by Rebeca Seitz
He swallowed again. “Is she going to wake up soon?”
“We’re not sure.” Meg patted his arm. “I’m betting they keep her sedated while the tube is in, but that’s just a guess from seeing too many episodes of House and ER.”
He stared at Kendra, not quite able to believe the vivacious, sexy woman he met a few months ago was this person lying so still on the bed. He wanted to see her eyes, to assure himself that the sparkle was still there and that she was still as alive as she’d been last night.
Just last night? How did the whole universe change in less than a day? They’d been laughing a few hours ago. Well, laughing on the outside, anyway, while he tried not to ask her why she kept checking her watch.
He sucked in a breath. Had the other man been with her when this happened?
“Are you sure she was alone when it happened?”
The question was out before he had sense enough to keep it in. Heavy silence filled the room, and Darin’s eyes opened wide. He looked to Mr. Sinclair, but Kendra’s daddy wasn’t looking anywhere other than his daughter’s face.
The silence lengthened, and Darin mentally slapped himself. Who walked into a hospital room and accused the patient? It felt like everyone in the room held their breath, waiting for somebody to make a move.
“That’s a good question.” Tandy’s subdued voice released the tension, and Darin breathed again. “I hope she was alone.”
“Me, too.” Joy crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her ballet-slippered foot on the floor. “Because if that Tommy-Bahama-wearing jerk let her get hurt and then left her there, I’m going to find him and kill him myself.”
“Joy!” Meg’s voice held shock. “You are not going to kill anyone.”
“Look at her, Meg. Look at our sister lying there in that bed with a tube in her throat, and Lord only knows what wrong with her leg,” Joy’s perfectly modulated voice slipped a bit, “and tell me you won’t strap that man to a chair and let him see the business end of a stick if he left her alone.”
The hiss of the breathing machine filled the room. Darin looked at his lovely Kendra, so still. So serene. So un-Kendra.
He cleared his throat. “I’ll help you tie him down.”
The response was swift. “Then you can stay.”
Twelve
Kendra’s throat hurt. Water. She needed a tall, cold glass of water. That would stop the burning in her throat. The feel of desert sand being stuffed down her.
She coughed.
Don’t do that again. Just stirs up the sand.
She swallowed.
Or that.
“Kendra?” Tandy’s voice filled Kendra’s mind. Tandy was in the desert with her? Why were they in a desert so close to Tandy’s wedding day? Tandy probably wanted a tan so she’d look good in her wedding dress.
Kendra heard a moan, realized it was her own, and moaned again.
“Kendra, honey, wake up.”
Another moan. Who would want to wake up in all this heat?
Except that there was no heat. The air felt cold. Only her throat burned. And her leg. Her leg felt like someone was holding hot matches to—
Oh, no.
Kendra’s eyes opened wide, the memory of what happened in her kitchen flooding back. Her moan became a groan, and she struggled to sit up. Her leg! Get the oil off her leg!
“Hang on. Wait, sis, wait. I’ll get the nurse.”
Nurse? There’s a nurse in my kitchen?
An annoying ding sounded.
“Can I help you?”
It sounded like they were in a drive-thru. Kendra closed her eyes. Nothing made sense.
“My sister is awake, and I think she’s in pain. Could you send someone, please?”
Awake? Or course she was awake! Wait … nurse?
Kendra opened her eyes again. “Tandy?” Her voice sounded like a frog after an all-night binge.
“Shh. Hang in there. The nurse is going to come, and we’ll make you feel better.”
“Where? What?” She tried to get whole sentences out, but somebody had relocated the Sahara to her throat, and only a couple of words escaped.
“Just be still. Do you remember anything that happened?”
Kendra thought back to the kitchen. The oil. The eggs. She’d been making breakfast. Miss Kitty wanted some love, and Kendra had turned … and then felt like she was sitting in hell.
She groaned again.
“The pan fell on your leg. You were burned, but you’re going to be okay, Kendra. I promise. You’re going to be okay.”
Kendra locked eyes with Tandy. Saw the truth there. She was going to be okay. Tandy’s eyes said so, and Tandy couldn’t lie to save her own life.
Kendra breathed and tried again to remember. Eggs falling. Slipping on the floor. Dialing 911. Falling.
“Well, look who decided to wake up!” An impossibly chipper woman bustled into the room, chubby fingers waving in the air as if to scatter the demons of sickness. Her face looked like that old cartoon dog, the basset hound with the jowls. “Dr. Phillips will be pleased you’ve rejoined the land of the living.”
Kendra tried to be happy that she’d pleased Dr. Phillips, whoever he was.
“Are you in pain?” Small brown eyes peered at her from beneath a pile of dark brown hair shot through with wiry gray corkscrews. Bobby pins were jammed in all over the woman’s head, and Kendra wondered how long it took to get all the pins out at night. Might be worth it for the three inches it added to this woman’s frame.
“If you can smile, then your pain isn’t a ten. On a scale of one to ten, with one being no pain and ten being the worst, where would you rate it?” The nurse took Kendra’s wrist and pressed her fingers down on the pulse while keeping an eye on her watch.
Kendra reached down to her leg—bandages. A fire simmered underneath the gauze, but Kendra could feel where the fire ended and started. She looked back to the nurse—Judith, according to her name tag—and croaked a response. “Eight.”
“Hmm, let’s see if we can get that closer to a five. I’ll be right back with some happy juice.” The short woman rushed out of the room as fast as she’d come in.
“Nobody is that happy without pharmaceutical help,” Tandy deadpanned, and Kendra laughed. Or tried to laugh. It quickly evolved into a hacking cough.
“Now, now. None of that.” Nurse Judith scurried back into the room, a syringe in one gloved hand. She laid the needle on Kendra’s bedside table and poured water from a pitcher. Holding a bendable straw to Kendra’s lips, she instructed sternly, “Drink.”
Kendra dared not disobey. No telling what tricks Judith had up her sleeve to enforce her commands.
The cold liquid felt like heaven running down her throat. Before she knew it, she was sucking air.
“Good, good. Let’s start slow now.” Nurse Judith picked the syringe back up, and Kendra had a momentary bout of panic—needles!—before seeing that the needle was inserted into her IV instead. “This will take the edge off the pain but keep you awake for a little while. Tomorrow you’ll see Dr. Phillips and get started on PT.”
The efficient woman dropped the used needle in a red carton hanging on the wall and exited the room.
Tandy looked at Kendra and smiled. “I think you’re in, um, capable hands.”
Kendra grinned and chose to ignore the fire in her leg and focus on something she could control. “Where’s Daddy? The sisters? How long have I been here? What time is it? Shoot, what day is it?” She gave in to another coughing fit, and Tandy poured more water.
“Drink. And stop talking so much. I get that it’s hard for you, but try.”
She would stick out her tongue, but she couldn’t summon the energy.
“It’s Monday night. We’re at Vanderbilt Hospital, where you were airlifted after you dialed 911 from your apartment.” Tandy told her the whole story, all the parts she knew of it, including Dr. Phillips’s fabulous prognosis.
“So you’ll be good as new in a few weeks, provided yo
u listen to the doctors and do what they say.”
“Hmm, we’ll just see about that.” Relaxation flowed into her limbs, and Kendra thanked God for good drugs. “Wow, that stuff she gave me really works.”
“Good! Feel better?”
Kendra nodded, and Tandy continued. “Daddy just ran down to the cafeteria to get some coffee. He’s been here every second, and it took me hours to talk him into leaving your room. So if you could pretend to wake up again when he gets here, that’d be great.”
“He hasn’t left my room?”
“Nope.” Tandy shook her head. “Nor, for that matter, have I. Which explains the state of my hair.” She tucked more stray curls behind her ears. “Darin’s been here every day but didn’t want to take off work until you woke up. He said we could do the silent watch; he’d be by your side when he could hear your voice.”
“Awww.”
“Yeah, we thought it was pretty sweet, too. Joy, by the way, has decided he’s a keeper, so I hope you were planning on having him around awhile.”
“Why is Joy so approving of him?”
“I don’t know.” Tandy shifted in her chair and looked away. “You’ll have to ask her.”
That wasn’t the whole truth, but Kendra felt too tired to go into it. “Okay. Has somebody been to take care of Miss Kitty?”
“Yep. Meg took her home and is keeping her locked in the laundry room so the kids don’t inflict permanent harm.”
“Poor Miss Kitty.”
“That’s what I said.”
Kendra’s eyelids were heavy. Must be the drugs. She closed her eyes.
* * *
TANDY WATCHED AS Kendra went back to sleep, then slumped back in her seat, feeling infinitely better now that they’d talked. No mention of a man being at her apartment when this happened. No request to call and let someone know what had happened. The only male-related conversation had been about Darin.
They’d misjudged. Whomever Kendra had been seeing on the side apparently now fell into the realm of history. Tandy breathed a little easier and pulled her cell phone from her pocket. Checking to ensure Kendra walked in the land of dreams, she moved a few steps away from the bed and dialed Clay’s number.
“Hey, how’s Kendra?” The clattering of dishes made it hard to hear him, and Tandy realized she had called during the dinner rush.
“She woke up, talked for a couple of minutes, and is back asleep.”
“Thank God.”
“You said it.”
“Did she tell you what happened?”
“I told her what happened. She doesn’t remember a lot, I don’t think. But get this: She didn’t mention another man at all.”
“Really?”
“Nope. Didn’t ask if someone had been to see her other than Daddy and the sisters. I told her Darin had been here every day, too.”
“He’s going to be so relieved to hear she’s awake.”
“Yeah, I’ll call him now. Just wanted you to know I think we misjudged the strange man situation. If she was seeing someone, it must be in the past now.”
“Then I’ll thank God again.”
“Amen, sweetie. Got to run. I need to give Darin the good news.”
“Okay, I’ll drive up with him as soon as the rush dies down.”
“Sounds good. Be careful.”
“Will do. Love you.”
“Love you.”
She then dialed Darin and gave him the latest.
“Is she still awake? Can I talk to her?” Darin sounded like a kid on Christmas morning staring at a new bike.
“She’s asleep again. They gave her pain meds.”
“I’ll be up in an hour.”
“Whoa, there, Casanova. Clay wants to drive up with you, but he’s dealing with the dinner rush right now.”
“Oh. Um, okay. I’ll call him and work out the details. Never mind. I’ll just drive over to the diner and pick him up. We’ll be up there soon.”
Tandy hid her amused laughter behind a cough. “Okay. See you in a bit.”
She flipped the phone closed and turned to look at her sleeping sister.
“Excuse me?”
Tandy turned at the male voice.
“Yes?”
“Is this Kendra Sinclair’s room?” He walked in, and Tandy drew in her breath at the sight of a Tommy Bahama shirt.
“Yes, it is. And you are?”
“Harrison.” He held out his hand, and Tandy shook it. “I’m a friend of Kendra’s.”
“That’s odd.” Tandy took her hand back, resisting the urge to wipe it off. “I know just about all of Kendra’s friends, but I don’t think we’ve met.”
The man quirked a smile at her. Tandy could see how he’d charmed Kendra. That smile was good.
“She’s told me a lot about you. About all her sisters, actually.” He walked into the room, right on up to Kendra’s bedside. Tandy’s lips compressed. Should she throw him out? Or let Daddy deal with him? She suppressed a smile at that.
“Is that right? I’m sorry to say, then, that she hasn’t said a word about you.”
He angled to focus on her, and Tandy could see the sadness in the downward turn of his eyes, the slight slump to his shoulders.
“No, she wouldn’t have.”
He turned back to Kendra, and Tandy tried not to feel like an ogre for having hurt the man’s feelings.
“I’m sure she will when she wakes up, though.” Because I’m going to grill her until she does. “Anything specific I should mention?”
He was silent for a moment, and again Tandy regretted having spoken. Who was this guy? This Harrison who walked over to her sister’s bedside as if he had every right in the world to be here? She saw his hand come up to Kendra’s face, caress it, and pause on her chin. There was emotion in that touch. Raw emotion.
Tandy held her breath, scared of what she’d stumbled on. Her gaze flitted around the room, seeking an escape from the display, and landed on a simple band around the man’s left hand.
Her breath escaped in a rush, and her mouth opened before she could tell it otherwise. “You’re married?” No wonder Kendra kept this man a secret.
He turned, and the heartbreak in his eyes was so real, so plain, that Tandy knew. She knew this wasn’t another of Kendra’s flings with a man unworthy of her. It wasn’t some cheap, fake romance Kendra entered into in a sad display of her birth mother’s pattern.
It wasn’t what Tandy had thought at all.
This man loved her sister. He had no right to, and Lord knew Kendra had no right to love him, but Tandy was suddenly as sure of that as she was that Kendra would be healing from this accident.
Oh, Kendra. The impossibility of the situation struck Tandy, and her heart ached for everything her sister lived with. No support from the girls. No understanding conversation around the scrapping table. Just raw emotion invading her life with no way to accept its presence and hang on to the person she’d been raised to be. The person she’d agreed to be the day she gave her heart to Jesus.
The hopelessness of the situation forced soft words from her. “Oh, no.”
The man’s smile looked like it better belonged on a hundred-year-old man. “Don’t tell her I was here.”
Tandy understood. He was saying good-bye. She bowed her head, unable to conspire with him, yet knowing the wisdom of his action.
“Your sister—”
She looked up again and saw Harrison glance back once at the bed, then meet Tandy’s eyes.
“She’s the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.” He touched Kendra’s cheek and then stepped back. “Too amazing for this.”
With that he walked out of the room.
Tandy stood very still, watching the door to see if he would return. Seconds ticked by. The clock on the wall hummed. And after a little while, Tandy began to wonder if she’d made the entire thing up.
She walked back over to her plastic chair by Kendra’s bedside and sank down into it. Taking her sister’s hand, she held it, looked
again at the door, then at her sister’s face.
The lone tear trickling down that beautiful, caramel-colored cheek told her.
It was real.
Thirteen
Kendra’s feet sank into thick, white, familiar carpet, and she breathed a sigh of gratitude. So much better than cold hospital tile. Her muscles flexed as she rose from bed, and she grimaced at the pain still present in her left thigh.
An entire week home and not one word from him. Not one. Despite three e-mails and two voice mails.
Snatching her silk robe from the corner of the bed, Kendra jerked the sash into a knot and strode into the bathroom. She came to a stop before that reflective honest pane and stared herself in the eye. “Kendra Sinclair, you’ve gotta let it go.” Her lips were set in a firm line, and she noted with approval their resemblance to Momma on days when a sister got caught in a lie. “Let it go.”
Seven days. Long enough to stop waking up with the thought of why he hadn’t called. Or e-mailed. Or, shoot, dropped by. Not like he didn’t know where she lived now.
Squeezing toothpaste onto the toothbrush, she savagely brushed until her gums cried for relief. Great, more pain. She rinsed, closing her eyes against the pain and relief of icy water against freshly bruised gums and cold-sensitive teeth. A conniving, cheating man doesn’t deserve this much mental energy.
The phone rang, and Kendra wiped her mouth. That’d be Darin. The man who did call or come by every day, sometimes multiple times, to ensure she had everything close at hand. To tell her scars didn’t matter. To say how sorry he was this had happened. To help her with bandages. Or just to listen.
She padded through the carpet and snatched up the phone on its third ring.
“Hello?”
“Good morning, beautiful. Did I wake you?” Darin’s voice smoothed her ruffled feathers and sent shivers down her back.
“Ten minutes earlier and you might have.”
“Then I’ll have to thank The Today Show for a particularly good interview this morning. It’s the only thing that saved me.”
“Give Ann Curry my love.”
“She is particularly fabulous, isn’t she?”