Heal Me (Magnolia Series Book 2) Read online

I squeeze her hard enough to make her grunt. “Hey, little sis. I missed you.” I kiss her head before letting her go.

  “You look a hell of a lot better than the last time I saw you,” she observes as I watch Ellie go past us laden down with bags.

  “Bird, you didn’t have to carry it all at once,” I fuss at her. She ignores me so I give Leia my attention again. I wave my, now doctor-approved, brace-free arm, around and grin. “I’m like a new man.”

  She looks at me, hand on cocked hip and one eyebrow raised to the sky. “Bird?” Her fucking smirk is showing.

  I just roll my eyes and push her towards the door. “We’ve been together twenty-four/seven for six weeks now, what do you expect?”

  “I expect more than cutesy nicknames. I just saw the way you were looking at her and her cute little ass in those shorts. I know that look. It’s not the look of never having it and wanting it. That’s the look that you’ve had it and want it again, and again, and again.”

  I manage not to growl at her for talking about my girl’s ass. She probably suspects Ellie and I are an item now, but as far as I know she hasn’t been given any confirmation. Hopefully the house will save my ass from having to give it to her now.

  “Go inside, she’s been keeping supper warm for you. She wouldn’t let me eat till you got here and I’m starving because you’re late.”

  She snorts, but goes on in, immediately taking in the decor.

  “Ellie, the house looks fabulous,” she calls out. “You never told me you could decorate. If you can do this good, why can’t you dress just as well?” she snarks.

  I shove her. “Leia, lay off.”

  Ellie isn’t even close by, but still, her hearing rivals Roxie’s.

  I turn Leia’s attention to the kitchen, which smells fucking amazing. Ellie’s had chicken tacos cooking in the crock pot all day. I’ve been salivating since lunch.

  She’s coming down the hall as we head towards the living room. “I hope you’re hungry, Leia. If I don’t feed Nik soon he may revolt and fly the coop,” she teases me, adding in an adorable wink.

  Nope, not even if you starve me.

  Leia looks between our smiling faces, her eyes turning to slits. “I’ll eat since you went to the trouble. You do have salad stuff, right?”

  God, she’s such a girl. I’m so glad Bird isn’t like that. She eats with gusto these days. I love the soft curves that it’s giving her too.

  “Yep! Sure do. I promise I won’t try to fatten you up over the next few days, Leia.” She smiles and reaches out to rub my back. “Show her the rest of the house, sweetie and I’ll get everything on the table.” She shoos us away and goes to do her thing.

  “First, Bird and now sweetie. You two did finally fuck, didn’t you?”

  “LEIA!” I bark at her a lot louder than I meant to.

  Ellie sticks her head out of the kitchen, wearing a dark scowl. I shake my head and smile a little. Thank goodness, she goes back to what she was doing.

  Leia has an evil smirk on her face when I look back at her. “Oh, fuck me. This is priceless. You are so gone, big brother,” she snorts. “How on earth did y’all manage it with you—”

  “Leia. Enough,” I warn her. I could banter with her, but I don’t. “I love her more than anything else and she loves me. This isn’t just a fling until I’m better. She’s it for me,” I tell her, seriously. “As soon as I get these pins out and the trial is over, I’m gonna ask her to marry me.”

  Did I just say that? Pretty sure I did.

  Oh well, it may have popped up outta the blue, but it sounds like a great plan to me.

  Leia looks only mildly surprised. “I knew things were deliciously tense between you two, but how long has this love stuff been going on?”

  I start hobbling towards the hallway and motion her to follow me. I’ll answer her questions later. I show her where my room and the new bathroom are, then take her to her room. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been in it. Ellie has all her stuff in my room. Guess it’s our room really.

  “Nice. Even nicer view. Why don’t you two stay in here?” she asks, going to look out the wall of windows over the marshes.

  “I don’t have to walk as far and the bathroom is much closer to the…” I trail off, a picture on the dresser catching my eye.

  It’s them. The three of them, holding each other close and smiling out of the frame as if it’s the best day of their lives.

  Josh isn’t quite what I expected. I have no idea what I expected, but he isn’t it. Lucas though, looks just like her except for his brown eyes. Seeing them makes my heart crack a little, or maybe a lot. She’s lost so much, but I can’t help but think we could have a son, maybe even two or three little blue-eyed blonds all just as beautiful as their Mama.

  Leia takes the picture from my hand. I didn’t even realize I had picked it up until she did. “What the fuck? She has a kid?”

  “Had. He died in the wreck too.”

  “Fuck me. Why didn’t she tell us? No wonder she had such a horrible time. Why the fuck does life have to be so fucking cruel to good people?”

  “My thoughts exactly.”

  “He’s a carbon copy of her,” she murmurs.

  I nod. I don’t know what I’m feeling. There’s too much to sort through. I take the picture from her and put it back where it was.

  “How is she doing now?” Leia asks, motioning at their picture then to me.

  I could tell her how bad things got, but I won’t.

  “Better. I think. Especially since she told me about Lucas.”

  “Lucas?”

  “Her son.”

  Leia’s face falls.

  “She hasn’t had an attack in over a week. The last one wasn’t bad either, lasted only a few minutes. We’ve learned some tricks I can use to help her, but please don’t mention him unless she does first. Pushing her doesn’t work.”

  She shakes her head. “I won’t, I promise.”

  “Thanks. Anyway, she seems happier now. I can see it in her, and that makes me ridiculously happy.”

  “I could see it as soon as she walked out the door. She’s looks like a different woman. You look different too,” she says with her signature smirk.

  I smile back at her. “I am.”

  “So, how long? And why the fuck am I just now hearing about it? We talk twice a week,” she scowls, arms crossed over her chest.

  I roll my eyes and turn to sit on the bed. “I think I’ve loved her since the moment I saw her, honestly, but if you want to get technical, four, five, six weeks now. I don’t know, I lose track of time. We finally admitted it to each other the Sunday after I got here. Took us a week. Longest damn week of my life,” I laugh remembering my constant state of blue balls. “As for not saying anything, I don’t know. It just felt right to keep it between just me and her. Well, Cash knows, but he figured it out on his own. Not that you would’ve caused any problems, but I didn’t want anything to scare her off, you know? She was so fragile and scared, I wanted to keep her in a bubble. Still do really,” I confess, my nightmare coming back to the front of my mind. “Fuck, Leia. I love her so goddamn much it hurts.”

  She sits down beside me and leans her head on my shoulder. “Please tell me it’s a good hurt.”

  I swallow down the lump in my throat, cursing my suddenly weak emotions. “The best,” I finally get out.

  “Good. I’m happy for you. For both of you. I’ve never believed in all that ‘meant to be’ bullshit, but you two? You could be the poster children for that phrase.”

  I huff. “Yeah, we could.” I slap her thigh. “I have a job for you.” I need to talk about less emotional things.

  “What?”

  “Ellie never went to prom.”

  “Seriously? Why the fuck not?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I wanna give her one, but I want it to be a big surprise. Can you take her shopping for a dress while you’re here and come up with some excuse for why you need her to? Like maybe you’re looking f
or ideas for a new line or something. Then buy the one she likes best when she isn’t looking.”

  Her face screws up. “I guess I can think up something. When are you doing it?”

  “That’s really up to you and your schedule. I’ll need you for more than just the dress. How about two weeks?”

  “Two weeks? Nik!” she yells jumping up.

  “Shhhhh!”

  “Sorry. But for fuck’s sake, that’s not enough time. You have to get a place, a DJ, decorations, the dress, your tux.” she fusses, going over the list one finger at a time. “And what about other people? It won’t feel like prom if it’s just the two of you.”

  “Calm down. I have a place already. Scott said we could do it at the SCAD museum. I think I wanna do it in the courtyard. It’ll be plenty warm enough. It’ll have to be on a Monday night though, that’s when they’re closed. Him, Hank, and Cash already know I want to do it and can bring dates. My students would probably love to come too. I’m sure most of the girls have dresses they can use. Hell, I’ll pay for the guys to get tuxes. I already have one. The rest should be easy.”

  “Easy? You know nothing, Jon Snow. But I’ll handle it. You definitely want to do it in two weeks though? What about your leg?”

  “My PT guy says I should be able to handle a night of dancing by then if I don’t get too wild. And we’re thinking of taking off and getting away from this trial shit so the sooner the better. Can you come back for it that quick?”

  “It’ll be a bitch getting away from Marcus, but I’ll do it. I’ll call him in a few hours and let him know I’ll need the time off. You know I’m not gonna be able to find her an amazing dress here. I mean we’ll find something, but it won’t be the best,” she grumbles. “You should’ve told me this weeks ago and I could’ve brought some with me.”

  I smile at her annoyance. “It’ll be nicer than anything she ever had as a teenager, so it’ll be fine. Thank you, sis. I owe you big time,” I tell her.

  “Yeah, yeah. I won’t let you forget, I promise.”

  ~

  She did it. I don’t know how, but Leia pulled together the best-looking prom I’ve ever seen. We’ll have to call it a high-class prom, of course, but it all looks great.

  Ellie was already beside herself when I left earlier. She’ll flip when she sees this place.

  I asked her to go with me Saturday afternoon in a big way. I had my students make a huge banner with “Ellie, will you go to prom with me?” painted on it. They drove out and held it up on poles from the back of two of their truck beds. I knew they were coming so I kept Ellie busy in the bedroom so she wouldn’t know they were there until they started honking their horns.

  She was in shock for a few long, nerve-wracking seconds then she started bawling while the kids whooped and hollered. I was worried at first, then she managed to sob into my chest that I was the most amazing man in the world and she would love to go to prom with me. I guess I did good.

  It may be tough to come up with a better proposal, but I’ll think of something.

  Leia showed up with Ellie’s dress an hour later, right on time to calm her fears of not having one. She fussed at both of us for tricking her then hugged us to death while crying some more.

  Leia’s been hiding out at my place since Friday, which is good because Bird has been very enthusiastic about thanking me for doing this. Leia would have put a huge damper on that, but she showed up at Ellie’s bright and early this morning. She insisted that I had to leave the house after lunch so she could get Ellie ready and I could come pick her up like a proper date. Bird cried when Cash came to get me. I nearly told Leia to kiss my ass and insisted on staying, but Ellie pulled herself together and promised she would be fine. I gave her a kiss full of all the love I feel for her, told her I love her, and left before I started crying too.

  I wouldn’t have made it through the last two months without her, but I’ve especially needed her these last two weeks. The nightmares have slacked off some, but I still have them and she’s been there every time to talk me back down and to pick me up during the day when I get upset. I gave up and let her call Vicky last Thursday after we had to go in and get prepped for testifying. I nearly killed Hardwick when he drilled Ellie, preparing her for how the defense attorneys will probably treat her. She had to take me outside to calm me down and I did only because I could tell she was handling it all better than me, which meant she is going to testify no matter what.

  Vicky and I talk for an hour every other day now. Ellie was right, it does help. Between the two of them, I might just get past this.

  Cash took me to my townhouse to get ready. I’ve missed the place, but not near as much as I thought I would. I walked around my shop and felt a small twinge to get back to work, but it was very small. I hefted myself up the stairs – Cash sworn to secrecy – then sat at the bar just looking around imagining Ellie being there. Laying with me on the sofa watching TV, standing at the stove cooking in her bare feet, hair up in a bun, wearing my white button up with nothing underneath. It was a perfect picture that made my heart swell and a warmth run low through my stomach.

  “You gonna move back here soon? Bring Ellie with ya?” Cash had asked after I’d sat in silence for a while.

  “We haven’t talked about it yet. We’re thinking about taking a long vacation, like really long, till early August. I guess we can decide where we’re gonna live when we get back. I’ll stay wherever she wants though. I can move my shop to her place, the whole basement is empty. If that’s what we do I can sell this one or maybe we can switch out. Here during the week, there on the weekends.”

  “This is a stupid question, but she’s the one, isn’t she?” he asked.

  “Yep, pretty stupid,” I laughed at him. “She’ll be the one until I die if I have any choice in the matter.”

  I had gotten a huge slap on the back and a nod after that confession. “God sure works in mysterious ways, huh?” he muttered.

  “That he does.”

  That was three hours ago. I took a shower and got all spiffed up in my tux, then we went by and got her corsage. Leia said kids don’t do those any more, but they did when me and Bird were in school so I got one for her. Now we’re at the museum checking out Leia’s handy work and to make sure things are on schedule. They are, thankfully. I just finished making sure the DJ had the playlist I wanted – mostly 80’s and 90’s slow songs. No fast ones for me.

  I added a few new ones and some classics too. I want her to feel like she’s back in high school as much as possible.

  The limo should be here to pick me up in a few minutes so we can go get her, then we’ll go eat. I’ve reserved us a private room at The Olde Pink House, which is exactly as its name describes – a very old, very pink house – but the food is amazing and the service is even better. I doubt Ellie has ever eaten in such a nice place. I’ve only been there a couple of times myself and that was with clients.

  The limo pulls up right on time and I tell Cash I’ll see him later. He’s going home to get ready himself. The ride back to Ellie’s takes a bit with the afternoon traffic, which gives me plenty of time to get my stomach twisted in nervous knots. I want this night to be perfect for her.

  Finally, we’re driving down her driveway and pulling up to the house. I was sternly instructed not to climb the stairs and come to the door, but to honk the horn instead and she’d come out to meet me. I grab her corsage and tell the driver to blow the horn for me then carefully climb out. It would be just my luck to hurt my leg and ruin the whole night. Especially since I’m going sans crutch.

  I walk to the front of the car and lean on the hood to rest my leg and wait. My nerves keep me fidgeting with my tie and jacket though. I’m so busy worrying with them I miss the door opening, but I do hear the gasp.

  Holy fuck.

  She’s… There aren’t words, not that I can find anyway. I think my heart has stopped. I know my lungs have. Somehow, I manage to stand up and walk towards her. She’s as speechless as me, her
hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and watery.

  “Don’t you dare cry!” Leia shrieks at her. “Not after all that work.”

  “Leave her alone, Leia. This is her night, and she can cry if she wants to,” I admonish her, my eyes never leaving Bird’s.

  She lets out a giggle mixed with a sob then starts down the steps, a wobbly smile on her beautiful face. Her dress is black as coal with a full billowy skirt that makes her look like she’s floating. The top is fitted tight to her gorgeous curves. Her full breasts are pushed up and perfectly displayed.

  I’ll keep her chest pressed against mine all night so no one else can ogle her. That gorgeous view is all mine.

  Her hair is a wavy blonde halo around her happy face. Leia’s makeup job is great, but all I care about is how bright her eyes are shining and how big her smile is.

  “You’re the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen, Bird,” I whisper to her as she comes to a stop on the bottom step. That step plus her heels make us the same height for once.

  Her smile gets impossibly bigger and her cheeks flush red. “Thank you,” she giggles. “I can say the same about you. I almost died when I walked out and saw you. I knew you would be handsome in a tux, but I had no idea. My heart can’t decide if it wants to beat outta my chest or stop. We may have to get an oxygen tank, ‘cause sweet Jesus, I can hardly breathe you’re so perfect.”

  I can’t help but laugh and pull her into a hug. She’s chattering like an over excited little girl and I’ve never felt happier than I do right this moment knowing I had something to do with it.

  “No kissing!” Leia shrieks again. “I have to take pictures first!”

  We’re too happy to get mad at her or what turns into an endless picture taking session. My face hurts from smiling already, but I can’t stop. Probably won’t all night.

  I finally cut Leia and her camera off – we have reservations to get to – and help Ellie into the car. She keeps up her excited chatter the whole way to the restaurant. I’m nearly high from making her so happy.

  The driver lets us out and I lead her into the back entrance. I figured she wouldn’t want to be made a spectacle of by going through the front with all the other diners. A twenty-something waitress is already standing at the stairs that lead up to where we’ll eat. Her eyes go wide as saucers and her mouth pops open when she sees us.