Prologue
Let’s recap from where we left off, shall we?
“You left me,” Danny whispered hoarsely when he finally managed to open his eyes.
“You didn’t leave me with much of a choice,” she said, trying not to cry or show him how relieved she was that he was finally awake.
“Had to,” he said, glancing around the room as she poured him a small cup of water. “Where is everyone?”
“It’s three in the morning so I’m guessing that they’re either sleeping or getting kicked out of a buffet,” she said, earning a weak smile from him.
“Take a sip,” she ordered, holding the cup in front of him with her good hand.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, obediently taking a sip.
After a minute, she pulled the cup away and placed it on the tray, wishing that his father was here to help with this, but around an hour ago Mary had finally managed to browbeat her husband into going back to the hotel and getting some sleep. Now, she was sitting here by herself, terrified that she was about to find out that Danny was paralyzed.
She should call a doctor, but instead she found herself climbing into bed with him and curling up by his side. She needed this after everything they’d been through over the past two weeks, she needed a moment before their lives went to hell and stayed there.
“What happened?” he asked, pressing a kiss against the top of her head as he reached over and placed his hand carefully on her cast.
“I beat the shit out of your brothers,” she admitted with a sniffle.
He chuckled weakly as he pressed another kiss against the top her head. “That’s not what I meant.”
“You beat the shit out of your father,” she said, still regretting that she hadn’t been there to stop that. “Your brothers had to pull you off and in the process your back was broken and the scar tissue from your old injury and surgeries tore, pulling free and caused some internal bleeding. They were able to stop the bleeding and remove the scar tissue, but your back-”
“I had weak spots in my vertebrae from the shrapnel,” he said matter-of-factly as she struggled not to cry again. “I was supposed to take it easy.”
“They broke,” she said, her voice breaking.
He was quiet for a long time before he asked, “Was my spine compromised?”
“Can you move your toes?” she asked, repeating the question that they’d been asking him every time he regained consciousness and terrified of his answer.
“Yes,” he said, and just to prove it, he brought his leg up slowly, bending it before he slowly returned it back to the bed and just like that, she lost it.
“Shhhh, don’t cry, Tinkerbelle. I’m fine,” he said, soothingly.
“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to stop, but heaven help her, she couldn’t.
He’d scared the hell out of her!
“Did you really beat up my brothers?” he asked, kissing her head again and obviously trying to distract her.
“Yes,” she admitted with a sniffle.
“Why?”
“Because they hurt you.”
“It was an accident,” he said, but she didn’t miss the amusement lacing his tone.
“I don’t care,” she muttered, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her hand. She could take one of the painkillers the doctors had prescribed her, but she’d been out of it enough over the last two weeks to last her a lifetime.
“I shouldn’t have hit him,” Danny said, sighing heavily. “He started talking and I just lost it.”
“Your father’s not mad.”
“That’s great, but that’s not really what I meant. I want to know why you left me.”
“Because you were pulling away,” she said around a small sob, and wow, did she sound pathetic.
“I wasn’t pulling away,” he promised her.
“Yes, you were,” she said, because she knew the signs. She’d seen it before with Jerry. When she’d felt Danny do it, she’d decided to leave before he could hurt her. She hadn’t been able to stomach the idea of going through that with Danny.
“I would never leave you, Tinkerbelle,” he said, gently cupping her chin and tipping her head so that she was looking up at him. “Never.”
“Then what were you doing?” she demanded, wanting to know what kind of bullshit reason he could come up with for the way that he was acting. He said that he hadn’t been pulling away from her, but-
“I was planning your abduction,” he said, blinking innocently down at her.
She opened her mouth, but couldn’t quite find the words to respond to that declaration.
“I had to make a few phone calls and call in some favors to get the ban temporarily lifted from Vegas just long enough for me to drag you off and marry you before you got a chance to run away,” he explained calmly as she continued to lay there, staring dumbly up at him.
“I’m sorry, what?” she finally managed to get out.
“We’re getting married,” he said, shrugging like what he’d just said was no big deal.
“I told you that I didn’t want to get married,” she reminded him.
Another shrug. “I chose to ignore that.”
“Okay…….,” she said, because really, what else was she supposed to say to that?
“As soon as they release me, we’re going to get married,” he announced and yeah, now she was wondering if they’d missed a head injury when they’d examined him.
“And why exactly are you so determined to marry me all of a sudden?”
“Because I love you,” he said with another shrug as he nodded towards the cup of water. “Can I have another drink?”
“D-did you just tell me that you love me?” she asked, staring at him and unable to help herself, because now she was pretty sure that he was suffering from a brain injury. It was either that, or the drugs in his system making him say this.
“Yes,” he said, closing his eyes. “Figured it out the day at the reptile zoo. It pissed me off that you didn’t love me back, but I figured in ten years or so with enough mind blowing sex, you’ll end up falling head over heels in love with me so it’s okay.”
She chuckled, she couldn’t help it. “You’re planning on using sex to make me fall in love with you?”
“Mmmhmmm,” he mumbled sleepily. “I’m willing to make that sacrifice.”
“Wow, you’re a giver,” she said, smiling down at the man that she loved.
“That I am,” he said, smiling that sexy grin that drove her crazy. “And you’re marrying me. Soon,” he said, firmly even as he started to nod off.
“I am,” she said, nodding her head solemnly in agreement, sniffling as tears started to roll down her face, “because I love you.”
He stilled for a minute, that sexy grin of his turning into a frown. “What about all the mind blowing sex?”
Smiling, she leaned down and kissed him. “I’m still willing to have all the mind blowing sex.”
“That’s very big of you,” he said, grinning against her lips.
“It really is.”
*-*-*-*
“She finally fell asleep, huh?” his father asked softly as he glanced down at Tinkerbelle, who was snuggled up by his side.
“Yes,” he said, smiling down at the woman who loved him.
Not that he was surprised, he was a fucking catch after all.
“Looks like we finally found the right combination of pills,” his father said, picking up a blanket off the other bed and carefully placed it over them both.
Frowning, he looked down at the woman softly snoring in his arms. “You drugged her?”
“Put it in her apple juice,” his father said with a shrug. “She was in pain and refused to take anything for it so I drugged her.”
/> “I see,” he mumbled and just like that, the silence became awkward.
That is until his father decided to pick up where they’d left off.
“I’d raised you to face your mistakes, Danny.”
“Don’t start this shit again,” he said, grinding his jaw as he looked up to face his father.
“You ran off, Danny,” his father said, rubbing the back of his neck as he shook his head, looking a little lost. “You just ran.”
“You didn’t give me much of a choice,” he said evenly.
His father met his gaze as he said, “No, I didn’t. I kept pushing you when I should have just accepted the fact that you weren’t perfect, Danny.”
“I never said that I was.”
“No,” his father said softly, “you didn’t, but in my eyes you were. You were a smart kid, a great brother, a wonderful son, a cocky little bastard, but to me you were perfect. When you proved me wrong, I lost it. I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was that morning, Danny. I thought I was going to lose you and when you pulled through and I thought about how easily I could have lost you over something so stupid,” he paused, shaking his head, “I just lost it.”
“Things worked out,” he said, surprised by just how much it hurt him to hear his father admit that he’d fucked up. For years he’d imagined this moment, imagined his father taking the blame, but right now, for the first time since he’d come out of that coma, he wished that his father would stop talking.
His father nodded. “For the most part, they did. The Marines did for you what I never could, but at a cost.”
“Why did you stop talking to me?” he forced himself to ask.
“Because I didn’t know what to say to you without pushing you away again, Danny. I just…..,” he shook his head, looking away, “I just didn’t know what to say that would make what I did to you okay.”
“You didn’t do anything to me,” he said, sighing, because his father wasn’t to blame for how his life had turned out. “You were right. I was cocky and when I fucked up I acted like a spoiled brat and ran off, thinking that I was taking the easy way out with the Marines. They taught me a great deal and helped me grow up.”
“I still pushed you away,” his father said, looking tormented. “I never should have done that. I never should have done that…”
“Yes, you did, but so did I. We both fucked this up.”
His father raised his hand and laid it over his where it rested on Jodi’s hip. “I won’t make that mistake again,” his father promised, giving his hand a squeeze.
He opened his mouth to promise his father the same when the small woman in his arms cut him off.
“If you girls are done talking, I could really use a double chocolate donut.”
He looked up at his father just in time to catch the panicked expression on his face. “Oh, shit…….,” his father mumbled, swallowing nervously as he released his hand and stumbled back away from the bed as Danny sighed, resigning himself to the next twelve hours of hell with the woman that he loved.
Chapter 1
Orlando, Florida
“You shouldn’t be carrying that,” Ethan said with a smile and a wink as he took the large bag from her and carried it the rest of the way to the rental car she’d been using for the last couple of months.
“Thank you,” Jodi said, trying to force a smile for him, but unfortunately it came out as a grimace when the babies that she was carrying decided to start kicking, which unfortunately hit her bladder in just the right way.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as his smile quickly morphed into a look of concern. He dropped the bag he was carrying and rushed back to her side, placing a hand over the large baby bump, that was actually starting to concern her, and one on her back.
“It’s fine,” she said with a heavy sigh as she looked back over her shoulder and nearly whimpered, because she was going to have to walk all the way back to the house and use the bathroom, again. “I just need a minute,” she explained with a sad little pout that had Ethan chuckling, earning a murderous glare that was quickly changed into a wince as the boys kicked her bladder, harder.
“I’ll wait,” he said, gesturing back to the house and looking amused, which was either gonna get his ass kicked or make her start crying.
And crying it was…
With a sniffle that she may have done on purpose to make him feel bad for laughing at her, she slowly turned around and started the long walk back into the house. Twenty minutes later and two additional trips to the bathroom, she was finally in the car and heading towards the hospital.
“What are your plans when you get home?” he asked, bring up the topic that the rest of the Bradfords, and Danny for that matter, had been avoiding since it was discovered that she was pregnant.
She had absolutely no idea.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She knew what she wanted to do, but since Danny hadn’t brought it up and he was going to be busy recuperating when they went home she didn’t think that was going to happen. Danny was a sweet guy, who loved her and was excited about the babies, but he also needed time to heal and it wouldn’t be fair of her to expect to deal with her and two newborn babies. She’d keep her apartment, take care of Danny and allow him some time to do what he needed to do in order to walk again.
She wasn’t going to make any suggestions or ask him for anything. She’d work until she couldn’t any longer and then…
Sighs, she really had no idea what she would do, because she really didn’t want to continue working at the library. It was a boring, stressful and a tedious job that made her hate going to bed at night, because she knew that she had to go to work the next day and it depressed the hell out of her.
“Are you going to move in with Danny?” he asked casually, making her frown a bit.
“No,” she said slowly, unable to help but wonder why he was asking her about shaking up with his son instead of suggesting marriage.
Didn’t most parents push for marriage when there was a baby on the way? Her father had certainly been pushing for marriage since the moment that she found the courage to call him and tell him that his unmarried daughter was knocked up. That phone call hadn’t gone so well, which she’d been expecting. She’d expected a few comments about him being disappointed in her and a few suggestions of what she should do.
Instead there was sobbing.
A lot of sobbing, which made it difficult to hear what her father was trying to say, but she was able to piece enough of his blubbering and sobs to know that he was terrified for her and wanted her to come home so that he could help take care of her. By the end of the conversation, his sobbing had shifted and he’d told her that he couldn’t wait to be a grandfather. Every day since that first phone call, he’d called twice a day to make sure that she had everything that she needed.
“I picked up the anti-nausea medication for you, so you should be all set for the plane ride,” Ethan said, making her sigh with relief, because she really hadn’t been looking forward to see how motion sickness would affect her morning sickness.
“Thank you,” she said with a small smile as she sat there, staring out the window, trying to decide what she should do for her and their boys.
She should have never let that asshole have access to her bank account and credit cards. It was by far the stupidest thing that she’d ever done. Well, besides agreeing to go out on a date with him in the first place. God, she’d been so damn naïve to think that he’d changed for her. It was definitely a life lesson, one that she never wanted to repeat.
*-*-*-*
“What the hell did you do to her?” Danny demanded with a glare for the bastard carrying his woman.
Jason snorted at that as he carefully placed Jodi on his lap, careful of the arms on the wheelchair, which probably saved the bastard’s life. Danny pulled her closer and cradled her in his arms. Keeping his eyes locked on the bastard who already looked bored, he pressed a kiss to Jodi’s forehead. She mumbled something in her s
leep as she shifted in his arms and curled up closer to him.
“It wasn’t me,” Jason said, glancing around the terminal.