Charity waved and called, “Buh-bye, Trevorina!” Val gently laid his hand over her lips and shook his head, fighting laughter. Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at him and then her little teeth gently gripped his hand and she batted her eye lashes at him.
The officers dragged Dornan cursing and hollering down the aisle until the sound was suddenly cut off. Justin smiled and looked back into the cubicle. “I’d pay to see him getting gagged.”
Charity relaxed against Val and said, “I want to go home.”
All three men chuckled and Justin sat down at the foot of her bed and said, “Sorry, baby. The doctor wants to keep you overnight.”
She was adorable when she was spaced-out and whiny.
Chapter Seventeen
Ransome helped Charity back to the bed with her IV pole after she’d taken a sponge bath in the hospital bathroom. Justin had predicted that she wouldn’t want to stay in the hospital and that was why Ransome had offered to stay the night with her while Val and Justin had gone home.
Beau and Justine had come by the hospital to see her after school, understandably freaked out but relieved to see for themselves that she was going to be all right.
“Better?” Ransome asked as he arranged pillows behind her on the bed and lingered for a moment so he could kiss her neck. “You smell good.”
Charity chuckled. “I do not. I hate sponge baths. I’d be fresh from the shower and in bed at home right now if it wasn’t for these stupid stitches and that shithead Dornan. Fucker.” The earlier pain medication had worn off, which the nurse had replaced with something a little less intoxicating, much to his disappointment.
“Look at it this way, angel. You have me all to yourself.”
With a scoff, Charity said, “And I can’t do what I want with you.”
“But I can do whatever I want with you,” Ransome said, all kinds of ideas coming to mind.
Charity stifled a giggle. “Yeah, you can. But Justin and Val are sleeping alone tonight. That great big bed all to themselves.”
“It is a monster,” he said, picturing the massive bed they’d recently put together in the master bedroom. “But you know they wouldn’t want you dwelling on that.”
Charity smiled as he lowered the head of the bed for her and she scooted over a little and patted the bed invitingly. “No, I guess they wouldn’t. I want to ask you something and I want your honest answer.”
“Okay,” he replied, wrapping his hand around her ankle as he took a seat on the bed. To see her measuring her words like this told him it was important.
“Do you have lingering anger toward Justin…or me, about not forming a ménage sooner?”
“What? No.” What was she getting at?
She stroked his thigh as she gazed at him. “I’d understand if you did. I know there were strong feelings to work through years ago. I just wondered, in retrospect, if you resent not being invited to join us sooner.”
Letting out a breath, he said, “Would I have joined with you sooner? Probably, yes. But that’s not the path our lives took. Our jobs kept us on the road a lot.”
“I would’ve understood about that.”
“I know you would’ve, but what we did for a living was dangerous. We dealt with society’s underbelly. Lots of lowlifes but also lots of people with powerful connections. Our major concern, even in coming to visit on holidays and birthdays, was that our work might somehow come back to haunt you and the kids. We couldn’t do that so we stayed in Houston.”
“I missed you. Both of you.”
“You may not realize it but you’re proving my point for me. If we’d moved back to Divine sooner, would you have pushed for a ménage?”
Her cheeks became rosy and she took her time answering. “No. I wouldn’t have refused you but I wouldn’t have pushed for it, either. Not with a marriage that had such a good track record.” She looked up at him with her regret in her eyes. “But I always wanted both of you to be a part of it. I did. I’m sorry, Ransome.”
Ransome shook his head. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel guilty. I’m trying to show you that we all made mistakes. Any of us could’ve spoken up sooner. We didn’t. But we have today, and every day after this, and we’re not going to waste any more time.”
She gave him a soft smile and traced a pattern on his thigh. “I feel that way, too. But I will always have regrets.”
“Never regret your family and the life you built, angel. Those regrets are tied up with some really good years.”
“I thought about a ménage a lot right after Grace got together with Jack, Ethan, and Adam, but the memory of Justin drawing that line twenty-two years ago was so vivid. I’d never hurt him by asking for what I knew he’d give me because he loves me, because I’d never know for sure if it was what he wanted, too.”