“She finally fell asleep, huh?” his father asked softly as he glanced down at Tinkerbelle, who was snuggled up by his side.
“Yes,” he said, smiling down at the woman who loved him.
Not that he was surprised, he was a fucking catch after all.
“Looks like we finally found the right combination of pills,” his father said, picking up a blanket off the other bed and carefully placed it over them both.
Frowning, he looked down at the woman softly snoring in his arms. “You drugged her?”
“Put it in her apple juice,” his father said with a shrug. “She was in pain and refused to take anything for it so I drugged he
r.”
“I see,” he mumbled and just like that, the silence became awkward.
That is until his father decided to pick up where they’d left off.
“I’d raised you to face your mistakes, Danny.”
“Don’t start this shit again,” he said, grinding his jaw as he looked up to face his father.
“You ran off, Danny,” his father said, rubbing the back of his neck as he shook his head, looking a little lost. “You just ran.”
“You didn’t give me much of a choice,” he said evenly.
His father met his gaze as he said, “No, I didn’t. I kept pushing you when I should have just accepted the fact that you weren’t perfect, Danny.”
“I never said that I was.”
“No,” his father said softly, “you didn’t, but in my eyes you were. You were a smart kid, a great brother, a wonderful son, a cocky little bastard, but to me you were perfect. When you proved me wrong, I lost it. I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was that morning, Danny. I thought I was going to lose you and when you pulled through and I thought about how easily I could have lost you over something so stupid,” he paused, shaking his head, “I just lost it.”
“Things worked out,” he said, surprised by just how much it hurt him to hear his father admit that he’d fucked up. For years he’d imagined this moment, imagined his father taking the blame, but right now, for the first time since he’d come out of that coma, he wished that his father would stop talking.
His father nodded. “For the most part, they did. The Marines did for you what I never could, but at a cost.”
“Why did you stop talking to me?” he forced himself to ask.
“Because I didn’t know what to say to you without pushing you away again, Danny. I just…..,” he shook his head, looking away, “I just didn’t know what to say that would make what I did to you okay.”
“You didn’t do anything to me,” he said, sighing, because his father wasn’t to blame for how his life had turned out. “You were right. I was cocky and when I fucked up I acted like a spoiled brat and ran off, thinking that I was taking the easy way out with the Marines. They taught me a great deal and helped me grow up.”
“I still pushed you away,” his father said, looking tormented. “I never should have done that. I never should have done that…”
“Yes, you did, but so did I. We both fucked this up.”
His father raised his hand and laid it over his where it rested on Jodi’s hip. “I won’t make that mistake again,” his father promised, giving his hand a squeeze.
He opened his mouth to promise his father the same when the small woman in his arms cut him off.
“If you girls are done talking, I could really use a double chocolate donut.”
He looked up at his father just in time to catch the panicked expression on his face. “Oh, shit…….,” his father mumbled, swallowing nervously as he released his hand and stumbled back away from the bed as Danny sighed, resigning himself to the next twelve hours of hell with the woman that he loved.
Chapter 1
Orlando, Florida
“You shouldn’t be carrying that,” Ethan said with a smile and a wink as he took the large bag from her and carried it the rest of the way to the rental car she’d been using for the last couple of months.
“Thank you,” Jodi said, trying to force a smile for him, but unfortunately it came out as a grimace when the babies that she was carrying decided to start kicking, which unfortunately hit her bladder in just the right way.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as his smile quickly morphed into a look of concern. He dropped the bag he was carrying and rushed back to her side, placing a hand over the large baby bump, that was actually starting to concern her, and one on her back.
“It’s fine,” she said with a heavy sigh as she looked back over her shoulder and nearly whimpered, because she was going to have to walk all the way back to the house and use the bathroom, again. “I just need a minute,” she explained with a sad little pout that had Ethan chuckling, earning a murderous glare that was quickly changed into a wince as the boys kicked her bladder, harder.
“I’ll wait,” he said, gesturing back to the house and looking amused, which was either gonna get his ass kicked or make her start crying.
And crying it was…
With a sniffle that she may have done on purpose to make him feel bad for laughing at her, she slowly turned around and started the long walk back into the house. Twenty minutes later and two additional trips to the bathroom, she was finally in the car and heading towards the hospital.
“What are your plans when you get home?” he asked, bring up the topic that the rest of the Bradfords, and Danny for that matter, had been avoiding since it was discovered that she was pregnant.
She had absolutely no idea.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She knew what she wanted to do, but since Danny hadn’t brought it up and he was going to be busy recuperating when they went home she didn’t think that was going to happen. Danny was a sweet guy, who loved her and was excited about the babies, but he also needed time to heal and it wouldn’t be fair of her to expect to deal with her and two newborn babies. She’d keep her apartment, take care of Danny and allow him some time to do what he needed to do in order to walk again.
She wasn’t going to make any suggestions or ask him for anything. She’d work until she couldn’t any longer and then…
Sighs, she really had no idea what she would do, because she really didn’t want to continue working at the library. It was a boring, stressful and a tedious job that made her hate going to bed at night, because she knew that she had to go to work the next day and it depressed the hell out of her.
“Are you going to move in with Danny?” he asked casually, making her frown a bit.
“No,” she said slowly, unable to help but wonder why he was asking her about shaking up with his son instead of suggesting marriage.
Didn’t most parents push for marriage when there was a baby on the way? Her father had certainly been pushing for marriage since the moment that she found the courage to call him and tell him that his unmarried daughter was knocked up. That phone call hadn’t gone so well, which she’d been expecting. She’d expected a few comments about him being disappointed in her and a few suggestions of what she should do.
Instead there was sobbing.
A lot of sobbing, which made it difficult to hear what her father was trying to say, but she was able to piece enough of his blubbering and sobs to know that he was terrified for her and wanted her to come home so that he could help take care of her. By the end of the conversation, his sobbing had shifted and he’d told her that he couldn’t wait to be a grandfather. Every day since that first phone call, he’d called twice a day to make sure that she had everything that she needed.
“I picked up the anti-nausea medication for you, so you should be all set for the plane ride,” Ethan said, making her sigh with relief, because she really hadn’t been looking forward to see how motion sickness would affect her morning sickness.
“Thank you,” she said with a small smile as she sat there, staring out the window, trying to decide what she should do for her and their boys.
She should have never let that asshole have access to her bank account and credit cards. It was by far the stupidest thing that she’d ever done. Well, besides agreeing to go out on a date with him in the first place. God, she’d been so damn naïve to think that he’d changed for her. It was definitely a life lesson, one that she never wanted to repeat.
*-*-*-*
“What the hell did you do to her?” Danny demanded with a glare for the bastard carrying his woman.
Jason snorted at that as he carefully placed Jodi on his lap, careful of the arms on the wheelchair, which probably saved the bastard’s life. Danny pulled her closer and cradled her in his arms. Keeping his eyes locked on the bastard who already looked bored, he pressed a kiss to Jodi’s forehead. She mumbled some
thing in her sleep as she shifted in his arms and curled up closer to him.
“It wasn’t me,” Jason said, glancing around the terminal.