Captured at Nightfall (Capture My Heart Love Story) (30 page)

Small fingers found his much larger, much harder ones and squeezed. “I want you to meet her right this second.”

***

Forty-five minutes later, they were sitting outside her mom’s
nursing home.

All
Allie could think about was that she should have thought the whole
visit-the-mom
thing through better. Going all spur-of-the-moment had been a bad plan.

Nothing to do with
Matthew, of course. . .

But, what if
Adam was here?

She should have called ahead. They should have waited to come until they knew for sure he wouldn’t be there.

Horrific flashes of the first, last, and only chance meeting between Matthew and Adam had Allie’s molars grinding. She could practically see the scene-to-come play out before her. The idea of watching helplessly on as the pair of lug-heads rolled around on the floor among a throng of wheelchairs and walkers was enough to give Allie heart palpitations.

Tightening her already iron grip on
Matthew’s hand, she shrunk into her shoulders.

Damn it. Why was she so nervous?

Was this really about Adam? Or was all this stupid, useless anxiety rooted more in the fact that Matthew was the first man she’d ever introduced to her mom as someone “significant”?

Mulling
that
over, she let Matthew tow her into the building; all the while, keeping her eyes peeled for a tall frame and dark skin.

    When they’d reached the atrium of the main building,
Matthew turned toward her, ruddy brows creeping up his forehead. “Okay there, baby?  You seem nervous.”

“Oh.” She blinked up at him a few times. “I’m . . .
err . . . on the lookout for Adam,” she admitted.

Matthew
’s mouth instantly flattened. “Hmmm. Forgot that handsy bastard worked here.”

Allie
cringed, her fears instantly gaining validation. “Yeah . . . that’s what I’m worried about.”

He frowned. “What are you worried about?”

“
You
. Going all ape-shit on him.”

His teeth flashed—more a threat than a smile—and his finger stroked the underside of his chin.
“Tempting.”

Allie
’s lips pursed up tight as an oyster, and he laughed. “Oh, relax, Allie. I’m screwing with you. I
do
have a
little
self-control . . . when I feel like it.”

She went to smack him in the chest and somehow ended up smashed against him, her hands behind her back and tucked under her butt, used as leverage so he could lift her by her ass. He dispersed any argument she might have had with a kiss that was
soooo
inappropriate for a nursing home, and that left her panting for more.

When he se
t her down again—just as suddenly—he glanced around the reception desk and large fish tank that sat off to the side of a bouquet of fake flowers. He had the whole no-big-deal expression going for him—as opposed to Allie, who was all frazzled hair and roaring lust. When she untwisted her shirt and tucked it back into her jeans, the corner of his lips twitched with a whole lot of self-satisfaction.

Why did she feel like he’d just been marking his territory?

“What?” His smile peeled off his teeth a little more.

Jerk
! She glared up at him, “That was for Adam’s benefit, wasn’t it?”

His lips twisted into something down right devilish as his green eyes lighted with promise. “Oh, I’ve got something
much
better in mind for that asshat. And that kiss was all for you. I’m not really into the passive-aggressive scene. I’ll just lay the bastard out if he tries anything.”

Gulp.

She forced some sternness into her voice. “You better not.”

In a voice that had turned
to dark chocolate sin and sex, he purred, “Guess you’ll just have to wait and see, huh?” A long index finger dipped inside the waistband of her jeans, dove indecently low.

Damn it.

She’d just forgotten her name again.

“My mom.
Now,” she managed to slur through the fog of lust that was trying to suffocate her.

Calm and collected once more, he smiled politely. “Lead the way.”

Allie slid her fingers through his, in case they began to wander again and Matthew and she walked down the long, sterile hall of the main building, toward the Alzheimer’s wing.

Her favorite nurse was at her post behind the check in desk and
Allie smiled. “Hey, Sybil. How’s mom tonight?”

Heat trickled up her spine when
Matthew inched up behind her. His fingers played over the small bump of vertebrae sitting right above her waistband. Allie felt her cheeks flush and dropped her eyes.

Sybil eyed
Matthew with curriosity. “Allison. Hi.” Sybil cleared some of her smoker’s rasp and tried again. “Mary had a bad day today. She’s been in her room a lot. Sleeping.”

Oh, no!
Allie stamped down on her rising panic and told herself that the nursing staff would have called if it was anything serious. Her mom was starting to accumulate more and more bad days as of late, but she always bounced back. Allie swallowed and reminded herself that her mom was the youngest patient here.

“She’s okay, though?”
Allie fought for control over her voice. Didn’t want to freak Matthew out.

A heavy arm wrapped around her shoulders and all she could think was how good it was to have his hard body against hers right now.

Snapping herself into the comforting professional that it was her duty to be, Sybil shook her head. “Oh, no. It’s nothing unusual. You know some days are worse than others.”

They were buzzed in and
Allie paused momentarily to turn back to Sybil. “Uh . . . is Adam working today, by the way?”

Brows flew up at first, but then as Sybil’s eyes slid back to
Matthew, they filled with understanding. “Ah, no. He’s working the midnight shift tonight.”

Geeze, were
Adam’s feelings for Allie that obvious?

“Oh. Okay, then.” She dropped her eyes and followed
Matthew past the beeping doors and into the Alzheimer’s Unit. Allie breathed a silent sigh of relief when Sybil’s eyes were no longer on her.

How the hell had her life turned into such a soap opera?

She cuddled into Matthew’s chest and breathed in his warm scent. “Mom’s room is down at the very end.” She pointed down the left-hand hallway. “Shares a room with a lady named Susan.” Susan was only sixty-three.

Matthew
nodded, his arm still draped around her as he took in the blasé wall art, wooden railings, and tiny patient name plaques that perched over each room number.

Over
Mary’s door, a chain of sea shells framed the top of the jamb.

“Umm. . .”—
Allie bit her lip—“Mom’s always loved the ocean. I keep having to buy her new stuff. Most decorations tend to wander into other patient’s rooms. This one’s been missing for a few weeks.” It was hard to see her mom stuck here and she tried to make it as homey as she could. Mary had been as flamboyant as a tropical flower in the middle of a sand dune. The walls in her house had inches of paint covering them, always changing with her mood: lime green, purple, red, blue. . . She’d ruined a perfectly respectable set of cabinetry in only a few hours after watching a home improvement special, when she suddenly painted them a buttery yellow. That had taken days of paint thinner, scrapers, and a lot of elbow grease on both Allie’s and her mom’s parts before they’d finally cleaned the last remains from every nook and cranny.

“Anyway,” she cleared her throat, “It’s not that cool. But, sometimes
Mary notices and it makes her smile.”
   

Warm lips pressed over her temple. “You’re a good person,
Allie.”

She flushed
. “Thanks.”

Knocking softly on the door before she pushed it open she called, “Mom?”
and peeked her head in. “I brought someone to see you.”

Mary
was lying in her bed when they entered, her frame a tiny husk of who she’d once been, looking so fragile beneath the thin comforter. Susan was nowhere to be seen; but her family came to see her a lot. Allie would probably find them out in the garden having PB and J sandwiches together. That wasn’t very common. It was sad for Allie to see how many residents were simply dumped off and forgotten.

When
Matthew and Allie came over, Mary rolled over and tried to sit up. Matthew got an arm anchored inside her armpit and easily pulled her upright.

“This is
Matthew, mom. He’s my boyfriend.” Allie pulled a string of hair off Mary’s cheek and tucked it behind her ear. Mary started to slide off the bed, stocking feet slipping forward over the linoleum as little sounds of urgency bubbled at the back of her throat.

Allie
turned back to Matthew. “Uh. She needs to use the bathroom. It’ll take just a minute.”

“Go ‘head.”
Matthew dropped into a chair to wait.

Allie
pulled her mom to her feet and walked her into the bathroom. When she’d done her business, Allie helped her wash her hands and then pulled a different shirt over her head because the other one looked like Mary had dropped a spoonful of gravy on it at lunch.

When they came back out
Matthew was bent over in the chair, a V of pinched skin between his eyes as he typed something into his phone. Work probably, by the look on his face.

“All done, huh, mom?”
Allie patted her elbow and led her to the bed.

Mary
looked up and smiled. “Yes, we are.”

Allie
nearly stumbled over her own toes; her mom didn’t talk very often. She sat down beside her mom. “How are you feeling? Nurse Sybil said you’d had a bad day?”

Mary
smiled up at her briefly before her eyes latched onto Matthew’s again. Oh, brother. Not even her mom, who’d gone through every hot-blooded male in the continental United States, was immune to Matthew’s charms. Allie tried not to roll her eyes.

Matthew
took it all with grace. He stood and gently grasped Mary’s hand. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

Mary
’s smile grew wider. “Isn’t David the most handsome man you’ve ever seen?”

Though, she knew it was probably a useless effort,
Allie corrected her. “No, mom. This is Matthew.” Then she turned back to Matthew to explain. “David was her first husband. My biological father.”

He nodded. “I remember.”

Allie had already filled him in on her parent’s super short marriage.

Mary
’s gaze slid back to Allie and she pursed her lips. “No, this is
David
. I wouldn’t forget that. It’s his eyes.” She tapped the skin at the corner of one of her own. “Cop eyes.”

Mary
didn’t often talk about her past with David Young. It was too difficult. David had been her first, and only, real love. They’d had a whirlwind of a relationship: fast, furious, and spun out of wind almost as quickly as it had begun. Since then, Mary had spent the rest of her life looking for another David, and because of the whole,
cop eyes
stuff, she’d made some pretty horrible boyfriend choices. She’d been drawn to hard men with even harder eyes. From what Allie had been able to find out through the internet, David had been a good detective in California; had built a reputation fast; and once Allie had been born and messed up his rising ambitions, had split town even faster.

When
Mary leaned forward, Allie reached out to steady her as a knobby hand wrapped around Matthew’s to pull him down beside her.

Allie
stared down at Matthew’s and her mom’s interlocked hands.

When had her mom become so frail? Her fingers were bird-bone fine, the tendons stretching up over distorted knuckles and slipping beneath paper-thin skin.

“You’ll take care of my baby girl, won’t you, David?” Mary’s face had tightened with apprehension.

Matthew
nodded, gave her solemn eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”

When
Mary relaxed, Allie felt ice slide up the back of her neck and spread out over a crop of rising goose bumps. Why did she
not
like the way this conversation was going?

“Oh, mom.”
She put artificial buoyancy into her wobbly voice. “You’re being silly.”

Her mom looked suddenly exhausted. Both
Matthew and Allie stood and helped to tuck her back into bed.

“G
uess we should probably leave,” Allie said to Matthew.

He
nodded, his face grave as his eyes scanned over Mary.

When
Allie bent down to kiss her mom’s forehead and say goodnight, Mary placed a delicate hand over her cheek. “You’ll be okay now, sweetheart.” Mary’s eyes fluttered close as the last of her strain seeped out of her expression. “You won’t be alone anymore.”