Always With You: Part One (5 page)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Cash

I
dial
Gavin’s number. He answers on the second ring.  “Did I wake you?” I ask when I hear his sleepy voice.

“No.  Just, er, lazing in bed.”

“Am I
interrupting?”

Gavin’s laugh says it all.  “Nothing that won’t be resumed the instant I hang up.”

“Make it quick, Thor,” Ginger chimes in loudly from the background.  “I was right in the middle of showing Gavin a neat trick.”

I can’t help smiling.  Not only am I happy for Gavin and Ginger, Olivia will be thrilled.  And she could use some thrilling news.

“Does this trick involve clothing?” I ask, teasing.

“Not at present,” Gavin replies distractedly.

“I’ll be quick then. I need you to do me a favor.”

“Anything.”

“Olivia’s dad is in the hospital. She’s back there in the waiting room now.  They let her see him before he went in for a heart catheterization. Looks like he’s had a heart attack.”

“Oh shit, mate! I’m sorry.  Give Olivia our love.”

I hear Ginger asking him questions in a softer voice, one that’s laced with concern.  I pause while Gavin answers her before I continue.

“Listen, I just came out to call Nash so that he could tell Marissa’s dad. I had a message that Stella can’t work tonight.  Obviously Olivia can’t fill in for her and I think everyone else pretty much had plans.  Sophie will be working at Dual for a few weeks.  Think you could show her the ropes tonight?”

“Sure,” he says in his congenial Australian way.  “Does she have any bartending experience?”

“I don’t know. We didn’t really get that far, but we’re in a pinch, so…”

“Well, it just so happens that I might know someone who’s a very experienced…bartender, who might be willing to help out. If I ask nicely.  Very nicely.”

I roll my eyes.  I really don’t need to hear Gavin when he’s half talking to a nude Ginger in bed. “Whatever, man, just work it out, okay?”

“Consider it worked out.”

“I don’t expect to be around for a while, but I’ve got my phone if you need me.”

“No worries.  Focus on that beautiful wife of yours. I’ll take care of everything else.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Later,” he says and then the line goes dead.  I try not to think about what’s probably already happening between those two.  Ginger has become almost like a sister. I prefer not to think of her in
any
kind of sexual manner, much less naked, possibly riding my best friend first thing in the morning.

I shudder at the mere suggestion.

Quickly, I dial Nash’s number, trying to put all images of Ginger and Gavin out of my mind.  He answers on the first ring.

“Need me to smuggle you out of the country until Sophie leaves?” he asks as soon as he picks up, his voice smug.  He always did like to rub it in when I got into trouble.

Asshole.

“I haven’t needed bailing out of trouble in years.  Now you on the other hand…”

“Not anymore,” he defends.  “In a few months, I’ll be a father. I can’t be getting into trouble any more.  From here on it’s the straight and narrow.”

“Well, my trouble isn’t of the Sophie variety. At least not right this minute. I’m at the hospital with Olivia.”

Before I can explain, Nash interrupts.  “What?  What’s wrong?  What happened?  Is she okay?”

“It’s not her. It’s her dad. Darrin had a heart attack. He’s having a heart cath right now.  Hopefully they’ll be able to put in a stent, but they said if it’s bad…”

“If it’s bad what?”

“If it’s bad, he could end up having open heart surgery.”

“Oh shit!”

“Yeah. I know. We’re hoping for the best, but… Even though those two are the way they are, Olivia wanted her uncle to know, so I told her I’d take care of it.  So now
you
can take care of it.”

“I like how that works.  Putting it off on your brother. Nice.”

“I thought so.”

“I’m sure you did,” he replies sardonically, but I know he’s just playing.  He knows I’d do anything for Olivia because he’s the same way over his wife.

“How’s the, uh, pregnancy, by the way?”

“She’s sick as hell until about ten in the morning and then she’s fine.  Doing great.  And I gotta tell ya, bro,” Nash says, dropping his voice low, “I’m loving the hell out of what’s happening to her body. You’ll see what I mean when Olivia gets pregnant.  Her boobs…damn! She’s got the tits of a porn star.  And horny!  Holy shit is she horny!  Now I see why people have an ass-ton of kids.  This part’s a lot more fun than what I expected.”

“Dude!  That’s some shit I did
not
need to hear,” I tell him in mock horror.  In truth, though, it makes me a little sad to think that Olivia and I might not be able to
ever
experience all that together.  I’d never let her know that it bothers me or that I’d miss it if I couldn’t see her belly grow round with my baby. It would hurt her even more than what she’s already hurting. But I
do
think about it.  I probably mourn it as much as Olivia does, but I hide it.  Because I love her. I love her more than I need to share my own feelings on the matter.  And I love her more than a missed pregnancy or pre-baby tits.  She’s all that matters to me.  Plain and simple.

Nash laughs.  “I love listening to you squirm.”

“You’re one sick bastard.”

“So I hear,” he says, sobering a little.  “Want me to tell Dad, too?”

“Yeah, if you would.  I’ll get word out to everyone when he’s in a room or…whatever.”

“Sounds good.  Anything you need? Anything we can do?”

“Nah.  Gavin’s holding down the fort at Dual.  He can keep an eye on Sophie. Anything else can wait until Darrin’s out of the woods because I’m not leaving Olivia until we know he’s okay.”

“Don’t blame you, Cash.  Call if you need me, though.”

“Thanks. Later, man.”

“See ya.”

When the line goes dead, I let my arm drop to my side and I think about where we are, what’s happened and what’s likely
to
happen.  The convergence of all this shit, this perfect storm of shit, on my wife worries me.  She was struggling with not being able to get pregnant anyway.  Now her cousin is expecting and my ex showed up with a child that could well be mine.  On top of that, her father just had a heart attack. Who knows how that could end up? 

Olivia is strong.  One of the strongest people I’ve ever met, but I’m not sure how she’s going to hold up under all this if it gets much worse.

As though my thoughts summoned her—and another pile of shit to add to the storm—Olivia comes rushing out the door, face pale, eyes watering.

“They’re taking him into surgery, Cash!  They’re taking Dad in for open heart surgery. They said he just had a massive heart attack in the room back there.  The blockage is so severe they can’t put in a stent. They said something about a widow-maker. Cash, they don’t know if he’s going to make it.  My dad might die.  He might die!”

With eyes as big and shiny as the full moon on a clear summer night, she gulps in air once, twice, and then crumbles right in my arms.

I didn’t know how much worse things could get.  I guess I just got my answer.

Until my phone bleeps with an incoming text.

From Sophie.

How the hell did she get my number?

CHAPTER TWELVE

Olivia

“W
ho is
it?” I manage to ask when Cash checks his phone and slides it quickly back into his pocket.

He shrugs, pressing his lips to my forehead.  “Work.  Nothing important.”

A knife of unease slices through me, but almost immediately my current worries rush in to overtake all other thought.  My father—the man who raised me, the man who shielded me from my mother, the man who bandaged my scraped knees and watched cartoons with me when I was sick—is going into one of the most major surgeries a human being can have.  They’re going to put him to sleep and cut his chest wide open. They’re going to re-route the circulation of his heart and breathe for him.  They’re going to replace vital arteries and hope that they hold.  Then they’re going to sew him back up and pray that he wakes up when it’s over.  And if one thing goes wrong, if there’s one glitch in that intricate process, I could lose him.  I could never see his smile, hear his voice or feel his hug again for the rest of my life.  And neither will my children.  They’ll never know the amazing man their grandfather is.

I’m gripped by a fear so poignant, a panic so overwhelming that my pulse speeds. It races so fast that my head swims and my stomach sloshes.

“Listen to me,” Cash whispers against my hair, halting the tailspin I was falling into.  “Darrin Townsend is
not
going down this way.  That crazy son of a bitch is gonna come out laughing.  You know how he is.  He’d kick the ass of anyone or anything that tried to get between him and his daughter. Surgery included.”

I let out a shaky breath.  My father
is
strong.  And he
does
love me.  I know he’d do anything within his power to keep me from pain and harm.  But this…

“I know, but this is serious.  So serious.”

“It is. But so is he when he means business.  Think about how he stays up all night worrying about his sheep.  Think about how hard he fights to keep every single one healthy, alive and accounted for.  He’s a determined man, especially when it comes to what he loves.  And
you,
he loves most of all.  He’ll pull through, baby.  If for no other reason, he’ll do it for you.  God gave him a backbone of steel and probably a heart just as strong.  Have faith in that.”

I turn my face to the side and press my ear to Cash’s chest.  I can hear the steady thud of his heart and I close my eyes to focus on it.  So comforting.  So reassuring. So strong.  Like my father’s.  I’ve heard it pressed to my ear in much this same way for my whole life when he’d hold me.  Just because his vessels are sick doesn’t mean his heart is. They caught it in time.  He couldn’t have been in a better place for this to happen. And now they’re going to fix him. Then he’ll come back to me.  To share his smile, to hold his grandkids, to grow old right before my eyes. 

Have faith. 

As calm begins to ripple through me, my focus spreads out to include other things, other people.

“Our things…I left without finishing.  I need to get that stuff to the condo so Sophie can have a place to stay.”

“I’ll take care of it.  Don’t worry about that right now.”

“I would go back, but I don’t know what to expect from the next few hours. Or the next few days for that matter.  I don’t want to leave just yet.”

“I’ve got it, baby.  This is where your focus needs to be. It’s more important. Leave the rest to me.”

I pause, nibbling my lip in indecision.  “Cash?”

“Hmmm?” he murmurs, his hand stroking my hair in that way he does that makes me feel like the most adored and cherished person in the history of the world.

I almost hate to bring this up, but I’m so emotional right now it seems to be beyond my self-control
not
to ask.

“Sophie said she hurt you.  Did she?”

I feel as much as hear his sigh.  “At the time she did.”

I close my eyes.  I had hoped he would say that she didn’t, that she was just being dramatic. Or arrogant. Or clueless.  I was hoping that he never really cared about her very much.  Only it seems that he did. At least for a time.

“Wh-what happened between you two?”

“Olivia, I know all this with your dad has turned you inside out, but don’t let it cast a shadow of doubt on things you
know
to be true.  Like the fact that I love you and
only you. 
Like the fact that nothing and no one will ever come between us.  Like the fact that you’re the most important person in my life. Period.  Sophie is a girl from my past. Nothing more. If you couldn’t reach out and touch her, I’d tell you she was a ghost.  There’s not even enough there for you to sink your teeth into. Please, please,
please
don’t let her get to you.”

“That’s easier said than done,” I reply quietly, my heart aching all over again.

“Then when it gets hard to do, come to me.  I’ll set you straight.  I’ll tell you who comes first.  And second.  And third.”  He leans back, forcing me away from his chest so that he can peer down into my face.  “It’s you. And it always will be.  No matter who comes rolling through our door, you’ll always be the one who matters most.  Got it?”

I do my best to grin.  “Got it.”

He brushes his lips over mine and then urges my head back onto his chest.  When his phone bleeps again from his pocket, I don’t ask why he doesn’t check it.  I just remind myself of his words.  And try my best not to worry about ghosts.