Chapter 26 #2
Vi sniffles. “I know. The nurse said they usually wait to do their first baths, but with everything that happened…” She pauses and looks at Hayden for reassurance.
His grey eyes are already locked on her in silent devotion.
“They thought I’d like to wake up to her all clean and ready to be loved on.
” She drops a soft kiss to the fluff. “They want us to do skin to skin like this for a while since I didn’t get to bond with her when she came out.
” Her chin trembles as tears fall freely down her cheeks.
“You’ve got her now,” I reassure her. “And she’s perfect, Vi.”
She laughs with a garbled cry mixed in. “That she is, even if she did scare the shit out of us.”
Everybody chuckles awkwardly except for Hayden. He lowers his head to Vi and kisses her temple, breathing her in for a moment before he repeats the gesture to the baby.
“What’s her name?” I ask, looking between the two of them.
Vi swallows around a smile. “Well, none of our choices suited her. Then Hayden suggested Adrienne from Rocky because she had a bit of a rocky entrance, and well…” Her lips crumple with the onslaught of more tears and my eyes fill right along with hers.
I reach out and grab Vi’s hand, squeezing hard and ignoring the IV and medical bracelets littering her small wrists. Suddenly, my sister who has always been bigger than life to me, seems so small, so young, so tired, yet magically stronger than I’ve ever seen her look.
I move my hand from Vi’s to the baby’s, picking up her tiny clenched fist and testing the weight of it. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Rocky.” I smile and Vi laughs, the sadness in her eyes depleting fractionally.
“Where’s Belle?” she asks, looking around the room like she must be standing in a corner somewhere.
I swallow and divert my attention back to the baby. “She wanted to give you guys some privacy.”
Vi tilts her head. “Privacy? What the bloody hell is that? She was seconds away from delivering the baby herself.”
“I know.” My gaze lifts to hers and I silently will her to leave it be.
Gareth’s voice rescues me from a Vi interrogation. “You never mentioned what her middle name is.”
Vi nods and looks past me to Dad. “It’s Vilma.” A sad smile breaks across her face as she utters our mother’s name aloud. Vi’s given birth name, actually, even though she’s always just been our Vi.
I turn and see Dad’s eyes are red-rimmed as the presence of our mum’s memory grows in the room. He nods stiffly, turning away to hide the pain and regret shimmering deep in his eyes.
Gareth’s voice breaks the heavy silence. “She’d be very proud, Vi.” He clears his throat and pulls himself up tall. “You’re going to make a wonderful mum, just like her.”
Dad and Gareth exchange a look that’s equal parts emotional and tense.
What they experienced together—caring for Mum when she was sick at the end—is such an unspoken territory to the rest of us.
There’s a pain between them that none of us can ever truly know.
Camden places a hand on Gareth’s shoulder, which causes him to blink and a single tear slips down his cheek.
“Gareth’s right,” Dad says, his brow furrowed in determination. “It will be nice to continue her name in the family.”
I hear a shaky intake of air come from Vi as she clutches Adrienne to her chest, eyes closed, tears flowing. Hayden folds over on her, rubbing the baby’s back and pulling Vi’s attention to him. The three of them finding strength in their own little family.
They gaze into each other’s eyes, saying things that none of us could ever understand. Only them.
I watch them in amazement. Hayden almost lost everything tonight, yet I’ve never seen him look happier or more proud. He’s suffered great loss before. His grief over his sister’s death almost killed him, yet here he is, taking risks, because the reward of the climb surpasses the risk of the fall.
And it always will.
As soon as we’re out of the hospital, I turn to Booker. “I need to take the truck.”
He frowns and nods at me. “Okay, I can ride home with Dad. Everything all right?”
Camden and Indie walk up on our conversation as he asks. I glance at Indie and reply, “I hope so.”
Indie fishes into her purse and hands me her keys. “For the flat, although”—she pauses and looks at her watch—“she might not be home yet.”
My brows knit. “Why wouldn’t she be home?”
Indie looks uncomfortable. “She might have walked home.”
“Walked?” I exclaim. “At this time of night?”
She cringes and shrugs. “Yeah, it’s about a twenty minute stretch. She walked it all the time when we worked here.”
Camden scoffs Indie’s name, but I don’t stay to listen to them quarrel. I’m already jogging for the truck. I was desperate to see Belle before. Now, thinking of her out here by herself makes me vibrate with urgency.
I drive down the road I think she would have taken. It’s a relatively straight shot to her building from here and the area doesn’t look too dangerous, but I’m still not comforted. My eyes swerve everywhere the entire trip, searching for her and regretting that I let her leave at all.
When I see someone wearing a bright green shirt walking in a dark corner off in the distance, I exhale in relief.
I punch the gas and turn onto the road she’s preparing to cross, forcing her to jump back from the curb.
I park with a hefty screech of the tyres and fly out of the vehicle, not even bothering to close the door as I march straight toward her.
“Are you bloody kidding me, Ryan?” I growl. “It’s after midnight and you decide to walk your arse home? Do you not have any sense?”
Her dark eyes shift from shock to annoyance. “I’ve walked this road a million times. I worked at that hospital for years, Tanner.”
“Oh, so you’re psychic now? You can predict whether a rapist is going to come driving down this road or not?”
“Maybe I am psychic!” she snaps. “You don’t know me.”
“The fuck I don’t,” I roar, my voice reaching high octaves that probably make the residents wonder if I’m a rapist.
When she moves to turn away from me, the yellow streetlight catches her face, illuminating her features more clearly. Her eyes are puffy and her skin is blotchy.
“Have you been crying?” I ask, circling around her to see her face.
She continues avoiding my gaze. “No, all right. Just…leave it, Tanner.”
“I will not bloody leave it, and I will not leave you. We’re following a pattern here, Belle. Don’t you see it?”
She scoffs, “What are you going on about?”
“Fighting and making up. Fighting and making up. You flip out on me, I chase after you. I hurt you, you make me pay for it. And I’m okay with it. I’ll endure these ups and downs with you. But eventually, you’re going to have to stop thinking it’s the end every time we fight.”
“Well, maybe you should just end it and save us both such an emotional rollercoaster!” she retorts.
“I like the ride!” I explode, shoving a hand through my hair. “I like that frightening twinkle you get in your eyes when you go off the rails.”
“Christ, I can’t understand why. I’m a fucking mess,” she dejects.
“So your crazy is showing. Who gives a fuck!” I bark, grabbing the crook of her arm to twist her until she has to look into my eyes.
“It’s not scaring me off, Belle. Don’t you see?
It’s pulling me in. It’s wrapping it’s way around me and binding me to you in a way that makes me want to protect you… indefinitely.”
I pause, shocking myself with the last word and how right it feels falling out of my mouth. It’s like the words I just spoke open some vault deep inside me because I’m suddenly seeing everything so much clearer.
Belle looks at my face like she’s seeing something brand new. Like she’s seeing and feeling the shift. Her voice is quiet when she asks, “Why do you want me? Seriously, Tanner. You’re going to want someone better than me. You will. I know it.”
I reach out and brush my thumb down her cheek. Her dark eyes swim with emotion. Her freckles like a canvas I could have painted myself. “Belle, my soul has grown with you. So much so, I wonder if it would have shrunk into nothing if I’d never met you.”
Her jaw drops as she huffs out a self-deprecating sort of laugh. Shaking her head, she replies, “I could have never seen you coming, Tanner.”
“I hope that’s a good thing,” I reply with a small smile.
She slow blinks and her face softens into my beautiful, warm Belle. Then she giggles, a look of disbelief twinkling in her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re the same man who told me women called you the thigh tickler!”
This makes me laugh. Hard. She joins in, too, and the sound of it mixed with mine soothes my troubled soul.
Aching to feel her again, I lean down and crush her body to mine, encasing her with one arm behind her neck and the other around her ribcage.
I use my lips to turn her smile into a kiss as I tip her back and breathe in the wildfire that is so quintessentially Belle.
Belle Ryan is unpredictable and the exact opposite of easy. But her spirit calls to me on some deep level that I cannot stay away from.
I straighten her back up and press my forehead to hers. “You inspire poetry, woman.”
She hugs me, rubbing her hands down my back. “I’m sorry for freaking out back there. I’ll apologise to your sister tomorrow.”
“Don’t even worry about it,” I reply, looking down at her. “Vi is in her own little bubble right now. I’ve never seen a happier family.”
Her brows lift. “You Harrises seem to have happiness figured out rather well.”
I frown. “We aren’t perfect. Far from it. You’ve got your family issues, I’ve got mine. If you share yours with me, I’ll share mine with you. Maybe then we can figure out the meaning of life.” I waggle my brows at her playfully.
“The meaning of life, you say?” She bites her lip around a sexy half-smile that makes my dick jolt. Her eyes narrow conspiratorially. “Let’s go ponder that over some chocolate.”