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“I told you Gammy was going to be nice today,” Love Bug announced, crossing her arms over her chest and giving me a look that reminded me so much of her mom, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, princess. You told us. Now let’s go see if she’s going to be grumpy again, or if we need to ground her from all her electronics.”
Her bluish-purple eyes widened in horror. “She wasn’t that mean! And you said she’s sick? How can she get better if she doesn’t have anything to watch her favorite movies on?”
“Then she better have learned her lesson, huh?”
Chapter 13
Luca
As a kid, I’d thought my parents were indestructible. Other than the stories we’d been told about Mom’s scary moment following her emergency C-section with my brother and me, I’d rarely seen her or even Dad have so much as a sniffle. To my childish brain, they were too powerful and too important to ever get sick.
The first taste of someone I cared about passing away was Aunt Lana’s father, Cole Steel. Up until Aunt Emmie’s father had appeared on the scene, thanks to Mia discovering him in Virginia, Cole was the only grandfather figure many of us had experienced. Losing him had been hard for Aunt Lana and my cousins, but it had wrecked the rest of us too.
Realizing Mom wasn’t indestructible was a hard pill to swallow. Walking down the corridor toward her room where Marcus stood guard, I began to sweat. I had Love Bug in one arm, carrying her because I didn’t want her to touch anything, and I held Vi’s hand with my free one. Lyric walked beside me, clutching at Mila’s hand, and I could feel his own battle with his emotions with each step we took.
We were almost to the door when Lyric and I stopped in unison, both of us struggling to keep it together. Despite my daughter there to keep my emotions in check as I’d hoped she would do, I found it difficult to hold them back. Turning to face each other, my brother and I pressed our foreheads together and slowly breathed in. No one but another twin would understand how grounding their other half was when everything inside you was a chaotic storm.
Violet hugged us both from one side, the rock that anchored us as she always had, while Mila hugged us from the other. Lyric hugged them both to us, and then Love Bug wrapped her arms around both my brother’s and my neck. The five of us shared a group hug until I trusted myself to go into Mom’s room and not break down in front of her. Lyric seemed to have the same issue because he gave me a nod, and then we finished the walk to where Marcus was waiting.
His smile was grim, but he didn’t speak as he knocked on the door twice and then opened it for us. Lyric and Mila went in first, and I released Vi’s hand so she could follow him, leaving me and Love Bug to bring up the rear. As soon as we were through the door, Lyric was across the room and pushing Dad out of his way so he could hug Mom while Mila came to stand at his side.
“How are you feeling? Are you in pain? I was so scared. You’re not allowed to do crap like this again without telling us. I don’t care what time of night it is, where Luca and I are in the world. You call us so we know what’s going on instead of waiting. What if…” I heard him whimper, and then he was pressing his face into Mom’s hair while Mila rubbed his back. “What if we hadn’t gotten the chance to say goodbye?”
I closed my eyes, feeling those words all the way to my toes. I’d asked myself that same question over and over since getting Aunt Emmie’s call.
What if we hadn’t gotten the chance to be here now?
What if we’d lost her?
How the fuck would I have lived with myself if the last thing I’d said to her was that I didn’t want her in my life?
“It’s okay, Daddy,” Love Bug whispered, cupping my face so hard she squashed my cheeks in. Opening my eyes, I met her understanding bluish-purple eyes. “If Gammy had gone away, my other daddy would have taken care of her until you saw her again.”
The tears I’d been trying so hard to keep hold of began to fall from my eyes. “Yeah, princess. He would have. Daddy’s just happy Gammy is feeling better.”
“Me too. Do you think she’s mad at me?”
I shook my head. “No way. How can anyone stay mad at you? You’re too dang cute.” Tickling her stomach, I got a giggle, and the sound was enough to ease the choked feeling in my throat.
Placing Love Bug on her feet, I noticed it was just Dad in the room with Mom, and I finally walked over to the bed. Lyric was still talking a mile a minute and running his hands over Mom’s hair and the arm that didn’t have an IV in it, trying to reassure himself that she was there, that she was alive and actually okay. We’d both been imagining the worst.
I’d missed everything she’d said since we walked through the door. I wasn’t even sure she’d had the chance to answer any of the questions Lyric threw at her before he was asking more. My eyes drifted over her. Her face was swollen, and she had bruising around her eyes, like someone had beaten her. According to Shaw, who’d watched a demonstration of an actual surgery of someone having their pituitary tumor removed, they had been able to go in through her nostril and retrieve the tumor that way.
Mom’s eyes were glazed with pain, and they filled with tears the instant our gazes locked. “Luca,” she choked out, lifting the IV-ed hand toward me. “Sweetheart, I was so scared you and Vi wouldn’t come.”
I slowly crossed to her and took her hand, lifting it to my face and giving her a small smile. “Of course we came, Mom. We love you.”
“I wouldn’t have blamed you if you hadn’t. I was terrible.” She shifted her head to look at Vi, who was waiting several feet away. “Vi, I’m so sorry. The things I said, the way I acted… I have no excuse, and I don’t expect you to forgive me. I’ve been awful to you. And—”
“I forgive you,” Vi said, cutting her off before she could get even more upset. “We forgive you. Don’t we, Luca?”
Hearing her say those three words to my mom eased something that had been balled up since I’d gotten Lucy’s call the day before. Turning my head, I kissed Mom’s palm. “Absolutely. We forgive you. Right, Love Bug?”
“Did your time-out help you think about what you did, Gammy?” Love Bug asked solemnly. “Are you going to be nice now?”
“I promise to be nothing but nice from now on,” Mom vowed, her voice just as serious as my daughter’s. “Can I have a hug?”
