My Heart Can't Tell You No (55 page)

“Get me a CBC and BMP while we’re at it, Nadine,” the doctor told his nurse then looked back at Maddie. “Nadine can take them back to the lab after they’re done in the restroom. I’m going to write a prescription for an antibiotic.”

“What exactly are we treating him for?” Maddie asked.

“UTI. I think he’s got a hefty infection in his urinary tract.”

“That would make his temperature run so high?”

“Certainly. His throat looked good, only a little inflamed, but there were no obvious signs of strep. And his glands—and appendix feel good. It was his bladder that gave him the pain.” He closed the chart then turned more fully in his seat. “Now, how about you?”

“What about
me
?”

“You look tired, kind of rundown and pale. Is there anything wrong?”

“No. Nothing’s wrong. I’ll probably look better after I get some rest. I only had about two hours’ sleep since yesterday morning.”

“Well, that certainly would explain a lot,” he smiled then stood up to leave. “Now listen, I want you to call immediately if he starts to vomit or if his fever goes back up and you can’t get it down. It will bounce up and down for a little while yet until the antibiotics take hold, and then I want to see him back in three days.” He closed the door behind him, allowing the sound of Robby’s quiet crying to come from the back of the building, indicating Joe had managed to get a urine specimen and was now helping to hold the boy while they took some blood.

“I don’t know who it hurt more—father or son,” Nadine teased as they came back into the examining room.

“You look a little pale, Joe. You sure you’re all right?” Maddie asked as Joe sat down, still holding Robby as she began dressing him.

“You’d look pale too if you had a kid’s teeth stuck on your fingers. I thought maybe I’d lose them back there,” Joe almost hissed.

Maddie looked at his fingers, her eyes widening when she saw he wasn’t joking. “What happened?”

“Robby grabbed his hand when he saw what I was about to do. When I stuck the needle in, he bit it,” Nadine told her, coming toward the man with a bottle of antiseptic and a bandage.

Maddie glanced up at Joe, seeing that he didn’t think it was as amusing as the nurse evidently did. He watched as she applied the bandage, then looked back at Maddie when the nurse was through. The expression in his eyes told her he thought the nurse had a few screws missing.

“All done, Robby.” Maddie slipped on his jacket and lifted him from Joe’s lap. “We can leave as soon as they’re done with Joe.”

“There. That should do it. It wasn’t very bad, but you can’t be too careful with bites.” Nadine moved toward the door. “Stop out front, and we’ll have your appointment for you.”

The telephone woke Maddie from the nap Joe had insisted she take. She rose quickly, wrapping a robe around herself as she sped through the hall. She hadn’t planned on sleeping this long. When she reached the living room, she saw Joe and Robby sleeping on the couch, but she had time for only a brief glance as she picked up the telephone that threatened to wake them.

“Hello?”

“Hi. How’s the little termite doing?” Lew’s voice brought a smile to Maddie’s lips.

“How’d you hear about it already?”

“Tom told your mom, and she told me when I called this morning. So, how is he? Last I heard he was running a hell of a high fever.”

“I’m not sure. I fell asleep after we got home from the doctor’s. Joe’s been watching him today.” She moved toward the couch where Joe was lying on his side, facing the child who was between him and the back of the sofa. “He feels warm but not hot. And I don’t know exactly when Joe last had him in the water to cool him down.”

“Why? He sleeping too?”

“
Uh-huh
. I just came out and found them both fast asleep on the couch.”

“Tell him to get the hell up. Sleeping at three o’clock in the afternoon. He’s turning into a lazy slug. Get him up. Tell him I wanna talk to him.”

“Oh—I don’t know. He’s probably tired,” she moaned as she looked down at Joe and Robby.

“Boy, ya can tell you guys aren’t married yet. If ya were, you’d kick him in the middle of the back and tell him to answer the damn phone.”

“I don’t think so,” she chuckled as she shook Joe’s shoulder. “But I’ll wake him anyway.”

“When the hell are you guys getting married anyway?”

“I don’t know. I was never asked,” she told him teasingly, then shook Joe again. “Joe. Get up a minute.”

“Is he getting up?” Lew asked.

“Slowly.” She watched Joe’s eyes reluctantly open as he glanced at the child sharing the couch with him. “When did you last put him in the water?”

He turned slowly, his body stiff as if he had lain in one position far too long. He looked up at her through squinted eyes, then glanced back at Robby, reaching to touch his forehead.

“He isn’t too hot. I just wrapped him in towels before we lay down.”

“And when was that?”

“Noon. After we ate.” He glanced at the clock then rubbed his hand over his face and sleep from his eyes. “Oh. It’s that late. I guess we slept longer than I thought.”

“Here, Lew wants to talk to you.”

Maddie went to the kitchen for fresh towels, juice, and Robby’s medicine. After putting the medicine and juice on the coffee table, she bent to remove the towels. Robby woke as she was trying to replace the fresh toweling, looking up at her in confusion before a yawn spread across his features and he sat up, reaching for the glass of juice. She barely listened to Joe as he sat up and moved to the other end of the couch with his legs sprawled on the cushions next to Robby. She was about to give the child his medicine when she felt Joe’s hand come from behind, sliding up the inside of her thigh. Her position, as she faced Robby, hid his father’s movement from the child’s view and gave Joe complete access to her bottom. She knew where that hand was heading, but at the moment she was holding a spoonful of syrupy medicine over her son and couldn’t stop it.

“Didn’t you even get over on the dike yet?” Joe said to her uncle as his hand slid higher, his thumb rhythmically stroking the soft flesh just inside the leg openings of her satin panties.

“Here, Robby. Swallow this before I spill it,” she urged, watching him open up and allowing her to pour the medicine into his mouth, before she handed the spoon to him to finish it.

She stood straight and reached behind herself to push at the hand still beneath her robe then reached for the second liquid—the one she knew would give her problems. It had a bitter taste.

“I don’t want it. That one tastes yucky.”

“Take it quickly and wash it down with your juice then, okay?” She poured it out, starting to bend toward him until she felt Joe’s hand return.

She straightened, twisting her hips away from him, then sat next to his thighs so he wouldn’t have the same access. This time as she leaned over his legs for Robby, his hand found another route, moving around her side and catching a breast. She poured the medicine into her son’s mouth, seeing the face he made at the bitter taste, but when he would have turned away, she gave him the spoon and urged him to finish that one as well.

“So ya think you’ll be up to it for next week’s game?” Joe asked Lew. “Maybe I’ll talk Maddie into coming along. We could drive you down before the crowd arrives.”

“You want some more juice?” Maddie asked Robby.

“No.” He lay down again, resting his arm and head on Joe’s shin after handing her his nearly emptied glass.

Maddie stood up and moved back to the kitchen with his medicine. She could only hear bits and pieces of Joe’s conversation then the sound of the bus stopping on the road below as she came back into the room.

“Did they give you a shot?” Jackie’s words flew out as soon as he entered the room and saw Robby. Robby nodded his head. “Where?” Robby held out his arm, exposing the bandage on the inside of his elbow. “That wasn’t a real shot. They took your blood is all.”

“Don’t I have none left?” Robby looked at him through concerned eyes, bringing a smile to Jackie’s lips as he reached over and nudged his brother’s face with a gentle finger.

“Sure ya got some left. They only took a little,” he smiled, his inspection of his brother complete before he went about his homework for that day.

Maddie was just coming from her shower that night when she noticed how intently Jackie was staring at Joe and Robby as he sat on the floor on the other end of the couch. Joe wasn’t paying much attention as he held Robby and kissed the top of the boy’s mop of black hair. Maddie could see the pain rip through Jackie’s face as he watched them, but it was no sooner there than he turned away and went back to watching television.

“I think we can get rid of these towels,” Joe told her as he reached for her hand. “He hasn’t gone above a hundred and two since six tonight.”

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try clothes on him a while. If it doesn’t stay down, we can always go back to the towels.”

“How about it, Buddy? You want to wear regular clothes again?”

“
Uh-huh
.” Robby leaned against Joe’s chest as they watched television.

“I’ll get them.” Jackie got to his feet quickly.

Maddie could see the eagerness in Jackie’s eyes as he looked at his baby brother. “Okay. But make it a pair of underwear and a thin pair of pajamas.”

“I will.” He instantly moved for their bedroom, coming back quickly with the clothing. “Here, I’ll help ya put them on, Robby.”

“I can do it,” Joe told him, taking the clothes and removing the towel.

Jackie turned angry eyes on Joe before glancing back at Maddie, but, before she could respond, he was on his way to bed for the night. She watched him go. There was nothing she could do anymore. In the past month since he had discovered the truth about Joe, she had watched his irritation grow into a heavy anger. She had tried to talk things out with him, but nothing could convince him to give Joe a chance. She finally decided there never would be anything
she
could do. It was up to Joe, and it was up to Jackie.

“You ready for another dose of your medicine?” Maddie had noticed the time when Jackie left for bed.

“No,” he told her as he put his legs into his underwear then his pajama bottoms before being lifted an inch or two so Joe could draw them up over his small hips.

“Yes, you are,” Joe told him. “Look how much it helped you already. You’re back to wearing regular clothes. Maybe by tomorrow you’ll be able to go out for a while.”

Maddie refilled his juice glass and carried the medicine back to him, but before she could open the first bottle he climbed off of Joe’s lap and started for the hall. “Where are you going?”

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Well, that’s a good sign,” Joe told her. “It’ll be the third time since dinner.”

“Speaking of dinner, where are you going to talk me into going?” Maddie asked.

“You mean with Lew? What does that have to do with dinner?”

“You didn’t hang up until nearly dinner. Good thing it wasn’t long distance.”

“To the football game. He said he hasn’t been able to go to any this year because of his foot. But he said he’d try to make it from the car to the bleachers if we drive him down to the stadium. Do you want to go along?”

“And ruin the boys’ night out?”

“It never stopped ya before,” he told her, then allowed Robby to climb back up onto the couch with him as Maddie gave him his antibiotic.

As Maddie came back from returning the medicine she sat with Joe and their youngest son, watching them as they watched television. They were such a handsome pair. She only wished her other handsome prince would be able to join them instead of isolating himself as he was. Joe glanced over at her, emotion lighting his eyes as he looked at her. She knew she had never felt safer as he watched her. He lifted her hand to his lips, gently kissing it before looking back to the television while his thumb continued its stroking. She leaned her head back against the couch as she looked at him, the knowledge that her son was on his way to recovery filling her with a relief she hadn’t felt since the day before. She didn’t know how she would have handled it if it hadn’t been for Joe. He was there; he was taking care of them, and she knew she had never loved or needed anyone as much as she did this man.

CHAPTER XXX
 

I
t was mild for mid-October, the thermometer dropping only to the high thirties at night. Joe and Maddie came out that evening with only a light jacket, Lew wore an insulated vest as he slowly maneuvered his crutches up the bleachers.

“You sit between us,” Lew told Joe. “I remember the last time the three of us came to a game. If she still gets as excited as she used to, she’s bound to knock me off the bleachers.”

“I wasn’t that bad,” Maddie said as she sat on the opposite side of Joe.

“Don’t bet on it.” Joe took her hand and put it in his pocket as they waited for the kickoff. Her long fingers were already slightly cold, and he took simple pleasure in wrapping his even longer ones around them to keep them warm. “When I went home that night I was full of bruises.”

“If you got bruises, Buster, it wasn’t from what happened
inside
the stadium,” she said absently, then turned slightly red when she realized she had brought up the evening she was in Joe’s car in front of Lew.

Joe smiled over at her, seeing her embarrassment, and knowing what had caused it as Lew’s chuckle drifted over to them.

“I always wondered why neither of you came back to the field. I suspected as much.”

“Well, don’t suspect too much—because not much happened,” Maddie told him.

“Hell, I don’t doubt that. Poor guy had to practically be ordered to follow after you. Without anyone there to instruct him, he wasn’t about to take it any further once he got ya alone.”

“So he had to be ordered to follow me, did he?” Maddie looked at Joe with raised brows.

“Well, it’s a good thing I was. That pervert that had you in his car wasn’t about to let you off as easily as I did.”

“That
pervert
is now one of those coaches down there. And, if I remember correctly, you didn’t exactly let me off easily.”

“Well, I hope you’re happy, Lew. You got her blood boiling.” Joe looked over at the forty-nine-year-old man.

“All I have to do to get her blood boiling is put her in the same room as you.”

“Is that a compliment?” Joe smiled.

“Leave it to you to take it as one,” Lew smiled back. “No. I was talking about her temper.”

“Is that how you knew we’d end up together? Because he could get my
blood
boiling
?” Maddie asked sarcastically.

“You’re not together yet. You’ve got secrets to be told before you can really be together.”

Joe looked over at him as Lew held his crutches in front of him, his eyes cast toward the field. “And what secrets are there to be told?”

“Oh.” Lew looked a little uneasy as he glanced over at Maddie, then let a mischievous sparkle enter his eyes. “Just little things, like she snores.”

“She doesn’t snore,” Joe said flatly.

“She does when she drinks.”

“She doesn’t drink either.”

“Then how do you know she doesn’t snore? You should hear her when she gets a good snoot full. Ya’d think she was cutting down a forest.”

“I do not,” Maddie laughed, her hand tightening again on Joe’s. “When I used to drink I was lucky if I had enough energy to breathe, let alone snore.”

“Yeah, that’s what
you
think. You’d come over some nights and snore so loud you’d get me out of bed so my ass would be dragging for work the next day.”

“I did not!” Maddie laughed again.

“What are you talking about? She doesn’t drink.” Joe eyed Lew with wonder.

“Maybe not now. But she sure did when she was younger. You should have seen her the night we came to that game together. She came home about an hour after I did. She looked like she must have drank a half keg all by herself.”

“You didn’t go over to Janet like you said?” Joe’s gaze flew to Maddie.

“No,” she said in a tone that told him to calm down. “I went out and got drunk.”

“With who? Your coach down there?”

“
Her
coach isn’t down there by the looks of it. Here he comes now.” Lew was watching a slim man of Maddie’s age coming up the bleachers toward them. Gone was the long hair and ragged clothes to be replaced with crisp jeans and a coach’s jacket with hair trimmed respectably.

“Lyn? Is that you?” His voice had also changed to a huskiness.

“Hi, Ron,” Maddie smiled up at him.

“Coach Savage said he thought he saw you up this way. I’m glad you could make it. I haven’t seen you for a while.”

Joe looked up at him, feeling as if the short hair at the back of his neck was bristling. “She’s been away.”

“Well, if this isn’t a familiar scene,” Ron said as he recognized Joe and Lew. “All we need now is Bowes and the gathering would be complete.”

“Yeah, too bad Bowes isn’t here,” Joe said flatly, not quite remembering the other boy who had been with them, and not really caring to remember him. “Why don’t ya go get him.”

“Bowes is dead, Joe,” Maddie said quietly. “He died that winter. It was a wake-up call to the rest of us and put us back on track, I think.”

“I know it’s what straightened me out. He was sleeping at my house when it happened. In my bed as a matter of fact. I guess I should be glad I was otherwise occupied in another bedroom at the time. It was a terrible thing walking in and finding him like that the next morning. He was my best friend,” Ron explained grimly.

“I didn’t happen to know who was occupying you in that other room, did I?” Joe asked calmly enough, but there was a tenseness about his words that brought a smile to Ron’s face.

“No. I don’t think so. You let me know the night of that game how things were between you and Lyn. I didn’t want to risk ever having my nose broken again.”

“Broken nose?” Joe looked at him through different eyes, having been assured his relationship with Maddie hadn’t gone very far. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to break your nose.”

“Right,” Ron laughed. “Just like I didn’t intend to hit you in the head. Don’t worry about it. It was a long time ago. We all came out the better by the looks of it. I think the broken nose is what helped me get this job. Makes me look a little more rugged than I did before, don’t ya think?”

“How’s Elaine, Ron?” Maddie asked.

“I’d say barefoot and pregnant, but if she got wind of it she’d have me in the doghouse for the rest of the month. She’s doing fine. Pregnant with our fourth.” He seemed to beam down at Maddie letting Joe know he had nothing to worry about. “I swear, she looks more beautiful with each pregnancy.”

“You’ve got three sons, don’t you?”

“
Mmm
. She’s hoping for a daughter. So am I, I guess. But I told her to keep trying and we’ll have our own baseball team in a few years.”

“How does she feel about that?” Maddie laughed.

“She told me to go stick it in a knothole a while,” he said sheepishly, a pink tint highlighting his forehead. “I don’t
think
she means it. Well, I better get back down there before they start the game. It was nice seeing you again, Lyn.”

“See ya, Ron. Tell Elaine I said hello.”

“Who’s Elaine?” Joe asked quietly as Ron was halfway down the bleachers. “Not the same girl that was with him that night.”

“The one and only. It seems she won his heart when she tended to his broken nose and got him to the hospital. She got pregnant that year with their first child. They got married and settled down, remarkably. She even went to nursing school between babies. She works in the delivery room up at the hospital.”

“And you went out and got drunk that night. And you knew she came in drunk?” Joe looked back at Lew.

“Sure I knew. She didn’t do it often.”

“And you didn’t do anything?”

“I put her up on my couch for the night. What did you want me to do?”

“God, you’re both making me sound like I’m the town lush! I don’t even drink anymore! Didn’t either of you ever get drunk when you were teenagers?”

“That was different. It was expected; I was a boy,” Joe remarked.

“Oh,” Lew laughed. “Well, step into the second half of the twentieth century. Equal rights ya know. Girls now have just as much right to the dry-heaves as the boys.” He looked over at Joe and nudged him in the side. “See—I told ya there were always secrets ya didn’t know. So, why ain’t you two married yet?”

“She didn’t ask me,” Joe told him.

“Well if you both keep waiting on each other to ask—I’ll never live to be at your wedding.”

“You’ll be there,” Maddie told him. “You’re gonna outlive us all.”

“How’s Robby? Sarah says he’s doing a lot better this week,” Lew changed the subject.

“He had a bladder infection, but he’s doing fine. He’s still on antibiotics, but he’s up and around. He hasn’t had a fever for days,” Joe told him.

“That’s what Sarah said. She also said he tried to bite your hand off at the doctor’s office. Something to do with biting the bullet,” Lew chuckled.

“You wouldn’t have thought it was so funny if it happened to you. There I was with a kid on my lap, grinding his teeth into my finger while he had a needle sticking out of his arm. I had no choice but to let him bite until the damn nurse took the needle out. I think she kept it in as long as she could.”

“Sarah said he’s calling you dad now. What’s Jackie calling ya?”

“My guess is just about anything he can under his breath,” Joe smiled.

“He is not,” Maddie said quietly.

“Not getting along with him, huh?” Lew asked. “Well, give it time. He’s a good kid. He likes just about everyone. He’s just used to being the man around the house. You’re taking his job away. He’ll get used to it soon. How’s Sarah been?”

“You should know. You talk to her every day,” Maddie smiled.

“I know. We’re thinking about starting up a game of five-hundred over the phone,” He smiled back. “You know Sarah, she never says if anything’s wrong with her. I worry a lot about her now that I don’t get to actually
see
her as much as I used to.”

“She’s okay, I guess,” Maddie sighed. “Now that it’s cooling down, she’s getting better. This summer it was hard on her. We almost took her up to the hospital two or three times, but she’s so damn stubborn that she wouldn’t go.”

“You don’t want to play around with her, Maddie. If you think she needs to go—you take her whether she wants to go or not. I trust you. I think you see things in her no one else does. You know when she’s sick. You know when she’s having pain when the others don’t notice—don’t ya?”

“Yes,” Maddie said slowly, wondering how he knew.

“It’s that way with some kids. My oldest daughter’s that way with me. It’s a bond. You just know. So, I’m putting Sarah in your hands. I’ll expect you to take care of her.”

Joe watched this man who was usually filled with laughter, now with a contemplative expression on his face as he gazed out at the field. He looked over at Maddie, seeing she was just as puzzled as he, as she watched her uncle.

“I will,” she assured him.

“About time they got out here.” Lew gestured toward the teams lining up for the kickoff. “It’s starting to get cold.”

“What are you doing?” Maddie’s surprised laugh came as Joe slung her over his shoulder and started down the hall toward her bedroom.

“If you don’t know by now, then you’re one helluva slow learner.” He dumped her on the bed, then dropped down beside her, trapping her under him as he quickly moved to lie on top of her. “Is it coming back now?”

“
Mm-hmm
.” Her eyes smiled up at him as her fingers held onto his open collar. “Very quickly.”

“I thought it might.” He couldn’t stop the smile that was lighting his eyes as he watched her. Her nose still a little pink from the cold outside; her eyes dark embers that burned only for him; her lips perfectly curved softness that could turn him to helplessness with their provocativeness. With her hair spread about her from her fall to the mattress, she had an innocence that took him back nine years to another football game where her biggest concern was having him teach her to kiss. His hand lifted to her hair, stroking its softness as he brushed his lips over her still cool cheek. “My God, Maddie, you are beautiful.”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with Ron? Does it?” Her arms were around him.

“Forget about Ron. I don’t want to talk about him,” he told her, then saw the amusement in her eyes. “If you’re asking if I said that because I was jealous of Ron, no, not completely.”

“Are you saying you
were
jealous?”

“You know I was—so why ask?”

“To hear you say it. Thank you, I’m flattered.”

Her smile spread to her lips, making them irresistible. He didn’t hesitate to meet them with his own, drinking from them as if he were a man dying of thirst, his need of her as strong as it had been nine years earlier.