by Rose, Ranae
She nodded.
“Why don’t you head back to your room for some rest? You don’t need to stay here with me.”
She pressed a kiss against his jaw. “I don’t want to leave you alone.”
“The babies need you more than I do.”
He gave her hand a squeeze when she hesitated. “Go. I’ll be up after lunch to visit you and Ethan and Kylie. I’d come up now, but I’d rather not walk around with this robe flapping around my bare ass and I’m not sure what the nurses did with my clothes.”
* * * * *
“Room service.” Natalie popped her head around the door, wearing a grin way too wide for a mother of two at ten o’clock in the morning. “Can I come in?”
“Sure.” Abby had been awake for hours, dozing off occasionally only to be awakened by Kylie and Ethan’s cries. The hospital bed wasn’t like home, that was for sure, and worrying about Sam made sleeping for a significant length of time impossible.
Somehow, Abby’s mother was managing to sleep on the chair / fold-out bed in one corner. The fact that she hadn’t woken up yet was probably due to sheer exhaustion; the twins had spent their first night in the hospital nursery, but last night they’d stayed in the room. She’d gotten up to take care of them every time they’d cried.
Now, the twins were both asleep in their bassinets.
“I brought you brunch.” Natalie held a Tupperware container aloft. “There are a couple extra pieces for mom and Sam, too.”
“What is it?”
“Cake.”
“Leftovers from the baby shower?”
“Not exactly. Ava and I baked this one especially for today.”
Had the shower guests really eaten that much of the party cake? Instead of asking, Abby took the Tupperware container. “Thanks.”
Natalie’s smile stretched a little wider. “Well, we have a lot to celebrate. Ava helped me with the decorating again – check it out.”
Beside the bed, a vase of yellow tulips stood on a stand, accompanied by a huge stork-shaped balloon. Natalie had brought the gifts the day before.
Popping the lid free, Abby examined the mother-daughter decorating job on Natalie’s latest gift. “Maybe Ava shares a few genes with me and will grow up to be an artist.” The tiny cake had been iced in white and purple; Amethyst Fox stood in all his glory, slightly smeared and a little melted, but definitely recognizable.
“You don’t have to eat the cake now if you don’t feel like it. This is just my way of telling you that Red Harbor is sending a contract for the Amethyst Fox Series.”
Abby nearly dropped the cake. “Are you serious?”
Natalie nodded, her grin wider than ever. “I got a phone call from them yesterday morning, just a few hours after the twins were born. I knew things were crazy with the birth and Sam’s surgery, so I made myself wait to tell you. I almost went crazy keeping it all to myself, so I baked this cake as a distraction.”
“Now I don’t want to eat it,” Abby said. “It’s special.” As cheesy as that sounded, it was the most beautiful baked good she’d ever laid eyes on, melt-y fox decoration or no.
Glancing at her mother, she had a change of heart. “I’ll save it for later and eat with mom – she’s been surviving mostly off of vending machine food and the occasional cafeteria meal. I’ve tried to talk her into going out and getting herself something good to eat, but she won’t leave the hospital.”
“I can bring some lunch for you both – Rob is at home with the kids, and I’m too excited to hang around the apartment all day anyway.”
“Thanks. You’ll get to see Sam, too. We’re both being discharged today, and he’s going to come up here after lunch, before we leave together.”
Natalie smiled. “That’s great. Mom said his surgery went well yesterday.”
Abby nodded. “The doctor says he should regain full use of his arm.”
It could’ve been so much worse. She kept telling herself that, using her gratitude to keep her anger at bay. The man who’d attacked Sam was incarcerated, where he belonged – there was nothing else that could be done.
“Glad to hear it,” Natalie said. “Do you want me to keep you company for now? We can let mom sleep – I’ll take care of the twins if they wake up.”
“That’d be great. And besides, I want to hear more about the book deal.”
Natalie grinned. “Well, there’s going to be an advance – money they’ll pay us up front, partially upon the contract signing and then the rest upon publication.”
“Really?” Abby sat up a little straighter. An advance of any amount would certainly help her contribute toward the costs of two newborns during her maternity leave. She’d need to be home for a while, especially since Sam would need her help now too.
Plus, receiving her first paycheck for illustrating … well, it would finally allow her to feel completely at home in the office Sam had set up for her. Tension she’d been carrying inside for months dissipated as Natalie’s good news – and what it meant – sank in.
“Yeah.” Natalie’s smile stretched even wider.
“Natalie, you’re here already?” Their mother rose, blinking. “How late did I sleep?”
“Not too late mom – you need the rest,” Abby said. “And Natalie came early to bring us some good news.” A small stab of betrayal pierced her heart as she told her mother about the book deal. As glad as she was to share the news with her mom, she would’ve liked to have told Sam first. She was still thinking of the office he’d set up for her when he walked through the door.
He’d traded his hospital gown for jeans and a t-shirt he must’ve sent Cohen or another friend to pick up from the house. “Hey. Managed to get some clothes and make an early escape.”
Abby climbed out of bed as quickly as she could – which wasn’t very quickly – and wrapped him in the most careful half-hug she could manage, kissing his jaw. He bowed his head, surprising her by pressing his lips to hers.
For a moment, she forgot about everyone and everything around them. Then one of the babies began to cry.
“I’ve got him,” she said, hurrying to Ethan’s bassinette before Natalie or her mother could reach for him.
Ethan quieted down in her arms as she held him close, standing beside Sam so that when one of Ethan’s tiny feet popped free from his blanket, it struck Sam’s left arm.
Sam grinned. “Let me hold him.”
“But your arm—”
“I have one good arm, and that’s plenty. Here.” He held his left arm like he was cradling a baby, and Abby couldn’t deny him.
Ethan wriggled and blinked up at his dad. Abby hovered close, just in case.
For a few more seconds, their surroundings and circumstances faded away again. Sam looked so happy – he held Ethan like the treasure he was, not the burden Abby had once feared he might see him as. Watching him hold their child for the first time made Abby’s past worries seem absurd. The timing had been crazy and nothing had gone as planned, but the end results were perfect.
When Ethan began to fuss, Abby lifted him from Sam’s arm. “Natalie, do you mind taking care of him for a few minutes while I get Kylie?”
Moments later, Sam was holding Kylie just like he’d held Ethan, the same look of pride and amusement on his face. Watching him cradle their little girl was so absorbing that for a couple minutes, Abby forgot all about Amethyst Fox and the contract from Red Harbor.
When she lifted Kylie from Sam’s hold so she could give her a bottle, remembrance struck her like a bolt of lightning. “I almost forgot – I have some good news to tell you.”
He broke into another smile. “Am I supposed to guess what it is?”
“I wasn’t going to make you guess.” She was too anxious – too excited – for guessing games.
“All right, then. Congratulations.” He grinned.
“Congratulations?” She arched a brow. He hadn’t somehow spoken to Natalie before she had, had he?
He nodded toward the stand where Natalie
had set her clear plastic Tupperware container. “The cake with the purple fox on it was a dead giveaway, and I knew it was only a matter of time.”
EPILOGUE
Abby cleansed Sam’s upper arm with alcohol, the acrid liquid shining and making his muscle gleam before it evaporated. A scar stood out pink against the rest of his skin, though it had begun to lighten. “Finally ready?”
He nodded in response to her teasing. An entire year had passed since he’d walked into Hot Ink and she’d had to cancel his original tattoo appointment. Now, with her mother watching the five month old twins, he was in Abby’s tattoo chair for the first time.
“You know this counts as a date, right?” He waited in the chair while she prepared her equipment.
He had a point; she could count the number of times they’d been alone together since the twins’ birth on one hand. “And I didn’t even get a meal out of this. Dating really goes downhill after you become a parent, huh?”
“We can grab something to eat afterward.”
“I told my mom that this would only take two hours, at most. And I hope you ate something before meeting me here – being tattooed on an empty stomach can make you pass out.”
He made a wordless sound that was half-groan, half-laugh. “I’m not going to pass out. I’ve felt worse – promise.” A teasing light flashed in his eyes as he dropped his gaze to the scar on his arm.
Abby winced. Even after recovery from the initial wound and surgery, then months of physical therapy, she hated to think of what he’d gone through. “We’ll see.”
He didn’t flinch as she began the tattoo. Most people didn’t consider the biceps a particularly painful area, and the bones in his arm were buried deep under plenty of muscle. And he was right – he’d felt much, much worse. He was a perfect client, quiet and still.
The buzz of tattoo machines and subdued conversation created pleasant background noise; she’d missed Hot Ink’s atmosphere during the time she’d stayed home full-time to care for the twins and Sam.
Now, Sam was back at work and she’d begun seeing clients again on a part-time basis. The twins came first, and illustrating demanded large chunks of her time, too – she and Natalie were nearly done with the third Amethyst Fox book. They were under contract for three, but depending on how the first book did when released in the fall, there could be more.
If not, they could move on to a different project. She’d keep illustrating, no matter what.
“So, did you find a dress today?”
Abby smiled. Her mom had watched the twins that morning, too, while Abby had gone shopping with Natalie. “Yes, but you can’t see it until the big day.”
“It’s not that far away.”
They’d decided on a late summer wedding. Waddling down the aisle had been the last thing on Abby’s mind when she’d been pregnant, but Sam had proposed shortly after she’d given birth and she’d happily agreed.
“Which reminds me – we need to order your tux.”
They continued talking about the wedding while Abby worked on the tattoo – the relative privacy of her half-booth offered a conversation-friendly environment that they just didn’t have at the house anymore, except for the rare occasions when Ethan and Kylie went down for a nap at the same time.
“Ready to see?” Abby asked after blotting ink from Sam’s arm one final time.
He nodded as she set the stained cloth aside.
“What do you think?”
He examined his new tattoo in the mirror that took up most of her booth’s back wall. “It’s perfect.”
She couldn’t help but smile. The names Abigail, Ethan and Kylie were permanently inked across his arm, done in script and complemented by a simple black design she’d come up with. “Still glad you changed your mind?”
“Yeah.”
During her pregnancy, he’d refused to come in to be tattooed, insisting that he didn’t want to burden her with another appointment when she’d already been stressing about her schedule. And then there’d been his injury. By the time she’d finally been able to talk him into coming in, months after the twins had arrived, he’d surprised her by insisting on a design far removed from the tattoo he’d originally e-mailed her about.
“I think it turned out great,” she said, peeling off her ink-stained gloves, “but I’m highly biased.”
She bandaged him up, temporarily hiding his new ink from view and trying not to think about how much the gauze looked like his hospital bandages had.
“Come on,” he said when she was done, “we at least have time to get a cup of coffee across the street.”
Her heart skipped a beat as he took one of her hands in his. “All right.”
Together, they walked the same aisle she’d hurried down months ago, when she’d been newly-pregnant, sick and panicked. Her step was steady this time, and an evening breeze blew in when Sam opened the door for her. The air was warm and fresh, and for half a second, she could almost imagine that they were walking down a very different aisle, with brand new rings gleaming on their fingers.
Soon, that would be the case. For now, coffee sounded perfect. They’d rushed so much; it was nice to take things slow, nice to share an equally unhurried kiss that had a few people staring.
Her cheeks were a little too warm when they pulled apart, but she grinned. Having a cup of coffee in peace together might be a rarity, but his kisses weren’t – some things never changed, no matter how much everything else did.
Ink is forever. So is love.
Thank you for reading Dedicated Ink.
Stay up to date with the entire Inked in the Steel City Series by visiting the Inked in the Steel City page at ranaerose.com anytime.
Previous titles in the series…
Hot Ink (Inked in the Steel City, #1)
Innocent Ink (Inked in the Steel City, #2)
(Click title to see in Kindle Store.)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ranae Rose is the best-selling author of over a dozen adult romances and counting. She calls the US East Coast home and resides there with her family, German Shepherd dogs and overflowing bookshelves. Writing and reading are lifelong passions that consume most of her time, and she’s always working on bringing her latest love story idea to life for readers.
www.ranaerose.com
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Read on for an excerpt from Ranae’s best-selling MMA romance, Battered Not Broken.
Battered Not Broken
War and violent crime cut deep – can love for another person run deeper than the scars left behind?
Ryan Moore forged his own path when he defied his wealthy family’s expectations by joining the United States Marine Corps as an enlisted man. After a period of service that’s cut short by an IED explosion, the lingering physical and mental effects of war result in an isolated struggle to exist in the civilian world. He throws himself into competitive MMA fighting – the one thing he’s still able to excel at, even if every match is a risk he can’t afford to take.
His first encounter with amateur female fighter Ally Rivera ignites a spark of desire he hasn’t felt since before a bomb left its marks on his life and his body, but his flirtation with her turns out to be anything but harmless. She’s struggling to hold together a family ravaged by violence – a feat that isn’t easy when her father has been imprisoned, leaving her vulnerable to relatives who run a local gang. Can two unrelenting fighters overcome challenges they couldn’t defeat alone, or do the wounds of war and crime run too deep for even love to heal?
Read on for an excerpt…
BATTERED NOT BROKEN EXCERPT
“Morning,” Ryan called from the kitchen, where he’d stationed himself in front of the stove. He still wore his jeans from the nigh
t before, but he’d shed his jacket and the shirt he’d worn beneath it. The sight of his bare back greeted her, broad shoulders, tattoos and all.
Still wearing everything from the night before, from her jacket to her shoes, she walked into the kitchen.
“I didn’t want to wake you up,” he said, still facing the stove. “I tried to keep the noise down.”
“It was the smell that woke me up,” she said, inhaling another lungful of bacon-scented air.
He used a fork to flip a line of sizzling bacon strips. “How do you like your eggs?”
“Sunny-side up,” she said, her gaze drifting to a cardboard carton of eggs that waited, open on the countertop beside the stove.
Cautiously, she stepped to his left, craning her neck for a look at his face. “How’s your head?”
He finished flipping the last piece of bacon and faced her. “Fine.”
Whether or not he really felt fine after the previous night’s blow, the butterfly bandage had held up. The sight of it doing its job eased the knots in Ally’s stomach just a little. “Your migraine is gone?”
“Yeah.” He turned on a second burner, where an empty frying pan waited. Before he cracked several eggs over its edge, he greased the inside with butter. “Sorry about last night. Guess I put you through hell.”
“It’s all right.” If she’d been in hell, it was only because she’d been afraid for him, not to mention agonizingly unsure of how to handle the situation.
“It wasn’t how I envisioned our second date ending. If you’d told me yesterday that I’d be cooking breakfast for you in the morning, I would’ve assumed things had gone a lot better.”
Something fluttered inside Ally’s chest as his words settled over her. Until then, she’d been so wrapped up in the lingering haze of the previous night’s ordeal that she hadn’t considered the very different set of circumstances that usually led to the kind of morning she’d woken up to. “I hope you don’t mind that I stayed. I didn’t know what else to do.”
