The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

Lark entered Max's hospital room and stood watching him sleep.

"You're too far away, chère," he didn't even open his eyes.

"How did you know I was here?"

"I always know when you're near," he wiggled his fingers for her to approach. "It's like the air around me seems to settle."

"You're silly."

"Come cuddle me," he grumbled when he heard her dragging a chair to his bedside. He lifted his blankets to encourage her to climb in.

"Max, I can't get in your hospital bed."

"We're not going to have s*x, Lark. I want to hold you."

"It's against the rules."

"Break the rules," his eyes were open now staring at her.

"Ugh, fine but only because you begged," she scoffed refusing to admit she needed his arms around her desperately.

She slipped into the bed being careful to avoid all the wires, tubes and drainage and she rested her head on the pillow beside him, staring into his eyes. "Hi."

"Hi. Are you okay?" His voice was soft and concerned.

"Gracie is in surgery."

"Is she?"

"They found a surgeon who would do the surgery. Twenty percent success rate but it's better than the zero of leaving her lying there on life support," her fingers scratched at the beard growing in on his jawline. "I'm scared. I just found her, and I feel like she's going to die."

"She has so much to live for, Lark. She's a fighter."

"She has to be a fighter. I met her mother. The woman is a bitch."

"Charlotte actually showed up?"

"Dad paid for her to be here in case Gracie passed and the minute she walked in, she was asking for money, hitting Dad, and scheming ways to sue for emotional damage. Dad ripped her a new one. Mom slapped her. Fallon shoved her." She grinned suddenly, "and then Ollie had Santiago and Heriberto take her to a roach motel. Ollie was brutal man. Threatened to drop her down an oil well."

Max chuckled before coughing and rubbing his chest. "Ollie can be pretty tough."

"Then Charlotte started mouthing off about suing whoever shot Gracie and Santiago said she couldn't sue a dead man."

Max was quiet as he studied her eyes, "Doug is dead?"

"Yes. Ollie told me not to ask questions and to accept he died in police custody but," she bit her bottom lip.

"But you're sad?"

She shook her head with tears spilling from the edges of her eyes, "that's the problem Max. I'm not. I'm relieved and there's a part of me which is angry I wasn't part of it. What kind of human being am I for me to want to be there to see the prick who killed my nana and Sawyer and might have killed Gracie be murdered? I kept thinking if I had the weapon in my hand I pulled on Santiago when Doug showed up, I would have shot him myself. I wish I'd killed him."

"Oh honey, no," Max slipped an arm under her shoulder to curl her towards him. "No. You are angry right now and rightfully so, but you are meant to do such things. I know we often talk about being cold motherfuckers Lark but we're not. We're soft and it's why we have such a strong security detail who can do these things. We're not meant to kill and maim. Our job is to love."

"I'm so angry, Max." she sniffed as the tears fell.

"I know," he kissed her forehead, wincing when she snuggled against him.

"s**t," she pulled back, "Max I can't lay on you. They cracked your chest open."

"It was a simple bypass."

"Max," she started to sit up and pull away from him. "Do not downplay what you went through."

"I'm not, I'm not." He sounded panicked as she moved. "Please. Stay."

"How about I hold you instead?" she questioned as she slid further up the bed and let him rest his head on her chest. She watched as he grabbed a button, pressed it, and knew he was increasing the pain medication. He definitely was feeling pain with her in the bed, but he wasn't letting her leave. She played with his hair and closed her eyes. She felt his breathing even out as the medication settled in and she sighed. "What am I going to do with you Max?"

"Love me forever," he said quietly.

"You need to take this seriously. This is your heart, Max."

"I know." He caught her hand and pressed his lips to her palm. "I love you, Lark. I'm taking it seriously, but the truth is, I'm scared to death. If I don't treat it lightly, I'm going to spiral into panic because it's so bloody scary. All I can think of is how much time I've lost with you, and I don't want to lose another moment." "Max, you're not going to lose me."

"Life is too short, Lark. After you left and went back down to the room with your parents, the doctor came in and talked to me. I asked him to come back again when you're here because a lot of it, I wasn't really understanding but I need to know what to do to make sure ĺ live a long time with you. I'm still pretty loopy on pain killers and Mom was asking so many questions I barely kept track of what either of them were saying.

"Your mom will explain," she chuckled at his whining.

"No, she won't. She'll give me hell for not listening."

"True," she kissed the top of his head.

"She wants me to move back into her place when we go back to Dallas." He grumbled. "I told her there was no need because you're moving in with me."

"I didn't agree to this, Max." she tugged his hair in a punishment.

"But you will, won't you chère?" he tilted his head a bit to bat his lashes at her. "Wouldn't it be better than me having to climb the drainpipe up to your old bedroom at your mom's house?"

"I went looking at condos."

"And you didn't find anything at you liked but you like my place." He stared at her, "unless," he took a breath as if ready to ask a huge question.

"Unless what?"

"Unless you'd like to buy a house."

"A house?"

"Yeah. A house. There is this house on the street behind Mom and Dad's house. It's not on their cul-de- sac but it's in the same gated community."

"Max," her voice was a soft protest, "you want to buy a house in our parent's neighborhood?"

"Well, when I was laying here dying and they were yelling at me to stay alive, one of the nurses was telling me to think of something I wanted to stay alive to see more than anything in the world and cling to it so I could stay alive. She then jammed a tube down my throat, and it really hurt but all I could think of was a little girl with big blue eyes and dark hair calling me daddy and sneaking under the fence to visit her grandparents."

"Jesus Max," she wiped another tear off her cheek at his overactive imagination. "I'm not ready to be a mom."

"No but someday you will, and I want it to be with me. I want us to be a family, Lark. I missed out on twelve years because I was too scared to tell you how I feel. I never want to lose another minute. I almost died and didn't tell you everything. I love you. I want to build a life with you. I want to build a house and a family and make babies. I was thinking, there could be a chance my d**k doesn't work right after all this. We might want to freeze embryos."

She cut him off laughing, "oh my gosh, Max!" He was high. It was the only explanation for his words. "What? I'm not high," he protested with slurred speech.

"You're spiraling."

"Don't you want to have my babies?"

She giggled in spite of herself. "Max, how much drugs are they giving you?"

"A lot and it makes the pain stop but it also makes me dream of our babies." He pursed his lips, "a lot of happy drugs."

"I thought so. Why don't you close your eyes and dream of all the names of the children we are going to have?" "How many can we have?"

"How many do you want?" She prayed he didn't remember most of this conversation tomorrow. "Three. Can we have three? I want three so they can have the childhood you, me and Ollie had." "But they will be three different aged kids, Max."

"Multiples run in my family."

"Not in mine," she snickered. "I don't want to get pregnant three times. I've heard from your mom what it does to a woman's body. She once told me every time she sneezes, she pees."

"She pissed herself once on a trampoline. Ollie and I laughed at her for days."

"You want to put me through this?"

"Yes." His response was firm, and she frowned at it.

"What if we have a middle child and he turns into an LJ?"

"Never. My father is a pushover, Lark. It takes a hell of a lot for him to snap with us, especially with the triplets. They were born so teeny tiny sometimes he forgot they were growing. The only reason he's in the bayou right now is because my mom called my grandfather crying. My father and grandfather hate when she cries and when she does, they finally sit up and take notice. I won't make their mistakes. I want to think I would be the best of both my parents. Learning from their errors and all that." "Max, you're too funny."

He continued talking about their hypothetical children. How he wanted all girls because he wanted to have princesses like Grady did and how they would have the smartest children on the planet. He mumbled about how he was going to help them be empowered and strong but not mean like Ollie, which caused her to snicker. She let him ramble at length, some of his storytelling growing increasingly absurd. His voice was getting lower and his speech more drawled out as exhaustion started to chase him. She stroked his scalp, massaging him to sleep.

"I love you Max," she whispered as a bubble of a snore escaped his lips.

"I love you, more" he whispered back snuggling into her breasts. "You should marry me, Lark."

Her hand froze in his hair as her eyes widened incredulously. She tilted her head sideways to lean over and look at him. His eyes were closed, another snore erupted and a contented sigh from him filled the

room.

Did he propose right as he succumbed to the drugs coursing through his system? She looked up to the door to see Ollie leaning against it with a wide smile pulling on her cheeks.

"You heard him, right?"

"Yes." Ollie entered the room. "If you really want to screw with him, show up tomorrow in a white dress and the hospital cleric. He won't know what hit him."

"Knowing the way, he's been the last twenty-four hours of not wanting me out of his sight," Lark sighed, "he'd lock it down." "Does it scare you?" Ollie asked curiously as she brushed hair off her brother's forehead.

"No, weirdly," she smiled up at Ollie, "it makes me happy."

"He's so ugly though," Ollie patted his cheek before flinging herself down in a chair. "So, what should we do about Charlotte?"