And yet, she was the most beautiful woman Slider had ever seen.
The truest, the most loyal, the bravest.
He eased into the chair beside her and clutched her hand, careful of the second IV above her thumb. “Hey, it’s me,” he said, just needing to talk to her. Just needing her. “I’m here. And everyone is going to be okay. Sam’s right, you know. You were so fucking brave. God, Cora, you saved Sam’s life. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that. And sweetheart . . . Jesus, Cora. We made a baby. It’s early. So early. I have no idea what’ll happen or even if you’ll want it. But, God, I hope you do.”
The wonder of that still hit him on so many levels. He thought about what Sam had confided in him earlier, how Cora wanted to be a mom. Now she would be. And he remembered how, from the first second he’d held Sam as a newborn baby, Slider had loved being a father. Now he was going to have that privilege all over again. And the boys were going to have a new brother or sister, a new life that would bond the four of them together in yet another way.
And, Jesus. How many times had he tried to tell himself that he’d be best off defining family by blood? Even though he now realized it’d been a defense mechanism he’d built to block out the pain of Kim’s lies and betrayals, Slider couldn’t help but shake his head. Because here, Cora shared his blood. Through the baby struggling to grow inside her.
Cora was family. Cora was family in every way he’d ever defined it. Or ever would.
Which meant . . .
“You have to wake up now, Cora. I need you. I need your eyes and your voice and your touch. I need your humor and your silly names and your love of animals. Please wake up for me.”
But he couldn’t will her awake. And anyway, he’d wait for her as long as it took for her to recover. So he laid his head down on the edge of her bed, still holding her hand, and talked and talked to her, so she knew that she wasn’t alone, and that he wanted her, and that he always would.
He talked so much and so long that he didn’t remember stopping. But the next thing he knew was a soft weight in his hair.
For a moment, he moaned and settled back into sleep, and then his brain jolted him awake.
Bright green eyes stared at him, and then a smile eked onto Cora’s face beneath the oxygen mask. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he said, emotion knotting in his throat. “Hi.” Slider stood up, needing to be closer, and leaned in over her, careful not to put any weight on her body.
“Wha’ happened?” she said, her words a little slurred as she brushed away the mask.
He gently stroked her face. “All you need to know for right now is that everyone is going to be okay.” She needed to know the details, and in time she would, but not right now. Not while she was still so weak. “And the other thing you need to know is that I love you so much I don’t know how to be without you.”
One side of her lips lifted in a little smile. “Love you, too.” Her eyes went wide. “Sam?”
Aw, Jesus, the way she cared for him and his. “Downstairs resting and doing good.”
“Okay,” she said, her eyelids falling shut again.
Relief. Sheer and total. It was like a tidal wave inside him, one that took his knees out from under him until he sagged back into the chair.
And then Slider wept. Wept like he hadn’t in years. Not even after Kim died had he cried, given everything that had led up to that terrible moment. But now he wept. It cleansed his soul of so much of the pain he’d been holding onto, and it healed his heart of so many of the breaks caused by abandonment in his life, and it removed the poison of shame from Kim’s betrayals from his mind. He wept.
And then it was as if his brain just needed to shut down, because he fell asleep again, his head against her hip, their hands laced together. Because he knew now—knew with clarity.
Slider never wanted to let Cora go.
The first thing Cora was aware of was the warm weight of Slider’s head against her, and it made her smile before she managed to force open her eyes. Even a little fuzzy, he was the sexiest man she’d ever seen, not that she was really in any shape to be thinking about sex. Apparently.
Her head lolled as she tried to take it all in. Lots of things hurt. Her face, her side, her shoulder, her arm. But she had an odd floaty feeling that told her she had drugs on board, and that was good.