Chapter 108

Allegra’s eyes pinned Sister Celeste to the wall.  “What does he look like?”

If Felix has the nerve to show up asking for me at the front door, then he can just sit his ass right there until the police show up.

“He’s a tall man, with curly blonde hair,” the Sister said, taken aback by Allegra’s frightened reaction.  “Would you like me to send him away?”

Relief flooded through her.  It didn’t matter how or why, but just as he’d been on more than one occasion, he was there for her. 

“No thank you,” she called over her shoulder as she rushed down the staircase.  “It’s a friend.”

♪♫♥

David paced the small, simply furnished room.  The most remarkable thing about it was the floor-to-ceiling bookcases that lined the walls, reminding him of a library.  He thought the nun had called it the ‘parlor’, making him wonder what time period these people lived in.  Did they even have parlors anymore? 

It was a random rabbit trail for his mind to amble along while he waited for Allegra to appear – if  she DID appear.  The way the bulldog in the habit had practically snarled, he wasn’t too sure whether she would relay the message or just come back and give him the brushoff.

Good luck with that, Sister.  I’ve made it this far, there’s no brushing me off now.

He turned his attention out the window, looking but not really seeing the grounds surrounding the cloister.  The sun was shining, the grass was green and the birds were singing.  All signs of a perfect day.  With a little bit of luck, that may prove to be true. 

“David.” 

He heard her breathe his name and swiveled around to find her closing the space between them with long strides.  Before he could even register her arrival, she was on tiptoe with her arms twined tightly around his neck, face buried in his shoulder.

“How do you always know when I need someone?” she whispered.

She trembled against him, and he clamped strong, muscled arms around her torso, holding her close with a sigh of relief.  “Did you ever think that maybe I’m the one who needs you?”

They stood wrapped together, with him rubbing open palms up and down until her tremors subsided, and she attempted to release herself from the embrace.  Unwilling to completely relinquish contact just yet, he kept a grip on her hands while surveying her appearance.

His heart clutched at the picture she made.  

She was still classically beautiful in her dark slacks and blue lightweight sweater, but she also looked tired.  And scared.

Protectiveness kicked in and he fought the urge to pull her tight and roar at anyone who came near.  He settled for stroking his thumb gently across the dark smudges under her eyes.   “Wanna tell me what’s going on, Legs?”

Her eyes rose to meet his and tears shimmered in the sunlight streaming in from the windows.  His Legs was hurting.

“Will you take me someplace? Anyplace?  I need to get away from here.”

She didn’t have to ask twice.  David’s feet were in motion before Allegra could finish the last sentence,   and he curled a shielding arm around her shoulders, wasting no time in shuffling her out the front entrance toward his car.

“Nice ride,” she admired the silver luxury car with a faint smile as he opened the passenger side, handing her into the buttery leather seat.

“It gets me where I’m going.”

He closed her in and had the driver’s door open in no time, sliding behind the wheel an instant before the engine roared to life. 

“Is there a restaurant nearby?  You look like you could use some coffee.”

She nodded silently and gave him directions to a little out of the way diner not too far from where they were.  Other than that, neither said a word until they slid into the wooden booth at the far corner of the nearly desolate restaurant.   There were only half a dozen other patrons scattered throughout, and none of them were seated close enough to overhear whatever may be said.

“How did you find me?” she asked, removing the silverware from atop the paper napkin at her place setting.  She slowly and methodically began to pick at it, keeping her nervous hands occupied and giving her something to look at besides David’s probing eyes.

He purposefully removed the napkin from her grasp and scooped her hand up, folding his long fingers over it with a little grin.  “I told you I was the smart one, you just didn’t believe me.”

“Oh, I believed you,” she assured him with a forced laugh.  “I just didn’t think I’d given anybody a reason to look.”

David snorted.  “Baby, you go leaving a note like that and don’t expect us to come looking?  Richie’s got more couth than I do.  He was giving you an extra day to come back on your own before he started a nationwide womanhunt.”

“He told you about the note?” she whispered.

“Just that you were thinking about breaking it off.”

Her eyelids fluttered quickly to keep the tears at bay, and she gently tugged, reclaiming her hand.

A waitress appeared at that moment, asking if they’d like some coffee. 

“That sounds great, thanks,” David agreed, watching Allegra sniff and dab at her eyes with her fingertips.

“Make mine decaf, please.”

His eyebrows lifted inquiringly as the waitress noted their order and departed.  “Since when do you drink decaf?”

“Caffeine isn’t good for you.”

Silence filled the air, and David waited patiently for her to speak.  Seeing that it wasn’t getting him anywhere, he finally gave in and prodded, “Okay sweetheart, talk to me.  What’s going on?  Are you sick?”

Allegra looked into the deep blue eyes sitting under a brow furrowed with concern and had no idea of where to begin.  The baby, Felix, or the Bishop?  No, not the Bishop.  The easiest thing was to answer the question, she supposed.

“No, I’m not sick.”

“Thank God,” he murmured, releasing a pent up breath and reaching for her hand again.  This time he clasped it between both of his large palms and kissed her fingertips.  “If you’re healthy, then everything else is just details.  Talk to Uncle Dave, he’ll make it all better, I promise.”

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Start at the beginning.  Why did you leave?  And go to so much damn trouble to hide?”

Because I couldn’t stand to be a burden.

“I’m pregnant.”

He didn’t immediately respond, but she could see his mind furiously working away.

“The doctor’s appointment last week,” he said, waiting for her nod of agreement before continuing.  “Why didn’t you tell anyone?  Namely Richie.  It’s his, isn’t it?”

The sound of the waitress approaching the table, mugs and pot in tow, prevented her immediate reply.  Freeing her hand once again, she leaned back from the table, allowing their coffee to be served.

“Do you want to order any food?” the waitress asked.

Looking at Allegra questioningly and receiving a negative reply, he told her, “No, we’re good.  Thanks.”

She had barely stepped away, when he asked again.  “Legs, it’s Richie’s isn’t it?”

Despondently stirring cream and sugar into her coffee, she answered quietly, “I don’t know.  The doctor’s estimates have me at five weeks – almost six now.  That means it happened in Detroit, so it could be…  because of the rape.”

“Holy shit.”

“Exactly,” she said, sipping from her mug with a grimace.  The coffee had been around a while.  It was strong and bitter.

Sliding out of the booth, David rounded the table and scooted in next to Allegra, draping a comforting arm around her shoulders.  It felt good to not be alone, and she took advantage of it by resting against him.

“You have to tell Richie.”  When she began to protest, he shushed her.  “Legs, you know it’s the right thing to do.”

She pushed away, the comfort he’d offered all too fleeting.  Being on the inside of the booth left her little room to maneuver, but she managed to turn and put her back to the wall, creating some space between them. 

“No David, I don’t.  He begged me to take that morning-after pill.  He didn’t want to risk being responsible for a child that wasn’t his own.  I refused and took the consequences upon myself when I did.  The right thing to do is wait until I can have a paternity test.  If it confirms that he’s the father, then I’ll tell him and he can decide if he wants it.  Me.  Us.”

Something in her face must’ve told him not to argue the point, because he chose a different approach.

“When can you have the test?” 

“Not for another six weeks.”

“Do you love him?”

A humorless laugh crept from between her lips.  “I don’t sleep and have panic attacks every single night.  You tell me.”

His hand came up to cup her jaw, thumb tracing along her cheekbone.  “You can’t do this another six weeks, sweetheart.  You look like death warmed over.  Come back with me.  Talk to him.  If it doesn’t go well, you’ll come home with me.  I’ll take care of you and the baby.”

“What?”  A frown creased her face and she looked at him in confusion.  He was kidding wasn’t he?

For once, there was no sign of humor in the Joker’s eyes.  “You’ll move in with me and I’ll take care of you.  You won’t have to worry about anything.”

Has he lost his mind?

“Lexi isn’t going to want to start a home for wayward mothers,” she protested.  “And I’m not your responsibility any more than I’m Richie’s.”

“This isn’t about Lexi, it’s about me and you,” he murmured.  “We have something special, Legs.  No, you’re not my responsibility, but you’re someone I care about very deeply.  Your well-being means the world to me.”

“David.”  It was her turn to cup his jaw.  “We do have something special, but it’s not the same kind of special that you and Lexi have.  You’re going to be married.  SHE comes first in your life.  She’s the one who takes care of your children when you’re on the road and they can’t be with their mother.  She makes sure your home is taken care of.  She takes care of YOU.  Can you honestly say that looking after a temperamental woman and her illegitimate child can compete with that?”

His eyes shuttered.  “Are you saying that you can’t love me?”

“I can and I do,” she corrected, tweaking one of his curls.  “But I’m not IN love with you any more than you are with me.  Think about it David.  When you imagine going home, isn’t Lexi the one waiting for you?  Isn’t she the one you think about crawling in bed with at night?  If I had to guess, I’d say that you’ve never had the first sexual thought about me.”

The lectures from Tico.  The wounded look in Lexi’s eyes.  Richie.  His own recriminating thoughts.  All of it had gone in one ear and out the other.  However, one well-placed sentence from Allegra finally got through the dense cloud that had been fogging his brain. 

Yes, she preoccupied his mind most of the day, but he HADN’T thought about her in an ‘inappropriate’ way.    He thought of ways to make her laugh.  He wanted to see her smile, hear her voice, protect her and know that she was happy, but beyond that… 

She was right.  Even though he loved her like he’d never loved another woman, he wasn’t IN love with her.  Closer than a sister, dearer than a friend, she was a rare treasure that he’d been fortunate enough to find. 

He’d been that close to screwing it all up.  If Lexi was at home waiting for him tonight, they had a lot of talking to do.

“Fine,” he said tugging her ponytail.  “You won’t move in with me, and Lexi hopefully won’t kick my butt to the curb.  But I’ll still make sure you’re taken care of Legs.  I promise.”

With a lop-sided grin, she reminded him, “I’m a grownup, ya know.  I can take care of myself.”

“And you’ve done such an outstanding job of it this past week,” he observed with sarcasm, sliding back to the other side of the booth.  “You look like hell.  Have you even eaten?”

“Not… today.”

“Yesterday?” 

“Yes, yesterday.”

Blue lasers locked in on her with a knowing look.  “WHEN yesterday?”

She huffed, crossing her arms on the table.  “You think you know everything.”

“I found you, didn’t I?  And I also know that you can’t be trusted to take care of yourself.”  He signaled the waitress and ordered what amounted to a breakfast buffet without waiting for her answer OR consulting her.

“You’re coming home with me, Allegra,” he told her sternly after the order had been placed, knowing that use of her given name would highlight his earnestness.  “You may not have any biological brothers, but you’ve got me and you’re going to listen to me.  You need to talk to Richie.”

“David it’s not fair to put him in this position!”

“And it’s not fair to run off and break his heart either.  He looks like hell too, by the way.”

Life is too short, a voice whispered in her subconscious.

She reluctantly admitted that she was instinctively being stubborn, with no good reason.  Only a few hours ago she’d been ready to pack her bags and profess her love to Richie, no matter what the consequences. 

And now…

“Something else happened too,” she told him, slumping forward in the seat and averting her eyes.

“Is this the something that had you looking like a scared rabbit when you first saw me?”

Nodding, she revealed, “Felix found me at the cloister.”

David was immediately up in arms, frantically looking her over as though he hadn’t spent the last hour with her.  “Jesus!  Are you okay?  Did he hurt you?”

“No, I didn’t actually see him, but someone found my cross in the sanctuary.  The one Richie got me.  That Felix took.”

“That settles it then,” David pronounced.  “You’re coming home today.  We can send somebody back to get your stuff, but you’re not going back there.”

He wasn’t saying anything that she hadn’t already thought, so she decided to ignore the instinct to dispute his caveman routine, knowing that it was in her best interest. 

“Okay.  But can you define home?  I don’t really have one at the present.”

He rolled his eyes.  “You have at least half a dozen places that you can put your stuff, but we’re starting out at Jon’s.   After that, you and your boyfriend can decide where home is.”

Biting her lip, she idly tapped on the salt shaker, watching the stray granules release from the glass and settle on the heap in the bottom.  The pepper shaker was receiving the same careful attention when David broke the silence. 

“What else, Legs?”

Abandoning the shakers, she propped her chin in her hand and looked at him with despair.  “I’m scared, David.  Leaving was hard enough when I thought it was the right thing to do.  I don’t know how I’ll stand it if he doesn’t want me.”

“Sweet thing, don’t you worry your pretty little head about that.”  He tapped her lightly on the end of the nose with a smirk.  “I know Richie Sambora better than his mama does.  Everything’s gonna be just fine.”