Under Her Skin

by Michelle Love

  “Well, then, Miss Smarty-pants. Tell me who this heart beats for, since you’re a nurse and all.” I kiss her nose, then lick her cheek.

  “Yuck, and it better beat for me,” she says, then leans over and licks my cheek. “Because mine beats only for you.”

  As I push her up so I can watch her as she moves and takes me back to the world only she’s ever taken me to, I think about how I can’t see life going badly with her as my partner. Not when my mother thinks it’s a good idea too!

  A Christmas to Remember

  Book Six

  Chapter 1

  BLAINE

  December, 24th:

  Hauling a box full of Santa and elf costumes up the stairs to the costume-rental shop, I lead my brother, who has another box of them to turn in, with me. With Christmas Eve upon us, I have big plans for tonight with Delaney. She’s making some quick rounds today at the hospital before I pick her up as soon as I get done with my errands.

  “Don’t forget about tomorrow, Kent,” I call back to him. “I’d like to have lunch around noon. I know you have that company Christmas party that I’m forgoing so I can have an extra special Christmas Eve with Delaney.”

  “Did you get her a ring?” he asks as he moves up beside me.

  I put my box down to open the door for us to go inside, then grin at my younger brother. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

  He laughs as he goes inside, then holds the door for me so I can get my box and go inside too. “I see. No telling anyone about what it is you’re doing to make her Christmas so special. I get it. You’re afraid you’ll jinx it.”

  “That’s right. You never know how things will turn out in this crazy world.” I see the lady behind the counter give my brother the once over.

  “Good morning, gentlemen. I hope this Christmas Eve is finding you both well,” she says in greeting.

  “It is,” Kent says and leans on the counter. The lady is wearing a slightly-sexy elf costume. Delaney’s was much sexier. “And I see this day is treating you pretty well too.”

  She giggles, and I see it’s time for me to make my exit so my brother can make a date. “I’ll leave this return up to you, Kent. I have some things I need to get to.”

  “Yeah, I got this,” he says with a suave tone to his voice. Lord help the girl. He’s got her in his sights.

  As I get to the door, I see a man dressed as Santa coming toward it, so I pull it open for him. “Here you go, Santa.”

  “Thank you,” he says and gives me a nod. Then he stops and looks at me with an odd expression on his white-bearded face. “So, tell me what you’d like this Christmas, young man.”

  With a laugh, I say the first thing that comes to my mind, “Santa, there’s a very sick little girl in The Children’s Hospital. Meagan Sanders is her name. I’d like to see her make a recovery if that’s not too much to ask.”

  With a wink, he says, “It may not be. One never knows about these things.” Then he comes inside and I smell sugar cookies as he walks by me. “You have yourself a Merry Christmas, Blaine.”

  “You too, Santa,” I say then walk out the door. I stop suddenly when I realize he’s said my name. “Hey! How did you …” When I turn back, I don’t see anyone there at all.

  I go back inside, take a look around, and go back to the counter where my brother is all but kissing the attendant. He gives me a look that tells me to get lost as he says, “Can I help you?”

  “Did either of you see a man in a Santa suit?” I ask as I look around for the man who seems to have disappeared.

  “Very funny, Blaine,” Kent says. “No. Did you?” He rolls his eyes as he looks back at the woman.

  “Forget it,” I say, as I see neither one of them would’ve seen anything with the way they’re only looking at each other. So I head back out and go to the car.

  Mr. Green greets me at the back door of the Suburban. “It’s getting chilly out here. You better put that coat on the next time you get out of the car, Mr. Vanderbilt.”

  “It is getting cold,” I say, then wonder if he saw the man. “Did you happen to see me talking to that man in the Santa suit?”

  “Seriously?” he asks as he looks confused.

  “Yes. I was standing at that door, talking to a man in a Santa suit. If you looked that way, you’d have seen us talking, I should think.”

  “I saw you come outside, then turn around and go back inside, then you came out again. And no one has gone up or down that sidewalk except you and your brother. Are you feeling okay?” he asks with a concerned expression. “Because you’re kind of going pale.”

  “I feel fine. I guess I’m tired is all. We can go now. I have to stop at the jewelers to see if what I ordered is ready,” I say and lean my head back on the seat.

  That seemed so real. I don’t know what to think about it. I guess I need to forget about it. My imagination must be working overtime with last night’s activities.

  Closing my eyes to see if I can get some rest, because maybe that’s my problem, I find something drifting in the air. A smell I can’t quite place. I can’t rest and open my eyes. Rolling the window down to talk to my driver, I ask, “Did you spray a new air freshener in here?”

  “No sir,” he says, then I see him looking at me through the rearview mirror. “Maybe we should make a stop to see Miss Richards at the hospital first. Maybe she could get a doctor to make sure you’re okay, sir.”

  “I’m fine,” I say. “I just smell a sweet smell. Kind of like honey, with maybe a hint of lemons.

  “Honey and lemons?” he asks, then takes a huge sniff of the air. He shakes his head. “No, sir. I don’t smell anything but the leather seats.”

  “Thanks,” I say, then roll the window up. I take another sniff. “Yep, lemons and honey.” Then it hits me. “Mom!”

  I look around the car and try hard to see anything at all—any smoke or a light of some kind—but I see nothing. The car stops and I put my coat on. Just as Mr. Green opens my door, I feel cold hit my ear. But that’s probably just the chilly air. “Thanks, Mr. Green. You stay in the car when I come out. I can let myself in and out of the car. It’s getting colder by the minute out here.”

  “Yes, sir, it is,” he says as he shivers a little. “Thank you, sir.”

  With a nod, I leave him and go inside the jewelry store I ordered from a few days ago to see if they’ve managed to get what I asked for. The smell goes away, and I’m left thinking this is all in my head.

  “Good morning,” the man at the counter says as I come inside. “My, it’s looking like real Christmas weather out there, isn’t it?”

  “It is. I think this is the coldest I recall a Christmas Eve ever being.” I shake the man’s hand and notice him looking over my shoulder. “I’m Blaine Vanderbilt. I have an order and I’m hoping you have it in and ready to go.”

  He looks back at me with a smile on his face. “Should I be discreet?”

  “I guess so,” I say, as I have no idea why he’d say such an odd thing.

  Reaching under the counter, he unlocks something and comes back up with a little black box. He then places the box directly in front of me and opens the lid. “Does this meet with your expectations, sir?”

  I take the ring out and look at it, finding it flawless, then give him a nod. “It does. Do I owe you anything else?”

  “No, you paid online. Let me put this in a bag for you. Or should I gift wrap it?” he asks as he looks over my shoulder again. “You know, so she can open it.”

  “I actually have a funny way I’m going to give it to her, so I don’t need it wrapped. Just the bag will be fine, thanks.” I look back over my shoulder to see what he could be looking at and guess he must be looking out the door at passersby.

  He’s an odd little man, anyway!

  “Here you are, sir,” he says as he hands me the bag. “You two have a Merry Christmas.”

  “We will,” I say, then start to walk out the door. Suddenly I think his words were kind of odd. Why d
id he say, ‘you two?’

  Making my way back to the car, I get in and instantly smell the honey-heavy scent with the touch of lemon in the background. “Mom? Are you in here? Can you give me some kind of a sign if you are?”

  The window rolls down and I jump at the sudden sound, finding Mr. Green looking back at me. “Were you saying something, sir?”

  “I was talking to myself. You can take me home now. I have to wrap this thing up before I go get Delaney.”

  “Yes, sir,” he says, then turns around and rolls the window up.

  I lean back and smile. “So, I guess you’re going to hang around me for a while. That’s cool.”

  I just wish I could see her!

  Chapter 2

  DELANEY

  Sugar cookies are everywhere—the nurses’ station, the children’s rooms, and the break room. I’ve found out something about myself—I have no willpower. None!

  “This one looks like Santa,” Tammy tells me as she holds up a bright-red, sparkling cookie. “You want him?”

  “I shouldn’t,” I tell her as I look longingly at the cookie that would make number four for me in the last hour.

  She wiggles it a little. “But it’s really good. Momma made them for me.”

  “Oh, a different recipe. Then I should try it,” I say as I take the cookie out of her little hand. With one bite, I know I will finish the whole thing, as it melts in my mouth. “Mmmm.”

  “Told you so. Momma’s taking some to the Christmas party at her new job. She told me she wants to make a good impression for when she can start actually going to work there. She thinks Mr. Vanderbilt is the best person in this whole entire world,” Tammy says, then nibbles on a cookie that looks like a bell—an expertly-decorated bell that she didn’t even take the time to admire.

  “These cookies are gorgeous as well as delicious,” I say as I point at the cookie in her hand. “Do you see how much work went into that one you have there?”

  She stops and takes a long look at it, then pops it into her mouth. Well, at least I got her to take a moment to appreciate it, anyway. It’s better than nothing.

  The sound of the speaker system cutting on has me looking up to see if it will have anything to do with me as I swallow the last bite of the cookie. “We need all available medical staff to room 573, now.”

  “That’s Meagan’s room,” I whisper to myself. “I’ll be back to finish you up, Tammy.”

  Hurrying out of the room, I go down the hallway and find her parents standing outside of her door. Both look frantic as I get to them. Her mother grabs me. “She stopped breathing!”

  I look at her father, asking silently for his permission to go inside of his daughter’s room, and he nods. His face is pale and he looks worried and afraid.

  I’m the first to respond and the only person in the room, other than the little girl who is lying lifelessly on the bed. I find the slightest hint of a pulse and start CPR on her small, frail body.

  I’m usually very calm in these situations, but for some reason, my heart is pounding. I knew it could come to this, I tell myself as I make chest compressions, then breath into her lungs and check to be sure my breath is filling them.

  Another nurse makes it in, and she takes over the chest compressions while I keep up the recitation. The fifth time I put my mouth to hers, I feel air coming back out of hers. “She’s breathing!”

  The doctor on call comes into the room, tossing out orders as he does. “We need her on a ventilator. Did you get her back for us, Richards?”

  “Yes, sir,” I say and step back to let his team assist him. Stepping back even further as I hear something, I keep moving until I’m at the far corner of the room.

  A light sound is tickling my ears. I can almost make out the words that are light and airy, as if moving on a breeze. But there is no wind in this room.

  I look up to see where the air conditioning vent is and see it’s clear across the room and nowhere near where I am, so I can’t be hearing anything through that. The sound begins to move, and I walk in the direction I hear it going and find they’re about to hook Meagan up to the ventilator.

  Suddenly, the little girl sits upright and her eyes seem to search the faces around her, then she finds me. “Tell her I need her. She left. Tell her I need her, please!” Her body falls back and her eyes close.

  I find everyone looking at me with odd expressions, then they get back to work on her. I turn and leave the room. I know she must mean Crystal, but how the hell can I find her?

  Her parents are hugging each other as I walk out of the room. “I got her breathing again. You can go back in if you’d like.”

  Turning to leave them, I find a hand on my shoulder. “Thank you, Nurse Richards,” I hear her father say.

  I turn back and look at him and see lines around his face that weren’t there when they first came here. “You’re welcome.”

  “I’m sorry.” He moves his hand and turns away from me, and I understand he doesn’t want to talk about anything. He just wants that to be known.

  “Thank you,” I say and walk away.

  The only thing running through my mind is what that little girl said to me and what I can do. I go to the chapel on the first floor. It’s empty, so I go to the altar and kneel. “Please send Crystal back to Meagan Sanders, Lord. Amen.”

  I have no idea if that will work, but I don’t know what else to do. Then my cell phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out to find it’s Blaine. As I answer the call, I have no time to say a word as he says excitedly, “My mom is with me!”

  “I’m not even going to ask you why you think that, even though that would be the most rational thing to say right now. I’m just going to tell you to speak out loud and tell your mother that Meagan needs her right now. She just quit breathing a few minutes ago, and I had to resuscitate her. She sat up in the bed and asked me to get her.”

  “I’ll do that. Is Meagan going to be okay?” he asks with a fearful voice.

  “I have no idea, Blaine. This isn’t in any of our hands.”

  Nothing is in our hands, it seems!

  Chapter 3

  BLAINE

  “Okay, I feel kind of stupid doing this,” I say out loud and hope my staff doesn’t hear me. “Mom, Meagan needs you. You have to hurry to her. Please help her, Mom.”

  I wait and listen, as if I might hear the slamming of a door as she leaves, which is insane, but I listen for some kind of sound anyway. After five minutes of hearing nothing, I stop. I didn’t ever hear anything before, so I don’t know why I thought I would this time.

  Roxy comes into the room, where we’ve set up a Christmas tree, with a platter of beautiful Christmas cookies she places on the table, then stands back to admire them. “They turned out nice, don’t you think, Mr. Vanderbilt?”

  “I do think they look very nice. And how do they taste?” I ask as I go to pick one of them up. I pick up a reindeer and bite its head off. “Yummy!”

  She laughs as she leaves the room. “I’ll be bringing in a few platters of little, yummy things for you and Miss Richards to enjoy while you spend this evening together, then I’ll get out of your way so you two can be alone.”

  With a smile, I finish wrapping the last box that’s holding Delaney’s ring in it. She will never think there’s a ring in this huge box!

  Even though I know things are going tough at the hospital right now, I can’t stop thinking about how good it’s going to be to have Delaney be a real part of me forever.

  If she accepts, I want to be married before the new year begins. I want everything to start out new and fresh. All of it. Then I think about her parents. I seem to have totally forgotten about them.

  Going to the bedroom, I find the paper I had her fill out so I could contact them about the meeting that I ended up blowing off. But now I think I might just go with that idea again.

  Dialing up the number on the paper, I find a woman answering the phone. “Richards’ residence.”

  “Mrs.
Richards, my name is Blaine Vanderbilt, and I …”

  She interrupts me, “Wait? Who did you say you are?”

  “Blaine Vanderbilt. Your daughter and I …”

  “The Blaine Vanderbilt? The man who owns the Bargain Bin store chain? That man?” she asks, sounding more than a bit confused.

  Then I hear a roaring sound in my ear. “Blaine Vanderbilt?” a man shouts. “Let me talk to that son of a bitch!”

  “Ma’am, please let me explain,” I say, but hear the phone being shuffled around.

  A booming voice makes me hold the phone away from my ear. “What the hell do you want, you son of a bitch?”

  “I don’t know if what I was going to ask you would be a smart thing right now. You see, sir, your daughter and I are …”

  “My daughter? Delaney? How do you know her? What have you done with her?” he asks.

  “I haven’t done anything with her. I don’t know what you’re implying. Hasn’t she told you about us?” I ask and wait, listening to the sound of dead air.

  Finally, he says, “Us?”

  Shit! She has not told them a thing about me!

  “Yes, sir. You see, I met your daughter around Thanksgiving. She and I dated, then moved in together.”

  “Holy shit!” he says. “I have to get off here. I have to call my daughter.”

  And just like that, he hangs up. I’m not sure what to do, so I call right back and find I get a busy signal. Then I call Delaney to give her the heads up, but she forwards my call, and I know she’s on the line with her father.

  Shit! I think I’ve just ruined her Christmas!

  DELANEY

  Taking the vibrating phone out of my pocket, I see it’s my parents calling and want to kick myself for not calling them sooner today. “Hi, I’m sorry. I had to get to work early this morning. I was going to call you two, I promise.”

  “Delaney Richards, your mother and I have just received a very disturbing phone call,” dad says.

  “Oh no! About what, Dad?”

  “About you living with our mortal enemy! That’s what! Now tell me that bastard was lying to me.”