by Metsy Hingle
Maria went to her friend, took the sandwiches from her, set them aside and hugged her. “Magdalene, I am so sorry.”
“Thank you.” Magdalene sniffed and stepped back. She retrieved the sandwich wrap. “The doctors say the longer he’s in the coma, the worse his chances of recovering are.”
Maria took the cellophane from Magdalene. “I’ll do this. Why don’t you brew a pot of coffee.” As Magdalene busied herself with making coffee, Maria proceeded to wrap up the sandwiches. “Head injuries can be tricky. I don’t think even the doctors understand them fully. The good thing is that he’s in the hospital and getting good care.”
Magdalene finished measuring the coffee grounds and switched on the coffeepot, then she picked up a dish towel to wipe her hands. “How could something like this happen?” she asked, her voice breaking, her fingers curling into the dishcloth. “And why now when it’s so close to Christmas? If Papa Calderone does not make it, it will kill my Louis.”
Maria stuffed the sandwiches into the padded food carrier and went to her friend. “You mustn’t think like that. I’ve read about people who are in a coma for months, even years, and then one day they just wake up and are fine. You and Louis just need to hang in there.”
“You’re right,” Magdalene said and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I am sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. Now why don’t you let me finish this up while you go pack so that you and Louis can get on the road.”
“But I am not going with Louis,” Magdalene informed her.
“Why ever not?”
“Because we do not know how long Louis will need to stay in Billings. It may only be for a few days. But it could be longer.”
“But I thought… Isn’t that why you took the horses to Arturo’s?”
Magdalene shook her head. “Louis did not want me to have to worry about caring for them in case…in case he needs to stay.”
“But I still don’t understand why you aren’t going with him. If it’s because you’re worried about Sophia, I can take care of her for you.”
“Maria, it is not Sophia that I am concerned about leaving. It is you.”
Maria blinked. “Me? But why?”
“Because, ma pequeña, you’re in the last trimester of your pregnancy. What if your baby should decide to come early?”
“The baby’s not due for another two months,” Maria pointed out.
“True. But sometimes a baby decides to come early. Louis’s sister Anna’s first child was six weeks early.”
“Honestly, Magdalene—”
“And what if, Heaven forbid,” she began while making the sign of the cross, “you should trip or have an accident? Who would be here to take care of you?”
“I’m not going to have an accident,” Maria insisted. “And you have my promise that I’ll be extra careful. Now please, go pack your things and go with Louis.”
“I cannot leave you here alone.”
At a loss as to what to do to convince her friend, Maria suggested, “Do you want me to come with you and Louis?”
“Oh no. The long drive would be hard on you and the baby.”
“I suppose I could go home,” Maria said, even though just the idea of returning to Boston now and facing everyone had her stomach knotting.
“No, pequeña. I do not want you to leave until you are ready. And somehow, I think you are not ready. I am right. Yes?”
“Yes,” Maria admitted. “But Louis needs you. So does your family. And I know you want to go with him.”
Magdalene patted her hand. “Were I to go, I would be worried about you here all alone. No. It is impossible. Louis will go and I will stay.”
“Magdalene, please. Isn’t there anything I can do or say to convince you to go?”
“Well, there is one thing,” she said, a gleam coming into her eyes.
“What?”
“If you were to have someone…say, Steven staying here with you, then I would feel better about leaving because I would know you would not be alone.”
“Impossible.”
“Why? He loves you and he is your baby’s father. Who better to protect you than him?”
“No. It’s a bad idea.” Just the thought of staying alone in the house with Steven had her heart racing like a freight train.
“Then I will stay here with you and Louis will go to Billings alone. Now I had better go see if he needs any help packing,” she said and started to leave the room.
“Magdalene, wait!”
Magdalene paused, looked back at her.
Maria couldn’t help feeling as though she were trapped between a rock and a hard place. But she hated to be the reason that Magdalene stayed behind when it was so obvious that Louis and her family needed her. “What if…what if I agreed to have Steven check in on me and promised to call him if I should have any problems? Would you go with Louis to Billings then?”
“You would speak with him every day and promise to call him if you needed his help?”
“Yes. I promise.”
“Very well. Then I will go with my Louis.”
“And Louis’s father is doing all right?” Maria asked Magdalene as they spoke on the phone three days later.
“He is out of the coma and it will take some time for his injuries to heal, but the doctors say he may be able to go home day after tomorrow.”
“I’m so glad for you both,” Maria told her friend.
“And how are you? Has Steven been checking in on you?” Magdalene asked, the questions racing out one behind the other.
“I’m fine, Magdalene. And yes, Steven has been over here twice and called at least a dozen times to make sure that I’m okay.” And each time she was with him, spoke to him, she was finding it more and more difficult not to do as he asked and marry him. If only their families didn’t hate each other and things hadn’t become even worse because of this mess with her cousin Derrick.
“Maria, are you still there?”
“Sorry,” Maria replied, dragging her thoughts back to the conversation.
“Louis wants to know how Sophia is.”
Maria grinned. “Sophia’s fine. She misses you, but I’m doing my best to keep her company,” she said and stroked the pampered cat who’d perched on the nightstand in her demand for Maria’s attention.
“It’s supposed to be the other way around. She’s supposed to keep you company.”
“Try telling her that.”
Magdalene laughed. “No doubt you are spoiling her more than Louis does.”
“That would be difficult,” Maria teased, since she knew that Louis catered to the silver-colored feline who managed to weave her body between the phone’s cord and the cradle.
“You are sure if we stay in Billings a few more days that you will be okay by yourself?”
“I’m sure,” Maria promised and after swearing to call Steven if anything should happen, Maria ended the call. She finished dressing and set about tidying up her room. When she finished, the house seemed suddenly huge and lonely. She thought about her parents’ home, of how it had always been so busy and filled with people when she’d been growing up. Even when she’d moved out and into the townhouse with her sisters, she’d seldom been alone. Suddenly lonely and growing more than a little homesick, she debated whether to call her parents again.
And what would you tell them, Maria? That you’re pregnant and the father of your child is a Conti?
No, her folks deserved to hear that news from her in person, not on the telephone with so many miles separating them. Maybe if she spoke with Karen, she’d be able to shake this melancholy, Maria decided.
“Hi this is Karen,” the answering machine picked up after the fourth ring. “Ash and I aren’t available at the moment, but if you’ll leave a message at the sound of the tone, we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.”
Maria left a message and after ending the call, she considered calling Steven. And tell him what? She still didn’t know what she was going t
o do and she wasn’t sure his plan of action—getting married—was the right answer. So she hung up the phone. Determined to shake off her ennui, Maria said, “Come on, Sophia. Why don’t we surprise Magdalene and Louis by baking them some special treats for when they get home?”
Then she headed out of the bedroom, unaware that as Sophia leapt from the nightstand to follow her, she knocked the telephone receiver from its cradle.
“With this much snow on the road and at the speed you were going, you’re lucky you didn’t wrap this fancy piece of machinery around a tree,” the state trooper told Steven while he wrote out a speeding citation. Apparently the big burly guy was used to the frigid blasts of wind because he continued to fill out the ticket with painstaking slowness. “I don’t know how the folks in Boston feel about speeding, but here in Montana, we expect folks to honor the speed limits posted.”
“I understand,” Steven replied, anxious to get this over with so he could get to the Calderones’ place and check on Maria. After being unable to reach her all morning on her cell phone and getting a continuous busy signal on the Calderones’ phone line, he’d convinced the operator to break in on the line at the Calderone Ranch and check for conversation. Sure enough, there had been no one on the line. Which meant the phone, for some reason, was off the hook. Of course, imagining why had sent fear firing through him like a bullet.
What if Maria had had an accident? What if one of those huge pines had fallen onto the house and trapped her inside? What if something had happened to her and even now she was lying on the floor unconscious and hurt?
The trooper handed him the pad and pen. “I’ll need your signature.”
Steven scrawled his name across the bottom of the slip with fingers that felt like ice since he’d taken off his gloves when he’d produced his driver’s license. He handed the pad and pen back to the other man.
The trooper tore the citation off the pad and handed it to him. “Instructions are on the back about paying the fine. Of course, you can make a court appearance if you want to contest it.”
“I don’t,” Steven told him and tucked the ticket in the Explorer’s console. “That is, I don’t want to contest the ticket. I’ll mail in the fine.”
The trooper nodded, sending a layer of snow falling from the brim of his hat. “Just make sure you keep it slow the rest of the way.”
“I will,” Steven assured him, itching to get on his way.
The trooper tucked his pad of tickets into his back pocket, but made no attempt to move away from the Explorer. “You might also want to stay put when you reach wherever it is you’re in such a hurry to get to because if this snow keeps up, the roads are going to get a lot worse.”
“I’m on my way to pick up my fiancé and take her back into town.” Or at least he was going to try to convince Maria to come with him.
“I wouldn’t count on making it back tonight. If we get as much snow as the weather guys are predicting, I expect the roads are gonna be shut down. You’d do better to just stay at her place.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that.” And whether Maria liked it or not, he was spending the night because he had no intention of leaving her alone again—not with this monster snowstorm brewing.
Once the trooper stepped away from his vehicle, Steven started his engine and got back onto the road. Though it cost him, he forced himself to drive more slowly. Finally, what seemed to be an eternity later, he pulled his Explorer into the Calderones’ drive. He’d barely shut off the engine before he was racing across the snow-covered ground to the front door.
He punched the doorbell. One. Two. Three. Four. Five seconds ticked by during which the wind howled like a banshee as it swept through the tall pines. Snow continued to fall and blanket the already white landscape. And the sky that had been filled with clouds that were heavy with snow at daybreak had turned an ugly shade of gray.
Impatient, Steven leaned on the buzzer again. When no one answered, the acid that had begun to churn in his stomach when he’d been told there was a problem with the Calderone phone line burned even hotter. He tried the door, found it locked. “Damn,” he hissed, remembering he was the one who had insisted yesterday that Maria keep the door locked since she was alone.
“Maria!” He pounded on the door with his fist and tried the doorknob again. He swore, then tried pounding harder. And when he got no response, he trounced through the snow to a window and attempted to see if he could detect any movement behind the drapes. But he couldn’t see a thing and thanks to the wind, he couldn’t hear anything either.
With panic racing through his veins, he headed around to the back of the house. Snow pummelled his face and body like bullets as he made his way to the rear of the ranch-style house, hoping to find the kitchen door unlocked. When he turned the corner and saw the light blazing from the kitchen window, he ran until he reached the door. This time he didn’t bother knocking; he simply yanked on the doorknob. And he swore when he found it locked.
“Maria,” he yelled again and pounded on the door with both fists. Frustrated, he stepped back and then slammed his shoulder into the door. The door didn’t give, but he immediately saw stars from the impact. He was about to head out to the barn in search of a crow-bar or some other tool with which to break in when the door suddenly opened.
“Steven,” Maria said his name in a breathless rush.
Steven froze for a second as relief washed through him. He didn’t think. He simply reacted. Grabbing her by the shoulders, he dragged her against him, not caring that he was cold and his jacket was covered in snow. “Are you all right?” he demanded, all the while rubbing his hands down her back and holding her tighter. He pressed his face into her hair, not caring that they were standing just outside the door and that snow was falling on them both.
“I’m fine,” she said in a muffled voice against his chest.
“Thank God,” he murmured as he continued to hold her, touch her, breathe in her scent. Not until a shiver went through her and into him did Steven register that she was standing outside in a blizzard without a coat. “Come on,” he all but growled the words and hauled her into the house with him. Then he slammed the door closed.
“Steven—”
“Give me a minute,” he commanded. Despite his relief, fear-induced adrenaline still pumped through his veins. Trying to get a grip on the emotions storming inside him, he kept his back to her while he tore off his snow-covered jacket and tossed it on a chair, heedless of the clumps of snow that fell to the floor.
“You’re making a mess on Magdalene’s floor,” she accused and started to retrieve his jacket.
“Leave it.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” she informed him.
Lightning quick, he caught her by the shoulders and hauled her up against him again. “I don’t know whether to strangle you or kiss you.”
She blinked. Then temper flared in her brown eyes. An angry flush colored her cheeks. “You’ll do neither.”
“Wrong,” he said just before his mouth crashed down on hers. He kissed her hard. He kissed her fast. He kissed her with all the fear that had been knotted in his gut like a fist because he’d been unable to reach her. Anchoring her head in his hands, he demanded a response.
Maria gave it to him, winding her arms around his neck and opening her mouth to him. He ravaged her mouth with his tongue, with his teeth, with his lips. She responded by nipping his lower lip, by dueling with her tongue. When she gasped, he drank in the sound and taste of her. Still, it wasn’t enough. So he kissed her again and again and again. He was no longer sure where her mouth began and his ended.
Steven didn’t know how long he stood there feeding on her mouth. It could have been a minute. It could have been an hour. Not until Maria caught his face in her hands and eased away did any semblance of time come back to him.
“You want to tell me what that was all about?” she asked, her voice soft, her eyes warm.
“I—” Steven took in her swollen mouth, the marks on her face
from his whisker-rough skin. Appalled by his actions, he rubbed a hand down his face. Then he remembered the hours of trying to reach her without success and that knot of fear in his gut during the drive out there. “I thought something had happened to you. That you were hurt, maybe even unconscious.”
“Why on earth would you think that?”
“Because I’ve been trying to reach you on the phone for hours and couldn’t get through.”
“But I haven’t been on the phone,” she argued.
“So I discovered when I finally convinced the operator that it was an emergency and that she had to break in on the line and check for conversation. The phone’s off the hook.”
As if she doubted him, Maria walked over to the wall phone in the kitchen and picked up the receiver. They both could hear the beeping that indicated a problem on the phone line. She flushed and hung up the phone. “I guess one of the phones must have been knocked off the hook,” she offered. “You should have tried my cell phone.”
“I did,” he informed her. “You didn’t answer. Nor did you respond to any of the messages I left you.”
“You must have dialed the wrong number.”
“I didn’t. If you don’t believe me, check your cell phone.”
“Fine,” she said and marched over to the table and snatched up her purse. She began pawing through its contents. After a moment, she said, “I must have left it in my car,” her flush deepening. “That doesn’t give you the right to show up here acting all macho.”
“No?” he countered, his voice hard. Now that he knew she was okay, the panic was gone. So was the fear. In their place was a new kind of tension born from that steamy kiss. He registered the Christmas music playing, knew instinctively that she had no idea about the dangerous weather conditions. “When’s the last time you turned on the television or the radio and listened to a weather report? Better yet, when’s the last time you even bothered to look outside?”
“I…I’ve been busy.”
He glanced over at the countertops, noted the iced cookies and treats. “Too busy apparently to realize that you’re out here in the middle of nowhere all alone and pregnant and that there’s a damn blizzard going on outside.”