Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (183 page)

“Capisce,” his daughter repeated happily, her eyes filled with life and laughter as she beamed up at him.

“Eddie.” The last voice he wanted to hear right now filled the small space. It was accompanied by the sound of high heels clicking into the room. “Thank God you’re here. I’ve been handling all this alone.”

His eyes had never left Emily and he saw that his daughter’s face dropped the moment Lacey walked in. He felt what little energy she had withdraw, like a turtle going back into its shell.

“Get out,” Eddie spoke in a deadly calm voice.

“Eddie, I’m her mother,” Lacey screeched.

Without sparing her a glance, he stated again. “Lacey. Get. Out.”

There were several dramatic sounds of shock and dismay before one final frustrated puff of air. The next thing he heard was the click-clacking of heels as they left the room.

Emily’s big brown eyes looked up at Haley and her lips turned up into a bigger smile than he’d seen on her face all week. Em gave Haley a knowing look as she declared, “She’s
worse
than Splash N’ Slide. But at least, now we know.”

Both of the girls began giggling and nodding their heads in understanding.

Eddie had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, but he was so happy to see Emily laughing that he didn’t care.

“Haley,” a male voice boomed from the door.

Eddie looked over his shoulder. Officer Williams was standing in the doorway.

“Now that Eddie’s here, I need you to come with me so I can get your statement.”

“You have to go?” His daughter’s voice cracked as she reached for Haley’s hand.

“Yep. But I’ll be back tomorrow to see you. Okay?” Haley leaned down and kissed Emily on her forehead. “I promise.”

“Okay,” Emily said doing her best not to show her disappointment, but she was clearly not happy about it.

As Haley moved from his daughter’s bedside, Eddie noticed that she was limping.

“Haley,” he barked.

She jumped a little as she turned to face him.

When she did, he saw that her knees looked like they’d been chewed up by something rough and gravely.

“What happened?”

Haley looked totally lost at his question. He nodded towards her knees, and she waved her injuries off with a smile, but he saw tears pooling in her eyes.

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

With that, she turned and followed Officer Williams out of the door.

Riley and Chelle must have passed her in the hall, because just moments after she left, they entered the room.

Eddie sat silently beside his baby girl while she talked and laughed with his sister and his brother-in-law. He couldn’t think clearly. There were just so many emotions flooding his system. Anger. Fear. Anger. Guilt. Anger. Relief. Anger.

Eddie had heard once that anger was a by-product of fear, and maybe that was the case. Maybe he was so mad because he’d been so scared. When he’d heard that his daughter had been hit by a car, nothing else in the world had mattered. The only thing he’d cared about was her being okay. That’s it.

All the drama with Lacey. All the confusion over Haley. That shit had been clouding his mind for too long. Now his daughter was lying in a hospital bed.

No more. No distractions. The only thing he cared about was keeping his baby girl safe.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

HALEY GINGERLY WALKED across the hospital parking lot, trying not to pull on the bandages taped on her knees. The sun was shining brightly off all the windshields of the cars that lined the rows of the crowded lot. The heat was already stifling. Haley squinted her eyes and yawned.

She was officially exhausted. Yesterday, she’d felt like she’d been put through the emotional wringer. Never in her life had she been so scared. So helpless. The vision of Emily’s limp body, lying in the road next to the spinning wheel of her bike, would forever be etched in Haley’s mind.

It had been after midnight before she’d finally gotten to go home from the police station. It had taken over six hours to give her statement on two separate reports. First, the car accident, which Haley hadn’t been much help with since she hadn’t seen anything. The second was an assault charge.

Apparently, Lacey’s story was that Haley had attacked
her,
not the other way around. So Haley had had to tell and retell the events as they had unfolded leading up to the accident and recount the push that Lacey was claiming to have been on the receiving end of, when in actuality she had been on the giving end.

Officer Williams said that they had plenty of eye witnesses and that the truth, whatever it might be, would shine through. Haley sure hoped so because she was firmly on the right side of the truth.

A burst of cool air hit Haley as she stepped into the hospital and made her way to the elevator banks. She knew that Emily had been moved to the pediatric ward. She’d heard the doctors telling Vickey before she left with Officer Williams yesterday that they would be moving her within the hour. They’d also said they were going to be running some tests this morning, and if everything looked good, Emily would be released by this afternoon.

There was a loud swoosh as the elevator doors opened. As soon as Haley exited the elevators, she heard her favorite sound in the world. Emily’s laughter. She followed the joyful noise down the hall, and when she walked into Emily’s room, she saw her cousin Alex, his wife Jamie, and their son Joey all seated around Emily’s bed. From what she could tell, Alex and Joey were entertaining the girls with one of their famous who-can-make-a-funnier-face contests.

“Haley!” Emily sat up higher in her bed, a smile beaming on her face.

Haley immediately noticed that Emily’s color was back and she didn’t look like she was in any pain at all. “Hey, pretty girl. How are you feeling?”

“Better!” she exclaimed happily.

“I can tell.” Haley looked around the room at all the flowers, balloons, and bears. Of course she knew that a lot of people loved this little girl, but seeing all these visual exhibits warmed her heart. Especially after dealing with Lacey yesterday, it was nice to see how many people cared.

That woman deserved all the bad things people had said about her. Not because of anything she’d done to Eddie or the fact that she’d attacked Haley, but because of the way she’d handled her daughter being hit by a car. If it were up to Haley, Lacey would not come anywhere near Emily. Ever again.

“Hey, cuzzo. How are your legs?”

“Fine. Nothing a little hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin couldn’t handle.”

A beeper sounded and Jamie, who was dressed in purple scrubs, popped up out of the chair. “Time to get back to work.”

Leaning over, Jamie kissed Emily on the cheek then did the same to Joey. When she
tried
to do the same to Alex, he pulled her in for the real thing.

Joey made gagging noises and Emily covered her eyes. Jamie pulled away and swatted at his arm. Then she pointed her finger at him and, in what Haley imagined was her attempt at trying to be authoritative, said, “Stop it. Be good.”

Alex’s eyes twinkled at his wife as he shot back, “I’m
always
good.”

“All right. Enough.” Haley stepped in, lifting her hands because she knew how her cousin could be. “There are children present.”

Jamie walked away shaking her head. “Sorry, Hales. I can’t control him.”

Haley loved Jamie. Before Alex had met Jamie, he’d been a little bit—a lot!—of a man-whore. He went through women like other people went through socks. But since the moment he’d laid eyes on Jamie, no other women had existed to him.

Alex was a good guy, and she wasn’t just saying that because he was her cousin. She’d never understood why he’d been the way he’d been with the opposite sex, but she could see that he was a thousand times happier now than he ever had been hooking up with different women five nights out of the week.

“All right, little man. We’ve got to get you to swim lessons.”

“Okay.” Joey hopped off the end of Emily’s bed. “Bye, Em. If you get bored and want to play
Skylanders
, call me.”

As Joey skipped out the door, Alex stopped in front of Haley. “Are you really okay? I know something like that can really shake a person up.”

“I’m fine. Really.” Haley tried her best to be convincing enough that he wouldn’t worry.

“What about the rest of it? The”—Alex mouthed—“K-I-S-S?”

Why did her cousins always have to be all up in her business?

“I’m fine,” she said again, giving him a quick hug then moving past him to the bed next to Em.

“Glad to see you’re feeling better, munchkin.” Alex tugged on Emily’s foot before leaving the room.

In the hall, Haley heard her cousin whistle and say, “Hey there, Hot Lips O’ Houlihan.”

All she heard in reply was a deep grunt. Sooo…Eddie was here.

His heavy footsteps sounded behind her.

“Daddy, when I get home, can Joey come over and play
Skylanders
?” Emily quickly asked, looking over Haley’s shoulder.

“Maybe,” Eddie’s gravelly voice sent all kinds of tingles and jingles racing through Haley’s body. “It depends on how you’re feeling.”

Haley turned. Eddie was in a fresh set of clothes and his hair was still wet, so he must have just gone home to shower and change while Jamie and Alex had been with Em.

“Hi,” she said, not sure if he even wanted to speak to her. Not that she would blame him. His daughter had been
run over by a car
under her care. He had every right to never talk to her again.

* * * * *

“HEY,” EDDIE REPLIED as he looked down into Haley’s clear blue eyes, causing his chest to tighten like someone had a vise around it and was turning the crank.

All night, as he’d sat beside Emily’s bed, he’d thought about what he would have done if something more serious had happened to his baby girl. If he had lost her…he wouldn’t have survived it.

He was still mad. Still scared. Maybe those emotions shouldn’t be directed towards Haley, but right now they were.

“All right, princess. Your chariot awaits,” Vickey announced in a grand fashion as she pushed a wheelchair into the room.

“Are you taking her for tests?” Eddie heard the strain in his voice. He’d been trying his best to hide it from Em, but it was starting to bleed through.

“Yep. They are ready for your photo shoot,” Vickey said as she helped Emily out of the bed.

Emily gave Vickey a strange look. “My photo shoot?”

“Well,
they
call it an MRI, but all they’re doing is taking a picture of your brain, and I say if people are snapping pictures, it’s a photo shoot.”

Emily smiled as she got situated in the wheelchair.

“Do I go or…?” Eddie asked. He wasn’t sure what the protocol was.

“You stay here and relax. I’ll be with her the whole time,” Vickey winked at him and smiled as she pushed Emily out of the room.

Emily was talking up a storm about the last school photos that she’d taken and how Miley Rice had worn a bright orange turtleneck. Eddie was so happy to hear his baby talking a mile a minute again. Since he’d kicked Lacey out of the room yesterday, she’d seemed almost back to herself.

“Eddie…” Haley’s trembling voice sounded like she was on the verge of bursting into tears.

He turned back and saw her standing beside the bed, biting the inside of her lip. She was nervous.

“I just wanted to tell you I am
so
sorry, Eddie. I told her to go ride her bike so she wouldn’t hear my conversation with Lac—”

“It’s fine,” he interrupted her sharply.

Her eyes searched his for a moment but then she continued. “I know you are upset and you have eve—”

“Haley,” he barked. “I said it’s fine.”

A flash of hurt crossed her face as huge tears pooled in her eyes. “Okay,” she said with a shaky breath, nodding her head. “Well, tell Em I’ll see her later. And let me know if you guys need anything.”

By the last sentence, the massive tears had tipped over her bottom lid and were falling down her face. Looking up at him, she smiled through them and said, “Bye Eddie,” before quickly brushing past him, disappearing out the door.

Eddie walked to the window and rubbed his hands over his face. He knew he’d just been an asshole and Haley hadn’t deserved it, but he just didn’t want to hear her apologies. His baby could have been killed. She couldn’t just say sorry for that.

“Where’s our patient?” The Colonel’s loud voice echoed through the small room as he stepped inside.

Eddie turned around to face The Colonel as exhaustion rolled through him. He slunk back against the window sill, all his energy draining out of him at once. “She’s getting an MRI.”

“I ran into Haley in the hall. She was crying a river. You have anything to do with that?” The Colonel asked in a tone that made Eddie stand up a little straighter. Hell, it had almost made him bring his hand to his head and salute while saying a crisp, “No, sir.”

But that would be a lie.

“Yes,” Eddie answered honestly.

The Colonel didn’t ask another question, just stood staring at Eddie. He felt the weight of The Colonel’s gaze and he fought against it. Eddie did not answer to people about his personal life. Ever.

But The Colonel just had a way about him that made you talk. In Eddie’s opinion the man had missed his calling as an interrogator.

“She was apologizing and I snapped at her,” Eddie voluntarily explained.

“What in the Sam Hill was she saying sorry for?”

“For not watching Em. For Em getting run over by a car.” Eddie’s voice started to rise so he stopped talking. He would never want to be disrespectful to The Colonel, but this was his
daughter
they were talking about.

“I see.” The Colonel pursed his wrinkled lips as he nodded his head. Taking a deep breath, he moved closer to Eddie and spoke in a low tone. “I know that when things happen that you can’t control, it’s scary. And it’s real easy to get mad and start pointin’ blame at the people around you. The people you know will always be there for you. The people you love.”