Safe Harbour Page 0,142
him, he would bring Pip to live with him, or take an apartment in the city. His mind was whirling with ugly possibilities, when the nurse came to get him at two A.M. She looked serious, and Matt panicked the minute he saw her.
“Your wife wants to see you,” she said quietly, and he didn't correct her. He just set Pip's hand down gently and followed the nurse into the ICU. Ophélie was awake and she looked anxious to see him. She beckoned him to come close to her, and he was terrified she was having a premonition of worse to come, and as soon as he bent next to her, and touched her cheek gently, she started to talk to Matt in a whisper. It was obviously hard for her to breathe.
“I'm so sorry, Matt… you were right… I'm so sorry… will you take care of Pip?” It was what he had feared. She was afraid she was dying, and wanted him to make some arrangement for Pip. He knew she had very little family, except distant cousins in Paris. There was no one to take her but him.
“You know I will… Ophélie, I love you… don't go anywhere, sweetheart… stay here with us…we both need you… you have to get well …” He was pleading with her.
“I will,” she promised, and then drifted off to sleep as the nurse signaled to him to leave.
“How is she?” he asked the nurse at the desk as he left. “Has anything changed?”
“She's holding her own,” the nurse reassured him. She was impressed that he and the child had been there all day and night. Things like that made a difference, and it always surprised her how many people didn't bother. But Pip and Matt had hardly moved, except for their brief trip home for less than two hours. And in the morning, when the shifts changed, they were still there. But Ophélie seemed a little better.
He took Pip home again, and told her he either had to buy some clothes or drive home to get his own. They discussed it over breakfast, and decided to stop at Macy's on the way back to pick up some things for him. It was obvious that Pip didn't want him to leave, so he didn't.
He finally got a minute to call Robert and tell him that morning, and made an arrangement with Alice to walk the dog regularly. He called Pip's school, and they assured him that she didn't need to come in. They were very sympathetic and hoped that Mrs. Mackenzie would be better soon. There had been several distressed calls from the Wexler Center, but he had no desire whatsoever to talk to them, and didn't.
And after a brief stop at Macy's, they went back to the hospital, and took up their vigil again at the ICU. And finally, by that night, Ophélie looked a little better. Bob, Jeff, and Millie had come by to see her, and noticed it too. And after they left, he was tucking Pip in with a warm blanket a nurse had given them, when she looked up at him from the couch.
“I love you, Matt.”
“I love you too, Pip,” he said quietly. He had bought enough clothes and underwear to keep him going for a week. Sooner or later, he'd have to go back to the beach, but he was planning to stay in the city with Pip for as long as he was needed. It didn't look like he'd be going home anytime soon.
“Do you love my mom too?” She'd never been exactly sure of what had gone on between them. They were both extremely discreet about it.
“Yes, I do.” He smiled down at her, and she smiled at him.
“Will you marry her when she gets better?” He liked the fact that she had said when and not if. He wanted to think of it that way too. “She needs you, Matt. And I need you too.” It almost made him cry listening to her, and he wasn't sure what to say to her. Before she'd been shot, Ophélie had been by no means sure of how she felt about him, or what she wanted to do about it, although he was totally sure of how he felt about her.
“I'd like to, Pip,” he said honestly. “I think we'd have to ask her, don't you?”
“I think she loves you too. She's just scared. My dad wasn't always so nice to her. He shouted a lot,