A Slice Of Heaven

“Ronnie’s going to be furious when he sees her,” Dana Sue said. “He’s going to wonder how on earth I let something like this happen to our daughter without trying to fix it. He’s going to want to talk to teachers and counselors about why they didn’t see it and intervene.”

“It’s not as if he was here to do his part,” Helen said heatedly. “So of course he’ll want to spread the blame around.”

Dana Sue regarded her with a wry expression. “He wasn’t here because that’s how I wanted it, remember? I was the one who insisted on limited visitation and then secretly rejoiced when Annie refused to see him at all.”

There was a faint flash of guilt in Helen’s eyes, but she continued her defense of Dana Sue’s actions. “Come on, hon. Don’t you dare let him off the hook and take all the blame on yourself.”

“I had full custody,” Dana Sue reminded her. “You fought for it and got it.”

“There wasn’t much of a fight,” Helen scoffed. “Ronnie was anxious to leave and get on with his life. He was only too eager to send support checks and forget all about her.”

Dana Sue didn’t usually cut Ronnie a lot of slack, but now she did. “You know better than that, Helen. Whatever his issues were with me, he loved Annie. He only agreed to limited visitation because you convinced him it would be best if Annie wasn’t pulled in two different directions. In the beginning he called almost every night, but Annie hung up on him. He invited her to visit him over and over again, but she turned him down. She told me. Lately, though, they’ve been in touch, probably even more than I know.”

“Maddie mentioned that,” Helen said. “Why are you defending him all of a sudden?”

“I’m not defending him. I’m just trying to prepare myself for how he’s going to react when he gets here.” She shuddered. “Something tells me all hell is going to break loose.”

In fact, there was a very good chance that Ronnie would take one look at his daughter and head straight for the courthouse to argue for a new custody arrangement, one that would give him the day-to-day responsibility for his daughter. Given tonight’s events, Dana Sue wasn’t sure she had the strength—or the right—to fight him.

Ronnie spotted Maddie the minute he walked into the hospital. She was in the midst of half a dozen teenage girls, but her gaze immediately clashed with his. To his surprise, her eyes held warmth and compassion.

She stood up and crossed the waiting room to where he stood uncertainly just inside the door. Places like this freaked him out under the best of conditions. He’d been a wreck the night Annie was born, and her birth had gone smoothly enough. Based on what Dana Sue had told him, it was anything but certain that tonight would turn out as happily.

“Ronnie, it’s good to see you,” Maddie said, surprising him again. “I just wish it were under different circumstances.”

“Me, too,” he said, risking a kiss on her cheek that would have come naturally a few years back. She’d always been his champion with Dana Sue, at least until he’d betrayed his wife. Then she’d turned into a protective best friend with little good to say to or about him. But she, at least, had apparently mellowed, even more than he’d dared to hope.

“How’s Annie? Is Dana Sue with her?”

Maddie shook her head. “We don’t know anything yet. Dana Sue’s in the chapel with Helen. Maybe you should go in there. Let her know you’ve arrived.”

“I think I’ll wait here,” he said, dreading this first meeting almost as much as he desired it. “Is she holding up okay? She was a mess when she called me.”

“She still is, unless the visit to the chapel has helped. Helen’s just as bad. She doesn’t often let anyone see her soft side, but she loves Annie as if she were her own.”

“She certainly fought like a mother hen to keep her away from me,” Ronnie said bitterly, then shrugged. “I was lucky to win visitation rights. Little did I know that Annie was so mad at me that she wouldn’t even speak to me for the better part of a year, much less come to visit.”

Maddie smiled. “Well, that’s in the past. She’s forgiven you, hasn’t she?”

“She’s speaking to me, at least,” he responded. “That’s something. I probably should have stayed right here in town so Annie couldn’t avoid me, but I thought maybe if I left the way Dana Sue wanted, both of them would start to miss me, maybe give me another chance.”

“How’d that work for you?” Maddie inquired dryly.

He smiled grimly. “You know the answer to that.”

Just then he spotted Dana Sue and Helen coming down the hall. His heart seemed to stop in his chest. Damn, she looked good, even with her hair a tangled mess, her Carolina Panthers T-shirt—no, his T-shirt, he realized with a pang—wrinkled and way too big, her feet jammed into an old pair of sneakers. Her complexion was too pale and her incredible deep-green eyes were shadowed by fear.

Ronnie started to go to her, but stopped himself and waited for her to come to him.

“Old patterns might not be the best on a night like this,” Maddie said in an undertone. “Reach out to her, Ronnie. She needs you. Whatever else has happened, that child in there belongs to both of you.”

It was all the encouragement he needed. He strode across the lobby, and almost before he knew it, Dana Sue was in his arms. Her whole body shaking with sobs; she clung to his neck.

“I’m sorry,” she said over and over.

Not sure what she had to be sorry for, he just held her tightly and tried to keep himself from bursting into tears, too.

“Shh, baby, it’s going to be okay,” he promised, though he knew no such thing. “Annie’s going to be fine.”

Before the words were out of his mouth, Dana Sue wrenched herself from his arms, as if she’d suddenly remembered how angry she was at him. Pushing away, she wrapped her arms around her middle and looked at the floor.

He regarded her with concern. “Dana Sue, what is it you’re not telling me?”

“Nothing,” she stated, but her guilty expression said otherwise.

“Have the doctors been out? Have they told you what’s going on yet?”

She shook her head.

Ronnie pressed her, sure she was keeping something from him. “But you know more than you’ve said, don’t you? What happened tonight?”

Dana Sue opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Helen was between them. “What is wrong with you?” she demanded. “She’s upset enough without you getting in her face.”

Despite his frustration, Ronnie backed off at once. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just want to know what’s going on.”

“We all do,” Helen told him.

“Well, maybe I can get some answers you haven’t been able to get,” he said.

Ignoring Helen’s skeptical look and Dana Sue’s shattered expression, he stalked over to the desk and demanded to speak to a doctor.

“He’ll be out as soon as he’s able,” the nurse told him, her expression so grim that another wave of panic washed over him.

“Isn’t there something you can tell me?” he pleaded. “That’s my daughter in there.”

“I’m sorry,” the nurse said. “If I knew anything, I’d tell you.”

“How long will it be before the doctor comes out?”

“That depends on how your daughter is responding to treatment. She’s his first priority right now.”

“Of course,” Ronnie said, backing down, but wanting to scream in frustration.

Maddie appeared beside him. “Why don’t we go get coffee for everyone?” she suggested. “It’s going to be a long night.”

He started to snap that he didn’t want coffee, he wanted answers, but stopped himself before he could utter the words. They all wanted answers.

“Sure,” he said at last, then cast one last look at his ex-wife. “Maybe I should stay with Dana Sue.”

“Give her a little time,” Maddie said. “She’s dealing with a lot of conflicting emotions right now.”

“And I’m not?” he retorted sharply, then winced. “Sorry.”

She smiled. “You don’t need to apologize to me,” she told him. “But you might want to work on a really, really good one for Dana Sue. Despite what happened a few minutes ago when she threw herself into your arms, she’s still not in a forgiving mood.”

Despite the tension and the serious nature of the situation, his lips quirked. “You think?”

Maddie tucked her arm through his and led him toward the cafeteria. “Can I ask you something?”

“Have I ever been able to stop you?”

“I know you came because of Annie, but what about Dana Sue?”

He paused in midstride and faced her. “What are you asking me, Maddie?”

“I suppose I’m asking if you still love her,” she said bluntly. “Do you?”

“Do you really think this is the time for that discussion?” he asked.

Her expression was grave as she met his eyes. “Yes.”

“Okay, then.” He met her gaze evenly. “I never stopped loving her, not for a minute.”

Maddie seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “Thought so.”

They started to walk again, but before they’d taken half a dozen steps, she stopped and punched him in the arm. “Then why the heck did you walk away without a fight?”

“Stupidity?” he suggested.

“Was that a question or a statement? Because if you ask me, only an idiot would walk away from the woman he loves just because she tells him to go. And you, Ronnie Sullivan, were never an idiot. I couldn’t believe it when I found out you’d left. If I’d known where to find you, I would have hunted you down and tried to talk some sense into you.”

“Helen knew where I was,” he pointed out.

Maddie gave him a wry look. “Helen wasn’t in a forthcoming mood at the time. She’d have been happier if you’d disappeared off the face of the earth.”

“She made that clear,” Ronnie said. “As for me being an idiot, I surely was for one night. I guess that mistake was such a whopper that it convinced me I didn’t deserve another chance. It was like I said a minute ago—I thought if I went, Dana Sue would start to miss me. Took me by surprise that she didn’t.”

“And now?”

“Now I’m going to fight for another chance with both my girls.”

Maddie nodded in satisfaction. “About damn time.”

Ronnie grinned. Wasn’t that the truth?

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