Overflow: The Carpino Series (23 page)

I nod my head and turn to walk through the door.  The lights
are low and I see the back of Leigh’s light blonde hair scattered over the
pillow.  She’s curled up facing away from the door.  I walk around to the other
side of the bed and gasp when I look at her face.  She opens one eye to me, the
other is too swollen to open, bright red with bruising and puckered all
around.  Her hand comes to her face as she closes her good eye again.  I go the
side of her bed to take her hand when I see that her arm is cast from her hand
to her elbow and she’s holding it gingerly on the mattress in front of her. 

“Leigh?” is all I can manage as the tears, my damn tears,
come for my sweet friend, without even knowing what’s happened to her.  Her
tears are flowing as well, all I can do is gently put my hand out to push her
hair out of her face.  I pull up a chair to sit close to her letting her cry,
knowing her well enough that now isn’t the time to press the issue.  I’ll learn
the details soon enough.  She lets me hold her good hand as she cries and this
going on for a long time. 

Finally a doctor walks in and seems surprised to see me. 
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know she had company.  I’m Dr. Cline.  I’m glad to see she
finally has someone here with her.”

“Gabrielle Carpino.  I’ve known Leigh since we were little. 
I’ll be here for whatever she needs.”

Dr. Cline’s face goes soft and he gives me a small smile,
saying, “Thank you, Ms. Carpino, that’s good to know.”  He looks down at Leigh
and laying a light hand on her shoulder, he says to her, “Leigh, I need to talk
with you.  Would you like to do that alone or should your friend stay?”

Uttering her first words, Leigh softly says, “She can
stay.”  But she doesn’t move, she stays where she is facing me with her back to
the gentle doctor.

“Good,” he replies, like he means it in more ways than one. 
He continues in a soft voice, “We need to talk about your fall, Leigh.”

“Fall?” I ask.

He sighs and continues softly, “Leigh tells us she fell down
a half flight of stairs at home, resulting in the injury to her eye, a broken
arm and miscarriage.”

“Miscarriage?” I gasp again.  She was pregnant?  And how in
the hell did she fall down the stairs?  Leigh is one of the most graceful
people I know.  Every move she makes is graceful.  Leigh’s hand tightens in
mine, so I hold strong.  “How did she fall down the stairs?”

Dr. Cline can see I’m surprised by everything and gazes at
me with knowing eyes, trying to communicate more than he is saying, but rather
says the words, “That’s what we are trying to get to the bottom of.”

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out what he
means.  I give him an ever so slight chin lift telling him I understand then I
ask, “Where’s Preston, her husband?”

This makes Leigh’s breath hitch, trying to control a sob,
but she says nothing.  Dr. Cline informs me, “We understand he’s with
authorities, answering some questions.  Please talk with your friend, Ms.
Carpino.  Encourage her to be truthful.  We are bound by law to make our own
reports and Leigh’s injuries do not happen by falling down half a flight of
stairs.”  He looks down to Leigh, again touching her shoulder, “Leigh, talk to
your friend.  Tell her the truth.  You’re obviously not safe and we need to
make you safe.  You lost dearly today, Leigh.  It’s time to be truthful, you
owe that to the memory of your baby if not yourself.”

Leigh’s body is wracking with sobs now.  I have to hold on
to her hand tight for fear if I let her go I will hunt down her jackass of a
husband and kill him myself.  He did this to her and apparently killed their
baby in the process.  I nod to Dr. Cline and he turns to leave.  I sit back
down in front of her and let her hold on to me for a few minutes.  My tears
have dried up and have been replaced by fury so hot and deep I can barely sit
here.  But my job, given to me silently by the gentle doctor, is to get her to
tell me what really happened.  

I start with, “Leigh, girlie, you were pregnant?”  Still
trying to control her sobs, she only nods.  “Okay, I wish you would have told
me, but I understand.  But you have to tell me, Leigh, did Preston do this to
you?”  She gave her head small but quick shakes, telling me no.   I try again,
“Leigh, you heard what the doctor said.  They know this could not have happened
from falling down stairs.  You have to tell me the truth.”

“I feel so alone,” she squeaks.  “I’m not like you.  I don’t
have a family to take care of me.  My mom is a mess in the next state and my
sister is a mess across the country.  I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m here, Leigh.  I’m your family and I’ll take care of
you.  You know my parents loved you and would have stepped in to care for you
in a heartbeat, as well.  But it’s just you and me, now.  I’m going to make
sure you’re okay and you are most definitely not okay at the moment.  But I
need your help here, Leigh.  I can’t make you safe by myself.  I’ll be the
strong one but you need to help me.  I’ll just ask you some questions, you can
answer yes or no.  How does that sound?”

She looks up at me, completely scared and freaked.  After
staring at me a few beats, she closes her good eye and nods.  I let out the
breath I didn’t know I was holding and say, “Okay, but I need to tell you
something first.  After you get out of here, our first step in making you’re
safe is moving in with me.  You can have the basement all to yourself.  You
know it’s a huge house and I can help you while you’re healing.  And you know
you’ll be safe there, right?” I look down at her and she agrees with a little
nod.   “So we’ve got a plan.  Now that the plan is in place, there’s no reason
for the truth not to come out, okay?” 

This wins me another nod.  

Thank you, God. 

So I take in air and start asking my sweet friend
questions.  She answers with her head, rarely with words.  The tears are
streaming down my face again as I learn about the hell she’s been living
through.  But no more.  Preston will only be a memory for her, but worst of
all, so will her baby.  Once I finish asking her questions and the truth has
been laid out, I have enough to give the doctor to start the ball rolling.  She
will need to be questioned again by the police, but later after she has had a
chance to process everything.  A nurse comes in to give her pain medication and
I stay with her until it takes affect and she falls asleep. 

I walk out of her room and am surprised to see Jude is still
here, sitting on a hard folding chair.  He waited for me.  Standing up, he
pulls me into his arms and holds me tight.  I let myself melt into him as he
says into my hair, “I’m so sorry you had to go through that, sugar.  I heard it
all and you were perfect.  She’s lucky to have you.”   He pulls back to cup my
face in his hands and goes on to growl out, “But that fuckwad is going to pay
for what he did to her.”

Oh no.  I forgot about Jude’s radiating fury.  Being on the
other side of the hospital bed this time, I can understand Jude and my family’s
wrath when Trevor beat me up.  “Okay,” is all I can manage, but then I go on,
“I need to talk to her doctor.  I also need to call my Uncle Tony.  She’s going
to need representation and he specializes in family law.  He’ll do it for
free.”

“You know for sure he’ll do it pro bono?” Jude asks as we
make our way to the nurses’ station.

“My Uncle Tony will take one look at her and represent her
for free.  But remember I am part something or other in the firm, so yes, he’ll
do it for free,” I say cocking an eyebrow at him. 

“I have a feeling Leigh is going to have the Carpino’s at
war for her on all sides,” Jude mutters, looking down and pulling me in close
to his side. 

I allow this because I am so tired from all that’s gone on
the last twenty four hours, not to mention what I have ahead of me with Leigh. 
Knowing I shouldn’t allow myself the comfort, I take it anyway and tuck myself
into Jude, trying not to think about the future.  More importantly, the future
I might not get but so desperately want.  We wait for the doctor and with
everything that has gone on tonight with Leigh, I’m so thankful to have Jude
here with me.  I do my best to not think about our pending conversation.  However,
trying and doing are two very different things.  And when it comes down to it,
I just don’t have the energy to push him away.  So for tonight, I’m going to
let him take care of me so I can take care of my friend. 

I pour chicken stock into my Le Creuset.  It’s Tuesday, the
day after we got back from Colorado, the day after I found out my childhood
friend is a victim of domestic violence, losing her baby and the day after two
mostly sleepless nights.  I’m pretty sure Jude didn’t sleep much, either.  He used
his police connections to find out that Preston was arrested for assault with
more charges to come and spent the night in jail.  Since I am all Leigh has, I
took matters into my own hands and drug Jude over to Leigh’s house and we
packed up everything she could need. 

No, scratch that. 

We packed up every stitch of clothing, personal items and
everything else that I knew was hers that she would want out of that house,
plus her car.   It took three trips with Jude’s truck and my Tahoe and then we
lugged it all into my house.  I wanted to get it done while Preston-the-asshole
was in jail to avoid him at all costs.  Not wanting her to be alone, we went
back to the hospital around one in the morning and I spent the night with her. 
Jude stayed for a few more hours before going back to my house to take care of
Mia and trying to get some sleep himself.  He even came to the hospital over
his lunch hour and filled me in on what he could find out about Preston when we
were out of earshot from Leigh. 

Now it’s dinnertime and Jude texted about half an hour ago
saying he should be here any minute.  Leigh was discharged late this afternoon
and I got her settled in her new room in the basement.  We have been home for
two hours and she has been resting in bed while I have been hanging and folding
clothes, arranging her things around the room and bathroom so she will feel at
home.  I did all this while she apologized to me about four thousand, three
hundred and seventy five times for everything under the sun.  Finally, I looked
at her and said, “Enough!  Would you have done this for me if I didn’t have a
crazy family to take care of me after I lost my parents?”  Her face said a
million words and after that she was weirdly quiet.  I proceeded to curse
myself for saying anything because I think I preferred her apologizing as
opposed to the weird silence.  I made sure she took her pain medication and
even supplied her with my left over stool softeners.  You can never be too
careful. 

Now is now and I dump the shredded chicken into the pot,
making my mom’s chicken noodle soup for dinner.  My mom always made chicken
noodle soup when someone was sick.  I guess my grandma did the same thing, so
when someone turns up ill, I get a crazy hankering for chicken noodle soup.  I
go to the door at the deck to let Mia in.  The weather has taken a sharp turn
from fall to winter today and it’s downright cold out.  Hopefully it will warm
up again, I hate it when the little kids have to Trick or Treat when it’s
freezing. 

I hear the garage door and see Jude turn the corner from the
mudroom to the kitchen and my insides tighten at the sight of him.  He’s
beautiful, sweet, caring and a million other things but one thing I’m not sure
of is if he’s mine.  And that’s killing me.  I want him to be mine so badly. 
We haven’t finished our talk and it’s making me crazy nervous to think that’s
going to happen tonight.  Nothing seems different than it was before our trip
to Colorado, he called to say when he would be here after work and even asked
how Leigh was settling.  He brings himself straight to me and pulls me up for a
soft kiss, saying, “Sugar.”

“Hey.  Are you hungry?  It should be ready soon, it just
needs to simmer for a few minutes.  I think Leigh is asleep, so she can eat
when she wakes up.”

“I’m good, whatever works, babe.  Are you as tired as I
feel?”

“Does it show?  I think I’m operating solely on caffeine,” I
return.  He kisses me one more time and goes to my room, probably to put his
stuff away.  I sigh, trying not to think about him putting his stuff where I
want it to stay forever.  My head is swimming with emotion right now and being
tired doesn’t help that.  I decide to go down and check on Leigh one more
time. 

When I get back to the kitchen, Jude is leaning with his
hips to the island, ankles crossed, arms crossed and his eyes to the floor,
deep in thought.  When he hears me coming, he looks up and asks, “How is she?”

“Still asleep.  She might be out for a while, she took a
pain pill not too long ago.”

“Come here, sugar,” he rasps quietly.

But instead of following his bossy order, I go to the
stove.  “I need to stir the soup and warm the bread.  We should be able to eat
anytime,” I explain, trying my best to avoid him.

“Gabby, it can wait.  Come here,” he repeats.

Stirring the soup with my back to him, I go on, “We need to
eat, I want to go to bed early if Leigh is okay.  And I still have laundry to
catch up on, Mia needs a bath, not to mention the house needs cleaned--”  And
in typical Jude fashion, the spoon is snatched from my hand, he slams the lid
back down on my pot and turns off the gas.  “Hey!” I yell, “What are you
doing?”

“I said come here,” he proceeds to drag me by the hand out
of the kitchen and to the sofa. 

“I’m hungry!” I whine because I don’t know what else to
say. 

“You’ll be fine.  We need to talk and we need to do that now
before the next catastrophe hits,” he bosses.

“Well, I don’t have anything to say,” I continue to argue. 

“Good, you keep your mouth shut and this will go faster
because all you have to do is listen.  I’ve got a lot to say,” he proceeds to
pull me down on to the sofa next to him. 

I try one last time to escape, “I don’t know if I can
concentrate, I’m really hungry.”  Its lame I know, but in for a penny, in for a
pound.  

He picks up my legs at the knees, again pulling them over
his lap and scooting in close to me as he says, “Be quiet and quit being
ridiculous.”

I pull in a gasp and realize I am right where I was last
night around this same time, boxed in with no escape possible.  I cross my arms
in what little space I can still call my own and sullenly say, “Fine.  Talk.”

Jude lets out a little huff, minutely shakes his head and
grins, as if he can read my mind.  Using his super soft raspy voice that I like
so much, he says, “Sugar, what happened at the cabin was bad.  I hate that you
were hurt and found out about my past like that, but I can’t say I’m not
relieved you finally know.  I didn’t know how to tell you about Julia and the
babies, I’ve never had to tell anyone before.  Those who know about my past
knew it when it happened and no one else has ever earned that from me.  But I
made a mistake, I should have told you sooner,” he pauses to brush a loose
piece of hair out of my face.  Looking at me intently, he goes on, “What I
would have said to you is that the last nine years of my life have been empty
and void of pretty much anything great.  I’ve got friends.  I’ve always liked
my job.  I liked serving in the Force and I might not have an army like you,
but I do have my family.  My life has been decent, so I can’t complain, but it
doesn’t compare to the little time I’ve had with you.  I’ve been moving through
my life for the last nine years because I knew I needed to, not because I
wanted to.”

My chest is beating hard and I’m trying to control my
emotions.  I unfold my arms and put my hands on each side of his neck to hang
on.  Jude, of course, takes advantage and pulls me even closer, continuing
softly, “Thinking of the future only made me think about what I lost, so I’ve
lived day to day, but I’m ready to think about the future again.  I’ve been
graced with something extraordinary and beautiful for the second time in my
life.  If you think I’m gonna walk away from that beauty, you’re outta your
mind.  The first time around I knew what I had was good, but didn’t realize how
fragile it was until it was taken away from me.  I don’t know what I’ve done to
be gifted with it twice in my life, but you can sure as hell believe that it’s
precious to me and I’m going to take care of it.  You’re crazy if you think I’m
goin anywhere because there’s nowhere else I want to be, and I’m not only
talking about today, Gabby.  I’m looking into my future for the first time in a
long time and you’re in it.”

I can feel the tears burning in my eyes and nose again, but
this time from relief and happiness.  So when I look at him through my blurry
eyes before thinking twice and blurt out, “I love you,” it surprises even me. 

Jude, who is still caging me in, goes rock solid.  His eyes
slowly blink once and regret starts to creep through me when all of a sudden
I’m crushed into his large frame.  He barely whispers, “Gabby, sugar, I love
you, too.”  He squeezes me even tighter and I feel his lips on my neck. 

My stinking tears continue and I hold on tight but I manage
to mutter, “You’re mine.”

“Yeah, baby,” he whispers back.  “As long as you’ll have
me.”

Trying to take in calming breaths to stop my tears, the only
thing I can think to say next is, “Does this mean I get to decorate your
mountain home?”  Jude immediately throws his head back and laughs out loud. 

“Why are you laughing?” I exclaim.

“Babe, I knew you were decorating my cabin in your head all
weekend,” he says with mirth.  “Yeah, you can do whatever you want with my
cabin, just don’t make it girlie.”

All of a sudden forgetting our recent confessions of love
and devotion, I straighten my back saying, “Jude Ortiz!  Do you really think I
would make your mountain home girlie?  Seriously!”

Jude, still somewhat chuckling pulls me in close again and
tries to make a deal by saying, “No, sugar, I don’t think you’ll make my cabin
girlie.  But I’ll tell you what, you can do whatever you want to my
cabin
,
guys like me don’t have mountain homes, if I can clean your garage so I can
park in it.  How’s that for a trade?”

I immediately feel my face go soft and melt into him again
saying, “You want to park in my garage?”  Why this makes me exponentially
happier than I already was, I do not know, but it does.

He smiles at me and says, “Yeah, I do.  Though, you’re gonna
need to get rid of some shit.”

“Okay,” I lie and smile big.  He won’t make me get rid of
anything.  Anyway, I plan on using a lot of it in his mountain home. 

Shaking his head at me slightly as if he can tell I’m lying,
he smiles, leans in and kisses me soft but long.  Ending his sweet kiss, he
says, “Should we eat?”

“Yeah,” I whisper. 

But he doesn’t let me go.  He pulls me in tighter and rasps,
“Love you, sugar.  Thank you for wanting me.”

“Jude,” I whisper back, “I love you more than anything.”

*****

“Will you tell me about her?” I ask as I outline Jude’s
winged tattoo with my fingers. 

We’re naked and tangled up in each other.  Jude just made
love to me, spending lots of time and attention to many parts of my body.  I’ve
never thought much about the layout of this house, but right now I’m thankful
that the master bedroom is on the opposite side of the house from Leigh’s
room.  Leigh woke up after Jude and I talked, ate a little dinner and went
right back to sleep.  I told her I’d sleep downstairs with her tonight, but she
insisted that she wanted to be by herself so I let her be.  I decided to ignore
the laundry, the dirty house and my dirty dog.  These were easy decisions, as
Jude pulled me into the bedroom and started to do delicious things to me, and
even better, telling me he loved me in many different ways. 

“What do you want to know?” Jude asks, lying on his back,
his arm around me where I’m tucked in tight to his side. 

“What was she like?”

“She was quiet, a little shy, not with people close to her,
but in general.  But she loved kids, always knew she wanted to be a teacher. 
She never wavered on that.”

“Huh, I guess it’s good shy isn’t your only type,” I say
sarcastically.            

Jude gives me a squeeze and chuckles as he says, “Yeah,
you’re definitely not shy.  But she loved her family like you do, I told you
she couldn’t wait to have one of her own.”

“Well, that we have in common,” I add. 

“I know you do,” Jude murmurs.  He rolls, pulls me up to his
face and asks, “You want kids, right?  I guess I shouldn’t assume just because
you have a million in your family.”

“Of course I want kids.” 

“How many?”

I’m quiet for a moment.  This is different.  Discussing our
future is new territory and I don’t want to scare him off, although he seems
pretty sure he wants me no matter what.   “Well, at least three,” I answer
quietly.

“At least?” he asks, a bit surprised.

“Well, yeah.  It all depends on a lot of things.  Like, how
close they are in age, boys, girls, what order they come in, stuff like that.”

“How many do you want at most?”

I giggle because I can tell he’s not really bothered by it,
so I say, “Twelve.”

With that, I am immediately flipped over to my back with
Jude on top of me.  “Twelve?  You’ve got a big house, babe, but I’m not sure
where we’re gonna put twelve kids.”

I feel my face go soft, I melt under him and whisper, “Yeah,
we
will have a nice big house to put kids in.  It’s a great family home,
Jude.”

Jude looks at me intently and responds quietly, “Yeah, for
our family.” 

Then he kisses me deep and proceeds to do other things to me
deeply, as well. 

*****

Walking out of my laundry room with a basket full of clean
clothes, I hear Uncle Tony coming up the stairs.  Turning the corner I stop
immediately, seeing as he has a murderous look on his face.  Stalking into my
kitchen, he tosses his briefcase down on my island and turns to me, but says
nothing.  I wade in to break the silence and ask, “So…will you represent her?”

Narrowing his eyes at me, he says, “Gabrielle.  You have to
ask me that?”