Rebound (Seattle Steelheads #1)(58)

After the door had shut behind Laura, he looked up at me. “Well. Now you’ve met my kids.”

“Yeah, I have.” I watched the door they’d gone through, then faced him again. “Is that weird?”

“Nah.” Geoff slid his hand into mine. “They were going to find out sooner or later. This wasn’t quite how I saw it playing out, but…” Smiling slightly, he shrugged. “I thought it went pretty well.”

My shoulders started to relax. “Yeah, it went okay. I don’t know how I thought it would go, but that was… That was all right.”

“It could have been worse. Trust me.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” I pulled the chair closer to the gurney and sat down. “You, um, don’t mind me crashing your hospital room and meeting them before you were ready, do you?”

“No, of course not.” He stroked the back of my hand with his fingers. “I should’ve messaged you and let you know where I was before I turned off my phone. Even if I hadn’t…” He smiled. “I’m not going to say no to seeing you.”

“Not even with your kids and ex-wife in the room?”

Geoff patted my hand. “Relax. It went fine, and now we don’t have to worry about you meeting them. If I’d really been worried about it, I’d have had Laura tell you I’d text you later or something.” He closed his fingers around mine. “Not that I was going to send you away after the way things went tonight. And hell—they showed up unexpectedly, and then you did. Maybe that meant it was fate for all of you to meet now.”

That eased some of my nerves. I was going to be second-guessing this from every angle for a while, but if Geoff wasn’t bothered, then I could at least breathe a bit easier.

Aside from the part where he was in the damn ER and I’d accidentally met his kids because my stupid ex had blown a gasket and punched Geoff.

Grimacing, I said, “By the way, I’m really sorry about tonight.”

“Don’t be.” He ran his thumb along the back of mine. “Taking care of shit like that is my job.”

“Still. It was my ex, you know? If I’d gotten the damn protective order and I hadn’t freaked out about him showing up at—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Geoff squeezed my hand and looked right in my eyes. “Don’t think like that. You have a right to feel safe, and he was warned to stay away from you.”

“But you weren’t supposed to get hurt,” I whispered.

“It’s a risk I take on the job.” He brought my hand to his lips and held my gaze as he softly kissed my knuckles. “I’m okay, you’re okay, and he’s in jail. That’s what’s important.”

“Question is, will he stay there?”

“Depends on the DA.” Geoff searched my eyes. “Nathan better hope he has a decent lawyer, but even if he does, he’s pretty well fucked.”

“He is?”

Geoff nodded slowly. “He just made things a whole lot harder on himself. After tonight, he’s looking at felony assault and battery of a police officer.”

“Felony?” I breathed.

“Yep. Probably won’t do much time, though. Maybe a couple of years tops, plus probation.”

“Whoa.”

“I’ll talk to the DA when I get back to work. See if I can get a better idea of how everything will go down.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay. Good.” Man, it was weird to imagine Nathan really going to jail. Even if it was only for a few months or a couple of years. It kind of made me feel…validated? Like I hadn’t made up the last four years or I hadn’t blown it all out of proportion in my mind. No, Nathan really was a violent asshole, and now there would be consequences. For him, not me. That was a weird, heady feeling, and I didn’t quite know what to make of it, especially since it had taken Nathan hitting Geoff for those consequences to happen.

Because you’re a coward and Geoff isn’t.

“Hey.” Geoff rubbed his thumb along mine. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I met his gaze and managed a smile. “Just trying to fit all this into my brain.”

“You’ll get there.”

“We’ll see.” I paused. “How long before you go back to work?”

“Don’t know yet. Depends on what the docs say, but probably a week or two at least. They really don’t like sending us back out on patrol after a head injury until they’re sure we’re steady.”

“Seems smart. At least you don’t have to ice skate with a concussion.”

“No, but they give me a gun, a taser, and a car, so…”

“Good point.” I managed to chuckle. “Damn. Figures you get a week or two off right when I’m going to be busy as fuck.”

“I know, right? I don’t think I’ll be great company, though. Pretty sure sex is off the table for the moment.” He grimaced, and I thought he turned a little green.

“That’s totally fine.” I clasped his hand in both of mine. “I can live without sex for a while as long as you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. Stop worrying about me.”

“Ha. That’ll be the day.”

Geoff laughed softly and tugged my hand. “C’mere.”