Chapter 36 #2
“We usually call the police in situations like this, but my client didn’t want that.
She wanted to pretend it never happened, for it all to go away.
She didn’t want to be a spectacle. It happened out of the way, so it was easy to keep it under wraps.
There were a few reports of gunshots in the area we were in, but…
there were no bodies left behind. No evidence. ”
I don’t want to ask the question that comes to mind, but he must sense it anyway. “We know people who do that kind of thing. We stay out of it—that’s not our job.”
“Right,” I say. “What about you? Don’t medical staff have to report something like a gunshot wound to the police?”
“They do, but the local police know me, they know what I do, and they know that I’m not going to tell them anything about my work.
We have client confidentiality, too.” I run my hands through his hair, not having anything to say to all of this other than what the fuck.
“When I was in the hospital…” he says, “it was like I had this…epiphany. This realization of the life I was living, and of all the things I gave up for it. No one was there. No friends, no family, no one who cared about what happened to me.”
“People care about you, Leo,” I say. “Everyone back home still cared about you, even when you were gone.” I don’t dwell on the fact that I just called Ruby Cove home for the first time in years. “People would have come,” I add. “I would have come.”
If I had known that Leo was in the hospital here, nothing could’ve stopped me from running to his side. I moved to Sorrento years after he did, years after he had established his business. I knew he was here, yet we never saw each other. But if I knew he was hurt, I wouldn’t have waited a second.
“I mean, yeah. But I let those friendships fall away. I still called on birthdays and Christmas, but I wasn’t exactly a good friend. I wouldn’t have expected anyone to come. I didn’t deserve anyone’s sympathy.”
I tilt my head. “Leo…”
“Maybe it’s because one day, I knew I would end up exactly where I did.
But in that moment, I realized I didn’t know what I was living for anymore.
Because if that had been the end, no one would’ve known until they saw my obituary in the fucking newspaper.
What good was living if I had nothing to show for it?
” I think back to his apartment, to how empty it was.
Leo lived there for years, yet it all seemed so temporary.
“Do you know what you’re living for now?”
Leo sits up, his hand cradling my head like I’m the one who needs support. “Now, I’m living for myself. I’m living for moments like this, because there was a time when I didn’t know if I’d ever get here.”
I smile, holding onto his wrist. “I think you and I were always meant to end up here. We just had to make our own way.”
“I’m sorry I made it more difficult,” Leo says.
My heart drops at the look in his eye. The regret. But I see him. I see what he’s been through and the way it still haunts him. He will carry that pain with him always, through everything he does. All I can do is try to be there to take some of the weight.
He knows he was wrong. I don’t want to punish him for that. He’ll be doing it enough.
“I’ll get you back at a later date.” I grin.
I hear my phone buzzing on the nightstand, but I ignore it when Leo presses his lips to mine. He pulls back as my phone finally stops. “We need to talk about how this is going to work. I want to figure this out with you. We can’t dance around it forever.”
“I know,” I say, but then my phone rings again, and Leo’s vibrates from where it’s discarded on the floor. His eyes narrow, and we pull apart to grab our phones. “It’s Rafael,” I say, and turn back to see Leo hanging off the bed, looking at his phone.
“Isla,” he says.
Both of us answer our respective calls. “Hey,” we echo.
“Are you at a shoot or anything today?” Rafael says as a way of greeting, his tone urgent.
“No,” I say. “Why?”
“Good. We’re on our way to the hospital. May’s in labor.” My eyes go wide, and Leo turns to look at me at the same time, Isla obviously relaying the same news. “From Ruby Cove?”
“We were already on the way,” Rafael says, and I hear May groan in the background. “May wanted to go to that dumpling place in town for dinner.”
I snort. “Your dumplings didn’t cut it?”
I just know he’s rolling his eyes. “I’ve learned not to fight with the cravings beast, Marisol. It is a whole separate spirit that takes over my fiancée’s being. I just comply.”
“Well, I suppose it worked in your favor this time,” I say, sliding off the bed and pulling on a pair of jeans. Leo does the same, still talking to Isla.
Rafael scoffs. “Considering we are still a week out from our delivery date, the cravings beast chose well today.”
“We’ll meet you there ASAP,” I say.
I hear him let out a breath. “Thank you. I’m pulling into the car park now.”
“See you soon. Good luck!” I hang up, and an intoxicating mix of nerves and excitement rolls through my body. I’m about to be an aunt.
“Alright,” Leo says, chucking his phone on the bed and putting it on speaker as he throws his shirt over his head. “We are heading there now. We’ll let you know if there are any updates before you arrive.”
“Okay, thank you, Leo,” Isla says, and I hear a car door shut in the background. “And if you see May at all, tell her we love her.”
“I will,” Leo says with a small smile as he picks up the phone again. “I’ll text you.”
“Okay, see you soon.”
“Bye.”
He hangs up and then looks at me. I pick up his car keys from the ground and throw them at his chest before sliding on a pair of shoes. “You’re driving.”