What a Man's Gotta Do (26 page)

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn't punch your lights out right now.”

“I'm here?”

“For how long?”

A tired smile tried to tug at Eddie's mouth. “Let's put it this way. Your daughter's last words to me before I left went along the lines of not botherin' to show my face around these parts again unless I was fixin' to stay.” Eddie crossed
his
arms and met the older man's gaze dead-on. “How's that?”

After another interminable couple of seconds, Marty's face relaxed. Then he dropped back onto the corner chair, jerking his head toward the seat at right angles to his. With a heavy sigh, Eddie obliged. “Where's Bev?” he asked.

“In with Carrie. She got a couple cuts and stuff, they're patchin' her up. Haven't heard about Mala yet, but they didn't seem to think she was too bad off.” He rubbed his palm against his pants leg, looking away. “Whaddya know…about Lucas?”

Eddie leaned forward, his hands knotted between his spread
knees. “His leg's pretty bad. Broken thigh bone, but…I don't know any more than that.”

Silence. Then: “Poor little guy.”

After another pause, Eddie said, “You ever see anybody get cut out of a car before?”

Marty glanced at him, shook his head. Then said, “Rough, huh?”

“Scary as hell. Once you see how they can peel back the roof like it was the top of a sardine can…you got any idea how much noise a car makes when it's being torn up like that? It feels like it's your head—”

Emotion clogged his throat. Eddie rubbed a hand over his face, almost flinching when he felt Marty's hand come to rest between his shoulder blades.

“Nothin' scarier than feeling helpless when your kid's hurtin'.” He rubbed Eddie's back for a second, then said, “Lucas must've been scared out of his mind.”

Eddie thought of the way the little boy had hung on to his hand the entire time, the trust implicit in that grasp. “I'm here to tell you, that boy's the bravest kid I've ever known.”

“Lucas?”

A chuckle tried to get past Eddie's throat. “I never saw anything like it, the way he refused to cry. Even after I told him to go on ahead, it was okay—”

“Mr. Koleski?” Eddie looked up, noticed a dark-skinned, irrititatingly cheerful nurse in scrubs standing in front of them. He rose as well, shaking his head. “The name's King, ma'am. Eddie King.”

“Oh. I thought…” Then she flapped aside whatever it was she'd been about to say. “Anyway, I just wanted to tell you Ms. Koleski's doing real well, we got her all trussed up good and tight so she'll be good as new in a few weeks. Her face isn't gonna look so good for a while yet, heaven knows, but the baby's just fine.”

Eddie stilled. Then he and Marty both said, “The what?” at the same time.

“The…” The nurse's dark eyes zipped from one to the other, her grin fading as it obviously occurred to her that she
was the only one standing there who knew what the hell she was talking about. “Uh-oh,” she finished.

“You telling me Mala's
pregnant?
”

Looking like she'd rather be anywhere but right there at the moment, the nurse finally sighed and said, “Uh, yeah. About seven weeks along, from what we could tell.”

“Where is she?”

“Down the hall, second room on the right—”

But he was already there by the time she finished the sentence.

 

The instant Eddie strode into her room, Mala searched his drawn face for answers. “How is he?” she got out on a strangled breath.

His thumbs hooked in his pockets, Eddie approached the foot of her bed. God, he looked awful, his hair a mess, his face and clothes smudged with dirt. “In surgery. He was conscious when they brought him in. It'll…be a while before they can tell us anything.”

Us.

“You ride with him in the ambulance?”

“What do you think?”

She started to cry, even though it hurt like hell. Eddie carefully sat on the bed beside her, taking her hand in both of his, pressing it to his roughened cheek, his mouth. “You should have seen him, Miss Mala,” he said with a gentle smile as he tucked her hand against his chest. She could feel his heartbeat, strong and steady. “Bravest little kid I've ever seen. He's gonna pull through this like a trouper, you just wait and see.”

But, oblivious to her own pain, panic threatened to take her under. “Oh, God, Eddie, if anything happens to him…why'd I let him sit in the front of the car when I knew better, when I
knew
what could happen?”

“Mala, Mala…no, honey…” She saw her own anguish reflected in his expression, overlaid with something she'd never seen in any man's eyes before, not for her. “Don't you dare beat yourself up over this, you hear me?” He bent his head
close to hers, whispered, “There's no better mama in the world than you, and don't you forget it.”

“But what if he loses his leg?”

“He won't.”

“You don't know that!”

Eddie's mouth drew down at the corners, even as his hand tightened around hers. “Then we'll deal with whatever happens,” he said softly. “All right?”

She searched his eyes for the strength she simply didn't have at the moment, managed a tiny nod.

“And Carrie?”

“She's fine, honey. With your mama.”

Mala tried to lift her hand to wipe her face, but winced with the effort. So Eddie did the honors, even holding the tissue over her nose so she could blow. That done, he pinned her with his gaze.

“Now. What's this about you being pregnant?”

She would have jerked if the contraption they'd wrapped her in had allowed for things like mobility. “They
told
you?”

“It slipped out.”

“Oh, Lord.” She let her eyes drift closed. How many crises could a brain handle at one time before it shorted out?

“How long have you known?” he asked, stroking her hand with his thumb.

“Twenty minutes?”

“You're kidding?”

Dear Lord, why was he making her talk? “No, Eddie…” Each word dragged from her throat. “I've always been irregular, it never entered my mind…especially since we always…” Her tongue slicked over her parched bottom lip. “They gave me a test, before they did anything. Routine.” She forced open her eyes. “Why'd you come back?”

He reached up, gently brushed her messed up hair off her bandaged forehead. “Because I wised up.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Seems the idea of living without you and the kids…” One shoulder hitched. “I just can't imagine it, is all.”

Another tear streaked down her cheek. “You can't, huh?”

“Nope. But seein' as your father knows about the baby—”

She groaned.

“—I figure I'd better make an honest woman out of you. And don't you even think of arguing with me, Miss Mala. I intend to marry you and that's that.”

She just did not have the strength or brainpower necessary to deal with this right now. So she let her eyes drift shut again, only to hear Eddie say, “I went to see my father.”

Her eyes popped open again. “You did?”

“Yep. And…you were right, he didn't know my mother was pregnant.”

“And…?”

A half smile played around his mouth. “We'll see. He seems like a nice guy. It's just not easy lettin' go of a nearly forty-year-old habit.” Then the smile dimmed. “Would you have told me? About the baby?”

“Would you have sent me a forwarding address?”

A breath shot from his lungs. “Good call.” Then, still holding her hand, he laid his other hand on her tummy as a lopsided, incredulous grin snaked across his face. “We really made a baby?”

“That's what they tell me.” She contemplated his hand, protectively cradling the new life inside her, trying to sort out the thousand and one feelings churning through her brain. Then she lifted her gaze to the side of his face, her heart constricting at the wonder she saw there. “But hey—I don't care if my father's toting a Howitzer…we don't have to get married just because I'm pregnant.”

Once again, his eyes zinged to hers, his brows raised in genuine astonishment. “But I didn't know about the baby when I made up my mind to come back and ask you to marry me, did I? I love you, you aggravatin' woman—” Then he stopped, as if realizing what he'd just said. Once again, he lifted her hand to his mouth. “I
love
you, Mala,” he whispered, tears cresting on his lower lashes. “The baby's just a fringe benefit, far as I'm concerned.”

Even as she thought her heart would explode, she said, “But we fight all the time.”

He shrugged. “Keeps the juices flowin'.”

“And I get positively huge when I'm pregnant.”

He just grinned.

“And you'll have to stick around for breakfast.”

The grin softened. Then he leaned over, brushed a kiss across her lips. “I'll even cook. And after that night I spent cleaning up kid barf, I've already proven I can handle the ‘or worse' part of things.”

But even as his words made her smile, they also pushed Lucas's situation back to the forefront of her thought. She grabbed his hand, hope and fear suddenly strangling her. “Stay with me?” she said. “Until we hear about Lucas?”

That she hadn't yet agreed to marry him wasn't lost on either of them, she was sure. Especially when he gave her an understanding nod. Then he said, “Darlin', I'm never goin' anywhere, ever again,” and for the first time since she was a little girl, she felt in her heart that everything was going to be all right.

 

So he stayed, and they talked, partly because they had a lot to talk about, partly because talking helped keep Mala from thinking so hard about Lucas. Kept Eddie from thinking about him so hard, too. And he thought about how good it felt, and right, having a woman to talk to, someone who'd keep her eyes focused on his the way she did while she was listening, and he knew somehow they'd always be able to talk this way. Even when they were scrappin'.

Carrie and her grandparents came in and out some, too— Mala tried to get Bev to take Carrie home, but the little girl fussed so badly about wanting to stay until she knew her brother was gonna be okay, everybody finally just relented.

Her family left them alone again, and Mala soon dozed off, her brow crinkled with worry. Eddie sat with her for a while longer, holding her hand, thinking he wanted to marry her so badly, to be part of her family, he ached with it. And he understood a little—he thought—that this wasn't about trying to fix things for anybody, but about just this: being there for the people you cared about.

And giving them the chance to return the favor. And as scared as Eddie was for that little boy who'd refused to cry, he felt the first real peace since he could remember.

After a bit, he figured he might as well take the opportunity to go get a cup of coffee, stretch his legs. Out in the waiting room, Carrie had zonked out with her head on her grandma's lap. Bev looked up, smiled.

“She asleep, too?” she asked as Eddie got his cup of coffee out of the nearby machine.

“Yeah.” He ambled back over to a vacant seat next to Carrie, sank into it. “Where's Marty?”

“Went to get somethin' to eat. Geez, you look beat.”

He shrugged, sipped his coffee.

“So. You gonna ask Mala to marry you?”

A smile pushed up his lips. “Already did. She hasn't exactly said yes yet.”

“I swear,” Bev said on a sigh, “that girl always has been the most hardheaded person on the face of the planet. Can't imagine where she gets it from.”

Eddie hid his smile behind the rim of his coffee cup, only then remembering that this woman was going to be his mother-in-law. If he ever got through to her hardheaded daughter, that is.

He saw Bev look down at her granddaughter, skim a work-worn hand over those flame-red curls. “I wouldn't say nothin' to Mala for the world—” she looked up, her brows knotted behind her glasses “—but there's no guarantee they're gonna be able to fix Lucas up, is there?”

Eddie frowned down into his coffee, shook his head.

“And you're still willing to take this all on?”

He looked into Bev's amber eyes, solid and judgmental behind her glasses. “If it'd been Mala hurt that bad, would that've changed how you felt about her?”

Shock streaked across her face. “Of course not! She's my baby!”

“Well, I don't feel any different about Carrie and Lucas. Wasn't something I was lookin' for, God knows, but…” He leaned forward, the cup suspended between his knees. “I've
never been so scared in my life as I was when I saw what-all they had to do to get Lucas out of that car, how much he was hurtin'.” He reached over, brushed a curl from off Carrie's cheek. “But I've never been more sure in my life, either, that that's exactly where I was supposed to be.”

Carrie stirred and yawned, then stumbled off of Bev's lap to crawl into Eddie's, where she promptly fell back to sleep. He shifted a bit to accomodate her sweet weight on his lap, tucked her head underneath his chin. “No matter what happens down the road,” he said, “I figure maybe there's something these two and I can learn from each other.” His eyes lifted again to Bev's. “And that I'll always be a richer man for that.”

 

“Uh…folks?”

Eddie jerked awake, startling Carrie who let out a little yip like the pup might've done. He shot to his feet, Carrie in his arms, only then realizing the balding man in front of him was wearing scrubs…and a big grin.

“It's good news?” Marty said, just behind him, and the doctor nodded.

“Very. But I thought maybe you'd all like to be together when I tell Lucas's mom.”

Less than a minute later, Eddie tiptoed into Mala's room and kissed her awake. Her eyes flew open as a small, “Oh!” popped out of her mouth; then she looked around, saw everybody standing there…saw the doctor.