Rick

by Peggy Jaeger

  “No.”

  “Why aren’t you happy about it?”

  “Would you be if you were me? What the hell kind of life can I offer her, Josh? I’ve got no family to bring to the table like you and Ky do. All I’ve got is a lousy father who’s rotting away in prison. I own nothing but the cabin in Pennsylvania. Everything else in my life is temporary—leased car, rented apartment.”

  Josh took a deep chug from his own coffee mug, then set it down on his knee.

  “I’m away for long stretches for work. It’s like the army all over again. No woman wants a man who’s gone more than he’s around. And Christ, my DNA is nothing to write home about. I’ve got an old man who was convicted of manslaughter. Blood tells.”

  Josh took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he nailed his partner with a look that told Rick he was a moron.

  “First of all your job is a non-issue because we can eliminate the protection aspect of it easily, like we did for me and Ky.” When Rick didn’t respond, he continued. “As far as your lack of family goes, you don’t know Abby as well as you think you do if you’re worried about your old man, his history, and your supposed tainted DNA.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Abby fights for the underdog, right? The women and children who’ve been abandoned, abused, discarded? Kandy calls it her mission, her desire to help right the wrongs done to her mother by preventing them from happening to other families.”

  “I’ve thought much the same thing.”

  “Then how can you possibly think your father’s history is going to color her feelings for you?”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Dude, you’re the perfect example of the kind of kid she fights for. You were one of the lucky ones, though. My mom took you in when you had no place to go. She wouldn’t let you get sucked up into the system, despite my telling her what a dick you could be.”

  He grinned when he said it, so Rick shot him his middle finger.

  Josh’s grin stilled and, in a serious voice asked, “Do you love Abby? Really love her?”

  “Christ, so much I ache.”

  “I’m gonna bet, because I know you so well, you haven’t told her. Am I right?”

  Rick nodded.

  “You need to.”

  “What if…”

  “She doesn’t love you back?”

  Rick blew out a breath and shook his head. Abby’s “you will” declaration shot to the front of his tired mind. “No. Not so much that. More that she doesn’t want a life with me. And talk about sounding like a dick.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s you.”

  Rick glared at him.

  “The better question to ask is what if she does?”

  “This is why I don’t do relationships,” Rick said.

  “You want some cheese with that whine?”

  “Why are we friends again? I seem to forget every time you open your mouth.”

  “Okay, we’re all set,” Hannah said as she walked back in with a yawning Ellie in tow. “We scoped out the room they’re transferring her to, and it’s right by the nurse’s station. Eleanor says that’s a primo spot. Abby will be getting attentive care.”

  Josh rose and kissed his mother-in-law. “I think I’m gonna head home and spot Kandy. She’ll want to be here when Abby wakes up.”

  He turned to Rick and pulled him into a man hug, thumping his back with his fists. “Remember what I said, and I’ll see you later.”

  Rick nodded.

  “Why don’t we all go upstairs and wait for Abby in her room?” Hannah said, curling her hand around Rick’s arm.

  “Not me,” Ellie said. “I’m beat. I’m gonna go crash in the doctor’s lounge for a bit. Text me if you need me for anything.” She bussed her mother’s cheek, then gave Rick a little wave with another yawn.

  “Well,” Hannah, squeezing his arm. “It’s just you and me. Let’s go wait for my girl, and you can tell me all about what’s been happening with the two of you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Where was the beeping coming from? It didn’t sound like her phone’s usual ringtone.

  Abby couldn’t localize it, and as she came more awake, the continued blaring became increasingly annoying.

  Slowly, she opened her eyes.

  Not her bed. Then, whose?

  A sudden flash of Joseph Genocardi’s face passed before her and she gasped.

  “Abby?”

  Her hand was pulled into a warm and familiar grasp, and she turned to his voice.

  “Rick.” She shifted, and a searing pain shot up from her side.

  “No, sweetheart, don’t try to move. Lie still.”

  “I’m in the hospital?”

  He nodded, his breath dragging in louder than the machines beeping around her. He pulled her hand to his mouth, pressed it against his lips, and closed his eyes. “Abby.”

  “What happened?” she asked, trying to focus on his face. Her vision was blurry, her eyes dry and heavy.

  “What do you remember?”

  It was vague, hazy. “Genocardi came to my apartment?”

  Rick nodded and kissed her hand again.

  “He…shot me? No, he was going to shoot Moonlight.” Panic engulfed her. “Moonlight? Is she—”

  “Shh. She’s fine. Mrs. Carney is taking care of her.”

  “Oh, thank God.”

  She couldn’t keep her eyes open.

  “Get some rest, sweetheart,” was the last thing she remembered hearing him say.

  ****

  Voices drifted around her.

  “Gemma’s asking for you, Mom,” Kandy said. “And she’s about to punch Ky, so you’d better get down there and spot him.”

  Warm lips bussed her forehead. “Text me if she wakes up,” her mother said.

  The mattress shifted at her feet.

  “Have you been here all night?” Kandy asked someone.

  “Yeah.”

  Rick.

  Her eyes flew open.

  “She lives.” Kandy smiled at her from her perch at the bottom of the bed. She reached up and pulled one of Abby’s hands into her own. “How are you feeling?”

  “Fuzzy-headed.”

  “Ellie said you’d say that. It’s the aftereffects from the anesthesia.”

  “Why did I have anesthesia?”

  “I didn’t tell her,” Rick said from behind her sister. He moved into her vision. Worry and exhaustion filled his face.

  “Tell me what?”

  “You had surgery after being brought into the ER. The docs wanted to make sure the bullet didn’t do any damage. Turns out it nicked your hipbone.”

  “I was shot?” Her gaze flicked from her sister to Rick. “By Genocardi?”

  “Yes. Are you in pain? They’ve got you hooked up to a continuous drip, but still.”

  Abby closed her eyes. “No pain.”

  ****

  “She’s out again,” Kandy said. “That’s the morphine.”

  “You sure?”

  She cocked her head as she regarded him. From the concerned downward pull of her lips, he could imagine what he looked like.

  “When’s the last time you got any sleep?”

  “I caught some last night. This chair isn’t bad. I’ve slept in worse places.”

  “Rick. You should have gone home. Abby is fine here. She’s right by the nurses’ station.”

  “I’d have slept standing up if I had to. I wasn’t about to leave her alone here.”

  Her silence had him turning from Abby’s sleeping form. “What?”

  “Does she know?”

  He cocked his head.

  “You’re in love with her?”

  “What is it with the women in your family? Your mother grilled me like a steak last night about this, then Ellie for an hour before you came. I’m surprised Daisy or Fallon haven’t called yet, all wondering what my intentions are.”

  “Oh? So you have intentions?”

  Now he kn
ew why Josh squirmed every time his wife quirked her left eyebrow.

  Intentions? He didn’t know if it was the right word or not, but he certainly knew there was no way he was leaving Abby. Not now, and not when she was discharged home. “Kan—”

  “Rick?”

  He flew to the bed, leaned over so she could see him. “I’m here, sweetheart.” He wound his hand around one of hers.

  “Me, too,” Kandy said as she came around to the opposite side of the bed and grabbed her sister’s other hand. “How are you feeling?”

  Abby licked her dry lips and said, “Thirsty.”

  “Here.” Rick filled a plastic cup with ice chips one of the nurses had left and spooned some into her mouth. “The doctor said you need to have these first, then if you’re okay, you can sip some water.”

  Abby sucked the ice into her mouth and moaned. “Tastes so good.”

  After a few more spoonfuls, Kandy asked, “Do you want to try and sit up a little?”

  “Yeah.”

  Together, they helped her. Rick repositioned the pillow behind her head and shoulders. Her color was pale, her lips dry and cracked, and her hair was a ball of knots and tangles swirling around her face.

  She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

  “Better?” he asked after she shimmied her butt a few times.

  “Yeah.” A deep, solid breath blew from between her lips. “What time is it?”

  “It’s a little past noon,” he told her. “You’ve been down for about a day.”

  Kandy’s cell phone chirped. With a smile, she turned the screen to her sister.

  “Say hello to your new niece. Six minutes old, eight pounds, nine ounces.”

  “When did Gemma go into labor?”

  “Right after you got out of surgery,” Rick told her. “Your entire family has been running back and forth between her room and yours all night long.”

  Tears swelled in Abby’s eyes. “Another girl.”

  “You win again,” Kandy said with a laugh.

  Rick’s heart stuttered as a tiny smile drifted across her face. Then, her eyes fluttered a few times. “My lucky streak continues.” After saying it, she yawned and closed her eyes.

  “You should rest,” he told her.

  “Mmm. Good idea…do we have a name?”

  Rick didn’t think she heard her sister say, “Nerissa Valeriani.”

  “And…she’s out again,” Kandy said with a smile. “Well, while she is, I’m going to go visit the newest member of our family and get the 411 on what that name means, because I know Ky. He would never name his baby something that didn’t have deep meaning to him and his heritage.”

  She bent and kissed her sleeping sister’s cheek, then bussed Rick’s as well. “I don’t even have to ask if you’ll be here when I get back.”

  Alone with Abby now, Rick dragged the visitor chair closer to the bed and twined his hand with hers where it rested on top of the blanket.

  The cardiac monitor announcing her heartbeat above the bed, the subtle, occasional beep of the pump delivering medication through her intravenous line, even the persistent hum of the doctors and nurses walking about outside the room were all white noise. Rick’s attention was focused on the women in the bed. The woman he was helplessly, hopelessly, and completely in love with.

  He couldn’t fight the knowledge anymore. Four years ago, he’d walked away from her because he was terrified she could mean more to him than he wanted her to. And he’d been proven correct. Abby was, simply, the woman he’d given his heart to. He’d had no will to stop from doing so. She’d overwhelmed him and overpowered all his self-preservation defenses. For the first time in his entire adult life, he let himself care enough to set aside all his feelings of inadequacy and the scars from his horrible childhood. Knowing he wasn’t good enough for her and could never give her the kind of love she deserved hadn’t prevented him from falling for her.

  He wanted to be with Abby. Now, and for the rest of his life.

  When she’d collapsed in his arms after being shot, the fear he’d never get a chance to tell her how he felt was as terrifying as seeing her incapacitated. He needed her to know what she meant to him, how he wanted a place in her life, however small. They hadn’t talked about what would happen after she no longer needed him around, but they were going to, because he wasn’t going anywhere without her.

  For the next two days, he was never alone with her. Everyone from her mother, to all her sisters, her office staff, and even Pecorrini and Donovan took turns coming to her room. She had visitors from the moment she opened her eyes in the morning, all through the day, and into the evening.

  Gemma had even been allowed to bring baby Nerissa for a quick visit before they were discharged. The nurse had insisted Mom and new baby stay at the doorway, though, and if the temper flashing in Gemma’s eyes was any indication, she was pissed about it.

  “They don’t want any germs crossing from the baby to Abby or vice versa,” Ellie explained. “Since Abby’s a fresh post-op, and Nerissa is still brand spanking new, it makes good sense.”

  “I’ll get to hold her once I’m sprung from here,” Abby told Gemma.

  From his vantage point leaning up against the wall opposite Abby’s bed, he easily read the pleasure and love she had for her new niece floating across her face.

  “You won again, you know,” Ky said, smiling from the doorway. “You were the only one in both families who predicted a girl. Everyone in mine, including YiaYia, predicted a boy.”

  “I don’t know why anyone doubts my powers,” Abby quipped. “I’ve never been wrong once.”

  Since she was on duty so much, Ellie popped in frequently to check on her sister, and, surprisingly, on him. While Abby slept, she encouraged him to go home, take a shower, and get some much needed sleep. He refused, instead asking Josh to stop by his apartment and bring some essentials and a change of clothing.

  “She’s okay now,” Ellie said, resting a hand across his forearm. “She’s being taken care of. You need to do the same for yourself.”

  “Let it go, Eleanor,” he’d told her, his tone brooking no further discussion. “I leave when Abby leaves.”

  Five days after surgery, she did.

  “Rick’s going to drive you home,” Hannah told her as she helped her daughter into the T-shirt and sweat pants she’d brought from her apartment while Rick waited outside the room. “I’ll let you get all settled and rest a bit before I descend on you again to help out.”

  “Mom, I’ll be fine,” Abby said. “You don’t need to hover.”

  “I’m not hovering.” Hannah held Abby’s shoes as her daughter slipped into them. “I’m concerned about you.”

  “You don’t need to be,” Abby replied instantly. “I’ll be fine on my own.”

  Hannah stood upright, fisted her hands on her hips, and tossed Abby the same glare Grandma Sophie used to. “Of course you will,” she said with a shake of her head. “And even if you weren’t, you’d never tell me otherwise, but—” She raised a hand as Abby started to speak. “Pretend you need some looking after anyway, will you? If for no other reason than to make your old mother feel useful, okay?”

  “Mom.” Overcome, Abby reached her arms out. Hannah moved into them and slipped her hands around her daughter’s waist. With her head on her mother’s shoulder, Abby said, “You’re not old, and you’re always useful. I’ll always need you.”

  Hannah chuckled and sniffed. Pulling back, Abby was surprised at the tears swimming in her mother’s beautiful and expressive eyes.

  “You know,” Hannah said, “that’s the first time since you were eleven years old you’ve told me you need me for something. I have to admit, I’ve missed hearing it all these years.”

  “Mom.” Abby swiped her hands down her mother’s arms and held her hands. “I haven’t been the best daughter.”

  “Well…” Hannah grinned. “It certainly wouldn’t kill you to call more often, that’s the truth.”

&nbs
p; Abby laughed, then winced. “Ow.” She braced a hand over the bandage under her sweats.

  “Of all my girls, you’re the one with the tightest lips,” Hannah said, glancing down at her daughter’s hand, then back up to her face. “And the softest heart.”

  Abby rolled her eyes. “Don’t let any of my colleagues hear you. I have a reputation as a hard-ass.”

  “Abigail June.”

  “Uh-oh. Now I know where Kandy gets that tone.”

  “I know why you keep things so close,” Hannah said. “Why you’re so tightlipped and never want anyone to worry, but Abby, you’re my daughter. Whether you tell me to or not, I’ll always worry about you. I love you with all my heart.”

  Her own eyes now filling, Abby nodded. “I love you, too. I know I don’t say it enough, and I’m sorry for that. I need to say it more. Show it more.”

  “Actions are always better than words,” Hannah said with a grin, “so I’ll be expecting more phone calls in the future. And speaking of actions,” she added when Abby smiled at her, “Rick’s actions have been screaming.”

  Abby went stone still. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “He hasn’t left the hospital since you were first brought to the emergency room. He’s slept here, in this room, every night since you got out of surgery.”

  Every time she’d opened her eyes over the past few days, he’d been by her bedside, watching her, jumping up when she’d awoken, asking if she needed anything, if she was in pain. She’d assumed, though, he’d left when she was sleeping during the night.

  “I think it says a great deal about how he feels for you.”

  “What he feels is responsibility,” Abby replied, a stutter of hurt making her flinch at her own words. “I got shot on his watch. He can’t feel great from a professional standpoint, even though it wasn’t his fault. Rick’s all about being the protective alpha, and despite all his good intentions, Genocardi got to me. He’s probably pissed more than anything.”

  Hannah eyes narrowed. “For a girl with a brilliant legal mind, that statement is too stupid to consider.”

  Abby gaped at her. “Left-handed compliment much, Mom?”

  Hannah pursed her lips and peered intently at her daughter. “If, Abigail June, you think Rick’s attention is only professionally based, then you aren’t as smart as I’ve always thought you were. The man is crazy in love with you.”