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“You need it, honey. Let me take a look. How did you hurt yourself?”
“I don’t need any friends,” she spat angrily. “Friends let you down.”
“I’m not your friend,” Rip replied swiftly. “I’m your partner.”
She stopped rocking, looking up at him. “Partner?”
“We’re equals,” he told her. “Doesn’t matter which of us is the Dom, and which is the sub. We’re two halves of the same unit.”
“I thought our unit had disbanded.”
“Why? The movie’s not over yet.”
“Your face when you saw I’d had a baby. You looked furious.”
“I didn’t understand,” he said, scanning her body, trying to figure out the source of the bleeding. “I should have talked to you about it right away. I felt so full of shame for what happened back there, making love to you on the movie set. Making you feel publicly humiliated in front of all your colleagues.”
Mabel pouted. “That’s what it was, was it? Making love?”
Rip crouched down beside her. “Mmm-hmm. That’s what it was for me.”
“Well…” Mabel looked into his eyes. “I don’t really care about losing the job. I thought you were grossed out by the idea of me having had a baby. And maybe you thought I’d slept with Fabian—”
“Darling, it’s your business what you did before me. All I want from you is the truth.”
“I never lied to you.”
“I know that now. And I’m sorry. I tried going to your place to talk to you, but…” Rip thrust his hand into his rucksack, pulling out the crown he’d found at the shack. “Come back with me, my queen. Let’s get you help.”
“They won’t let us back.”
“They will,” said Rip. “I’ve spoken to Haze.”
“Maybe he’ll let you back, but I think he hates me.”
“No way,” said Rip. “He was really into the idea of our little unit, you know. What should we call ourselves? Team Rabel? Or Mip?”
Mabel giggled, then winced. Then, she turned white as a sheet and fell to the floor.
CHAPTER 15
Mabel blinked slowly, trying to get the world back into focus.
“Rip…” she murmured. “Daddy?”
“Your Daddy’s not here right now,” said a friendly voice that Mabel instantly recognized. It was Dr. Tammy.
She started to pick out shapes in the room too. The white sheet on her hospital bed. White walls. A vase of pink roses on the table beside her.
Tammy caught her looking at the roses. “Pretty aren’t they?”
“They’re lovely.”
“Rip left them for you, with a note.”
“Nobody’s ever bought me flowers before,” Mabel said, blushing. “Let alone roses. Let alone pink ones.”
“He’s a keeper if you ask me,” said Dr. Tammy with a big grin. She took a small white envelope from next to the vase and handed it to Mabel.
