Sofia

My eyes refused to open. My brain gave the orders to do so, yet they refused, feeling like they were glued shut. Forcing myself to relax, I sucked in a few calming breaths before I attempted to open them again.

This time they did, and my blurred vision slowly cleared. Ryan sat sleeping in a chair I didn’t recognize with Matson asleep in his arms. I focused on that scene, wondering if I was dreaming. No, this isn’t a dream, I told myself as I stared at the man I wanted to share my heart with as he held the little boy who already owned it.

Groggy, I took in my surroundings and noticed a second chair, where Grant sat with his chin on his chest, snoring. He looked so comfortable, even though I knew there was no way that he could be.

Suddenly, the puzzle pieces inside my head connected, and I realized I was in a hospital. I lay my head back on the pillow, searching for the reason why, but I had no memory of what happened to land me here.

Afraid to close my eyes again in case they decided not to open, I stared up at the ceiling and tried harder to remember. Why was I here, and where were my parents?

Think Sofia, think, I chastised myself, knowing the answers were in my head somewhere. Bits and pieces flashed in my mind, but all I saw was Derek and me taking a curve way too fast.

Parched, I looked at the table near my bed, hoping to find a glass of water and thankful to see one there. But when I moved to grab it, I knocked it over, sending the plastic cup bouncing to the floor. Liquid splashed all over the white tile, and I cursed under my breath as Ryan’s eyes shot open and Grant startled awake.

“Angel.” Ryan sounded so relieved as our eyes met across the room. He struggled to move, but with Matson sleeping in his arms, he was momentarily stuck.

“She’s my angel, pipsqueak,” Grant said in a low voice, his tone teasing. He pushed himself awkwardly out of his chair, avoiding the spilled water on the floor as he came to my side. “Hey there, sweet girl. How are you feeling?”

“A little groggy,” I answered honestly before being struck with an odd thought. “This is how we all started.” I looked between Grant and Ryan and tried to smile.

“Come again?” Grant tilted his head.

“In a hospital. The three of us,” I said, trying to explain, but was afraid I wasn’t making any sense.

“Don’t tell me you forgot, old man,” Ryan whispered from the chair, where he still hadn’t figured out how to get up without waking up Matson.

Grant flipped him off. “I didn’t forget; I just didn’t know what was she was talking about. She did hit her head, you know.”

I reached for my head and pressed my hand against it, wincing with the pain. Ow. Deciding to ask more about that later, I moved my hand back to my stomach.

“I’m sorry I woke you both. I really wanted that water.” I almost started crying, but I had no idea why. I was really confused. And thirsty.

“I’ll get you some.” Ryan finally maneuvered Matson out of his arms and placed him gently on the chair before shaking his arm out.

“Asleep?” I asked.

His arm had to be. Every time Matson fell asleep with me on the couch, it always made my arm fall dead asleep. But I refused to move it, because holding him was worth the pain. One day he wouldn’t want to snuggle with me anymore, so all the pins-and-needles discomfort was worth it.

“Killing me.” Ryan walked over to me, giving Grant a little shove before leaning down to give me a kiss. “I’m so glad you’re okay. Let me get you that water, and then we’ll talk.”

“All right.”

Ryan returned in seconds with a nurse in tow. She smiled when she saw I was awake.

“How are you feeling?”

“Fine, I think. Just thirsty.” And foggy and confused, but I kept that part to myself.

“Ryan mentioned that.”

The nurse cast him a flirty glance, and instead of being annoyed, I was amused by it. That man wanted to be with me. He held my son in his arms. I had nothing to worry about when it came to him and other women.

She bent down to clean up the water I’d spilled, and filled a clean cup before handing it to me. “How’s your head?” she asked, and I didn’t make the mistake of touching it again.

“Sore, but manageable.”

“Just press that button if it starts to hurt.” She lifted a handheld controller and placed it in my hand.

“Thanks.” I dropped it beside me, wishing she would leave so I could figure out what happened, how long I’d been here, and where my parents were.

She took her sweet time as she checked my vitals and fussed over me, no doubt wanting attention from Ryan. But he refused to even make eye contact with her as he walked to my bed and sat on the edge of it, reaching for my hand and bringing it to his lips.

“Okay,” she finally said. “I’m going now.”

“’Bye,” I said, my humor clearly shifting back to annoyance. Hospital Sofia was moody. When the nurse left and closed the door behind her, I huffed out a breath. “Thought she’d never leave.”

Ryan laughed. “She was here for less than two minutes.”

“I wanted her to stay.” Grant waggled his eyebrows.

I let out a soft laugh that hurt my chest and rib cage. Was my whole body sore?

“Angel,” Grant said gruffly, “I’m really glad you’re all right. I’m gonna go home and let you and this big oaf have some alone time.”

“Thank you for being here.” My eyes pricked with unexpected tears, and he let out a huff.

“I refused to leave.”

“Really?”

“They tried to kick the old man out, but your parents said he could stay.” Ryan looked at Grant like he was crazy, but in a good way.

“I wouldn’t have left anyway. I would have camped right outside your door.” Grant was stubborn, but that was part of his charm. “Take care of my angel.” He gave Ryan a finger poke to the chest before leaning down to give me a kiss on my cheek. “I’ll be in touch.”

“Thank you again.”

“I plan on being just as annoying as you were to me,” he said as he headed toward the door.

“Deal,” I responded with a grin as he disappeared.

With my attention back on Ryan, I launched into all the questions on the tip of my tongue.

“I’m dying here, Ryan. What happened? Where are my parents? Is Matson okay? I mean, is he worried? Scared? Are you okay?”

Ryan had started counting my questions on his fingers, but stopped. “Your parents and mine left to get some dinner.”

He said it like it was no big deal, and I blinked twice.

“Together?” I asked, unable to picture it. “They went to get dinner together?”

“Yes. It was the only way I could get them to leave. But I should probably text them and let them know you’re awake.”

“Not yet. Just wait a second. How do they even know each other?” A terrible thought ripped through me and I placed a hand over my heart. “Oh my gosh, Ryan, how long have I been here? Tell me it hasn’t been weeks or months.”

I craned my neck to stare at Matson, taking in his each and every feature. He looked the same, not like I’d missed any significant time in his growth.

Ryan intertwined his fingers with mine, his thumb caressing my skin, the touch instantly calming me. “You’ve been here since last night. You’ve woken up a few times, but your head always hurt, so they gave you stuff for the pain that made you sleepy.”

“Okay, so our parents have met. Sounds like they like each other, yeah?” I was hopeful.

He grinned. “They like each other. They like each other a lot.” He said it like a mischievous boy, which made me laugh.

“Really?” I asked, needing more clarification.

“They’re acting like they’re old friends instead of people who just met yesterday. Your mom and my mom are already lining up ‘play dates’ with Matson and each other.” He gave me a silly look as he used his fingers to make air quotes.

I smiled because it sounded so perfect. I wouldn’t have wanted their eventual meeting to go any other way. “That’s actually really nice. It makes me happy.”

“It is really nice,” he said with a chuckle. “Wait until you see them together. I’m afraid we’re never going to get them apart again.”

There were so many horror stories when it came to your significant other’s mom, and the idea that it wouldn’t be like that for us filled my heart with gratitude. I knew as I looked at this man that he was my future, and I didn’t have to ask him to know that he felt the same way about me.

But I still needed answers about how I got here. There was so much I didn’t remember.

“Ryan, what happened?”

His amused expression turned solemn. “What do you remember?”

Frowning, I looked at the ceiling, thinking. “Just bits and pieces, mostly. Derek. You. I lost control of my car, I think.” I met his amazing blue eyes, which winced with pain when I said those words. “Is that right? Did I crash into something?”

“Yeah, you hit a tree. The force of the impact sent your head back, and you slammed into your headrest before you crashed into your steering wheel. Knocked you out cold.”

“The airbag didn’t deploy?” I had no idea why I even thought of that question when I should have been thinking of a million others.

“No, it must be faulty. We need to get that checked while they’re doing the repairs. What if Matson had been in the car?” Ryan asked.

I shuddered at that, shaking my head to chase away the thought. “I can’t go there.”

“Me either,” he said, and I couldn’t believe the way this man cared about my son.

“Where’s Derek?”

I asked the one question I’d been avoiding, afraid that Ryan would tell me he was still out there, waiting for us to leave so he could hurt us both. Ryan still didn’t know the truth about why I asked him to stay away; he believed my reasons were all centered around Matson.

I needed to be completely honest with Ryan and apologize profusely for lying. I’d never felt good about the lie, but it had been the only way to get him to listen. Still, I hated myself a little for doing it.

“There’s no easy way to say this . . .”

As Ryan struggled to find the words, I had no idea what was coming next. But I found myself comforting him, running my hand up and down his arm. “Just say it.”

Ryan met my gaze, his forehead creased. “Derek’s dead.”

“What?” I looked at Ryan, finally taking in the worry I hadn’t noticed until now. Apparently, he was concerned with how I’d react to the news. “He’s dead? How? What happened?”

“You lost control of your car. You remember that, right?”

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Well, when I got to you—” His voice broke with emotion, and I could tell how hard it was for him to relive those moments again. “When I got to you, you weren’t moving. You were slumped over the steering wheel, and I couldn’t get in. I tried so hard to get to you, but I couldn’t.”

A single tear rolled down his face, and my heart broke at the thought of all he must have gone through.

“Derek showed up with a gun. I thought he was going to shoot you, Sofia. I thought he wanted to kill you. But he wanted to shoot me.”

Ryan’s anguish brought tears to my own eyes. “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?” I pawed at him like a madwoman, checking him over for bandages or injuries.

He grabbed my hands and held them tight. “I’m fine. When I left the bar to chase after you, Frank called the cops and had them follow me. If he hadn’t done that, I don’t know what would have happened. Probably would have been too late. But they weren’t . . . they showed up just in time. They told Derek to drop the gun, but he didn’t. He put his finger on the trigger, and they shot him.”

I couldn’t believe that I remembered none of this. Why hadn’t the gunshots woken me up? I’d been passed out unconscious while chaos erupted around me, and I had no idea. Ryan could have been killed, and I wouldn’t have even known.

“Are you okay?” Ryan cupped my cheek, his brows pinched with concern. It was so sweet, how worried he was about my reaction. But if our roles were reversed, I would have felt the exact same way.

“Is it wrong that I feel relieved more than anything?” I whispered.

He shook his head. “No. He told me he warned you to stay away from me or else he’d kill me.”

My eyes flew open wide. “He told you that?”

Ryan nodded. “He got a lot of pleasure out of telling me that. But he wouldn’t tell me why.”

“I’m so sorry I lied to you about that.”

He gave me a sympathetic look. “Don’t be. I understand.”

“I didn’t think you’d really stay away if you knew the truth.”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “You know I wouldn’t have. So, tell me, why the threats? I haven’t been able to figure it out on my own, and not knowing is driving me crazy.”

I explained what Derek had told me, about his father’s insistence on our getting back together, and his threats to leave the company to Derek’s cousin.

Ryan’s face turned grim. “That’s one messed-up family, angel. We’ve gotta make sure Matson never goes anywhere near them.” He squeezed my hand and looked at my son, and I squeezed back.

“I know.”

• • •

Thank God, my memory came back shortly after getting released from the hospital.

I remembered everything—from showing up at the bar, to calling Ryan from the car in hysterics, and right up until I crashed. I remembered seeing the huge tree and not being able to avoid it. But I didn’t remember anything else until waking up at the hospital with Ryan and Grant, although I was told I’d woken up several times before then.

For the next few weeks, Ryan catered to me, even though it wasn’t long before I was fine. He refused to leave my side, wanting to be sure that I was not only physically all right, but emotionally okay as well. Even after I went back to work, he made sure to be with me as much as possible.

It was sweet, being cared for like that. After having Matson, I’d never allowed anyone, aside from my parents, to do anything for me. I wasn’t sure I knew how. But with Ryan, it felt nice to allow myself to depend on him . . . right, even. He did things for me that I would have wanted to do for him if our roles were reversed, so I reminded myself of that fact often. Ryan showed me day after day what the true meaning of a partner was, something I’d never known before him, something I hadn’t been sure I was ever going to have.

He stayed at the house every night, sleeping on the couch so Matson wouldn’t get confused or pushed aside. And no matter how many times I told him to go back to work, Ryan kept insisting he wasn’t ready. He’d swapped shifts with one of their day bartenders so he was still at the bar while I was at work, but the second I got home with Matson in tow, Ryan was quickly behind.

I liked having him here. Actually, I loved having him here, but I knew it couldn’t last forever. Eventually, he needed to work the hours he was meant to, and would probably have to go back to sleeping at own place at night.

Secretly, I hated that he would probably go home soon. Ryan Fisher sure was easy to get used to.

“I want to be here for you until I know you’re okay.”

He assured me of that night after night, and part of me wondered if he needed to stay with me just as much as I needed him there. Ryan had gone through hell too. We both had.

Tragedy tended to bond the people who experienced it together, and no matter how badly others wanted to relate to our experience and understand it, they couldn’t. Ryan and I needed each other in order to come out on the other side.

• • •

One night as we were getting ready for bed, Matson told Ryan, “You should sleep in Mama’s bed. It’s way better than the couch.”

“Would you be okay with me sleeping in her bed?” Ryan asked, trying not to make it a big deal, but it was clear he wasn’t sure how to navigate this. When he looked at me for help, I made a face and forced him to take the lead.

Matson shrugged like he wasn’t bothered in the least. “Why not? It has pillows and everything.”

“It does sound nice,” Ryan said, nodding seriously as if he were considering it for the first time, and I had to stop myself from laughing out loud.

Matson leaned close to whisper in his ear, but I still heard him anyway. “And that way when I sneak in, I can sleep between both of you instead of just with Mama. Her hands are always ice cold, and yours are always hot.”

Ryan had always told me that my hands were made of ice, but he claimed to like it, placing them on any sore spots he had on his shoulders and back.

“Well, if your mom says it’s okay,” Ryan said, giving me a sly glance, “then I’ll start sleeping in there with her.”

Matson nodded. “She’ll say okay. She likes you.”

I cleared my throat, causing Matson to jump away from Ryan like he’d gotten caught stealing the last cookie. “Time for bed. Go brush your teeth, please.” I only had to ask once, and Matson practically skipped down the hall after he stopped to give me a hug.

“Guess I’m sleeping with you now, ice pack,” Ryan teased, and when I swatted at his arm, he grabbed my hand and pulled me hard against him. “Ice-pack angel? Angel ice pack?”

“Will you start the hashtag? I still like #CryinOverRyan the best.”

His lips brushed mine. “You would.”

Ryan was right. That particular hashtag started on social media after word got out that he had a girlfriend. A bigger person wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as I did, but apparently I liked the world knowing he was off the market.

Ryan had also been right about Derek’s father being sick. Damian Huntington passed away a few days after Derek had been killed, and the company ended up going to his cousin, just like Derek had feared. It was the first time in the history of the firm that it didn’t go to the Huntington heir, and I was actually grateful that the cycle had been broken. As far as I knew, no one from the company knew Matson even existed, and since I gave him my last name and Derek wasn’t listed on his birth certificate, there would be no reason for anyone to suspect he had a son.

• • •

I waited almost a full month after the accident to see if Mrs. Huntington would reach out to me after everything that happened. When she didn’t, I decided to be the bigger person. As much as I disliked her family, I knew she was grieving and had lost her whole world within the span of a few days. I couldn’t imagine what she was going through, or how alone she must have felt. She deserved to know she had a grandson.

I knew she still lived in the same house they’d lived in when Derek and I were in high school, so I dropped a condolence card in the mail to her, along with a recent school picture of Matson.

Mariana Huntington showed up on my doorstep the same day she got my card, expensively dressed, her shoulder-length brown hair perfectly styled, and tears in her eyes.

“Sofia, I had no idea. Derek and Damian said you were pregnant, but they told me you didn’t have the baby. They said they paid you off, and I never questioned them or thought about it again. I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t know?” I was bewildered how she couldn’t have known. It also made me incredibly sad that I’d wasted so much time hating her for being able to stay away from us for so long when it hadn’t even been true.

“No, I didn’t. Can I come in?” she asked as she wiped her eyes.

I held my front door open and allowed her inside before offering her some tea. We sat at my kitchen table and cried together over all the time we’d lost due to miscommunication.

She absolutely lost it when she learned what the men in her life had been up to behind her back. The poor woman had been completely left in the dark about the ugly inner workings of the Huntington men.

To be honest, I think she preferred it that way. Mrs. Huntington wasn’t stupid, but I think staying blissfully unaware of her family’s dirty dealings helped keep her sane and her conscience clear. She slept peacefully at night, and I couldn’t—no, I wouldn’t—blame her for that.

She left that day with the promise to keep in touch.

When I decided a few days later to tell Matson who she was, he was so excited.

“I’m going to have three grandmas? That’s so cool!”

My heart swelled at his reaction, especially the fact that he’d included Ryan’s mom as one of his grandmas already.

Ryan warned me that our moms had bonded while I was in the hospital, but I had no idea just how much. His mom accepted Matson and me like we were blood relatives, and my family did the same for Ryan. It never ceased to amaze me that family dynamics like this existed.

• • •

Three quick knocks sounded at my front door before the doorknob turned, alerting me to the fact that Jess and Claudia were here. They’d been stopping by without warning for days now, often enough that I’d learned to expect them.

“Did you miss us?” Jess asked as she walked in.

“It’s like I don’t know what to do without you two anymore,” I teased back before giving them each a hug.

These women were both so welcoming, accepting, and nice, I understood completely why Frank and Nick loved them. I felt like I’d been initiated into a secret club that revolved around the Fisher brothers, and I never wanted to be out of it.

“Aunt Jess?” Matson yelled from his room before he careened down the hall and into her arms, giving her a big hug as she swung him around.

Matson had a huge crush on her. “I like her yellow hair,” he would say every time she left, and would run to the kitchen table to draw a new picture of her. There were yellow-haired drawings all over my house.

“I’m starting to get a complex, little man,” Claudia whined, and Matson dove into her arms next.

I stared at them, grinning from ear to ear, wondering how in the world my life had changed so drastically in such a short time. Our family had grown so big, and yet I hadn’t realized we had such a small one before. I’d always thought that my heart and Matson’s were full, our lives fulfilled and our family complete, but having all this love and these wonderful people around us made me see just how much we’d been missing.

We were the luckiest people in Santa Monica, and I hoped that never changed.