Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (17 page)

“What does all this mean?” asked Sasha in near-hysterics. “My husband. My
new
husband, he didn’t even want me to take this video conference. He doesn’t even know I logged in today. What am I supposed to tell him?” She was starting to hyperventilate.

“Ma’am, you need to try and calm down,” called out Dr. Something into the microphone. “Just try and breathe in and out.”

Yeah, that breathing advice wasn’t always very helpful.

“Sasha,” called out Lia. “Sasha. Listen to me. Just focus on my voice. Look around at something in your room. Something big, colorful. Now. Do it.” She watched as Sasha’s face shifted away from the computer. “You have it? That big, colorful thing in your room? Okay, keep your eyes on it and take a deep breath. Hold it in. Just keep looking at that one thing. You don’t have to think. Just look at it. The color. The shape.” When the whimpering was almost completely gone, Lia said calmly. “Now let out the breath and look at something else in your room. Take another breath.”

Lia took Sasha through one more round before the woman’s breathing had returned to normal.

Dr. Something nodded approvingly on the screen.

“Sasha, is there someone in the house with you?”

“Yeah. My momma and my sister are downstairs.”

Thank God.

“Ma’am,” interjected Dr. Something. “So it appears this note is from your husband. We do have some follow-up information for you—”

“No.” Sasha shook her head at the screen. “No, I can’t. I can’t deal with this right now. I’m sorry, I really am. But I just can’t. My husband…” A flailing hand started pawing at the screen seconds before Sasha’s video feed cut out.

“Well,” said Dr. Something, looking into the computer camera. The camera, not the screen. So she was basically looking Lia in the eye. A touch of sympathy softened her expression. “I’ll be sure to have someone check in on her to make sure she’s okay,” she reassured the camera. “Ms. Lawson, I’m very sorry I don’t have more news for you, ma’am.”

“No apologies needed,” replied Lia, almost robotically. She didn’t even bother to explain to the woman that she’d never taken Leo’s name. Yet another thing they’d decided could wait.

A few more pleasantries were exchanged before Dr. Something’s chat screen disappeared and the entire screen went blank.

Lia looked up and saw Hudson over in the kitchen, leaning against the wall watching her. Concern and sympathy etched into his features. And genuine regret.

He was such a good man.

“Did you catch the doctor’s name?” asked Lia, out of the blue.

Hudson blinked, as if she’d asked the absolute last question he’d ever expected. After a few seconds he nodded and replied, “Dr. Morgan.”

“Like the rum?”

Why her brain was fixated on that, she had no idea. She hardly ever drank. And when she did, it definitely wasn’t rum. But for some reason, all she could think about was the doctor in her lab coat dressed as a pirate, like on the rum bottle.

A half smile kicked up one corner of Hudson’s mouth. “That’s
Captain
Morgan. But yes, same last name.”

“Oh. Yeah. That name suits her better than Dr. Something.”

What the heck was she talking about?

Hudson grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and came over to sit beside her.

He twisted open the bottle for her before handing it over.

No one had ever opened a bottle of water for her before.

His slate gray eyes were scanning her face. She was sure he was going to see something in her face to indicate that she was going bonkers. The nonsense coming out of her mouth was already strong proof of that.

But he didn’t—look like she was bonkers, that is. Whatever he saw in her expression just had him rubbing a gentle hand on her back. “I’m really sorry the note wasn’t from Leo, sweetheart.”

She heard the honesty in that statement ring true and clear.

Even with all they’d gone through the past few weeks, he really had been rooting for Leo to be alive.

“Thank you for opening my water,” she said in reply, courtesy of her brain’s current ‘other-dimension’ logic.

His hand moved up to smooth over her hair as he pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek.

“Anytime, sweetie.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

WHEN SHE WAS fully coherent and no longer talking in floating bubbles, Lia took a short walk and called Drew.

“Hey. How’d it go?” came Drew’s voice over the phone line.

Lia sat down on a low brick wall. “You mean you didn’t hack the feed to find out for yourself?”

His hesitant laughter told her he’d seriously considered it. “I figured it was private.”

“It was,” she agreed softly. “But not for me.”

The disappointment from Drew’s end of the phone line was palpable.

“I’m sorry, Drew.”

How could she express how she was feeling?

“Lia, it’s okay to be torn about this whole thing.”

“When did you get Gabe’s psychic abilities?” She smiled sadly. “Honestly, I don’t even think I can describe what I’m feeling. You know I want him to be alive just as badly as you do.”

“Lia, I can’t even imagine what you’ve gone through these past eight years. What I do know is that it’s okay for you to let go of Leo as your husband. Really, I stopped thinking of you as my sister-in-law a long time ago. You’re my foster sister who used to be married to my brother. Period. You’re not the same girl you were eight years ago, and just because I keep looking back doesn’t mean you need to. Not when you have someone with you now who you can look to the future with.”

She thought about how supportive Hudson had been about all this. How he’d made this all happen. Despite their being in a weird friends-with-benefits relationship, he was doing everything in his power to find and bring Leo home.

“I really did love Leo, you know. Still do.”

“I know. And you held on far longer than most would in this situation. But, really, the second Leo went missing, the love you two had got sealed up in a box, separate from the world. Life kept going on. You grew up.” His voice grew emotional. “Even if I were to be able to bring Leo home alive tomorrow, no one would expect you to just open up that box again and have everything go back to what it was. Because life doesn’t work that way. Leo’s your past. And whether it’s with Hudson or the next guy, your future doesn’t exist in that box. It never did.”

She brought the phone around to look at his grinning caller ID image, taken at his high school graduation last year.
He’s growing up so fast.
“So it looks like you and this college thing are a good fit. Either that or you’re just growing up and getting even smarter.”

At his noncommittal grunt, she smiled. “But I’m still your big sister so you have to listen to me when I tell you to take your own advice. If I’m going to live outside that box, you have to as well. Deal?”

A long pause, then, “Deal.”

* * * * *

HUDSON WAITED exactly three days to call Lia.

Three days. Even though he’d half-dialed her number dozens of times since the day of the video conference. He wanted to give her time and distance to process her thoughts and feelings about Leo. About…everything.

It had been the most god-awful three days of his life.

“Hello?”

And just like that, the world was right again.

“Hey sweetheart. Busy?”

Her voice smiled back at him. “Nope. I had bouncer duty earlier for a concert, but now I’m just watching a movie in my PJs. You?”

“I’m actually sitting here in horror staring at the playlist of this emotion-reading wristwatch satellite-radio contraption your brother Gabe sent me. Either he’s messing with me, or I have a repressed love affair with Wilson Phillips and The Backstreet Boys.”

Lia burst out laughing. And judging by the loud thump, she also fell off the couch.

He grinned when she couldn’t catch her breath for a good minute.

“I’ve missed your laugh, baby.”

“I can
guarantee
you more laughs if you sing just
one
of the songs on your playlist,” she replied, giggles seeping in between her words.

He was man enough. “I will if you will,” he volleyed back. “Song for a song?”

“You’re on.”

LIA WAS ALL grins when she turned her watch speakers on. “Mine still needs to boot up so you go first.”

Seconds later, Hudson was crooning out the upbeat chorus of
Smile
by Uncle Kracker.

And she had the strange urge to toss him her panties.

Good lord, she’d missed him.

Several more lines of perfect-pitch goodness and he was back on the phone line. “Your turn.”

She shuffled through her playlist and chuckled when she found the perfect song. “This is exactly what I’m thinking about right this instant.” Fast-forwarding past the percussion and horns to the sultry serenading of Sade, Lia sang along to
Smooth Operator.

Hudson’s belly laugh echoed over the phone. “This is going to be fun.”

Over the next week, Hudson texted her song titles from his playlist a couple times a day. And a few nights ago, he’d slipped in a pre-bedtime share in as well:

>>>
MY KIND OF GIRL
– BRIAN MCKNIGHT

Which naturally resulted in her going to sleep with a smile.

The next night, after a particularly long bout of sleepy flirting—instigated by him, elevated to fun times by her—she decided to text him a song that had popped onto her playlist for a change:

>>>
WHAT’S YOUR FANTASY
– LUDACRIS

His text back was short and very Hudson.

>>>
EVIL WOMAN. WELL-PLAYED. TAPPING OUT.

And she went to sleep that night with a smile as well.

The fact that he was doing this all to both cheer her up and open himself up wasn’t lost on her. Every song revealed in his texts was another private peek into his innermost thoughts, and the most special way she could imagine for him to share his day with her.

Plus, it was unbelievably romantic to boot.

The next day, Lia was just locking up her shop when she felt a pair of strong hands slide around her waist.

In reflex, she spun around and struck.

Grin held at bay.

He caught her elbow and yanked her closer. “God, I’ve missed you, baby.”

Lia promptly melted on the spot, going boneless and mindless, suspended in a dizzying state of arousal the instant Hudson claimed her lips with a soft, hungry growl.

A long while later, when he’d sufficiently kissed all the oxygen out of her lungs, he let her go—but not far—so she could lean back against the door to catch her breath, and take him in fully.

How had she gone so long without him?

Eyes half-lidded with lust and a lazy smile that hinted at the decadent thoughts he was having her star in, Hudson murmured, “I drove a three-hour distance in two for that kiss.”

Aaand she was back to dissolving into a puddle of buzzing emotions.

“I didn’t even know you were coming over today,” her brain heroically managed to push past her lips. “I could’ve finished up earlier.”

“Then it wouldn’t have been a surprise.” His boyish grin lit with a different variety of excitement then. “Come take a walk with me.”

He slid her hand into his and made small talk—small talk—as they made their way through town.

Well, this was different.

Why yes, the weather was a little cooler here in Cactus Creek than it was down in Yuma.

“Oh, and I meant to tell you I talked to my CO again just to see if there were more developments on Leo. Unfortunately, nothing new.” His frown was genuine, and yet another reminder of why she was falling flat as a pancake for him. “But, Clint and I are pretty sure we got Drew a summer internship with the DOD.” He flashed an amused grin. “We think they’re more afraid
not
to give him an internship.”

Then they were back to the fascinating talk about the weather.

Now beyond curious, she went into full alert of her surroundings as he led her through town.
Was it her imagination or were the town folks staring at her?

More nosily than usual, that is.

He directed her to the backside of the town center at the far edge of Cactus Creek. His jeep was parked near the pebbled stream that fed from the mountains and she smiled at the recent developments there she’d missed. “Hey, someone finally landscaped the area here.”

Lia had always loved the mini-park-like setting of the little clearing; but in recent years, it had sadly become overgrown and forgotten, rarely visited.

It wasn’t until she was halfway across the street when she saw it.

The wooden kung-fu apparatus now standing in the corner of the grassy area nearest the water. It was straight out of her fondest childhood memories.

She turned and gaped at Hudson. “You had a Wing Chun dummy made here?”
For me?

Even though this was undoubtedly the most amazing gift she had ever gotten, Hudson was looking at her as if
he
was the one who was receiving a gift. “I asked our prop crew in L.A. where I could get the most authentic one and then got permission to do a little park rejuvenation here with this as a focal piece. Go take a closer look. There’s another little surprise.”

She circled around to examine the beautiful workmanship, her hands smoothing over the carefully carved teak. She’d seen a few different kinds of Wing Chun dummies in the past—some looked essentially like a coat rack with extra parts, while others were terribly high-tech and almost cold in their complex design. But this one… It was beautiful. Gorgeously grounding in its simplicity, and alive with a palpable energy due to its hand-carved construction.

Landing a few practice strikes on the protruding arms built into the dummy, the satisfying thunk against the wood was music to her ears. She fired out different punches along the centerline of the dummy, the main targets in Wing Chun. She worked in quick succession, smacking the wooden pegs soundly in different angles and positions. Finally, like a machine gun, she pistoned out punch after punch with both hands.