Page 20 of Beautiful Life

With that, she disappears to the basement with my dog running after her.

Well, shit. That didn’t go well.

*****

Jude

One Week Later

I rap on his door after ringing the bell twice. It’s been well over a week and even though he’s been shot, he can get off his ass to open the front door. I haven’t seen him for a couple days since Christmas Eve when he was a downright Scrooge. I’m not saying he doesn’t have a right to be pissy after taking a bullet, but I know it’s more about Leigh than a GSW to the gut.

I hear the lock. He swings the door open and stares at me. He doesn’t invite me in, tell me to fuck off, or even move out of the way to let me know I’m welcome even if he’s pissed I’m here.

I hold up my bag. “Bleu Peppercorn Burger or Reuben—both with fries. You pick, I’ll eat the other. You gonna let me in?”

He picks option number three, moving silently letting me know I’m welcome even though he’s pissed I’m here. Even if I did bring food.

I follow him silently to the kitchen and park it at the island as he moves slow to the fridge where he pulls out ketchup and Cokes. He comes to the island and starts opening plastic containers, grabbing the Reuben.

“What’ve you been doing?” I ask before digging into my burger.

“Working,” he mutters.

“You supposed to be working?”

Without turning away from his sandwich, he looks to me and, with a full mouth, he bites, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Yeah … sorry,” I mutter. I know the silence will continue if I don’t forge on. “Gabby and I are leaving for Colorado tomorrow. We’re driving this time—she has a shit load of furniture she wants at the cabin. Not to mention the kitchen’s getting a re-haul. I’ll be glad when that’s done. We’ll be there a week, past the New Year.”

“Gabby told me.”

“I figured. Leigh’ll be at the house with the dog—they’re inseparable. I can’t say that hasn’t been nice.” I toss another ketchup covered fry into my mouth.

Again, he has nothing to say so we eat quickly, mostly in silence.

Finishing my Coke and throwing my trash in the bag, I get up and pull a piece of paper out of my pocket and hold it up to him between my index and middle fingers.

He frowns. “What’s this?”

“Just tryin’ to repay a favor. Or favors, I should say. You invited me to Fantasy Football and now I’m getting married in two months. Not to mention you took a bullet for your cousin and my woman. If you want, I’ll kidnap Leigh myself and drag her ass over here, but I thought you’d rather try and finesse the situation a bit first. I don’t want her to hate me but if it comes to that, I’ll do it. For now, that’s her schedule at the hospital for the next two weeks. Good luck man.” I slap him on the shoulder and without looking back, I leave him in the kitchen knowing he’ll work it out while letting myself out the front door. Maybe he’ll have this shit wrapped up before we get back from the cabin. Gabby’s driving me insane with the he-said-she-said drama from hell. She has a wedding to plan.

*****

Leigh

New Year’s Eve

Tony’s been home from the hospital for a little over a week. He was there for five days, at my workplace, hospitalized in the same building where I spend twelve hours at a time. But I haven’t seen him since the night he was shot and I spent the night with him when he was in ICU. I left the next morning when visiting hours started, I couldn’t stay another moment.

I cried off and on all night as I watched him sleep, the pain meds keeping him out. Thinking of the what ifs was too much. Luckily, he was moved to a regular room later the next day before I got back for my next shift. I didn’t have to see him or any of his family again during his hospital stay.

It’s been a rough time for all of the Carpinos, not just Tony. Gabby was kidnapped that awful day which is what led to Tony getting shot. It’s crazy, but twenty-five years ago Gabby’s dad was an Assistant District Attorney and prosecuted an awful man for rape and murder. The man, Dwayne Pope, went to prison for twenty-five years for his crime. Four years ago, he ordered his gang of thugs to mess with the steering on Gabby’s parents’ car which led to their death.

The Carpinos just learned this information, although her uncles had their suspicions, they never told Gabby. She has had to come to terms with the fact her parents were murdered and their death was not an accident, reliving her tragedy all over again. Pope got out of prison a couple weeks ago and wanted more revenge for his time behind bars, going after Gabby. He kidnapped her, took her to the same place he raped and killed the girl twenty-five years ago. Jude and his fellow FBI agents put it all together just in time, got to Gabby but not before a scary standoff. Jude shot and killed Pope and Tony jumped in front of Gabby, taking the bullet Pope meant for her.

In typical fashion, the Carpinos have rallied around one of their own. Even if I wanted to see Tony (which I really did), I probably wouldn’t have been able to squeeze into his hospital room for all the visitors. And if it was my place (which it’s not, but I really wish it was), I would be worried about him not getting enough rest because of all those visitors. Now I’ve been worried because Gabby told me he insisted on going home to recuperate alone with no one to take care of him, but it can’t be me (even though I really wanted it to be).

No, it cannot be me. I sat with him all night in ICU even though I had already worked a twelve-hour shift, I was freaking tired and he had his own nurse. I allowed myself to run my fingers through his hair, kiss him when he was asleep, stared at his then pale from the loss of blood but still beautiful olive skin that felt magical when it was wrapped around me. I said many prayers of thanks that night his life was spared as I cried.

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