THE STARLIGHT HILL COMPLETE COLLECTION: 1-8

by Bell, Heatherly

  Luther squinted. “Right. He’s alive.”

  Sophia took a deep breath of cautious optimism. “Thank you.”

  The Mayor rose from her seat. “Sit down before you fall down. You don’t look well.”

  Imagine that. “Can I see him?” she asked Luther.

  “The nurse said in a little bit,” Luther said. “And it’s only going to be immediate family in the ICU. So that means you.”

  “And Lucy.”

  Lucy. On the second floor, her brother on the fifth. Did she know? Should Sophia be the one to tell her? Because she didn’t know that she could do that to Lucy. Not when her legs felt like overcooked angel hair pasta.

  “Someone. Someone should tell her,” Sophia managed.

  “I will.” Luther nodded.

  “Who did this?” Sophia asked, though she was afraid to know. Knowing would give her one more thing to fear. The person that did this, who might still be out there. “Why? Has he made that many enemies here?”

  “Hell, no.” This was from Scott. “People like Riley. He’s tough and tough gets respect.”

  “One person doesn’t like him at all, Scott.” Far be it from her to point out the obvious.

  “Thankfully, the kids saw it happen, and one of them took down the license plate number. We’re running it now. This is attempted murder. Guys going away for a long time.”

  “Sophia.” She turned around and there stood Billy Turlock, retired pitcher for the Oakland Sliders, one of the three brothers she’d inherited when Daddy-o married Eileen. Standing next to him was his wife Brooke. Both of them looked rumpled and disheveled, like they’d just woken up, thrown on some clothes and driven to the hospital.

  “Who’s watching the kids?”

  Funny to have that thought right now but the distraction helped. How she craved her normal life back. Sure, maybe it was somewhat boring and lonely but she didn’t have this awful stone in her throat. She’d been at least comfortable. Safe. If Riley hadn’t shown up again, hadn’t taken the job as chief of police, he wouldn’t be lying in a hospital bed right now. And maybe she’d be babysitting tonight, instead of feeling like her heart might shatter at any second.

  Brooke gave her a funny look. “We left all the kids with Diana and her mother. Wallace and Gen are on their way too.”

  “You didn’t have to come.” All these relatives in one place. They reminded her of a wedding or a funeral. No one was dying! “He’s going to be all right.”

  “We know,” Billy said, turning his baseball cap around. “We’re here for you.”

  Billy clapped Scott’s back and together he and Brooke headed over to the empty seats. No sooner had they sat down than Wallace and Gen stepped out of the elevator.

  “Oh, Sophia.” Gen pulled Sophia into a hug.

  Sophia flinched. “He’s okay.”

  “Oh good but this is so hard.”

  “No. It’s absolutely not hard. I’m fine.”

  “Yeah?” Gen narrowed her eyes.

  “That’s my girl.” Wallace squeezed her shoulder and went to join his brothers.

  “Where is she? Nurse, for the love of God where’s your waiting room? This place is like a maze! We’ve been wandering this hospital for forty years. I need to find my daughter. Stat!”

  “Gianni, don’t talk like you’re a doctor. You’re not a doctor.” Eileen’s voice, coming around the corner.

  Just what she needed. Daddy-o and Eileen, rounding out the nuthouse. The cast was now complete.

  “He’s going to be all right!” Sophia yelled.

  Daddy-o took a step back and clutched his chest. “Thank God!”

  A funny thing happened then. Somehow, and for reasons Sophia didn’t fully understand, she took one look at Eileen and burst into tears.

  “What happened?” Daddy-o asked. “I thought you said he was okay! Eileen, we need a doctor. Stat!”

  “Oh for God’s sake. Can’t you see she’s just upset? I’ll handle this,” Eileen said.

  Sophia found herself enveloped in Eileen’s warm and soft arms and shepherded over to what turned out to be another waiting room. Good. It was empty in here, the TV tuned to some inane reality show on home improvement. If only real life were that simple. Slap a new coat of color on the walls and put in hardwood floors. Renovate the kitchen with new cherry wood cabinets. Ta-da! All is well. Sophia’s sobs had turned into shuddering hiccups. She couldn’t catch her breath. Eileen didn’t ask questions, but rubbed her back in large circles and told her over and over again it was going to be all right.

  Mama had done the same thing once upon a time. Of course, that time it had been because Sophia’s fish died. Rainbow had never paid much attention to her, swimming around the tank until the day he jumped out of it. After school, she’d found him lying on the carpet next to the tank, dried out like a twig. That was the first time her heart had broken. The second time was when Mama died. The third time was when she’d left Riley.

  And right now.

  “Shush, darling, shush.” Eileen finally said. “He’s going to be all right, you said so.”

  “I-I can’t do this,” Sophia hiccupped. “I’m so scared.”

  “Loving someone is scary.”

  “I don’t think I can do this. It’s too big for me. The way I love him…I think I might love him too much. Can a person do that?”

  “Yes, of course,” Eileen said. “When they have a big heart. And you, my darling, have the biggest heart I’ve ever seen.”

  “Maybe I’d like a smaller heart. Because I have to go in there and see him. Hurt. This is my biggest nightmare and I’m living it.”

  “You can do this and you will. He needs you and you’re no longer the young lady that you were years ago. You grew up.”

  “How can you say that? I’ve been stuck all this time. Sure, I stopped crying. Eventually. But what have I done with my life? I haven’t moved on. I haven’t loved anyone since him.”

  “Deep breaths, dear. You’ve loved all my sons like they were your real brothers. Their wives. Their children. While you weren’t looking you made attachments. They were just a different kind.”

  “Excuse me,” a harried-looking nurse said. “Is either one of you Mrs. Jacobs?”

  “She is.” Eileen answered when Sophia couldn’t.

  “You can see him now.” She turned to lead the way. “Make it short, but he’s asking for you.”

  “Eileen, can you?”

  Come with me? No, she couldn’t. Riley’s family only, they’d already said that. And what was up with her asking Eileen for help, like she was a little girl again?

  “Light a candle? Yes I will.”

  Right. Because she had to do this alone. Go see her husband, the victim. Easy-peasy. Sophia walked behind the nurse down the glossy floored hallway, counting beds in the glass walled rooms of the ICU. One, two, three. Far too many already. Most of them were the elderly, eyes closed like they were sleeping. They weren’t dead.

  Riley wasn’t dead.

  But this was the hallway that wouldn’t end.

  She hadn’t seen Mama in the hospital. Sophia’s last memory of her had been Mama at home in bed as she’d been for weeks. Sick with the flu. When Daddy-o had taken her to the hospital that last time, she’d simply asked Sophia to be a good girl and mind her sisters because she’d be back from the hospital in a few days.

  Keep walking, Sophia.

  Riley’s was the fifth bed. He was by far the youngest patient in ICU. Simply because he didn’t belong in here. That’s right. A cruel twist of fate put him in that bed.

  His eyes were closed but they immediately fluttered opened when she crossed the doorway. “Hey,” he said. “C’mere.”

  Until that moment she hadn’t realized that she stood at the foot of the bed. Frozen and stiff. Not moving. Staring at the IV hooked to him, bandages over his arm and shoulder. A blue and green something all over his naked chest—were those bruises? Was that blood?

  He’s not dead.

  Bu
t his brow furrowed as he studied her. Until she remembered to move. To breathe.

  She walked to the side of the bed and gripped the railing. “Hey, baby.”

  “I’m sorry.” He reached for her hand and squeezed it. Hard.

  Her fingers felt squished in his larger hand because he was still so strong. A good sign. Yay. “For what? Getting run over?”

  “For scaring you.”

  Really? Even now he was still thinking and worrying about her. Always putting her first. No wonder she loved him so much. He wasn’t the tough Marine everyone else saw. He was a man who happened to have a heart as big as his country. And somehow he’d managed to see her. The only one who’d seen more than Leah’s daughter, more than Mama’s youngest girl. The Sophia who wanted to live large and fearless but didn’t quite know how.

  “Oh, that’s okay. Yeah. I’m fine with this. I’m doing good.”

  “Yeah?” he quirked an eyebrow. “You know what’s not too convincing? The red around your eyes.”

  “So I did a little crying. But I’m okay now.”

  “How many candles have you lit?”

  “None.” There. That should prove she wasn’t worried. Not at all. She smiled smugly and squeezed his hand back.

  His eyes narrowed. “Should I be insulted? I don’t rate a candle?”

  “All right, Eileen’s doing it for me.”

  Riley cracked a smile. For some reason, he’d always liked Eileen, and said she was a good mother. Encouraged Sophia to talk to her as she would her own mother. Sophia hadn’t wanted to hear it at the time. No one could replace Mama any more than another man could replace Riley. But that, like so many other things recently, had changed.

  “Who did this to you?”

  “If you’re worried he’ll hurt me again, don’t. His ass is grass. You heard about the license plate?”

  “But you saw who it was, didn’t you?”

  “Lucy’s ex, some guy named Richard. Dick.”

  “Yeah, she talked about her boyfriend that night she showed up at your house drunk.”

  “She sure knows how to pick them.”

  “Why would he do this to you?”

  She’d certainly seen a violent side of Riley that handled bullies. A side of him that wouldn’t back down. They’d once been in a bar in North Carolina when a drunk man pushed her for no apparent reason. That man had wound up flat on his back wondering what anvil had landed on him.

  He’d certainly do the same for Lucy. “Were you protecting Lucy?”

  “I had words with Dickhead. I pissed him off. Obviously.”

  “You have a way of doing that to bullies.”

  “He deserved it, no doubt. But I should have seen this coming. Even I underestimated the blockhead.”

  “Seriously? Tell me you’re not blaming yourself for this.”

  He scowled. “I got too complacent, and he got the jump on me.”

  “He hurt you and he’s going to pay for this.”

  “You’re right, he will. You should know that this almost never happens. There are few idiots who will try to kill a police officer. He’s going away for a long time.”

  She nodded, trying to comfort him. He was attempting in his own way to assure her this was rare. Unusual. She got that. It had still happened, even when it hadn’t occurred to them that it could. Because that was life. Mothers grew sick, went to the hospital to get well and never came home. Soldiers went to war and sometimes didn’t return, no matter how many prayers were said on their behalf. And a wife could love her husband so much that her heart split a little bit every day when she imagined how much could go wrong. There was nothing risk-free about life.

  But maybe, if a person tried hard enough, they could minimize the risks. She realized exactly what she had to do and she’d get started on it the moment she left this hospital. No one would take Riley from her ever again.

  “Still love me?” Riley winked.

  As her answer, she climbed up in the hospital bed with him, squeezing herself into the small space left between him and the railing. A monitor beeped and Riley groaned.

  “What’s wrong?” She took care to stay away from his bandaged shoulder.

  “Dickhead ran over me.” He grimaced, but pulled her in closer with his good arm. “Dammit. Here comes the nurse. Always trying to ruin my game.”

  Since the door was open, they could see the nurse scowl at her station and head in the direction of Riley’s room.

  “I still love you,” Sophia said as the heart monitor beeped an alarm.

  “Young lady, get out of that bed before I have to give him more medicine to bring down his heart rate. It spiked when you walked in the room, and again when you climbed up in there.”

  “I tried to stop her, nurse,” Riley said with a grin. “She’s a bad girl.”

  Sophia did a mock-jaw drop and laughed. “Shut up, you. I’m the good girl in love with the bad boy.”

  Before she could climb off, Riley stole a kiss. “Don’t forget it.”

  22

  Two weeks after he’d been run over by Lucy’s ex-boyfriend, Sophia finally drove Riley home. She’d visited him every day in the hospital after he’d been moved out of the ICU and saw him gaining strength every day. The nurses and doctors told Sophia privately that her husband was young, incredibly strong and determined. And about as lucky as a man could get. Thanks to the boys she’d be grateful to forever, he’d arrived at the hospital on time. They’d removed his spleen in surgery and there’d been no more internal bleeding. The concussion wasn’t severe, and the cracked ribs would heal in time.

  Yes, Riley Jacobs was lucky and blessed, and Sophia realized this. She also understood her husband, badass notwithstanding, was a flesh and blood man. A man who wore a badge and who would always be a target for some lost and misguided people.

  She had a solution for that, if he would only listen and be open-minded. She’d already talked to Wallace and there was a job waiting for Riley if he wanted it.

  When she pulled up to her home, she shut off the car and turned to Riley. “I thought you could stay at my house. I’ve got everything set up for you to rest and relax.”

  Riley scowled. “Don’t act like I’m an invalid. I’m fine.”

  “Sure, you’re just recovering from being run over. But you’re okay.” She smiled, though it was a little tight.

  “Six weeks is too long to be off work. Overkill. I need to call in and see how Bert is managing.”

  Of course he would want to do that, dedicated (and stubborn) man that he continued to be. “He did the job for thirty years. I think he’s going to be fine a few more weeks.”

  Riley opened the car door. “I just hope he doesn’t screw anything up.”

  She’d had a front row seat to watching Riley help the investigators from his hospital bed, and Lucy’s ex had been arrested almost immediately. Now Lucy was on her way to rehab in Arizona and Riley would recover for another few weeks before he had to testify against the man who’d done this to him. Of course, Riley wasn’t afraid to testify against his assailant. Riley seemed to be looking forward to it. Sophia, not so much.

  Hershee greeted them both as they walked inside Sophia’s house, circling Riley in suspicion but for once not attacking his ankles.

  “Hey, ankle-biter. How have you been?” He bent down to give her a pat with his good arm. “I’ve missed the attacks. You’re my kind of dog. A real warrior.”

  Hershee eased in to the pat, rubbing up against Riley’s boots. “Look at that, she likes you now.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Riley said. “She’s tolerating me.”

  Sophia pointed Riley towards the couch, where she’d laid down pillows and blankets. “Sit down and relax.”

  Riley quirked an eyebrow. “For how long?”

  “Just sit. Please?”

  His gaze softened. “All right, baby. If it makes you feel better.”

  “It will.”

  Sophia got busy taking all the hospital stash into her b
edroom, and reading all the directions they’d been sent home with. She’d make him understand that this was part of being married, taking care of each other through better and worse. She feared some of the worse might be happening later tonight. Riley wouldn’t like her proposition, she was almost certain, but she at least had to try. After what had happened to him, he’d see reason.

  She walked back into the family room, but Riley was no longer on the couch. Big surprise. He was nowhere in the house, either, as she searched every inch of her twelve hundred square foot home. Then she heard Hershee yipping in the back yard. Sophia glanced outside and found Riley, sitting on a lawn chair near the cherry tree, throwing Hershee a tennis ball.

  She stomped outside and went hands on hips. “Riley!”

  He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I was going stir-crazy in there.”

  “It was five minutes.”

  “No way. It was thirty at least.” When Hershee plunked the ball at his feet again, he threw it once more.

  Men! “You are the worst patient on the face of the earth.”

  He grinned and pulled her into his lap. “I’m the most patient man on earth. I waited for you to come around, didn’t I?”

  Her hand caressed his chin. He was still rocking the scruffy look which made him seem a bit like a sex god. “And what did that take you? A month?”

  “The longest month of my life.”

  He gave her a long deep kiss that had every cell in her body waking up. She rocked her hips into him.

  “Don’t do that unless you mean to follow through,” he said, a gruff tone to his voice.

  “Are you feeling up to it?”

  “Up? Yeah, I’m up. I’ll prove it to you.”

  “But your sore ribs,” she said, worried about him.

  He grinned. “I’m not going to use my ribs.”

  She rose from his lap and crooked her finger. “C’mere, chief.”

  He rose, then bent down to throw the ball for Hershee one more time. “You’re on your own, pup.”

  In her bedroom, she helped him off with his shirt. After two weeks in the hospital, the only visible damage left was the bruising all over his rib cage and back. Some new scars to join the others. Up close and personal this way in her bedroom, the memories hit her hard as a sledgehammer all over again.