On the Fly (28 page)

With that, I had to give him my best
mom voice. “You’d better not do anything to get some. Mommy’s had
enough excitement for today.”

The orderly chuckled and opened the
waiting room door. “Better save that trick for another time, Ginger
Ninja.” Then he wheeled Maddie inside. She instantly became the
center of attention, and for once, she seemed to enjoy
it.

I found Brenden sitting with his
sister and Eric, and I headed that way. There was an empty chair
next to him, and I could easily keep an eye on Maddie from that
vantage point. As soon as I got there, he pulled me onto his lap,
his strong arms drawing me close and enveloping me in his warmth.
He tucked my head beneath his chin, and I put my hands over his
arms where they crossed over my stomach. After today’s ordeal, I
didn’t have it in me to complain about him holding onto
me.

Tuck stayed right by Maddie’s side,
helping her show everyone her staples and explaining how the cape
would help her get better. All the kids came and went, and then
some of the adults started dropping by to sit with her for a little
bit. At one point when I looked up, Razor was kneeling next to the
wheelchair and rolling up his sleeve to show the kids some stitches
on his elbow. A little while later, Nicky pulled up a chair and was
having a very involved conversation with Maddie. Sara Thomas
stopped by at one point and showed them a scar on her own scalp,
and not long after that it was Jonny listening intently to some
story Tuck was relaying, complete with overblown facial expressions
and wild arm-waving, while Maddie nodded.

The whole time that was going on,
Brenden just held me. Eric and Dana got up and moved to talk to
different groups, and various others came and sat in the empty
chairs. We’d talk for a bit and then they’d move on.

When we had been alone for a few
minutes, Brenden dropped his head down next to my ear. “Dana said
she invited you for Christmas.”

“
She did.” My pulse started
to flutter. I turned myself around in his arms until I could look
up at him. “Do you want us to come?”

He tucked my hair behind my ear,
leaving goose bumps everywhere he touched. “More than I know what
to do with.”

“
Okay,” I said. Heat
flooded my face, and he grinned, trailing his fingertips over my
cheeks.

“
You’ll come?”

“
We’ll come.” I could feel
eyes on us from all around the room, which only made me blush
harder. They couldn’t hear us, though—no one was close enough. I
figured now was as good a time as any to talk about some things we
hadn’t really been talking about. “What…um…what is this, you and
me?”

His eyes took on that
melting-chocolate look—the one that made me dissolve into a puddle.
“How about I tell you what I want it to be, and you let me know how
you feel about that? I want you to be my girlfriend. I don’t just
want to be in your life, I want to be in Tuck’s and Maddie’s lives,
too. I want to show all of you that there are good men in the
world, decent men who aren’t going to hurt any of you like their
father did. I want to be the man who teaches Maddie how she should
expect a man to treat her, and I want to help Tuck to grow into
that kind of man. And then when you’re ready, I want
more.”

I was pretty sure I was crying again,
because he was saying all the things that my heart had been
dreaming of for years but that I’d convinced myself didn’t exist.
Men like that were just figments of the imagination, weren’t they?
Sure, they were characters in books and movies, but not living,
breathing human beings. If there were really men like that in the
world, how had I never known one before now?

Brenden wasn’t the only man in my life
now who might fit that bill, though. Jamie had a heart of gold. If
Jim had a flaw, I hadn’t discovered it yet. So maybe they weren’t
just fiction. Maybe I’d just been jaded by having some bad seeds in
my life, like Jason and my dad.

Maybe I needed to give Brenden the
chance to prove he could be those things.

I took a breath so I could rein in my
tears again. “I’m not very good at the whole girlfriend thing. It’s
been a long time, and the last time I ended up pregnant and married
at sixteen.”

“
I can help you with that
if you can teach me things like how to work the kids’ booster
seats. Not to mention how you keep things clean when Tuck is
around.”

I couldn’t stop myself from
smiling at that one. “Deal.” I leaned my head on his shoulder,
settling myself into his warmth again. After a minute, I pulled
back. He raised a brow in question, and I said, “When you said when
I was ready you would want
more
, what did you mean?”

“
I meant I want
everything.” Brenden brushed some hair out of my eyes and kissed my
forehead. He pulled me close to his chest again. “When you’re
ready.”

I stayed like that, my head on his
shoulder, his strong arms holding me close, and tried to let it all
sink in. It had been so long since I’d even entertained the idea of
dating, of being in a relationship with a man, that I wasn’t sure
what to do with it.

After a while, the room
started to clear out. Martha waved at me while she ushered her
grandkids out the door. She had a bouquet of flowers in her
hands.
“Ericsson,”
she mouthed to me when I questioned her with my eyes. He had
promised her he’d bring her flowers next, after all. David Weber
gathered up his two teens and had them say good-bye to Tuck and
Maddie before they left. Stéphane Montfort and his wife carted
their kids off—he had to carry Sylvie because she’d fallen asleep
after all the excitement of the day—and Jamie and his parents
herded all his brothers out the door.

The caterers came back to clear away
all the food, which made me realize I hadn’t eaten anything in
hours. I’d wait until I got home, though. It’d be easier than
making myself move away from the security I felt with Brenden’s
arms around me.

Before long, only a handful of us were
left in the waiting room, and the orderly came back for
Maddie.

At that point, I made myself get off
Brenden’s lap. He came with me, his hand casually resting on my
waist.

“
The doctor wants to run
one last set of vitals,” the orderly said, “and if everything looks
good, you’ll be free to go.”

Tuck pushed himself between me and
Brenden, reaching up to take each of our hands as he forced us
apart. “I wanna run a set of vials, too. I’m gonna win!”

Tuck didn’t wake
up while I was trying to get him in bed—not even
when I used a wet washcloth to clean his face and hands as best I
could. The cheesy brownie stuff was still so stuck on him hours
after he’d eaten that I had to scrub him pretty hard to get it
free, and even then I was fairly certain I’d missed some. He just
smacked his lips together a few times and rolled around while I did
it, completely oblivious to anything happening. I’d never known
anyone who could sleep as hard as this kid.

I was doing everything all wrong with
him, I had to be, but at least this way Rachel could just worry
about putting Maddie to bed. We hadn’t gotten back to her place
after leaving the hospital until well after ten, and it had been an
overly full day, long and filled with excitement of nearly every
variety. I was exhausted, so I couldn’t even begin to imagine the
emotional drain today had been for Rachel.

Once I’d cleaned as much of the gunk
off Tuck as I could, I tugged his shoes off and set them by the
closet door. I should probably try to put him in some pj’s. He’d
sleep better in them than he would in a dirty T-shirt and jeans.
That seemed like taking things too far, though, considering what
had happened to Maddie. These kids didn’t know me very well yet. I
wasn’t their dad. I probably shouldn’t take his clothes off
him—nothing more than his coat and shoes, which I’d already done.
Instead, I pulled the covers down and set him in the middle of the
bed, then tucked him in.

He rolled over onto his belly and
pulled his pillow into his arms, hugging it close. That was going
to have to be good enough.

I turned off the lamp by his bed and
headed back out into the living room, passing Pumpkin in the hall
on the way. The cat hissed and kept a wide berth.

Rachel must have finished with Maddie
faster than I took care of Tuck because she was already sitting on
the sofa with her head back and her eyes closed. She looked like
she might be asleep. Lord knew we both needed sleep after today. I
almost didn’t want to disturb her.

It’d probably be best if I just went
across the hall to my own place anyway. We had a game tomorrow, and
it was in the middle of the afternoon. Afternoon games always
screwed with my body clock, since about 95 percent of our games
were in the evenings. We all had a system in place—one that
included taking an afternoon nap right around the time the puck
would drop for this game. I needed to get some rest while I could
so I would have enough energy and focus to get through the
game.

But Rachel lifted her head and smiled
before I could leave. “I figured Pumpkin was hissing at
you.”

“
Is that something special
he reserves just for me, or does he hiss at a lot of
people?”

“
Just men.” Rachel shifted
over on the sofa, making room on it like she wanted me to join her.
“He didn’t always, though. It started a few years ago when he
started hissing at Jason and the repairman for my apartment. I
don’t know what brought it on.”

I sat down beside her even though I
should have gone back to my place. “I’ve got a couple of ideas on
that.”

“
Huh?” Her eyes flitted up
to meet mine. “Oh. Yeah, you’re probably right.”

That brought a heaviness back to her
posture. I shouldn’t have said anything. I should have kept my damn
mouth shut. “I’m sorry,” I said, putting my arm around her
shoulder.

She came to me easily this time,
letting me tug her close to my side. She rested her hand on my
chest. Her fingers tickled me as she trailed them over my shirt.
“Tuck got you just as dirty as he got himself.”

I looked down. She was picking at a
crusty bit hanging off the front of my shirt. I put my hand over
hers to stop her. “He is a boy,” I said. “Boys are pretty messy, if
I remember right.”

Her eyes traveled over to my sleeve
and all the blood there. “Oh God. That’s going to set in if we
don’t soak it.”

“
It’s just a
shirt.”

She shook her head and pulled away. In
seconds, she’d stood up and gone to the kitchen. “Take it off and
give it to me. I can save it.” She turned the faucet on and bent
down, sorting through the cleaning products in the cabinet under
the sink.

“
It’s really not a big
deal,” I said.

“
It is a big deal. Because
it’s Maddie’s— Because you—”

The last thing I wanted tonight was
for her to get all worked up and start crying again. Especially
over something as ridiculous as my shirt. There’d already been more
than enough of that to last us a while. “Okay. It’s a big deal.” I
stood up and pulled it over my head. I crossed over to her and
passed it across the bar when she met my eyes.

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips,
and her gaze dropped down to my bared chest. She blushed and
immediately dropped her head to focus on getting my shirt treated
and soaking.

God, she was so pretty when she
blushed. I hated not having her in my arms, not being able to touch
her in some way. I moved to the other side of the bar and pulled
her back to my front, resting my hands on her belly. Her hair still
smelled like her shampoo, vanilla and some floral fragrance or
another. The scent tickled my nostrils.

“
I don’t know how many
times Mom had to do this same thing when I was a kid,” I
said.

“
I’m sure your mother has a
lot of stories.”

“
If I’m not careful when
she’s here, she’ll talk your ear off telling you all about me, and
I won’t get any time with you.”

“
That wouldn’t be
horrible.” Rachel rinsed her hands under the faucet and dried them
on a towel. She tossed it back to the counter when she was
done.