Page 26 of Playing With Forever (Hollow Point #4)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“You need to go out and talk to her,” Josie demanded. “Right now, Evan, or I’m doing it.”

I adjusted her legs that were resting over my thighs and shook my head.

“You try to get up off this couch, woman, I’m taking you into the bedroom and cuffing you to our bed.”

“It’s been six days,” she told me, something I hadn’t forgotten.

Three of those six days had been utter hell. Four of those hours had been the worst four of my life.

Four hours not knowing if we were going to lose Josie.

Four hours watching my daughter struggle and feeling helpless to do anything.

Four hours of being lost in my pain, not knowing what to do or say to help anyone else.

Fucking torture.

“We’ll talk to her when she comes back in.”

“The boys will be here.”

All the better to wait.

What Lindy needed right now was her family around her.

“Evan—”

“Since when did you turn so bossy?”

Josie squinted her eyes and tilted her head to the side, giving me an unobstructed view of a four-inch slice on the side of her neck that had been glued closed. The clear piece of SecondSkin did nothing to hide the wound, but even if it was covered, I knew the exact location of that cut.

I think my heart had stopped when I saw the blood bloom from her neck.

Josie knew what happened in the Hope Center after she’d gone into shock and passed out.

She knew I’d shot and killed Saul, she knew that Tyler had witnessed his father’s death.

What she didn’t know, and what I didn’t tell her, was that Saul Trapp was the only man I’d ever killed that I hadn’t felt a twinge of remorse over.

I’d gladly take his life again if it meant Josie was breathing.

Diane had called Josie three times before I finally answered and asked her to stop.

I went as gently as I could—the woman had one dead son, a dead ex-husband, and two traumatized kids—one more than the other.

I felt compassion for the woman, but I still didn’t want her calling.

Josie would tell her it was okay and it wasn’t her fault, and while that might be the case, it was her son who had hidden a backpack full of drugs in the Hope Center and led that motherfucker there.

“I didn’t lock the door.”

I wasn’t tracking Josie’s abrupt change of topic. “What door?”

“That night. I watched Anita walk to her car, my phone was ringing, it had been a crazy day, and I didn’t think. I should’ve locked the door.”

That night had been the perfect storm.

Phil had left early. Josie’s car hadn’t been there, which was why Tyler decided to go in. I was on my way to get her, but there’d been an accident and the door wasn’t locked. If one of those things had been different, there was a possibility Josie wouldn’t have been stabbed.

Or maybe she would’ve been.

“We’re not playing that game, baby. It leads to nowhere. You’re home and recovering, and that’s the only thing that’s important.”

“And Lindy.”

And Lindy.

My girl didn’t leave Josie’s side for the five days she was in the hospital.

She ate there, she showered there, she sat with Josie and refused to leave the room.

Josie had been home for twenty-four hours, and it was like a switch flipped and she wanted to be nowhere near any of us after not wanting to be away from not only Josie but me, Kane, DJ, and Carrie.

“Josie, please listen to me. I know my girl. She doesn’t respond well to being pushed, in the past, when I’ve tried to make her talk, she shuts down. We’ll talk with her tonight, see how she does, and back off if she starts to retreat. We’ll try again in a few days.”

“Okay.”

“Now, tell me what’s really bothering you.”

“I think she’s mad at me,” Josie blurted out.

I twisted carefully so I didn’t jostle her injured abdomen and took her in fully.

Fuck, she was serious, she thought Lindy was mad at her.

“Lindy’s not mad at you. She spent those four hours the same as the rest of us, scared out of our brains that we were going to lose you.

And right now she’s feeling out of sorts.

DJ and Kane lay claim to you, they’re your sons.

Carrie, by extension of DJ. Logically she knows you’re ours, too, but right now she’s coming down from four hours thinking she was losing the family we’re building and three days where you were in and out and barely conscious.

You’ve been fully awake three days, two of those in the hospital.

She’s coming down off the roller coaster, baby, she’s not mad. ”

“I hate that you all felt that.”

I would give just about anything to wipe those hours and the last six days away.

“That’s the price of love. Those hours were pure hell, but they were torture because we all love you so much.”

“We have food!” Kane called as he walked in the front door. “And cherry Jello for you, Mamalious.”

Kane came in first, juggling bags of food, next up was DJ with drinks, and Carrie brought up the rear with a pink baker’s box.

“Where’s Lindy?” Carrie asked.

“In her studio,” Josie answered. “You’ll be my favorite daughter-in-law forever if you tell me there’s a brownie in there.”

“Of course there are double chocolate brownies in this box,” Carrie smiled at Josie.

“I’m telling my future wife she’ll never be your favorite because Carrie is.”

“Like you’re ever getting married.”

“Someone go get Lindz,” DJ ordered. “I got her favorite.”

Fuck, I wish Lindy had been in here to hear DJ say that. Her just knowing he knew what her favorite food from dinner down the street would make her feel good.

“You go get her,” Kane shot back.

I leaned back on the couch, wrapped my hand around Josie’s calf, and listened to the chaos happening in the kitchen.

If I was being honest, this was what I’d always wanted. A big, loud family. A family full of love and noise and bedlam around holiday meals.

I thought that dream died with Celeste.

And it had, for over two decades.

Now, with Josie, I had it.

The back door opened, and Lindy came in with her phone held out in front of her.

“I’m changing my number,” she declared. “Seventeen texts in three minutes is obscene.”

“You should’ve moved faster.”

“Whatever, squirrel boy,” Lindy muttered.

“Low blow, Lindz.”

“I love you all,” Josie announced over the bickering. “ All of you. I love all of you.”

My lioness couldn’t even wait until after dinner to move in and protect her cubs.

Four pairs of eyes, all in varying degrees of concern, stared at Josie.

“You’re not going to lose me, Lindy.” Josie pinned my girl with a stare before she looked around the room. “None of you are.”

“Okay, Mom,” DJ agreed.

“Lindy? My girl, you understand? You’re losing me. You’re losing our family.”

My girl’s face crumbled, tears hit her eyes, but she didn’t wipe them away.

Kane wasted no time throwing his arm around Lindy’s shoulder and declaring, “I’m finally not the baby of the family. No way in hell am I losing my kid sister.”

Incidentally, Carrie was a year older than her husband.

“Please, you’ll always be Mom’s baby boy.”

Fuck, but I loved this.

“Green looks good on you, brother.”

I glanced over at Josie and asked, “Happy now?”

“Deliriously happy.”

“Can you please hold off on making any declarations of happiness until Carrie and I tell you our news?”

I heard Josie suck in a deep breath, I braced for the coughing fit and only relaxed when she only had to clear her throat.

I found Josie’s hand and curled my finger tight.

“We’re having a baby,” Carrie shyly shared.

“Hooray!” Josie shouted, then promptly busted out into a coughing fit.

“For the love of God, please don’t do that again.”

“I’m having my first grandchild, Evan I can do whatever I want.”

“Fair point,” I conceded.

The beaming smile Josie aimed my way made every concession I knew I’d make in the future worth it.

“Which means, if the two of you are getting married, you have six months, or you have to wait until after the baby’s born.”

“Damn, but you have a big mouth, DJ,” Kane muttered.

“I didn’t blab,” DJ defended. “I said if, not that he—fuck.”

“Mouth,” Josie scowled.

“Not that he did what?” Josie asked.

I sighed and rested my head against the back of the couch, and asked the ceiling, “Maybe I wanted to wait to ask your mother to marry me when she wasn’t recovering from stab wounds.”

“Ask their mother to marry you?” Josie parroted.

Damn, but she was cute.

I lifted my head and looked down at my woman, who was lying on the couch, pillows behind her head, looking as classy and beautiful as ever after almost dying six days ago.

For four hours, I thought she’d never again be lying on this couch, or in our bed, or in my arms. I never thought I’d see her smile or the way her eyes lit up when she spoke about her boys and Lindy.

All of this would’ve been forever lost.

Josie was the glue that held six soon-to-be-seven of us together.

“Yes, Josie, I asked the boys' permission to marry you.”

“They better damn well have said yes.”

“Of course we did, Mamalious. Jeez.”

I heard Lindy laugh, and damn, but I thought I’d lost that forever too.

“Can I go get the ring?” Lindy asked.

“Oh my God, it’s so beautiful. You’re gonna love it, Josie.” Now Carrie was blabbing, too.

“Please, Dad.”

Good Lord, I was a sucker.

I waved my hand in the direction of my room.

“By the way, I call dibs on Godfather to this watermelon.”

“Of course you’ll be the Godfather, idiot. Who else would we pick? You and Lindz will be the Godparents.”

Lindy skidded to a halt on the hardwood floor, something I hadn’t seen her do since she was a kid.

“I get to be the Godmother?” she whispered.

“What the hell is wrong with my family?” DJ asked loudly. “Yes. My brother and my sister will be my child’s Godparents. Did I say it slow enough for you two knuckleheads?”

Lindy hit DJ like a shot and wrapped her arms around him. Not to be left out, Kane joined the huddle. DJ reached out to his wife and gently pulled her close.

There it was, right there in front of me.

The dream I’d given up on.

“We need to give Mamalious her ring,” I heard Lindy’s muffled declaration.

The kids jumped apart; Kane gave Lindy a shove toward the couch, and Lindy handed Josie the blue velvet ring box.

“Yes!”

My body started shaking until finally, my laugh became audible.

“Baby, I didn’t ask you a question.”

“Okay, ask, but yes.”

“If our kids weren’t in the room and your belly wasn’t stitched up, I’d kiss the fuck out of you right now.”

“Yeah, please remember the children are in the room,” Kane pleaded.

“Will you marry us, Josie?” Lindy asked.

“Yes!”

That time when Josie asked, she burst out into tears.

Lindy smiled.

And the rest of the family laughed.