Finding Joy (The Joy Series) (Volume 2) (37 page)

I reached over my right shoulder and scratched it only to wince in pain.
What the hell was wrong with my back?
I twisted in the mirror and caught a glimpse of something black and slightly greasy back there. I twisted a little more and let out a sharp laugh.

On my right shoulder was a new tattoo of a solid black cat. Its back was arched like one of those cats you see on Halloween decorations. A full moon behind the cat created a line between its legs. Together, the arch of the cat’s underside and the line of the moon made a perfect ‘A’.

It was time to go home now and see if my Allie Cat would take me back or if she had given up on me. If she didn’t forgive me, Burke would never let me live down my new Allie Cat tattoo. 

_________________________

It wasn’t until I was at the airport, waiting for my flight to be called, and my phone rang that I remembered that I still hadn’t talked to Burke.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I’ve been trying to reach you all night. It’s Allie. Are you sitting down?”

“Yeah,” I said, my heart thumping wildly in my chest.

“She was walking home from work late last night and was jumped.”

What? What was he talking about?
“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“It was late, man. Some dude jumped her between the office and your apartment. She’s going to be okay, but she’s in pretty bad shape.” He paused, and I thought I heard him cover the phone and laugh.

“Are you laughing?” I asked.

“No, man, I’m not … well, you’ll see.”

“Did he … is she ….” Surely not or he wouldn’t be laughing if …

“No, man. Nothing like that. He just beat the hell out of her and took her purse. But she’s really shaken up. I thought you should know.”

“Where is she now?”

“She’s at your place. Carly’s with her. I think Ethan’s out hunting for the motherfucker, that crazy bastard. He’s positively livid.”

I was, too, and, I couldn’t get home fast enough.

It was the longest and most productive flight of my life.

CHAPTER 22

Alexis

“Someone’s here to see you,” Carly said, sitting gently on the side of the bed.

“I don’t want to see anyone,” I said, pulling the pillow over my face.

“I think you might this time,” she said in a singsong voice.

“For the love of God and all that is holy, look at me, Carly. I don’t want to see anyone for at least a week. And definitely not until I’ve seen a dentist.”

“You’re gorgeous just the way you are,” she said.

“No. I’m not,” I snorted through the pillow. “I’m hideous.”

“There’s no way that the most beautiful girl in the world could ever look hideous,” said a voice that I hadn’t heard in far too long. “Now let me see your beautiful face.”

I pulled the pillow down just far enough to uncover my eyes and craned my neck to get a better view.

He was back, and the smile on his face told me that he might be planning on sticking around. The smile on mine told me that I just might let him.

 
Adam

“Well I’ll just leave you guys to catch up,” Carly said. I stepped into the room to let her pass, and she closed the door behind her to give us some privacy.

As I took Carly’s place on the bed, Allie covered up her face again and rolled away so that her back was to me. I barely caught a glimpse of her and only from the eyes up, but could already tell that Burke had been right. She was in pretty bad shape. “Are you speaking to me?” I asked.

“Sort of,” A muffled voice said from beneath the pillow.

“I’ll take sort of. Scoot,” I said, tapping her on the back. She whimpered a little as she scooted over to the middle of the bed, and I made a note not to make her move again. I lay down behind her, as close as I could get without actually touching her. I wasn’t sure where the safe spots were or if there were any. I lightly traced a finger along her side, from her hip to her waist, and she shivered beneath the blanket. “I’m just going to talk, okay? I’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

Her response was muffled and indistinguishable, but I took it as permission to proceed since she hadn’t kicked me out of bed. Actually, she was being pretty agreeable, considering the giant ass I’d been over the last few weeks.

“I got your email.” She stiffened beneath my light touch. “I’m sorry I didn’t respond. I didn’t know how to at first. I didn’t want to make any more promises I couldn’t keep. I’d broken enough already. But I shouldn’t have abandoned you.”

 “Just … you … me.”

“What?” I asked, in reply to her broken response.

She tossed the pillow aside and turned her face toward the bed. “I just wanted you to talk to me. You shut me out. I had no way of knowing what you were thinking or if you were okay.”

“I know,” I said. “I shouldn’t have done that, but I thought it would be easier on you in the long run.”

“Easier on me because you were going to leave me.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. I didn’t know.”

“But you’re here now. Why are you here?”

“I’m going to take care of you.”

She laughed. It was a dry, brittle laugh that wasn’t a laugh at all. “I don’t need you to take care of me. I don’t need you to swoop in here and save the day. And I don’t want you here out of pity.”

“Allie …. I’m not here out of pity.”

“Aren’t you though? I haven’t heard a word from you in three days. And then you
hear
that I’ve been attacked, and suddenly you’re here. Adam to the rescue. You’re good at that, right?”

I winced. “I’m not here to rescue you. I was already at the airport, coming home to you when I heard. It did make for a very long flight though.”

“You were?” she asked. “Why? What changed?”

“Let’s just say I had an epiphany of sorts. And a priority check.”

“That’s funny. I had one of those recently. But that’s neither here nor there,” she said absently. “You weren’t wrong to make your mom your first priority. She needed you. Nobody would disagree with that.”

“That’s what I thought,” I said. “But I recently learned that wasn’t the case.”

“I need more,” she said, fidgeting beneath the covers.

“It was intentional, Allie. The overdose. It was just a ploy to get me to come home.”

“What?” she asked, glancing sharply over her shoulder and giving me a second glimpse at her face.

The eye turned toward me was black. The skin across her cheek red with road rash. It made my blood boil to see her like this. It must have shown because she twisted away from me again and tucked her face into the bed.

“She did. She all but admitted it to me. I was such an idiot, too, thinking that walking away from you was what I needed to do.”

Silence.

“Allie, I know you probably won’t believe any promises I make today, but I promise you it will never happen again. I’ll never put her first again. I told her I’m done with her. I told her that I was coming back to you. If you’ll have me, I promise I’ll never abandon you again, and I’ll spend every day proving it.”

“If I’ll have you? Didn’t you read my email?” she asked. “I said I would never let you go and I meant it.”

“Allie, can you turn around so that I can see you? Or can I come on the other side? I need to see your eyes when I tell you that I love you.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Babe, I don’t care what you look like. It’s just bruises. They’ll go away.”

“It’s not just bruises.”

“It is. And in a few weeks, you’ll be good as new. Besides, a few black eyes and scabby cheeks can’t touch your beauty. You’re pretty inside out.”

She pulled the blanket up over her nose again before she rolled over. “You may change your mind about that,” she said, pulling it down again to reveal a wide smile and no front teeth.

“Oh, Allie,” I said, before I could get my filter in place.

Now that I could see all of her face, I knew why Ethan was supposedly combing the streets to find the asshole who did this to her. Both eyes were black. Only the one cheek was scraped up, but the underside of her chin now included a row of black stitches that was probably three-quarters of an inch long.

“Hideous, right?”

“Gorgeous,” I said, pulling her into my chest as gently as I could. “Positively breathtaking.”

“Adam, my teeth are gone. I look like a hillbilly from hell.”

“We’ll get those fixed. No big deal,” I said. “Unless you want to keep them that way.”

“No!” she said. “I have an appointment with an oral surgeon later this afternoon.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea,” I asked. “Maybe you should wait a few days?”

“They said the sooner I could get there, the better. I’ve got to get this fixed as soon as possible. I can’t stand to look at myself.”

“Can I take you?” I asked.

“Yes, you can take me,” she said, tracing her fingers lightly down my t-shirt. “I like your shirt … though that song is really annoying.”

I looked down at my ‘What does the Fox Say?’ shirt. “Yeah, I picked this up in the airport. I couldn’t come home and beg your forgiveness in a dirty shirt. So do you?”

“What? Know what the fox says?” she asked.

“Forgive me?” I asked.

“Yes, I forgive you … ‘You had me at hello,’” she said, quoting
Jerry McGuire.

“Good because ‘you complete me,’” I said, quoting the second most famous line from the movie.

“He was the one thing I followed through in my life, the one thing I didn't give up on. I was good at loving him.”

I raised an eyebrow in question. “
Untamed Heart
,” she said.

Nodding, I countered, “There are millions of people in this world, but in the end it all comes down to one.”

“
Crazy/Beautiful,
” she sighed happily. “To me you are perfect. And my wasted heart will love you. Until you look like this …” She made an ugly face, baring her snaggle teeth.

That one I knew. It was from
Love Actually
, one of the best Christmas movies of all time, in my opinion.  This was going better than I could’ve hoped. 

“It doesn’t matter if the guy is perfect or the girl is perfect, as long as they are perfect for each other.”

“Ahhhh,
Good Will Hunting
,” she said. “I love that one.” For a head injury, she was playing the game well today.

She smiled a toothless grin up at me. “Tell her that you love her. You’ve got nothing to lose, and you’ll always regret it if you don’t,” she said, again quoting
Love Actually.
I think quoting the same movie twice was like a triple word score.

I could tell her that I loved her, but I’d already done that. I was going to do one better and stick with the same movie for a quadruple word store.

“
Beautiful Allie,” I began. “I've come here with a view of asking you to marriage me … sometimes things are so transparency, they don't need evidential proof …
of course I prediction you say no but it’s Christmas and I just wanted to… check.
”
My broken english echoed the movie.

I looked down at Allie, who was just staring up at me, blinking rapidly. I’d struck her speechless. I brushed a stray strand of her hair behind her ear and then traced the line of her jaw with my thumb. I wanted to kiss her … well, but for the teeth thing … I wanted to kiss her.

“I’m serious, Allie. I will make it my life’s mission to make you happy. Will you marry me?”

Her black and blue eyes began to water. “Thank you. That will be nice. Yes be my answer,” she said just as the beautiful Aurelia had in the movie … except with a slight lisp.

“I’m so glad to hear that,” I said. “Because call me old-fashioned, but I think parents should be married.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, and it whistled through the gap in her teeth. I stifled the urge to laugh.

“No, Adam. You don’t need to do that for me. I don’t need it. All I need is you. If I can just spend every day of the rest of my life with you, I will be happier than I ever dreamed possible.”

“I know I don’t have to, but I had a lot of time to think this morning while I was flying across the country to get back to you. And this is what
I
want. I want this for us. You’re gonna be a rock star of a mom, and I … well, I need to redeem the Hill name. Just because my parents were terrible at it doesn’t mean I will be. I know you won’t let me suck at this.”

“You won’t suck,” she said, running her hands up my chest. “You’ll be great without any help from me, but … Adam … are you sure? I don’t want you to feel pressured into this.”

“I’m sure,” I said, kissing her on the forehead. It was the only undamaged area on her face. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.

“Just make me one promise,” I said, looking deep into her eyes.

“Anything.”

“Promise me you won’t walk home late at night anymore. My multiple personalities can’t take it. It’s hard for me to lay here trying to be all romantic when a part of me wants to get up and find some ass to kick.”

“I really want you to kiss me right now, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I just had the same thought. It’s too bad you’re so sore. I can think of a way to put that gap to use.”

“Gah,” she said, slapping my chest just as the door opened behind us and then quickly clicked shut again. Rubber Cat jumped up on the bed, put two feet on her side, and peered over her at me.

“Somebody missed you,” she said. I reached over and scratched under his chin.

“Did you teach him to open and close doors while I was gone?”