Chapter 20
Charlie’s phone vibrated against the worn nightstand on her side of the bed. They’d spent the whole night apologizing to each other with lips and hands and screaming orgasms that she was surprised hadn’t woken the neighbors.
The grey light through the curtains in the postage stamp apartment told her it was just past dawn. She looked over at her man, sleeping next to her where he belonged, and her heart filled and overflowed with the love she felt for him. He looked peaceful and hadn’t woken from the noise.
Wanting to leave him that way, she grabbed his phone and pressed the green button to connect.
“Charlie’s phone.” She kept her voice down to a whisper.
“Who’s this?” The woman on the other end had a ragged voice. For a moment, Laura worried that this was where her happiness all came falling down. She wondered if she would only have one night of sublime happiness, of knowing she could have everything she’d ever wanted before having it all taken away. Her heart stopped until the voice on the other line said, “This is Charlie’s mother.”
She knew that Charlie didn’t call his parents and they didn’t call him, and she’d thought the job offer via magazine article from his father had been weird. So, this had to be very serious.
“This is his wife.” She maneuvered her way out from Charlie’s arm and swung her legs off the bed so she could take the rest of the call in the bathroom. Feeling a sudden surge of protectiveness, she wanted to cut Charlie’s mother at the pass if she was calling to cut him down. No one was allowed to do that anymore.
“It’s his father.” There was a muffled sob. “He’s had a heart attack.”
“I’m so sorry.” She put her hand over her breast bone, rubbing the anticipatory ache that formed there at those words. Although they weren’t close, there’d been something in Charlie’s voice when he talked about his family—something unfinished. The thought that he wouldn’t have the opportunity to make peace had tears springing up in her eyes. “Is he—”
“He’s in the ICU. I just think—it might be a good idea for Charlie to come home.” Another jagged breath. “Just in case it doesn’t turn out.”
Laura opened the bathroom door to find Charlie there. She held out the phone to him, wishing there was some way to soften the blow she was about to land. “It’s your mother. Your father is in the hospital.”
The face that had been restful in sleep moments ago, creased into a stressed out place she didn’t want for him. He took the phone from her, and she moved to pass him in the small corridor, but he snaked one arm around her waist and crushed her to his body when he began speaking.
She stood there with him, holding him tight while he got the details from his mother. It was a short conversation, with him agreeing to get on the first flight. When it was over, he pulled away from her slightly.
“I hate to do this, but I have to go.”
Laura shook her head and elevated onto the balls of her feet to kiss his cheek. “Of course you do.”
He opened his mouth as though he was about to say something, but closed it before anything came out.
She turned to look for her phone. “I just have to call Matthieu to get the understudy in.”
“You’re coming with me?” His voice sounded shocked.
She stopped separating his clothes from hers on the floor, and stood straight. “How could I not go with you?”
“But the show—”
“I couldn’t give a fuck about the show.” She felt light saying that because it was true. “You need me in Chicago with your family, you have me.”
Despite the dire situation, a smile lifted Charlie’s whole face. “You love me.”
“I told you last night.” She pulled a sports bra over her head. Although she would have liked time to shower, a heart attack was serious, and they didn’t have time to waste. “Didn’t you believe me?”
“I did, but I don’t want you to have to give up anything.”
That did it. She crossed the room to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m going to have to be more convincing then.”
She met his mouth with hers for a sweet kiss, something neither of them would be tempted to take further. Once she pulled back, she squeezed his shoulder. “Get dressed. I think I heard you say something about a private plane.”
* * * *
Walking down the corridor in the cardiac intensive care unit was different that walking through the nursery and maternity care unit. Where those hallways were filled with infant cries and hopes, the beeping machines and cold hallway here spoke of death.
Charlie wished, with everything in him, that his father was one of the people here that was going to get well. If he didn’t, if Joe’s heart was too damaged to be repaired, there would always be something missing. In his twenties, he’d believed that he and his father would make up someday—that he’d have the chance to earn his respect.
Walking down the hall, Laura clutching his hand and lending him her unconditional support, he didn’t care about respect. He just wanted the chance to show his father that this woman had seen him and found him worthy.
They walked up to the desk and found out that his father had gotten out of surgery and was resting. Only one of them was allowed in the room at a time, and his brothers had all taken their turns.
His mother was leaving the room, arms wrapped around her waist to ward off the chill of the ward, when they made it to his room. He hugged his mother. “How is he?”
Her snort surprised both him and Laura. “He’s going to be fine. When we came in, they just rushed him in back, and I was terrified. But they stabilized him while you were in the air. Won’t be able to drink as much scotch, but he’s going to be fine.” Relief washed through Charlie while his mother’s attention lighted on Laura. “You’re Laura.”
“Yes, I am.” That earned Laura a hug that shocked her, judging from the wide-eyed glare she leveled at Charlie. “You’re my mother-in-law.”
On the plane, they’d decided not to tell anyone in his family that they’d only had a sham marriage. They were planning on making it real—in private and totally sober—very soon. And, given recent cardiac events, none of the Laughlins needed a shock right now.
“Go on in,” his mother said. “I’m going to take Laura to meet the rest of your hooligan brothers.”
Laura grabbed his hand again. “I’m going to wait outside the room, I think.” She gave him a look. “I want to meet them with Charlie.”
He nodded and kissed her on the cheek, needing some of her steel to go in that room, hating that he had to leave her outside.
Charlie was shocked when he saw his father sitting up in bed, only attached to five or six machines. He had his reading glasses perched on his nose. And, if he weren’t wearing a hospital gown and attached to the aforementioned machines, he might have been sitting in his office.
“Don’t tell me you’re here to apologize.”
The statement felt like a slap across his face, but he recovered. “I have nothing to be sorry for right now. I’m here because you had a heart attack, and you’re my father.”
“I always knew you were too weak. I’d bet you let that pretty ballerina walk all over you.”
Charlie actually jerked that time. He tamped down his rage because yelling at a bedridden man would be stupid.
“I can’t believe you had a heart attack.” Laura had come in the room, probably lingering closer than she was technically allowed under hospital regulations. “You seem pretty heartless.”
“Laura—” From the red in her cheeks to the clenched fists, her anger was palpable. His father’s words hurt, but they weren’t something to go to war over. Although, part of him felt warmed that she was willing to throw down for him.
“No. He doesn’t get to do this.” Laura turned to him and grabbed his biceps. “He had angioplasty. He’s only in the ICU because he’s a VIP.” That last acronym was swimming in criticism. “Your mother panicked.”
“And he came running.” His father let out a burst of laughter. “Wish I could get a fucking cup of coffee in here.”
Laura turned back on his father. “You.” She pointed a finger at him, but stayed at Charlie’s side. “You need to stop. Do you think you have forever to fix this BS with your son? He’s a good man. The best. He is brilliant, but I’m sure you’ve never even seen one of his programs.”
“Now, young lady—”
Laura made a cutting motion with her hand that silenced his father. “Enough. I am so glad that Charlie got away from you. I don’t tell him what to do.” That was the truth. He’d never listened when she’d tried to push him away, and with her standing at his side, he was so glad that she hadn’t. “He makes beautiful television, and he has a wonderful home. He’s made a family, which I am so lucky to be a part of. And you don’t care about any of it.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Again, Laura cut him off. “Shut up. We were making up after our first fight, and that got interrupted. Unless you have a second surgery to actually install a soul, I think we’re done here.”
His father didn’t respond. No one ever stood up to him. Even Charlie. As much as he’d wanted his father’s approval, he’d never thought to demand it. But Laura saw things differently. She saw his father as the one who had something to lose by not being in Charlie’s life. And, maybe, he could see himself through Laura’s eyes.
There was nothing left to say, but Charlie needed to let one last thing sit with his father. “You know, I’ve spent my whole life waiting for you to approve of anything that I did. I didn’t realize that your approval was meaningless until now.”
And that was the truth. Laura had made him see that the only approval he needed was his own. And hers. He may not be able to survive without hers.
With that, she pulled on his arm and they left the room. They were halfway to the elevator and away from his whole family, when he pushed her into an empty room.
“What was that?” He couldn’t help but lay a kiss on her mouth.
She smiled at him when he pulled back. “I’m just cranky because I haven’t had a shower, and I had to meet your mother with sex hair.”
“No, it wasn’t. You stood up for me.” This gorgeous woman was a warrior. Even last night, after they’d both laid everything out, he’d been worried that he’d pushed her into being with him. Her standing up for him made it clear that he was her choice, as much as she was his.
“Of course I did.” She held his face with both her hands. “You’re my sham, but soon-to-be-real husband.”
He kissed her again. “Do you want to meet the rest of my family?”
“With sex hair?”
“It’s not messy.” He ran his fingers through it. “I could fix that, though.”
She laughed as he backed up to close the door.