Page 8 of Beautiful Life
“Leigh?” I wedge myself around in my little space as well as I can with my cast, not to mention being pressed up next to Tony, and see Gabby’s Aunt Lizzie turned in hers. “I’ll be here tomorrow at two to take you to your doctor appointment. Will that give us enough time?”
Tomorrow is the day I get my cast off and I can’t wait. It’s been a long six weeks. I feel like this is the first step toward getting me back to me. I even have some interviews set up next week at the hospital. It’s been three years since I’ve worked. I loved nursing and being able to concentrate on other people. I hope it will allow me to get my mind off of everything.
But Gabby and Jude are flying to Colorado tomorrow to spend some time with his family. Jude has a cabin in the mountains where they will celebrate Thanksgiving again with his side. I’ll be here by myself for the first time since I moved in. I’m not worried, but all the Carpinos are making a big deal about it. Gabby’s Aunt Emma even wanted me to stay with them for the weekend but I insisted I’d be fine.
I try one more time to convince them I don’t need the help. “I hate to burden you, Lizzie. I can go by myself.”
“What do you have tomorrow?” Tony interrupts.
“It’s not a problem, Leigh. I’ll be up early to shop Black Friday. I’ll swing by to get you. I’m sure you can’t wait to get that cast off,” Lizzie continues.
“You get the cast off tomorrow?” Tony butts in again.
Before I say anything else I hear Tony, but he’s speaking to his mother this time. “I’m off tomorrow. I’ll take her. That way you can shop all day.”
“Maybe we can hit some of the Black Friday sales when we get to Denver tomorrow,” I hear Gabby join in.
Jude frowns at Gabby. “No,”
“But I need to start my Christmas shopping,” she adds.
Jude pulls her in for a kiss to soften the blow. “Babe. No.”
Lizzy ignores them all. “Thanks, Tony. I don’t want her to go by herself.”
I look back to Tony. “I don’t need you to take me. I’ll be fine.”
Tony leans in and puts his lips to my ear. “Your almost ex-husband is out on bail. He’s proved how many ways he’s willing to be an asshole. You’re not going by yourself. You think after what happened to Gabby and what’s already happened to you, anyone here is going to let that happen? Be ready at two. After your appointment, I’ll take you to dinner. We’ll have something to celebrate.”
His breath makes me shiver so I lean back to create some space between us. Of course, the Carpinos are freaked after what happened to Gabby. Jude is a Special Agent with the FBI and she met him during a Federal Raid where Jude was the case agent. Gabby was at a client’s house whose husband turned out to be a gun smuggler. Later, that gun smuggler beat her up as a warning and Gabby ended up in the hospital.
“Fine.” I give in on a sigh.
I push back from the kid table as Tony’s arm falls away and I stand to pick up plates as best I can with only one arm. I’m not going to think about tomorrow until tomorrow. But I probably do need to think about where my shoes are.
Chapter 3 – Another Step
Tony
Leigh is sitting on the paper covered patient bed in the doctor’s office staring down at her bare arm for the first time in six weeks. She turns her arm back and forth, runs her fingers over her wrist, all the while looking a million miles away. She’s been quiet and contemplative again since I’ve picked her up for her appointment. I knew the kids would loosen her up at dinner yesterday, that’s why I finagled a way for her to sit with me, not to mention I’d find any reason to be near her. But today I’ve allowed her to keep to her thoughts, hoping to give her the space she seems to need this afternoon.
I can’t imagine what’s going through her head—all the memories being dredged up. Reading the police reports was horrific enough, I can’t imagine what she’s thinking having experienced it first-hand and losing a child in the process. That doesn’t begin to describe what she endured her entire marriage to that fuckwad. It makes me want to find her husband and kill him with my own two hands. It was all I could do not to jump across the table at him that day in the conference room. I so badly wanted to have her sign the divorce papers that day so she would be severed from him for good, but I couldn’t let her walk away with nothing. Even though she won’t need that rat bastard’s money since I’ll be taking care of her, she needs to take him for everything she can. I don’t care if she donates it the minute the divorce is final, going after him financially is her only way to bring him low. He’s got his legal issues, but I bet he’ll make a plea. I had to do everything I could to make him pay for what he did to her.
When we got here, she wanted me to sit in the waiting room while they worked on her arm. Since there was no fucking way I was going to sit in the waiting room, I told her I was pretty sure they weren’t going to strip her naked to cut her cast off. That won me a short-lived flare of her emerald eyes that I got a hint of yesterday during the cookie incident. But she quickly shut it down with a resigned “fine”. But that flare reminded me of her blazing personality that used to be Leigh. She always had a quick temper, but not the kind that turned her into a bitch. No, it was the kind you could sit back and enjoy because it was fucking cute as hell to see her get pissed about something.
I’ve known Leigh since elementary school where she and Gabby were thick as thieves, but they were a year behind me in school. Leigh didn’t have much of a home life so my aunt and uncle, Gabby’s parents, all but adopted her. They took Leigh on vacations, helped her with homework and even assisted her in navigating college applications, financial aid, and scholarships since she was the first in her family to go to college. Leigh’s mom never gave a shit and I’m not sure her dad was ever a part of her life.
Now, Gabby might be my cousin but I’m not blind to the fact the two of them together in high school were the subjects of many teenage boys’ wet dreams. I made sure every male in that school knew Gabby was off limits and I bundled Leigh into that as well. Although at the time, I told myself it was just because she was Gabby’s best friend, but I think it would have made me crazy to have anyone touch her. I was a teenage boy, too, and certainly no angel. I knew exactly what I was protecting them from.
I never allowed myself to go there with Leigh because of Gabby. By the time I came back after law school she’d tied herself to her asshole husband and I was too late. She might not be ready yet, but this is my opportunity and I’m taking it. I plan to help her work through her shit and hope it will go faster than her going at it on her own. But I’m sure as hell not missing another shot at Leigh.
She’s tall but thin, I usually go for women with more tits and ass. Even though hers are small, she has enough to make her feminine in a way that makes her delicate, even tiny despite her height. Her long legs and lean body always carry her in a graceful way. A way that makes you watch her as she moves through a room, soaking up the sight of her so it’s burned on your brain until the next time you’re granted the opportunity. Her light blonde hair is long and sexy the way it falls around her face, shoulders, and back. Her milky skin only enhances how bright her emerald eyes shine. It’s the way she moves and those eyes that I’ve allowed myself to think about for the first time in a long time. Adding to that all that is Leigh—loving, kind, selfless, loyal. Any man would want that in his bed for a lifetime and be willing to put in the effort and patience to get it, which is exactly what I’m going to do. Nevertheless, I plan on giving her a good nudge along the way.
I’m not a patient person. I’m not even a gentle guy by nature. And I’m sure as hell not a soft-spoken man. Am I a nice guy? Sure. But these new and unwarranted tendencies are all pouring out of me in spades with her over the last few weeks. Maybe it’s because I read the police reports and medical records. Maybe it’s because I’ve known her for so long and even wanted to protect her when we were young. But I think it’s because I want to be the exact opposite of what she’s known. I want to be whatever she needs right now and give her everything she wants down the road. Whatever it is, it’s shocked even me because it’s coming easy and natural. Yesterday she gave me the first hint it might be working when I saw her laugh with the kids at Thanksgiving dinner. It was a sight to behold—a sight I damn well want more of in the future.
Leigh is still a million miles away contemplating her arm. I push myself off the wall I’m leaning against across the room and go to her. She gives me her contemplative emerald eyes as I take her newly healed arm and run my fingers down to her hand. I look down at our hands, turning hers in mine. “Another step.”
“What?” she asks quietly.
