Chapter 13
Olive wasn’t sure why she’d butted in and insisted she go to the hospital, but the way Joey held her hand as they walked through the double glass doors made her glad she had.
Joey’s other hand was in Noah’s, and she glanced at his face. She’d seen him run the gamut of emotions in the past hour. Happy when he learned about Pretend Matt. Relief at hearing Joe had woken. Surprise, hunger, and desire after their kiss.
He hadn’t been alone in that. The memory of his mouth on hers, the feeling of him standing between her thighs, his eyes dark and focused only on her.
And then his blank expression as he reminded her the past was best left in the past—which, no kidding.
When they arrived at the ICU wing, Katie came out of Joe’s room, beaming as she crouched in front of Joey. “I’m going to take you in to see your daddy, but you can’t stay long, okay?”
“Why?”
“Because he’s still very tired.”
“But he’s been sleeping forever. How come he’s still tired?”
Katie kissed his forehead. “It’s complicated, baby.”
“That’s what grown-ups always say when they don’t want to tell you stuff.”
“How about we concentrate on what I can tell you, and that’s that your daddy is awake right now and can’t wait to get his eyeballs on you.”
“?’Kay. Oh, and Mommy, guess what? Olive and Noah kissed!”
Noah grimaced.
Amy probably gave herself whiplash with how quickly her head spun around to look at them.
Katie just grinned as she went brows up at Olive. “Eventful evening.”
A nurse came out of Joe’s room. “Only a few minutes,”
she said firmly but kindly. “He needs to rest.”
Katie took Joey in first. Noah, Olive, and Amy stepped up to the doorway, watching Joe track his wife and son as they moved toward him. Katie pulled a chair close to the bed and sat with Joey in her lap. He immediately leaned over and kissed his daddy’s cheek. “For your owie.”
Olive’s heart ached and she pressed a hand to it, watching Joe slowly reach out, his arm trembling with the effort as he took Joey’s hand, his gaze turning back to Katie with an enviably easy love in his eyes, the three of them a tight little unit.
Amy sniffled, and Noah wrapped an arm around his mom’s shoulders. He’d been standing there stoically, giving nothing away, but at the sound of his mom crying softly, he closed his eyes and let the relief and emotion show on his face. It was so real, so intimate and vulnerable, that Olive felt like an intruder.
A few minutes later, Katie waved them in, but Olive hung back.
Katie crooked a finger at her. “You too.”
So in she went.
The corners of Joe’s mouth turned up at his audience. “Yo.”
“Yo,”
everyone echoed back.
There was a brief silence, probably because all of them, Olive included, were nearly choking on their relief and joy.
Joe looked at Noah. “You okay?”
Noah closed his eyes for a beat, then opened them. “I am now.”
Joe gave him a crooked smile and attempted a fist bump, but couldn’t hold out his hand. Noah wrapped his fingers around Joe’s wrist and guided the fist to his.
Amy kissed Joe on the cheek. “Soon as you’re upright, you and Katie need a getaway. I’ll plan it for you. If you guys could go anywhere, where would you pick?”
Joe’s eyes were on Katie. “If we’re together, it doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, good answer,”
his wife said. “I was going to say out for donuts.”
Everyone laughed and a good amount of the tension drained away as Joe’s eyes tracked to Olive. “Hey, stranger.”
“Daddy, Olive gotta cramp,”
Joey volunteered. “On her butt! That’s why Uncle Noah’s hand was there, to make her feel better. He also kissed her!”
Katie snorted. “Nothing gets by my kid.”
“Olive told Uncle Noah she wanted another kiss,”
Joey said. “And then he told her to take whatever she wanted, and she kissed him. That’s when Uncle Noah had his hand on Auntie Olive’s bottom. What?”
he asked when everyone stared at him. “That’s where her cramp was, right, Uncle Noah?”
Everyone looked at Noah.
Except Olive, who craned her neck to look at the nurses’ station right outside the door. Because seriously, where were the ICU nurses when you needed them? Surely this many people in a room was a violation, right? In fact, she’d just head out there and—
Katie snagged her hand. It took her a moment to speak because she was laughing so hard. “Want to tell me again there’s nothing going on between you two?”
“There isn’t,”
Noah said.
Insulting. But . . . “He’s right,”
Olive said.
Joe was smiling. “Nice. It’s even almost believable. You just didn’t practice the fib enough. It’s got to roll right off your tongue.”
Noah raised a brow. “You’ve never fibbed to me.”
“Not true.”
Joe looked at Olive. “I fib to him all the time.”
“Hey,”
Noah said.
“Sorry, man.”
Joe smiled at Olive. “See?”
Noah rolled his head on his shoulders, like his neck was tense.
Joe just grinned and pointed first at Noah, then Olive. “I approve.”
Olive smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. This wasn’t going well. “I’m not available.”
“Right,”
Noah said. “She’s not available.”
“Is this because of her made-up boyfriend named Matt?”
Katie asked.
Olive gaped at her. “You know?”
“Of course I know. I know everything. Why does no one ever believe that?”
She looked at Olive. “You have a tell when you lie. You repeat a question instead of answering right away, so you have more time to think. You also squeak.”
Everyone’s head swiveled back to Olive, who glared at a laughing Noah. “You think this is funny?”
Amy smacked Noah upside the back of his head.
“Ow!”
“Then behave.”
Noah ran a hand down his face. He started to say something, but stopped because Joe was cracking up, and it was the sweetest sound. Given the look of love on Katie’s face, she agreed.
“Maybe you should make up a girlfriend,”
Katie told her brother. “That way you don’t have to keep pretending it’s your job that keeps you single, instead of the truth, which is that you think it keeps your life less chaotic. And also because you like your freedom. Which is dumb. Being with someone enhances your life, it doesn’t take away from it.”
At the silence, she looked around and winced. “Uh-oh. Did I do it again?”
“Say too much?”
Noah nodded. “Yep.”
He looked at his mom. “Why don’t you ever smack her upside the head?”
“Oh!”
Katie raised her hand. “I know this one. She loves me more than you.”
Amy sighed. “Sometimes, I swear, I have no idea why I had children.”
“I’m a children,”
Joey said. “Right?”
Noah scooped him up and slung him over his back, hanging him upside down, to Joey’s squealing delight. “Trust me, kid,”
he said. “If I could guarantee a kid exactly like you, I’d have a bunch.”
“Aw.”
Amy pressed her hands to her chest. “Really?”
“Yes,”
Noah said, while shaking his head in the negative then mouthing no.
So she smacked him upside the back of his head again.