Andhot.
So hot.
He still tasted like Jake, with an underscore of wine and coffee—and he felt the same against her, feltrightand comfortable, and yet there were so many things that weren’t the same, because it had been so long and they were so different…and there was so much that had happened since then.
“I think I need stronger shampoo,” she murmured against his mouth when he eased away to catch his breath. “Industrial strength.”
His smile brushed her lips, then he kissed her gently at the corner of her mouth. “Won’t work,” he said, then, sliding his hands down along her arms, he stepped back. His gaze was shadowed as he looked down at her, but his words were firm and clear: “I’ve never stopped loving you, VL. No shampoo is going to change that.”
And, having dropped that megaton bomb, he walked around to the other side of the car and got in.
Chapter Sixteen
Vivien wasquiet on the ride back to Wicks Hollow. She was still tingling from that volcanic kiss, and still reeling from his gigantic pronouncement.
How could that be?
And what was she supposed to do about it?
In an effort tonotthink about yet another upset in her life, she spent some of the drive scrolling through the emails and messages on her tablet, responding to clients. The trendy fashion company GetBack Togs had green-lit the proposal for Louise London’s social media posts, and so that project would soon be in full swing, and that meant a nice little payday for Vivien (and a much bigger one for Louise) in a few months.
She tried not to think about the man sitting next to her, whose strong, capable hands managed the drive while he spoke to his sisters again via speaker in the car. The siblings apparently needed one last assurance that their father was going to be all right overnight (although Mathilda seemed put out that Jake wasn’t going to stay at the hospital with him).
Instead of stewing over the way Jake had felt and tasted, plastered up against her—and what he’d said—she found it easier to mull over the few minutes when she and Ricky DeRiccio had been alone in the hospital room. Jake had stepped out, ostensibly to take a call on his cell, but she suspected he wanted a few private words with the attending physician and the nurse on the floor.
“Bring that chair closer,” Mr. DeRiccio had ordered Vivien. “I got something I wanna ask you, and I don’t need the whole floor to hear it.”
The chair legs scraped over the floor as she drew closer to him. The welts from his bee stings had subsided significantly and now just looked like a splattering of zits. Having eaten his fill of osso bucco, polenta, and cannoli, he looked—as Gran would say—fat and happy, despite the IV needle and blood-pressure cuff that were still attached.
“You were going with Elwood back in New York, right?” he said, taking her completely by surprise.
“Yes. We knew each other about ten, eleven years ago.” She kept it vague, not certain what Jake had told his father—and what Jakewantedhim to know.
He nodded wisely. “That’s what I thought. Took me too long to put it together—getting a little foggy in my brain. You messed up my boy but good, you know. Back then.”
The lingering pleasure from her dinner and the time spent with Jake—and the kiss—disintegrated. “I didn’t—”
“Ididn’t notice it, but my Margaret did. She always had a better sense of the kids than I do. Now, Elwood, he wouldn’t talk about it much, but she was worried about him for a while there, with him moving all the way to Raleigh and all.”
“I’m—”
“Now, if you keep trying to interrupt me, he’s gonna come back before I get to my point here. Don’t know how long it takes to lecture up a doctor, but I guess my boy will take his time, do it right.” He grinned under his mustache. “Still, we ain’t got all night.”
Vivien nodded, trying to ignore the block of stone that had settled in her middle.
“All right, then.” He seemed pleased with her silence. “You had the sister, the twin, didn’t you? The one who died?”
Again, he surprised her. She nodded, uncertain whether answering his question was permitted at this time or whether she was still required to remain silent a little longer so he could get to his point.
He started to speak, then hesitated, looking nervously toward the door. Mystified, she nevertheless remained quiet and waited for him to go on. He shifted awkwardly in the bed, fumbling with the controller that raised and lowered the mattress, and finally got himself positioned a little more upright—a little closer to her.
Vivien leaned nearer as well and didn’t expect it when he gripped her hand with callused, gnarled fingers. “I gotta question for you.” His voice was very low, hardly audible over the sounds of the machines beeping and humming in the room. “Do you ever… Does she ever…well…visit you? Your sister?”
Vivien heaved a mental sigh of relief. “Yes.” She looked at him and saw hope and anxiety in his eyes, and she understood what he was really asking. “We talk, you know? I know she’s there. Sometimes I feel her—her name was Liv—touching me on my arm. It’s always my left arm, because she always stood on that side of me. It was a habit from when we were little because it was easier to tell us apart if we were always on the same side of each other.” The hair prickled a little on her left arm just then, and she rubbed it gently.Thanks, Liv.
His fingers loosened a little on her hand. “Good.” He was about to say something else, but the door to the room opened and Jake came in.
He gave Vivien a curious look then said, “Well, Pop, I’ve given them all the instructions. They’re going to wait to give you the shots till after we leave—much as I love you, I don’t need to see your hairy white ass—and they promise to be gentle when they jam the catheter in. Sound all right?”
