The Cure (A Michigan Sweet Romance #1)

by Parker J Cole

  “All right,” she answered in a soft voice.

  He used a finger to turn her chin up and her eyes drifted shut.

  “Oh, my goodness! Is that Savannah and Micah?”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Please don’t let it be who I think it is, Micah prayed silently. Oh, dear God, if you ever want to show me a miracle, now would be the time.

  Like a robot, he inched his head sideways and winced. Before him stood Joslyn and Cameron Reddington. His mother’s mouth gaped open like a fish. His father’s eyebrows were arched into his head. To make matters worse, Maxine and Lawrence Woods stood next to them, their faces reflecting his parents’. To round off the whole shebang, Donald towered above the others, a huge, sappy grin lighting his face.

  “God hates me,” Micah moaned. He pulled away from Savannah, feeling like his flesh had been ripped out of him. Savannah’s cheeks flamed like cherries. The color swept the entirety of her head to her neck. Her hand fumbled with the edge of her sweater. She refused to meet his eyes. He didn’t blame her. Talk about getting caught red-handed with the enemy. By his mother no less!

  Well, that wasn’t true. If Savannah was hostile forces, then he’d willingly be a prisoner of war.

  “Mom and Dad, hi!” Savannah greeted as she strode away to meet her parents. “I thought you were going to call me to let me know you were on the way.”

  “We did, my dear,” Maxine answered as she gave a swift hug to her daughter. When she drew back, there was a definitive gleam in them. “But I take it you didn’t get my message.”

  Lawrence cleared his throat. “We can see you were busy.” A swift glance from the older man’s eyes spoke volumes. Micah swallowed a hard lump.

  “Hello, my sweet boy!” Joslyn decided to break the awkwardness in the worst way possible—by calling him by his childhood nickname.

  Micah suppressed a groan. “Hi, Mom. Dad.” He walked over to them, and Joslyn practically jumped up and hugged him. “I’m so happy to see my sweet boy!” she gushed, slapping him on the back robustly. “It’s been ages.” She drew back and smoothed the material on his shoulders. Micah took in the long, mousy brown hair and the kind, gray eyes that swept over his body as if checking for injury. Despite the fact his mother had interrupted one of the most important moments of his life, he was glad to see her and his father. He bent and hugged her again. He hadn’t realized how much he missed them.

  “I’m glad you came, Mr. and Mrs. Reddington,” Savannah said to them. “It means a lot.”

  “Now don’t you go calling me ‘Mrs. Reddington’, like you weren’t almost my daughter-in-law and I didn’t catch you in my son’s arms. Give me a hug.”

  Cameron and Donald coughed while Micah begged for a hole to open under his feet and send him to oblivion. Savannah was pulled into his mother’s arms before she could do anything more than react. “It’s good to see you, even if it’s under terrible circumstances.”

  When Joslyn let go of Savannah, Cameron came up to her. “When we heard, we wanted to make sure we’d be here as soon as we could.” He enclosed her in a bear hug.

  Donald had sauntered over while the parents and Savannah talked. Micah couldn’t help but see the knowing gleam in the man’s eye. When he stopped next to him, Donald whispered, “Looks like you have some humble pie you need eat.”

  The look Micah gave him made the other man grin. Donald was enjoying himself too much.

  “How did you find us? We’re in a whole other wing of the hospital.”

  Donald pressed his lips together thoughtfully. “A couple of people mentioned they saw a man and a woman arguing and then left to go somewhere more private. Your father and Maxine figured out it was you and Savannah so we decided to follow you.”

  Great. Just great.

  A decided twinkle entered Donald’s eye. “We expected to come upon the two of you bickering, not—”

  “Shut up, Don.” Heat crawled over Micah’s face like he’d stuck his head in a furnace.

  “Hey, Donald.” Savannah’s voice broke in on his friend’s mirth. “It’s been a while.”

  “Hey, Savvy.” Donald turned to loosely embrace her. “I know, right? Like Cameron said, it’s sad to be doing it under this kind of situation, but I’m glad to see you.”

  “Are you still coaching high school basketball?”

  “Of course,” Donald replied. “I am thinking of moving back to Tawas so I can be near my family again.”

  Micah willed Savannah to look at him while she talked with Donald. He longed to see what she was thinking. Although she was genuinely interested in what Donald was saying, he could see the almost imperceptible tell-tale signs of her distraction. The small downward turn of the corners of her mouth. The way her finger kept digging into the fabric of her sweater. How one leg bent at the knee with the booted foot scuffing the floor.

  Twice in less than an hour he’d been prevented from kissing her. But if he took another step back, it had to be the best thing for them. The same knot of frustration still centered in his gut. That sweet mouth had been so close! Yet, he’d made an admission he hadn’t planned on when he held her in his arms. He’d had no intention of telling her he missed her. But the cat was out of the bag now. Would she simply ignore it, or would they get around to talking about it?

  When he dragged his eyes from Savannah, he caught the interested gaze of Maxine. Resignedly, he walked over to her.

  “Hi, Maxine.”

  “So how is Liliana? I was going to ask Savannah but she and Donald are engrossed in conversation. Your mother and I want to know.”

  He flicked a glance at his mother. She stood next to Maxine, looking as innocent as a thief holding diamonds in her hand. A smug smile lifted her lips. He wanted to tell her, and the rest of the peanut gallery, that what they came across didn’t mean anything. But then again, he’d be lying.

  Their separate families had been just as excited for the marriage as they were. They all got along. The same beliefs, similar interests, and a support infrastructure that wouldn’t collapse when the first sign of calamity or trouble hit. He remembered how Fiona couldn’t stop smiling at him.

  “The doctor told us that Liliana has an infection. They have already administered antibiotics to treat it.”

  “Where did she get an infection from?” Joslyn asked.

  “Not sure,” he answered. “They’ll run some tests and we should have some more information then.”

  Maxine patted him on the shoulder. “I’m glad to see you, Micah.” Her kind blue eyes looked upon him with warmth.

  “The feeling’s mutual.”

  “Fiona and Bart would have been so happy to have you here, too.”

  “Yeah.” His throat choked in sudden sorrow. “I don’t know if Fiona and Bart ever told you, but I was the one who gave Liliana her name.”

  Maxine and Joslyn gasped. “You did?” Joslyn asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah. She and Bart had a hard time coming up with a name. This was before she found out she was pregnant.”

  Long after I was gone. The bitter thought almost doused the nice memory but he refused to let it do so.

  “Really?” Maxine tapped her chin with a forefinger. “She never told me. I just assumed she and Bart came up with Liliana’s name.”

  “They both told me to give them the very best name I could think of, and I gave her Liliana. I thought they were humoring me. Had no idea they took my advice.” When Fiona had sent him the announcement in the mail about Liliana’s birth, he’d been surprised to see it. The sight of the name had warmed him

  “Why did you choose that one?”

  Micah stilled. He couldn’t reveal the real reason why he’d chosen that name for them. “It was the first to come to mind,” he said, somewhat truthfully.

  “Oh, my sweet boy!” Joslyn sighed, her gray eyes filled with such pride it embarrassed him.

  “Mom, you don’t have to make such a big deal out of it.” Oh, great, now he sounded like he was sixteen again.

&
nbsp; “The name fits my granddaughter perfectly.” Maxine beamed.

  “So it would seem.”

  “Wait a minute,” Maxine grabbed his arm. He looked down at her to see her brows drawn together. “Were you the one who gave Liliana that ladybug pillow she absolutely adores?”

  Micah cleared his throat nervously. “Yeah. When I saw the announcement in the mail, I—I—”

  He couldn’t finish the statement. The reasons behind his actions were just too personal to share. He’d sworn Fiona and Bart to secrecy about his involvement with Liliana’s name. It was nice to know they had bestowed him the honor of being part of their daughter’s development.

  A shocked gasp made his head turn. Savannah stared with eyes wide as saucers. “Oh Micah,” she breathed out loud. A slender hand covered her mouth in anguish.

  From the looks of it, Savannah had figured out everything he couldn’t say out loud to their mothers. It was there in the way a glassy sheen dampened those orbs. For the first time since they’d reunited, a look of dejection was stamped across her features. He made a caustic sound. Too little, too late.

  “You of all people should be sorry, Savannah.”

  ***

  Amber eyes dark with pain stared into hers. It was a pain she understood because she was the cause of it. Savannah’s blood chilled inside her veins and all the heat drained out. When she overheard Micah tell the women he’d been the one to name Liliana, she’d given up all pretense of listening to Donald.

  “I had no idea,” she whispered. “Micah, I didn’t know.”

  “You should have,” he retorted in a harsh tone. “You should have known.”

  The pain in his eyes splintered her insides, cutting them with invisibles shards of glass. She caused this agony for him.

  He turned away and her stomach recoiled. “Mom, Maxine, I have to go. I’ll catch up with you. Dad. Lawrence. Don.”

  Without another word, he walked away from the group, his head high, but Savannah knew it was only pride that kept him upright.

  “Savvy, what was that all about?” Joslyn asked with a concerned frown. “I’ve never seen him like that before.”

  “I—I—uh.” The words failed her. Five pairs of eyes looked at her with intent interest. They wanted to know the story behind Micah’s retreat but she couldn’t—or rather, didn’t want to tell them.

  “I’m going to go check on Liliana,” she said swiftly and darted past them to head back to the burn unit where Liliana was housed.

  The hallway disappeared as memory once again swept over her mind. She was back on the pier the night they discussed starting a family right after they married. Even now, her skin pimpled in remembrance of the cool brush of air coming off the water. Even now, she could see a terrible kind of need had blazoned from Micah’s eyes.

  “But I won’t rush you into anything, either,” he’d told her.

  Rush her? How could he rush her when having a family was something she wanted, too? The happiness threatened to deluge her with the force of a tidal wave. In order to negate it, she fell onto humor.

  “Well, we have a problem.”

  He had looked so shaken when she said those words that she hurried up and said, “I didn’t want to have to say this, but I’m not very good with names.”

  “Huh?” He’d pulled back to stare at her. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not very good with names. Coming up with good names, I mean. I’m more than likely to call our first child ‘ladybug’ than anything else.”

  Micah gave her a wide grin. It reflected the elation she could feel exuding from him. Although the wind was cold on the pier, their little world had warmed considerably.

  “Well, if you’ll let me, I’ll name our first little ladybug.”

  “The honor is yours. I’ll let you name our first child.”

  He grabbed her close and walked her back to the car. Their journey back to her sister’s house where she’d been staying passed mostly in silence. She’d taken to sneaking peeks at him as the shadows lengthened under the rising silver light of the moon. The shadows danced over the planes of his face but nothing could hide the joy.

  “You’re really excited about this, aren’t you?”

  They stopped at a traffic light. Micah reached for her hand across the seat and pressed her knuckles to his lips. Though there had always been a gentleness to his actions whenever he kissed her, this time, she felt a certain reverence to the way he did it. “I am,” he’d murmured quietly. “If I died this very instant, I’d be the happiest man in the world.” There was a roughened edge to his voice. “To think this perfect, perfect woman is the holder of my heart, my soon-to-be wife, the future mother of my children….” His voice thickened and a rumble came from his chest. “It’s too good to be true.”

  That cold night she came to grasp the depth of Micah’s affection for her. The knowledge sang through her body, its music sweet and warming to her long after they parted ways. Long after the moon had risen and filled the sky with its brilliance. She lay in bed and stared at the engagement ring on her finger, a symbol of love and devotion. Maybe it was for other people, but the ring meant more to her than that. Micah had reached inside of himself and given her his heart.

  “Miss, can I help you? Are you looking for something?”

  Savannah came out of the past to see a nurse standing before her. “I’m sorry?”

  “Can I help you? Are you looking for anything particular?”

  Her feet had been glued to the floor for an unknown period of time. How long had she stood there? “No, thank you. Just lost in thought.”

  The nurse nodded and kept walking. Savannah put one foot in front of the other.

  How could she have not noticed Liliana’s name as the one Micah had thought to give to their own child? What planet could she have been on to not see the ladybug references and not know the endearment had come from their conversations? Had the incident with Nascha completely supplanted everything else?

  She arrived at Liliana’s room to see the nurses just leaving from their daily medical procedures of care. “Just in time,” the nurse told her as she walked into the room. “She’s sleeping. Try not to wake her, but stay as long as you like.”

  “Can my family come see her? They’re all here.”

  “I don’t see why that would be a problem, but only for a little bit.”

  Hollowly, Savannah nodded and then folded her arms to stare at the little girl who was being pulled through the ringer. But now, it took on a whole new meaning for her.

  “I should have told him when Fiona and Bart passed away,” she said out loud. “I should have told him.”

  On leaden feet, she crossed over to the bed and sat in the chair. Liliana’s reddish brown curls formed a halo about her head. Delicate dark veins surfaced the fragile skin of her eyelids as the child twitched restlessly in her sleep. The bandages that covered her body again were pristine and white. Savannah raised a knuckle to her mouth and bit down hard. What she wouldn’t give for a couple of peanut chocolate bars with some ice-cold milk, but she figured junk food wouldn’t get her out of the pit she found herself in.

  Why hadn’t Fiona and Bart told her Micah had named their child? Had she really been so awful during that time she wouldn’t have been appreciative of the monumental thing he’d done?

  Sighing, Savannah dragged her hand through hair. Back then, the pain of her broken engagement could not be cast away no matter how much she ate. She downed all the junk and snack food she could find. Ten pounds came and then another like newfound friends but she gave no mind to that. It was a wonder her teeth hadn’t decayed from the amount of sweets she’d devoured. Yet, the agony still remained. When the sugar buzz fizzled out and she crashed as a result, what was left was a broken heart.

  Perhaps the reason why they hadn’t said anything was due to the destructive path she had wielded. After being so conscientious of her weight and appearance, she let it all go. Anything about Micah, even the merest thought of him
, had her reaching for a donut or a pastry. The sweets she’d avoided as part of her career became the security blanket she clung to.

  “You know, if donuts could drown out what’s going on with you, Savvy,” Fiona had once remarked, “everyone would gladly put on twenty pounds.”

  “Leave me alone,” Savannah had muttered, wiping off the powdered sugar from the donut she’d just finished off. “I don’t need a lecture.”

  “You need some self-control. This thing with Micah has you—”

  “Look, Fiona, just drop it. I don’t want to hear that man’s name ever again.” Defiantly, she grabbed a second donut, a chocolate one covered with crumbled bacon. “I’m glad we’re not together. If he could do what he did to Nascha, then he’ll do the same thing to me.”

  Warm salty bacon meshed with the sweet chocolate frosting and the gooey, soft texture of the donut.She had groaned in ecstasy at the explosion of flavor. “Oh, this is so good.”

  “That man would never hurt anyone. There’s no one he cares about more than you.”

  “Nascha’s life is ruined, Fiona!” She yelled out and hurriedly closed her mouth before the food escaped. “My fiancé, the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, did that to her. Instead of owning up to it, he’s calling her a liar. What am I supposed to do or think?”

  Fiona had come around the small counter in the apartment and grabbed the pastry from her and threw in in the trash. Mouth still full, Savannah tried to protest, but Fiona grabbed her sticky fingers and wrapped them in her own. “Did you give him a chance to tell his side of the story? Perhaps there is some confusion.”

  “How can you confuse a slipshod surgery? No one with an ounce of brains is going to believe a woman in Nascha’s position would blatantly ruin her face for any reason.” She tugged her fingers away from Fiona and headed to the refrigerator to pull out a gallon of milk, a carton of vanilla ice cream, and the fudge graham cookies she’d left in the freezer to harden.