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It took a while before the doctors left after telling him they were happy with his mother’s progress and responses so far. They had to wait on a few test results to come in, but if they weren’t worried, then Toro wasn’t either. When it was just the three of them, Seraphina holding his hand, his mother staring up at him from her bed with a trembling smile, he finally gave himself permission to let go of Seraphina and crash to his knees at his mother’s bedside.
He took her hand, pressing kisses to it, touching her. She opened her arms and he rose, getting onto the bed gently, careful not to put his weight on her as he sank into her arms. The familiar feel of her, her scent, her warmth, tore him open and he just broke. He buried his face in her neck while she patted his back and whispered words to comfort him. She was the only parent he had and the thought that he’d come so close to losing her… Only now did he acknowledge the truth of just how close they’d come to not having this moment ever again. He took the comfort she offered, eyes shedding his relief, his fear, his regrets.
When he finally lifted his head and pulled back to gaze down at her, his mother grasped his face in shaking hands. She was pale and even though she’d been unconscious for days, she looked exhausted. She needed to gather her strength, according to the doctors, but she was still the most beautiful woman. Still his first love.
“I’m okay,” she told him softly.
Hearing those words almost brought him to tears again, but he swallowed it and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I missed you,” he told her. “Never scare me like that again.”
She just smiled, tears brimming in her eyes.
Toro held her gaze as he reached behind him with one hand and beckoned. “There’s someone I want you to meet.” Seraphina’s presence at this moment was the mostrightthing, the only thing. He waited for her to approach and once she stood next to them, he said, “Mom, this is Seraphina Cook, the woman I love. Sera, this is my mother, Patricia.”
* * *
It took another four days before the doctors deemed it okay for Patricia to leave. Those release papers came not a moment too soon. Toro feared his mother would get up out of that bed and walk out of the hospital on her own. Patricia Nieto was a plump, five-foot-four ball of pure attitude when she didn’t get her way. She was not a fun patient, constantly complaining about the food, the bedsheets, the nurses fussing over her. She had Seraphina sneaking her food from the outside, the both of them looking at him with eyes wide with fake innocence when he caught them.
He couldn’t have imagined his mother and Seraphina getting along as well as they did, but they had somehow become as thick as thieves. Often he’d be in the same room with the two of them and find himself wondering when they’d come up with their own language. It was something special though, and it filled his heart to bursting listening to them talk and gossip and laugh.
Everything he’d ever wanted.
Daniel and Stavros visited his mother, and she stifled her dislike for his uncles long enough to thank them for being there and watching over Toro. Daniel and Stavros didn’t leave until they brought his mother home, and not before demanding a promise from Toro that he’d call if he needed anything. Levi and Van went back to Seattle once they knew Patricia was awake and would be alright. Toro didn’t know if the two of them crossed paths with Seraphina and he didn’t ask. He simply made sure to spend time with them, to express his appreciation and gratitude for their presence.
He loved his family, everything about them.
Seraphina declined both his and his mother’s invitation to stay at his mother’s place with them, choosing to remain in the hotel she’d booked when she’d first arrived. She didn’t want to crowd them, she told him. Didn’t want to intrude on his time with his mother. Sometimes he’d see the wistfulness in her eyes and knew she was missing her own son. But she and Israel were in a good place, she’d told him, better than they’d been before, and Toro was happy for that. Happy she had Israel in her life and they were building something, as tentative as it was.
Sera tried staying away though, until his mother personally called her up and demanded she come over. He hadn’t even known about it until he opened the door and there she was. In the moments he spent watching her interactions with his mother, he saw a different Seraphina. Someone with wit and a carefree spirit, who laughed with her entire body until tears poured from her eyes. One who cooked. Who sat with his mother for hours without a break.
In a million ways, big and small, she made him fall in love with her all over again.
She refused to let him leave his mother alone, choosing instead to stay with them late into the night often, pressed up to him in his bed, the two of them making out until their lips were raw and they were both shaking from arousal. Having sex under his mother’s roof was a no-go for her. It was Seraphina’s only rule, which he respected even though he pouted every time she left him aching and went back to her hotel, driven by one of her men.
He put that unchecked energy into making sure his mother got her strength back, following the doctors’ instructions to the letter, much to his mother’s dismay.
“Where’s Sera?” she asked as he handed her the regimen of pills she took twice a day. She was wrapped in a blanket as she lounged in the recliner he’d brought out onto the back patio for her. She liked being out there watching the sunset.
Toro shrugged, holding out the glass of water. “At her hotel.”
Patricia grunted. “Why do you keep refusing to get a nurse or any kind of help?” She glanced around. “You need to get back to your life.”
“You’re my life.”
“Boy.” She released an exasperated sound. “I love you, but you’ve turned into a hoverer. Get someone else in here already. You can’t do it all yourself, even though I know you insist on it,” she said, grumbling the last bit.
Toro sank to his haunches in front of her, lifting an eyebrow. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“Yes.”
He chuckled. He hadn’t felt the need to hire outside help, not when he was there and fully capable of taking care of his mother himself.
“You need to give your woman some of that attention.”
Now he frowned at her. “Sera isn’t neglected.”
Patricia snorted. “Not yet, but the way you’re going…” She didn’t finish the sentence.
He wasn’t worried about that. Seraphina understood him, but his mother was right. He did need to ease up on the hovering. She’d become his focus ever since he’d brought her home the week prior. He nodded. “Okay.” He blew out a breath. “Tomorrow, I’ll see about hiring someone.” Not just anyone, though. Whoever he hired would need to be vetted by him and his uncles.
