually." She smiled. "The only other person who stays in this cottage is Mama, and you're much easier to deal with."
"Liz, I've met your mama. Being easier to deal with than her isn't much of a feat."
She gave me a mock frown. "Are you bad-mouthing my mama?"
I laughed. "No, ma'am. I'd never do that." We shared a smile and I reached out and tapped her cup gently with mine. "And I've enjoyed being here, Liz. Thank you again."
"Caid, you've already thanked me a hundred times…"
"So now it's a hundred and one." We were quiet for a moment. "Speaking of Mama Stokley," I asked curiously, "how'd she take the news?"
Two weeks ago, in an announcement that had surprised pretty much everyone, Liz and Danny not only went public with their relationship, but also announced their engagement. The resulting media flurry had done just as much, if not more, than my seclusion to get stories of my attack out of the lime-light, and despite Liz assurances to the contrary, I still wasn't convinced that the timing wasn't deliberate.
Liz laughed. "Oh, she's a little concerned that he's Italian, and Catholic, and that I'm rushing into things, but she's already talking to caterers and florists and bugging us to set a date."
"Well, it was kind of quick," I said absently, remembering my own surprise at the news, even though I knew Liz and Danny were together. Liz looked annoyed at my comment and I hastily amended, "I'm not saying it's good or bad, Liz…I'm just saying things happened very quickly, and you surprised a lot of people."
"God, if I had a dollar for every time someone's told me we're rushing…" She shook her head and looked out over the lawn, and then back at me. "I've been with a lot of men, Caid…a lot," she said matter-of-factly. "I knew right away it was different with Danny, and he knew it too, and we figured, why wait? Because other people think we should?"
I held up a hand in apology. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound like I think you're making a mistake - I don't. I've seen you two together, and I think it's good, Liz. Really good."
She contemplated my apology while she poured herself more coffee, and finding it satisfactory, moved on to other topics. "So, when is Robyn getting back
?"
Robyn's filming had taken her to New York for sound stage work the day before my release from the hospital. We talked daily, but she hadn't been able to make it back even for a quick visit and I missed her intensely. To say I was looking forward to her return to LA would be something of an understatement; I'd been thinking of little else for the past several days.
"She's not positive yet, but sometime this weekend if everything stays on schedule." I nodded my thanks as she filled my mug.
"Bet you're looking forward to that, hmm?" she asked.
"You could say that," I said dryly.
"Uh-huh." She laughed. "Well, I don't know what y'all's plans are when she gets in," she raised her eyebrows suggestively, "but please make sure she knows she's welcome here any time - I've told Risa to expect her."
