On the Fly

by Catherine Gayle

  He was still over in the corner playing with a couple of Babs’s brothers. I dragged a hand through my hair and got up. I hadn’t noticed anyone giving him any food—nothing since Dana had given him the orange juice—so I headed over to the buffet and fixed a couple of plates. I loaded them up with mac and cheese and brownies. Now wasn’t the time to worry about eating healthy. I just needed him to eat.

  When I went to the kids’ corner, I took a seat on the floor, leaning my back against the wall. Tuck held out a Matchbox car. “Wanna play cars?”

  “Maybe in a minute. You hungry?” I held one of the plates out for him.

  Tuck nodded and took it, scooting over closer so he could sit right by my side, leaning against the wall exactly like I was. “Does Mommy know I’m getting brownies?”

  “It’s our secret. Deal?”

  For just a second, his eyes went really wide. Then he grinned and picked up his fork, loading it high with mac and cheese. “Deal.” Half of what he’d put on his fork landed on his shirt. He blushed just like Rachel always did, set down the fork, picked the stray pieces of pasta off his shirt with his fingers, and popped them into his mouth.

  I had a feeling we were going to have a huge, cheesy mess on our hands in about thirty seconds. Lucky for me, Jim came over with a stack of napkins and tossed them in my direction.

  “Thanks,” I said, setting them beside me on the floor. He nodded and kept going, moving on to talk to Hammer and Bergy. That was another thing I was going to have to learn—kids meant messes, and so I had to be prepared to clean them up.

  I’d known before I’d ever gotten involved with Rachel that women with kids meant complications, but the complications she was bringing into my life were pretty much the opposite of what I’d been expecting.

  Tuck ate his meal with an insane level of enthusiasm, and I tried to do the same. I hadn’t been thinking when I’d put the same stuff on my plate that I’d put on his. This wasn’t really my go-to sort of meal, but I wasn’t going to get up again now. I could grab some salad and a banana later.

  After a few minutes, Tuck had made a good dent in his pile of cheesy goodness. He stuffed half a brownie in his mouth and dropped the rest back on his plate, wiping his hands all over his shirt. “Mr. Soupy?” he said, his mouth full and bits of brownie falling out onto his plate.

  I tried not to laugh. “Yeah?”

  “Is Maddie gonna be okay?”

  That was probably the only question he could ask that I’d been dreading. I didn’t want to lie to him, but I don’t know didn’t seem sufficient. I set my plate aside and grabbed a napkin, using it to wipe a little of the mess off his face. That didn’t seem to do much good, and he was still eating anyway. He was just going to keep making more mess for a while.

  I dropped the napkin onto my plate and bit down on my tongue, hoping the sharp pain would help clear my head and give me a brilliant answer.

  Nothing brilliant came to mind.

  Damn it.

  He kept looking at me, his big eyes slowly filling with tears the longer I took to answer him. I wasn’t cut out for this sort of thing. Not at all.

  “I don’t know, Tuck,” I finally said when nothing else came to me. “But we’re in the best place for her. She’s got doctors and nurses taking care of her, and your mommy, too.”

  “She bleeded a lot.”

  “Yeah, she did. She hit her head really hard.”

  “I shoulda gived her my cape. Then she could be Supergirl and not get hurt.”

  “You think your cape might have helped?”

  He nodded, his expression serious.

  “I should have given her a helmet like you had on.”

  Tuck nodded and took another bite of brownie, dragging his sleeve across his mouth and spreading the mess further. “Yeah. We gotta take care of Maddie better.”

  “I’ll make you a deal,” I said.

  He looked up at me expectantly.

  “If the doctor comes and tells us Maddie is going to be okay, then you and I have to work as a team to take care of her and your mommy. You do the kid stuff, and I’ll do the grown-up stuff. Deal?” I stuck out my hand to shake.

  He tackled me with a hug instead of shaking my hand. “Deal.”

  Tuck didn’t let go, and I didn’t really know what to do with that, so I put my arms around him and hugged him. A minute later, when he pulled away some but stayed on my lap, we were both covered in cheese sauce and brownie bits. Tuck giggled when he saw my shirt, and all I could do was laugh.

  That was when Rachel came into the waiting room.

  Everyone fell silent when she opened the door. She stopped short and looked around at the people packed inside that tiny area like sardines, all of us expectantly waiting for news about Maddie. She shook her head, blinking her eyes.

  She had to be looking for Tuck. I stood up with him in my arms, so she could see him and know he was okay.

  “Don’t forget our deal,” Tuck whispered in my ear. He still had his arms wrapped around me when Rachel’s eyes finally fell on us.

  Then she burst into tears.

  I’d thought the nurse was joking when she’d said the whole waiting room was full of people waiting on news about Maddie. I’d been sure of it. Never, not since the day my parents had kicked me out of their house, had there been people in my life who actually cared. I figured Brenden would have come and brought Tuck with him, or at least I hoped they would be there.

  Walking into that waiting room and seeing pretty much everyone who’d been at the Storm’s Christmas party overwhelmed me almost as much as the doctor’s assessment had.

  Then I felt like the biggest idiot because I was standing there bawling like a baby, and they had to be jumping to conclusions about Maddie and basing those conclusions on my ridiculous behavior.

  I fought to get myself under control while Brenden carried Tuck over to me, but I didn’t manage it very well. By the time he got to me, I was practically hyperventilating through my tears.

  Brenden put his arm around me, still holding onto Tuck, and nudged me back out into the hall with him. He pulled the door closed behind us and held me close, his eyes searching mine. “Tell me.”

  “She’s f-fine.” I hiccupped, which only made me cry harder. “A concussion and st-st-staples in her h-head. But she’s fine.”

  Tuck put his hands on both my cheeks and turned me so I was looking at him. He was filthy, and I laughed through my tears. “I’m gonna give Maddie my cape so she’ll get better fast,” he said just before he planted a sloppy kiss on my lips.

  “What have you b-been eating?”

  “It’s a secret,” he whispered. “Mr. Soupy said not to tell you.”

  Brenden’s fingers touched my lips to brush away whatever debris Tuck had left behind. “She’s going to be okay? Can she come home tonight?”

  I didn’t miss the fact that he was changing the subject, but I couldn’t really care about that right now. I licked my lips where his fingers had been. “They w-want to keep her for observation for a few hours.” Slowly, I started to get myself back under control again. “But they’ll let her come home as long as she stays like she is.”

  “Can I go give her my cape?”

  I had to laugh. My little boy was the sweetest thing ever.

  The head nurse had been walking down in the hall, but she stopped at Tuck’s question. “Why don’t we bring Maddie to you?” she asked. “I know there are a bunch of people who’ve been waiting in there to see her. It’d be easier if we put her in a wheelchair and bring her to them than the other way around because of visitation rules.”

  “We can do that?” I asked. I was still wrapping my head around everything that had happened.

  “That would be perfect,” Brenden said.

  “Wait right here, and I’ll get her.”

  Once the nurse disappeared around the corner, Brenden passed Tuck into my arms and kissed my cheek. “I’ll go back in there and tell everyone what’s going on. You two can stay here a
nd wait for Maddie.” He gave Tuck some sort of meaningful look that I didn’t understand, and Tuck pursed his lips together and nodded. Then Brenden went back into the waiting room.

  Tuck and I only had to stand there for a few minutes, during which time he gave me lots of hugs and kisses and told me all about how to score goals in hockey. By the time an orderly wheeled Maddie over to us, all decked out in her hospital gown and with an IV bag hanging, he’d done his best to convince me he was ready to play in the NHL.

  I wasn’t quite buying it, but Tuck could make a good sales pitch.

  He squealed when he saw Maddie and squirmed to get down. As soon as I set him on his feet, he ran to her and gave her a big hug. “Here,” he said while trying to untie the cape from around his neck, “this’ll help you get better fast.”

  The orderly was quick to catch on. “Oh yeah,” he said. “That’s one of those magic capes, isn’t it, little man?”

  “Yep. But I’m not a little man. I’m the Ginger Ninja.”

  “Gotcha. I’d better watch out then, huh?” He bent down and helped Tuck untie the cape, and then he attached it to the back of the wheelchair. “We can’t put it on her neck, but it’ll still work its magic from here.”

  “Awe-some,” Tuck said, emphasizing each syllable like he loved to do.

  “You all ready, Maddie?” the orderly asked.

  “Yeah. No, wait!” she said once he started pushing her inside. “Tuck, look at this.” She leaned her head forward and pulled some of her hair to the side, showing him the seven staples they’d put in her scalp.

  “Woah.” Then he looked up at me, his eyes full of mischief. “I want some, too.”

  With that, I had to give him my best mom voice. “You’d better not do anything to get some. Mommy’s had enough excitement for today.”

  The orderly chuckled and opened the waiting room door. “Better save that trick for another time, Ginger Ninja.” Then he wheeled Maddie inside. She instantly became the center of attention, and for once, she seemed to enjoy it.

  I found Brenden sitting with his sister and Eric, and I headed that way. There was an empty chair next to him, and I could easily keep an eye on Maddie from that vantage point. As soon as I got there, he pulled me onto his lap, his strong arms drawing me close and enveloping me in his warmth. He tucked my head beneath his chin, and I put my hands over his arms where they crossed over my stomach. After today’s ordeal, I didn’t have it in me to complain about him holding onto me.

  Tuck stayed right by Maddie’s side, helping her show everyone her staples and explaining how the cape would help her get better. All the kids came and went, and then some of the adults started dropping by to sit with her for a little bit. At one point when I looked up, Razor was kneeling next to the wheelchair and rolling up his sleeve to show the kids some stitches on his elbow. A little while later, Nicky pulled up a chair and was having a very involved conversation with Maddie. Sara Thomas stopped by at one point and showed them a scar on her own scalp, and not long after that it was Jonny listening intently to some story Tuck was relaying, complete with overblown facial expressions and wild arm-waving, while Maddie nodded.

  The whole time that was going on, Brenden just held me. Eric and Dana got up and moved to talk to different groups, and various others came and sat in the empty chairs. We’d talk for a bit and then they’d move on.

  When we had been alone for a few minutes, Brenden dropped his head down next to my ear. “Dana said she invited you for Christmas.”

  “She did.” My pulse started to flutter. I turned myself around in his arms until I could look up at him. “Do you want us to come?”

  He tucked my hair behind my ear, leaving goose bumps everywhere he touched. “More than I know what to do with.”

  “Okay,” I said. Heat flooded my face, and he grinned, trailing his fingertips over my cheeks.

  “You’ll come?”

  “We’ll come.” I could feel eyes on us from all around the room, which only made me blush harder. They couldn’t hear us, though—no one was close enough. I figured now was as good a time as any to talk about some things we hadn’t really been talking about. “What…um…what is this, you and me?”

  His eyes took on that melting-chocolate look—the one that made me dissolve into a puddle. “How about I tell you what I want it to be, and you let me know how you feel about that? I want you to be my girlfriend. I don’t just want to be in your life, I want to be in Tuck’s and Maddie’s lives, too. I want to show all of you that there are good men in the world, decent men who aren’t going to hurt any of you like their father did. I want to be the man who teaches Maddie how she should expect a man to treat her, and I want to help Tuck to grow into that kind of man. And then when you’re ready, I want more.”

  I was pretty sure I was crying again, because he was saying all the things that my heart had been dreaming of for years but that I’d convinced myself didn’t exist. Men like that were just figments of the imagination, weren’t they? Sure, they were characters in books and movies, but not living, breathing human beings. If there were really men like that in the world, how had I never known one before now?

  Brenden wasn’t the only man in my life now who might fit that bill, though. Jamie had a heart of gold. If Jim had a flaw, I hadn’t discovered it yet. So maybe they weren’t just fiction. Maybe I’d just been jaded by having some bad seeds in my life, like Jason and my dad.

  Maybe I needed to give Brenden the chance to prove he could be those things.

  I took a breath so I could rein in my tears again. “I’m not very good at the whole girlfriend thing. It’s been a long time, and the last time I ended up pregnant and married at sixteen.”

  “I can help you with that if you can teach me things like how to work the kids’ booster seats. Not to mention how you keep things clean when Tuck is around.”

  I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at that one. “Deal.” I leaned my head on his shoulder, settling myself into his warmth again. After a minute, I pulled back. He raised a brow in question, and I said, “When you said when I was ready you would want more, what did you mean?”

  “I meant I want everything.” Brenden brushed some hair out of my eyes and kissed my forehead. He pulled me close to his chest again. “When you’re ready.”

  I stayed like that, my head on his shoulder, his strong arms holding me close, and tried to let it all sink in. It had been so long since I’d even entertained the idea of dating, of being in a relationship with a man, that I wasn’t sure what to do with it.

  After a while, the room started to clear out. Martha waved at me while she ushered her grandkids out the door. She had a bouquet of flowers in her hands. “Ericsson,” she mouthed to me when I questioned her with my eyes. He had promised her he’d bring her flowers next, after all. David Weber gathered up his two teens and had them say good-bye to Tuck and Maddie before they left. Stéphane Montfort and his wife carted their kids off—he had to carry Sylvie because she’d fallen asleep after all the excitement of the day—and Jamie and his parents herded all his brothers out the door.

  The caterers came back to clear away all the food, which made me realize I hadn’t eaten anything in hours. I’d wait until I got home, though. It’d be easier than making myself move away from the security I felt with Brenden’s arms around me.

  Before long, only a handful of us were left in the waiting room, and the orderly came back for Maddie.

  At that point, I made myself get off Brenden’s lap. He came with me, his hand casually resting on my waist.

  “The doctor wants to run one last set of vitals,” the orderly said, “and if everything looks good, you’ll be free to go.”

  Tuck pushed himself between me and Brenden, reaching up to take each of our hands as he forced us apart. “I wanna run a set of vials, too. I’m gonna win!”

  Tuck didn’t wake up while I was trying to get him in bed—not even when I used a wet washcloth to clean his face and hands as best I could. The cheesy brow
nie stuff was still so stuck on him hours after he’d eaten that I had to scrub him pretty hard to get it free, and even then I was fairly certain I’d missed some. He just smacked his lips together a few times and rolled around while I did it, completely oblivious to anything happening. I’d never known anyone who could sleep as hard as this kid.

  I was doing everything all wrong with him, I had to be, but at least this way Rachel could just worry about putting Maddie to bed. We hadn’t gotten back to her place after leaving the hospital until well after ten, and it had been an overly full day, long and filled with excitement of nearly every variety. I was exhausted, so I couldn’t even begin to imagine the emotional drain today had been for Rachel.

  Once I’d cleaned as much of the gunk off Tuck as I could, I tugged his shoes off and set them by the closet door. I should probably try to put him in some pj’s. He’d sleep better in them than he would in a dirty T-shirt and jeans. That seemed like taking things too far, though, considering what had happened to Maddie. These kids didn’t know me very well yet. I wasn’t their dad. I probably shouldn’t take his clothes off him—nothing more than his coat and shoes, which I’d already done. Instead, I pulled the covers down and set him in the middle of the bed, then tucked him in.

  He rolled over onto his belly and pulled his pillow into his arms, hugging it close. That was going to have to be good enough.

  I turned off the lamp by his bed and headed back out into the living room, passing Pumpkin in the hall on the way. The cat hissed and kept a wide berth.

  Rachel must have finished with Maddie faster than I took care of Tuck because she was already sitting on the sofa with her head back and her eyes closed. She looked like she might be asleep. Lord knew we both needed sleep after today. I almost didn’t want to disturb her.

  It’d probably be best if I just went across the hall to my own place anyway. We had a game tomorrow, and it was in the middle of the afternoon. Afternoon games always screwed with my body clock, since about 95 percent of our games were in the evenings. We all had a system in place—one that included taking an afternoon nap right around the time the puck would drop for this game. I needed to get some rest while I could so I would have enough energy and focus to get through the game.