Cuff Me(91)

Idiot. She’d been such an idiot.

The nurse came back into the room, carrying a tray with three red Jell-O cups (Anthony and Luc must have played the cop card) and an exaggerated smile. “I hate to keep doing this, but there’s a limit on how many visitors can be in here…”

“Why?” Nonna asked, turning around to stare at the nurse. “You think anyone died of too much well-wishing?”

“It’s hospital policy, Nonna,” Maggie explained, rubbing a hand over her belly and taking pity on the poor nurse. “We’re all taking turns. Mom and Dad headed out so that Luc and Anth could come in.”

Nonna grunted, turning back to Jill. “Who cares about those grandsons? Where’s the one that matters?”

The room fell silent. Even the nurse seemed to understand that this was a Forbidden Question, and quietly set the Jell-O cups on Jill’s table before leaving the room. She didn’t even warn them again about visitor overload.

Jill swallowed and opened her mouth, but no words came out.

“Vincent’s trying to track down Dorothy Birch,” Ava explained quietly.

“Why?” Nonna demanded with her usual candor. “His partner’s laid up being served orange Jell-O, and he can’t find someone else to track down a ninety-year-old woman?”

“She’s sixty-six,” Jill corrected quietly. As though that was what was important right now.

Nonna stood, putting hands on her bony hips. “That boy may be my blood, but I’d strangle him if he were here right now. I’d sit him down and make him hear all about my boogers. And my phlegm. I’d tell him about how my phlegm was multicolored this morning. And then I’d go and find that Tom—that nice, handsome, but maybe wrong-for-you Tom, and I’d bring him here and tell him to put that pretty ring back on your finger, because at least Tom—”

“Nonna, if you bring Tom into this hospital room, or anywhere near Jill, I’ll put your bony ass in a home where they don’t serve any Jell-O.”

Jill’s heart swelled at the sound of that voice. That wonderfully beautiful, familiar voice.

Nonna’s frown flipped into a happy grin as she spun around, shifting enough to give Jill an unobstructed view of the door.

An unobstructed view of Vincent.

He came.

He was here.

Jill drew in a long breath.

He looked…

The same.

Leather jacket? Check.

Black shirt? Check.

Dark jeans? Check.

Frown? Check.

But there were differences too.

Like the bouquet of gorgeous pink roses in his right hand. That was new.

And the warmth in his gaze when his eyes met Jill. That was new too.

“Oooh-kay then,” Elena said quietly, pushing to her feet. “Anyone else find that it just got uncomfortably warm in here?”

Elena silently held out a hand to Maggie, who was already awkwardly pushing herself to her feet, aided by Ava, who came around to grab her other hand.

Jill was only dimly aware of her three friends heading toward the door.

Only at Elena’s not-so-soft Nonna! did Jill realize what was going on…

Everyone was trying to give her and Vincent privacy.

Everyone except Nonna, who’d plopped back down in her chair and helped herself to a red Jell-O. She was frowning down at it. “What is this, cherry? Fruit punch? I’m telling you, the green is where it’s at. It’s very—”

Ava stuck her head out the door. “Luc! Anth!”

Luc and Anthony reappeared in moments, and without having to be told—they had both lived with Nonna, after all—descended on their grandmother and very gently, very firmly, lifted her from the chair and ushered her from the door.

“My Jell-O!” she shrieked.

Elena gave her an exasperated look. “You were just fussing about how it wasn’t green.”

“Yes, but if I had to choose between red Jell-O and no Jell-O—”

Vincent moved for the first time since entering the room, walking toward the Jell-O, grabbing both that and Nonna’s spoon in one hand before storming back to the group waiting in the doorway.

He handed it to Ava, who was closest, and then spreading his arms out to the side, flowers and all, he literally crowded every last one of his family members out the door.

Vincent started to shut the door before he reached out and grabbed Anth’s arm. “Nobody comes in here.”

Anth gave him a nod, and Vin started to close the door again, but not before Nonna loudly whispered to him to remember to get down on one knee.

Finally, the door was shut.

The room was silent.

They were alone.

Vincent slowly turned around to face her, his wary expression easing slightly when he saw that she was smiling.

He approached the bed until he was beside it, his right hand just inches from her own. She itched to extend her fingers. To brush hers against his, but his face was still too damn unreadable.

Vin cleared his throat and awkwardly held out the flowers. “These are for you.”

“They’re pretty,” she said as he lowered himself to the chair beside her, “but…”

His eyes narrowed. “But what?”

“Well, there’s two buts, actually,” Jill said, sniffing the bouquet. “The first is that considering you’ve been off chasing a murderer that I discovered, there’s something I want a little more than these flowers…”