Chapter 46
Noah lowered himself onto the sofa, closing his eyes tiredly as he listened to the sound of Reese's footsteps thudding up the stairs. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, groaning softly at the headache he felt building behind his eyes. He felt the hair on the nape of his neck prickle, and his eyes snapped open to find his dad standing before him. "Dad?" he questioned softly, leaning forward in an effort to see him better. "I didn't hear you. Is Mom okay?" He studied his father in the pale wash of the moonlight as he seated himself beside him on the sofa. His dad's face held a tiredness, a fatigue, Noah had never seen before now. Noah silently wondered if that tiredness had already existed, and he just hadn't seen it until he chose to come home. Too late.
The muscles of his thigh tensed momentarily under his father's hand, and he willed himself to relax as he looked into the pair of blue eyes that mirrored his own. "Your mom's not okay, Noah. But I think she will be. As unbelievable as it all sounds right now.I think we ALL will be. I'm glad you're home, Noah. Your mother needs all of us right now." Guilt made Noah hang his head at his dad's words. Guilt that it had taken his own sister's death to bring him home. He felt his throat closing up on him suddenly and air fleeing his lungs, making it a struggle to breathe. He looked into his dad's eyes, expecting to find them full of accusation and maybe even a little anger. But all he found was acceptance and love, relief, and somewhere in those emotion-riddled blue depths, a quiet happiness simply because he was home. Home where he belonged. "I'm sorry, Dad," Noah choked, crumpling before his father's eyes. "I should have been here." Noah's shuddering eased slightly under his dad's firm, comforting hand on his shoulder, and he felt a portion of the burden of failing his family lifted off his shoulders with his dad's next words. "Don't be. You're here now. Make it count."
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"Mijo," Pilar whispered softly as she threaded her fingers through Cristian's dark hair, careful not to wake her grandson. "You didn't have to come for Cristian. I do not mind watching him." Luis smiled at his mother. "I know, Mama," he told her, shifting Cristian's dead weight to his other arm and embracing Pilar with his free arm. "Thank you, Mama, for watching him. But you already have MJ and Joshua. They need you a little bit more right now." "Luis," Pilar protested half-heartedly, clutching the edges of her robe tightly with one hand and moving the other to rest on Cristian's back, feeling the rise and fall of his chest with each breath. "All my grandchildren need me." "Yes, they do, Mama," Luis agreed, resting his cheek against his son's soft hair. "But tonight I'm going to cut you a break," Luis murmured, leaning forward to brush his lips against his mother's forehead.
Behind Pilar, in the living room, Miguel was asleep on the couch, MJ draped over his chest. "You and Papa have your hands full," Luis said, smiling slightly as his father came up behind his mother, Joshua dozing against his shoulder with his tiny thumb stuck firmly in his mouth. "Luis," Pilar attempted once more, "Cristian is no trouble." Luis shook his head, raising a hand in dismissal and goodbye. "Tonight, Mama.I just need to be close to him. Okay?" Pilar nodded, leaning back in Martin's ready arms. "And Mama." "Yes, Mijo?" Pilar's voice raised in question. "Don't come down on Miguel too hard. He's just having to find his own way." "I'll make sure she doesn't," Martin promised. "Give those beautiful girls of yours a kiss from us." "Don't worry about that, Papa," Luis said, his voice slightly gruff. "I got it covered."
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"Chad, don't go. Stay," Theresa pleaded, looping her arms around Chad's waist and staring up at him with luminous dark eyes. "Please.you don't have to leave. It's late, and I don't think Luis is coming back tonight. We can sleep out here on the couch if you're afraid." "Now wait just a minute," Chad interrupted her with a grin. "Who said I was afraid of your brother? You're an adult, Theresa. You're not the kid I first met anymore. You're all grown up," Chad said, pausing to demonstrate just how grown-up with his short but passionate kiss, "and well past the marryin' age." Chad fell silent, panic starting to suffuse his body as he realized how she might choose to take his statement.
Theresa's big brown eyes sparkled laughingly at him as she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him down the hall to her bedroom. She let go of his hand to pick up a familiar orange tee shirt off the back of her vanity chair, and Chad shook his head in disbelief. "That's my favorite shirt." "Mine, too," Theresa giggled, hurriedly unbuttoning her blouse and shrugging it off her shoulders before he could steal the shirt back from her. "I've been looking for that shirt for weeks. You stole it last time you stayed over, didn't you?" "So what if I did?" Theresa teased, her voice muffled as she pulled the tee-shirt over her dark head and let it settle around her knees. Chad smirked as he stripped down to his boxers and scooted beneath the quilt to lay beside her. "I don't know," he said, reaching for her and pulling her close. Theresa shrieked when she felt his hands creep underneath the shirt and start to tickle her ribs. "I might just have to steal it back," Chad informed her, refusing to let her squirming body loose. And Theresa laughed, grateful for the closeness and distraction he was offering her.
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Nick sighed, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling. Dammit, but he couldn't sleep. SOMETHING was off. He'd tried counting sheep. He'd even read a little. Neither thing had worked, and now he was reduced to staring at the ceiling and straining his ears to pick up any movement in the room a few feet away, trying to pretend to himself the entire time that he really was counting the non-existent cracks on the ceiling. He kicked in frustration at the confining sheets tangled around his body, finally shoving them to his waist. He flopped ungracefully onto his side, forcing himself not to stare at his open bedroom door. He didn't want to think about the implications to such a small action as leaving the door wide open. Small but significant he was certain, and he didn't want to face up to them just yet. Or admit to the fact that he'd grown so used to sharing his bed in the past week with the woman down the hall.not having her beside him was bordering on unnatural.
Nick wanted to draw Abby and her vivacity close, but keep her at an arm's distance at the same time, and those conflicting feelings weighing on his mind were making it impossible for him to even close his eyes and think about getting some shut-eye. Not to mention closing his eyes pretty much assured that he'd be bombarded with a constant replay of the gold of her eyes after she'd stunned him speechless by kissing the hell out of him. He hated to think what might have happened had Shane and Noah Bennett not been witness to Abby's impromptu attack. She was just beginning to weaken his defenses against her when he'd remembered the other two men. He didn't want to give Abby's brother the wrong impression. There was absolutely nothing going on between him and his oddly likable little sister. Absolutely nothing at all, Nick told himself as he stared at the frost along the borders of the window opposite him. Nothing, he reminded himself, not daring to move as he felt the mattress dip slightly under the weight of another body and the press of a cold nose between his shoulder blades. He smiled when small hands reached around his waist, burrowing under his tee-shirt for warmth. He wasn't even going to think about the indisputable fact that he was more than glad to have her next to him.
Nick kept a hand clasped over Abby's hands as he turned over in the bed, finding himself staring into her sleepy but twinkling hazel eyes. His hand reached forward of its own accord, tucking a strand of tawny hair back behind her ear. "Your bed's warmer than mine," Abby offered lamely, breaking a silence and stare that was fast bordering on uncomfortable. Nick winced when he felt cold toes brush against his legs, and he trapped Abby's feet between them. Abby grinned, flexing her cold toes against his calves to get a reaction. Nick shivered slightly, gritting out a warning. "Stop that. Why are you always so damned cold?" Abby snuggled closer, and Nick was distracted by her laughing hazel eyes and their flecks of gold just long enough to be shocked to discover her hands have moved higher beneath his tee-shirt. "Don't you know? Every night I sneak out in the buff and make snow angels, and then I charm my way into your bed," she quipped. "You, of course, fall for it every time. I think you secretly enjoy 'warming' me up," she teased, crinkling up her nose. "God knows it gives me a thrill," she cracked, and he found himself smiling with her.
Nick caught himself staring at her a couple of times in the next several minutes, and he caught Abby smirking back. The alcohol Abby'd consumed had all but obliterated what little inhibitions she possessed, and he groaned as he felt her hand resting over his heart wander, one long nail scratching over his nipple before traveling down his side. He wasn't positive, but he may have ceased breathing altogether when he felt the fingers of that same hand dip just below the waistband of his boxers and rest against his hip. "I've been told it helps to breathe," she teased huskily, her mouth hovering just inches from his own. "We got interrupted earlier," Abby said, leaning forward and indulging herself by planting a few open-mouthed caresses along the fast-warming skin of his neck, and Nick cursed the surge of lust that swept through his body when he felt the moisture of her tongue along the underside of his jaw. "We were finally getting somewhere.I thought I finally had my REAL kiss.and the one voice.God, I love your eyes," Abby broke off suddenly, surprising Nick with her fierce attack of his mouth. Apparently, the greedy mesh of Abby's lips and teeth and tongue short-circuited all the neurons in Nick's brain because it faltered and was overruled by something else altogether, and God help him, he was kissing Abby back. Giving as good as he got but praying the entire time that common sense would swoop in and prevail to prevent him from making a momentous mistake. Obviously, this wasn't nothing. Nothing never was this much trouble.
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Luis eased the door to Ali's hospital room open with his shoulder, backing inside and keeping a watchful eye out for Nurse Ellie. Police Chief or not, the woman would have his hide for breaking visiting hour rules. The hallway was quiet with no sign of Ellie or any of the other nurses for that matter, and Luis cradled Cristian close to his chest as he stepped into Ali's room. Ali's face was peaceful and relaxed in repose, and Luis breathed a sigh of relief to find his wife's beautiful face similarly serene. Cristian sighed in his sleep but did not wake as Luis carried him across the room and carefully lay him beside his mother, and Luis smiled tenderly at the pair as he watched Sheridan slip a loving arm around Cristian's small body and cuddle him close unconsciously in her sleep. He brushed a gentle hand over Cristian's dark head and pressed his lips against Sheridan's cheek, straightening up and releasing a surprised breath when he found himself staring into the clear and unblinking blue eyes of his young daughter. "Daddy," Ali smiled sleepily, outstretching her little hand. Luis clasped warm fingers around her tiny palm and brought it to his lips before laying it back down beside her and kissing the crown of her golden head. "Sleep, AliCat. I'm here. We're here," he murmured, combing his fingers through her pale locks until her heavy lids drooped again. "Sleep," he whispered, taking the chair beside her bed and drinking in the sight of her, his son, his wife as they breathed rhythmically and quietly. "Just sleep. Daddy's here."
Chapter 47
"But Mommy," Cristian whined plaintively. "I don't want to go. I want to stay here with you and Ali." Sheridan raised moist blue eyes to Luis's face, and Luis gave his wife a sympathetic look. He knew how much she always hated this. Saying goodbye. It didn't matter that it was only for a short period of time. She never liked being apart from either Cristian or Ali for any period of time. "I know you do, Honey," Sheridan whispered, caressing Cristian's damp cheeks with the pads of her thumbs. "But remember.you were supposed to spend the day with Sara and Emily and their grandpa. You don't want the girls to be disappointed, do you?" "I guess not," Cristian mumbled, hanging his dark head. "Cristian," Ali's soft voice spoke. "Gwen's daddy is nice. Jake says he's a lot of fun. More fun than his grandma." Luis resisted the urge to laugh at the effect Ali's unintentional reminder about Rebecca and her less than impressive skills with entertaining and taking care of children had on his young son. The expression on Cristian's face was somewhere between being crestfallen and being in a growing panic.
"Mommy," Cristian cried, throwing his arms around Sheridan's neck. Ali clasped a hand over her mouth and looked at them with contrite blue eyes, and Luis smiled at her in reassurance as he bent down, placing his hands on either of Cristian's tiny shoulders. "It's going to be okay. You'll have fun. You'll see." Uncertainty was still plain in Cristian's dark eyes as he looked at Sheridan again, and she leaned forward to brush her lips against his forehead as her blue eyes brightened with a sudden idea. "Have fun with Sara and Emily. For me and Ali. Daddy or Aunt Theresa or Nana Pilar or even Grandpa Martin will come get you if you're not having fun, and tomorrow you can come back to the hospital. ." Luis nodded his head with a smile. "And," Sheridan's blue eyes sparkled as she tickled Cristian's tummy teasingly, "I'll see if I can talk the doctor into letting you see the baby's ultrasound."
"Really?" Cristian said, seeming to perk up marginally. "Really," Sheridan assured him. "So you'll go? Daddy doesn't have to call Sara and Emily and explain to them why you're not coming?" "Don't do THAT," Cristian muttered, "I'm going. I'm going." Ali's nose crinkled up in amusement at her little brother's apparent annoyance. "Good," Sheridan said, stroking Cristian's soft hair from his forehead and smiling into his eyes. "But I got a question." Cristian said, dark brow furrowed in confusion. "Shoot," Luis grinned expectantly, already mentally preparing himself to keep a straight face whatever his young son surprised them with this time. Cristian shuffled his feet and twisted the hem of his sweater in his hands, and Ali and Sheridan and Luis all waited, breath held. "How's the doctor going to get a camera inside your belly? Who's going to cover the doctor's eyes, Mommy? Will the baby be embarrassed?"
Luis chuckled under his breath as Sheridan fished for an appropriate response for each of their son's questions and bit down a belly laugh when she became stuck on one in particular. "Embarrassed? Why would the baby be embarrassed?" Cristian's mouth hung open for a moment, and Ali giggled when she caught her daddy trying to hide his grin. "Because," Cristian replied, looking quite put off. "Because?" Sheridan said, leaving the question hanging in the air. "Do I have to explain everything?" Cristian grumbled, throwing his hands up in the air. "Because the baby won't have any clothes on," he hissed in a low whisper. "Mommy.the baby's NAKED." Sheridan choked on her own laughter as she tried to mirror Cristian's ultra serious, slightly offended expression. "Oh.Oh.we'll just have to blindfold that doctor then, won't we? Won't we, Daddy?" Luis's brown eyes danced as he nodded his head in agreement, squelching the temptation to howl with laughter as he took in his wife's flushed color and the plea in her blue eyes that screamed 'Get me out of this one, please!'
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Katie smiled through the small window at the corner of the hospital door one more time before turning around and heading back to the nurses' station. So the family Lo-Fitz were fudging the rules a little bit. Again. In this case, it seemed to be doing them all good so she decided to let it slide for the time being. She kept her smile in place when she passed Ellie, packing it in and getting ready to go home after a long but non-eventful shift. True.the woman hardly had a kind word to say to her. But it was too early in the morning to be a bitch, and Katie didn't think she possessed many bitchy qualities anyway so.she politely waved to the other woman and took her seat behind the desk. She ducked her head to hide her smirk when Ellie shot her a perplexed, completely astonished 'what the hell is going on here?' look. "What's so funny this early in the morning? I looked, and it's not like Ellie has her skirt tucked in her pantyhose. I hear women hate when that happens." Katie released a childish snicker as she looked up to meet Nick's amused gray eyes. "Totally, totally hate when that happens," she agreed.
The door to Ali's door opened down the hall, and Luis exited, gently prodding Cristian forward. Katie winked at the pair as she watched them choose to take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. "Katie.Katie, did you hear me?" Katie whirled around to face Nick when he waved his hand in front of her face. "Yeah.uh." Something about Ali, her subconscious supplied. "Ali's doing great. I just checked on her, and she's comfortable, smiling, and in great spirits." "Good. That's good," Nick spoke softly, flipping the pages on the chart in his other hand. "I think I'll go say good morning." "You don't trust me," Katie accused laughingly. "Katie." Nick sputtered, "I didn't.I DO trust you." "You just have a hankering to say good morning to two very special blondes, huh? What about that other blond in your life? You know.the one you live with. C'mon, Nick. You were making so much progress. What happened?" Katie's teasing smile slowly changed into an expression of total bewilderment when Nick's gray eyes seemed to lose their humor, and he walked away from her.
Not comfortable leaving matters in such an awkward state, Katie followed Nick into the locker room, quickly averting her eyes when she found him stripped to the waist and maintaining a more professional distance. She tried to bite her tongue, but history and her inquisitive nature were working against her. Before she could catch herself, she blurted, "What the hell happened between you and Abby, Nick?" Nick didn't answer her immediately, and she turned on her heels to stare levelly at him. Or, more accurately, the rippling muscles of his back and shoulders as he changed into his scrubs. She felt but couldn't control the flush rising up her neck and traveling to her cheeks when she saw the faint scratch marks across his back. "Did you." she paused, jumping when Nick slammed his locker shut and turned to face her, his gray eyes glittering at her in warning, "Katie." "You're.I like to consider you my friend. And I know Abby's a good person. Just like you are. If something goes wrong, I feel kind of responsible.the whole apartment trickery.Something obviously happened between you two, Nick, and I'm having a hard time telling from your behavior if it was something good or bad." "Me too, Katie," Nick sighed, rubbing his hand over his face tiredly. "I don't know what the hell that woman is doing to me. I don't even know if I want to stop it."
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Abby groaned, blinking her hazel eyes open reluctantly when she heard the distinct and loudly echoing sound of.pounding at the front door. Whatever happened to knocking politely? In her immediate and uncensored opinion, the dumbass at the door wasn't knocking. He or she was trying to pulverize the door right off its hinges. She flailed an arm out blindly, grabbing the cool pillow beside her and burying her tangled mass of tawny hair beneath it. To hell with the person at the door. They'd go away, right? An unconscious smile lit upon her lips with the discovery that the pillow still smelled like Nick, and sleep once again began to blur the images, smells, and sounds surrounding her as she relived what little she could remember from the night before. In fact, the last thing she remembered from last night was the way his mouth felt moving beneath her own, and from there, things got a bit fuzzy. But she'd been told she had an amazing imagination (actually.other words were used at the time, but she'd decided to take them in a positive way). So she couldn't remember all the minute details. Nothing was stopping her from dreaming about them.
But SOMEBODY was, Abby discovered when she felt the pillow yanked off of her head and harsh light shining into her eyes. Abby glared as menacingly as she could manage at the figure towering over her, his name leaving her lips in a near-growl. "Shane. You are SO dead. D-E-A-D meat." "Morning to you too, Runt," Shane grunted, hauling her out of her warm cocoon of covers by one arm. "You seem a little mixed up. You're the one that looks like death warmed over," he muttered, pushing his half-clad little sister out of Nick's bedroom and toward the bathroom. Abby shrieked and drew in several rapid breaths when she felt the icy prick of the water hit her skin, and she practically lunged toward her brother's retreating form as he pulled the door shut behind him. Speaking in an infuriatingly false chipper voice, "Don't take too long. I'm taking you out for coffee when you get out. I think this hang-over deserves Starbucks." Nick's comfortable gray sweatshirt hit the door with a wet thud just seconds after the door had shut all the way. "Bastard," Abby grumbled as she started soaping up her hair. "Ow," she winced. Even her damned hair hurt.
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Jake swiveled around on his mom's vanity seat, taking another quick peek at his newly spiked hair. He could still hear Mom in the twins' room fighting with them over what they were and were not going to take to Grandma and Grandpa's house for their sleep-over so he knew he was safe on that front. But Dad.where was. "I've always preferred hair that you can run your fingers through, but I have to say, Little Buddy, that you wear the Porcupine spikes so much better than Uncle Luis." Jake grinned lopsidedly at his dad, sliding out of his mom's chair hurriedly when he heard her practically stomping down the hall in her high heels. "You think I have enough gel?" he whispered, standing tall and doing his best to look unsuspicious as his mom strode through the open bedroom door, pulling a screaming Sara along with her. "Enough to warrant a flammability alert," Hank quipped with a smirk. Jake frowned. He didn't know for sure, but he was thinking his dad might have just made fun of him. He HATED when grown- ups did kids that way. It totally su.
"Jake, are you ready for school?" "Almost, Mom," Jake piped up. "You're not going to work that way, are you?" Jake jerked his head toward his dad when he heard his disapproving whistle. "I mean.you look okay, Mom, but I've seen you look much better," Jake continued, digging himself into an even deeper hole. Gwen glared at her son, informing Hank through clenched teeth that HE would be taking their son to school this morning. Hank and Jake alike breathed twin sighs of relief when Gwen hustled back out of the bedroom, dragging a now-kicking Sara behind her. "You almost struck out there, Little Buddy. NEVER tell a woman she doesn't look beautiful. They don't want to hear that," Hank explained, sidestepping the yapping Pug that seemed to salivate at the chance to trip him and nipped at his heels continuously. "But Dad." Jake whined. "You want me to just lie?" Hank nudged Gus away with his foot as he closed the bedroom closet and turned back to his son. "Absolutely."
Jake rolled his eyes as his mom wrapped his scarf around his neck multiple times, nearly cutting his air supply off, and sighed heavily when she got lipstick all over his cheek by kissing it. He stuck his tongue out to Sara, who looked remarkably like a ripe tomato this morning, what with her screaming fits and all. Not that he couldn't sympathize. He was actually GLAD he had to go back to school. Algebra was more fun than spending the day with Grandma. She just didn't know how to hang loose and have fun. He just hoped his teacher didn't want to talk about Kay too much. Talking about her made Jake remember how sad he felt and how much he really missed her. Jake just wanted to be a normal kid coming back from Christmas vacation. Not the kid whose cousin died over the holidays. He was feeling really sore over that. So even though the hugs and kisses made him feel like such a baby, he allowed them. He knew his mom and even his dad needed to show him how much they loved him, and he was okay with that. As long as it wasn't in public. That's why he didn't shove Emily's arms around his waist in goodbye away. Immediately anyway. He loved his little sister, but he was still a man. Like they did things like hugging their little sisters. Well.maybe Cristian.
Chapter 48
"The Book Café," Shane mused. "Not Starbucks, but it'll do. C'mon, Runt. A couple of steps to your right." Abby whipped off her sunglasses and glared into her brother's matching twinkling hazel eyes. "Do these glasses make me look like Ray Charles? I didn't think so," she muttered, pressing her fingertips to her temples when he simply smirked at her in that infuriating big brother/father figure way of his. Damn. Her head hurt and her ears were ringing. How had Shane escaped getting his ass kicked this morning when he dragged her out of bed? Oh yeah, the embarrassing little stumble in her step reminded her. Large quantities of alcohol tended to wreak havoc with a person's coordination. And their inhibitions, she thought, feeling her cheeks flame. Bits and pieces of memory from last night were hitting her at the oddest moments.
Like this moment.feeling her brother's hand on the small of her back guiding her to the first available table in the Book Café.made it all come back to her in a vivid flash. Nick's big hands pressing at the small of her back, pulling her into him as he kissed her back just as fearlessly as she'd kissed him. And holy shit it felt so good, clutching and clawing at his shoulders as he ravaged her mouth with his own. And then.and then.what the hell had happened then? Shane pulled a chair out for her, and Abby snapped out of the daze she was in and scowled at her big brother when he had the audacity to push her down into her seat. "Shane," she grumbled, grabbing a sugar packet from the little basket in the middle of the table and thumping it at the annoying ass. The packet barely missed Shane's head, but it nailed the young waitress coming up behind him to take their order in the forehead, making Abby burst into absurd laughter. She snorted with laughter long after the waitress had scurried to the front of the Book Café with a frightened grimace-smile on her face as she glanced back at her, and she would have kept on laughing had Shane not stunned the snot out of her. Her brother's fingers paused in their massaging motion of her hands and asked her bluntly, "How long have you been sleeping with him?"
"It's not like it's any of your business," Abby replied, totally miffed as she pulled her hands from her brother's hold and started fiddling with her abandoned sunglasses without meeting his inquisitive but not wholly un- accusing look. "You're not my father. I mean, it doesn't matter. Even if the lines between father and brother hadn't been blurred when Mom and Dad died, and you hadn't thrown your entire life away to raise your ungrateful kid sister.Shane," Abby sighed, finally meeting her brother's knowing hazel eyes. "So what if we're sleeping together? I know it's hard to tell sometimes, but I'm a grown woman now. My judgment may not be 100 percent. But it's better. It's an improvement. I'm not the stupid kid I used to be. C'mon. Believe it or not, I DO have some self-respect. I don't know why I'm bothering. It's my life, Shane. My no.sex life. Brother, Father.it's none of your damn business who I share my bed with every night.what? WHAT?" Abby cried, frowning at the amused smile on Shane's face when the waitress plunked her mug of black coffee down in front of her. The girl looked on the verge of saying something, something totally revealing of the fact she'd been listening to EVERY word of their conversation since she'd returned on feet amazingly silent considering her clumsiness. Until she got locked into a brutal stare-down with Abby. The corners of Shane's mouth twitched as he watched the girl make her hasty escape. "Thank God you're not this mean when you're loaded. It's only the hangovers." he trailed off, not bothering to finish that particular thought. Instead, he leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms across his chest. "You're NOT sleeping with him," he surmised with a smile that bordered on relief.
"Technically, I AM," Abby snapped, wishing she'd had a few more minutes of goading him. Letting him suffer. "Let's re-establish those ground rules. You can ask me about work. That's perfectly fine. You can ask me what I want you to buy me for breakfast. In fact, I expect you to pick up the tab for this, Buddy," she grumbled. "I don't have any cash on me 'cause SOMEBODY barely gave me enough time to get dressed and dragged me out in this weather with wet hair.if I catch my death of cold, I know who to blame." Shane leaned forward, his hazel eyes laughing even if his lips dared not. "You give God enough cheap laughs as it. I don't think he's quite ready to have you nagging him 24/7 yet." Abby lightly swatted her free hand against her brother's cheek. "So I'm going to Heaven now," she said conversationally. "You always said I was a hell-raiser. Listen.forget all this. You're distracting me from the real point of this conversation. All the sex I'm not having, all the sex I hope to have in the future.as my brother it's none of your business. You should have zero, zilch, nada interest in my sex life." "Non sex-life," Shane corrected her, earning a less playful slap at his arm, which he quickly yanked out of her reach. "Ugh! You're a jackass, you know that?" Abby huffed. "And a perv.Wait 'til I." "Abby, no," Shane laughed when it appeared the wheels in her head were turning rapidly. "Abby," he hissed, grabbing at her arm as she shoved her seat back and stood up with an evil grin on her lips and some of her trademark mischief making her hazel eyes sparkle. She cleared her throat loudly and clapped her hands together, making certain she had every patron in the Book Café hanging on her every word. "Excuse me, but I have an announcement to make," she paused to shake Shane's insistent hand off her arm. "My brother is a bona-fide PERVERT!" Light amused and embarrassed laughter filled the cozy space as the patrons waited patiently for more. Abby glanced at her brother's flushed appearance and tightly clenched jaw and decided enough was enough. She'd more than exacted her revenge. "Thank you. That's all I have to say," she finished, biting her lip to keep her laughter at bay as the crowd whirred back into action. "Hey, Buddy," she managed to keep the smile off her face. "You asked for it." "I changed my mind," Shane practically growled. "You're definitely going straight to Hell." "Really?" Abby inquired teasingly, "I always thought that was a foregone conclusion."
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"I guess that answers that question," Beth smiled, swiping the rag in her hands over the counter and depositing the crumbled pieces of muffin into the nearest trash can. "The man you were so curious about was her brother," she teased, laughing at the chagrined expression Ethan sporting behind his coffee mug. "And he's a pervert," Ivy added, her blue green eyes still dancing over the ridiculous display of a few moments ago. "A very attractive one at that," Beth murmured, her dark eyes sparkling at Ethan's nonplused reaction. "You think Abby's brother is attractive?" Ivy rolled her eyes at her son's bumbling query. "Jealous, Dear?" "What? No, Mother. I'm no such thing. I was just wondering.what's so appealing about the man? I'm not jealous. I'd like to think I'm not that insecure about, well.about Beth's feelings for me." Ivy's eyes widened in disbelief. "I mean Beth's feelings for me as a friend." Keep telling yourself that one, Dear, Ivy thought silently. "I mean.I don't see what the fuss is all about," Ethan's voice came out in a near whine. Beth laughed and reached across the counter to cover Ethan's hand with one of her own. "If it makes you feel any better," she said, giving him a gentle smile, "I find you a very attractive.friend." Ivy chuckled. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear Ethan was blushing. "Ethan.Beth," she shook her head when it became clear to her that her son had not even heard her speak. "I see Eve and her daughters.I'm going to go over and say a word or two." Beth nodded her head to indicate she'd heard her and turned her attention back to Ethan.
".I'm staying, Mom. I don't feel right leaving at a time like this," Simone argued earnestly. Eve looked away from her daughter and into Ivy's curious blue-green eyes. "Ivy," she spoke politely. "Hi, Mrs. Crane," Whitney and Simone spoke in quiet tandem. "Girls.Eve," Ivy nodded. "Can I help you with something, Ivy?" Eve questioned suspiciously. "No. No," Ivy repeated. "I just wanted to say hello, and tell you again how sorry I am about Kay. I know your family has always been close to her, and that this must be very hard on you." "It is," Simone murmured tearfully, ducking her head from prying eyes. Ivy gave Whitney a sympathetic look as she comforted her sister. Eve's dark eyes were bright with lingering suspicion and tears as she grasped Simone's hand across the table. "Mom, I mean it," Simone cried. "I can't even think of leaving at a time like this. Miguel's lost, and he needs us all. And the boys.Mom, don't try to talk me out of it because I'm not going to change my mind." Eve sighed, not bothering to wipe away the tear that traveled down her cheek. "I wish I could stay too, Mom," Whitney admitted softly. "Being so far away from home and you and Dad and all my friends doesn't make sense anymore." "I know, Honey. I know it seems like nothing makes sense, but it won't always feel this way," Eve offered lamely. "You don't have to rearrange your whole lives though." Feeling like an intruder on a private moment, Ivy left the scene silently and took a table in a quiet corner. Watching and listening and ruminating on how her world and the world of everyone else close to her in Harmony seemed to be topsy-turvy lately.
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"So, Little Man," Chad grinned at Cristian as he helped him stuff some clothes into his duffel bag. "You're one of the bravest men I know.toughing it out at the Hotchkiss Estate with Jake's grandma." Cristian sighed and tossed his favorite bear into the bag before Chad could zip it up. "I guess so," he muttered, plopping down on the bottom bunk of the bunk beds when Chad hefted his bag onto the top bunk. Chad sat down beside him, giving his dark hair an affectionate tousle. "I'll let you in on a secret," Chad leaned over to whisper into Cristian's ear. "She looks kind of scary, but she's basically harmless. Just don't let her intimidate you." "What's inti..intim.what's that big word mean?" Cristian questioned, looking up at Chad with serious brown eyes. "Don't let her scare you. You'll be fine," Chad said, giving the little boy a reassuring pat on the arm before standing up and offering his hand. "Just stick close to Jake's grandpa. He's an expert in dealing with Grandma Dragon," Chad smirked, letting his own personal nickname for Rebecca slip through. Cristian sucked in a startled breath at the mention of dragons, and Chad rubbed a hand over his chin thoughtfully as the little boy darted out of the bedroom door and into Theresa's waiting arms. Maybe that hadn't been his best choice of words. Luis strode into the bedroom and grabbed Cristian's duffel bag off the top bunk, giving Chad's orange tee-shirt a quizzical look before walking back out of the bedroom and pulling Cristian along with him. Theresa giggled at Chad and hurried after Cristian and Luis to answer the ringing doorbell.
Chad entered the living room to find Emily's arms firmly wrapped around Luis's neck and refusing to let go. His dark eyes lingered on Sara's tear- bloated face, and the little girl scowled meanly at him, rubbing her nose roughly with the back of her arm before Gwen had a chance to wipe it with the Kleenex in her hand. "Sara," she scolded. "It's only going to be one night. ONE," she reiterated. "I can't take you on this business trip. It's not like I can leave you in the hotel room by yourself. I won't get any work done if I'm worrying about you." "See?" Sara griped back. "You won't get any work done anyway if you leave me with Grandma." Chad chuckled under his breath when he noticed Luis trying valiantly to hide his amused smile from the irate little girl who had an answer for everything. "And Grandpa," Gwen shot back, dabbing the Kleenex under Sara's runny nose. "Blow," she ordered, and Cristian grimaced when Sara actually followed her mother's orders, blowing loudly. "Yuck," he muttered, hiding his face against Theresa's side. "Why can't I stay with Dad?" Sara grumbled when Gwen pushed her daughter's brown hair back from her damp cheeks. "And leave Cristian and Emily with Grandma all by themselves?" Gwen tried to tease. "Sara," she sighed. "You know Dad.this isn't about not wanting to stay with Grandma, is it?" Sara stared at her feet, and Chad felt his heart go out to the kid when more tears seeped from beneath her lowered lashes. "Oh, Sara," Gwen cried, pulling her daughter into a tight hug when she realized the source of Sara's misgivings. Kay's death had struck a chord with them all, even her not-so-innocent daughter. "I'm coming back. I promise you that I'll be back tomorrow night to tuck you and Emmy and even Jake into bed if you guys will let me." "I will," Sara sobbed hotly into Gwen's shoulder. "You better keep your promise," she muttered, lifting her wet brown eyes to her mother's face. Gwen laughed softly. "Is that a threat?" "Uh huh," Cristian nodded his dark head seriously, and Sara's tears were forgotten, pushed aside by the sounds of surprised laughter. And things were okay. At least for a little while.
Chapter 49
Nick laughed at the sound of Ali's delighted giggles as the snowflakes fluttered down from the sky and stuck to her golden lashes. It was the first time, Sheridan realized, that the smile had reached his gray eyes all day. Sheridan bent over, adjusting Ali's floppy denim hat and brushing the stray strands of gold behind her daughter's shoulder. "Ali.I think you owe Dr. Nick a big 'Thank you' for bringing you out here." "Thank you," Ali grinned up at Nick happily, and Sheridan shook her head as her daughter's movements made the hat fall off completely this time. She ran a tender hand over Ali's gold hair and felt tears just beneath the surface at the realization that the silk under her palm was thinner even than yesterday and some of its luster had dimmed. Nick's hand on her shoulder gave her a strengthening squeeze, and she smiled at him gratefully, watching pleasure light up Ali's beloved features when Nick spoke. "I'm not in the habit of bringing beautiful young ladies to the roof on my lunch hour. You're the first gorgeous lady that's had the honor," he told Ali with a wink, kneeling in front of her and tucking her blankets more securely around her shoulders and feet. "Now, AliCat. I want you to tell me if you get cold or if you don't feel well." "Tell him, Mommy," Ali searched out Sheridan's blue eyes with her own. "I don't feel sick today, Dr. Nick," she said, not waiting for her mother to speak for her. "Dr. Nick.will I be better before the baby gets here?" Sheridan's smile was tight, and her eyes flicked to Nick's again. Nick stood up, his hands unconsciously gripping the I.V. pole beside Ali's wheelchair in a tight grip. "Oh yeah. WAY before the baby gets here." "Good," Ali murmured. "I can't wait to be a big sister again."
"Ali," Sheridan sighed after several minutes of silence amongst the trio. "I think we should get back inside. It's cold out here, and we don't want to get Dr. Nick in trouble." "Mommy," Ali couldn't keep the whine out of her voice. "I don't want to go yet. Mommy, I LOVE the snow. Dr. Nick.don't make me go inside yet. You won't get in trouble, will you?" Nick leaned over the back of the chair and whispered something into Ali's ear, and Ali nodded, sighing slightly in disappointment but no longer protesting. "Okay. Do I get to get ice cream?" "Ice Cream?" Sheridan laughed incredulously. "Ali, it's freezing, and you want ice cream?" "UH HUH," Ali told her, blue eyes sparkling. "Sweetie, you're going to turn into a popsicle," Sheridan teased. "Are you sure you want ice cream?" "Mommy," Ali groaned, rolling her eyes at Sheridan, "Absolutely, positively." "100%." Nick added. "Without a doubt?" Sheridan asked, bending over and giving her daughter tickling little Eskimo kisses. "Duh!" Ali giggled, her little arms escaping the mountain of blankets she was buried beneath and twining tightly around Sheridan's neck. "You're going along with this?" Sheridan queried pulling back and snuggling the blankets back around Ali's slim shoulders, falling into step with Nick as he wheeled Ali toward the door. "What can I say?" Nick chuckled. "I'm your daughter's humble servant."
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"I didn't want to go to school anyway, Dad," Jake made conversation, peering at his dad and abnormally silent and well-behaved cousin over the cheeseburger poised inches from his mouth. MJ twirled the straw of his soda between his thumb and forefinger, making noncommittal grunts at the appropriate moments during his dad's one-sided conversation with him, Jake noticed. This was totally strange, Jake decided, taking a big, messy bite of his burger and barely taking the time to set it down before slurping loudly from his soda. He leaned back in seat opposite his dad and MJ in the booth and let out one of his championship belches. Sure it'd bring MJ out of his shell. But it didn't work. At least not the way he wanted it to. All he succeeded in doing was grossing out the old lady and her husband a couple of booths down. His dad didn't have to scold him. Jake apologized before the words left his mouth. On their way out, the elderly couple nosily inquired why they weren't in school, and Jake narrowed his dark eyes at them. "Because my dad's letting us skip. He's going to sneak us into the movies later. PG-13," Jake added, deciding he may have gone too far when the little old lady looked like she was going to keel over into MJ's uneaten mound of French fries. MJ certainly wiped that ugly scowl off of her face when he whispered, so quietly they almost didn't hear him. "My mom died." The old lady sure looked sorry then.
After they left Wendy's, they drove around town a while, and much to Jake's surprise, his dad DID take them to a movie. But it wasn't PG-13. Jake thought his dad didn't want to get Kay mad at him up in Heaven or something. Jake didn't watch much of the movie. He was too busy watching his dad watch MJ, and when his dad slipped his arm around MJ's shoulders in the darkness of the theater and tears started streaming down MJ's cheeks.Jake looked away, not wanting to embarrass his little cousin. MJ burrowed himself into his dad's side and stayed there for a very long time. When the movie's credits were rolling, and everyone (well.just him, his dad, and MJ it seemed to Jake) was blinking their eyes at the bright lights, MJ looked up at his dad, and Jake felt a funny pain in his chest when he asked, in such a sad voice, "Can I go home to my dad now?" "Yeah," Jake heard his dad whisper as he lifted MJ into his arms, and Jake didn't think MJ was a baby at all and making fun of him later never once crossed his mind. Jake just followed them, wishing for the hundredth time that he could make everything normal again with a single wish.
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Chad grimaced at the sound of tiny claws digging into the cotton of his tee- shirt once again for a better grip. The gray fuzzball purred when he scolded it, and Chad shook his head at the sound of Theresa's tinkling laughter. "I think Smoky likes you." "Yeah." Chad tried not to smile as he peeled the kitten off his upper body, "this is the 3rd shirt of mine she's ruined this week." "She's just showing you how much she cares," Theresa teased, plopping down in Chad's lap and grabbing the kitten out of his hands. Smoky pushed her tiny head against Theresa's palm, practically begging to be stroked. Theresa curled her fingers around the kitten's skull as she nestled it against her chest, scratching lightly behind its ears. "You're going to have to take her home with you, you know," Theresa finally said, brown eyes sparkling with unreleased laughter. "She's already adopted you, and I think she's got pretty good taste." "I ain't taking no cat home. I'm a dog man, girl. What would it do to my rep." Chad trailed off, grinning when Theresa started giggling. "What?" she prodded, almost shrieking when she felt his big hands closing around her thighs and going behind her knees, pulling her tight against him. "The cat has good taste?" "Chad!" Theresa cried, pushing at his chest playfully and making them both tumble back further into the mountain of pillows on the sofa. "Oh! Chad!" Theresa exclaimed, scrambling off of Chad's lap after catching a glance of the clock and sending the startled kitten scurrying into the quiet corner basket its mother and littermates were dozing in. "The Youth Center!" "Theresa.Chief Bennett asked if he could fill in, and I didn't think Sheridan would mind. I figured it'd give him something to do, you know. Take his mind off of things," Chad soothingly reminded her, and Theresa took a deep breath, calming herself down and settling back into Chad's open arms. She sighed, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms tighter around Chad's waist as he stroked her hair, resting his chin atop her head. "It almost feels wrong.laughing. Doing all the things we've always done when everything's so messed up." "Living's not wrong. It's just something we got to do," Chad said quietly. It was something he wholeheartedly believed.
Chapter 50
"Grandpa," Faith wrinkled up her nose as she stared at the orange globe in her hands. "Yeah?" Sam smiled at her, his hands outstretched to block her. When Myles skittered past he grabbed him up in his arms and swept him over his shoulder, causing the little boy to laugh and Faith to roll her blue eyes at them. The basketball bounced then rolled to a stop in front of Sam's feet when Faith released it. "You've been cheating, and I still suck at basketball. I don't think I want to play anymore. Sorry," she muttered apologetically. "S'okay," Sam said, lowering Myles to his feet and following his granddaughter to the crafts table on the other side of the Youth Center after tossing the basketball to a group of children in the corner. Three sets of blue eyes stared at the table's lone occupant in concern.
Myles pulled at his sweater nervously, tucking himself safely into Sam's side as Sam crouched down and held out his hand. "Lissy?" Sam questioned gently. "Lissy, is something wrong?" Lissy turned tearful chocolate eyes to him, sniffling as she shoved a heavy lock of tawny hair behind her ear. "My grandpa's real sick, and Daddy had to go to the hospital with him. Mr. Sam.Daddy said Grandpa had a stroke, but I don't understand. Does that mean he's going to die?"
"Faith.go show Myles how to put that puzzle we looked at earlier in the office together." Faith started to protest at getting Myles detail again but decided it wasn't worth it and took her little brother's hand with a sigh. She helped him climb into the chair behind the desk and pulled out the puzzle for him, leaving it to him to figure out which piece went where. She had better things to do, like satisfy her curiosity. Too bad she couldn't get closer, she thought disappointedly, hanging onto the doorframe and straining her ears to hear what Grandpa was telling Lissy.
"Faif," Myles called, and Faith whipped around, waving her annoying kid brother off with a hand. She'd told him how many times it was Faith and not Faif, but did he listen? Big fat N-O! She turned around to see Grandpa hugging Lissy and wiping away her tears. He said something else, and Lissy was nodding her head, and Faith couldn't stand it. She wanted to hear what they were saying. It wasn't fair. She got stuck with Myles every time and missed all the good stuff.
"Faif! Look!" Myles cried, kicking his feet against the desk and demanding her attention. "What?" Faith whined. "Myles.can't you see I'm busy? I don't wanna.Myles! Put that down! It's not yours. You're going to break it," she grumbled, yanking the picture frame out of his hands and setting it back on the desk. "She's pretty," Myles said, pointing and blushing at the same time. Faith studied the picture, tracing her small fingers over Ali's face and admiring the long blond hair she'd always wanted but never got. Not even after wishing on candles or stars or anything. "Yeah," she admitted grudgingly. Ali WAS pretty. It just wasn't fair, Faith thought with a frown. "That's Ali," Faith told her brother.
"Awi," Myles grinned, clapping his hands and eliciting yet another eye- rolling from his sister. "Wanna go see Awi," he said, tumbling from the chair and nearly falling at Faith's feet. "It's Ali, and you can't go see her, Stupid. She's in the hospital." Myles's face fell and his pink lips formed into a pout. "Awi sick?" "Yeah," Faith muttered, shaking her red head at him, thoroughly annoyed for the hundredth time that she wasn't at home in Chicago with all her friends and her school and her puppy. And she felt all mean and aggravated. "Ali's going to die. Just like Aunt Kay," she said, watching tears well up in Myles's blue eyes. "Granpa!" Myles cried, running past her and burying his face against Sam's denim clad thigh. Her grandpa's face held so much disappointment, and Faith couldn't look him in the eye. So she stared at her feet instead and wished even harder for the comforts of home.
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"Jonathan! Jonathan!" Rebecca hissed, waving her husband forward with one hand while she held a finger of her other hand to her lips. Jonathan's blue eyes crinkled at the corners as he ambled down the hall, wondering what had his wife's interest piqued this time. She'd watched the young Lopez-Fitzgerald child like a hawk the entire day, driving the poor boy to distraction. It was obvious she made the child nervous to everyone BUT her. "Rebecca.what." "Jonathan," she shook her head. "Look," she mouthed, pointing into the bedroom their twin granddaughters shared whenever they stayed the night. Jonathan's lips twisted up in amusement when he spied Emily, dolled up in one of Gwen's old party dresses. Stuffed bosoms and all. Emmy's cheeks were a scarlet red, and her eyes were painted a vivid blue. Aha! So someone had ferreted out his wife's makeup supply and put it to use. "It's all replaceable, Dear. My wallet can handle it."
Rebecca grasped his arm hard when he turned to leave, yanking him back beside her. "The Lopez-Fitzgerald child.he's got on a dress too. You don't suppose.it's such a shame. Luis is such a MAN," she almost purred, resting a hand on her chest and getting a faraway look in her blue eyes. "Rebecca," Jonathan chuckled, ignoring her comment about a man less than half her age. A married man that wasn't him. "He's a child. They're playing, and if it makes any difference to your ridiculous notions, he doesn't seem to be enjoying himself at all. Sara's wearing pants. You're not analyzing that," he pointed out. He shook his head when she 'hmphed' and pranced into the bedroom, announcing it was time for the children to take their baths.
Playing dress-up and dolls had worried her, but their two little girls sharing a tub with the child almost gave her a heart attack. The bubbles and underwear worn under the water did nothing to alleviate her hysteria. Jonathan sent her to bed with a firm shove out the bathroom door, holding out towels for each of the youngsters. Emily giggled as he wrapped the towel around her tiny shoulders, proudly showing off her Barbie panties, rubbing her nose against his and fluttering her eyelashes against his cheeks. "I love you, Grandpa," she singsonged, skipping out of the bathroom door and leaving a wet trail behind her. Sara rolled dark eyes after her sister, and Jonathan found himself grinning as he toweled her chin-length brown hair dry. "She's such a girl," Sara muttered, glancing down at the bugs that adorned her own underwear. "Lame-O Barbie," Sara gagged. "Mine glow in the dark," she pointed out, slipping and sliding out the bathroom door. "They're cool."
"Mr. Lopez-Fitzgerald," Jonathan turned to Cristian with a benevolent smile. "It's been a pleasure, young Sir," he said, offering a hand to the tiny dark boy after he'd pulled his pajama top over his head. Cristian's brown eyes sparkled and a tiny smile crossed his lips as he pressed his palm against Jonathan's. "Thank you," Cristian said quietly, and Jonathan's smile widened as the boy allowed him to lead him out the door. "You enjoy my granddaughters' company?" Cristian's eyes were wide and dark and serious as he nodded his head slowly. "They enjoy yours," Jonathan told him, relieved to find that Sara and Emily had already changed into their pajamas when he and Cristian entered the bedroom. He chuckled when he saw that the two twin beds occupying the room had been pushed together, and Emily came forward, giving Cristian's hand a firm pull. "Cristian's sleeping in the crack," Sara announced, bouncing onto one side of the bed and pushing the covers back. "Won't he fall in?" Emily inquired of her grandpa worriedly, twirling the skirt of her pink nightgown as she waited for his answer. "Emmy, you Retard!" Sara cried. "He's not going to fall in. He's too big." "But what if he does? Sara, switch places with him. Please," Emily pleaded. "I'm not stupid," Sara declared. "I don't want to listen to you cry all night 'cause you can't sleep by Cristian neither." "Girls, girls!" Jonathan called, interrupting their tiff and getting their attention. "Cristian's your guest. I think you should ask him where he wants to sleep." "In the middle," Cristian answered diplomatically. Pleasing BOTH girls. "See that, Son?" Jonathan turned to Cristian, smiling into his dazed dark eyes. "You already got them fighting over you. I'd say you're a lucky young man," he said with a wink.
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"Love you too, Babe. See you tomorrow. Yeah. G'night," Hank finished, punching the off button on the cordless telephone and leaning forward to place it on the coffee table. The vertebrae in his back popped as he leaned back against the couch, and he grimaced. Jake arched a dark brow at him over the top of the heaping bowl of popcorn. "Getting old, aren't you, Dad?" Hank just smirked, ruffling Jake's spikes as well as he could manage. "Life Lesson Number 2.NEVER tell the Old Man he's getting old. Always pretend he's as young and eager as the Michael Jordan's out there." "Dad," Jake pointed out with a roll of his brown eyes. "Michael Jordan IS old." "Shaq then." "Shaq's kind of old too, Dad," Jake grinned. Hank took one look at his son slouched next to him in only his Smiley face boxers and white socks and laughed heartily. "I tried to convince your mom to name you Hank Jr., but she wouldn't do it. Said you were your own person. Boy was she wrong."
Jake just grinned, popping another kernel of popcorn into his mouth as he turned his attention back to the wrestling match on the television. One of the wrestlers 'cracked' a metal chair over the other one's head, and Jake hooted at the T.V. screen, giving his dad a high five. "Your mom would have my ass for condoning such violence," Hank mentioned offhandedly, as he took another slurp of his soda. "Good thing Mom's not here, huh?" Jake wiggled his dark brows, brown eyes twinkling devilishly. "Hey, Dad. Can I have another soda?" Jake fished for a response out of his dad. "This popcorn's really salty," he said, grabbing his throat to demonstrate how great his need was for the soda. "Sure, Little Buddy. Maybe some butter will make it better," he said, handing the popcorn bowl to Jake as he headed toward the kitchen. "You know what?" he said, lumbering to his own white-socked feet and adjusting his red boxers with hearts all over them. "I think I'll give you a hand." Really good thing Mom wasn't here, Jake thought as he looked back at the carnage they were leaving in their wake. He was going to have to skip school again tomorrow just to clean up the mess in time. Skip school, he thought with a grin. NO biggie.
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"Shane.I'm perfectly capable of driving myself home," Abby rolled her hazel eyes down at her brother from her vantage point on the last step of the stairs leading into the Lobster Shack. "I'm not drunk. Hell. I'm not even hung-over anymore. I'm fine. I'm full. And I'm ready to go home. You don't have to babysit me anymore. Is this all because you found me in Nick's bed this morning? I told you.as far as I know, I didn't.we didn't.trust me. It's been so long I wouldn't forget it if I had mindblowing sex." Shane grimaced, grabbing her hand and pulling her off the last step, reaching a hand down to tuck her wild tawny hair behind her ear. "I'm your brother. Not your priest." "Are you kidding?" Abby scoffed. "I'd give poor Father Lonagin heart failure if I confessed EVERYTHING, all the impure, insane thoughts that run through my head to him during confessional."
"Your girlfriend then," Shane chuckled. "I love you, Runt," he sighed, pulling Abby into a bear hug and pressing his lips to the crown of her head. Abby grinned against his chest. "What? No words of wisdom to impart? No warnings against doing something stupid? No nothing?" "Nope," Shane shook his head, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "I trust you." "Somebody pinch me 'cause I've drank myself into the Twilight Zone," Abby cracked, laughing at him as she backed away. "I love you too, Shane. I'm glad you're here." "Will you still be glad tomorrow?" Shane grinned, waving at her as she walked to her car. "Maybe. Maybe not," Abby's mouth quirked up at the corners.
Shane watched his sister's car pull out onto the road and disappear into the darkness, shivering against the cold night air and stuffing his hands into the pockets of his coat. He heard the sound of a step creaking behind him and turned around, hazel eyes locking with a pair of blue-green eyes that'd caught his attention at the Book Café this morning. "Are you waiting for someone?" he asked after spending several minutes of silence with the owner of those entrancing eyes. One leather-gloved hand raised to brush an errant strand of pale hair from her lips, and he gave the woman a friendly smile once it appeared he was under a moment's intense scrutiny. "You're Abby's brother?"
"Yes," Shane replied, reaching out a cold-reddened fist. "Shane. And your name?" She seemed amused by his question, her lips twitching into a smile as she answered simply, "Ivy." "Nice to meet you," he said sincerely. "Left my gloves at the B & B," he explained needlessly as he gripped her hand in his own. "Grace's B & B?" Ivy questioned, slightly surprised that he'd let Abby drive away just seconds ago. "It's a beautiful night out," he said, answering her unasked question. "I thought I'd enjoy the walk, get to know a little bit more about Harmony." "You'll freeze to death. The cold." ".is invigorating," Shane grinned. "Nevertheless, I should get going pretty soon. Pleasure meeting you, Ivy," he repeated, turning in the direction opposite the Bed and Breakfast. Ivy watched him leave, shaking her head. She flipped her purse open, pulling her cell phone out and punching in Ethan's number without really thinking. She told him to pick her up at the B & B instead of the Lobster Shack and hurried down the steps, almost slipping in her haste. "Shane!" she called, waving him forward with a hand when his head turned in her direction. "You're going the wrong way. The B & B's that way," she informed him, pointing behind her. "If you go that way, you'll never get there," she said, finding herself laughing with him as he jogged toward her, nearly falling himself before she steadied him with a hand to his arm. Very attractive indeed, she thought as she found herself staring into smiling hazel eyes. Very, very attractive.
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Sheridan sighed softly as Luis nuzzled her neck, wrapping his arms around her middle and giving her body a gentle tug into his. She smiled as she felt his lips whispering against her skin, and twisted her head around to look into his sparkling dark eyes after glancing once more at Ali. "She's beautiful, isn't she?" "Just as beautiful as her mother," Luis agreed, dipping his head to press a soft kiss to her mouth. Sheridan's blue eyes grew bright in the dim light of the room and her expression solemn as she gazed at Ali's slight little body resting beneath the sheets on the hospital bed next to them. "She's going to be even more breathtaking when she grows up." Sheridan thanked him silently for saying WHEN not IF when he spoke by bringing one of the hands that rest on her gently curved belly to her lips and kissing it. "Luis?" "Hmm," Luis murmured against her ear, making her shiver. "Do you think she knows how precious she is to us?" "I think she's got a pretty good idea that she and Cristian are our world," he said, smiling against her shoulder. "And this little one," he said, slipping his warm hands beneath the shirt she wore and caressing the bare skin over her womb.
The sheets tangled around her legs as she shifted and turned in his arms, resting her forehead against his and bringing them nose to nose. Breathing the same air. Luis kept his hands between them, protectively placed over the child within her belly as he looked deeply into her blue eyes. "Do you want a girl or a boy?" she asked several minutes later, resting her hands on his chest, directly over his heart. She could feel its steady, calming beat beneath her palms. One of her legs lay atop one of his thighs, and they pressed against each other from head to toe. "It doesn't matter," Luis whispered. "I'll love this baby.our baby.no matter what." "Good answer," she teased with a smile. "Does that mean you don't want to find out the sex tomorrow?" "I didn't say that," Luis grinned. "I'll be happy if we find out she's alright." "She, Luis? I thought it didn't matter." "Go to sleep, Sheridan," Luis shook his head, kissing her fluttering eyelids. She did. And she dreamed about a beautiful little angel. With her daddy's smile.
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An angel with wise brown eyes watched over them from up high. She watched with tears streaming down her silky cheeks a woman tucking two dark-haired little boys into bed, humming Spanish lullabies though the smallest boy could not hear the music. She ached to take the broken man watching the woman and two little boys into her arms and tell him it was all going to be okay. It was all going to work out. Somehow. "I know you're sorry," she whispered, hoping the red-curled child with the guilty blue eyes and trembling chin could hear her and find some comfort in the knowledge that she wasn't the only sister who'd said things she didn't mean. "I'm here, Mom. I'm okay," she ached to tell the auburn-haired woman who weeped silently in her husband's arms. "Take care of her, Dad," she murmured. And to her friends and family she willed them to feel her love. "Don't give up," she urged her tawny-haired friend whose heart couldn't help but do a little hurting of its own and whose hazel eyes couldn't believe the closed door. "Don't be silly. He likes you, Abby. He's fighting it, he's denying it, but he's failing so badly." She smiled as she envisioned the blue-eyed angel of a mother's dreams and encouraged two whose strength had been tested time and again, "Hope lives on. Tell them I said so Ali."
And the little girl with her golden halo smiled in her sleep as she felt an angel's kiss on her brow.
Noah lowered himself onto the sofa, closing his eyes tiredly as he listened to the sound of Reese's footsteps thudding up the stairs. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, groaning softly at the headache he felt building behind his eyes. He felt the hair on the nape of his neck prickle, and his eyes snapped open to find his dad standing before him. "Dad?" he questioned softly, leaning forward in an effort to see him better. "I didn't hear you. Is Mom okay?" He studied his father in the pale wash of the moonlight as he seated himself beside him on the sofa. His dad's face held a tiredness, a fatigue, Noah had never seen before now. Noah silently wondered if that tiredness had already existed, and he just hadn't seen it until he chose to come home. Too late.
The muscles of his thigh tensed momentarily under his father's hand, and he willed himself to relax as he looked into the pair of blue eyes that mirrored his own. "Your mom's not okay, Noah. But I think she will be. As unbelievable as it all sounds right now.I think we ALL will be. I'm glad you're home, Noah. Your mother needs all of us right now." Guilt made Noah hang his head at his dad's words. Guilt that it had taken his own sister's death to bring him home. He felt his throat closing up on him suddenly and air fleeing his lungs, making it a struggle to breathe. He looked into his dad's eyes, expecting to find them full of accusation and maybe even a little anger. But all he found was acceptance and love, relief, and somewhere in those emotion-riddled blue depths, a quiet happiness simply because he was home. Home where he belonged. "I'm sorry, Dad," Noah choked, crumpling before his father's eyes. "I should have been here." Noah's shuddering eased slightly under his dad's firm, comforting hand on his shoulder, and he felt a portion of the burden of failing his family lifted off his shoulders with his dad's next words. "Don't be. You're here now. Make it count."
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"Mijo," Pilar whispered softly as she threaded her fingers through Cristian's dark hair, careful not to wake her grandson. "You didn't have to come for Cristian. I do not mind watching him." Luis smiled at his mother. "I know, Mama," he told her, shifting Cristian's dead weight to his other arm and embracing Pilar with his free arm. "Thank you, Mama, for watching him. But you already have MJ and Joshua. They need you a little bit more right now." "Luis," Pilar protested half-heartedly, clutching the edges of her robe tightly with one hand and moving the other to rest on Cristian's back, feeling the rise and fall of his chest with each breath. "All my grandchildren need me." "Yes, they do, Mama," Luis agreed, resting his cheek against his son's soft hair. "But tonight I'm going to cut you a break," Luis murmured, leaning forward to brush his lips against his mother's forehead.
Behind Pilar, in the living room, Miguel was asleep on the couch, MJ draped over his chest. "You and Papa have your hands full," Luis said, smiling slightly as his father came up behind his mother, Joshua dozing against his shoulder with his tiny thumb stuck firmly in his mouth. "Luis," Pilar attempted once more, "Cristian is no trouble." Luis shook his head, raising a hand in dismissal and goodbye. "Tonight, Mama.I just need to be close to him. Okay?" Pilar nodded, leaning back in Martin's ready arms. "And Mama." "Yes, Mijo?" Pilar's voice raised in question. "Don't come down on Miguel too hard. He's just having to find his own way." "I'll make sure she doesn't," Martin promised. "Give those beautiful girls of yours a kiss from us." "Don't worry about that, Papa," Luis said, his voice slightly gruff. "I got it covered."
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"Chad, don't go. Stay," Theresa pleaded, looping her arms around Chad's waist and staring up at him with luminous dark eyes. "Please.you don't have to leave. It's late, and I don't think Luis is coming back tonight. We can sleep out here on the couch if you're afraid." "Now wait just a minute," Chad interrupted her with a grin. "Who said I was afraid of your brother? You're an adult, Theresa. You're not the kid I first met anymore. You're all grown up," Chad said, pausing to demonstrate just how grown-up with his short but passionate kiss, "and well past the marryin' age." Chad fell silent, panic starting to suffuse his body as he realized how she might choose to take his statement.
Theresa's big brown eyes sparkled laughingly at him as she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him down the hall to her bedroom. She let go of his hand to pick up a familiar orange tee shirt off the back of her vanity chair, and Chad shook his head in disbelief. "That's my favorite shirt." "Mine, too," Theresa giggled, hurriedly unbuttoning her blouse and shrugging it off her shoulders before he could steal the shirt back from her. "I've been looking for that shirt for weeks. You stole it last time you stayed over, didn't you?" "So what if I did?" Theresa teased, her voice muffled as she pulled the tee-shirt over her dark head and let it settle around her knees. Chad smirked as he stripped down to his boxers and scooted beneath the quilt to lay beside her. "I don't know," he said, reaching for her and pulling her close. Theresa shrieked when she felt his hands creep underneath the shirt and start to tickle her ribs. "I might just have to steal it back," Chad informed her, refusing to let her squirming body loose. And Theresa laughed, grateful for the closeness and distraction he was offering her.
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Nick sighed, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling. Dammit, but he couldn't sleep. SOMETHING was off. He'd tried counting sheep. He'd even read a little. Neither thing had worked, and now he was reduced to staring at the ceiling and straining his ears to pick up any movement in the room a few feet away, trying to pretend to himself the entire time that he really was counting the non-existent cracks on the ceiling. He kicked in frustration at the confining sheets tangled around his body, finally shoving them to his waist. He flopped ungracefully onto his side, forcing himself not to stare at his open bedroom door. He didn't want to think about the implications to such a small action as leaving the door wide open. Small but significant he was certain, and he didn't want to face up to them just yet. Or admit to the fact that he'd grown so used to sharing his bed in the past week with the woman down the hall.not having her beside him was bordering on unnatural.
Nick wanted to draw Abby and her vivacity close, but keep her at an arm's distance at the same time, and those conflicting feelings weighing on his mind were making it impossible for him to even close his eyes and think about getting some shut-eye. Not to mention closing his eyes pretty much assured that he'd be bombarded with a constant replay of the gold of her eyes after she'd stunned him speechless by kissing the hell out of him. He hated to think what might have happened had Shane and Noah Bennett not been witness to Abby's impromptu attack. She was just beginning to weaken his defenses against her when he'd remembered the other two men. He didn't want to give Abby's brother the wrong impression. There was absolutely nothing going on between him and his oddly likable little sister. Absolutely nothing at all, Nick told himself as he stared at the frost along the borders of the window opposite him. Nothing, he reminded himself, not daring to move as he felt the mattress dip slightly under the weight of another body and the press of a cold nose between his shoulder blades. He smiled when small hands reached around his waist, burrowing under his tee-shirt for warmth. He wasn't even going to think about the indisputable fact that he was more than glad to have her next to him.
Nick kept a hand clasped over Abby's hands as he turned over in the bed, finding himself staring into her sleepy but twinkling hazel eyes. His hand reached forward of its own accord, tucking a strand of tawny hair back behind her ear. "Your bed's warmer than mine," Abby offered lamely, breaking a silence and stare that was fast bordering on uncomfortable. Nick winced when he felt cold toes brush against his legs, and he trapped Abby's feet between them. Abby grinned, flexing her cold toes against his calves to get a reaction. Nick shivered slightly, gritting out a warning. "Stop that. Why are you always so damned cold?" Abby snuggled closer, and Nick was distracted by her laughing hazel eyes and their flecks of gold just long enough to be shocked to discover her hands have moved higher beneath his tee-shirt. "Don't you know? Every night I sneak out in the buff and make snow angels, and then I charm my way into your bed," she quipped. "You, of course, fall for it every time. I think you secretly enjoy 'warming' me up," she teased, crinkling up her nose. "God knows it gives me a thrill," she cracked, and he found himself smiling with her.
Nick caught himself staring at her a couple of times in the next several minutes, and he caught Abby smirking back. The alcohol Abby'd consumed had all but obliterated what little inhibitions she possessed, and he groaned as he felt her hand resting over his heart wander, one long nail scratching over his nipple before traveling down his side. He wasn't positive, but he may have ceased breathing altogether when he felt the fingers of that same hand dip just below the waistband of his boxers and rest against his hip. "I've been told it helps to breathe," she teased huskily, her mouth hovering just inches from his own. "We got interrupted earlier," Abby said, leaning forward and indulging herself by planting a few open-mouthed caresses along the fast-warming skin of his neck, and Nick cursed the surge of lust that swept through his body when he felt the moisture of her tongue along the underside of his jaw. "We were finally getting somewhere.I thought I finally had my REAL kiss.and the one voice.God, I love your eyes," Abby broke off suddenly, surprising Nick with her fierce attack of his mouth. Apparently, the greedy mesh of Abby's lips and teeth and tongue short-circuited all the neurons in Nick's brain because it faltered and was overruled by something else altogether, and God help him, he was kissing Abby back. Giving as good as he got but praying the entire time that common sense would swoop in and prevail to prevent him from making a momentous mistake. Obviously, this wasn't nothing. Nothing never was this much trouble.
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Luis eased the door to Ali's hospital room open with his shoulder, backing inside and keeping a watchful eye out for Nurse Ellie. Police Chief or not, the woman would have his hide for breaking visiting hour rules. The hallway was quiet with no sign of Ellie or any of the other nurses for that matter, and Luis cradled Cristian close to his chest as he stepped into Ali's room. Ali's face was peaceful and relaxed in repose, and Luis breathed a sigh of relief to find his wife's beautiful face similarly serene. Cristian sighed in his sleep but did not wake as Luis carried him across the room and carefully lay him beside his mother, and Luis smiled tenderly at the pair as he watched Sheridan slip a loving arm around Cristian's small body and cuddle him close unconsciously in her sleep. He brushed a gentle hand over Cristian's dark head and pressed his lips against Sheridan's cheek, straightening up and releasing a surprised breath when he found himself staring into the clear and unblinking blue eyes of his young daughter. "Daddy," Ali smiled sleepily, outstretching her little hand. Luis clasped warm fingers around her tiny palm and brought it to his lips before laying it back down beside her and kissing the crown of her golden head. "Sleep, AliCat. I'm here. We're here," he murmured, combing his fingers through her pale locks until her heavy lids drooped again. "Sleep," he whispered, taking the chair beside her bed and drinking in the sight of her, his son, his wife as they breathed rhythmically and quietly. "Just sleep. Daddy's here."
Chapter 47
"But Mommy," Cristian whined plaintively. "I don't want to go. I want to stay here with you and Ali." Sheridan raised moist blue eyes to Luis's face, and Luis gave his wife a sympathetic look. He knew how much she always hated this. Saying goodbye. It didn't matter that it was only for a short period of time. She never liked being apart from either Cristian or Ali for any period of time. "I know you do, Honey," Sheridan whispered, caressing Cristian's damp cheeks with the pads of her thumbs. "But remember.you were supposed to spend the day with Sara and Emily and their grandpa. You don't want the girls to be disappointed, do you?" "I guess not," Cristian mumbled, hanging his dark head. "Cristian," Ali's soft voice spoke. "Gwen's daddy is nice. Jake says he's a lot of fun. More fun than his grandma." Luis resisted the urge to laugh at the effect Ali's unintentional reminder about Rebecca and her less than impressive skills with entertaining and taking care of children had on his young son. The expression on Cristian's face was somewhere between being crestfallen and being in a growing panic.
"Mommy," Cristian cried, throwing his arms around Sheridan's neck. Ali clasped a hand over her mouth and looked at them with contrite blue eyes, and Luis smiled at her in reassurance as he bent down, placing his hands on either of Cristian's tiny shoulders. "It's going to be okay. You'll have fun. You'll see." Uncertainty was still plain in Cristian's dark eyes as he looked at Sheridan again, and she leaned forward to brush her lips against his forehead as her blue eyes brightened with a sudden idea. "Have fun with Sara and Emily. For me and Ali. Daddy or Aunt Theresa or Nana Pilar or even Grandpa Martin will come get you if you're not having fun, and tomorrow you can come back to the hospital. ." Luis nodded his head with a smile. "And," Sheridan's blue eyes sparkled as she tickled Cristian's tummy teasingly, "I'll see if I can talk the doctor into letting you see the baby's ultrasound."
"Really?" Cristian said, seeming to perk up marginally. "Really," Sheridan assured him. "So you'll go? Daddy doesn't have to call Sara and Emily and explain to them why you're not coming?" "Don't do THAT," Cristian muttered, "I'm going. I'm going." Ali's nose crinkled up in amusement at her little brother's apparent annoyance. "Good," Sheridan said, stroking Cristian's soft hair from his forehead and smiling into his eyes. "But I got a question." Cristian said, dark brow furrowed in confusion. "Shoot," Luis grinned expectantly, already mentally preparing himself to keep a straight face whatever his young son surprised them with this time. Cristian shuffled his feet and twisted the hem of his sweater in his hands, and Ali and Sheridan and Luis all waited, breath held. "How's the doctor going to get a camera inside your belly? Who's going to cover the doctor's eyes, Mommy? Will the baby be embarrassed?"
Luis chuckled under his breath as Sheridan fished for an appropriate response for each of their son's questions and bit down a belly laugh when she became stuck on one in particular. "Embarrassed? Why would the baby be embarrassed?" Cristian's mouth hung open for a moment, and Ali giggled when she caught her daddy trying to hide his grin. "Because," Cristian replied, looking quite put off. "Because?" Sheridan said, leaving the question hanging in the air. "Do I have to explain everything?" Cristian grumbled, throwing his hands up in the air. "Because the baby won't have any clothes on," he hissed in a low whisper. "Mommy.the baby's NAKED." Sheridan choked on her own laughter as she tried to mirror Cristian's ultra serious, slightly offended expression. "Oh.Oh.we'll just have to blindfold that doctor then, won't we? Won't we, Daddy?" Luis's brown eyes danced as he nodded his head in agreement, squelching the temptation to howl with laughter as he took in his wife's flushed color and the plea in her blue eyes that screamed 'Get me out of this one, please!'
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Katie smiled through the small window at the corner of the hospital door one more time before turning around and heading back to the nurses' station. So the family Lo-Fitz were fudging the rules a little bit. Again. In this case, it seemed to be doing them all good so she decided to let it slide for the time being. She kept her smile in place when she passed Ellie, packing it in and getting ready to go home after a long but non-eventful shift. True.the woman hardly had a kind word to say to her. But it was too early in the morning to be a bitch, and Katie didn't think she possessed many bitchy qualities anyway so.she politely waved to the other woman and took her seat behind the desk. She ducked her head to hide her smirk when Ellie shot her a perplexed, completely astonished 'what the hell is going on here?' look. "What's so funny this early in the morning? I looked, and it's not like Ellie has her skirt tucked in her pantyhose. I hear women hate when that happens." Katie released a childish snicker as she looked up to meet Nick's amused gray eyes. "Totally, totally hate when that happens," she agreed.
The door to Ali's door opened down the hall, and Luis exited, gently prodding Cristian forward. Katie winked at the pair as she watched them choose to take the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. "Katie.Katie, did you hear me?" Katie whirled around to face Nick when he waved his hand in front of her face. "Yeah.uh." Something about Ali, her subconscious supplied. "Ali's doing great. I just checked on her, and she's comfortable, smiling, and in great spirits." "Good. That's good," Nick spoke softly, flipping the pages on the chart in his other hand. "I think I'll go say good morning." "You don't trust me," Katie accused laughingly. "Katie." Nick sputtered, "I didn't.I DO trust you." "You just have a hankering to say good morning to two very special blondes, huh? What about that other blond in your life? You know.the one you live with. C'mon, Nick. You were making so much progress. What happened?" Katie's teasing smile slowly changed into an expression of total bewilderment when Nick's gray eyes seemed to lose their humor, and he walked away from her.
Not comfortable leaving matters in such an awkward state, Katie followed Nick into the locker room, quickly averting her eyes when she found him stripped to the waist and maintaining a more professional distance. She tried to bite her tongue, but history and her inquisitive nature were working against her. Before she could catch herself, she blurted, "What the hell happened between you and Abby, Nick?" Nick didn't answer her immediately, and she turned on her heels to stare levelly at him. Or, more accurately, the rippling muscles of his back and shoulders as he changed into his scrubs. She felt but couldn't control the flush rising up her neck and traveling to her cheeks when she saw the faint scratch marks across his back. "Did you." she paused, jumping when Nick slammed his locker shut and turned to face her, his gray eyes glittering at her in warning, "Katie." "You're.I like to consider you my friend. And I know Abby's a good person. Just like you are. If something goes wrong, I feel kind of responsible.the whole apartment trickery.Something obviously happened between you two, Nick, and I'm having a hard time telling from your behavior if it was something good or bad." "Me too, Katie," Nick sighed, rubbing his hand over his face tiredly. "I don't know what the hell that woman is doing to me. I don't even know if I want to stop it."
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Abby groaned, blinking her hazel eyes open reluctantly when she heard the distinct and loudly echoing sound of.pounding at the front door. Whatever happened to knocking politely? In her immediate and uncensored opinion, the dumbass at the door wasn't knocking. He or she was trying to pulverize the door right off its hinges. She flailed an arm out blindly, grabbing the cool pillow beside her and burying her tangled mass of tawny hair beneath it. To hell with the person at the door. They'd go away, right? An unconscious smile lit upon her lips with the discovery that the pillow still smelled like Nick, and sleep once again began to blur the images, smells, and sounds surrounding her as she relived what little she could remember from the night before. In fact, the last thing she remembered from last night was the way his mouth felt moving beneath her own, and from there, things got a bit fuzzy. But she'd been told she had an amazing imagination (actually.other words were used at the time, but she'd decided to take them in a positive way). So she couldn't remember all the minute details. Nothing was stopping her from dreaming about them.
But SOMEBODY was, Abby discovered when she felt the pillow yanked off of her head and harsh light shining into her eyes. Abby glared as menacingly as she could manage at the figure towering over her, his name leaving her lips in a near-growl. "Shane. You are SO dead. D-E-A-D meat." "Morning to you too, Runt," Shane grunted, hauling her out of her warm cocoon of covers by one arm. "You seem a little mixed up. You're the one that looks like death warmed over," he muttered, pushing his half-clad little sister out of Nick's bedroom and toward the bathroom. Abby shrieked and drew in several rapid breaths when she felt the icy prick of the water hit her skin, and she practically lunged toward her brother's retreating form as he pulled the door shut behind him. Speaking in an infuriatingly false chipper voice, "Don't take too long. I'm taking you out for coffee when you get out. I think this hang-over deserves Starbucks." Nick's comfortable gray sweatshirt hit the door with a wet thud just seconds after the door had shut all the way. "Bastard," Abby grumbled as she started soaping up her hair. "Ow," she winced. Even her damned hair hurt.
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Jake swiveled around on his mom's vanity seat, taking another quick peek at his newly spiked hair. He could still hear Mom in the twins' room fighting with them over what they were and were not going to take to Grandma and Grandpa's house for their sleep-over so he knew he was safe on that front. But Dad.where was. "I've always preferred hair that you can run your fingers through, but I have to say, Little Buddy, that you wear the Porcupine spikes so much better than Uncle Luis." Jake grinned lopsidedly at his dad, sliding out of his mom's chair hurriedly when he heard her practically stomping down the hall in her high heels. "You think I have enough gel?" he whispered, standing tall and doing his best to look unsuspicious as his mom strode through the open bedroom door, pulling a screaming Sara along with her. "Enough to warrant a flammability alert," Hank quipped with a smirk. Jake frowned. He didn't know for sure, but he was thinking his dad might have just made fun of him. He HATED when grown- ups did kids that way. It totally su.
"Jake, are you ready for school?" "Almost, Mom," Jake piped up. "You're not going to work that way, are you?" Jake jerked his head toward his dad when he heard his disapproving whistle. "I mean.you look okay, Mom, but I've seen you look much better," Jake continued, digging himself into an even deeper hole. Gwen glared at her son, informing Hank through clenched teeth that HE would be taking their son to school this morning. Hank and Jake alike breathed twin sighs of relief when Gwen hustled back out of the bedroom, dragging a now-kicking Sara behind her. "You almost struck out there, Little Buddy. NEVER tell a woman she doesn't look beautiful. They don't want to hear that," Hank explained, sidestepping the yapping Pug that seemed to salivate at the chance to trip him and nipped at his heels continuously. "But Dad." Jake whined. "You want me to just lie?" Hank nudged Gus away with his foot as he closed the bedroom closet and turned back to his son. "Absolutely."
Jake rolled his eyes as his mom wrapped his scarf around his neck multiple times, nearly cutting his air supply off, and sighed heavily when she got lipstick all over his cheek by kissing it. He stuck his tongue out to Sara, who looked remarkably like a ripe tomato this morning, what with her screaming fits and all. Not that he couldn't sympathize. He was actually GLAD he had to go back to school. Algebra was more fun than spending the day with Grandma. She just didn't know how to hang loose and have fun. He just hoped his teacher didn't want to talk about Kay too much. Talking about her made Jake remember how sad he felt and how much he really missed her. Jake just wanted to be a normal kid coming back from Christmas vacation. Not the kid whose cousin died over the holidays. He was feeling really sore over that. So even though the hugs and kisses made him feel like such a baby, he allowed them. He knew his mom and even his dad needed to show him how much they loved him, and he was okay with that. As long as it wasn't in public. That's why he didn't shove Emily's arms around his waist in goodbye away. Immediately anyway. He loved his little sister, but he was still a man. Like they did things like hugging their little sisters. Well.maybe Cristian.
Chapter 48
"The Book Café," Shane mused. "Not Starbucks, but it'll do. C'mon, Runt. A couple of steps to your right." Abby whipped off her sunglasses and glared into her brother's matching twinkling hazel eyes. "Do these glasses make me look like Ray Charles? I didn't think so," she muttered, pressing her fingertips to her temples when he simply smirked at her in that infuriating big brother/father figure way of his. Damn. Her head hurt and her ears were ringing. How had Shane escaped getting his ass kicked this morning when he dragged her out of bed? Oh yeah, the embarrassing little stumble in her step reminded her. Large quantities of alcohol tended to wreak havoc with a person's coordination. And their inhibitions, she thought, feeling her cheeks flame. Bits and pieces of memory from last night were hitting her at the oddest moments.
Like this moment.feeling her brother's hand on the small of her back guiding her to the first available table in the Book Café.made it all come back to her in a vivid flash. Nick's big hands pressing at the small of her back, pulling her into him as he kissed her back just as fearlessly as she'd kissed him. And holy shit it felt so good, clutching and clawing at his shoulders as he ravaged her mouth with his own. And then.and then.what the hell had happened then? Shane pulled a chair out for her, and Abby snapped out of the daze she was in and scowled at her big brother when he had the audacity to push her down into her seat. "Shane," she grumbled, grabbing a sugar packet from the little basket in the middle of the table and thumping it at the annoying ass. The packet barely missed Shane's head, but it nailed the young waitress coming up behind him to take their order in the forehead, making Abby burst into absurd laughter. She snorted with laughter long after the waitress had scurried to the front of the Book Café with a frightened grimace-smile on her face as she glanced back at her, and she would have kept on laughing had Shane not stunned the snot out of her. Her brother's fingers paused in their massaging motion of her hands and asked her bluntly, "How long have you been sleeping with him?"
"It's not like it's any of your business," Abby replied, totally miffed as she pulled her hands from her brother's hold and started fiddling with her abandoned sunglasses without meeting his inquisitive but not wholly un- accusing look. "You're not my father. I mean, it doesn't matter. Even if the lines between father and brother hadn't been blurred when Mom and Dad died, and you hadn't thrown your entire life away to raise your ungrateful kid sister.Shane," Abby sighed, finally meeting her brother's knowing hazel eyes. "So what if we're sleeping together? I know it's hard to tell sometimes, but I'm a grown woman now. My judgment may not be 100 percent. But it's better. It's an improvement. I'm not the stupid kid I used to be. C'mon. Believe it or not, I DO have some self-respect. I don't know why I'm bothering. It's my life, Shane. My no.sex life. Brother, Father.it's none of your damn business who I share my bed with every night.what? WHAT?" Abby cried, frowning at the amused smile on Shane's face when the waitress plunked her mug of black coffee down in front of her. The girl looked on the verge of saying something, something totally revealing of the fact she'd been listening to EVERY word of their conversation since she'd returned on feet amazingly silent considering her clumsiness. Until she got locked into a brutal stare-down with Abby. The corners of Shane's mouth twitched as he watched the girl make her hasty escape. "Thank God you're not this mean when you're loaded. It's only the hangovers." he trailed off, not bothering to finish that particular thought. Instead, he leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms across his chest. "You're NOT sleeping with him," he surmised with a smile that bordered on relief.
"Technically, I AM," Abby snapped, wishing she'd had a few more minutes of goading him. Letting him suffer. "Let's re-establish those ground rules. You can ask me about work. That's perfectly fine. You can ask me what I want you to buy me for breakfast. In fact, I expect you to pick up the tab for this, Buddy," she grumbled. "I don't have any cash on me 'cause SOMEBODY barely gave me enough time to get dressed and dragged me out in this weather with wet hair.if I catch my death of cold, I know who to blame." Shane leaned forward, his hazel eyes laughing even if his lips dared not. "You give God enough cheap laughs as it. I don't think he's quite ready to have you nagging him 24/7 yet." Abby lightly swatted her free hand against her brother's cheek. "So I'm going to Heaven now," she said conversationally. "You always said I was a hell-raiser. Listen.forget all this. You're distracting me from the real point of this conversation. All the sex I'm not having, all the sex I hope to have in the future.as my brother it's none of your business. You should have zero, zilch, nada interest in my sex life." "Non sex-life," Shane corrected her, earning a less playful slap at his arm, which he quickly yanked out of her reach. "Ugh! You're a jackass, you know that?" Abby huffed. "And a perv.Wait 'til I." "Abby, no," Shane laughed when it appeared the wheels in her head were turning rapidly. "Abby," he hissed, grabbing at her arm as she shoved her seat back and stood up with an evil grin on her lips and some of her trademark mischief making her hazel eyes sparkle. She cleared her throat loudly and clapped her hands together, making certain she had every patron in the Book Café hanging on her every word. "Excuse me, but I have an announcement to make," she paused to shake Shane's insistent hand off her arm. "My brother is a bona-fide PERVERT!" Light amused and embarrassed laughter filled the cozy space as the patrons waited patiently for more. Abby glanced at her brother's flushed appearance and tightly clenched jaw and decided enough was enough. She'd more than exacted her revenge. "Thank you. That's all I have to say," she finished, biting her lip to keep her laughter at bay as the crowd whirred back into action. "Hey, Buddy," she managed to keep the smile off her face. "You asked for it." "I changed my mind," Shane practically growled. "You're definitely going straight to Hell." "Really?" Abby inquired teasingly, "I always thought that was a foregone conclusion."
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"I guess that answers that question," Beth smiled, swiping the rag in her hands over the counter and depositing the crumbled pieces of muffin into the nearest trash can. "The man you were so curious about was her brother," she teased, laughing at the chagrined expression Ethan sporting behind his coffee mug. "And he's a pervert," Ivy added, her blue green eyes still dancing over the ridiculous display of a few moments ago. "A very attractive one at that," Beth murmured, her dark eyes sparkling at Ethan's nonplused reaction. "You think Abby's brother is attractive?" Ivy rolled her eyes at her son's bumbling query. "Jealous, Dear?" "What? No, Mother. I'm no such thing. I was just wondering.what's so appealing about the man? I'm not jealous. I'd like to think I'm not that insecure about, well.about Beth's feelings for me." Ivy's eyes widened in disbelief. "I mean Beth's feelings for me as a friend." Keep telling yourself that one, Dear, Ivy thought silently. "I mean.I don't see what the fuss is all about," Ethan's voice came out in a near whine. Beth laughed and reached across the counter to cover Ethan's hand with one of her own. "If it makes you feel any better," she said, giving him a gentle smile, "I find you a very attractive.friend." Ivy chuckled. If she didn't know any better, she'd swear Ethan was blushing. "Ethan.Beth," she shook her head when it became clear to her that her son had not even heard her speak. "I see Eve and her daughters.I'm going to go over and say a word or two." Beth nodded her head to indicate she'd heard her and turned her attention back to Ethan.
".I'm staying, Mom. I don't feel right leaving at a time like this," Simone argued earnestly. Eve looked away from her daughter and into Ivy's curious blue-green eyes. "Ivy," she spoke politely. "Hi, Mrs. Crane," Whitney and Simone spoke in quiet tandem. "Girls.Eve," Ivy nodded. "Can I help you with something, Ivy?" Eve questioned suspiciously. "No. No," Ivy repeated. "I just wanted to say hello, and tell you again how sorry I am about Kay. I know your family has always been close to her, and that this must be very hard on you." "It is," Simone murmured tearfully, ducking her head from prying eyes. Ivy gave Whitney a sympathetic look as she comforted her sister. Eve's dark eyes were bright with lingering suspicion and tears as she grasped Simone's hand across the table. "Mom, I mean it," Simone cried. "I can't even think of leaving at a time like this. Miguel's lost, and he needs us all. And the boys.Mom, don't try to talk me out of it because I'm not going to change my mind." Eve sighed, not bothering to wipe away the tear that traveled down her cheek. "I wish I could stay too, Mom," Whitney admitted softly. "Being so far away from home and you and Dad and all my friends doesn't make sense anymore." "I know, Honey. I know it seems like nothing makes sense, but it won't always feel this way," Eve offered lamely. "You don't have to rearrange your whole lives though." Feeling like an intruder on a private moment, Ivy left the scene silently and took a table in a quiet corner. Watching and listening and ruminating on how her world and the world of everyone else close to her in Harmony seemed to be topsy-turvy lately.
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"So, Little Man," Chad grinned at Cristian as he helped him stuff some clothes into his duffel bag. "You're one of the bravest men I know.toughing it out at the Hotchkiss Estate with Jake's grandma." Cristian sighed and tossed his favorite bear into the bag before Chad could zip it up. "I guess so," he muttered, plopping down on the bottom bunk of the bunk beds when Chad hefted his bag onto the top bunk. Chad sat down beside him, giving his dark hair an affectionate tousle. "I'll let you in on a secret," Chad leaned over to whisper into Cristian's ear. "She looks kind of scary, but she's basically harmless. Just don't let her intimidate you." "What's inti..intim.what's that big word mean?" Cristian questioned, looking up at Chad with serious brown eyes. "Don't let her scare you. You'll be fine," Chad said, giving the little boy a reassuring pat on the arm before standing up and offering his hand. "Just stick close to Jake's grandpa. He's an expert in dealing with Grandma Dragon," Chad smirked, letting his own personal nickname for Rebecca slip through. Cristian sucked in a startled breath at the mention of dragons, and Chad rubbed a hand over his chin thoughtfully as the little boy darted out of the bedroom door and into Theresa's waiting arms. Maybe that hadn't been his best choice of words. Luis strode into the bedroom and grabbed Cristian's duffel bag off the top bunk, giving Chad's orange tee-shirt a quizzical look before walking back out of the bedroom and pulling Cristian along with him. Theresa giggled at Chad and hurried after Cristian and Luis to answer the ringing doorbell.
Chad entered the living room to find Emily's arms firmly wrapped around Luis's neck and refusing to let go. His dark eyes lingered on Sara's tear- bloated face, and the little girl scowled meanly at him, rubbing her nose roughly with the back of her arm before Gwen had a chance to wipe it with the Kleenex in her hand. "Sara," she scolded. "It's only going to be one night. ONE," she reiterated. "I can't take you on this business trip. It's not like I can leave you in the hotel room by yourself. I won't get any work done if I'm worrying about you." "See?" Sara griped back. "You won't get any work done anyway if you leave me with Grandma." Chad chuckled under his breath when he noticed Luis trying valiantly to hide his amused smile from the irate little girl who had an answer for everything. "And Grandpa," Gwen shot back, dabbing the Kleenex under Sara's runny nose. "Blow," she ordered, and Cristian grimaced when Sara actually followed her mother's orders, blowing loudly. "Yuck," he muttered, hiding his face against Theresa's side. "Why can't I stay with Dad?" Sara grumbled when Gwen pushed her daughter's brown hair back from her damp cheeks. "And leave Cristian and Emily with Grandma all by themselves?" Gwen tried to tease. "Sara," she sighed. "You know Dad.this isn't about not wanting to stay with Grandma, is it?" Sara stared at her feet, and Chad felt his heart go out to the kid when more tears seeped from beneath her lowered lashes. "Oh, Sara," Gwen cried, pulling her daughter into a tight hug when she realized the source of Sara's misgivings. Kay's death had struck a chord with them all, even her not-so-innocent daughter. "I'm coming back. I promise you that I'll be back tomorrow night to tuck you and Emmy and even Jake into bed if you guys will let me." "I will," Sara sobbed hotly into Gwen's shoulder. "You better keep your promise," she muttered, lifting her wet brown eyes to her mother's face. Gwen laughed softly. "Is that a threat?" "Uh huh," Cristian nodded his dark head seriously, and Sara's tears were forgotten, pushed aside by the sounds of surprised laughter. And things were okay. At least for a little while.
Chapter 49
Nick laughed at the sound of Ali's delighted giggles as the snowflakes fluttered down from the sky and stuck to her golden lashes. It was the first time, Sheridan realized, that the smile had reached his gray eyes all day. Sheridan bent over, adjusting Ali's floppy denim hat and brushing the stray strands of gold behind her daughter's shoulder. "Ali.I think you owe Dr. Nick a big 'Thank you' for bringing you out here." "Thank you," Ali grinned up at Nick happily, and Sheridan shook her head as her daughter's movements made the hat fall off completely this time. She ran a tender hand over Ali's gold hair and felt tears just beneath the surface at the realization that the silk under her palm was thinner even than yesterday and some of its luster had dimmed. Nick's hand on her shoulder gave her a strengthening squeeze, and she smiled at him gratefully, watching pleasure light up Ali's beloved features when Nick spoke. "I'm not in the habit of bringing beautiful young ladies to the roof on my lunch hour. You're the first gorgeous lady that's had the honor," he told Ali with a wink, kneeling in front of her and tucking her blankets more securely around her shoulders and feet. "Now, AliCat. I want you to tell me if you get cold or if you don't feel well." "Tell him, Mommy," Ali searched out Sheridan's blue eyes with her own. "I don't feel sick today, Dr. Nick," she said, not waiting for her mother to speak for her. "Dr. Nick.will I be better before the baby gets here?" Sheridan's smile was tight, and her eyes flicked to Nick's again. Nick stood up, his hands unconsciously gripping the I.V. pole beside Ali's wheelchair in a tight grip. "Oh yeah. WAY before the baby gets here." "Good," Ali murmured. "I can't wait to be a big sister again."
"Ali," Sheridan sighed after several minutes of silence amongst the trio. "I think we should get back inside. It's cold out here, and we don't want to get Dr. Nick in trouble." "Mommy," Ali couldn't keep the whine out of her voice. "I don't want to go yet. Mommy, I LOVE the snow. Dr. Nick.don't make me go inside yet. You won't get in trouble, will you?" Nick leaned over the back of the chair and whispered something into Ali's ear, and Ali nodded, sighing slightly in disappointment but no longer protesting. "Okay. Do I get to get ice cream?" "Ice Cream?" Sheridan laughed incredulously. "Ali, it's freezing, and you want ice cream?" "UH HUH," Ali told her, blue eyes sparkling. "Sweetie, you're going to turn into a popsicle," Sheridan teased. "Are you sure you want ice cream?" "Mommy," Ali groaned, rolling her eyes at Sheridan, "Absolutely, positively." "100%." Nick added. "Without a doubt?" Sheridan asked, bending over and giving her daughter tickling little Eskimo kisses. "Duh!" Ali giggled, her little arms escaping the mountain of blankets she was buried beneath and twining tightly around Sheridan's neck. "You're going along with this?" Sheridan queried pulling back and snuggling the blankets back around Ali's slim shoulders, falling into step with Nick as he wheeled Ali toward the door. "What can I say?" Nick chuckled. "I'm your daughter's humble servant."
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"I didn't want to go to school anyway, Dad," Jake made conversation, peering at his dad and abnormally silent and well-behaved cousin over the cheeseburger poised inches from his mouth. MJ twirled the straw of his soda between his thumb and forefinger, making noncommittal grunts at the appropriate moments during his dad's one-sided conversation with him, Jake noticed. This was totally strange, Jake decided, taking a big, messy bite of his burger and barely taking the time to set it down before slurping loudly from his soda. He leaned back in seat opposite his dad and MJ in the booth and let out one of his championship belches. Sure it'd bring MJ out of his shell. But it didn't work. At least not the way he wanted it to. All he succeeded in doing was grossing out the old lady and her husband a couple of booths down. His dad didn't have to scold him. Jake apologized before the words left his mouth. On their way out, the elderly couple nosily inquired why they weren't in school, and Jake narrowed his dark eyes at them. "Because my dad's letting us skip. He's going to sneak us into the movies later. PG-13," Jake added, deciding he may have gone too far when the little old lady looked like she was going to keel over into MJ's uneaten mound of French fries. MJ certainly wiped that ugly scowl off of her face when he whispered, so quietly they almost didn't hear him. "My mom died." The old lady sure looked sorry then.
After they left Wendy's, they drove around town a while, and much to Jake's surprise, his dad DID take them to a movie. But it wasn't PG-13. Jake thought his dad didn't want to get Kay mad at him up in Heaven or something. Jake didn't watch much of the movie. He was too busy watching his dad watch MJ, and when his dad slipped his arm around MJ's shoulders in the darkness of the theater and tears started streaming down MJ's cheeks.Jake looked away, not wanting to embarrass his little cousin. MJ burrowed himself into his dad's side and stayed there for a very long time. When the movie's credits were rolling, and everyone (well.just him, his dad, and MJ it seemed to Jake) was blinking their eyes at the bright lights, MJ looked up at his dad, and Jake felt a funny pain in his chest when he asked, in such a sad voice, "Can I go home to my dad now?" "Yeah," Jake heard his dad whisper as he lifted MJ into his arms, and Jake didn't think MJ was a baby at all and making fun of him later never once crossed his mind. Jake just followed them, wishing for the hundredth time that he could make everything normal again with a single wish.
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Chad grimaced at the sound of tiny claws digging into the cotton of his tee- shirt once again for a better grip. The gray fuzzball purred when he scolded it, and Chad shook his head at the sound of Theresa's tinkling laughter. "I think Smoky likes you." "Yeah." Chad tried not to smile as he peeled the kitten off his upper body, "this is the 3rd shirt of mine she's ruined this week." "She's just showing you how much she cares," Theresa teased, plopping down in Chad's lap and grabbing the kitten out of his hands. Smoky pushed her tiny head against Theresa's palm, practically begging to be stroked. Theresa curled her fingers around the kitten's skull as she nestled it against her chest, scratching lightly behind its ears. "You're going to have to take her home with you, you know," Theresa finally said, brown eyes sparkling with unreleased laughter. "She's already adopted you, and I think she's got pretty good taste." "I ain't taking no cat home. I'm a dog man, girl. What would it do to my rep." Chad trailed off, grinning when Theresa started giggling. "What?" she prodded, almost shrieking when she felt his big hands closing around her thighs and going behind her knees, pulling her tight against him. "The cat has good taste?" "Chad!" Theresa cried, pushing at his chest playfully and making them both tumble back further into the mountain of pillows on the sofa. "Oh! Chad!" Theresa exclaimed, scrambling off of Chad's lap after catching a glance of the clock and sending the startled kitten scurrying into the quiet corner basket its mother and littermates were dozing in. "The Youth Center!" "Theresa.Chief Bennett asked if he could fill in, and I didn't think Sheridan would mind. I figured it'd give him something to do, you know. Take his mind off of things," Chad soothingly reminded her, and Theresa took a deep breath, calming herself down and settling back into Chad's open arms. She sighed, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms tighter around Chad's waist as he stroked her hair, resting his chin atop her head. "It almost feels wrong.laughing. Doing all the things we've always done when everything's so messed up." "Living's not wrong. It's just something we got to do," Chad said quietly. It was something he wholeheartedly believed.
Chapter 50
"Grandpa," Faith wrinkled up her nose as she stared at the orange globe in her hands. "Yeah?" Sam smiled at her, his hands outstretched to block her. When Myles skittered past he grabbed him up in his arms and swept him over his shoulder, causing the little boy to laugh and Faith to roll her blue eyes at them. The basketball bounced then rolled to a stop in front of Sam's feet when Faith released it. "You've been cheating, and I still suck at basketball. I don't think I want to play anymore. Sorry," she muttered apologetically. "S'okay," Sam said, lowering Myles to his feet and following his granddaughter to the crafts table on the other side of the Youth Center after tossing the basketball to a group of children in the corner. Three sets of blue eyes stared at the table's lone occupant in concern.
Myles pulled at his sweater nervously, tucking himself safely into Sam's side as Sam crouched down and held out his hand. "Lissy?" Sam questioned gently. "Lissy, is something wrong?" Lissy turned tearful chocolate eyes to him, sniffling as she shoved a heavy lock of tawny hair behind her ear. "My grandpa's real sick, and Daddy had to go to the hospital with him. Mr. Sam.Daddy said Grandpa had a stroke, but I don't understand. Does that mean he's going to die?"
"Faith.go show Myles how to put that puzzle we looked at earlier in the office together." Faith started to protest at getting Myles detail again but decided it wasn't worth it and took her little brother's hand with a sigh. She helped him climb into the chair behind the desk and pulled out the puzzle for him, leaving it to him to figure out which piece went where. She had better things to do, like satisfy her curiosity. Too bad she couldn't get closer, she thought disappointedly, hanging onto the doorframe and straining her ears to hear what Grandpa was telling Lissy.
"Faif," Myles called, and Faith whipped around, waving her annoying kid brother off with a hand. She'd told him how many times it was Faith and not Faif, but did he listen? Big fat N-O! She turned around to see Grandpa hugging Lissy and wiping away her tears. He said something else, and Lissy was nodding her head, and Faith couldn't stand it. She wanted to hear what they were saying. It wasn't fair. She got stuck with Myles every time and missed all the good stuff.
"Faif! Look!" Myles cried, kicking his feet against the desk and demanding her attention. "What?" Faith whined. "Myles.can't you see I'm busy? I don't wanna.Myles! Put that down! It's not yours. You're going to break it," she grumbled, yanking the picture frame out of his hands and setting it back on the desk. "She's pretty," Myles said, pointing and blushing at the same time. Faith studied the picture, tracing her small fingers over Ali's face and admiring the long blond hair she'd always wanted but never got. Not even after wishing on candles or stars or anything. "Yeah," she admitted grudgingly. Ali WAS pretty. It just wasn't fair, Faith thought with a frown. "That's Ali," Faith told her brother.
"Awi," Myles grinned, clapping his hands and eliciting yet another eye- rolling from his sister. "Wanna go see Awi," he said, tumbling from the chair and nearly falling at Faith's feet. "It's Ali, and you can't go see her, Stupid. She's in the hospital." Myles's face fell and his pink lips formed into a pout. "Awi sick?" "Yeah," Faith muttered, shaking her red head at him, thoroughly annoyed for the hundredth time that she wasn't at home in Chicago with all her friends and her school and her puppy. And she felt all mean and aggravated. "Ali's going to die. Just like Aunt Kay," she said, watching tears well up in Myles's blue eyes. "Granpa!" Myles cried, running past her and burying his face against Sam's denim clad thigh. Her grandpa's face held so much disappointment, and Faith couldn't look him in the eye. So she stared at her feet instead and wished even harder for the comforts of home.
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"Jonathan! Jonathan!" Rebecca hissed, waving her husband forward with one hand while she held a finger of her other hand to her lips. Jonathan's blue eyes crinkled at the corners as he ambled down the hall, wondering what had his wife's interest piqued this time. She'd watched the young Lopez-Fitzgerald child like a hawk the entire day, driving the poor boy to distraction. It was obvious she made the child nervous to everyone BUT her. "Rebecca.what." "Jonathan," she shook her head. "Look," she mouthed, pointing into the bedroom their twin granddaughters shared whenever they stayed the night. Jonathan's lips twisted up in amusement when he spied Emily, dolled up in one of Gwen's old party dresses. Stuffed bosoms and all. Emmy's cheeks were a scarlet red, and her eyes were painted a vivid blue. Aha! So someone had ferreted out his wife's makeup supply and put it to use. "It's all replaceable, Dear. My wallet can handle it."
Rebecca grasped his arm hard when he turned to leave, yanking him back beside her. "The Lopez-Fitzgerald child.he's got on a dress too. You don't suppose.it's such a shame. Luis is such a MAN," she almost purred, resting a hand on her chest and getting a faraway look in her blue eyes. "Rebecca," Jonathan chuckled, ignoring her comment about a man less than half her age. A married man that wasn't him. "He's a child. They're playing, and if it makes any difference to your ridiculous notions, he doesn't seem to be enjoying himself at all. Sara's wearing pants. You're not analyzing that," he pointed out. He shook his head when she 'hmphed' and pranced into the bedroom, announcing it was time for the children to take their baths.
Playing dress-up and dolls had worried her, but their two little girls sharing a tub with the child almost gave her a heart attack. The bubbles and underwear worn under the water did nothing to alleviate her hysteria. Jonathan sent her to bed with a firm shove out the bathroom door, holding out towels for each of the youngsters. Emily giggled as he wrapped the towel around her tiny shoulders, proudly showing off her Barbie panties, rubbing her nose against his and fluttering her eyelashes against his cheeks. "I love you, Grandpa," she singsonged, skipping out of the bathroom door and leaving a wet trail behind her. Sara rolled dark eyes after her sister, and Jonathan found himself grinning as he toweled her chin-length brown hair dry. "She's such a girl," Sara muttered, glancing down at the bugs that adorned her own underwear. "Lame-O Barbie," Sara gagged. "Mine glow in the dark," she pointed out, slipping and sliding out the bathroom door. "They're cool."
"Mr. Lopez-Fitzgerald," Jonathan turned to Cristian with a benevolent smile. "It's been a pleasure, young Sir," he said, offering a hand to the tiny dark boy after he'd pulled his pajama top over his head. Cristian's brown eyes sparkled and a tiny smile crossed his lips as he pressed his palm against Jonathan's. "Thank you," Cristian said quietly, and Jonathan's smile widened as the boy allowed him to lead him out the door. "You enjoy my granddaughters' company?" Cristian's eyes were wide and dark and serious as he nodded his head slowly. "They enjoy yours," Jonathan told him, relieved to find that Sara and Emily had already changed into their pajamas when he and Cristian entered the bedroom. He chuckled when he saw that the two twin beds occupying the room had been pushed together, and Emily came forward, giving Cristian's hand a firm pull. "Cristian's sleeping in the crack," Sara announced, bouncing onto one side of the bed and pushing the covers back. "Won't he fall in?" Emily inquired of her grandpa worriedly, twirling the skirt of her pink nightgown as she waited for his answer. "Emmy, you Retard!" Sara cried. "He's not going to fall in. He's too big." "But what if he does? Sara, switch places with him. Please," Emily pleaded. "I'm not stupid," Sara declared. "I don't want to listen to you cry all night 'cause you can't sleep by Cristian neither." "Girls, girls!" Jonathan called, interrupting their tiff and getting their attention. "Cristian's your guest. I think you should ask him where he wants to sleep." "In the middle," Cristian answered diplomatically. Pleasing BOTH girls. "See that, Son?" Jonathan turned to Cristian, smiling into his dazed dark eyes. "You already got them fighting over you. I'd say you're a lucky young man," he said with a wink.
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"Love you too, Babe. See you tomorrow. Yeah. G'night," Hank finished, punching the off button on the cordless telephone and leaning forward to place it on the coffee table. The vertebrae in his back popped as he leaned back against the couch, and he grimaced. Jake arched a dark brow at him over the top of the heaping bowl of popcorn. "Getting old, aren't you, Dad?" Hank just smirked, ruffling Jake's spikes as well as he could manage. "Life Lesson Number 2.NEVER tell the Old Man he's getting old. Always pretend he's as young and eager as the Michael Jordan's out there." "Dad," Jake pointed out with a roll of his brown eyes. "Michael Jordan IS old." "Shaq then." "Shaq's kind of old too, Dad," Jake grinned. Hank took one look at his son slouched next to him in only his Smiley face boxers and white socks and laughed heartily. "I tried to convince your mom to name you Hank Jr., but she wouldn't do it. Said you were your own person. Boy was she wrong."
Jake just grinned, popping another kernel of popcorn into his mouth as he turned his attention back to the wrestling match on the television. One of the wrestlers 'cracked' a metal chair over the other one's head, and Jake hooted at the T.V. screen, giving his dad a high five. "Your mom would have my ass for condoning such violence," Hank mentioned offhandedly, as he took another slurp of his soda. "Good thing Mom's not here, huh?" Jake wiggled his dark brows, brown eyes twinkling devilishly. "Hey, Dad. Can I have another soda?" Jake fished for a response out of his dad. "This popcorn's really salty," he said, grabbing his throat to demonstrate how great his need was for the soda. "Sure, Little Buddy. Maybe some butter will make it better," he said, handing the popcorn bowl to Jake as he headed toward the kitchen. "You know what?" he said, lumbering to his own white-socked feet and adjusting his red boxers with hearts all over them. "I think I'll give you a hand." Really good thing Mom wasn't here, Jake thought as he looked back at the carnage they were leaving in their wake. He was going to have to skip school again tomorrow just to clean up the mess in time. Skip school, he thought with a grin. NO biggie.
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"Shane.I'm perfectly capable of driving myself home," Abby rolled her hazel eyes down at her brother from her vantage point on the last step of the stairs leading into the Lobster Shack. "I'm not drunk. Hell. I'm not even hung-over anymore. I'm fine. I'm full. And I'm ready to go home. You don't have to babysit me anymore. Is this all because you found me in Nick's bed this morning? I told you.as far as I know, I didn't.we didn't.trust me. It's been so long I wouldn't forget it if I had mindblowing sex." Shane grimaced, grabbing her hand and pulling her off the last step, reaching a hand down to tuck her wild tawny hair behind her ear. "I'm your brother. Not your priest." "Are you kidding?" Abby scoffed. "I'd give poor Father Lonagin heart failure if I confessed EVERYTHING, all the impure, insane thoughts that run through my head to him during confessional."
"Your girlfriend then," Shane chuckled. "I love you, Runt," he sighed, pulling Abby into a bear hug and pressing his lips to the crown of her head. Abby grinned against his chest. "What? No words of wisdom to impart? No warnings against doing something stupid? No nothing?" "Nope," Shane shook his head, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "I trust you." "Somebody pinch me 'cause I've drank myself into the Twilight Zone," Abby cracked, laughing at him as she backed away. "I love you too, Shane. I'm glad you're here." "Will you still be glad tomorrow?" Shane grinned, waving at her as she walked to her car. "Maybe. Maybe not," Abby's mouth quirked up at the corners.
Shane watched his sister's car pull out onto the road and disappear into the darkness, shivering against the cold night air and stuffing his hands into the pockets of his coat. He heard the sound of a step creaking behind him and turned around, hazel eyes locking with a pair of blue-green eyes that'd caught his attention at the Book Café this morning. "Are you waiting for someone?" he asked after spending several minutes of silence with the owner of those entrancing eyes. One leather-gloved hand raised to brush an errant strand of pale hair from her lips, and he gave the woman a friendly smile once it appeared he was under a moment's intense scrutiny. "You're Abby's brother?"
"Yes," Shane replied, reaching out a cold-reddened fist. "Shane. And your name?" She seemed amused by his question, her lips twitching into a smile as she answered simply, "Ivy." "Nice to meet you," he said sincerely. "Left my gloves at the B & B," he explained needlessly as he gripped her hand in his own. "Grace's B & B?" Ivy questioned, slightly surprised that he'd let Abby drive away just seconds ago. "It's a beautiful night out," he said, answering her unasked question. "I thought I'd enjoy the walk, get to know a little bit more about Harmony." "You'll freeze to death. The cold." ".is invigorating," Shane grinned. "Nevertheless, I should get going pretty soon. Pleasure meeting you, Ivy," he repeated, turning in the direction opposite the Bed and Breakfast. Ivy watched him leave, shaking her head. She flipped her purse open, pulling her cell phone out and punching in Ethan's number without really thinking. She told him to pick her up at the B & B instead of the Lobster Shack and hurried down the steps, almost slipping in her haste. "Shane!" she called, waving him forward with a hand when his head turned in her direction. "You're going the wrong way. The B & B's that way," she informed him, pointing behind her. "If you go that way, you'll never get there," she said, finding herself laughing with him as he jogged toward her, nearly falling himself before she steadied him with a hand to his arm. Very attractive indeed, she thought as she found herself staring into smiling hazel eyes. Very, very attractive.
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Sheridan sighed softly as Luis nuzzled her neck, wrapping his arms around her middle and giving her body a gentle tug into his. She smiled as she felt his lips whispering against her skin, and twisted her head around to look into his sparkling dark eyes after glancing once more at Ali. "She's beautiful, isn't she?" "Just as beautiful as her mother," Luis agreed, dipping his head to press a soft kiss to her mouth. Sheridan's blue eyes grew bright in the dim light of the room and her expression solemn as she gazed at Ali's slight little body resting beneath the sheets on the hospital bed next to them. "She's going to be even more breathtaking when she grows up." Sheridan thanked him silently for saying WHEN not IF when he spoke by bringing one of the hands that rest on her gently curved belly to her lips and kissing it. "Luis?" "Hmm," Luis murmured against her ear, making her shiver. "Do you think she knows how precious she is to us?" "I think she's got a pretty good idea that she and Cristian are our world," he said, smiling against her shoulder. "And this little one," he said, slipping his warm hands beneath the shirt she wore and caressing the bare skin over her womb.
The sheets tangled around her legs as she shifted and turned in his arms, resting her forehead against his and bringing them nose to nose. Breathing the same air. Luis kept his hands between them, protectively placed over the child within her belly as he looked deeply into her blue eyes. "Do you want a girl or a boy?" she asked several minutes later, resting her hands on his chest, directly over his heart. She could feel its steady, calming beat beneath her palms. One of her legs lay atop one of his thighs, and they pressed against each other from head to toe. "It doesn't matter," Luis whispered. "I'll love this baby.our baby.no matter what." "Good answer," she teased with a smile. "Does that mean you don't want to find out the sex tomorrow?" "I didn't say that," Luis grinned. "I'll be happy if we find out she's alright." "She, Luis? I thought it didn't matter." "Go to sleep, Sheridan," Luis shook his head, kissing her fluttering eyelids. She did. And she dreamed about a beautiful little angel. With her daddy's smile.
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An angel with wise brown eyes watched over them from up high. She watched with tears streaming down her silky cheeks a woman tucking two dark-haired little boys into bed, humming Spanish lullabies though the smallest boy could not hear the music. She ached to take the broken man watching the woman and two little boys into her arms and tell him it was all going to be okay. It was all going to work out. Somehow. "I know you're sorry," she whispered, hoping the red-curled child with the guilty blue eyes and trembling chin could hear her and find some comfort in the knowledge that she wasn't the only sister who'd said things she didn't mean. "I'm here, Mom. I'm okay," she ached to tell the auburn-haired woman who weeped silently in her husband's arms. "Take care of her, Dad," she murmured. And to her friends and family she willed them to feel her love. "Don't give up," she urged her tawny-haired friend whose heart couldn't help but do a little hurting of its own and whose hazel eyes couldn't believe the closed door. "Don't be silly. He likes you, Abby. He's fighting it, he's denying it, but he's failing so badly." She smiled as she envisioned the blue-eyed angel of a mother's dreams and encouraged two whose strength had been tested time and again, "Hope lives on. Tell them I said so Ali."
And the little girl with her golden halo smiled in her sleep as she felt an angel's kiss on her brow.