by Jill Limber
Jolie wasn’t from around here. She didn’t realize how storms like this could blow in with little or no warning.
He should have told her, warned her.
Griff and Chris both spotted the faint red flash of a hazard light in the ditch beside the road.
Griff skidded to a halt and backed up as Chris opened the door and leaped from the truck.
Griff was around the side and sliding down into the ditch beside the disabled car as Lem came flying out from the back seat.
The car had settled against the bank on the driver’s side. The windows were covered with a heavy coating of snow. The three men dug frantically to clear the back door so they could get into the vehicle.
When they had cleared enough snow to drag open the door, Griff found Jolie huddled motionless on the back seat. She had her body curled against the back of the seat.
For a terrible moment fear held him frozen in place.
Jolie wasn’t moving, and there was no sign of the baby.
Where was the baby? Where was Riley?
Griff slid into the car and touched a hand to Jolie’s shoulder. “Jolie, sweetheart? Wake up.” She didn’t move, and Griff felt a ball of ice form in his gut.
He didn’t want to shake her. She could be badly injured. He peeled off a glove and ran his hand up under her hair to the back of her neck. To his relief he could feel her pulse and her skin was warm to his touch.
“Jolie, can you hear me?”
She groaned and tried to sit up.
“Don’t move yet.” He held her down with a gentle pressure on her shoulder.
“Jolie, where’s the baby, honey?”
Her voice sounded muffled against the seat. “Inside my jacket. I got in the back to keep him warm.”
Griff felt a flood of relief. He turned toward the two anxious faces of his hands. “Lem, there’s a blanket behind the back seat in my truck.”
Lem nodded and scrambled up the embankment.
Griff turned back to Jolie. “Does your neck hurt? Or your back?”
She was quiet for a moment. “No, just my head.”
“All right. I want you to see if you can sit up. Take it slow.” He gripped her shoulders and helped her into a sitting position. It was awkward going, because of the tilt of the car.
The left side of her face was bloody.
She was clutching her jacket around the baby. Her gloveless hands were blue.
“Is Riley hurt?”
“I think he’s asleep.”
“Let me have him, sweetheart.”
She looked at him as if she was trying to figure out who he was. “I was taking him to the hospital.” She didn’t seem to want to let go of the baby.
Griff pried one of her hands loose and managed to lift Riley out of her arms. He was breathing regularly, but his little face was smeared with dried blood.
Griff rubbed his cold hand over the baby’s cheek, and he woke up with a whimper, then grinned up at Griff.
He held him against his chest. “Thank God,” he whispered into the toddler’s matted hair.
Gently Griff handed Riley over to Chris. “Take him up in the cab and keep him warm.
He helped Jolie scoot toward the door. “Let’s see if you can stand up.” Her whole body was trembling.
She clutched at his arm. “Where’s Riley?”
“Chris took him to my truck. It’s warm in the cab.”
“Warm?” She said longingly as he draped the blanket around her shoulders.
“We’ll get you up there right now.” He angled her legs out of the car. “You need to stand up.”
“Okay.”
He helped her upright, and her knees buckled under her. Griff picked her up, but he knew he’d have a hard time getting up the steep bank with her.
Lem hovered at his elbow, then turned and pointed back along the road. “Boss, the bank isn’t as steep back this way.”
With Lem’s help he made it up to the highway just as a trooper pulled to a stop. He made a U-turn to park behind Griff’s truck.
He climbed out of his cruiser. “Need an ambulance?”
Griff held Jolie’s welcome weight against his chest. “It will be quicker to take them in ourselves.”
The trooper eyed her. “Is she badly hurt?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Griff prayed he was right as he kept walking toward his truck.
The trooper yelled after him. “Is anyone else in the car?”
Lem answered for Griff. “Nope.”
As Griff handed Jolie into the back seat of the cab, the trooper came up behind him. “I’ll call for a wrecker and have the car towed. Where do you want it to go?”
Griff didn’t give a damn about the car. “Have him take it to Winslow’s.”
“Will do. You drive carefully now. You’ll probably meet the plow in another few miles.”
Griff climbed in beside Jolie and scooped her onto his lap. Chris and Lem were already in the front, and Jolie insisted they hand the baby back to her.
Jolie settled the baby against her chest, and Griff held them both all the way into Billings.
He’d never been so scared in his life.
When they pulled up outside the emergency room, Griff coaxed Jolie into handing the baby over to a waiting nurse, then bundled her into a wheelchair. An orderly took her off to the X-ray department.
He held Riley while the doctor examined the gash on the child’s head and applied sterile strips to the cut.
A nurse came in and cleaned off the dried blood on Riley’s face. She gave Griff instructions on keeping the area dry for a few days, then pronounced them released.
Griff hoisted Riley onto his hip and went in search of Jolie. He spotted Chris talking to a pretty little brunette nurse in a corner of the waiting room.
After questioning several people, he found Jolie in a bed in an exam cubicle, arguing with the doctor, who was looking at a set of X-rays on the light box on the wall.
“I feel fine, really. I don’t want to spend the night.”
She was pale, setting off the livid bruise that surrounded the cut on her temple.
Riley and Jolie were going to have matching black eyes.
Her left wrist was in a brace and two fingers on her right hand were splinted.
The doctor eyed her over the top of his glasses. “You have a concussion. You need to stay for observation.”
She spotted Griff in the doorway, her worried eyes on Riley. “Is he okay?”
Griff moved closer to the bed. “Doctor said he’s fine. Didn’t even put in stitches.”
Eyes filled with tears, she reached for Riley as the baby held out his arms to her. “Griff, I don’t want to stay here.”
God, he wanted to take her home and hold her all night. But the doctor was right.
Griff cleared his throat. “You heard what the doctor said. Just for one night.” Then he’d bring her home and hold her all night.
“Listen to your husband. It’s only one night.” He gestured to Riley and then Griff as he headed toward the door. “These fellows can get along without you for that long. That painkiller is going to make you sleep in a few minutes.”
Husband, Griff thought as he nodded in agreement with the doctor. A month ago the label would have had him running like a spooked steer. Now it didn’t sound so bad.
Jolie looked as if she was going to argue further, then she seemed to give up and close her eyes.
Griff lifted Riley out of her limp arms. He bent down and kissed her forehead. “You sleep, darlin’, and I’ll pick you up first thing tomorrow.”
Her eyes fluttered open and she mumbled, “Promise. First thing. Bring me some clothes, okay?”
“You bet. We’ll see you tomorrow.” He kissed her again but she was already asleep.
Griff caught up with the doctor. “She’s going to be okay, right?”
“She’ll have a headache for a few days. The sprained wrist should be rested. The two broken fingers will probably be the worst of it
, especially dealing with this little guy.” He lifted Riley’s chin to look at the gash on his head.
The baby pulled back. Griff laughed. “I think he’s had enough poking for one day.”
“Can you get your wife some help with the baby?”
“Sure. Thanks, Doc.” He’d call Alice Muller as soon as he got home and ask her to start working early. If she couldn’t, he’d stay home.
He went out and collected Lem and Chris. They stopped by the garage to get the baby’s car seat and then headed back to the Circle P.
Griff glanced down at his watch, amazed that it was only four in the afternoon. It felt like the longest day of his life.
Chapter Thirteen
Jolie came awake and tried to shift into a comfortable position on the narrow hospital bed. In spite of the pain medication the nurse had given her, every part of her body ached, her head most of all.
She cracked open one eye and saw a tall figure standing at the window surrounded by the early glow of dawn.
Her heart gave a little leap. Griff had come to take her home.
Then she realized it wasn’t Griff.
“Daddy?” She saw him turn with a start.
“Baby, how are you feeling?” He crossed the room and sat on the chair beside the bed.
She groaned. “Oh, don’t ask. I had a really bad day yesterday.”
“So I heard. What were you thinking, driving into a blizzard?”
Jolie closed her eyes and fought back the tears. She knew her father loved her, but he still treated her like a nine-year-old with no sense.
“There was an emergency.” She didn’t have the energy to explain, and he would just argue with her until he declared himself the winner.
She changed the subject. “How did you find out about the accident?”
“The man who owns the ranch where you’ve been staying gave me a call last night.”
“Griff?”
He nodded. “So I left right away. As soon as you are released this morning we can fly back to Seattle.”
“But my car—”
“Will be shipped. And Mr. Price will send your things.”
“You spoke to him?”
“I left a message.” He said it as if it never occurred to him his request could be denied.
Jolie closed her eyes and let the tears come. As easily as that, Griff would pack up her belongings. Would he be able to pack away his memories, as well? She almost laughed at the romantic thought. She suspected the memories were very one-sided in their relationship.
Maybe it was for the best that she leave today and make a clean break. Every day she stayed she fell more in love with Griff and Riley, making the prospect of saying goodbye more difficult.
Courage, she told herself. You’ve been practicing for weeks. Have courage.
She counted up the reasons she should leave. The new nanny would be ready to start tomorrow or the next day. Perhaps it would be good for Griff and Riley to be together without her to act as a go-between until the woman could start.
She couldn’t take care of Riley very well with a brace on one wrist and splints on two of her fingers.
“Jolie? Are you in pain? Should I call the nurse?”
She used the sheet to wipe her face. “Some. I’m mostly tired.”
She suspected the pain she felt now had no cure but time.
Obviously uncomfortable, her father said, “I’ll go see if I can hurry up the discharge procedure.”
Of course he would, Jolie thought as her father strode out of her room. Richard Carleton had a way of making people jump.
She eased herself out of bed and walked hunched over like an old lady to the bathroom. As she washed her hands, she glanced into the mirror above the sink. She didn’t recognize her own face. Swollen and bruised, both her eyes were blackened.
Shaken by how bad she looked, she got back into bed. She fumbled with the telephone and dialed Griff’s number without having a clear idea of how she would say goodbye.
The answering machine picked up and she replaced the receiver without leaving a message. Even though she wasn’t sure what she would say, she didn’t want to leave it on his machine.
A doctor she had not seen before came in and stood at the foot of her bed. “Good morning, Miss Carleton.”
Is it? She wanted to ask him. It didn’t feel the least bit good to her.
He was looking at the chart in his hand and didn’t seem to notice that she hadn’t answered him. He asked a few questions about the severity of her headache, then nodded and left.
She tried Griff again at home and on his cell phone and didn’t get an answer on either.
Her door opened. She hoped to see Griff, but it was the nurse this time. She held a tiny plastic cup containing three pills.
Jolie looked dubious as she stared at the medication. “What are these for?”
The nurse smiled and poured her a glass of water from the pitcher beside the bed. “Doctor changed your pain medication. A prescription is being filled right now for you to take with you.”
Jolie swallowed the pills under the watchful eye of the nurse, then lay back and closed her eyes against the pounding in her temples.
As soon as the painkiller took effect, she’d try Griff again.
She was jostled awake as a nurse and an orderly lifted her into a wheelchair. Her muzzy brain tried to get hold of a reason.
“More tests?” she asked. Her tongue felt thick and slow.
“No, no more tests. You’re being released.”
Released? But she hadn’t spoken to Griff yet. The corridor seemed to tilt and spin as they wheeled her to the elevator.
When the elevator doors opened, her father was standing there waiting for her. It took her a moment to remember he had flown in.
She struggled to gather her wits. “Daddy, I need to make a call.”
“You can do that from the plane. There’s another storm coming down from Canada, and we need to take off before it hits.”
She couldn’t seem to clear her head long enough to come up with an answer, so she let them help her into the car and belt her in as if she were a child.
Griff had Riley on one arm and a huge bouquet of sunflowers in the other. He had called the hospital before dawn. Jolie spent a comfortable night. He didn’t know how she could possibly be comfortable as banged up as she was, but they assured him she could be released today.
He’d had trouble sleeping all night. Every time he dozed off he’d awakened with dreams of searching for Jolie and the baby and not being able to find them.
About three-thirty he’d made a decision. He was going to ask her to stay. There were things they needed to work out, but they were two reasonable adults. Surely they could come to some kind of arrangement.
He didn’t want to think of a future without her.
Between feeding Riley breakfast and wrestling him into his clothes and diaper changes, it had taken a lot longer than he thought it would to get himself and the baby ready to go.
He stopped outside Jolie’s door and took a deep breath. He needed the most important words of his life right now, and he wasn’t sure what he was going to say.
He hoisted Riley higher on his hip. “Back me up, buddy. I’m asking for both of us.”
Riley gave him a drooly grin, showing off his new teeth.
Griff pushed the door open. Jolie’s bed was empty, stripped of bedding. Griff felt a bolt of fear that something had happened, then got ahold of himself. They probably moved her to another room.
Heart pounding in his chest, he approached a nurse carrying a tray of supplies.
“Excuse me, where did you move Miss Carleton?”
She raised her eyebrows and said, “Miss Carleton was released a half hour ago.”
Released? “Where did she go?” She didn’t have a ride to the ranch.
“Her father came and got her. They’re flying back to Seattle.”
He’d spoken to her father last night. Mr. Carleton hadn’t said he
was coming to Billings. “Do you know which airline?” He could catch them at the airport.
“I believe he has his own plane. He hired a private-duty nurse to go along.”
“I see. Thanks.” Griff turned and walked back down the corridor.
She’d left without even bothering to call. He shoved the flowers into a trash can by the nurse’s station.
“Come on, Riley. It’s time to go home.”
Jolie got through Christmas and the New Year holidays by sheer will. She used the bruising on her face and the cast on her wrist as an excuse to avoid most of the social gatherings she usually attended this time of year.
She sent Riley a box of toys with a card for Griff. She’d wanted to find a box big enough to send herself.
After returning to Seattle she spent several days in the hospital at her father’s insistence. Further X-rays had indicated a broken bone in her wrist rather than a simple sprain.
Finally home, she answered every telephone call that came to the house and checked the mail every day hoping to hear from Griff.
Then, after two weeks, the ritual became too painful and she stopped.
The one thing that kept her going was the foundation she started, an idea that came to her while she lay in the hospital. She used a portion of her trust fund to get it going, then threw herself into learning to write for grants and other funding to keep it afloat.
Her vision was simple. An organization of volunteer advocates who would speak out for children caught up in the foster care system. Children like Riley, who were not lucky enough to have family take them in, who got lost in the shuffle of a system where social workers were overworked and the courts jammed with cases. The children inevitably suffered.
The organizing kept her busy, but couldn’t keep her thoughts from wandering to a ranch in Montana where the two people she loved most lived.
Perhaps time healed all wounds, but it seemed to Jolie that the hole in her heart was getting bigger instead of smaller.
Chapter Fourteen
Griff hung up the telephone, then stared out the window of his office at the blanket of snow that had fallen last night. Winslow’s Garage was ready to ship Jolie’s car back to Seattle.
What the hell was the matter with him? Before the call he’d been sitting hunched over his account books for more than an hour and had accomplished nothing. Now he was staring out the window.