Family Matters Read online

  When her body stiffened and she reached to push him away, he softly said, “No, angel. Don’t do that.” He kissed her until she relaxed again. His fingers found their way between her legs and gently parted her. She sighed against him, one hand cupping the back of his head, her fingers tangling in his hair.

  “Remember when you were hurt and we got you home? How you asked if I loved you?” he asked as his fingers slowly stroked her.

  She nodded, her eyes focusing on his.

  “Remember how you made me promise to do anything for you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Remember what else you made me do for you?”

  A smile curled her lips, lifting tons of worry from her face. “Yes.”

  “And remember how scared I was of hurting you?”

  She nodded again and kissed him, understanding, some of her fear finally leaving and allowing her to enjoy his touch.

  Nevvie relaxed against him. He nuzzled his lips against her forehead. “Let me love you, angel. I want to feel you come for me, my sweet, sweet love.”

  He moved his hand lower, enjoying her soft moan as he slipped two fingers inside her and slowly stroked. “You made me come for you, remember?”

  “Mmm hmm.”

  “Now Master will ask his little slave to return the favor.”

  She gasped, shivering against him as her passion truly took over.

  He dropped his voice even lower as he circled her clit with his fingers. “You are my sweet, beautiful slave. I want you to come for me.”

  Her soft mewing sound made him smile. He knew she was close. This many years together, he could read her body as well as he could Thomas’. “Come for me, love. Come for your husband—”

  “Ah!” she pressed her face against his arm as she cried out, muffling the sound of her passion as her body stiffened, spasming against him, trembling.

  He knew when to back off but didn’t withdraw his hand. When she reached for him he stopped her.

  “No, love,” he said. “You stay right there, just like that. I’m not done with you yet.”

  She relaxed against him as he stroked his fingers into her ready entrance, adding a third and making her moan. “That’s it,” he said. “You don’t get to leave this bed until you’ve given me another one.” He lifted his head so he could meet her beautiful green eyes. “You’re going to come for me again, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Because you’re my good girl, aren’t you?”

  She nodded as her breath quickened at his words.

  He kissed her, his tongue plunging between her lips, fucking her with it and mimicking the way his fingers explored her. When he lifted his head again so he could look at her, he stared into her eyes, entranced.

  “I want my beautiful wife to come for me and show me how much she loves me.”

  She closed her eyes and pressed her face against him. It took longer but as he heard her muffled cries against his arm he drew her close and held her as she recovered.

  “My poor, sweet girl, you’ve been so very brave for us. We are truly blessed that you’re our wife.” He pressed his lips against the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her shampoo, how she sounded trying to catch her breath. “See? I didn’t keel over.”

  She laughed. While her cheeks were streaked with tears she also wore a brilliant smile. Laying a palm against his face she kissed him. “Okay, point made.”

  “No, love, point not made. I’m going to keep you rather busy and distracted now that I’m home. I owe you quite a bit for the grief I’ve caused you.”

  She grinned. “Ty, I get the—”

  “Shh.” He laid a finger against her lips and narrowed his gaze. “Little slave, don’t talk back to your master.”

  He gave her credit for attempting to keep a straight face but she laughed again and kissed him. “I love you, Evil Genius.”

  He hugged her. “And I love you too, darling.”

  * * * *

  Karen and Peggy had returned while Tyler and Nevvie were in the bedroom. Nevvie took a few minutes to freshen up and change clothes. Eddie brought Adam home a short time later. As much as Tyler wanted to go back to the hospital with her to visit Thomas, he knew he needed to spend the evening at home catching up on his own rest. Nevvie brought the baby into the bedroom and laid him on the bed where he grinned and babbled at Ty.

  “There’s my buddy.”

  “Mom’s in the kitchen getting your dinner ready. She’ll bring it in once it’s ready. Don’t you dare lift him, got it?”

  “Yes, love.”

  She leaned over and kissed him, then the baby. “Can I bring you anything?”

  “Just yourself, sweet. I’m looking forward to a long, uninterrupted night’s sleep.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  Nevvie left. Tyler ignored the TV and lay on his side, holding his son’s hand. They’d had so many plans, the three of them, with none of this on the radar. He would never admit to Nevvie that he was just as scared they’d lost Thomas. But she needed him to be strong or she might lose what courage she’d regained.

  For years Tyler envisioned growing old with Thomas. Then Nevvie entered their lives and life had only got better. What if Thomas didn’t get better? What if he had lost his love forever?

  He blinked back tears and tried to force that thought out of his mind, choosing to cling to the hope that regardless of his physical state, Thomas would somehow return to them.

  Peggy brought his dinner in a few minutes later. Adam was falling asleep. “You okay, sugar?”

  “Yes, thank you, Mom. How are you doing?”

  She forced a smile. “We’ll get through it, Ty. Tommy loves y’all too much not to make it.” She carefully scooped her grandson from the bed. “He’s beautiful, Ty. He’s a beautiful baby. You’re a good daddy.”

  “You’re his grandmother. You’re biased.”

  She smiled but there were tears in her eyes when looked at him again. “I’ll admit I was a little dubious when y’all first got together with Nevvie. I worried things wouldn’t work out between y’all. I love her, and she’s a damn good momma. Even though I was convinced long before now how much she loves the two of you, the past couple of weeks have proven it beyond any doubt. I’ll snatch that stupid daughter of mine bald next time I see her for puttin’ y’all through extra stress.”

  “Yes, but if you hadn’t been here I might have died. So it worked out all right, didn’t it?”

  * * * *

  Ben was back on duty. He smiled when Nevvie entered the ICU. “So how’s my other patient?”

  “He’s home. Discharged this morning, thank God.” She sat by Tom’s bed. “One down, one to go.” Her new mental mantra.

  The neurologist walked in with Tommy’s chart. “Oh, Mrs. Kinsey, glad you’re here.”

  Nevvie’s breath caught. “Yes?”

  “Good news, I promise. The latest scan showed significant improvement. I think we’ll be able to bring him out of the coma soon.”

  She clapped a hand over her mouth, tears filling her eyes as she tried to stifle her sob.

  The doctor patted her shoulder. “I can’t promise you what’s going to happen after that. We’ve talked about this. We won’t know for sure what level of damage he’ll have until after he’s awake and we can fully evaluate him. From what we see so far, the results are encouraging.”

  She nodded, squeezing her eyes shut and crying into her hand. Ben brought her a box of tissues and she rested her head against the bed and gripped Tom’s hand as she tried to get her emotions under control. When she looked up several minutes later, she realized Ben had brought everything she’d need to bathe Tommy and closed the curtain, leaving them alone.

  Nevvie had a routine now. She shaved Tommy first, then worked her way down his body, massaging his arms and his good leg, checking him for pressure sores and carefully drying his skin. She talked to him in soft, low tones the entire time, telling him about Adam, updating him about
Tyler. No one knew for sure if he could hear her, but everyone told her it certainly didn’t hurt.

  After she finished bathing Thomas, she put a clean gown on him and Ben came in to help change the bed and check his dressings. Then she sat and read to him for an hour. She’d marked the page he was on when she first started reading to him so he could go back to that point and start over when he recovered. It was something to do and feel connected to him.

  She left two hours later, quietly entering the house so she didn’t wake anyone. Adam slept in his crib. Tyler sat up in bed, reading.

  “Hey, you should be asleep,” she said.

  He put his book down. “I napped, love. I promise.”

  Nevvie quickly undressed and slipped into bed with him, naked, sighing at the feel of his warm flesh against hers. She tried not to look at his surgical scar. He turned off the lamp and wrapped his arms around her.

  “How is our sweet boy?”

  “He’s okay. The neurologist came in when I got there and said the latest scan looked good, that they’ll hopefully bring him around in a couple of days.”

  “Wonderful,” he whispered against the back of her neck. “I told you, he’ll come back to us. We may have to do a lot of work to help him heal, but he will return to us, somehow.”

  She pulled his arms around her while fighting the urge to cry again. “I know.”

  “You smell so good.”

  She laughed. Leave it to Tyler to say something to break her out of her funk. “Smell good, huh?”

  “Having you back in my arms is beyond description.”

  Nevvie looked at the empty side of the bed. Normally, she’d be nestled between her boys. She touched Tom’s pillow and pulled it to her, holding it against her. It wasn’t the same, not even close.

  Sometime in the night she awoke and realized she was still firmly wedged in Tyler’s arms. Nevvie held her breath, listening for the sound of Tyler’s slow, steady breathing. Relieved, she closed her eyes and tried not to cry but couldn’t hold back the hot, heavy tears and sobs that wracked her body.

  He knew. Ingrained from their early days together when the men helped soothe her nightmares away, he awoke immediately when he felt her cry and pulled her tightly against him, murmuring to her, soothing her back to sleep.

  The smell of coffee awoke her the next morning. Nevvie panicked briefly when she realized Tyler wasn’t in bed with her. She pulled on her robe and ran out to the kitchen and saw him standing at the counter in his robe, reading the paper, his back to her.

  He heard her and turned, opening his arms. When Peggy walked out with the baby a few minutes later, she found them, Nevvie still crying against Tyler as he tried to soothe her.

  “Your face is gonna freeze like that, sugar, you keep crying,” Peggy joked.

  Tyler winced as he laughed. Nevvie reached for Adam. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. I know it’s good to have half of them home.”

  * * * *

  They ate breakfast and Nevvie drove Tyler to the hospital to visit Thomas. Even though Delores was long gone, the incident with her still ran through Nevvie’s head. Especially the woman’s particular choice of words. Nevvie finally asked.

  “Tell me about your father.” It was a subject she normally never broached.

  He froze. “Does it matter, love?” he stiffly replied.

  “Please?”

  He closed his eyes, rested his head on the seat back. “It’s not something I wish to revisit.”

  “Did he treat you badly?”

  Tyler shook his head but didn’t open his eyes. “He grew quite stern in the year or so before he left, always pushing, always demanding more and better.”

  “From you?”

  “All of us.” He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. “But especially me. Why do you wish to know now, love?”

  She shrugged. “I just wondered.”

  “Because of Delores?”

  Nevvie nodded.

  He sighed, closed his eyes again. “It hurt when he left. We came home from school and he’d left without even saying good-bye. Moth—Delores told us he’d packed and ran off with another woman.”

  “You haven’t seen him since you were seventeen?”

  “He left when I was thirteen. I haven’t seen him since I was fifteen. I haven’t spoken to him since I was seventeen.”

  “Do you have any brothers or sisters by his new marriage?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know if he ever married her.”

  Nevvie’s intuition screamed. “Did you ever meet the woman?”

  “No.”

  “Wait a minute.” They’d stopped at a red light. Nevvie looked at Tyler. “Did he tell you what happened? Why he left?”

  “No, I must say he didn’t. He never talked about it. The few times I saw him after he left, he only asked about school, sports, how we were doing. We didn’t ask him for details about the other woman, and he certainly didn’t offer any.”

  “Did you visit his home?”

  “No. He moved away from London. Near Oxford, I believe. Love, why is this important?”

  “Because I’ve never asked and I’m curious.” It technically wasn’t a lie.

  He studied her, eventually answered. “He always took the train, met us a few times. He never offered any details about his life except his job. He was a teacher.”

  “Did you have his phone number?”

  “I called a few times.”

  “Did his wife ever answer?”

  “Love—”

  “Tyler.”

  He sighed again. “No, none of us ever had contact with her.”

  “Do your brother and sister talk to him?”

  “I don’t think so. If they do they haven’t said so.”

  Nevvie couldn’t confess her theory to Tyler. If she was wrong…

  She didn’t think she was.

  “I want to go with you the next time you go to London.”

  He eyed her suspiciously. “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want you going alone. And I want to see your brother and sister again.” She’d called them and told them about Tyler, then kept them updated with calls and emails. While she couldn’t claim a close relationship with them, at least they were cordial, polite, and people she didn’t mind being related to. Especially since they hated their mother almost as much as Nevvie did. Over the past few years, Tyler had formed a closer relationship with them.

  “Again, love, why?”

  “Because they’re family. I don’t have family except for you guys and yours. You said it yourself, they’re nothing like your mother. This whole bullshit mess has put a few things into a different perspective for me.”

  Okay, so that was the truth. Apparently her response satisfied Tyler. “Very well, love.”

  She’d always sworn if she ever met Tyler’s father that she’d deck the son of a bitch for the emotional scars left on Tyler’s psyche when the man abandoned his wife and children.

  Now…well, maybe her anger had been directed at the wrong parent all along.

  Chapter Thirteen

  At least Nevvie could sleep a couple of hours each night, although it felt weird and wrong not having Thomas in bed with them. Nevvie still awoke, praying, in the middle of the night that she’d look over and see him lying in bed with them.

  She had grown to like the quiet night shift in the ICU. Nevvie greatly appreciated the staff bending the rules, allowing her to visit and take care of Thomas every night. The third night Tyler was home, she realized after waking at one a.m. that she wasn’t going back to sleep.

  As she tried to dress in the dark, Tyler’s voice drifted to her.

  “What are you doing, love?”

  She sat on the bed next to him. “I need to go see him. I’m sorry, I can’t sleep.”

  He felt for and found her hand, squeezed it. “It’s okay, love. Kiss him for me, too. I’d go with you but I’m hurting right now.”

  “Want your medicine?�
�

  “No, don’t panic. Not that kind of pain. From the surgical site. I’m cutting back on the pain medication. I don’t like how it makes me feel.”

  She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Okay. I’ll be back soon.”

  Ben was on duty again. “Are you a vampire?” she joked.

  He’d brought her towels and other supplies as soon as he saw her arrive. “No, but I’ve been accused of biting too hard.”

  The comment briefly stunned her. Then she clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her screams of laughter as Ben smiled. He hugged her. “How’s your other half?”

  “He’s good. Healing. We miss Tommy. We need him back.”

  “Well, you’ll be happy to hear they’re backing off his meds.”

  “Really?”

  He patted her shoulder. “Just take it one day at a time.”

  She set up the MP3 player and started her routine, shaving him, bathing him, his massage and range of motion exercises. Then she read to him for a while until she started yawning. It was after four o’clock. Ben returned from his break. “You’d better head home. You look beat.”

  “When should we come back?”

  “Wait until after nine. Get some sleep, rest. He’ll be here.”

  At home, Tyler stirred when she slid under the covers after undressing. “I’m glad you’re home, sweet.”

  They were the best words she’d heard in weeks.

  * * * *

  Nevvie worried Tyler would wear himself out and end up back in the hospital. The fourth day after Tyler was discharged, the women agreed amongst themselves to let him stay by Tom’s bed while they took turns rotating out so they wouldn’t have too many people in the ICU at once. Tyler tried to protest but the women overruled him. They all ate lunch together in the hospital cafeteria. Later, Nevvie walked back to Tom’s bedside with Tyler to sit for a while.

  Tyler watched his lover’s face, held his hand. For the first time, Nevvie saw how much the previous weeks had aged Tyler. He’d always looked younger than his years, and the lines now etched around his sweet blue eyes saddened her.