MY FEET WENT dead beneath me. Upright one moment, flat on my ass the next. Wide eyed, Marsha dropped down to the pavement beside me.
"Are you ok?" She gave me an uncertain look.
"Um, no." I returned an incredulous stare. "Should I be? Would you be if your best friend blindsided you with the news that she betrayed you?” I couldn’t figure out which emotion to go with, anger or sorrow.
"It’s not like that at all.”
"How do you figure that?"
"I slept with Ivan months before you met him."
"Oh." Understanding dawned along with a huge measure of relief.
"I found out I was pregnant about the time you two started getting serious. When I told Ivan, he was less than supportive. But your brother, well, you know how he was." I watched the tears fill her eyes. Ivan's response was not totally a surprise, though it gave me another reason to want to beat his lying, cheating, worthless ass. I had known for some time that Marsha was in love with my brother. I knew Hawk had gently rebuffed her on more than one occasion. Though I suspected he had feelings for her as well, he apparently hadn’t been ready to cross that line with her. "The night I told Hawk about the pregnancy we slept together. He told me he wanted me to keep the baby. That we could get married. That he would tell everyone the baby was his. But then he died."
"And you lost them both. Why didn't I see this? Why didn’t you tell me? Oh yeah, because I was messed up on drugs. And a fuck up as a friend."
"You weren’t anymore messed up than I was and then you were grieving, too."
"One life. Not two." I grabbed her hand, uncaring of the looks we got from people entering the hospital. "I'm so sorry, Mars. If I’d only known."
"It was a terrible time."
Like walking in endless midnight.
"So that month long stay in Jamaica..."
"A total fabrication. I was hospitalized. I did listen to Bob Marley, and I wished I was on a beach instead of trying to get my shit together at Sheltered Valley. So maybe only a half-lie."
"I forgive you regardless, Mars."
"I forgive you, too."
"You're my family. You know that right?" I echoed Lucky’s sentiment from earlier. I wanted her to know how important she was to me. Love wove us together with a bond every bit as strong as blood.
"Yeah."
"I promise I'll never fail you again," I vowed.
"I know you won’t.” She took my hand, giving me a long head to toe scan. “But you’ll have to look more presentable if you're gonna hang out with a fashion diva like me." She was lightening the mood like Lucky had done over breakfast. Yet that moment of levity with him and the pleasure that had preceded it seemed like it had happened eons ago. "You look like shit, bestie."
I raised a brow. "Thanks for noticing.”
“That is except for that satisfied sparkle in your eye. He fucked you long and hard, didn't he?"
I nodded.
"He was good then? Did he treat you nice like Rayne?"
"It was more than that. I..."
Marsha's cell rang. The theme song from Rocky. I barked a laugh. She grinned and dug her phone out of her shoulder bag. "Hey, Stallion. How's it hanging? Ready to finish..." Her eyes grew wide. "Yeah, Lucky. She's ok. She's right here beside me." She passed me her phone.
"Hello," I said.
"Angel," he breathed out. "I was worried. I thought you were right behind me, but when I went out in the hall you were gone."
"I'm sorry. I wasn’t sure you wanted me with you, and Marsha needed me. We're just outside." I finished my rambling explanation. His voice on the phone sounded like it did on stage. Deep and dreamy. It resonated, waking up parts of me that might be napping but were far from asleep.
"I want you." I shivered at the intensity of his words and the seriousness to his tone. I imagined his right brow dipping over his eye. "Come back up. Sky wants to talk to you about the diabetes." He lowered his voice. "And you and I need to have a discussion as well."
ROCKY LIFTED HIS chin to acknowledge me as soon as I entered the small hospital room. Lucky's response was far less subtle. He closed the space between us and crushed me to his rock hard chest. Enveloped in his warmth, engulfed in his mandarin and rum scent, I remembered the shower, the steam and his sudsy hands skimming all over my body. My heartrate picked up, outpacing the bleeping on Sky’s monitor. I could feel his thrumming just as quickly beneath my palms. He pulled back and tucked me into his side, his arm clamped tight around my shoulders.
"Hey." I turned my attention to Lucky’s sister. Her hair a tangled brown nest against the white hospital pillow, she looked wan, even paler than usual. Her lips were red and chapped from dehydration, but the eyes that met mine were bright and alert. The setting brought back memories of my mom that made me unsteady. I suddenly empathized with Marsha’s need to escape. But she didn’t have Lucky’s strength to lean upon.
"Hi, Raven," Sky croaked. "Thanks for coming to talk to me."
"I'm glad to. I'm so happy you're going to be alright." I forced myself to leave the shelter of the lead singer's arms to offer the physical reassurance his sister obviously needed. I leaned over, gently hugged the frail brunette mindful of the IV tubing and kissed the top of her head. She latched onto my hand.
"It is going to be ok, Sky." I sandwiched her cold hand between my own. "Diabetes is a chronic condition, but it can be managed. Sometimes even just with diet if you can be disciplined."
Her tight frame visible relaxed. "The doctors talked about injections.” She glanced at the IV in her left hand. "I don’t like needles." She shuddered.
"Then hopefully you can get your sugar levels down and keep them that way, and it won’t come to that. But if it does you can handle it. It wouldn’t be pleasant, but it’s not as bad as you might think. I’ll help you. So will your brother. Rocky and the others, too. You have a lot of people who love you, Sky. That's what matters. I know you're scared. I imagine you wish you could close your eyes and make it all go away. Focus on the good things instead. You're strong, courageous, creative, beautiful and surrounded by people who care about you deeply. Use all that positive energy to get better quicker, then get on with the business of enjoying your life. So it's changed some. But the things that really matter to you haven’t. Right?"
Sky sat up straighter in the bed after my words of encouragement. Lucky moved behind me and placed his hands on my shoulders and squeezed.
"You should get some rest now, Sweetling.” Rocky cleared his throat. “You've been up all night."
"So have you," Sky reminded him. "Thank you for coming to my rescue." Her eyes brightened.
"We're family, pretty girl. Any time you need a rescue. You just call me and I'll be there." The words were so fiercely spoken it made me wonder if maybe Sky's feelings toward the drummer weren't one sided. Moving closer to her, he kissed her cheek, took her hand and lifted his gaze to Lucky. "I'll stay with her while she sleeps if you'll allow it. The chair in the corner folds out. You can take the next shift. That’s when the doctor is scheduled to make his rounds. I'm sure you have questions and," his gaze dipped to me briefly before returning to his friend, "I know you have some things you wanted to discuss with Raven."
LUCKY TURNED TO me in the taxi, framed my face in his ring free hands and kissed me with firm lips. His tongue pierced the enthusiastically parted seam of mine. I moaned into his mouth. The kiss finished almost before it began, but even so I was breathless as he lifted his head. He gave me a satisfied possessive look. I think he knew exactly what his kisses did to me.
"What was that for?" I asked when he removed my hands from where I had been clutching fistfuls of his shirt.
"For being there when I needed you. For what you said to Sky. For turning my world on its axis last night. Just for being you. Pick one." While I blinked at him, he resettled me under his arm, took one of my hands and threaded our fingers tightly together. My heart floated on his praise while my lips buzzed from his masterful kiss. The eclectic streets of Boston with its modern high rises interspersed with historic churches and graveyards whizzed by while my mind played out another fantasy starring the man beside me. I frowned when my cell rang interrupting. Untangling my hand from Lucky's, I unclipped my clutch and retrieved my phone, my brows furrowing at the unknown number.
"Hello," I answered hesitantly, feeling the frontman's speculative gaze. "This is Raven Winters."
"Suzanne Smith, Senior VP in charge of new programming at WMO. How are you today?" I froze solid at the woman’s authoritative tone.
"I'm fine." I gulped. Not exactly the truth, but I knew this wasn’t a chit-chat kind of call any more than she was one of the network underlings that I had dealt with prior to her.
"Glad to hear that. Listen, I'll get right to the point. How does seven hundred and fifty thousand sound?"
"It sounds like a lot of money." I immediately thought of Marsha and how I had been self-absorbed and careless and failed her once before.
"That’s true. But we wanted to put our best foot forward so we can make this deal happen. I don’t want to lose the momentum that you have gained. I've been told that you're already on the east coast. Is that correct?"
"Boston for now."
"Not far from New York." I could hear a tapping like a pencil to a desk. "I'd like to talk to you in person. How quickly can you wrap up whatever you've got going there and come to our corporate headquarters in Manhattan to meet with me?"