She still didn’t say anything.
238 Tymber
Dalton
Libbie didn’t know what to say. She stared dumbly at the two test strips, blinking and hoping they’d change to negative.
Then she thought about Mandaline’s words the other day in Many Blessings, how she’d called Libbie “mama” and said she was “glowing.”
Frak.
Yes, she’d always thought about maybe one day having kids, but at thirty-five, and without a husband, she’d pushed the thought to the back of her mind and forgotten about it.
The truth was staring her in the face. “What…what if something’s wrong with it?” She caught herself laying her palm against her belly.
“And what if it’s totally healthy?” Allan asked.
They made her turn to face them.
Ben asked the question. “Do you want an abortion?”
“No!” she answered immediately without even thinking about it.
As she studied their faces, she realized they were both struggling not to smile. “What?”
“That was a pretty quick answer, don’t you think?” Allan queried.
“Maybe the answer of a woman who’s made up her mind and just needs her men to reassure her everything’s going to be okay because they’re going to take charge and make it okay so she doesn’t have to shoulder the burden alone?”
She nodded, hating that the prickle of tears had returned again.
But then their arms were around her and one or both of them helped her back into bed and she was lying, comfortably sandwiched between them, when she fell into the first truly solid sleep she’d had since they left.
“What the hell do we do now, Brain?” Allan whispered so as not to wake her.
It’s a Sweet Life
239
“She can’t stay here. We have to get her back to Brooksville.”
“I’ll go,” Allan said.
“You can’t. You’re needed here.”
“Then you go.”
“I can’t. You need me here.”
Allan loved his brother, but this was one of those times he wanted to smack him. “Then she stays here with us.”
“What part of ‘she can’t stay here’ don’t you understand?”
“Then what’s your plan?”
“I don’t have one!”
They both lowered their voices as she stirred a little in her sleep before settling again.
Allan looked at his brother. “This does it. I’m turning in my resignation and going back with her. I can use a secure phone to answer questions, but they don’t need me. I’m done.”
“No, I’ll quit. I can shove what few cases I have over onto someone else.”
“Then we’ll both friggin quit.”
They stared at each other over her sleeping form. Stalemate.
“You can’t quit,” Ben said. “Not yet. They need you.”
“She needs me more.”
“If Bianco skates, we’ll never be able to stop looking over our shoulders and you know it.”
Another stalemate.
Ben finally nodded. “Look, I’ll take a leave of absence. Personal leave. That way I’m still on the force and it avoids a ton of bullshit.
Not to mention I have something crazy like two months’ worth of vacation time built up. When I’m due in for testimony, I’ll come down. But you need to start carrying and wearing a vest all the time.
Promise? Deal?”
Allan stroked her forehead. He had a carry permit and Ben had trained him personally, but he didn’t like guns and hated using them.
He would, however, do whatever he had to for Libbie’s sake. “Deal,”
240 Tymber
Dalton
he softly said.
Once sure she was deeply asleep. Allan carefully climbed out of bed and motioned Ben to do the same. Going into the bathroom, Allan shut the door and kept his voice low so it wouldn’t carry into the bedroom. “I need to call the office and tell them I’m not going to be in.”
“You have to go in. Witness statements this afternoon.”
“Crap.” He ran a hand through his hair. Upon doing so, he turned to the mirror and stared at his reflection. His dark roots were showing.
One of the things he hated most was dying his hair.
“It’s time for me to go back to being me.” He met Ben’s gaze in the mirror. “You don’t need to protect me. I need you to protect and take care of her.” He studied his reflection again. “There’s a place across the street. I’ll go there right now and have them put me back.
And new rules. No more bullshit about her not being able to call when she wants or needs to. If those assholes are truly that tech savvy, we’re screwed regardless. It’s more important for her to be able to talk to us. What if she’d broke down on the Alley on her way over here and couldn’t call for help because the crap-ass phone we gave her couldn’t pick up a signal?”
Ben nodded. Allan had expected at least token resistance to his demands, but Ben seemed broken, hollow. “Agreed,” Ben wearily replied. “And there are some of your suits down in the trunk of your car. I grabbed a few more while I was at the house.”
Allan grabbed the wallet in his pocket and handed it to Ben, who did the same. “So we’re back to being us again,” he said.
A soft snort escaped Ben.
“What?” Allan asked.
“I have a feeling Libbie won’t have any trouble at all telling us apart. Just like we couldn’t fool Mom, no matter how we tried.”
“Yeah.”
He looked at Allan. “We’re in agreement that we marry her, right?”
It’s a Sweet Life
241
“Bigamy is illegal in Florida.”
“Dumb-ass. We can have one of those handfasting ceremonies Mandaline was talking about at New Year’s.”
“I’m impressed. I didn’t think you were paying attention that night.”
“I’m a cop. I pay more attention than you think I do. Are we in agreement?”
“Yeah. How do we decide who legally marries her? Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock?” He smiled.
Ben rolled his eyes. “Libbie gets to decide that.” A brief frown crossed his lips. “Well, we need to propose to her and make sure she actually says yes.” He thought about it. “Then again, which of us has the better health plan?”
“Are you serious?”
“Damn serious. The first thing I want to happen once the ink is dry on the marriage certificate is for her to get put on someone’s health insurance so we can make her get taken care of properly.”
“You don’t think making decisions for her like that will piss her off?”
Ben was through arguing and justifying. “She’s going to learn to stop fighting us and let us take care of her so she can focus all of her energies on taking care of herself. And the baby.”
His throat grew tight, a lump swelling in it at that thought. “Our baby.” He stared at Allan. “If I tell you something, you have to promise not to make fun of me.”
One eyebrow arched. “That’s not an easy promise to make.”
“I’m serious.”
“Fine.”
He gathered his thoughts. “Back in college, I used to think it’d be nice if the two of us could find a woman we could settle down with 242 Tymber Dalton
together. And now we have.”
His brother’s expression softened, and he wasn’t prepared when Allan pulled him in for a brotherly bear hug. “You rat bastard, why didn’t you tell me before? I used to think that, too. I didn’t think back then that you’d want to share someone all the time.”