Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

“So, you think that you might have found the one ?” Marco asked.

They were sitting on the lanai as he waited a few more minutes to leave for Sunshine’s. He was still unsettled about the fight, but at least she had answered his text. He hoped he hadn’t pushed too much. He didn’t like the way he’d left that morning. It probably would’ve gotten a lot worse if he had stayed.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Oh, no, I believe you. Santinis always know who and what they want. Just, Sunshine is a local girl. She once told Alana that she would never live anywhere else.”

Dammit. “People change their minds.”

“Yeah, but I think this has to do with her mother. You say you met her father?”

He nodded. “Kind of an asshole. Showed up at her house asking me why I was there. Like that’s any of his damned business.”

Marco sighed as he glanced over at his children. “Hard to believe someone would just turn their backs on their kids. I can’t even imagine that.”

“Yeah. I just...you know my mom and dad know him?”

“Really? What did Aunt Marcella say about him?”

“She didn’t like him. Said he was too slick.”

“Meaning your father wasn’t,” Marco said laughing.

“Yeah, he didn’t appreciate that.” He remembered the conversation. His father had been complaining in the background, and his mother was laughing so hard he was sure she had been crying. Still, no one could say they didn’t love each other. After six kids and so many years together, there was no denying that they both still adored each other. He wanted that. He wanted it with Sunshine.

He wasn’t sure he could convince her. He definitely didn’t want to give up his career in the military...did he?

“Hey, earth to Nando.”

He glanced at Marco. “Sorry, just woolgathering.”

His cousin smiled. “You’ll figure it all out, Runt.”

“I just…I’m actually thinking of getting out.”

“Of the military? Because of Sunshine?”

He sighed. “Not completely. It’s…I like my job now. I like playing with numbers. You know, they will probably send me back into my career field at the end of this assignment.”

“And you don’t want that?”

He blinked at the question. “No. Damn.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure that my sleep issues were because of my last assignment. I mean, that might be part of the problem, but I needed to make a decision. I wasn’t happy after the last couple of assignments.”

“Don’t make a rash decision.”

“I have to fulfill my obligation to my assignment here, so it wouldn’t happen too soon.”

Marco nodded. “You’ve been thinking about this for a while?”

“Not directly.”

“Well, that clears it up,” Marco said with a chuckle.

“No. It’s just, I kept thinking about how much I loved this job. I get to play with money…a lot of money…but even on the crappy days, I like it. I do well at combat, but I don’t like it.”

“Of course you do. You’ve moved up in the ranks pretty fast and, well, we all know you’ve gotten more than a few medals and ribbons.”

He sighed. He was good at combat. “I had five siblings who made sure I was prepared for combat.”

Marco snorted. “That’s true.”

“Still, while I am good at combat, I don’t like it as much as I like figuring out a budget or playing with numbers, so we can make sure an organization can buy something. I know it’s not as sexy as being a SEAL.”

“Well, there is nothing as sexy as being a SEAL.”

Nando shook his head, then he sobered. He truly did think he might want to get out. Nothing was for sure, because the state of the world could change in an instant, and he might feel obligated to stay in. Right then, though, he just didn’t want to. He wanted to get an accounting or budgeting position as a civilian, possibly on one of the bases. Here in Hawaii.

“Can you tell me when you knew Alana was the one for you?”

Marco chuckled. “Truth was, I had a crush on her from the moment I moved into the cottage. Then, my idiot brothers showed up and proved that I didn’t just want to admire her from afar.”

“Yeah?”

“Especially Gianni. You know he’s always had a thing for women who were a little older.”

“And that’s who he married.”

Gianni was a rescue PJ in the Air Force. He fell in love with Kianna, who was slightly older and a professor of literature.

Marco chuckled. “But he didn’t worry me as much as Vince. I knew he would have made a play for her. That’s when I realized what I wanted.”

“Oh, great. I’m a what?” Alana asked as she walked out on the lanai. Eddie was in her arms and Jon followed behind them. They were all in their bathing suits.

“I meant that I wanted forever with you. That was the what ,” Marco said, standing to take Eddie from Alana.

Before Alana could respond, Nando’s phone vibrated. He didn’t recognize the number but it was local.

“Hello?”

“Is this Captain Fernando Santini?”

“Yes? Who is this?”

“My name is Nurse Singh. I’m a nurse at Tripler Army Medical Center.”

His heart lurched. “Yes?”

“There’s a woman here by the name of Sunshine Foster. She said she wanted us to call you.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t give you the particulars over the phone, Captain, but if you come in, I can tell you. Since you aren’t family, that is.”

“Yes, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

He clicked off the phone. “Sunshine is at Tripler.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. They said she’s going to be okay, but that she asked that they call me.”

What happened? Had she been hurt badly, in a wreck? And why didn’t she call him?

He started for the driveway, but Marco stopped him. “I’ll drive you.”

“No, you stay.”

He handed Eddie back to Alana. “No, you shouldn’t be driving. We don’t need two people we care about in the hospital.”

Marco kissed Alana, then headed into the house. Nando followed him. On the way through the house, he picked up the keys to his car.

“Let’s go.”

Nando bust through the ER doors and hurried to the desk. Marco had dropped him off out front while he went in search of parking.

He had to wait until a mother with an ill son had checked in before he could get an answer. He stepped up to the window.

“My name is Nando…sorry Fernando Santini. A nurse called me to tell me Sunshine Foster was here.”

“Hold on.”

Then, a nurse appeared.

“Santini?” she asked.

He nodded. “Come on back.” Just then, Marco came in. “That’s my cousin.”

“He can’t come back.”

“They are taking me back.”

“Can you tell me her condition? My wife is good friends with her and worried.”

“She’s stable. The only thing we’re worried about is a concussion. No other injuries.”

Marco smiled, and he thought he heard the nurse sigh. “Thank you. Gonna call Alana,” he said to Nando.

He nodded as he watched his cousin head back outside.

“Come on. She got hit in the head.”

“In the head?”

She nodded. “Not sure exactly what happened, but from what I know, she was attacked behind her store.”

His heart lurched. Dammit, he should have been there.

“She’s in here. She has a headache, but she should be fine. Once the tests come back, we’ll decide on whether to let her go or not. If she goes home, she’ll need someone with her tonight.”

“No problem.”

He planned on calling Ferguson and taking tomorrow off. Nothing big was going on, and Sunshine needed him.

“Just so you know, it looks worse than it actually is.”

That was all the warning he got before she opened the door. His heart dropped to his stomach when he saw Sunshine. She looked so pale, too pale.

“Ms. Foster, I have a surprise for you.”

“I’ve had enough surprises today,” Sunshine said as she opened her eyes. “Nando.”

“I got approval to let him in.”

“Thank you,” she said, her voice a little stronger.

“Don’t you worry. Your Auntie Mary is a friend of mine, and we take care of our own.”

She nodded, then winced.

“I told you not to do that. I’ll leave you two alone.”

“Thank you,” Nando said.

Once they were alone, he approached the bed. “Hey, you,” he said, pulling up the chair so he could hold her hand. “Anything exciting happen to you today?”

“Nah. Boring day.”

He cupped her face. “I’m sorry. What happened, baby?”

As soon as he said the word baby, her face crumpled. “It’s that client I had problems with a few months ago. He apparently had issues with me dating you.”

He stood up and kissed her. He needed that, the contact, and he wanted her to know just how much he needed her to know it.

“Start at the beginning.”

She sighed. “Last year I had this client. Richard. He was, well, he seemed to be a nice older gentleman. He needed help with his lower back. Things were fine, or I thought they were. We bumped into each other shopping, that sort of thing. Nothing very scary.”

“But it turned that way?”

She nodded. “Yeah. It seemed like everywhere I went, he was there. I couldn’t do much about it because he never did anything. He would just act like it was no big deal. An accident. Then, I had a few dates with this accountant.”

“What accountant?”

“That’s not important.”

“It is to me.”

Her mouth twitched. “He didn’t last. Possibly because Richard kept showing up and screaming at us. The last time, he threatened me. I never thought he would do anything, but it was enough to get a restraining order since there were witnesses. That seemed to keep him away. And apparently, I am not his first obsession.”

“What happened to the others?”

“The detective that I talked to said he would find someone else.”

“But he hasn’t done that with you?”

She shrugged and winced again. “Have they given you anything for the pain?”

“A little. They are waiting until after they find out if I have a concussion.”

“What made him leave you this time?”

“I would be the reason,” said an angry male voice behind him. He turned and found a fairly tall, lean pilot standing in the door way.

Nando stood up. “I think you need to tell me who you are before I call security.”

“That isn’t him,” Sunshine said as she squeezed Nando’s hand. He turned and looked at her. She motioned with her hand. “He’s my brother.”

Nando straightened and looked at the man. “Yeah, I’m family and I have the right to be here. You, not so much.”

“Judson, do you think I would hold the hand of my attacker? Jeez, I know we just met, but I’m not dumb.”

The anger seemed to drain out of the other man and then Nando saw it. Auburn hair, green eyes. Other than that, they didn’t share any other qualities. He was tall, at least compared to Sunshine.

Before they could talk about anything further, a doctor came in. “Well, I need to talk to Ms. Foster alone.”

He wanted to argue, but he looked at Sunshine.

“Go on. This will only take a minute.”

He wanted more than anything to demand to stay, but he sighed. He would do what she wanted, for now. He leaned down and brushed his mouth over hers. “Call if you need me.”

He walked toward the door and Sinclair kept standing there. Nando stopped in front of him. “I think you have a thing or two you want to say to me.”

He glanced past him to Sunshine, then nodded. When they were out in the hall, he waited.

“So, you’re dating my sister.”

“I’m dating Sunshine, yes.”

He snorted. “My father might not have the right to be called Dad, I just found out about her and where she lived. I wanted to meet her but waited for Dad. He screwed that up, of course.”

“You have issues with your father?”

“You’ve met him.”

Nando nodded.

“Well, then you know he can be an ass. I love the man, but he really thought I wanted him to plead my case, our case, to Sunshine.”

“Our?”

“My sister Lil and my brother Roman. We wanted to at least have a chance to meet her. Of course, my father just makes a mess of things.”

“Yeah, he did. I was there for it.”

His eyes narrowed as he studied Nando. “And why was my sister left exposed when a crazy dude is after her?”

“Because Sunshine didn’t tell me.” He sighed. And because of their fight. He hadn’t been able to admit to anyone about the fight. “My cousin mentioned him, but I thought the incident was in the past.”

“You should have asked her.”

Yeah, he should have, but he wasn’t about to let some asshole brother tell him what he should be doing.

“What were you doing there?” Nando asked.

“I’d stopped by to see if her shop was open, hoping to catch her. Everything was locked up tight, but I heard screaming in the alley.” He swallowed, his face paling a little. “Scared the living hell out of me when I saw her.”

“He hit her with something?”

“I think a rock. I would have chased him down, but she was bleeding and you know head wounds…”

He nodded.

“Made me kind of sick.”

He snorted. “Pilots.”

“No, you don’t understand.”

Sinclair pulled out his phone and opened up his pictures. When he showed them to Nando, he blinked. It was a selfie with a woman, who had to be his sister Lil. She had long curly red hair, green eyes, and dammit, she even had a spattering of freckles over the bridge of her nose. She looked so much like Sunshine. She had fuller lips, and her nose was different, but there was no denying they were sisters.

“So, yeah, it was like seeing Lil. I freaked and ran toward her.”

He handed the phone back to her brother. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For taking care of her. If you hadn’t been there, who knows what would have happened. And, she is a little hard-headed. She would have probably tried to drive herself to the hospital.”

They heard heavy footsteps coming down the hallway and Judson looked behind Nando, then cussed under his breath. He turned and found Sinclair stomping toward them.

“What happened?” he asked, but before he could answer, Nando saw Mary come racing in.

“Damn, they just let anyone in here?”

“What are you talking about?”

“He’s talking about me, and the reason you got in here was because of me,” she said as she stepped up beside Sinclair. Then he remembered what the nurse said.

“Thank you,” he said.

She softened a bit. “So?”

“Richard showed back up.”

Her face paled.

“You knew about him?” Sinclair asked.

He was looking at Nando, so he assumed Sam wanted him to answer the question. “I knew she had a problem with the guy, but I didn’t know he’d shown back up.”

“Just once,” Mary offered. “He was across the street a couple weeks ago, far enough down the block that he didn’t break the order of protection. Sunshine called the cops and reported it. We didn’t see him again.”

But, Sunshine hadn’t actually told him. In fact, she had kept him out of the loop. True, they’d had an argument, but damned if he would let her use that as an excuse. He had almost lost her today. She could have easily been by herself back there. If her brother hadn’t shown up, she could have been abducted, or worse, left bleeding in an alley. All because he had been an ass.

“Hey, are you okay, Nando?”

He nodded at Mary’s question. But he truly wasn’t okay. He just realized that the woman he loved lay in a hospital, and his own idiocy could have gotten her killed. He didn’t attack her, but if she hadn’t been so irritated with him, they would have been together. She would have waited for him to show up before closing down.

“Hey,” Mary said. “Don’t freak out on me, Nando.”

He shook his head. “No worries.”

And there weren’t. He’d just realized that this woman was his entire world, and he could have lost her today because he didn’t tell her exactly how he felt. The doctor came out in the hallway and blinked at the number of people gathered there.

“Well, Ms. Foster has a lot of people here for her, even though only Mary Kapule had been mentioned on her intake form. Oh, and a Nando Santini.”

“How is she going to be?” Mary asked.

“I take it you’re Mary?”

She nodded, and he glanced at Sunshine’s brother and father.

“They are her blood relatives,” Mary said. “But I’m her auntie and this is Nando.”

“Okay. She’s fine. Truly. We just want to keep her overnight for observation. She isn’t showing any signs of a concussion.”

“She does have a hard head,” Mary said with a laugh, albeit a watery one. Nando stepped up and slid his arm over her shoulders.

The doctor smiled. “She said you would say that. Anyway, we are going to move her upstairs, but only two of you in at a time right now.”

“Thank you,” Mary said.

The doctor nodded, then hurried off down the hallway.

“You need to go see your girl, Mary.”

She smiled up at him. Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

“I need to clean myself up first.”

“I’m sure she would be happy to see you anyway.”

She shook her head. “I need to let her know that I am not falling apart, so she won’t freak out.”

He smiled and gave her a hug. “Thank you for being her auntie,” he whispered.

“Oh,” she said when he pulled back. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She cupped his face. “You’re good for my girl.”

She shot a nasty look at Sunshine’s father, then hurried down the hall to the restroom. He turned.

“I’m not sure it’s good for you to go in there right now,” Nando said.

“Excuse me?” her father asked.

“Dad,” her brother said.

“What? She’s my daughter.”

“One that you ignored for twenty-six years.”

“I did not.”

“Really? Because she has the letter you sent back to her mother. I didn’t see it, but it was painful for her to even talk about.”

Sam’s face lost all color. “Damn.”

“Yeah. She’s not particularly happy with you. Normally, I would tell you to go to hell; but, instead, I want to give you a bit of advice. You shouldn’t push Sunshine. A lot of people think she’s a pushover, she’s not. She’s tough as nails, but she does have a soft heart. If you take a step back, let her know that you want a relationship, she will come around. Trying to push her will just make her angry.”

“Speaking from experience, Santini?” he asked, a tinge of sarcasm coloring his voice.

“No. I just know her.”

“Is that a fact?”

“Yes. And I know that she’ll regret not at least having some kind of relationship with you, or at least with her siblings. Me, I’d rather you didn’t get within ten feet of her, because I don’t want her hurt again.”

“And you think you’ll still be around?” her brother asked.

“Yeah, because I plan on marrying her.”

Her father snorted. “The Santini Curse.”

Damn, it was getting bad if people outside of their family knew about the curse.

“So, I’ll go in with Mary, and ask if she wants to see you. She might be a little too tired today, although knowing her, she’ll want to thank you for being there,” he said to her brother.

Judson nodded and looked over his shoulder. Nando turned around and found Mary there. She looked like she was going to cry again. “Come on. Let’s go see our girl.”

She nodded. “Did you mean it?”

“What? That I’m going to marry her?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, yeah. Just don’t say anything to her. I want to do it right.”

“Like I said. You’re good for her. Let’s go.”

“We’ll be waiting here,” her father said.

He held the door open for Mary and then followed her in. She gasped, and he certainly could understand. She looked as pale as before, but she was sleeping.

“Should she be sleeping?” Nando whispered to the nurse.

She smiled and nodded. “We’ll keep waking her up throughout the night. We want her to rest when she can though.”

He nodded and followed Mary over to the bed. He sat down.

“My baby,” Mary whispered. “She didn’t call you?”

“We texted, and she said she would meet me.”

She nodded. “I’m glad she has you.”

He glanced at the older woman. “Always.”

For a long moment, Mary studied him, then she nodded. “Good. She’ll fight you.”

He smiled. “I’m sure she will, but since I love her more than anything in the world, I’ll bring her around.”

“Oh,” Mary said as she pulled a tissue out of her purse and dabbed her tears. “Good because I’m sure she hasn’t told you, but she loves you.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure it all works out.”

“I’m going to go and make a few calls. We need to make sure you have some meals ready, and my family is out in the ER.”

“As is my cousin.”

“I’ll find him and tell him everything. You just stay here with Sunshine.”

He nodded and pulled the chair closer to her bedside. He drew in a deep breath as he leaned closer and took her hand. He would definitely be there when she woke…and from now on.