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“Da
Nope, wrong thing to say. Boom.
“Trust you! You? Oh, that’s rich. You run a bar, Sheila—a fucking bar filled with drunk assholes—and you let your female staff walk out to their cars at night alone?”
“Dan—”
“No,” Da
Sheila sat speechless, her mouth agape.
“Know you love, Julie, and that makes us friends, but I swear on my life, if something happens to that woman, I’m coming after you, your family, your bar, and everything you hold dear. That is not a threat, friend. It’s a promise.”
He stood and stalked to the large window. Hands splayed on the cool glass, Da
“Here” He placed a warm blanket around Sheila’s shoulders. The surprise in her eyes made him feel worse than the gratitude from her smile. “I’m scared, Sheel. Scared to fucking death. But I know my Julie. She’s stubborn as the day is long. She wanted to work, she would have. She wanted to walk to her car, she would have.”
Sheila pulled the blanket tighter and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“Not go
Chapter Thirteen
I’m Not Done Yet
“DR. BURKE?” DANNY left the vending machine, his coffee cup still under the drip, and hurried to the obstetrician’s side. After nearly three hours of waiting, Da
The doctor slowly pulled the cap off her head. The eyes that had been filled with compassion hours before shone with a spark of satisfaction. “You’ve got yourself a fighter, Da
The doctor may as well have been speaking a different language.
“What are you saying? Is she okay or not?” It wasn’t that Da
Sheila, who hadn’t left Da
The doctor nodded. “Yes, to both of your questions. Julie regained consciousness just before the anesthesiologist put her back under for the procedure, and now that the bleeding is under control, her stats are improving.”
“Thank God,” Da
“Give us another half hour to get her situated, and I’ll have someone come and get you.”
The doctor turned to leave when panic struck Da
The doctor lifted a brow as if waiting for Da
“She know about the baby?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No, it wasn’t something we wanted to tell her while she was unstable.” Compassion was back in the woman’s brown eyes. “But trust me, she knows. She may not admit it, not even to herself, but she knows.”
Da
“What you guys experienced tonight was tragic, heartbreaking…but you still have each other. Don’t lose sight of that.”
He barely registered the doctor leaving, hardly noticed Sheila’s staring, because all he focused on was that he would never, could never, lose sight of Julie.
***
IT WAS COLD, unseasonably cold for mid-October. Julie could tell because people outside were bundled in coats with the collars pulled up around their ears. She watched them through the passenger window of Da
“Honey?” Da
“I’m not cold,” she whispered, her eyes glued to the window but her focus no longer on the present.
Memories of the look on her husband’s face when she opened her eyes after surgery swirled in her mind. Joy, gratitude, and love—raw and real—came with his tear-filled eyes and shallow breaths.
“Welcome back,” he’d said with an emotion-thickened voice. “Can’t tell you how happy I am to see your eyes, honey.”
She’d felt the same, relished the gentle kiss he’d placed on her mouth, but when she went to place her hand on his cheek, a plaster cast caught her attention. Flashes hit her all at once: the bar, the broom closet door, the rain…
“The baby?” she’d whimpered, inching her lips away from Da
Julie fell apart that first day and had yet to locate even the first piece with which to put herself back together.
“Okay, baby, no coffee,” he relented.
Other than when she disclosed the events that had occurred at O’Brian’s the night of her accident—which sent Da
As their house came into view, waves of nausea hit, accompanied by the hollowness Julie had felt since she woke up in the hospital. Their baby’s room…a labor of love she and Da
“Come on, honey, let me help you out. I’m sure your stomach is killing you.”
Da
Once she was on solid ground, Da
She passed the first door on the left as if it were invisible, the first on the right… the same, but when she came to the second door on the left, she paused. The door was closed, but the room called to her.
“Julie…don’t,” Da