Rainy Day Friends Read online

  She jerked around, trying to quickly swipe the tears from her face. “Mark,” she gasped. “I . . . didn’t see you.”

  He stepped out of the dark corner as she stared at him. “How much did you hear?”

  “Everything.”

  She winced. “I’m sorry,” she said. “About a lot of things, but mostly for fighting you and your family’s easy acceptance and love.” She met his gaze, letting him see her regrets, loneliness, sadness. “I’m not trying to give excuses, but it’s taken me a while to believe I deserved—” She shook her head. “But then River believed in me so much too and . . .”

  “Did you mean it, Lanie? What you told the baby?”

  She closed her eyes for a beat and then opened them on his. “Yes. But I’m not like you, Mark. The depths of what I feel for you is nothing short of terrifying.”

  “And yet every day you show up,” he said, catching her hand and slowly pulling her in, pressing her palm to his chest over his heart. “What do you think the definition of courage is?”

  “You,” she said, surprising him. “You were a soldier. You spent years overseas fighting for your country. And then you came home and faced being a single dad with the same ease.”

  He had to laugh. “Ease isn’t exactly the word I’d use. For any of my life.” He paused. “I’ve been scared plenty of times. What I’ve never been is fearless. If you can run into a battle unafraid, you’re not courageous, you’re just a dumbass. It’s knowing the price you’re going to pay and being willing to pay it anyway that makes you brave.”

  “See? You are the bravest man I know. And . . .” She swallowed hard. “I’m trying to learn from that. From you.”

  He’d spent a lot of years learning how to control his reactions, but there was no controlling his heart in that moment as it took a good heart leap. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying . . .” She stepped in closer so that they were touching from chest to thighs. “I’m saying that I don’t want to keep running. Not from you.”

  He stared at her. “Which means . . . ?”

  “I love you,” she said softly but without any hesitation, her voice firm and knowing, the words a balm over his wounded soul.

  “What turned the tide in my favor?” He cupped her face. “My two little heathens that interrupt us night and day? My insane family that constantly sticks their noses into our business? Or maybe it’s the impossible hours I work?”

  She gave him a small smile. “Would you believe all of the above?” She slid her hands up his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck. “But it was also that you saw me at my worst. You saw me when I had one foot out the door and was ready to blindly run off and leave everything because I was scared, and you still looked at me like I was one of the most important people on earth to you.”

  “Because you are.”

  “Right back at you.” She slid her fingers into his hair. “You know that, right?”

  He smile was slow and warm and sexy. “I do now. We make a good team, Lanie. Say you know that.”

  “I know it. I love it. And I love you, Marcus Capriotti, so much.”

  WHEN RIVER WAS released from the hospital, Lanie picked her up. She’d somehow managed to talk the entire Capriotti family into letting her go alone, not wanting River to be overwhelmed, thinking that mama and baby might need a few minutes of quiet time before being inundated with the whole clan.

  Once they were in the car, River buckled into the backseat, the baby safely in her car seat next to River, Lanie carefully pulled out of the hospital parking lot and onto the street.

  “Hey, Granny,” River said after a few minutes. “Did you know they can give you a ticket for going too slow?”

  “I’m not going too slow.”

  “If you were going any slower, you’d be going backward.”

  Lanie didn’t speed up.

  At a red light, River spoke. She was twisted to face the baby, smiling at her like she was talking right to her. “So . . . when are you leaving?”

  Lanie glanced at her in the rearview mirror.

  “I heard you and Mark fighting,” River said. “The night I almost . . .”

  Bled out on her cottage floor.

  The light turned green and Lanie put her eyes on the road as she pulled out into the intersection. “I’m not. Leaving.”

  “But you said you didn’t want the extra work.”

  “I changed my mind,” Lanie said. “I told Cora I’d stay for as long as she needed a graphic designer.”

  “How long is that going to be?”

  Lanie slowed for the next intersection even though she had a green light.

  River rolled her eyes.

  “Cora offered me a permanent job,” Lanie said.

  River gasped in delight, reminding Lanie of Samantha. “So you got your head out of your ass?” she asked, clapping in glee. “You’re staying? Are you going to marry Mark and live happily ever after?”

  “Seriously, you’ve got to stop watching Hallmark and Lifetime.”

  River was smiling. “Come on, say it. Tell me.”

  “Yes. I’m staying.”

  “And . . .” River pressed.

  “And . . . I’m going to make a go of this thing with Mark.” She couldn’t say it without grinning wide like an idiot. She clapped a hand over her mouth. “I don’t know what that is,” she said from behind her fingers. “I can’t get rid of the smile. It’s been there since last night.”

  “It’s happiness about your happy ever after.”

  “You’ve got to stop saying that,” Lanie said. “You’re making me nervous. I don’t want to jinx it. Let’s call it a happy for now, okay?”

  “A happy for now,” River said, looking thrilled. “I like the sound of that. I could live with that.”

  Lanie met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “You’ll get your chance.”

  River looked out the window and didn’t comment, and Lanie got it. She knew River felt as if she’d blown things with Holden, who’d had to leave to go back to his post. He’d waited as long as he could, staying until they knew River was going to make it after her surgery.

  “Hey,” Lanie said softly. “I’m the queen of messing up a good thing, but mistakes happen and they can be forgiven. Cora told me that and she was right.”

  River looked at her pensively and slowly nodded.

  Lanie pulled them up to the winery and helped River out of the car, turning back for the baby carrier. “I’ve got her,” she told River. “You’re not to lift anything more than a tissue for a week, remember?”

  River bent over Delaney and kissed her little nose. “You’re in good hands with Aunt Lanie, baby.”

  Aunt Lanie.

  There were worse things . . . She found herself smiling with pride as they headed inside to find most of the family in the front reception room, where there were streamers and balloons and a huge banner that read WELCOME HOME, RIVER!

  Cora, Mark, and the twins were there. No one else.

  “I told everyone else to stay at work,” Cora said. “I figured you needed a quiet homecoming.” She walked up to River and hugged her tight. “Welcome home, honey.”

  River burrowed in and wrapped her arms around Cora. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Lanie heard a sniffle and didn’t know if it came from River or Cora, but she suspected both.

  Mark took the baby carrier from Lanie and set baby Delaney on a tabletop. Then he reached for Lanie’s hand. “Hey. You good?”

  Lanie squeezed his hand and nodded.

  “Lanie, Lanie, Lanie!” Sam yelled in greeting.

  Lanie sank to one of the chairs so that Sierra could crawl into her lap. Lanie wrapped her arms around the girl and leaned over Mark to his other side where Samantha was sipping on red punch, complete with a red mustache. Lanie puckered up for a kiss and got a raspberry-flavored one. “Hi,” she whispered to the three most important people in her world.

  “Hi!” the twins said in unison, with matching gr