A/N
Ok so this story douse not belong to me I was reading a book and thought it would be funny if it was a story about the h2o characters but throughout the story there is obviously no mention of mermaids like I said the story douse not belong to me and the characters don't either I decided to use Rikki and Zane for this story whenever you see leslie Kelly or slow hands and a number that's just the name of the.
author and page number
13
CONSIDERING SHE WAS BACK at the hospital by 10 a.m. on
Saturday, Rikki might as well have stayed there. If she hadn't
left, if she'd just curled up on the lumpy sofa to wait until visiting
hours, perhaps she could have delayed the inevitable moment
when she'd had to rip her own heart out. Because that's what
she'd done with every word she'd said to Zane in the predawn
hours.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered, rubbing her hands over her
weary eyes as she watched the clock in the hospital waiting area.
Her father was allowed two brief visits per hour, starting at
eleven. She was the first of her family to arrive, and she could
have come in a little later. But what was the point? It wasn't as
if she'd slept, nor had she been doing anything at home that she
couldn't do here. Worrying. Crying. Regretting.
If her fears about her father hadn't kept her brain from
emptying and her eyes from closing in the cold darkness of her
room, her heartache over pushing Zane away would definitely
have done the trick, anyway.
He hadn't been pushed easily. He'd tried hard to dissuade her
from doing what they both knew she didn't really want to do.
But in the end, with tears streaming down her face as she
admitted she was too tired, too frightened and too confused to
think straight, he'd let it go. Let her have her way.
Let her shove him out of her life.
Leslie Kelly 201
Rikki was no fool. She knew he'd only left because he, too,
was worried about her father—and Rikki's own state of mind.
If not for that, she figured they'd still be down in the parking
garage below her building, arguing about whether or not he
really loved her—and would keep loving her.
And whether or not she could allow him to.
Funny, the one thing he hadn't even questioned had been her
feelings. He took her love for him as an utter certainty, though
the words had never come out of her mouth.
It didn't matter. There was no hiding how she felt. From him,
from either of them. "But that's today," she reminded herself as
she watched the clock ease closer to eleven.
Tomorrow, well, her heart could prove to be as fickle and arbitrary
as everyone else's in her family. And Zane deserved more
than that. So much more.
She loved him too much to ever want to hurt him that way.
Even if she hurt every minute of every day for the rest of her life.
"You're here!" a woman's voice said.
Half fearing it would be Deborah, Rikki couldn't help
sighing in relief when she saw Tabby's pinched, pale face.
Rising, she took her sister in her arms and hugged her close,
looking over her shoulder into the corridor beyond to make sure
she had come alone. "Are you all right?"
Tabby nodded. "Fine."
They drew apart. "You don't look fine."
"Well, hell, of course I'm not fine. Are you?"
Rikki shook her head. "But he's going to be all right."
"I know." Tabby reached into her designer purse and plucked
out a wad of tissues, offering one to Rikki taking one and then
wiping under her own eyes. "Can you imagine? Puffy eyes in
my wedding pictures?"
Rikki's jaw dropped open. "What are you talking about?"
Tabby lifted her chin, her lips quivering, then straightening
202 Slow Hands
into a calm line. "Bradley and his family want to proceed with
the wedding this afternoon."
"No, you can't do that!"
"They say it's exactly what Daddy would want."
They were probably correct. But that didn't make it right.
"They also pointed out, quite correctly, that everything is
paid for, food prepared, flowers in place. Dozens of relatives
have already come in from out of town. And that Dad's own
surgeon said he was going to be fine. He just won't be able to
walk me down the aisle…this time."
This time. Somehow, Rikki had the feeling Tabby was repeating
verbatim words someone else had said to her. And she
suddenly wanted to hit that someone for dumping such
pressure—and guilt—on her sister's slim shoulders.
"Don't marry him." The words had left Rikki's mouth
without her brain becoming involved in the decision. Her sister
hadn't asked for her advice—but she gave it anyway, unable to
stop herself. "You know he won't make you happy. You know
you don't love him."
"I lovedmy first husband, and I have loved men since. Maybe
marrying someone I don't love is exactly the right thing to do."
She ran a weary hand over her face, looking every bit as exhausted
as Rikki felt. "It's for the best, Mad. I'm just not cut
out for it, falling in love and staying in father's daughter,
I guess."
How could she argue that, when Rikki had tossed Zane out
of her life for the same reason?
Before she could say any more, though, Tabitha glanced at
the clock. "Come on, let's go. She can't bitch about us going in
first if she didn't bother to show up on time."
Rikki didn't even have to ask who she was. It was 11 a.m.,
Deborah wasn't here, and nobody would keep them from their
father's side.
Leslie Kelly 203
Reaching his room and gingerly pushing the door open,
Rikki held her breath. She expected him to look near death.
Pale and exhausted, weak, stuck with wires and probes and surrounded
by machines.
He was stuck with wires and probes and surrounded by
machines, and he did look tired and pale…but not at all on the
verge of death. Instead, as he saw them standing in the doorway,
he smiled and slowly lifted a hand. "My girls."
They flew to his side and cried like babies. Both of them. The
Ice Queen and the Rich Bitch, sitting on either side of their
father, holding his hands and sobbing their eyes out.
Which he quickly got bored with. "Enough. I'm fine. Stop or
you'll soak my sheets. If the nurses think I wet this bed, I'll never
be able to show my face at a hospital fund-raiser again."
Sniffling, Rikki managed a smile.
"What's going on? I'm dying for news," he said, trying to
sound normal, though his weakness was underscored by the
softness of his voice and the lines of fatigue and pain on his face.
"Everything's fine," Rikki said.
"Absolutely fine," her sister agreed.
"The wedding?"
Tabby stared at him, and Rikki read the anguish there.
"You are going through with it, aren't you? Don't you dare
let this—" her father waved to his own limp body "—stop you
from proceeding." Then, looking up at the ceiling, rather than at
the bride, he added, "If you really want to marry him at all, that
is."
Tabby sucked in a surprised breath. Rikki, who'd known her
father had been having doubts, did not.
"If you don't, feel free to use your old man's weak ticker as
an excuse to get out of the whole mess."
Tabitha just stared, her eyes huge in her pale face, not saying
a single word.
204 Slow Hands
Dad didn't push it. "Poor Deborah, she's not here?"
"I'm sure she'll be here any minute," Rikki said. "We just
took advantage of the fact that we beat her by a few seconds."
"Perhaps."
"She was very worried," Tabby admitted, albeit grudgingly.
"I'm sure she was." Closing his eyes and sinking deeper into
the pillow, he mumbled, "Don't judge her…I've been quite
unkind to that woman."
Remembering what their stepmother had said—about how
her husband had encouraged her to go have an affair—Rikki
could only exchange a stricken glance with Tabitha.
"Shh, it's okay." Tabby stroked her father's thinning gray
hair.
"I don't love her, you see." His eyes closed, his words drifting
into little more than a whisper, as if he was speaking more to
himself than to them. "I'm not sure who said it, but it's true. The
only thing worse than being in a loveless marriage is being in
one where there is love on only one side. You'd think I'd have
learned that by now."
"Stop it. She knew what she was doing," Rikki said, more
worried about her father's health than her stepmother's emotions.
"Besides, you are capable of love, Dad. Just look at us. There's
no doubt in Tabby's mind, or in mine, that you love us every bit
as much as we love you."
A different kind of love—but she wouldn't allow her father
to wallow in self-recrimination, not when he needed to recover.
Her words seemed to surprise him. His eyes flew open. "Oh,
of course I'm capable of love, darling." His frail hands slid across
the thin hospital blanket, so he could grasp his hands around one
of each of his daughters'. "I have loved greatly."
And often.
"That's the problem, you see," he added, his fingers loosening,
as if the effort to clench their handswas too much. "Like many
Leslie Kelly 205
others in my family—your grandmother, who lived alone for
decades, my brother, always looking for the one he foolishly let
get away—I'm at the mercy of my own heart." He lightly tapped
his chest. "Which is, perhaps, a bit weaker than I'd supposed."
"What are you saying?" Tabby asked, in visible confusion.
He smiled up at his oldest daughter, who shared his bright
blue eyes. "I cared for your mother, but we were young. Neither
of us went into it for the right reasons."
Tabitha nodded, conceding the point. "I know."
"And I quite enjoyed many relationships with others over the
years." Then he glanced at Rikki and his eyes moistened, as if
tears were threatening. "But the truth is, we Chadwicks are only
capable of one real love."
Rikki sucked in a breath. She'd never heard her father talk
this way, not in her entire twenty-eight years. And while for a
brief moment, she wondered if his medication had confused
him, she had to acknowledge that his gaze was clear; his voice—
though weak—held certainty and conviction.
"It's a blessing and a curse in our family, but it's true. We can
only manage it once. One great love, never to be forgotten, never
to be replaced, not even if we end up entirely alone." He reached
up and brushed his shaking hand across Rikki's cheek. "You
break my heart and you fill it, every time I look into your eyes
and see her there."
And suddenly she understood the words he was saying. The
truth he'd never admitted before. Her father wasn't guilty of
loving too briefly, or too shallowly.
The greatest tragedy of his life was in having loved so much
he could never say goodbye.
"You're doomed, I'm afraid, both of you. So be vigilant,
listen to your heart," he said, sighing deeply. "And when you do,
savor every moment, don't waste a second of it. I pray you won't
be like me. I found the other half of my heart and have spent
206 Slow Hands
twenty-four years trying to fill the time until I can be with her
again."
Tears flowed freely down Rikki's face. Of all the moments
in her life when she'd regretted having lost her mother, this was
the most poignant.
Their father reached for Tabby's hand again, regarding her
with sad eyes. "You've found the wrong one, darling…again and
again, trying so hard and hoping each time will be better than
the last." Then he turned his attention to Rikki. "And you, my
sweet girl, have closed yourself off completely, never allowing
yourself to believe you'll ever find the right one."
"Oh, Dad," Rikki whispered, her heart breaking for him
more with every word he spoke.
There was, she knew, one gift she could give him, to help ease
his worry, perhaps to help him heal. Just one secret…but the most
important one of Rikki's life. "You're wrong, you know."
He merely waited.
"I've already found him," she said, then bent to press a soft
kiss on his forehead.
He stared at her, seeing the truth there. "I'm so glad," he
whispered. "So very glad." Then he fell asleep, looking comfortable
and relaxed as his breathing continued evenly, steadily.
Rikki and her sister stared at their father, then across his bed
at each other. The shock and grief for the long, lonely years their
father had endured had to have been written just as clearly on
Rikki's face as it was on Tabitha's. And, from both of them,
maybe even sadness for the women who'd hoped to refill the vast
empty wells of his heart that, to this day, mourned for Magdalena.
A nurse intruded, informing them their time was up. They
rose in unison; each bent to kiss their father's cheek before
walking out of the room together.
"I've got to go," Tabby murmured, her voice having lost that
Leslie Kelly 207
anxiety—the sadness and guilt she'd been carrying when she'd
arrived here this morning. "I have a wedding to cancel and a
fiancé to jilt."
Unable to stop herself from smiling, Rikki grabbed her sister's
hand. "Me, too. I've got three words to say to an amazing man."
The love of her life. She no longer had a single doubt about
it. And she would make sure he didn't, either.
"HEY, WALLACE, somebody's here to see you!"
Zane looked up from the medical kit he'd been restocking in
the supply room, surprised that one of the guys had come back
here looking for him. He wasn't even supposed to be on duty
today. He'd taken the day off for a woman who didn't trust him
enough to let him escort her to a family wedding, much less to
love her. But staring at the four walls of his apartment had soon
driven him batty and he'd come to the station house, determined
to do a little restocking and catch up on some paperwork.
"Who is it?"
The guy, one of the newer firefighters, wagged his eyebrows.
And Zane knew.
He shoved the case of sterile bandages he'd been holding back
into the storage closet, slammed the door shut, and strode out to the
front of the station. Rikki stood right outside, her beautiful, dark
hair shimmering in the brilliant June sunshine. Her arms wrapped
around herwaist, shewas dressed, not in her wickedly sexy bridesmaid
dress, but in a simple jean skirt and brightly colored blouse.
The wedding, he figured, must have been postponed. No
surprise there. He couldn't imagine his own sister going through
with her wedding if something happened to their father. But given
the identity of the bride and groom, he hadn't been entirely sure.
"Hey," he said when he reached her side. "You all right?"
She tilted her head back and looked up at him, a gentle smile
widening those beautiful lips. "I'm fine."
208 Slow Hands
"Your father?"
"Fine, too."
Then they fell silent. She'd come here to say something—he
didn't have it in him towork up the hope that it could be something
he truly wanted to hear. That she was wrong—so wrong—to put
those self-protective walls around herself again. That she knew
he'd never hurt her and was ready to admit she loved him, too.
But she said nothing.
"I guess the wedding's been postponed?"
She shook her head.
"Oh. Do you, uh, still need an escort?"
"Yes," she murmured, then cleared her throat. "Yes. I need
an escort."
He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I left my tux back
at my apartment." Glancing at his watch, he said, "Look, I'll go
get it and…"
"No," she said, putting her hand over his mouth to shut him
up. "I don't need an escort to a wedding. It hasn't been postponed.
Tabby called it off. For good."
Sounded like one of the smartest things that sister of hers
had ever done.
Rikki traced the tip of her finger over his lips, then his jaw
and on down his neck before confessing, "But I still want the next
fourteen days you owe me."
"What?"
"And then I want fourteen thousand more."
The ground lurched beneath his feet. Or maybe it was just his
heart flipping around in his chest. Because that had sounded an
awful lot like…
"What I need is an escort for life. I want to be on your arm
forever, Zane, and I want you on mine," Rikki admitted, all
attempts to protect herself, evaporating under the bright summer
sky. "I want you sleeping beside me and waking up beside me.
Leslie Kelly 209
Walking with me, and holding me. Laughing with me, crying with
me, and keepingmefrom ever freezing up into that woman again."
"I love that woman," he said. "I loved her from the beginning.
And I love this one, too. I love every part of you, RikkiChadwick."
Stepping closer, until her body brushed his, she sent all his
nerve endings on alert, filling his head with her sweet scent and
his ears with her tender words. "I love you, too."
Her whisper sent the world spinning again, everything falling
into place, exactly where it belonged. Right and perfect and all
he'd ever dreamed of.
Rikki rose on tiptoe. "I love you so much and I don't ever
want to lose you." She smiled, such a sweet, heartbreaking smile.
"I've finally allowed myself to believe it."
"I'm so glad," he whispered, bending to brush a soft kiss on
her lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him
back, her tongue mating with his, oblivious to time and place and
anybody around them.
When the kiss finally ended, she didn't pull away, remaining
wrapped in his embrace. "You should know, I won't ever let you
go. Even if the world ended tomorrow and we never saw each
other again…I will never let you go."
She didn't have to explain. He understood completely. They
were joined now. Through emotion and words and soon, he
knew, through vows and family. Joined for life.
"Rikki, didn't you learn that the night we met?" he asked
with a teasing kiss to her jaw. "I'll never let you get away from
me, either." Then all teasing faded. "I promise you."
"Well, then, I guess we have a deal," she said. Her eyes
twinkled with merriment and utter happiness. "Because I know
you're not a welsher."
He tilted his head back and laughed up at the sky. He was
happier than he'd ever been, more sure of the two of them being
together than of anything he'd ever done.
210 Slow Hands
And he was grateful—very grateful—to Fate, or whoever it
was that had made him the man she'd chosen that night.
The one she'd chosen for life.
.