Breaking the Rules

CHAPTER

THIRTY-ONE



Danny needed surgery, because the bullet that had hit him hadn’t exited his leg.

It was supposed to be quick and easy, but Eden knew that Jennilyn was anxious. She and Izzy had volunteered to sit with her in the waiting room, even as Ben was being given a thorough examination just down the hall.

Mark Jenkins had gone to get food from the hospital cafeteria, and had brought it back with him—burgers and salads and fries. Izzy dug in—they were all hungry—while Eden went to see what was taking Jenn so long in the ladies’ room.

She bumped into Lindsey—Mark’s wife—who was also on her way in to use the facilities.

“Oh, hi, Eden,” Lindsey said. “Neesha’s in talking to Ben, and Lopez is with them. I’ve had a lot of coffee this morning, so …” She made a face.

“It’s been a long night,” Eden agreed.

Jenn was over at the sinks, washing her hands, and she looked up at Eden in the mirror. “You can say that again.”

“It’s been a long one for Lindsey, too,” Eden told her. She looked at Lindsey. “Danny told me about your miscarriage. I’m so sorry.”

Lindsey sighed. “Yeah,” she said. “It still hasn’t really …” Tears flooded her eyes, but she blinked them back and smiled. “The really stupid thing is that I was really scared, you know, at first? At the idea of having this baby. But Mark was so happy and … I just finally started to really get into it and …”

“The really stupid thing isn’t that,” Eden told her as she gave Lindsey a hug. “The really stupid thing is that you miscarried. It’s not fair, and it sucks, and I am so, so sorry.”

Lindsey laughed through her tears as she hugged Eden back. “Yeah, it really does suck, doesn’t it?”

“And everyone goes, well, I guess it wasn’t meant to be and you just want to bitch-slap them,” Eden said, and she felt Lindsey nod.

“Mark’s really upset,” Lindsey confessed. “You know, we’re buying this house, and now he’s talking about just fixing it up a little and turning around and selling it right away. And I know what he means, because it just feels so pathetic and sad.”

“But you can try again,” Eden said, pulling back to look at her. “Can’t you? I mean …”

“Well, yeah,” Lindsey said, wiping her eyes. “Except, we weren’t exactly trying. It was kind of accidental, so …”

“So now you get to try,” Eden said. “I mean, if you want. If you don’t, that’s okay, too, you know? And you move into the house, because you weren’t buying it for the baby—that’s crazy. You don’t buy a baby a house. You buy it for your family. And your family’s just going to be a little bit smaller than you’d thought, at least for a little while. You’ve still got Mark and he’s still got you.”

Lindsey nodded. “You know, you’re right.” But then she laughed. “Am I the only one aware of the irony of this wisdom coming from the crazy woman who ran away to Germany after losing her baby?”

Eden laughed, too, as she wiped her own eyes. “Guilty as charged,” she said. “I was crazy. But I got better. Eventually, it starts to suck a little less.”

Lindsey hugged her again. “Thanks,” she said. “You know, Izzy really loves you.”

Eden smiled. “I do know. And I love him, too.”

“Good,” Lindsey said, “because if you mess with him again, I’d have to beat you senseless, regardless of how nice you are to me.”

“You won’t have to,” Eden said.

And as Lindsey went into one of the stalls, Eden looked over at Jenn, who’d been standing there quietly, by the sink. “You okay?”

Jenn nodded. “I’m just …”

“I know,” Eden said. “The doctor should be out soon. And then you can go in and see Danny.”

“That’ll be good,” Jenn said.

And together they went out and sat with Izzy and with Mark Jenkins. And they were even joined by Ben and Neesha and Jay Lopez and finally Lindsey, who came out of the bathroom right before the doctor appeared and said the words they all were waiting to hear.

“He’s going to be just fine. He’s alert—you can go in to see him now.”


The first thing that Dan said to Jenn when she went into the room where he was recovering from his surgery was, “The doctor said the bullet didn’t even so much as nick the artery. Recovery’s going to be much faster and easier.”

She laughed because she knew that he was thinking about sex, but then she started to cry, because she was just so overwhelmed.

“Hey,” he said, trying to sit up to put his arms around her, but the nurse started making noise, so Jenn came to him, so he could hold her. Even though he was the one in the hospital bed.

“I’m sorry,” she said, but he stopped her.

“It’s okay,” he said, his hands so gentle in her hair. “It’s all right. Everyone’s all right …”

“I know,” she said, “and I’m so grateful. And it’s all working out just perfectly. You know, we missed the meeting with CPS, but even that’s okay, because Ivette and Greg didn’t. Izzy really must’ve had some kind of come-to-Jesus meeting with them, because they convinced the social workers to let Ben live with either you and me or Eden and Izzy, either is fine, so maybe we can share him, you know? He can have a room in both of our apartments, like joint custody, so we can all have some alone time, too. And I was talking to Eden and we figured when you and Izzy go overseas, the three of us can live together, I mean, we’ll try it, you know? It might make it easier. And all the charges against Eden have been dropped, and the FBI is going to help Neesha find her grandfather, and everything’s going to be wonderful, except Mark and Lindsey just want to crawl away somewhere so they can cry, because it didn’t work out perfectly for them. They lost their baby and what if I really am pregnant and won’t that be rubbing their faces in it? I mean, God!”

“Wow,” Dan said. “Okay, I’m glad I opted for the local anesthesia, because if I were on something heavy-duty right now? I’d start crying, too. That would’ve been a mind-bender. But I’m pretty sure I followed. And really, Jenni, I don’t think you’re gonna have to worry about—”

Jenn wiped her face as she sat back to look at him. “I threw up. Before. In the bathroom.”

He laughed. “Are you shitting me?”

“Maybe it’s a bug. I really didn’t think you could get pregnant that fast.”

“Well, I can’t get pregnant at any speed,” he pointed out.

“You know what I mean.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m good.”

Jenn laughed her disbelief. “That’s your response? That you’re good?”

“Well, obviously I am.”

“Maybe I’m good,” she said. “Maybe I’m just, like, so fertile, we’re going to have twenty kids. Ten sets of twins. One a year for the next decade.”

Dan was unfazed. “Only one a year? We can do better than that.”

She laughed again, and he said, “I meant what I said. I love you. I also meant what I said about leaving the Teams. I think it’s time.”

Jenn shook her head. “You don’t have to do that for me. I know that I was scared when you got injured—”

“It’s not just about that,” Dan told her. “It’s about … Well, you having to leave your job. But if I don’t reup, we can live in New York, and you can keep doing what you’re doing. Your work with that shelter for homeless veterans—Jenni, that’s so important—”

“And what you do isn’t?” she countered. “As important as it is to make sure homeless vets have a place to go, what you do, as a SEAL, keeps regular soldiers out of harm’s way. What you do reduces the need for homeless shelters.” She smiled. “Dan, trust me, I’ll find an important job—something that I love doing—in California. And if I am pregnant, well, I hope I don’t shock you, but if I have a baby? I’m going to want to work, part-time, from home, if I can. At least until, I don’t know, preschool? Like I said, please don’t do this for me.”

“How about if I do it for me?” he said quietly.

Jenn gazed into his eyes, and nodded. “I’ve already given Maria my notice, so … Whatever you do, I think we should stay in California, at least for the short term. Until Ben graduates.”

He looked back at her. “You’re serious.”

“I meant it, too,” she told him. “When I made those vows.”

He drew her in for a kiss. But then he started to laugh. And when he pulled back to look at her, Jenn expected a variation on the “Damn, I’m good” theme.

Instead, he smiled at her with such warmth in his eyes, and he said, “Baby, you have no idea how very much I love you.”

“Actually,” Jenn said, smiling back at him, “I think I do.”


By the time Dan was moved into a regular hospital room, Lindsey and Jenk and Lopez had left to bring Neesha to an FBI safe house, along with the little girl who’d been on the plane.

Jenk and Lindsey were going to be staying with Neesha for a while, until she felt more secure in her new surroundings.

So it was just Eden and Izzy and Jenni and Ben hanging out in Danny-Danny-bo-banny’s room, mocking the contents of his dinner tray, complete with runny Jell-O.

Actually, it was Izzy who was doing the mocking as Eden sat on his lap. Jenn was still looking a little peaked, and Ben was curled up on the other empty bed, taking a nap.

There weren’t a lot of chairs in the room, but that wasn’t why Izzy had pulled Eden down on top of him.

He wanted his arms around her for another few hours. Okay, days. Weeks? Years. Damn, it would be okay with him if they could just sit like this for the rest of their lives.

Of course, having her there made it hard to concentrate on the quiet conversation that Jenn and Dan were having, across the room. Until Izzy heard Dan say, “… two bedrooms—it’s really nice. It’s close to the base, too, and … I talked to Jenk, and he said it would be great if we rented. He thinks it’s unlikely they’ll be able to sell in this market—”

“Are you talking about Jenk and Lindsey’s condo?” Izzy asked. “Because I just talked to Linds, and she said that Eden and I could rent it.”

“No, no,” Dan said. “Uh-uh. We got first dibs.”

Izzy sat up, making Eden grab him more tightly around the neck, which was very nice. “How do you get first dibs? What are dibs, anyway, and why should you get them?”

“Maybe we should flip a coin,” Jenn suggested, ever the voice of reason.

“Flip a coin?” Izzy asked, “for the greatest apartment in San Diego?” as Dan chimed in with, “Ah, babe, seriously, their place is awesome.”

“Cool,” Ben said, opening his eyes. “If I’m living with both of you guys, I get to live there no matter what, right?”

“The kitchen’s amazing.” Dan waxed poetic. “And the living room has this huge slider that opens up the entire wall to this screened porch. At night, when the sun sets … The view … It’s gorgeous.”

Izzy was nodding his agreement when Eden kissed him on the side of his face. “It’s just an apartment,” she whispered into his ear. “We can find someplace else.”

And as he pulled back to look into her eyes, he realized that she was right.

“Tie goes to the man who was shot,” Izzy said as he held Eden’s gaze. “The man who has to stay overnight in the hospital instead of renting a fabulous hotel room with his wife, on the government’s dime.”

“Are we seriously renting a fabulous hotel room on the government’s dime?” Eden asked with a smile.

“Kinda gotta, sweetheart,” Izzy reminded her. “Dead guy in your apartment.”

“Yeesh,” she said. “I forgot about that.”

Izzy stood up, with Eden still in his arms. “In fact, I think we’re going to go out right now and make those arrangements. Ben, we’ll be back for you a little bit later, dude.”

“I’ll be here,” Ben said.

“Wow,” Izzy heard Dan say as he carried Eden out of the room, “I think Zanella just let me win, but how come it doesn’t feel like I won?”

Eden was laughing, so Izzy put her down in the hallway, and they walked, hand in hand, to the elevators. It wasn’t until they were out front, at the taxi stand, that she turned to him and said, “Thank you for believing me—and not giving up on me.”

“You’re welcome,” he said.

“I love you,” she said, “and I need you. You make the sky more blue.”

“You do the same for me,” he admitted.

She nodded. “Good. And—I just want you to know that, the next time something in my life is hard and painful, I’m going to run toward you, not away from you, okay?”

Izzy nodded, too. “That would be most excellent.”

“And about the apartment,” she said. “I just thought since Danny seemed to really be into it, and … That sort of thing doesn’t matter that much to, well, to either one of us and …”

“Eden,” Izzy told this woman who was his wife, his lover, and his best friend, “we’ll find someplace perfect. I know we will, because as long as you’re there? I’m home.”

Eden smiled and kissed him.

And the sky was very, very blue.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR


SUZANNE BROCKMANN is the award-winning author of fifty books, and is widely recognized as one of the leading voices in romantic suspense. Her work has earned her repeated appearances on the New York Times bestseller list, as well as numerous awards, including Romance Writers of America’s #1 Favorite Book of the Year and two RITA Awards.


Brockmann divides her time between Siesta Key, Florida, New York City, and Boston, Massachusetts. Visit her website at www.SuzanneBrockmann.com and find her on Facebook by searching for Suz Brockmann’s Troubleshooters World.