The Reckoning (15 page)

“But today you weren't afraid for yourself,” Ricky pointed out. “You just said.”

Emmett's gaze brushed over Linda's face, then went back to the window. “Today, I was terrified that something would happen to your mother. Pretty much how I guess she felt when she went after Jason in the kitchen. She wasn't worrying about herself then. She did that because she loves you.”

Linda's heart tripped. And then tripped again as Ricky turned his head to look at her.

She cleared her throat. “How'd you know about that, Emmett?”

“I told him,” Ricky said. “I told him everything that happened while they took Jason away and before the ambulance came for you.” He took a breath. “That's why you did it, huh, Mom? You went warrior lady on Jason because you were trying to protect me.”

“Yes.” And that fierce strength that she'd found inside herself had let her know that forever, for all time, she was Ricky's mother. Really and truly, to the core of her heart, Ricky's mother.

“You…you love me?”

“Oh,
yes.
” She gathered her boy close, holding him against her heart. “I love you now. I'll love you always.” Tears came to her eyes as she realized she'd never said the words to him. She'd never
felt
the words until today. But that was okay. Because the love she had for Ricky wasn't any the weaker for it.

“I love you, too, Mom.”

It was the first time he'd said those words to her, too, and she let herself sob at the joy of it. Finally, she lifted her head to stare into Ricky eyes. Her family. He was her family. She smiled.

“You look funny when you cry,” he said.

She laughed. “I suppose I do. Sorry.”

Ricky grimaced. “It's not a bad funny. I kind of like it.”

“Good save,” came the dry comment from the door. Another man was standing there, beside Emmett, a man who looked remarkably like him. “He's got way more innate charm than you do, cuz,” this man said, nudging Emmett with his elbow.

Emmett's grim expression didn't change. “Linda Faraday, meet my obnoxious cousin, Collin Jamison.”

He smiled at her. “Glad to see you're feeling okay. Your son here didn't want to leave the waiting room until he saw you for himself, but I thought he might be interested in a cheeseburger, fries and a shake about now. I'm almost hitched to a med student on the staff here, and she assures me that they're the best on the cafeteria menu.”

Linda raised her brow at Ricky. “What do you think?”

He hesitated. “I'm hungry, but—”

“My Lucy has made arrangements for you to stay in your mom's room tonight, Ricky. So you can get a quick bite and then get back up here and settle in. Your mom's going to need someone who knows how to work that TV remote control.”

“Okay, then,” Ricky said. He grinned as he bounced off the bed and headed toward Collin Jamison.

Linda smiled to herself. Another man who was going to make a darn good dad someday.

Her son and the other man exited the hospital room, leaving her facing Emmett. “Would you mind closing the door?” she asked.

“All right.” He placed his fingers on the handle. “I'll say goodbye, then.”

“No!” She cleared her throat as the anxiety collected inside her once more. “I mean, um, no, I have something to say to you. Ask you. Discuss with you.”

Oh, God, she was doing that nervous babbling thing.

Emmett narrowed his eyes, but shut the door and then drew closer to her bed. “What is it?”

What was it? What could she possibly say to mend the rift between them? “I want to apologize for yelling at you this morning. For, uh, basically ordering you out of the house.”

He shrugged. “That seems like a million years ago.”

“Still, I apologize, all right?”

“Okay.”

Oh, great. There was nothing between them at the moment, no spark, no current of awareness, nothing but a huge pit of awkward silence. But she had to soldier on. “Why, um, were you coming back to the guest house this afternoon?”

He blinked. “What?”

“Why were you coming back? Did you have something to say to me, or…?” She stared at him, willing him to take the opening she'd given. The whole time the doctors were examining her, she'd gone over this in her head. Why had Emmett come back to the house?

From that look in his eye when he went after Jason, she had been hoping she knew.

He just stared at her.

Linda closed her eyes. Squeezed them tight. What now?

“Honey? Sweetheart?” The mattress depressed as Emmett sank onto it. “Are you having another headache? Shall I call the doctor?”

She opened her eyes, taking in the concern on his face. Ten years hadn't made her any smarter at this man-woman thing, but it should have taught her not to waste time waiting to get smart.

She swallowed. “I don't think the doctor can cure the problem I'm having, Emmett. I don't think I want him to, anyway. I love you, Emmett Jamison. I'm in love with you.”

He froze. “You—” He shook his head, as if trying to dislodge a strange thought. “You couldn't. You don't.”

“I can. I do.”

“No.” There was a frown between his dark eyebrows. “You've seen the ugliness, the evil that is my brother. You don't want that to touch you.”

“He won't touch me. Jason's not a threat to me anymore.”

“But you saw what
I'm
capable of. The darkness that lives inside of me, as well.”

She shook her head. “Emmett, there's sadness inside of you because of what you've seen and experienced. I can help with that. Ricky can help with that. Our love, our family that we make together can help with that. But there's no darkness inside of you.”

“You don't know…if I love you back.” He looked away.

“But I do. I saw it on your face when you were trying to protect me from Jason. You were fierce because you love, Emmett, not because you're bad.”

He muttered something.

“Don't try to deny it. You said it yourself. You told Ricky you ran into the kitchen terrified for me. That you thought it was the same way I felt when I was protecting him…because I loved him.”

Emmett muttered again. “Me and my big mouth.”

“Why won't you give me that love?”

He looked at her now. “Because I don't want to be the shadow on your sunlight.”

Oh, God. “I need your love, Emmett. I thought I didn't deserve it, either. I thought I wasn't whole enough for you, strong enough, but I was wrong. And you're wrong, too. Love can never be a shadow.”

She put her hand on his arm. “You said you'd be my first daylight man. And I insist you be my last.”

He broke then, taking her in his arms. “Linda, Linda.” His mouth found hers, and the kiss was wet with both their tears. He lifted his head. “When I moved in with you, I thought you needed me. But the truth is I need you.”

Smiling, she cupped his face in her hands.

“We'll shine on each other,” Emmett said fiercely. “For the rest of our lives, we'll shine on each other.”

Ricky glanced at his mom's open notebook. He hadn't meant to read it, but she'd asked him to retrieve her watch from her bedside table and his gaze had caught on his own name.

He didn't think she'd mind. She loved him and told him so something like a billion times a day. In the middle of doing something else she'd look up and ask, “You know what, Ricky?”

And though he would know exactly what she was about to say, he let her say it anyway.

“I love you, baby.”

She was going to have to cut out that baby stuff, but he'd decided to be generous and not mention it until his eleventh birthday. Emmett had explained it to him. Mom had missed out on all those
I love yous
and
babies
and needed to work in ten years' worth of them ASAP.

As long as she didn't do it in front of his friends, he could handle it. He doubted, though, if she could keep them to herself during the Fortune family reunion. Ricky sighed.
What're you gonna do?

When they made it to the Fortune ranch—which looked pretty even to him, with its wads of pink and purple flowers and white party tents set up all over the place—he found out that
I love yous
were being tossed around like rice at a wedding ceremony he'd seen on TV. There'd been a lot of weddings among the Fortunes in the past few months. It could kinda make a guy sick, except his mom and Emmett and he were going to have their own wedding coming up. He'd told
them, no penguin suit! But his mom had sniffled and he'd found himself caving.

Emmett didn't like the idea of a penguin suit, either, but they both liked the idea of pleasing his mom.

“Ricky, please come over here. There's some people I'd like you to meet.” That was Lily, who wore a big smile and these long beaded earrings that caught the sunlight.

He walked over to her, but Emmett and his mom came along, too. Ricky knew what this was about. They'd prepared him, but still it felt like the first day of school and the moment before the shot at the doctor's office put together.

His throat felt sticky as Lily introduced him to her son, Cole, and to Holden and Logan Fortune. All three were Ricky's half brothers. He had a half sister, too, Eden, and she looked friendly and normal enough for someone who was married to a real, live sheikh. They all smiled, actually, and said they were glad to meet him and hoped to get to know their little brother better and he said he would like that.

The surprise was, he meant it.

It was weird, finally knowing all about his past. His biological father—that's what his mom said they should think of him as—was Cameron Fortune, who also was the dad of Cole, Holden, Logan and Eden. His mom said she thought she'd loved him, but it was all hazy for her since it was pre-brain injury. So they'd decided to focus on the present and the future, with the exception of letting him know that he was a real Fortune. Lily said she hoped it would make him feel more… He thought the word she'd used was
secure.
He'd even gone to visit another sort-of relative, Susan Fortune, who helped kids with weird stuff going on in their lives.

She used to live in California, but now she'd moved to Texas and was running her hotline thing for kids from here, because she'd gotten married to Ethan and he lived on a
nearby ranch. Between Ricky and Susan, they'd figured stuff out. Basically, he had a lot of people who loved him and wanted to be in his life. Nan and Dean, Lily, the Fortune half brothers and sister. His mom, of course. Emmett's parents, who were here today, too, along with a pie Mrs. Jamison said was just for him. And he had Emmett.

After his mom, it was Emmett who made him feel okay about things. He'd told Ricky he didn't have to feel fine about everything all at once. “You ever feel weird, you come talk to me and we'll work it out together.”

Ricky could talk to his mom, too, of course, but it was cool to have a father-type around. Emmett had told him he could call him whatever he wanted, and Ricky had a plan about that. Once the three of them said “I do,” then he was going to start calling Emmett “Dad.” Guys in penguin suits had to stick together.

“Ricky!” It was his mom this time. “Come meet someone else.”

It was a little kid, a girl, with black hair and these huge brown eyes. She was younger than Ricky, by three or four years, and he could tell by the way she was sitting so still in a chair that she wasn't your everyday, wiggly first-or second-grader. Ricky knew plenty about them, because he always had to make sure they didn't go tearing across the street when he was on traffic patrol duty.

“This is Celeste,” his mom said. “She's Dr. Violet and Dr. Peter's little girl.”

Something about that “little girl” made the teeny kid smile. “Hi,” she said.

Ricky nodded. “Hello.” His mom was signaling something to him with her eyes, and he thought he knew what she wanted. Emmett was looking at him, too, and Ricky gave a little nod. Emmett called himself a protector, and it
seemed he thought Ricky was one, too. It made him feel pretty good.

He sat down next to the little girl. “How's it goin'?”

“Good,” the little girl said, peeking at him from beneath these thick dark eyelashes. “I'm learning how to walk again. I'm okay at it, but not ready for the Olympic track team.” Her big eyes looked up at her dad, Dr. Peter. “My daddy says I will be able to run someday. Now I swim. Do you swim?”

“Yeah. I do.”

They didn't have much more to say to each other, but Ricky continued to sit beside Celeste. The sun made him feel a little lazy. There were other kids around, yelling and laughing while playing hide-and-seek. Maybe he'd go do something with them later. Right now, it was pretty good next to this quiet little girl. Before his mom woke up, when she was asleep in the nursing home, he used to sit quietly with her sometimes, too.

His mom was full of life now, though. She was talking to Celeste's mom, Violet. Dr. Violet wanted to go back to work part-time. His mom was going to be doing that, at the Fortune Foundation that Emmett was setting up. Another couple came up to join them and they started talking about work, too. The grown-ups thought it was way-out funny that this Kyra lady was her husband's boss now.

He shared a speaking glance with Celeste and shrugged. Guess you had to be there.

There was another round of hugging and kissing when more people joined the group that included his mom and Emmett. Ricky had given up trying to figure out how they were related to him. The latest couple was Vincent and Natalie. Everybody screeched when Natalie said she'd finally been given a promotion at the newspaper where she worked. No more fluff pieces, she said, whatever those were.