Chapter 31

THIRTY-ONE

"I know, I'm sorry. Something came up."

I came out of the bathroom to find Dahlia twisted in my sheets, that tantalizing line of her hip peeking from the lightweight blanket in deep purple. Her skin was made for royal colors.

Glass and metal, with all those endless curves.

My chest tightened at the first spark of an idea. What would it be like to use metal and glass together?

She noticed me in the doorway and tipped her head quizzically.

I shook my head and mouthed, "What's up?"

"I'll be in before eleven and I'll explain everything."

Work. Had to be one of her partners. It was still early since we'd both crashed before the sun had set, for God's sake. And I was starving. I found her dress from the day before and tossed it in the dryer to freshen it up for her.

"Right." She sat up and the sheet dipped low on her breasts. She gave me that wrinkled nose of reproach, but I just shrugged and climbed onto the bottom of the bed and reached for the phone. "Hey!"

I brought it to my ear. "Who is this?"

"TJ. What the hell did you do to my friend?"

So many things, but the list was a little out of control at that particular moment. I tugged at the sheet until I finally got a look at her tight little nipples. "Your friend is a little busy. I'll drop her off in a few hours."

"What do you?—"

I cut off TJ's comment with the end button and tossed the phone aside.

Dahlia yelped when I pulled the sheet away and dragged my beard along her inner thigh then rolled her to bite that delectable curve of her hip.

"You're a beast."

"Never forget it." I grinned up at her then rolled her over so I could get a better taste of that heart-shaped ass.

"TJ is going to rip my head off when I get in there for that." She grabbed my pillow and shot a hot look over her shoulder

"Too bad." I flicked my towel off and crawled up to cover her. "I'm hungry."

"Some people have to work." She hissed out a breath as I slid inside of her. "Not fair."

I nibbled across her shoulder and slowly sunk into her once more. "I missed this. Missed you. I want you all over me for the rest of the day." I grabbed the back of her thigh to splay her wider for me.

She bit the pillow and I slipped my hand under her to race over her breast and the softness of her belly where I cupped her tight. The need to take her and protect her swamped me. The woman and the mother she'd become twisted into a possessive side of me I'd never had before.

I coasted down to her pussy, feeling us both together. The slickness and the welcoming clasp of her body would never cease to amaze me. She took me, whatever the mood. The chaotic, the soft, and here and now, the love that drove me absolutely mad. I didn't know what to do with it except to hold onto her.

Again and again, I powered into her until the buzz in my head receded. Until she reached back for me, and her cries acted like a balm. I breathed her in as she broke under me and I followed each moan with a chant in my head. She was mine, and she quieted the storm like no other.

I came so hard, my brain fuzzed, and I was almost worried I'd triggered a migraine, for fuck's sake.

"Are you trying to kill me?" she said into the pillow.

I laughed and rolled off her to starfish across my bed. "What a way to go."

She rose onto her knees before she collapsed back onto the mattress. "Nope. Go get me food and we'll try again in an hour."

I lifted my head. "I can probably go again in ten or fifteen minutes."

She flashed me her middle finger.

I couldn't remember the last time I'd laughed so much in one day. Well before the accident, well before...anything.

I rolled up to a seated position and stretched. "I think there should be pancakes in our future."

She rolled onto her side. "I need a shower first."

"I left you a little hot water."

"You're all heart."

She started to slide off the bed when I slid an arm around her waist to pull her back and planted a kiss on her shoulder. "I wasn't too rough, was I? I..." Hell, I didn't know how to explain these stupid emotions.

"You're not going to break me, Nolan. Don't worry."

"Sometimes I don't know what to do with all of this. "

"You're not the only one." She touched my cheek then slipped away.

This time, I let her.

While she was getting ready, I fed the cat and gave him ten minutes with a slow stream of water from the sink. The little devil loved it for some reason, and he happily drank and played while I made the bed and got dressed, then I hung Dahlia's dress on the door to the bathroom.

I checked in with Archer and Lucky to make sure everything was good to go for the day. Archer was taking a trip out to a quarry in Rome for some special stone he wanted to use for the new porch and balcony. There was good deal of stonework that needed to go into the house.

I hadn't checked in with Lyric for a little while. Maybe Dahlia would want to check out Trick or Treat with me. I could show her who I'd been before...everything.

And maybe I could be something new.

The purple and metal idea kept stewing in my head, all thanks to Dahlia.

She'd brought more into my life than I ever imagined. Now I just had to prove to her that I was worth a second chance. I shut off the water from the little hellion, who also gave me the evil eye, and shut off the valve because he had no chill. I'd forgotten one day, and while there'd been no flooding, he'd killed a tank of water, which I'd had to swap out.

I stepped outside and wandered over to the storage pod I'd put beyond the trees of my yard. To anyone else it would look like an extra Dumpster, but I knew it wasn't.

I pulled down the lever and the locking mechanism screeched open. It had been a damn long time since I'd looked in there. It was an old shipping container that I'd bought off someone during a liquidation sale. It was large enough to hold the tools and supplies I'd collected over the years.

There was a particular scent to metal, especially the kinds I'd worked with. Sheets of high-grade steel, old car parts, and my particular favorite, which required the extra lock—copper.

"Nolan?"

I turned at Dahlia's voice. "Yeah, I'll be right there."

She walked over, the swish of her hips in her short dress tightening my chest. She was stupidly beautiful in the early sunshine. My kneejerk reaction was to slam the door shut and not let her see this part of me. The part I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to reignite.

My fingers flexed on the door, but then I forced myself to relax.

She deserved to see this part of me too.

"What did you order? You know this is a long game, right? You can't keep..." She trailed off. "What's this?"

"This is the old Nolan."

She slipped her arm through mine as she peered inside. "Is this your workshop?"

"No. But it is my gear. I was thinking about it today for the first time in a damn long time."

She slid her hand down my forearm to link our fingers. "That's a good thing."

"Maybe. I don't know yet."

"That's okay."

"Yeah?" I brushed my hand down her hair. It was silky soft, and still a little damp.

"You don't have to know everything yet, you know."

"Good thing, because I feel like I don't know jack crap about anything." Slowly, I closed the door with my free hand.

"We'll figure it out together."

That sounded damn good to me. I lifted our linked fingers to my mouth and brushed a kiss over her hand. "But now there needs to be pancakes. And I was thinking you might want to stop at Trick or Treat with me?"

"What's that?"

"You'll see."

She laughed. "Okay, that sounds intriguing."

I led her over to the truck and opened the door for her before going back to my side.

She buckled her seatbelt. "This chivalry thing is nice."

"I'll keep trying to remember to do it. No promises. I'm shit about being in my head sometimes."

"I won't hold it against you."

The Rusty Spoon was doing a brisk business, but we managed to find a booth at the back of the room. After some pancakes and a metric ton of bacon, we headed to the outskirts of Main Street.

"I didn't even know there was a store out here."

"It was an old warehouse that went out of business a dozen years ago. I bought the old building and remodeled it a bit, but I still liked the spooky vibe."

"Just like your sister."

"Seems like you don't mind a bit of the macabre, Hellcat."

"You'd be correct." She sat straighter when I turned into the parking lot. "Holy crap!" She turned in her seat to crane her neck to keep looking at the main copper sign with the scarecrow. "Did you do that?"

"Yep."

"Okay, I'm giving up on my Google ban for you. I'm looking up your work."

"You don't need to do that."

"Obviously, I do. You are kidding me with this. It's not even artwork, it's artwork with a capital A."

My chest tightened at the compliment. It wasn't the one full of niceties, just the raw truth of Dahlia. The kind that I hadn't known I needed to hear.

She hopped out before I turned off the truck and rushed to the door. The skirts of her dress twirled around her thighs as she flitted between the creepy clown and the little frog I'd made with Michael, my nephew, in mind. My breath caught at the pure wonder in her eyes as she couldn't resist touching the head of the frog.

She left me in the dust as she rushed into the store with a delighted laugh. "You are kidding me right now." Her head was tipped back to take in the massive Grim Reaper behind the registers.

"It's a sight, isn't it?" Lyric put her arms out. "He watches out for us, and who would dare steal from the till with that looking at you?"

Dahlia laughed. "That's a fact. This place is amazing."

Jensen leaned on the counter, with his arms crossed. "Hey, Mr. Devereaux. Nice to see you again."

Lyric gave him an arched brow. "Shouldn't you be putting the stock out for the 4th?"

"Right. Whatever you say, Boss." Jensen was lanky and that kind of good-looking that meant he probably never had to work hard for anything in his life. But he had an affable charm that I envied. I'd never be that kind of easygoing.

"I wanted to show Dahlia around."

"Take your time. Let me know if you need anything." Lyric picked up her iPad.

"Will do."

Dahlia rushed through the aisles with a childlike wonder that was exactly why I'd created this place. Macy had her style of Halloween and I had mine. The over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek kind of horror had always been my thing.

"This bear is wild. Ecto-green blood." She turned back to me. "A la Slimer?"

"You like Ghostbusters ?"

"Are you really shocked?"

I laughed. "That's a no. Take whatever you want. I'll clear it with Lyric."

"This place is awesome." She went back to the killer Gummy Bear and snapped out a bag. "Now this is what I'm talking about." She was grinning when a loud crack and snapping sound boomed though the room.

The edge of the front counter careened forward and folded inside of itself as the floor cracked. Black, billowing smoke rolled out of the floor.

The sprinklers popped and started spraying over everything just as the wall of candy tipped forward.

I dove at Dahlia and took the brunt of the acrylic tubes full of candy as they rained down around us in every flavor of the rainbow. The acrid smoke rolled up and around the Grim Reaper like some bad B-Movie.

"Hellcat? Are you okay? Talk to me!"

She coughed and groaned under me.

"Can you move?"

"I don't know." She curled under me as the floor rumbled again.

"Lyric!" Jensen's voice came from the far side of the room. He shot forward, skidding under the toppled display cases. But the floor was uneven with the break, and he swore as his hip crashed into a cracked tile.

Flashbacks of getting pinned down by my sculpture threatened to drag me under.

The pain in my shoulder was a distant echo of the past. But it was the blood on Dahlia's face that dragged me back from the edge. "Hellcat, can you get out?"

"I can't move my leg."

"Fuck."

"I think it's pinned."

I reached for my phone, but I remembered that as soon as the sprinklers were activated, it automatically routed the fire department to this building. Thank God.

"Jensen!"Lyric's voice was thready as she coughed.

"I'm coming. Hang on." Jensen gave a grunting shout as he pushed the tile out of his way and he Army-crawled to the crack in the floor.

I hoped to God that kid could get to her. I could only focus on one thing right now. "Okay, Hellcat. I'm going to try and lift this thing up, and I need you to slide free, okay?"

"Okay." Her hand shook as she reached out for me. "Nolan, do you think the baby is okay?"

"We're going to make sure the baby makes it through this. Our baby is tough as nails, and stubborn as fuck, remember?"

She shook her head. "Right. Stubborn. Strong like her Daddy."

"That's right." I didn't feel very strong right now, but I was going to do it for her. "On three."

"Three. Okay."

"One. Two. Three—" I growled as I pushed up with everything I had. My back, my shoulders, and my thighs screamed as I shoved at the display case. Something sunk into my shoulder, but I ignored that and finally, it moved a few inches. "Go!"

She scooted free just as the sirens and the heavy horn of a fire engine came closer. There was no way I could get this thing off me, but at least she was okay.

I heard Jensen yelling in the distance as fire licked up the side walls.

The smoke started to settle down to where we were on the floor. "Dahlia, get out of here."

"Not on your life."

"Not my life, that baby of ours."

She slapped the floor. "Get the hell up and come with me. I love you, dammit."

I pressed my forehead to the floor. "Ahh, hell, that's not fair."

"I don't really care about fair right now, pal. I am not doing this today."

The doors busted open as a trio of men in full gear poured into the room, shouting details about the structure.

Trick or Treat was in serious trouble, but right now, the only thing that mattered was Dahlia and our kid.

"Help me!" Dahlia popped up off the ground and waved to two firefighters. A woman and a man pushed display cases out of the way as they made their way over to us.

Another sudden crack and the Grim Reaper careened forward.

Dahlia covered her head as debris from the fire scattered around us.

"Get her out of here!" I yelled over the roar of water overhead, which was no match for the flames. Suddenly, the glass front door broke open.

Four more firemen thundered through with a hose.

"Ben, get the lady out of here, will you?"

"On it." He scooped her up by the middle to get her off the floor.

"Wait, no." Dahlia kicked out.

"Hellcat, get out of here. Let the professionals handle it." I gritted my teeth as the gummy bear display dug into my shoulder. I could feel the gush of blood as my periphery started sparkling. Fucking great.

The male firefighter dragged her out the door.

I rested my forehead on the floor for a second to get my bearings. "Is she gone?"

"Yeah, she's gone."

"Promise?"

"What's going on, sir? What's your name?"

"Nolan."

"Okay, Nolan, what's going on?"

"This is my store. I'm pretty sure the acrylic shattered when it fell, and it dug into my shoulder."

"Fuck. Sorry, begging your pardon."

"Oh, I'll be saying fuck for the duration. What's your name?"

"I'm Jenny. Let me just get another set of hands over here." She popped up and disappeared.

The floor sparkled and shimmered as blood slipped over my shoulder. I blinked against the smoke and dabbed at my eye to find blood dripping from my head too. There was no way I was going out like this. I'd just finally found someone who made this stupid world worth living for.

And a kid.

Couldn't forget the kid.

I shook my head against the tunnel vision coming for me.

"Okay, we're back. I've got Adam here to help me."

I flattened both of my hands on the floor, ready to help push this thing up and off me. "You promise Dahlia is out of here."

"She's in the bus—er, ambulance outside. She's safe."

"Okay." That was what mattered. "And Lyric?"

"Working on it. Let's just worry about you, huh?" Adam's voice brooked no argument.

I wasn't really great at that, but I wasn't going down in this candy store. Not today, dammit.

"Okay, I'm going to lift this big bitch onto my shoulder and Jenny is going to take a look at that shoulder and make sure we can get you free."

"Got it."

"Here we go."

It shocked me how fast it came up. What the hell kind of jacked-up dude was this Adam guy?

All too quickly, it was followed by a searing pain. I didn't want to scream, but I didn't have a choice.

Jenny swiftly ducked under and deemed me good enough for moving forward. I tried to help her, but the nerves in my hip decided this was the perfect time to be damn uncooperative.

Adam gave a mighty roar and shoved the gummy bear station off me, and it crashed into the floor. The whole room shuddered again.

"I can't get to her!" Jensen's voice dented the fog in my brain.

Jenny hauled me free of the case as the scent of melting gummy bears and God knew what else lit the room.

"Lyric?" I asked as I tried to get off the floor.

"We're on it. We'll get her out." Adam hauled me off the ground and onto the stretcher. "You're a big fucker." His voice was distorted from his face mask.

"Same to you, dude." I slapped my hand over my eyes against the smoke and the water coming down. Against the pain crawling down my skull to my neck.

I couldn't see straight with the migraine crashing down on me. All I could see was flames and the chaos of voices, and then there was nothing but clean air and blinding sun.

After the acrid smoke of the room, it was jarring enough for me to cover my eyes with my forearm. "Dahlia?"

"Here!"

EMTs and firefighters were all talking around me. Shouting orders and rolling me off the stretcher onto a gurney.

"Ma'am, you can't get in here with him."

"The hell I can't." Dahlia's voice brooked no argument.

"Are you his wife?"

"Yep!" She didn't even hesitate. I heard her climb on.

Someone slapped the side of the ambulance and then I felt Dahlia's hand on my arm. I twisted my fingers around hers. "Wife, huh?"

"You damn well better be wifing me now, buddy."

The EMT snorted but ignored the obvious lie. "Okay, I need to turn you to check that shoulder."

Dahlia held my hand, and I kept my eyes slammed shut so I didn't do something stupid like puke from the pain. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Some six-foot Nordic-looking blond woman sat on me and put oxygen on me."

I laughed, then I hissed out a breath as the EMT cut my shirt away.

Her cool hand cupped my cheek. "You better be fine."

"Pretty sure she's working on it," I said in a low voice.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm fine. Just banged up."

"Liar. You have a migraine. Your freaking pupils are the size of dinner plates."

"You have a headache?" the EMT asked.

"He gets migraines."

She rolled me over and a light careened into my vision. "Fuck."

"Sorry." She typed something into a screen. "Okay, we're about ten minutes out from the hospital. Just let me make sure you're not going to bleed out on me, yeah?"

"That would be great," Dahlia said dryly.

"Did you get Lyric out of the building?"

"I'm not sure. I'll see if Brock can check in with the CCFD. Right now, we have to worry about you."

The trip to the hospital was a bumpy one and I gritted my teeth against each pothole the damn ambulance seemed to find. My paramedic was quick and efficient with bandages and Dahlia held my hand the whole ride.

By the time we got to the ER, my migraine was full-blown. The lights in the room were little more than flashes. Dahlia explained that I got migraines and even rattled off the meds I took.

How she'd remembered that, I had no idea.

Before they took me back, I grabbed onto Dahlia's arm. "Check on Lyric. And get checked out for me."

"Nolan, just worry about you."

"I'm wifing you up remember? I want to make sure you're okay too."

She laughed. "I will. Don't worry."

Before my gurney got pushed through the doors, I yelled, "I love you, Hellcat."

Then there were doctors in my face, and so many damn questions. It took more than an hour for them to give me migraine meds—after they finally managed to check my history.

Of course, my body was a network of scars, so they had tons of questions about my previous surgeries.

I managed to remember my old doctor's name for them to find the records.

Thankfully, this time I didn't need surgery. The gash in my back was a superficial one, and it would just be another sexy scar for Dahlia to croon over.

At least that was what I told myself as I was put down face-forward for another fourteen staples to add to my collection.

Finally, sometime later, I was put into a room, and I grinned at my sister's voice in the hallway.

"I don't freaking care when the visiting hours end, I'm seeing my brother."

After a few more murmurs, my door busted open. Macy's hair was disheveled, and the teal of her bangs were sticking up as if she'd put her hands through her hair. Gideon came in right after her.

"Hey, Mace."

"Don't ‘hey, Mace' me. What the hell are you doing, scaring fifteen years off my life ?" She smacked my good arm.

"Hey. I'm a wounded man here."

"What the hell happened?"

"I have no idea. No one will freaking tell me anything. I just finally got a room." A coughing fit hit me. When I could breathe again, I sat back. "Where's Dahlia?"

"She was getting checked out, last text I got." Gideon came up behind Macy and put his hands on her shoulders. She leaned back on him, seeming to relax into him.

Forget horror movies. Love was the scariest, most incredible thing going.

"Did she tell you everything was okay?"

"She seemed fine. Just a little smoke damage to her perfect hair. Damn her."

I pushed at the oxygen tube in my nose and flung it away. "Just the smoke?"

"What else would it be?" She frowned. "What's going on?"

I coughed. Damn smoke had done a number on my lungs. "I just need to make sure she's okay."

"Man, you are sunk, huh?" She grinned and craned her neck up to Gideon. "Didn't take him long."

Gideon laughed. "Never does."

"More than sunk, Aunt Macy."

"Aunt—oh, you did not!"

"Looks like that Crescent Cove lore holds steady. Even though I'm pretty sure I got her pregnant while we were in Kensington Square."

"Doesn't matter. You live in the Cove, you bring that shit everywhere. It's like some magic dust that sprinkles all over you no matter where you go. Just like Lucky and Tish."

"I believe it, and I really don't care." I coughed again. "I love her. The baby just sealed it up tight."

Macy ruffled my hair. "Always the grumpy ones who fall the hardest."

"She should know." Gideon brushed a kiss at her temple. "I'll leave you guys to it. I'll check on Dahlia. Or not."

I peered around Macy to see Dahlia in the doorway. She was a little pale, and she was wearing scrubs instead of her dress from before. "How long were you there, Hellcat?"

"Long enough to hear the ‘I love you' not directed at me, but about me. Twice in one day."

Macy's eyebrows shot up. She gave me a tight smile. "Okay, I'm just gonna go."

"Coward."

"Damn right." Macy kissed my cheek. "Glad you're okay. I'll be back in a little bit." She squeezed Dahlia's hand on the way by before closing the door after herself.

I held my hand out toward her. "Take pity on a guy. Not every day when you show off your favorite place to your girl and lose it on the same day."

"You just won't let me stay mad at you anymore."

"I don't mind a good fight, but maybe on another day?"

She rushed forward and caught my hand and held it against her chest. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Ditto, babe. Are you okay?" I shifted on my bed, then I hissed out a breath. The anesthetic was definitely wearing off on the staples.

"I'm fine."

"Everything's fine? Baby too?"

She sat on the side of my bed. "Baby too. I had a very thorough check. Too thorough, if you ask me."

I laughed. "Sorry about that. Better to be safe than sorry. Have you heard about Lyric and Jensen?"

"I did. Lyric is okay. Just a broken leg and smoke inhalation. Jensen is a little shaken up, but he's okay. He's staying with her until her sister comes in from San Francisco."

Relief poured through me. It all could have gone so much worse.

She pressed her hand into the mattress on one side of me and leaned down. "Are you okay?"

"A new scar to add to my collection."

"I don't care. This chick digs scars."

I grinned up at her. "Good thing, because I seem to keep collecting them."

"Can we stop that, please?"

"I'll try." I lifted my good hand up to cup her face. "When you were pinned, it gave me a hard moment."

"And how do you think I felt? You don't get to push me away like that ever again."

"I can't promise that one. Nothing mattered but you right then." I lowered my hand to her middle. "And this Little Bean."

She covered my hand. "What am I supposed to say to that?"

"I wouldn't mind that ‘I love you' thing again."

"Heard that, did you?"

"I sure did."

She pulled my hand up to her cheek. "I love you. Even if you drive me crazy."

"Just had to add that caveat, huh?"

"Can't make it easy on you."

"I'm damn sure that you'll never make it easy on me, but we'll always be interesting."

She leaned down to kiss me. "You really going to wife me up?"

"Meet me at the courthouse when it opens."

"Oh, no. You are going to have to deal with a whole wedding with my crazy-ass parents."

"Crazy?"

"My mom is a lot. Sorry in advance."

"I don't care. Just as long as it's you, me, and the Bean." I rolled her into the bed with me.

"Nolan!"

"Shh, just let's stay here for a minute, okay?"

She sighed and rested her head on my chest. "Don't forget Gizmo."

"How could I ever forget Gizmo?" I stroked my hand down her hair.

"Am I hurting you?"

My back was on fire, but I wouldn't move her for the world. "Nope. You're right where you belong."

"Just for a few minutes," she said with a yawn.

"A few minutes." I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Sounded perfect to me for a start.

Then we could work on forever.