Feels Like Home: A Southerland Family Contemporary Romance Book 1 (22 page)

“
Here she is,” he said,
ushering her into one of the open rooms. He paused to glance at the
monitor and then turned back to Autumn. “The doctor will be in to
talk to you in a few minutes.”

“
Thank you.” Autumn waited
for him to turn silently away in his Crocs, before reaching for her
sister’s hand, careful of the blood oxygen clip holding her finger.
She looked so tiny and frail propped up in the hospital bed, but
she seemed more awake than when they’d arrived, and aside from the
clip and a blood pressure cuff, she didn’t seemed to be hooked up
to anything. “You okay?”

Summer nodded and then started to cry, tears
sliding down her pale cheeks.

“
Oh honey, it’s okay. It’ll
be okay.”

“
I’m so sorry. Where’s
Abby? She must be so scared.” Her voice caught on a sob. “She was
so excited about today. She talked about it all week, and now I
ruined it for her.”

“
It’s okay. She’s okay.
She’s with Jude’s brother, Adam.”

Summer struggled to sit up a little. “Deputy
Southerland? They didn’t call him did they?” she asked, her voice a
panicked whisper.

“
No, we ran into him in the
waiting room. He recognized me from the boat yesterday and asked if
he could help. Why would they call him?” Autumn pinned her sister
with her gaze.

“
They asked a lot of
questions when they brought me back here. Things like whether I
took too many pills on purpose.” She said the last part so softly;
Autumn had to lean in to hear her. It did nothing to diminish the
impact of her words.

“
You didn’t, did you?”
Autumn asked, her own voice barely a whisper now.

“
No, no of course
not.”

Autumn couldn’t imagine her sister leaving
Abby, but her quick denial eased the flash of panic she felt.

“
I forgot about yesterday.”
The pillow crinkled as Summer relaxed back. “How was
it?”

Autumn blew out a breath. Adam’s warm
reception had taken some of the sting out of Andrew’s jabs, but the
boat was the last thing she wanted to think about. “It was
great.”

Summer arched an eyebrow and waited.

“
Okay, maybe not great, but
I don’t want to talk about it here. I’ll tell you everything later.
Over wine.”

“
Okay.” Summer nodded, a
small line of worry creasing her forehead.

“
What happened? What did
the doctor say?”

The blood pressure cuff buzzed and started to
inflate. Summer looked at her arm and grimaced.

“
They’re going to watch me
for a couple of hours to make sure the drug is working its way out
of my system, then I can go home.”

“
What did you
take?”

“
Oxycodone. I take it for
my back sometimes. It helps me sleep.” She looked down at the thin
white hospital sheet she was worrying between her fingers. “Dwayne
didn’t come home again last night and I thought if I could just get
some sleep, I’d be able to deal with it. I took two pills instead
of one and I guess I’ve lost some weight since the last time I took
them. But I wasn’t trying to hurt myself. I promise.” She raised
her head and looked at Autumn with tear filled eyes. “I’d never do
that to Abby. I’d never leave her like that.”

Autumn sat on the edge of the bed. The sheet
slid over the thin plastic pad, covering the bed instead of a
mattress. “I know you wouldn’t. She’s okay, Summer. She’s going to
be okay.” Autumn held her sister’s hand in both of hers and willed
her strength. “Is it really a bad thing that Dwayne didn’t come
home? Can’t you just leave him now and come live with me?
Please?”

Summer looked around to make sure no one was
standing in the hallway. The glass wall and open doorway didn’t
offer any privacy. “I think he’s messed up in something illegal.”
The tears were falling freely now, leaving wet tracks down her
cheeks. “I told him he couldn’t do it around Abby. He’s hardly been
home since.”

“
You have to leave him. You
know you have to. Let me take you and Abby home with me. Your
room’s ready and we can fix hers up together. Please, Summer. I can
take care of you. We can take care of each other.” She squeezed her
sister’s hand and thought about the way Andrew made her feel the
day before. “I need this as much as you do.”

Summer nodded, but her breath hitched with a
sob. “First Abby’s biological father and now Dwayne. I didn’t want
to be that woman - the one who goes through men like tissues.”

“
I hardly think that’s the
case, but honey, you can’t be this woman either.” She motioned to
the monitors and medical equipment around them.

Summer gave her a sad watery smile and
nodded. “I guess you’re right.”

Jude flew through the open door and skidded
to a stop when he saw the sisters. “Why the tears?” he asked
Summer. “Are you feeling sick?”

“
No, just stupid. I ruined
Abby’s pizza party. She’s been waiting all week for it.”

“
Eh, just a change of
venue. She and my brother are demolishing a large pepperoni as we
speak.” He leaned in to kiss Autumn’s cheek and then stood to
glance at the monitors. “I talked to the attending. She said they
were going to watch you for a couple of hours to make sure your
vitals are stable and then we can take you home. Can I borrow your
sister for a couple of minutes?”

Summer nodded, swiping at her tears.
“Sure.”

Autumn followed him, her heels tapping an
angry staccato, and thought unkind things to the back of his head.
She was angry – for no good reason, even she could see that – but
it didn’t change the way she felt. She didn’t bother to ask why he
was there. Of course he heard about Summer and had to swoop in and
try to take control of everything. Hell, on another day she might
have welcomed it, but after their carefully controlled morning and
everything that had happened with Summer, the cool-take-charge
thing just pissed her off.

Jude led her into an empty cubicle and
reached for her.

“
I want to get back to my
sister.”

He pulled back a little, a crease forming in
his forehead. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Are you
positive there isn’t any chance she overdosed on purpose?”

“
What are you saying? Of
course not.”

“
I have to ask, Autumn.” He
reached for her hand, his expression pained. “I talked to Adam. He
says that guy Summer lives with is into some pretty bad stuff. We
have to make sure she didn’t get mixed up in them, too. Think about
Abby.”

Now her anger had a target. How dare he think
he had to remind her to think about Abby. She yanked her hand away
and she could tell by the expression on his that he knew he’d gone
too far.

“
I am thinking of Abby.
Dwayne doesn’t have anything to do with her.”

“
How can you say that? He
lives with them.”

Jude reached for her again. She stepped back,
but he caught her anyway and pulled her into him, tucking her head
under his chin. She went stiff in his arms, unwilling or unable to
get past her anger.

“
I’m just trying to help,
darling.” He murmured the words against her hair and she felt her
body respond to him against her will.

“
Okay,” she said,
softening. “Can you find out how long before I can take Summer
home? I want to go check on Abby.”

When Autumn pushed through the double doors
to the lobby, she found Abby and Adam huddled around the pizza box
balanced on Adam’s lap. Abby clutched a can of coke like it was the
crown jewels.

“
Does your momma let you
drink that?”

They both looked up at Autumn guiltily.

“
They didn’t have juice in
the vending machines and the kid needed something to wash down her
pizza.” Adam turned his charming smile on Autumn and she caught a
glimpse of the playful man from the boat. Beside him, Abby nodded
owlishly.

“
It’s okay. Just this one
time.” Autumn crouched down in front of her niece. “Your momma’s
going to be fine. Doctor Southerland is checking to see when we can
take her home, and then you and she are going to come stay with me
at Gran’s house.”

“
Really? To live?” She
asked it with such a mixture of hope and disbelief that Autumn
risked greasy fingers on her church dress and gave her niece a
hug.

“
Really,
really.”

“
No more
Dwayne.”

Adam raised an eyebrow and Autumn worried
about what the deputy was thinking, but taking care of Abby was the
most important thing now. She reached out and snagged the can of
coke raising it in a mock toast. “No more Dwayne,” she said, taking
a swallow of the sticky sweet drink.

Jude stood in the doorway for a moment and
watched Autumn enter patient records into the computer. The glow
from the monitor outlined her profile and accentuated her inky
black lashes, rimming eyes which too often lately seemed tired and
sad.

He was losing her and he didn’t know why.
Ever since that day at the hospital, or maybe if he was being
honest with himself the day on the boat, he’d felt her slip further
away from him.

At first the excuses made sense. She’d just
gotten Summer and Abby settled in. She didn’t want to leave her
sister alone at night and she didn’t feel right having him sleep
over with Abby in the house. Hell, he didn’t feel right about it
either, but it would have been nice to feel like she wanted him
there anyway.

Even simple things seemed to drive them
apart. He picked up dishes, just cheap everyday ones at Walmart and
she acted like he was trying to pay her mortgage. When he brought
over some old chairs his parents had stored in their garage, you’d
have thought he repainted her house without asking.

Every time he tried to help her with
something it felt like she took a step away from him. He hadn’t
done anything he wouldn’t do for his sisters. He just wanted to
make things easier for her, especially since her sister and niece
had moved in, but instead it felt like he was pushing her away. The
only things she’d let him do was stuff for Abby and she still
seemed grudging, like the only reason it was okay was because it
meant something to Summer or her niece.

He watched her shoulders slump with fatigue
and some invisible burden and his heart ached for her. Stepping
behind her, he let his hands rest on her shoulders. She looked up
at him and for just a moment, heat and want and something that
looked like longing flashed in her eyes, but she tamped it down so
fast it made him doubt he’d seen it at all.

“
Hey, you okay?”

“
Fine.” She nodded, sitting
up straighter. He moved his hands with her, unwilling to break
contact. “Really, I’m fine.”

Her skin was warm through her blouse and he
felt the cool slide of silk under his hands. Without a thought
except to ease some of the tension she carried, he pressed his
thumbs into the soft skin at the base of her neck and started to
rub. She stiffened under his hands and then melted into his
touch.

He moved back and forth across her shoulders,
working out the knots with the soft pads of his fingertips. When he
slid his hands under her hair, the warmth of her body and a fresh
wave of the spicy floral scent she wore threatened to swamp him.
Inhaling slowly, willing his body to behave, he cupped her jaw with
his fingers and pushed his thumbs into the hollow at the base of
her skull.

Her head tipped back to rest in his hands and
her red lips parted. He rubbed small firm circles at the place
where her spine met her head, and she let out a noise of pleasure
so similar to the ones she made when they made love, his cock
sprang to life.

“
My God, that feels good,”
she said on a breath.

“
I’m glad.” He kept up a
steady pressure with his hands, ignoring the pressure in his body.
“You looked like you were carrying the weight of the world on your
shoulders.”

“
Not the whole
world.”

A small smile played across her lips and he
stopped fighting and bent to kiss her. He forced himself not to
makes demands, just the soft brush of his mouth against hers. When
she opened for him, welcoming him, he groaned in pleasure, teasing
and tasting her tongue with his own.

“
Please, let me take you
out tonight,” he said when they pulled apart still breathless from
the kiss. “Let me take you out for dinner and then stay the night
with me. Just one night, please. I miss you so much.”

Her eyes looked sad but she nodded with a
small smile and his heart felt lighter than it had in days.

Jude brought Max with him when he went to
pick up Autumn. He knew she’d worry about her sister staying by
herself and Abby loved the big black dog. The little girl met them
at the door and Max sat so she could wrap her arms around his neck,
a feat she accomplished without even bending down.

“
Hey Abracadabra, how’s it
going?”

“
Fine,” she said, keeping
one arm slung around the dog. “You smell good. You look good,
too.”

“
Thanks.” Jude laughed but
the sound caught in his throat when he saw Autumn coming down the
stairs.

She wore a red dress in some kind of clingy
fabric that hugged every curve of her lush body. Her black heels
made her legs look like they went on forever. Dark long lashes
rimmed impossibly blue eyes and she’d painted her lips to match the
color of her dress. Soft curls framed her face in a sexy halo that
made her look like she’d crawled out of bed and slid into the
dress.