There was a moment of stunned silence from the older woman. “How dare you talk to me that way!”
“I’ll bloody well talk to you how I want to,” Nevvie screamed, unconsciously mimicking Tyler’s speech habits in her anger. “He’s my husband, and it’s my job to take care of him!”
“We’ll see about that, missy,” Delores hissed, then hung up on her. Nevvie was too angry to ponder what the hell she meant by that.
Fueled by rage, Nevvie stormed into the hospital and flung open the conference room door. “I’m going to the ICU. Bob, you come with me.”
Pete and Bob exchanged startled glances. Bob scrambled to follow, grabbed her arm to slow her strides. “What happened?”
Nevvie turned on him. “Tell hospital security that if that woman shows up, she’s not allowed to see Tyler or get any information about him. I don’t even want people to know he’s in the hospital.”
“What? She’s coming all the way from London?”
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put anything past that greedy bitch.” Nevvie filled him in.
“Okay. So we hook up Em and Delores and they can gay bash together.”
Nevvie froze, then laughed, throwing her arms around Bob and laughing until she cried. It took her a few minutes to regain her composure.
“You feeling a little more stable now, hon?”
She wiped her eyes. “I think so. I needed that. Thanks.”
“Don’t worry. You know I love a good fight and hey, it’s just billable hours.”
Nevvie laughed again. If Bob could crack jokes it meant her boys would be okay.
She maintained that upbeat mood until she stepped into the ICU. The nurse at the desk waved her in. After scrubbing up they first stopped at Tyler’s bed. “How is he?” she asked his nurse.
“He’s okay. I’m taking care of Thomas, too.”
“They told you not to tell Tyler, right?”
“Yes, don’t worry.”
Nevvie kissed Tyler’s forehead and brushed the hair away from his face. “I’ll be back later, honey. I promise.” With trembling legs she stepped to the next alcove, where the curtain was pulled but the sliding glass doors stood open.
The nurse, Carol, laid a hand on her arm. “Remember, he’s been in an accident. He looks pretty bad right now. Don’t let that scare you.”
“I’m sure I looked pretty damn bad my first few days, too.” Nevvie remembered Carol from her prior stay.
Carol smiled. “That’s right, you did. Just remember, stay calm.”
Nevvie stepped through the curtain, Bob right behind her.
Thomas looked horrible. Two black eyes, face bruised and battered, his head bandaged, on a ventilator. His left leg was bared, an incision on his hip still surrounded with orange residue from the surgical soap, and his leg bore several large, angry, sutured wounds. He also had IV tubes in both arms.
Nevvie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She couldn’t fall apart anymore, that luxury was gone. She opened her eyes and walked to the head of his bed, kissed him on the forehead.
“Tommy, sweetheart, you’re going to be okay. I’ll bring Mom and Karen back in a few minutes to see you. Tyler’s going to be okay. He’s out of surgery and he’ll be fine.”
She carefully took his hand, holding it so she didn’t disturb his IVs. Dropping her voice she said, “I need my tough guy, Tommy. I need you back. I don’t care what shape you’re in, I don’t care how bad you’re hurt or what we have to do to help you. I don’t care. All I care about is that you’re alive and you don’t leave us. You’re my husband and I love you.”
She kissed him again. With her lips near his ear she whispered, “I need my sweet master to come back to me. Do you hear me, Thomas? Your little slave needs you because she loves you and misses you.”
She spent a few more minutes with him before letting Bob lead her to the conference room. Nevvie took a deep breath and pasted a smile on her face. “Okay,” she said to Peggy and Karen, “you come back with me. Guys, why don’t you wait in the waiting room for us?”
Pete looked at Bob, who shook his head, staying the other man’s questions.
With Peggy on her left and Karen on her right, Nevvie held the women’s hands and led them to the ICU.
Nevvie introduced Peggy and Karen to the nurse. “You’ll be seeing a lot of all of us.”
“That’s okay. I’ll make sure my replacement tonight knows what’s going on. I think it’ll be Ben. You might remember him.”
Nevvie did. He was a sweetheart totally sympathetic to their situation and never gave them grief when the boys visited her—except for playfully trying to flirt with Tyler. He also frequently closed the curtain and let them well overstay the visiting times.
“Please tell them I want it to be Ben. For both of them.”
“I will.”
Nevvie led the way through the curtain. Karen gasped. Peggy seemed prepared and nodded.
“He’ll be okay, girls. I know he will.”
Nevvie stood at the end of the bed and let them have time with him. She absently stroked his right foot through the sheet and started to run through things in her mind. She’d need to talk to Karen in private, ask her to stay for a few weeks. She’d give her money to pay her bills so she could take the time off from work. She had to get with Kenny and Cal and Maggie at the office—crap! Another call to make.
She’d need to get organized, buy a calendar book so she could track doctor appointments and prescriptions and everything else. So much to do. More anguished tears threatened and she forced them back.
After twenty minutes, the women were ready to go. They all stopped by Tyler’s bed one more time before finding the men in the waiting room.
“Bob, I have to call Tommy’s office,” Nevvie said.
“I’ll do it. I know Maggie.”
“Thank you.” She looked at Pete. “Do you want to see them?”
His eyes looked red. Apparently the large man with the rough façade wasn’t as tough as he portrayed. “Yeah. Can I?”
Nevvie held out her hand. “Of course you can. You’re family.”
He did okay with Tyler. The sight of Thomas’s battered face finished him and he openly wept. “Nevvie, I’m sorry. It’s just…dammit, I’ve known them for years. I knew Tyler before he ever met Tommy, you know that. They’re like my brothers.”
Nevvie’s turn to comfort him. “I know.”
“We can’t let Eddie in here. He’ll be a blubbering mess.”
“I hope Eddie doesn’t mind playing nanny for a few weeks. I’m going to need him.”
“He loves the Ant, you know that.” Eddie had nicknamed Adam “Ant” after one of his favorite rock singers. “Thank God he doesn’t have a uterus or we’d have twenty kids by now.”
Nevvie laughed. Pete always cracked her up.
He squeezed Tom’s hand. “Don’t worry, buddy,” he said to Thomas. “We’re taking care of them. You get to feeling better.”
* * * *
It was after six o’clock. Nevvie felt she’d cried gallons of tears since waking up that morning. She got her keys from Peggy and drove the three of them to the house while Bob ran Pete home. Bob would bunk on the pullout sofa in Tom’s study while Peggy and Karen shared the bed in the guest room.
Nevvie didn’t relish the thought of sleeping alone in their bed, but she didn’t want anyone else sleeping there. Her boys would be home soon. Then it would be the three of them again. It was one small piece of normality she could cling to, something to keep her wanting to put one foot in front of the other.
Pete returned to the house in his car and brought Chinese food and reports of the Ant’s activities for the day. “Eddie will bring him by in an hour or so to visit and get more supplies.”
“Can you keep him overnight? I’m sorry to impose.”
“Babe, what part of ‘you don’t have to ask’ don’t you understand? You know we’ll do anything for you guys.”
“Thanks, Pete.” Pete had
remembered Nevvie’s fondness for lo mein. Not remembering which kind, he brought three different varieties as well as enough food to feed half the Chinese Army. They’d never eat it all, but she was grateful for the gesture.
Maggie stopped by, her face red from crying. She started sobbing again as she hugged Nevvie. “I’m so sorry, Nev. They’ll be okay, won’t they?”
Nevvie vocalized the mantra she suspected would keep her going over the next days and weeks. “They’re strong, and they’re tough. They’ll come back to me. I’m going back to the hospital in a little while. Want to see them?”
“Can I?”
“Of course you can.”
They would have a full house. April and Cheryl would drive down the day after tomorrow and hadn’t told the two eldest sisters squat, as per their mother’s orders. They could only stay a couple of days and would take over the pullout in Tom’s office. Bob could either go home or sleep on the sofa in the living room.
Eddie arrived with Adam. Nevvie fought a new round of tears as she took her son from him. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips against Adam’s smooth forehead. She held him for a few minutes then passed him to Karen, who hadn’t seen him in over two months.
Staring into Adam’s blue eyes—Tyler’s blue eyes—was both a comfort and a stabbing pain in Nevvie’s soul.
Nevvie gathered what Eddie would need for Adam and took a few minutes to wash her face in the bathroom. She barely recognized herself, between the red, puffy eyes and dark circles. She’d woken up happy and in heaven. In a few hours, she’d go to bed in the depths of hell.
Maggie followed her to the hospital. Nevvie led her to the ICU. She took a deep breath and said a silent prayer before stepping through the unit doors with Maggie.
Tyler could be sleeping except for the ventilator and IVs. It was easy to picture him coming home soon. Nevvie steeled herself for Maggie’s choked sob when she led her to Tom’s bedside.
They didn’t stay long. Maggie hugged her out in the parking lot before driving away. Nevvie got into her car and sat for a moment without starting it. Then she rested her forehead on the steering wheel and screamed at the top of her lungs for several long, agonizing minutes until she couldn’t scream anymore. Only when she felt she could hold it together in front of the others did she drive home.
Chapter Nine
Nevvie gave her keys to Karen. “Drive my car while you’re here. I’ll drive Tyler’s.” Saying the words nearly choked her up. She couldn’t bear the thought of driving Tommy’s Ridgeline. She tried to sleep and couldn’t, even with the boys’ pillows stacked around her.
Curled alone in their bed, her mind drifted back to that very first day when she moved in. She’d been cleaning for the boys for six months when they asked her to move in as their assistant, afraid to confess their feelings for her. She’d eagerly agreed, but then Alex beat her to a bloody pulp when he spotted a necklace the boys had given her for her birthday.
When she didn’t show up as arranged, the boys came looking for her. She remembered the stormy anger in Tommy’s sweet eyes as he pushed Alex off her. The worry in Tyler’s face as he protectively scooped her into his arms and carried her out of the rat hole apartment.
Forever theirs from that moment on, although it took awhile for the boys to admit their feelings to her.
She vaguely remembered sobbing in this very bed as her boys held her, the pain in her bruised and battered body vying with the relief she felt to be safe with them.
Her boys.
She couldn’t lose them. Please God, don’t take them from me.
Nevvie couldn’t sleep. She called the hospital every hour to check on them, tried to control the emotion in her voice. Ben was sweet and understood how upset she was.
Carol took over again for the day shift. Nevvie drifted through her day, shuttling between her boys and the waiting room, drinking what felt like gallons of coffee to stay awake, making calls, answering as many of Bob’s questions as she could in regards to Tommy’s business, fielding calls between Tyler’s agent and publicist and all their friends. Pete and Eddie again brought dinner over. Finally, a little after nine and at everyone’s urging, Nevvie went to bed and tried to sleep.
Around three a.m. she gave up and took a long, hot shower. Even that simple act invoked sad thoughts. She hadn’t been alone like this in…well, since her hospital stay after the second attack when Alex stabbed her. Since being with her boys she always slept with one or both men at night, never alone.
She left a note for the others and quietly let herself out. With the roads empty, she made it to the hospital in less than ten minutes. She brought two paperbacks with her, the ones Tyler and Thomas were currently reading.
Ben was on duty again. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“No. Not without my boys. I figured it’d be quiet here now, maybe I could visit longer.”
“Sure.” He glanced at the desk. “I’ll run interference. Just pull the curtain.”
She went to Thomas first and pulled a chair close to the head of his bed so she could lean in and be inches from his ear. She turned to the page he’d bookmarked. In a soft voice, she started reading to him.
An hour later she kissed him on the forehead. “I need to go visit our guy now. I’ll be back later. Mom and Karen will be here to see you today, too.”
Restraints had been placed on Tyler’s hands. Startled, she looked for Ben. “It’s okay,” he reassured her. “They’ve backed off on his pain meds and sedation. They can’t pull the breathing tube until they know for sure he’s stable. It’s standard procedure. Some patients claw at the tube. We don’t want him ripping it out. Once he’s awake and the doctors are happy, they’ll remove the tube and the restraints will come off.”
Nevvie took up her position by Tyler on his right side and read to him. A few minutes before six she prepared to leave as the shift change started. She squeezed Tyler’s hand. “I need to go, sweetie. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
He squeezed back.
Startled, Nevvie froze. “Ty,” she whispered, “do that again.”
He squeezed.
“Ben!”
The nurse ran in, alarmed. “What’s wrong?”
“Watch! Tyler, honey, squeeze my hand.”
He did.
The nurse checked his vital signs. “That’s good.”
“His eyes aren’t open.”
“That’s okay. He’s responsive, that’s a good sign. Mr. Paulson, can you squeeze your wife’s hand again for me please?”
He did.
Nevvie choked back a relieved sob. “I love you, Tyler. I love you so much. You’re going to be okay, baby. I’m going to take care of you, and you’ll be okay.”
He squeezed her hand.
Carol came on duty again. Between her and Ben they bent the rules and kept the curtains shut and let Nevvie stay with Tyler during the shift change. Tyler kept squeezing her hand on command. Nevvie sat staring at Tyler, whispering to him, begging him to open his eyes. A few minutes before seven, he finally did.
“Tyler! Oh, sweetie!” She cried with relief. He was back.
His eyes fluttered closed again and she felt him pull against the restraint. She held his hand. “Don’t do that, honey. Once they take the breathing tube out, they’ll take these off.”
He opened his eyes again and looked around the room without moving his head, then back to her. His deep blue eyes were the best sight she’d ever seen.
She knew what he wanted to know.
“It’s two days later. Tommy’s…asleep.” Okay, technically the truth. “It’s around seven in the morning. I couldn’t sleep. Bob and the doctors helped me get the rules bent so I could come in when I wanted.”
Tyler’s eyes narrowed as he fought his way through the drugs’ foggy grip. Nevvie, that gaze said. Tell me the truth.
She forced a smile. “Everything’s okay. You had a heart attack. Peggy gave you CPR and they had to do surgery, but you’re going to be fine.”
His eyes closed again. He squeezed her hand, hard and long, before relaxing.
“You’re in Tampa Community.” He looked at her. “You want to know what’s funny? You’re next to the bed I was in.”
He couldn’t laugh but his eyes crinkled slightly in amusement.
“I knew you’d like that,” she said. She glanced to make sure they were alone and leaned in closer. “You scared your little slave, Master,” she whispered. His eyes squeezed shut in what she recognized as an attempt not to laugh.
“I’m sorry, but I had to say that.” She smiled. “See? If I can crack jokes, you know everything’s all right.” She met his eyes and couldn’t hold back her tears. “You really scared me. I thought I’d lost you. The EMTs had to use the defibrillator to get your heart going again.”
He squeezed her hand, then let go and shook his, as if trying to signal something.
“What?”
He mimed writing.
“You don’t need to work, for Christ’s sake! Let’s get you home first.”
He rolled his eyes, grabbed her hand and squeezed hard, then mimed writing again. It finally hit her.
“Oh! I’m sorry. Hold on.” She found Carol, who brought her a clipboard, paper, and a pen. Nevvie held the clipboard for him while he wrote.
Where’s T?
Nevvie forced her face and voice to remain steady. The spooky connection she had with Tyler wouldn’t help her in this case, it would make things worse.
“I told you, he’s sleeping.”
His eyes narrowed. He wrote again.
Lie.
“I’m not lying.”
He tapped the clipboard with the pen and glared at her.
“Tyler. You have to calm down. You’re just waking up from the sedation. Karen flew down from Savannah. April and Cheryl will be down today, everyone’s back at the house. Bob’s even spending the night.” She took a deep breath, needed to distract him. “They didn’t want to leave me alone. I had a pretty bad meltdown before you got out of surgery.”