Running into Love
Page 45

“Son.” He shakes his head, reaching out to touch the top of my head. “You doing okay?”
“I’m good. The doctor said I should be out in a couple days.”
“Good.” He nods, and I can tell he’s working at holding back the emotions written all over his face.
“Jesus, man, you sure know how to get attention, don’t you?” Lucas says, coming over to stand on the other side of the bed.
“Jealous?”
“A little. I wouldn’t mind lying around for a few days having people wait on me hand and foot,” he jokes, and I shake my head at him as he leans down, touching his forehead to mine. “But seriously, I’m happy as fuck that you’re okay.”
“Me, too,” I agree, then watch Fawn’s parents come over.
“We had to come,” Katie says, leaning down to give me a kiss on my cheek. “I’m glad to see you’re okay, we’ve been worried sick.”
“Thanks for coming,” I say, and she smiles as Aiden touches the top of my head like my dad did moments ago before stepping back without a word. Getting hugs from the rest of my family, I frown when Eva walks into the room with a woman I know. Jesus, this bitch just doesn’t fucking stop.
“Levi,” Heather says as she comes toward me, and I look at Fawn, who is now standing next to my bed. Her face goes pale, which pisses me the fuck off.
“What the fuck, Eva?” Lucas asks, and she turns her eyes to him.
“She wanted to see him—she could have lost him.”
“I can’t believe you would do this right now,” Mom says glaring at Heather and Eva.
“I just . . . Eva told me what happened and I wanted to . . .”
“That’s nice and all, but if you’re who I think you are, then you need to leave. If Levi wanted anything to do with you, he would have called you, but he didn’t,” Libby says, and I hold back a smile. Libby is hard as nails when it comes to her family.
“She’s right. I appreciate your concern, but we have nothing to talk about,” I state firmly, and Heather looks around the room before looking at me once more.
“We were going to get married. I still care about you,” she says, but I know it’s a lie. She didn’t care about me when we were together, and she sure as fuck doesn’t care about me now.
“If you don’t leave, I will call security to escort you out,” Fawn says as Heather starts toward the bed.
“You can’t do that,” Eva says. Fawn’s eyes go to her.
“I can and I will. You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
“Who do you think you are?” Eva asks as her face turns red.
“Eva, take Heather and leave,” Mom says.
“Seriously?” she asks, looking at Mom, then at Lucas.
“Yes,” Lucas says, and she narrows her eyes.
“Whatever, I’m leaving,” Heather says. Eva looks around the room, glaring at everyone, before she disappears out the door with Heather.
“Good riddance,” Fawn mutters, and I chuckle, then groan again. Her eyes fly down to me. “Are you okay?”
“Kiss me.”
“No.”
“Kiss me,” I repeat, and she sighs, then leans down, pressing a kiss to my lips.
“Love you, baby.”
“I love you, too.” She rests her hand against the side of my face, kissing me once more, softly, before taking a seat on the chair next to my bed, where she pretty much stays until it’s time for me to be released from the hospital.
Watching Fawn walk into the living room with the phone to her ear, I set my computer aside, then tag her hand as she tries to pass me. I pull her toward me, forcing her to take a seat. I dodge her hand as she reaches out to smack me away as I try to kiss her. “Yes, I will be there Saturday at noon,” she says to whomever she’s talking to, and I kiss the side of her neck, smiling as she tries to elbow me, never putting enough force behind the action to actually do damage, since she knows I’m still healing. It’s been four days since I was released from the hospital, and even though I still have a lot of healing and physical therapy to do, I feel back to myself.
“Okay, I’ll see you Monday, Mrs. Thompson, and thank you for the update,” she says, pulling the phone away from her ear and hitting the “End Call” button. “Seriously, you need to stop. You are going to end up hurting yourself,” she grouches, glaring at the smile on my face.
“What was the phone call about?” I ask, ignoring her glare. She narrows her eyes when I try to pull her into my lap.
“Mrs. Thompson talked to Tamara’s grandmother today. She wanted to let me know that Tamara will be moving. She didn’t want me to worry when Tamara wasn’t at school when I return to work next week.”
“What’s going on Saturday?”
“They are having a service for Tamara’s mom. Her grandmother asked Mrs. Thompson to let me know so I could go show my support if I wanted to.”
“You feel up to that?”
“Yes,” she says quietly, then turns sideways on the couch to face me completely. “I’m glad that Tamara’s getting some kind of closure. I just hope now she can work on healing.”
“Me, too, baby,” I agree softly. The DNA from the SUV came back as that of Elia Albergastey, so we knew something happened to Tamara’s mom in that vehicle. The CSI team concluded that one person could not lose that much blood and survive without immediate medical help, which left us to conclude, sadly, that Tamara’s mother had been murdered.
“What are the moms doing?” I ask, hearing banging in the apartment next door, and she rolls her eyes.
“Who the hell knows? I swear, they are going to make me lose my mind. Whose idea was it to let them help me move, anyway?” she asks, looking at the wall between our apartments when the banging gets even louder.
“Yours.” I smile, and her nose scrunches up.
“I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You were thinking that you wanted to take care of me, so you needed their help to move you out of your space and into mine,” I remind her. The day I got released from the hospital, Lucas asked me if I could help him find a place in the city, and Fawn told him that she knew of the perfect spot, then went on to say that she was moving in with me. I was a little surprised but honestly happy as fuck that she was moving in earlier than February. My family is a little disappointed that Lucas is leaving the town we grew up in, but they understand completely that he needs a change—and since he filed for divorce from Eva two days ago, he needs that change to come with at least a hundred miles attached to it.
No one was happy about Eva showing up at the hospital with Heather, but Lucas was so pissed, he finally broke down and told everyone he was leaving his wife. Not that she really cared. Apparently she had been having an affair for the last year and was all too happy to tell Lucas that she was already planning on moving in with the guy. Thankfully, though, she agreed to give Lucas full custody of Madeline, since her new man isn’t exactly interested in raising another man’s child.
“That’s true—at least one good thing is coming out of their stay,” she mutters, bringing me out of my head.
“It hasn’t been that bad.” I smile, and she glares.
“It hasn’t been that bad? Really, are you crazy?” she huffs, making me grin. “Okay, I will admit the first couple of days it wasn’t so bad because they were occupied with you, but now I swear, every time I go over there, they are talking about weddings and babies. And your mom is constantly trying to convince me to move to Connecticut so she can help raise her nonexistent grandchild. I think that is the only time they really fight.”
“They fight?” I ignore the comments about my mom since I’ve been hearing it firsthand for the last few days. She keeps saying that I need to think about moving home, where there is less crime. I know what happened shook her, but that kind of shit could happen anywhere, and unfortunately, in my line of work it’s a risk you have to take.
“They don’t really fight, they just bicker about crap like where we’re going to get married, where the baby—that doesn’t exist—is going to be baptized, who is going to babysit said baby, who’s going to be Nana and who’s going to be Grandma. You know, crap like that. I’m pretty sure they are both certifiably nuts.” She sighs, looking at the wall again when the banging starts back up.