Adrenaline (Speed #2) (34 page)

Elizabeth smiled but I knew it wasn’t genuine.

“What do you want, Dad?”

Dad?

My head snapped back to look at the guy. Paislie hardly ever mentioned her father. On occasion he would contact her to ask for something, usually money. Seeing him standing there made him all too real.

“Now, why do you think I want something? I saw my daughter walking down the street and I wanted to say hello to her.” He turned his attention on me. “And who are you?”

I went to answer when Paislie jumped between us. “None of your business.”

He let out a whistle and reached down for her hand. “Holy shit, look at that fucking rock on your hand.”

“Dad!” Paislie exclaimed as he looked over to Elizabeth.

“Forgive me, sister, I’ll go to confession on Saturday.”

I was stunned to see the look Elizabeth gave him. When Paislie pulled her hand from his, I wrapped my arm around her. “You’re getting married. I think I have the right to know who the man is who is marrying ya.”

With a forced laugh, Paislie shook her head as she said, “You gave up that right when you left me on the steps of the orphanage.”

“Malcolm, I’d like to leave now.”

Gripping my hand tighter on her waist, I led her away when my name was called out.

“Malcolm Wallace. I thought that was you.” Looking at Paislie, he smirked. “Looks like you done good for yourself, Paislie.”

“Let’s go, please, Malcolm.”

Doing as she asked, we walked away from her father. Taking one last look over my shoulder, I saw him watching us. I had the feeling that now he knew Paislie was getting married, and to someone with money, he wasn’t going to just let her walk away so easy.

Next time he came sniffing around, I’d be ready.

“Elizabeth, where are you parked?” Paislie asked in a shaky voice. I hated the affect that asshole had on her.

“Around the corner. You’re more than welcome to walk me to the car if you’d like.”

“Please. I don’t want him seeing my license plates. He’ll know where I’m living.”

My heart was pounding in my chest and when we rounded the corner, I pulled her to a stop. “Would he do something to you if he knew where you lived?”

Her expression was blank. “No. He’d just start sending me letters asking for money. I doubt he would show up if he knew you would be there. He’s a coward, so most of the time he sends me a letter or text message.”

Asshole.

We walked Elizabeth to her car and chatted with her a bit more before we headed back to the car. I could feel Paislie’s body relax the moment we rounded the corner and she didn’t see her father anywhere.

“I’ll never let him bother you again, baby. I swear.”

Giving me a weak smile, she looked straight ahead, lost in her own thoughts.

Once we got to her car, I opened the door while she got in. Pressing a number on my phone, I waited for Kathleen to answer.

“Hello?”

“I’ve got some work for you in the Dallas area if you get your guy on it.”

She rustled some papers and finally said, “Send it over to me by tomorrow and I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks,” I said as I hit End.

“Who was that?” Paislie asked.

Tossing my phone on the console, I replied, “An old friend who is doing some work for me.”

I reached for her hand and held it gently. “Did you want to talk about it?”

“No, not really. I’d just rather focus on planning the wedding and him not finding out about it.”

I let her words sink in as we drove almost the entire way back to Waco in silence while I tried to think of a way to keep the lowlife asshole who called himself Paislie’s father, away from her.

STANDING ON THE PLATFORM, I
stared at myself in my wedding gown while the seamstress made her marks.

I’m getting married.

Holy shit.

“I’ve seen that look of horror before on my own face.”

Smiling, I looked at Adaline in the mirror. We’d become the best of friends and I thought of her as a sister. She looked amazing even though she was about to push out a baby.

“I find it hard to believe you were nervous to marry Emmit.”

“Ha!” she said with a wave of her hand as if I had just said the most ridiculous thing ever. “Trust me, I was scared to death. Plus, all the craziness that surrounded our wedding.”

“What kind of craziness?” I asked.

“It’s a long story that I’ll tell you all about when we’re alone with a big bottle of wine.”

Giggling, I shook my head. “My life has changed so much since meeting Malcolm.”

“I bet,” she said as she got up and made her way over to me. She was all stomach as she climbed the two steps and adjusted the dress. “You’re going to make a beautiful bride, though.”

My heart felt as if it would explode I was so happy. “You know, when I was younger I used to lay in bed and dream of having a family.” Turning to her, I took her hands in mine. “I’m so blessed to have you, Emmit, and Landon in my life. I hope you know that.”

Her lips pressed together as tears formed. Oh Lord. She was going to cry. I’d never seen anyone cry at the drop of a bucket like Adaline. Emmit said it was the pregnancy. Yesterday when I showed her one of the guest rooms I had decorated at the B & B she lost it in a crying fit and said I should have done all the rooms because she hated all the other ones. Never mind the fact that I had decorated nearly all the rooms. I let it slide due to her current condition.

“Don’t cry, Adaline. Please don’t cry ‘cause then you’ll make me cry and we’ll both be standing up here crying looking like crazy women.”

She instantly stopped crying. Damn if I knew that was all I ever had to say I would have been using that this whole time.

“Oh no.”

Her face drained of all color. “Okay, well if you want to cry, sweetie, you can.”

She shook her head and then grabbed my hands. I about fell to the ground when she started squeezing them.

“Ohmygawd!” I shouted as I was practically brought to my knees.

“Paislie, you have to stay still if you want me to get this measurement right.”

I couldn’t even form words. Adaline had a death grip on my hands. I was never going to tell her to stop crying ever again.

“Can’t. Feel. My. Hands.” I panted out as Adaline closed her eyes and breathed heavier.

“Lucy! Help me! She’s trying to rip my hands off!”

Lucy jumped up and looked at Adaline. “She’s having a contraction.”

I sighed a breath of relief that she wasn’t mad at me for talking about her crazy crying. “Thank God,” I said with a chuckle as Adaline let up her grip.

“Wait. What? Contraction!” I exclaimed as Lucy helped Adaline down and to a chair.

I started spinning around in a circle as I tried to figure out what I was supposed to do next.

“Baby. The baby is coming?” I gathered up my dress and quickly made my way over to Adaline.

“The baby is coming!”

“You don’t have to shout, Paislie. I’m in labor—not deaf.”

My head snapped to Lucy. “What do I do?”

“Take her to the hospital.”

“Right!” I shouted as I grabbed both of our purses and yelled over my shoulder, “I’ll get the car!”

“Your dress,” Lucy exclaimed as I slid to a stop.

“Shit!”

Heading back into the dressing room, Adaline called out, “No time! Paislie, I’m having another contraction.”

A total look of fear covered my face as I stared at her. “What? No, you just had your first contraction. You can’t go that fast!”

Adaline raised her eyebrows and gave me a shy smile. “Well, I’ve been having them the last hour or so, but I thought I’d be okay until after your alteration appointment.”

My hand flew to my chest as I looked at Lucy. “Is she serious?”

A sudden flash of adrenaline raced through my body as Adaline said, “I texted Emmit and he and Malcolm are on the way to the hospital.”

Panic hit me square in the face. “I can’t let Malcolm see me in my wedding dress.”

“I’ll drive, you change!” Lucy called as she flew by me with my jeans, T-shirt and sneakers in her arms.

This was insane . . . but it would work.

Reaching to help Adaline up, I helped her walk out to Lucy’s car.

“Another one is coming,” she said as I opened the front passenger door and helped her in. “I need your hand.”

With a gruff laugh, I shut her door and said, “The hell with that!”

I was barely in the car with the door shut when Lucy floored it.

“It’s two minutes to the hospital, change fast,” Lucy called from over her shoulder.

“I can’t get it unbuttoned!” I called out.

Lucy threw up her hands. “Well, I can’t get it; I’m driving.”

Slipping on my jeans, I frantically tried to reach the buttons. Before I knew it, she was pulling up to the front entrance of the hospital and I was jumping out.

“You! Hey, Mr! Please, can you unbutton my dress?”

An older gentleman walked up as Lucy ran into the hospital to get a wheelchair.

“Do I want to know?” he asked as he unbuttoned the dress.

With a shake of my head, I said, “Nope. You don’t.”

He laughed and said, “You’re done.”

Turning, I kissed him on the cheek and then jumped back into the car where I slid out of my dress and put my T-shirt on.

“Oh God. Here comes another one!” Adaline cried out as she lifted her hand up as if I was crazy enough to give her mine.

With a roll of my eyes, I slipped my sneakers on and jumped out right as Lucy and a hospital volunteer showed up with the wheelchair.

Just as Adaline sat down in it, Emmit came running up, with Malcolm behind him carrying Landon on his shoulders. My lower stomach pulled as I looked at him. Nothing was hotter than him with a child in his arms . . . on his shoulders . . . playing hide and seek.

His eyes caught mine as I smiled.

“You look flush, baby. Is everything okay?”

With a nod, I peeked over to Lucy who gave me a thumb’s up before I turned back to Malcolm. “I’ve never been better.”

As I made my way over to my handsome fiancé, I said a quick prayer that I hadn’t ruined my dress in my frantic state to get it off. Lucy gave me a hug and whispered she’d take care of the dress.

I was getting married in two months and I hoped like hell she got all the measurements she needed.

“Thank you,” I whispered in her ear.

“Thanks, Lucy! I owe you!” Adaline called out as she was pushed into the hospital.

Malcolm’s eyes bounced from Lucy, to her car, back to me. “Who was that and where is your car?”

Smiling up at Landon, I reached up and tickled his tummy as he laughed. “That was the seamstress who was doing alterations on my dress.”

“Okay. Why did she bring y’all to the hospital?”

Now that I thought about everything, I had to laugh. “I was getting alterations done on my dress and Adaline decided to hide the fact that she was having contractions until it was too late. She said I didn’t have time to change and there was no way I was going to let you see me in my dress.” With a shrug, I said, “So, Lucy drove and I changed, of course after I jumped out and asked a total stranger to unbutton my wedding dress.”

A look of pure shock flashed across Malcolm’s face.

“Never a dull moment with you, is there?”

Shaking my head, I said, “Nope. Are you okay with that?”

Leaning down, Landon put his hands on Malcolm’s head while he kissed me softly on the lips. “Perfectly okay with that. Now let’s go watch Adaline pop out a kid.”

Laughing, I hit him in the stomach as Landon started singing about being a big brother.

MY CHEST WAS TIGHT AS
I watched Emmit hold his daughter, Hailey. The look of love on his face was amazing. I’d never seen him with tears in his eyes before, except for when that wine bottle fell on his toe. Pressing my lips together, I tried to push the memory and the laughter away.

“Emmit, she is beyond beautiful,” Paislie said as she looked adoringly at Hailey.

Beaming with pride, Emmit nodded his head, “She looks like her mother.”

Adaline grinned as Landon snuggled up next to her in the bed, fast asleep from all the excitement.

“Would you like to hold her?” Emmit asked Paislie.

Her face lit up as she nodded frantically. The moment he placed Hailey in her arms, I felt my entire body go stiff.