Chapter 18
Eighteen
Neighbor said hi again. I’m just gonna move.
—Weaver to Eddy
Weaver
I was waiting at the airport for my daughter and Nettie to arrive, and it was snowing.
We weren’t in for a big snowstorm or anything, but we were in for enough of a go of it that I knew that Boston would be ecstatic.
She loved snow, and sadly, we didn’t ever get any back home.
We’d gone on a few skiing trips that she’d found out she loved all things winter.
Sadly, those trips hadn’t happened since she was a child.
I just knew her smile would be huge the moment she stepped off the plane and saw it.
I was practically bouncing on my toes as the door to the private plane opened and I could see the brown mop of my daughter’s curls bouncing behind the flight attendant.
The moment she stepped out of the way, Bossy was tearing down the steps and launching herself at me.
I caught her with ease and pulled her into my arms, burying my face into her hair as all sorts of emotions assaulted me.
Love the most overwhelming of all.
We talked a lot.
So much, in fact, that I knew more about her now than I did when she was a kid.
But talking and seeing were two very different things.
“I’m so happy to see you,” I whispered against her hair.
She squeezed me tighter, and a sob caught in her throat.
I picked her up and started walking toward the covered awning over the private airport lobby.
When we were under the awning, I took a seat on the metal bench and held her while she cried.
I might or might not have shed my own tear or two by the time she was finished bawling.
When she pulled back and looked into my eyes, I felt struck stupid.
My little girl was gone, and in her place was a young woman that I barely recognized.
“You grew up on me, Bossy.”
She beamed, and that crooked front tooth that I used to find so damn cute was gone, in its place was a row of straight white teeth that I’d paid for but hadn’t gotten to see the end result of.
“I missed you, Daddy.”
“Missed you, too.” I squeezed her to me tight for a long moment before pulling back and narrowing my eyes. “But you better not run off like that again.”
She winced. “I can’t deal with Philippa anymore.”
For Boston to be calling Pippa by her given name meant that she was done with her.
She’d always been Pippa from the moment she was young and could form words. Boston had always called her the same.
Even Stanton had called her Pippa.
I hadn’t heard the name “Philippa” in so long that I’d mostly forgotten that was her name.
“I know you can’t,” I said. “We have a few solutions we think might work.”
“As long as you don’t send me back, I’m down.” She fisted my shirt, as if expecting me to contradict her statement.
“No going back,” I said, explaining what Apollo and I had come up with.
She relaxed instantly.
“Not that I don’t love this sweet reunion,” Nettie said. “But it’s freakin’ cold out here, I have four bags in my hand, and I want to check on my sister.”
I helped Boston stand, then caught all the bags but one from Nettie’s hands. “Your sister’s looking forward to seeing you.”
“Is she okay?” Nettie asked.
We drove to the hospital as I told Nettie all about how Eddy was doing.
“You like her, don’t you, Daddy?” Boston said when we pulled up in front of the hospital. “Like, really like her.”
I thought about denying it seeing as Nettie was very clearly listening to every word, but chose to tell them both the truth. “I like her a lot. I even might love her.”
Nettie inhaled deeply.
“Go, Dad, go.” Boston grinned, clapping happily. “I can’t wait to meet her.”
I took the two of them through the hospital corridors that would lead to Eddy’s hospital room.
When we got to the door, Nettie stiffened, closing her eyes. “What is it?”
“My kryptonite.” Nettie groaned as she pushed open the door to reveal Boone and Eddy playing cards. “You can leave now.”
Boone stood up and gathered the cards. “Gladly.”
“You don’t have to go.” Eddy caught Boone’s wrist.
“Yes, yes he does,” Nettie grumbled.
“Antoinette,” Boone scoffed. “How unsurprising that you’re rude in front of a young girl that’s impressionable. You always were kind of trashy.”
Nettie inhaled swiftly.
Boston’s eyes couldn’t get any wider.
But it was Eddy’s voice, low and quiet, that had everyone stilling.
“For the love of all that’s holy, take it outside. Both of you.”
The two fighting children left, but never stopped bickering.
They stopped in the doorway as Eddy called out, “Also, just remember, you have the Olympics coming up, Antoinette Reilley Wheeler. Pregnancy might make that hard.”
The look that Nettie sent her sister would’ve quaked normal people in their boots.
It only made Eddy’s mouth kick up at the corner as she gave her sister an unrepentant smirk.
“What was that about?” Boston asked as the door closed behind them.
“That’s love that two people refuse to acknowledge because they’re too stinkin’ stubborn.” Eddy held out her free hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Boston. I’ve heard a lot about you from your father.”
Boston ignored the hand and hugged Eddy gently.
“I’ve heard very little about you,” she admitted. “But only because Dad and I don’t talk nearly enough. He did make sure to call me and tell me that he’d met a girl.”
Eddy’s eyes met mine over my daughter’s shoulder.
I shrugged. “You were important.”
Eddy’s eyes went so soft that I thought she might cry.
Luckily, Boston saved her from breaking down by asking, “I know this is completely inappropriate, and you can totally say no if you want to, but I’m dying to see what your side looks like. I want to be a surgeon when I grow up.”
Eddy snickered and turned slightly, then said, “Hey, Weaver? Can you come pull the back side of my gown out from under my back?”
She’d had clothes on earlier when I’d left, but now she was back into the gown I could tell she disliked.
“Why are you in that again?”
“A grumpy nurse,” she grumbled. “Apparently, I require too much work to be wearing clothes right now. I need to be in something that has easy access to the wounds.”
I helped her move the gown out from behind her back, then gently peeled it back so that her breasts were still covered but the rest of her was exposed.
“Whoa,” Boston gasped in awe. “That’s going to be one hell of a scar, lady.”
“Don’t I know it.” Eddy snickered.
“She did inform me that chicks dig scars, though.” I chuckled as I tucked the gown back down.
“Do you think it was because you were wearing a fitted tee? What if I got you a button-up one of mine? Then you can take it on and off easily. I think even with the ribs, you might be able to do it on your own.”
Her eyes lit. “Do you have one on you?”
I gestured to the one I was wearing. “This one. Though, I don’t have anything to wear out of here if I give it to you.”
She scrunched up her nose in protest. “I think it’d be best not to shock anyone with that body of yours. We’re in a hospital and it would be the best place to deal with women having heart attacks, but it might still be slightly inappropriate.”
Boston fake gagged. “My dad isn’t that attractive.”
Eddy’s eyes were gleaming as she said, “Oh, I will have to agree to disagree with you on that one.”
“La-la-la-la!” Boston plugged her ears.
I bumped her with my hip before saying, “How about you do me a favor and pull up Google and search up a place that has food and that’s willing to deliver. There won’t be very many of them, but the ones that do are all decent.”
“There wasn’t a single Starbucks in sight on the way in,” Boston groaned.
“Nope.” I mussed up her hair with my hand. “But you might should’ve thought about that before you hopped on a bus and left your grandparents’ place.”
“I hate that they cater to her.” Boston angrily took the seat next to Eddy’s bed.
“She’s a psychopath, Dad. I swear to you, I would’ve never left if they weren’t giving her everything that she could want.
She practically doesn’t work. When she quits her job, she comes to Grandpa and he funds her lifestyle until she gets another job that she’ll only keep for a week max. Then come right back and demand more.”
“What happened the day you left?” I asked, leaning my hip against the side of Eddy’s bed.
She reached behind me and ran her fingers over my back, her nails dragging along the fabric lightly.
I leaned into the touch, and it didn’t go unnoticed by either woman in my life.
“Grandpa told her he was cutting her off,” Boston said quietly, looking at me with an intensity that shocked me.
When did my little girl grow up on me? “When she asked why, Grandpa told her that she’d exhausted her trust fund and that there wasn’t much left.
When she ordered him to use yours, Grandpa said no.
That it was mine. And she got this crazy gleam in her eye and said, “Well then, maybe I should take custody of Boston.”
Boston sighed. “There was more. A lot of screaming and fighting. Grandma got into it after Philippa accused Grandpa of loving a murderer. Philippa got even more defensive then, accusing both of them of being toxic for a budding adult. But she had this look in her eyes, as if she was really going to follow through with the threat of going to court to get custody of me.”
“It won’t happen,” I said. “Apollo, my friend that I told you about, won’t let her get away with this. We’ll figure this out.”
Boston’s shoulders slumped, and I watched as Eddy moved her bad arm and caught hold of Boston’s wrist with three fingers.
“If there’s one thing I know about your dad, he makes a promise and he keeps it,” she said softly. “Your aunt won’t ever be an issue for you anymore.”
Boston’s eyes lifted and they locked with Eddy’s. “He’s a pretty great person.”
My lips quirked. “Now you both are making me blush.”
She tickled my lower back with her fingernails before dropping her hand to her lap and saying, “I got cleared from soft foods and I can now have real, honest to god food. Can we please, please, order an appetizer? That has lots of bread and butter?”
“Butter’s gross,” Boston groaned.
Eddy gently placed her hand over her heart and gasped, “Blasphemy.” She looked up at me with shock. “What have you been teaching this child?”
My lips quirked. “I have no clue. I’ve been dropping the ball the last several years.”
She patted my butt gently. “At least now you get to fix the mistake. We’ll make her a butter lover.”
Dinner was great, even when Boone and Nettie joined us thirty minutes later—freshly fucked, might I add.
By the time I was walking out of the hospital with Boone on one side of me, and my girl on the other, I was feeling settled for the first time in a long time.
I’d never allowed myself to think about having Boston here with me, mostly because I thought it was for the best that she stay with my parents to keep her safe.
However, now that she was here, and she was adamant that she was staying, I felt a piece of my heart finally settle back into place. Right next to another piece that I hadn’t realized I was missing until the two most important women in my life had a giggle fest over butter and bread.
“She’s a great woman, Daddy,” Boston said. “I think you chose well.”
“She is great,” Boone said. “She was four years behind me in school with Nettie. But swear on all that’s holy.
She’s gotten the shaft most of her life.
Her parents are dicks. Audrey took great pride in making her teen years miserable.
Then she fucked her knee up in that accident and couldn’t go play professionally.
She’s been making do for her entire life, and the girl deserves something and someone that makes her happy.
By the looks of it, Weaver, that’s you.”
“I plan on continuing to make her happy for a really long time,” I said. “I’m nowhere near ready to propose or anything, but I am more than ready to have her come home to my place instead of back to hers when she gets out of the hospital.”
“She’ll fight you.” Boone chuckled. “She hates putting people out. She’ll see that as forcing you to take care of her.”
“Well, she can complain all the way to my place.” I clapped Boone on the back when we got to his truck. “You and Nettie?”
Boone groaned. “World War Three in the making.”
“Eddy’s not the only one that deserves to be happy, man.”
Boone’s scowl made my lips tip up as I threw my arm around Boston and led her to my truck. “What do you think about a roommate?”
Boston leaned her head on my chest as she said, “I think it sounds like a lot of fun.”