AT LAST

by Melissa Schroeder

  She nodded. “But the Washington Post one isn’t going to be out until next Sunday. They interviewed a bunch of us involved in medical charities.”

  “Okay, that’s good. If you can think of anything else, you have my number.”

  “You aren’t going to put a detail on her?”

  “Mr. Fitzpatrick, I understand your concern, but the truth is, we don’t have the manpower. I’ve talked to my uncle, and from this point on, you are not to leave the building on your own, Ms. Reynolds. They will make sure to have an escort for you to and from the hospital. If anything else happens, I might be able to justify escort, but this could be just a prank.” Aeden opened his mouth, but she stopped him by raising her hand. “I’m going to take it very serious. I’ll be talking to friends and family and, of course, people you work with.”

  She nodded. “Thank you. I really appreciate you coming in like this. I know normally I would have to go to the department.”

  “It was on my way home and, besides; I would do anything for my uncle. Thanks again.”

  Then she left them alone.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  She nodded. “It was kind of terrifying at first, but she’s right. It could be a prank. Hell, someone could have gotten the wrong car. It could have been meant for another person. The important thing is that I reported it. There’s a record.”

  “Yes.”

  “You know her brother?”

  He nodded. “Brothers. She has two. Zach is an arson inspector. The other is in private security now, but he used to be a cop.”

  “Ah.” She fidgeted with her purse, trying to decide the best way to say what needed to be said. She decided the best way to deal with this was just to blurt it out. “I guess we’re going to have to tell your family. They should know.”

  He nodded, but frowned. “You didn’t call Kaitlin?”

  “No, I called you. Why would I call Kaitlin?”

  He said nothing, as he continued to stare at her as though she had grown a second head. She waited, and still, he didn’t speak.

  “Is there something wrong?” she asked.

  “No,” he said, finally offering her a little smile. “Nothing at all. I guess we can swing by the folks on our way back to your place.”

  She nodded. “Sounds like a good plan. Then, I just need my bed.”

  His tired eyes lit up and a slow, sexy smile curved his lips. “Sounds like a plan to me too.”

  * * *

  * * *

  * * *

  As he parked in the driveway, Aeden thought through his options. They could easily bluff through the situation, but he knew his parents would never believe him. There was absolutely no way for him to explain why Wendy had called him and not Kaitlin.

  Of course, he could be honest with himself about the main reason for not wanting to lie. He didn’t want to. It was pigheaded and a little primitive, but he wanted his parents, and anyone else who asked, to know that he was involved with Wendy. That she was his. He hadn’t liked hiding it these past couple of weeks. Each day, the need to tell the world she was his had gnawed at his gut. He knew his siblings knew, and a few of their acquaintances, but telling his parents was important. He only wished it was for another reason.

  Aeden wasn’t sure exactly what to tell his parents. He knew the gist of the conversation, but he didn’t know how to go about it.

  He got out of his car and went around the front to help Wendy out. She was already standing there, of course. They both stood still for a few seconds staring at the front of the house.

  “I guess it’s now or never,” she murmured.

  “You don’t have to make it sound like it’s the end of the world, or you’re going to the gallows.”

  She gave him a quick, searching look, then returned her attention to the house. “Telling your parents makes it real.”

  What the bleeding hell did that mean? “Yeah. So?”

  She sighed. “I haven’t done this in years. And I know your parents, so…”

  Her voice trailed off.

  “Just say what you’re thinking.”

  She sighed. “I’m worried that they might think I’m not good enough for you.”

  He blinked. “That’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard.”

  She straightened her back. “You don’t have to make fun of me, Aeden.”

  There it was. That cold, kind of bitchy voice that always seemed to get his back up. In the past, he would start a fight with her. Now, though, he was starting to see beneath the surface.

  “I’m not making fun of you. I actually think you might have this backwards.” She turned to look at him. “There is a very good chance my mother might not think I’m good enough for you.”

  She studied him, then shook her head. “She adores you.”

  “Yeah, and she adores you, and thinks of you as one of her own.”

  She nodded and looked at the house again. He knew it would be easy to ignore those undercurrents. In the past, with other women, he let things like this go. With Wendy, he couldn’t. Not now.

  He took her hand in his. “Let’s go.”

  She hesitated only for a moment, then a small smile curved her lips as she walked beside him up the path to the front porch.

  His parents had brought him home from the hospital as a newborn to this house, and it always felt like home to him. Probably always would. The long front porch was no longer filled with bikes and baseball bats and balls. Now, wicker furniture and potted plants dominated the scene.

  Both his parents were home. They worked part-time now, his father mainly volunteering since he retired from the fire department. His mother worked at one of the local libraries just a few days a week. Still, it felt odd showing up at their house in the middle of the morning to tell them he was sleeping with Wendy. Granted, it was more than that, but the truth boiled down to that. He knew his parents wouldn’t mind. They both adored Wendy. But, there would be expectations. Not that he minded, but he had a feeling Wendy might panic. Keeping his parents from being pushy was the most important thing at the moment.

  He opened the screen door just about the time his mother opened the front door.

  “Well, this is a nice surprise,” she said, stepping back to give Wendy room to walk into the house. “I thought you started back to work yesterday.”

  “I did. I worked last night. That’s one of the reasons we had to stop by.”

  “Oh?” she asked. “It looks like this is a talk for the kitchen. Your father is in there baking.”

  “Great, because I’m starving,” he said.

  They made their way into the kitchen where his father spent most of his time since retiring. Declan got his love of cooking from their mother but his younger brother’s ability to bake sweets came from their father.

  “Hey there. Chocolate chip cookies on the menu today.”

  “They smell delicious,” Wendy said.

  “We have to talk about something that happened this morning,” Aeden said.

  “Just this morning?” his father asked.

  “When I got off work earlier, there was a threatening note on my car windshield,” Wendy explained.

  “A threatening note? Someone threatened you?” his father asked, outrage in his voice. Of course he was outraged. He saw Wendy as one of the family, and any kind of threat against a woman was beyond pale.

  “We’re not sure if they even had the right person. It could be a prank, or they could have left the note on the wrong car.”

  “We aren’t sure of which, and the detective didn’t say she thought it was a prank. She’s taking it very seriously,” Aeden added.

  Wendy slanted a look at him, and he knew he’d irritated her. Well, too damn bad. His instincts were telling him it was something more than just a prank or the wrong car. Someone was targeting her, and it didn’t sit well with him.

  “Of course she is,” his mother said. “I can’t believe that anyone would want to hurt you, dear.”

  Wen
dy smiled. “I agree, and I still think it’s a mistake. But, we’ll see.

  “And we will be careful. The detective wanted to make sure that Wendy is extremely careful. More than likely, she’s going to be calling you,” Aeden said.

  “Definitely,” his mother said. “So, is there a reason she called you and not anyone else in the family? I understand that she might not want to alarm Kaitlin, but you could have called one of us,” she said, directing the comment to Wendy.

  He saw the twinkle in his mother’s eye, and knew she understood why. The smirk she was giving them told Aeden she approved of the situation.

  “Wendy and I are dating.”

  “Well, thank God for that,” his mother said.

  “What?” Wendy asked.

  “I thought you two would never tell us. Mike and I even talked about it,” she said, motioning toward her husband.

  There was a long beat of silence where no one said anything.

  “Does everyone know?” Wendy asked.

  His mother shrugged. “You were always fighting, and you’re both wonderful people. We assumed it had to be something more than not liking each other.”

  “But that’s not the most important thing right now,” his father said. “You’ll work out that part of the relationship. Why don’t I whip something up for you two to eat, and we can talk about this issue?”

  And just like that, his parents let Wendy know she was accepted, once again in the family. Her shoulders relaxed.

  “I need to wash up,” she said.

  She left the room and his mother watched her. Once they heard the bathroom door shut, his mother shook her head. “That girl. What was that look for?”

  He sighed, wondering how much to tell his mother. He moved closer so that he could pitch his voice lower.

  “She was worried that you might not like us dating.”

  His mother sighed. “Her parents should be shot. Go see her.”

  “What?”

  “Go, check on her.”

  He nodded, because his mother was rarely wrong about things like this. He made his way down the hallway and paused outside of the bathroom door. It was suspiciously silent, so he knew she wasn’t washing up.

  “Wendy?”

  “Yes.”

  “Open up.”

  She didn’t do it right away, and he worried that maybe he should have just left her alone. Then, she opened the door. She tried to hide the fact that she had been crying. His mother was right. Her parents should be shot. The fact that this amazing, usually confident woman ever doubted her place in their family was stunning.

  He didn’t have words to soothe, so he did the one thing he knew how to do.

  He reached for her and pulled her into his arms. He held onto her and let her sniffle against his shirt.

  Chapter 8

  Three days later, Kaitlin cornered Wendy at work at the end of her shift. Her friend had claimed that she had a checkup with her doctor in just a few hours. It wasn’t that Wendy had been avoiding her. In fact, she talked to her several times a day, but she hadn’t taken the time to pop over to Kaitlin and Brando’s house to visit.

  “I was going to come see you tomorrow,” Wendy said as they sat down on a couple of benches in front of the main hospital entrance. The day was unseasonably warm with the not a cloud in the sky.

  “I wanted the full details on this maniac who threatened you. Brando’s mother wanted to pop in to see a friend who lives in the area, so she dropped me off early.”

  Wendy didn’t ask for permission. She just leaned over and picked up Little Mike. “There’s nothing to tell.”

  “You get a note threatening you…”

  “And nothing happened with it. It’s annoying, and it scared the crap out of me, but there’s a good chance that Detective O’Reilly won’t find anything.”

  “Did they look at the security recordings?”

  She nodded. “But I haven’t heard anything about it from them, so I’m not sure they found anything.”

  “I don’t think they are taking this seriously enough. Maybe we need to talk to someone.”

  She smiled as she settled Mike against her shoulder. The sweet baby scent reached her, and she happily breathed it in. She just loved babies. She patted his back and he made little cooing sounds.

  “No. I don’t want to go over O’Reilly’s head on this one. She was very concerned. They must not have anything.”

  “Well, the idea that someone actually threatened you makes me sick. Like physically ill.”

  Wendy didn’t say anything. Even though she was putting on a brave face, there was a small part of her that worried about it. The fact that it came right after her interviews started hitting the papers, and she had been getting some attention from administrators, it might be coincidence. It could also be the trigger.

  “It’s fine. I’m hardly ever alone with Aeden around.”

  “Yeah, so, you want to tell me about that?”

  She shrugged. “Your brother is practically living with me.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. He asked if it was okay to leave a few things at my place. You know, so that he could get back there as soon as he got off, for my safety.”

  “He used those words? For your safety?”

  Wendy nodded, thinking back to the conversation from the day before. He had been nervous, and she had worried he was about to break it off. But, instead, he had used the threat against her to infiltrate her space a little more. Wendy didn’t mind, for the most part. It really had nothing to do with the situation.

  “My commitment-phobic brother has, for all intents and purposes, moved in with you?”

  She smiled. “Yeah, he kind of stunned me too.”

  “And your feelings?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, what are your feelings about this?”

  She shrugged trying to find the words. “I’m unsure.”

  “Unsure? What does that mean?”

  She tried to ignore the tone in Kaitlin’s voice. Or tried to. Wendy knew Kaitlin was loyal to her, but this was her brother.

  “What do you mean, ‘what does that mean’?”

  “You’re avoiding the question, Wendy.”

  Leave it up to her best friend to corner her about this. It was one of the things that she loved about Kaitlin. Other people might agree with her, but Kaitlin wouldn’t let Wendy get away with avoiding the subject. Of course, right now, Wendy wasn’t too happy about it.

  “I’m unsettled about it. I want it to be real.”

  “It is real.”

  She studied her friend and saw the determination in her expression. Wendy couldn’t trust Kaitlin. She still had stars in her eyes about being a new wife and mother. Granted, being married to a Santini pretty much guaranteed that for life…probably.

  “How do I know that your brother isn’t only being overprotective because of the situation?”

  “He isn’t. Why would he do that?”

  “Detective O’Reilly has him all worried. She doesn’t want me going anywhere on my own, blah blah blah. So he freaked out a little bit.”

  “If he was that worried about it, and he had no feelings for you, he would just make you stay with my parents.”

  “I’m not saying he doesn’t have feelings for me. What I am saying is that those kinds of feelings don’t always become something else.”

  There was a beat of silence. “Are you trying to tell me that because you and my brother have great sex, he’s using the threat thing to practically move in with you?”

  Okay, when Kaitlin said it out loud like that, and in that tone of voice, it sounded stupid. And she hadn’t thought about the notion of moving in with his parents for a while. He would definitely insist on that if it had been before they had hooked up.

  “Maybe.”

  “Oh, please. My brother would have no problem just popping over for sex. We both know what he’s like. Hell, we both know what you’re like.”

  It w
asn’t a put down at all, and Wendy would never see it that way coming from Kaitlin. She had never been ashamed of her sexuality. It wasn’t in her nature to hide that part of her personality. It wasn’t like she slept around, but she didn’t have a problem with casual sex as long as there was respect.

  “So, the idea that my brother would use your problem to get himself an in just for sex doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I didn’t say it made sense. Men rarely make sense.”

  “True.” She sighed. “Maybe I should talk to him.”

  Something close to panic rushed through her. “I don’t want you putting any pressure on your brother, Kaitlin. I mean it.”

  Kaitlin had the nerve to look offended. “Why would you think I would pressure him?”

  “Because I know you. I know you would do anything to get what you want, and what you want is us together.”

  “You should want to be with him.”

  She blinked at the sudden stinging in her eyes, and realized it was the only thing holding back her tears.

  “Wendy?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to be with Aeden for the wrong reasons, but I am not going to get pushy, not right now. Right now, we are trying to figure out where we fit together.”

  “Bull. You’re just afraid.”

  The words hit her like a battering ram. She wasn’t a coward, far from it, but she was being one with Aeden. Why did she have such a truthful friend? Maybe she needed superficial friends. Friends who would lie to her.

  “Yes, but can you blame me? I don’t want to be with anyone who doesn’t appreciate me, and I don’t want to stay with anyone for the wrong reasons. Don’t push.” She opened her mouth, but Wendy stopped her. “I know that you do it because you love us both, but please, don’t push us. Let us figure it all out.”

  Kaitlin nodded. “Okay. Not happy about it though.”

  “Noted.”

  “And, if he screws this up, I get to box his ears.”

  “What makes you think the problem would be him?”

  “He’s a man.”

  She chuckled. “He is definitely all man.”