Captured at Nightfall (Capture My Heart Love Story) (24 page)

“
—Me?” Lainie gave a low chuckle. “Me and Jason, you mean? Sorry, honey, but there ain’t nothin’ normal about me and Jason. We’re pretty damn screwed up; and I
know
he’s bad for me. Problem with being in love with someone is you don’t get to choose
who
you fall for. All I know is, once you have it, it’s better to be miserable in love than alone, knowing what you had; or what you could have had. That can kill ya.”

“Hey,
Allie! Wake up! You’re gonna be late!” Lainie’s voice shattered into her ear canal with all the efficiency of a freight train.

Allie
blinked as Lainie’s bright eyes slowly came into focus.
Too damn bright.
What the hell was she doing, being all happy, happy, happy, when it was so early, anyway?

“Up ‘
nd at’em, Sleeping Beauty!” Lainie chirped as she tugged Allie’s comforter off her butt and onto the floor. Slowly, Allie stretched. “Mmmph,” she complained. What was that buzzing noise? She rolled over onto her side, doing her best to ignore Lainie as she searched for the sound.

Alarm clock.
Right.

Her hand flailed around until she finally smacked the snooze button on top. And then she knocked the whole thing onto the ground. Served it right for being a pain in the ass at . . .

What time was it, anyway?

She rolled onto her belly and hung halfway off the bed before she saw the small, digital screen.

“Crap!”
Seven o’clock!

Lainie
chuckled as she tugged Allie to her feet. “You’re a lost cause, girl.” She shook her head. “That thing has been going off for over an hour. You drove Jason right out of the house.”

Oh,
Jason slept over. No wonder Lainie was so annoyingly chipper.

It had been a week now since the fiasco at the UMMA and
Matthew’s first therapy appointment was this morning. He was supposed to pick her up in . . .
crap—!

Twenty-five minutes!

Stumbling into the bathroom, she took care of the essentials, trying not to dwell too much on the fact that she hadn’t seen Matthew since he’d received his self-inflicted beating. He’d had to go out of town bright and early Saturday morning for some kind of body guarding gig. They hadn’t been able to really talk about . . . anything, actually. The whole damn situation felt painfully unfinished.

Well, good thing they were going to a shrink, then, huh?

She stood; hands planted on hips in front of her closet, and tried to find something that was good supportive-girlfriend material. Finally, when she’d picked out, and then put back the same navy blue sweater three times she growled, “Come on, Allie! It’s not that big of a deal. Just pick something!”

Boy
, she was nervous to see him.

Her eyes squeezed shut as dread washed over her anew. The next twenty-four hours were going to be emotional, and she wanted to be there for him if he needed her, but she had no idea what to expect. She’d had all kinds of images of
Matthew flipping out and going all MMA on some poor little old guy with a notebook.

Thank go
odness for Stacy.

Since
Matthew had baled and Stacy still had a few days before she had to go back home to Chicago, they’d gotten together a few times. It had been really good to talk candidly to someone who understood what she was going through. She couldn’t bring herself to let Lainie in on all of Matthew’s problems. The words just seemed to stick in her throat every time she thought about telling her. Not that Allie didn’t trust her. It had been more about keeping Matthew’s pain private as much as possible. And she’d already let Adam in on it—major cringe, there. 

She finally grabbed a tan, V-neck shirt and jerked it over her out of control morning hair, followed by
a pair of her favorite, go-anywhere skinny jeans.

Hallelujah
! The clothes were on at last!

Hard decision made, she finished the ensemble off with a thin belt, which she looped around her waist. She combed her mane of lion’s hair into submission with brutal force then left it in a loose
, auburn wave down her back. Matthew liked it that way, loved to run his fingers through the soft locks. Allie’s nose curled up with her pursed frown. Hope he didn’t end up tearing it all out by the roots this morning.

As for makeup—preferring the KISS theory (Keep It Simple, Stupid)—she brushed on a light layer of powder, swiped some mascara over her lashes so she wouldn’t look like a hairless albino, and finished up with a swipe of light pink lip gloss. The result was pale, but pretty.

When the doorbell rang, she had just enough time to roll a pair of UGGs up past her knees while stumbling down the hallway to answer the door—heart in her throat.

And there
Matthew stood on the other side, in all his panty-dropping glory.

The early morning sun shone warm on his back and cast his hair in a glorious tousle of copper around his face. Dressed down from his usual work attire of black fatigues, he was wearing a pair of dark jeans that settled low around his hips. A light blue, button down, long sleeve shirt—the cuffs rolled up to his elbows—hugged his chest and abs in a way that was downright hazardous to
Allie’s health. Made her think of the assets hiding behind all that fabric and denim, and how much she’d love to run her tongue over them.

His square jaw was freshly shaven. A light trace of aftershave hung beneath his cologne. His mouth curled up into that small half-smile that she loved, making his green eyes crinkle up at the corners, just enough to show that he was happy. He’d look like one of Michelangelo’s sculpted angels if not for the ghost of yellow and black bruising that still clung to the skin beneath one eye. Gave the impression he preferred red jerseys to white.
No wonder he was so hot!

She
considered ditching their appointment to jump him. A whole week without Matthew had sent her libido into some major withdrawals. “Hi,” she murmured.
There will be
no
jumping of bones allowed on the way to the therapist.

“Hey, stranger.”

Geeze
, that voice.

Pure sex and chocolate.

His fingers traced the line of her jaw and then curled around the nape of her neck. When she stumbled forward into his warm kiss his arms wrapped around her hipbones to steady her; his mouth moving over hers in ways that should be illegal.

Pulling back way too soon for her liking, he smiled.
“Ready to go?”

“Umm.”
She blinked up at him. Boy, he knew how to scramble her circuits. “Yeah. Let me just get my purse.”

When she turned for the door his fingers gripped her elbow. “
Allie,” he chuckled, “your purse is on your shoulder.”

Huh?
She looked down and blushed when she saw it hanging at her side. “Oh.
Duh
.”

“
Damn, I missed you.” He laughed again.

Towing her over to his Escalade, he opened the door and helped her up into the passenger side seat. She ogled him through the tinted front windows
while he loped around to the driver’s side and got in.

As he pulled out onto the main roadway,
Allie realized that she was fiddling with the lap band of her seatbelt and forced her fingers to stop. “Are you still okay with doing this?” she asked.

His mouth tightened a little. “We’re going, aren’t we?”

Right.
Dumb question.

“I just mean”—why was she pushing him on this?—“You know. You haven’t said anything about it. And I know you weren’t very happy with you
r last therapist.” She winced, but she had to get it out before they got there. Had to make sure he was okay.

“I told you I’d try,
Allie.” He sighed and looked at her. “I want us to work, and this is probably our only way to make sure we will.”

“Oh. Okay.” Her gaze fell to her lap where her fingers had formed a pretzel around each other.

When she peeked up at him, his jaw clenched, and to Allie’s surprise, he added, “Therapy’s dumb. I hate it. The whole thing. Whining to some stuffed up asshole about your problems because you’re not man enough to fix them on your own.” He shook his head and his hands tightened around the steering wheel. His knuckles were split open on his right hand—still fresh with scabs that could only have formed within the last day or so. Her stomach roiled. He’d been in a fight.

She swallowed. Would she ever get used to being with someone so physical?

“What on earth did you do to your hands?”

He gave her
a tight smile. “Some asshole stalker wouldn’t take no for an answer when the woman I was guarding tried to get past him and into her hotel. Took him over behind the building to have a calm little chat about keeping his hands to himself, and would ya believe it, he accidently fell on my fist.”

Allie
laughed. “Oh, Matthew.”

The boyish grin
and set of matching dimples he rewarded her with just about lit up the whole SUV cabin.

Shaking her head and trying to smother her giggles beneath a disapproving scowl, she looked out the passenger side window. Two seconds later she was smiling again.
Oh, what was she going to do with her knight in shining armor?

Why on earth would he worry about someone questioning his manliness? He had enough testosterone running through his veins to supply an entire nation of eunuchs.

She turned back to him. “There’s nothing wrong with it, Matthew. If you need help, then you should get it. You wouldn’t leave a broken bone to set on its own just because you thought it was wimpy to see a doctor, would you?” She bit her lip, thinking of the superglue again.

Dang it
, he probably
would
leave a broken bone.

He sighed again and his hand ran through his hair, making it stand up over the crown of his head. “It’s stupid,
Allie. I don’t even think he’ll be able to fix anything.”

He was nervous, she realized.

Oh.

Why was that such a revelation?

She reached out to squeeze his thigh and felt the warmth and hardness of his muscles move beneath her fingers. “We’ll give it a shot, okay. If he sucks you can tell him he’s a crackpot fraud and we’ll go. Try something else.”

His mouth
turned up at the corner. “Crackpot fraud,
eh
?”

She nodded and grinned. “I wonder if he’ll wear one of those tweed vests and make you lay down on a couch so he can hypnotize you into barking like a dog or something.”

He laughed. “You’re nuts.”

***

Matthew pulled onto the lot surrounding the VA hospital and parked. His hands tightened over the steering wheel as he glared at his feet. “Well,” he finally muttered. “Let’s go get this shit over with.”

Geeze.
Don’t let your enthusiasm get in your way, Matthew.

He stalked around the Escalade to open her door. When he held out his hand to help her step down, she knotted her fingers around the hair at the nape of his neck and tugged his mouth down to hers. Pulling back, she smirked at the way his black mood had evaporated as heat filled his eyes.

“I really like your jeans, Matthew. I’d love to peel the fly down with my teeth.”

He cocked a brow. “You’re not making it easy to be on time here, baby. If you’re trying to change my mind about the appointment, by all means . . . I’d like to see you try.”

She frowned.
Damn it
. “Come on, jerk. We gotta go meet the good doctor.”

His eyes darkened with all kinds of carnal promise.
“You sure?”

“No,” she growled
with petulance.

As she followed him down a long, winding hallway, past the physical therapy rooms, and a big event room, she took in the atmosphere of the place. A group of men in
wheelchairs were hanging out around a table that was littered with foil wrappers from candy bars. Some of them were dressed down, and some were in uniform, but the bond they seemed to share was undeniable. The sound of laughter cracked through the room every once in a while as one of the men or women leaned forward to tell a joke, or when someone rammed into the other’s wheelchair like they were playing bumper cars.

This place was so different from
Mary’s Nursing Home. Her mom’s place was subdued, the hallways hushed except for the shuffle of feet and the intermittent cough or slur of muttered words. There, beneath the cafeteria’s smell of bread and over-processed mashed potatoes, a cloying, almost-sweet stink hung in the air.

The scent of death.

Allie
stopped, needing to catch her breath as a fresh wave of anguish fractured through her chest. And it dawned on Allie that Mary was dying. Maybe not for twenty years, but it was happening, and whether it happened within two months or two-hundred, Allie was not ready for it. Tears pricked her eyes and she blinked them away, not wanting Matthew to see her. She would have to think on the revelation later.