Wrapped in Ink

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  There were hoots and hollers, mostly by him and his brothers, and Bristol wiped her tears, laughed, and looked on with the rest of the crowd as the two men began the next phase of their lives together.

  “That was so beautiful,” Francine said, wiping her face. “I just can’t wait to see what happens at your weddings.”

  “Mom,” Liam sighed.

  “What? I have four beautiful children, and none of them want to be married. None of you are actually in relationships. What have I done wrong?”

  “Do you ever feel like she was born in the wrong century?” Bristol asked, tapping her chin.

  “You mean that she’s like a Regency momma, watching her little ducklings not able to find their duke or their lord at a ballroom?” Ethan asked.

  “Yes, I think we’re all wallflowers here,” Bristol said, sounding so serious that he almost thought she meant it. Then he looked in her eyes and saw the laughter.

  “There’s nothing wallflower about you, Bristol.”

  “Oh, that’s so sweet. Seriously. But again, I don’t really want to get married right now. You know, I would kind of need a boyfriend or a girlfriend to make that happen.”

  “Well, don’t say that too loudly, or you know Mom will just fly someone out to find you.” Ethan shook his head and grinned. “I swear she’s going to start setting us up on blind dates or bringing people to family dinners if we don’t start pairing off soon.”

  “That may be true, but Bristol would be first, right?” Liam asked quickly.

  “Oh, no. I’m not going first. You’re the eldest. You’re the one who gets to get married.”

  “No, don’t the dukes and the sons of dukes get to wait until their little baby sister is presented for her opening and pushed out into the real world without a net?” Liam asked and then paused. “Is the word opening? What is the word?”

  “Debut,” Aaron said, and everybody looked at him. “What? I happen to know a few women who read historical romance.”

  They all kept looking.

  “Okay, just because Lisa Kleypas is one of my favorite authors does not mean I lose my man card.”

  They all started laughing, and Bristol hugged Aaron hard.

  “I think that makes you the best. Because her Wallflower series is seriously one of my favorites ever.”

  “I know, right?” Aaron asked. Liam just looked at Ethan before they both cracked up laughing.

  It was good to be with the family. Good to be smiling and acting as if they all weren’t sometimes stressed with their jobs or the fact that their mom really wanted them to settle down. It was good not to think about anything but being with the people that mattered the most. His family.

  The four of them stood off to the side near the outside of the building where there was some restoration work being done, trying to stay out of the way. They tended to be loud, and this was about Craig and Cain and their day, so none of them really wanted to be the center of attention.

  Nor did they want to be near the group when ties and garters were being thrown in place of bouquets.

  Liam knew that his mother was probably hunting for them since the time for the toss was almost upon them, so they were hiding.

  A little.

  Liam looked up when he heard a scratching sound and frowned. “What was that?” he said, his voice soft.

  “What was what?” Bristol asked, and then her eyes widened. “Liam!”

  Liam looked to the right and then threw himself over his little sister as the scaffolding that had been right beside them fell. There was a sharp pain, and a deafening crunch as he heard his little sister scream, his brothers shout to him, and then he heard no more.

  There was only darkness.

  Nothing.

  Chapter 2

  Arden Brady leaned back on the bed and did her best not to glare at her oppressive brothers. It wasn’t their fault that they were overbearing, overprotective, and over…everything. They were only trying to be helpful. At least, that’s what she told herself for the umpteenth time.

  They were always just trying to be helpful.

  She was twenty-eight years old and the youngest of five. Her four older brothers still thought of her as the baby and made sure that whenever they interacted with her, she knew that.

  And considering that the bed she was currently in was a hospital bed, maybe they had a reason. A reason they had to deal with much too often.

  Too bad strangling all four of them would take skills Arden didn’t have—and was illegal. Far too public while she was in the emergency room getting treatment. Best to murder them all when they came to her house after she got out of the hospital. She knew they’d all come with her to tuck her in and wait on her like she was a child instead of a grown woman who had a tiny little disease with symptoms that sometimes came out of the woodwork to ruin her plans.

  “Are you sure we can’t get you anything?” Cross asked, staring at her.

  “I’m fine. Stop glaring.” She paused, hating how tired she sounded. She was always tired these days. “Please.” She closed her eyes, ignoring the pain in her arm where the IV worked its magic.

  “I’m not glaring,” Cross said, indeed glaring.

  “You kind of are,” Prior added, peering at Cross.

  “I don’t know, I think that’s his normal face,” Macon put in.

  “Well, then his normal is pretty much a glare,” Nate said, grinning.

  Arden closed her eyes and prayed for peace. Peace from pain, peace from the annoyance of having to be in the hospital after an almost perfect day, and peace from her brothers. Because while they were all grown men and very overprotective and annoying at times, they also tended to bicker with each other like they were ten years old rather than in their thirties.

  “Really, you’re glaring. All of you are. I’m fine. You can go and finish your days. I’ll just be here getting an infusion. We’ve been here before, right?”

  “Yeah, we have. So, we’re not going to leave.” Cross finally took a seat in the chair next to her bed. Her other brothers were already sitting, each trying to look calm and casual even though she knew none of them were.

  “It should only take another couple of hours. Seriously, enjoy the day. It’s sunny and beautiful out.”

  “We know it’s sunny, hence why you’re in the damn bed,” Prior snapped. And then he closed his eyes and shook his head. “Sorry, Arden.”

  “Don’t be sorry. I’m as pissed off as you are. This sucks. I can’t go and have a nice day out in the sun, even with all the sunscreen in the world and a hat. Instead, I get a stupid rash from the heat and the freaking sun itself.”

  “You’re sick, it’s not only a rash,” Macon whispered.

  Arden lifted up her good arm and pointed at the IV in her other elbow. “Oh, I know. The fact that I’m getting an IV and not just putting on aloe tells me so. But it’s lupus, you guys. It’s never going away. We’re just going to have to deal. I am.”

  “No, it’s never going away. And neither are we. So, you’re going to have to deal with us watching over you.”

  “Please, don’t. Please just go and let me be.” She lay her head on the pillow and really wished they would leave her alone. She loved them. Adored them more than anything in the world except for maybe her dog, yet she was done with it all.

  It had been a nice, unusually warm day for the season, so all of them had decided to go to an outdoor concert. She’d slathered herself up with sunscreen, put on a hat, and done her best to enjoy the day. Because doing that sometimes wasn’t easy when you had a disease that no one could actually see you had.

  “So, do you think that nurse is here?” Prior said, grinning even though it didn’t completely reach his eyes.

  Arden snorted and looked over at her brother. “I think she’s married, Prior.”

  “Nope, divorced,” Macon put in. They all looked at him, and he just shrugged. “What? I know things.”

  “I swear you can figure out and find single women within a fi
ve-mile radius no matter where you are. We could be in a completely isolated forest with no humans around, and you’d still find a direct path to the single women.”

  Macon grinned. “It’s a skill I have.”

  “Pretty much your only skill,” Nate muttered, and the two of them playfully punched at each other. A single hit each. Arden just rolled her eyes. They were trying to make her laugh and smile. They didn’t always act this immature, but if they needed to make her smile, this is what they did. But she hated that they were all so good at this. Loathed the fact that she knew that Cross had already called their parents to let them know that their baby girl was once again in the hospital.

  It didn’t matter that Arden’s parents had moved out to Virginia and were thousands of miles away. They worried just as much as the rest of them. Arden would always be weak, need to be cared for. And she resented it. She knew that everyone loved her, understood that they only wanted her to be healthy and okay. But that wasn’t going to happen. It was never going to happen.

  And with everything else going on in her life, even with how small and frail those things seemed in comparison to her disease, she knew she should hold onto the fact that her family still loved her and cared for her and wanted to make sure she was okay.

  Because she knew what would happen as time moved on, as her disease grew. People would walk away, get tired of her being the sick girl because that’s all they saw. It’d happened before. Even if they couldn’t see the actual disease, didn’t see a cane or a wheelchair to let them know that she was virtually disabled, they could see the results of what happened when her body attacked itself.

  They could see it by her not being there. By her canceling on parties or just walking away when she got too tired.

  Most saw her as lazy or boring.

  Her brothers never had. They’d always been there for her. And now she was grumbling over the fact that they were here for her when no one else was?

  Cross was in front of her, wiping tears from her face before she even realized that she had started crying.

  “Should we call the nurse? Get you some pain meds?”

  She shook her head and then curled into a fetal position on the bed.

  “I’m not in pain.”

  All four brothers glared at her.

  “Not more pain than usual. Just thinking and feeling sad. Maybe I need a book or something.” But she knew she wasn’t going to be able to read. Even her eyes hurt today.

  She had gone out with her brothers and ended up getting sick from the sun. So, they had given her fluids and meds to treat the symptoms. Because the sun had given her a rash and made her feel terrible. And she wasn’t even allergic to the damn thing.

  It caused cramps all over her body, spasms that were attacking her joints, her skin, and even her hair at the moment.

  It’d also done some uncomfortable things to her digestive system, stuff she was not going to talk about with her brothers. They had seen enough evidence of it in her life as it was. She was completely done talking to them about it.

  Her siblings had seen her at her weakest, and she was afraid that they were never going to see her strong again.

  “I’m going to get the nurse,” Prior put in, standing up. Arden looked up at him and grinned, even though it hurt her face to do so.

  “You just want to get her number,” she said, smiling a little easier. “But do it for me.”

  “I’m not sharing a woman with you, Arden.”

  “I’m not saying you should, dork,” she said with a laugh.

  “She’s all yours, Prior,” Cross said, his eyes dancing with laughter. They all knew that Prior was doing this to make them smile and laugh after a hard day, and Arden was happy about it. Because spending one’s day in the ER because there were no beds upstairs in the ward where she normally got her treatment wasn’t really what any of them had planned.

  But she knew they all loved her, even if they were going to annoy the hell out of her for the rest of the day—and probably the week. And she loved them, too.

  “You know what? I’m going to see if there’s a way we can get you into a private room,” Nate said, standing up, as well.

  Arden shook her head. “I’m fine. You’re the ones taking up all the space.”

  “We’re big, we tend to do that,” Macon said, leaning back in his chair and stretching his legs out into the hallway. One of the nurses glared at him, and he quickly pulled his feet in. The woman had to be all of five feet, and she had scared Arden’s big brother. Good. He needed that.

  “I don’t need a private room.” Plus, because they would have to admit her if they moved her upstairs, insurance wouldn’t cover something like that. She did not even want to think about her bill as it was. She was self-employed, and that meant medical insurance was a bitch. The copay for this was going to be insane even though she’d already met her deductible for the year.

  “That hospital bed right next to you near the door isn’t going to stay empty for long,” Cross muttered. “But you’re right, I guess you’ll be fine here.” He met her gaze, and she knew he was thinking exactly what she was. Money sucked when it came to medical issues. Didn’t matter how much she saved, or how much she made. Didn’t matter how much her family helped her—because they helped her a lot even though it grated on her pride. Medical bills just kept coming.

  But she didn’t want to think about that right then. Instead, she stretched her legs as much as she could, ignoring the pain since she knew that she needed to move around as much as she was able, and just closed her eyes for a bit.

  She didn’t know how long she napped, but eventually, she opened her eyes and saw that she was not alone in this part of the ER anymore. Instead, there was a man there with his arm bandaged, and an IV in his other arm, connected to a blood bag. He looked as if he had already gotten his stitches and everything, but he was still stuck in a bed like she was. It’d never made much sense to her that people were required to stay in the ER for longer than necessary, meaning others were forced to sit in the waiting room until there were available beds. But this was the busiest hospital in the area—and the smallest. And that meant that sometimes things just didn’t make sense.

  But the nurses and the doctors and the rest of the staff worked their butts off. Arden had been here more times than she could count, and she could always rely on anyone that worked here. The nurses knew her by name, even if they sometimes had to blink a few times to remember exactly who she was. But everyone on staff was always caring, hardworking, and never, like that one sentator had thought, played a game of cards.

  Arden smiled then, and the man in the other bed looked at her and grinned back.

  She held back a wince since she hadn’t really meant to smile at him, but she couldn’t help it. Because, that man? Handsome as fuck.

  He looked vaguely familiar, but only in that really-hot-guy sort of way.

  He had a strong jaw, bright hazel eyes, and chiseled cheekbones that looked as if they could cut granite.

  His hair flopped over his forehead just a little—long on the top, short on the sides.

  And even in a hospital gown, he looked damn sexy.

  He had a blanket over his legs so she couldn’t see exactly how muscular he was, and she was glad for it. Perving on a fellow patient really wasn’t the best thing.

  She turned away and looked around for her brothers, embarrassed that she had been caught looking at him.

  She frowned, realizing her siblings had left her alone. Had that ever happened before?

  “The guys you were with just walked out,” the man to her left said, and she startled before turning to him. “Excuse me?” She did her best to sound normal—not that she wasn’t normal, but she really wasn’t very good at social situations. It didn’t help that she worked from home and didn’t have a lot of friends. Or any friends besides her dog. But, anyway, that wasn’t important right then.

  “You were sleeping when they rolled me back here, but there were four guys in
here earlier. Three of them said they were heading out to do something, and the biggest one got a phone call and had to leave the room since we’re not allowed to be on our phones in here.” The man shrugged. “He sort of glared at me before he walked out, so I don’t know if he wanted me to not talk to you, or let you know where they went. Didn’t leave a note or anything I don’t think.”

  Arden blinked at him, wondering why he was talking so much. Nobody spoke to her. She was really good in her little bubble of social awkwardness, not dealing with people.

  But he was just so…pretty. She was very, very bad at this whole thing.

  “I’m Liam, by the way. Liam Montgomery.”

  “Oh.” She cleared her throat. “Arden. I’m Arden Brady. And those four big guys are my brothers.”

  “So, not your boyfriend? Or boyfriends? Of course, that’s not as weird as it sounds.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “No, definitely not my boyfriends. Not even a little. Plus, four?”

  “Yeah, four might be a lot. But I have a cousin who has two husbands, so it’s not that uncommon.”

  Arden swallowed hard, trying not to think about exactly what she would do with two Liams. Because, dear God. Two Liams? She didn’t even know the man. But he was just so pretty. And, apparently, she had gotten some pain meds with the rest of her IV. She wasn’t normally this loopy. Dear God, she couldn’t focus.

  “Oh, well, that’s good.” She sighed. “Sorry, I’m still a little groggy from my nap. No, those were my brothers. And good for your cousin. Two husbands? I don’t even have one.”

  Liam smiled. “Good to know.”

  Was he flirting? He was actually flirting with her. What did she look like? Oh, yeah, now she remembered. She had a butterfly rash on her cheeks, more on her neck, and all down the left side of her body. Plus, her stomach hurt, and she knew she was probably going to make a mess of herself soon if she didn’t find a restroom. Thank you, cramping and lupus. Dear God, she hated her life.

  But she was going to ignore all of that and pretend that she wasn’t in pain. Disregard the needle shoved into her arm right then, giving her fluids. She was going to flirt right back and pretend that she wasn’t a mess.