Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Suncoast Society #29)(67)

“We’ve reached detente. She’s not going to fight this.”

“Okay. Good.”

“Is there anything I have to do?”

“Get her to call her attorney and talk to him. I’ve sent official notification of the filings to his office, but she needs to talk to him herself and tell him to back off.”

Item the third——make that item the first—stop by Eva’s lawyer’s office on way to hospital.

“Will do.”

“I’ll come by this evening around seven. To the hospital,” he clarified. “Call me on this cell number if you need me before then.”

“Thanks.”

He returned to the kitchen. Eva was almost done with her toast. “Okay. Finish that, and we’re going to get moving. Prepare for another long day. Get some stuff for Laurel to take with us to do. Like her iPad. And for yourself. Don’t forget the chargers.” At the apartment, he’d grabbed his laptop and tablet, so he was all set.

“Yes, Sir,” she softly said.

Thirty minutes later, he was behind the wheel of Eva’s car and they were heading to her attorney’s office.

Jesse went in with Eva, leaving Laurel sitting in the waiting room and playing a game on her iPad. When the attorney tried to get Jesse out of the room, Eva finally showed a little backbone.

“Jim, I’m sorry, but this decision is final. It’s how I want it.”

The attorney glanced at Jesse with suspicion. “We can file an appeal.”

“No,” she said. “Just send me your bill and close it out. We’re done. I need to focus on Laurel and getting Leo better. You can call Ed Payne and talk to him if you need the info. I’ll sign whatever, but please, it’s done. It’s over.”

On the walk out to the car, Jesse draped an arm around Eva’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “Good girl,” he whispered. “I’m very proud of you.” He held the passenger door for her and closed it after she got in.

He thought maybe he spotted the faintest ghost of a smile on her face.

After getting Laurel buckled in, they took off again. This time stopping for a drive-thru smoothie for Laurel, and large iced coffees for him and Eva. Eva’s pallor had improved a little, but he suspected she was very dehydrated from her drunken spell. No, coffee wouldn’t help that, but he needed her vertical and functioning.

At the hospital, they greeted everyone there with hugs before Jesse and Eva went to talk with the doctors. Leo’s vitals looked marginally better but it was still too soon to say. They would possibly be disconnecting the ventilator later that evening or in the morning, if he continued improving. The initial tests were promising, but it was just wait and see at that point.

Jesse stood on one side of Leo’s bed, his fingers curled around Leo’s, while Eva stood on the other.

Carefully leaning in, he rested his head on the pillow next to Leo’s and softly spoke into his ear.

“Listen, Sir. Your subbie boy’s had to get Toppy with Eva. You’d better get your ass healed up soon before I go full-on switch on you next. I love you.” He kissed Leo’s cheek.

Eva sadly stared down at Leo. “You two belong together,” she said. Jesse wasn’t sure at first if she was talking to him or Leo, when she continued. “I’m sorry I acted so stupid about the divorce,” she said. “If I hadn’t been stupid, maybe the schedules would have been different. Maybe you wouldn’t have been driving home then, and you wouldn’t be—”

“Whoa,” Jesse said. “Stop. Right now.” Dom-tone.

Her gaze flicked over to him.

“I mean it,” he said. “Stop that. Moving forward, remember? This was in no way your fault.”

She nodded before her focus returned to Leo. “Jesse’s taking good care of us,” she told Leo. “But we need you to get better. Please get better.”

When Eva was ready to leave, Jesse once again draped an arm around her shoulders. She rested her head on his shoulder and curled an arm around his waist as they walked.





With Eliza and Rebecca coordinating the schedule of the overnight volunteers standing vigil at the hospital, Jesse was able to get Eva and Laurel out of there and home by nine, where they ate a pizza they’d picked up along the way.

Laurel would go to school tomorrow, despite her not wanting to. There wasn’t anything she could do at the hospital, and frankly, Jesse knew he and Eva both needed the respite from her presence so they could just be adults and grieve in their own ways.

After dropping Laurel at school Wednesday morning, they swung by Leo and Jesse’s apartment to pick up a few more clothes for Jesse. It was obvious he was staying at Eva’s for the duration. When he’d mentioned going home the previous night, Laurel finally had the full-on, panicked tantrum June and Scrye had warned was overdue for a child her age under those circumstances.

It wouldn’t kill Jesse to stay at Eva’s for a few days, or longer.

When they reached the hospital a little before nine, morning rounds had just ended but the doctors were still in the unit and able to update Eva and Jesse. They were going to try taking Leo off the ventilator to see how he did, but not to panic if he was put back on it. It was more important that his body had time to heal, although the good news was that an overnight CT scan didn’t appear to show any damage to his brain and neurological tests looked promising.