Harlequin Superromance November 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2

by Mary Brady

  After all the munching Mia hopped up. “Sorry, guys, I still gotta put you to work. You can start by gathering up those piles of plaster and lath and getting it all in the Dumpster, and watch out for the top step. It’s weird, deeper than a step should be.”

  They did a good job and after two hours of hard work she let them go home to do their homework. Who knew? It could happen.

  At least she had gotten food out of the deal, and the front wall of the room had been stripped and carted to the Dumpster.

  The sun had been down for a while and she had the lights on when Monique showed up dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt.

  “Where can I help you?”

  “Thanks for coming. Do you want your shoulders to ache or your calves?”

  “Such great choices.” Monique put her finger to her chin. “I’ll take calves.”

  Mia pointed up the ladder. “There doesn’t seem to be a reliable method that works for eighty-year-old building materials. The pry bar seems to make it shatter most of the time, but when it works, it works great.”

  Monique took the tools and climbed. She teetered once and Mia dropped two buckets of debris to catch her, but it wasn’t necessary.

  “And I got it, be careful.”

  Mia reloaded the buckets. “And be careful.”

  They worked for a half hour before Monique decided she could no longer safely climb the ladder. “I’ll carry stuff for a while.”

  “Are you sure? You worked all day, too,” Mia said, feeling guilty that her friend was taking on her burden.

  “I’m good. I don’t meet Lenny until he gets off work tonight.”

  Mia picked a bit of stuff out of Monique’s hair. “You’ll want to leave time for a shower.”

  “That still gives me an hour.”

  She gamely grabbed a couple of the heavy buckets and headed out to the Dumpster. Belatedly Mia realized Monique didn’t know about the old wooden steps.

  “Monique,” she called just in time to see her friend’s head disappear from sight.

  “Monique.” She ran across the room and out the door. Monique was on the ground and she was not moving. “Oh, my God, please be all right, Monique.”

  Mia pulled out her phone and dropped to the cold ground beside Monique and dialed 911. When the dispatcher answered she told the woman who she was, what happened and where. “And please send Officer Gardner. It’s Monique.”

  “They’re on the way, honey. Now you stay on the line and tell me how she’s doing.”

  She put her phone down and took her shirt off to cover her friend against the chilly wind. “Monique, sweetie, please wake up.”

  She should have never let her friend help. She shouldn’t expect anyone to bail her out. These were her choices.

  “You still there, Mia?” the dispatcher called over the speaker of Mia’s phone.

  “I’m here. She’s still unconscious.”

  “Try to keep her warm.”

  She put her mouth close to Monique’s ear and her arm around her chest. “I’m here, sweetie. I won’t leave you. I’m here.”

  The paramedics showed up first and it took a couple of long minutes for them to come to the back of the building. “Back here,” Mia kept shouting. “Back here.”

  Two paramedics knelt beside Monique and Mia had to move away to let them work. A third tried to take Mia inside, but she refused.

  The woman wrapped a blanket around Mia. “I need to ask you some questions, and it would be better for your friend if your teeth weren’t chattering so much and you could tell me what happened.”

  Mia nodded and went inside with the woman, but she stayed near the window so she could see. They had put a collar around Monique’s neck and applied a bandage to her head.

  “Is she bleeding? I didn’t see any blood.” When they rolled her friend to the side, Mia could see a darkened spot on the ground where the back of her head had rested.

  Mia didn’t have much to tell, so the interview was over before they were ready to convey Monique to the clinic out on the edge of town near the police station.

  Mia gave back her blanket and they left her alone and the lights and sirens went screaming down the street. The commotion brought the patrons of the bar out onto the curb. Harley trundled over to her where she stood on the stoop watching.

  “Who’d they take away?”

  “Is Edwin Beaudin in there tonight?”

  “He’s gone. Got in his car and left town today.”

  “That’s not possible. His granddaughter didn’t tell me and if she didn’t tell me then... Oh no, she doesn’t know.”

  “That her in the ambulance? She hurt bad?”

  She shook her head. “I mean, yes, it’s her, but I don’t know if she’s hurt bad. What did Edwin say? How long will he be gone?”

  “Said he was going to call Monique when he got there. Didn’t want her to try to talk him out of going.”

  “Where’s there, Harley? Where did he go?”

  “All the way to Florida if you can believe it. Said he had a friend from the army there who’s been asking him to come down.”

  “But what about Jim O’Connell’s boat?”

  “They’re back. It’s twins.” Harley grinned.

  “Oh, heaven help all of them.” She patted Harley’s arm. “I’ll tell Monique you asked after her. I gotta go.”

  The first person she saw when she arrived at the clinic was Officer Gardner. His girlfriend was hurt on her watch and it was her fault. She didn’t even know what she would say to him.

  He met her at the door and pulled her outside away from the waiting room full of people and the Emergency Department staff.

  “I’m sorry, Lenny. I’m so sorry. All my fault.” She started to shiver again and it was hard to talk.

  Lenny took his jacket off and put it around her shoulders.

  “She’s all right. She woke up in the ambulance. By the time she got here, they said she was fine except she’ll need a few stitches.”

  She looked up at him.

  “Shouldn’t you be in there with her?”

  “She sent me to look for you. She’s worried about you.”

  “I love her all to pieces. Please, go tell her I’m fine. I’m just fine.” Suddenly, she was bawling, head bowed, shoulders shaking, all out. “I’m sorry.” She pushed his coat at him. “Thank you. Go”

  When he didn’t leave she pushed on his shoulder. “Go.”

  He did not budge.

  She looked up at him. “She said I was to make sure you were all right and I wasn’t to take your bull, her word not mine, about being fine when you aren’t. Clearly, your friend knows you well.”

  He put his jacket back around her shoulders and led her across the street toward Mandrel’s.

  “I should get back to work.”

  “You trying to get me into trouble? What did you eat for dinner?”

  “Corn chips and a candy bar.”

  “I thought only kids ate that badly.”

  “Kids made my dinner.”

  He held the door and they took seats at a booth. “I don’t have my wallet.”

  “Hey, Kelly, do you know where Mia lives?”

  “She forget her wallet again?”

  “Really, shouldn’t you get back to Monique?”

  “I’ll go as soon as I see you take the first bite of your food.” He looked at Kelly. “She’ll have the grilled chicken breast sandwich with lettuce and tomato on a whole wheat bun, carrots and a glass of orange juice. I’ll have a coffee to go.”

  “She fell. I never should have let her help me.”

  “She loves you.”

  Mia looked up at a man she’d known since he was a boy. Until Monique had opened her eyes, she hadn’t recogniz
ed what a good man he really was.

  “I would tell you she loves you, but that’s not for me to tell.”

  He smiled at that.

  “Are you mad at me?” she asked, looking for a clue in his face.

  “Yeah, but not as mad as I was when you and Monique stole my math homework and I had to do it all over again—in detention.”

  “We only did that because you told Monique she was too skinny to be a movie star. Being movie stars was very important to us in fifth grade.”

  “She’ll be fine,” he said as he sipped his coffee. “We just found each other, so that’s the only thing I can believe.”

  She put her hands over his clenched one on the tabletop.

  “I’m good. I’ll eat. I promise. Go to her.”

  Just then Kelly set the plate in front of her and she grabbed up the sandwich and took a bite.

  “See?” she said with lettuce poking out the corner of her mouth.

  She handed him his jacket and he almost bounded away.

  Mia smiled to herself. Her friend was going to live happily ever after.

  She thought of herself and Daniel so at home with each other, so loving, on the floor in front of the fire at her house, sitting on the balcony in the sunshine at his.

  How was that wrong?

  She finished her food and hurried over to the Emergency Department at the clinic. By the time Monique was ready to leave, Lenny had found a buddy from the night shift to come in early and cover for him and he became Monique’s “someone to check on you every hour during the night.”

  As soon as Monique left the clinic with Lenny, Mia had gone back to work. The rattled wide-awake feeling lasted until almost three in the morning. By that time, she had the rest of the large sidewall completed.

  Lenny had a training class in Portland at ten in the morning, so by seven she was at Monique’s doorstep ready to relieve him.

  “She still doesn’t know about her granddad,” he said as he leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek and sprinted out to his car.

  I got your back, officer, she thought as she watched him drive away.

  “Hey, are you out there flirting with my boyfriend?”

  “Sorry, I let him go,” Mia said as she entered Monique’s living room. “I didn’t know I was allowed to flirt.”

  “You’re not.”

  “Don’t you look all queenlike ensconced there. I see your loyal vassal slept in the chair.”

  “I saw them.”

  “You saw what?”

  “Fireworks. When I hit my head I saw fireworks and then Lenny came to check on me and he was even brave enough to check on you. Did you really eat when he told you to?”

  “So does he know you love him?”

  “I tried to tell him, but he said he’d waited so long he could wait until we were sure it wasn’t the head injury talking.” She sat forward. “I could go to work today—”

  “You could not.”

  “But Mr. Wetherbee and Barbara would be there with me. You could leave and go get some sleep, which you so desperately need.”

  “I’m fine. I’m here until Lenny gets back.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “WHY ARE YOU doing this, Mia? It’s Saturday night and you’ve been at it for four days.”

  The streetlight made the rain sparkle off the windows of Braven’s across the street. It was so pretty. Mia heard Monique’s words, but instead of answering, she climbed back up the ladder one more time. Every time she wanted to quit, she climbed back up one more time.

  When she came down the ladder to fill the buckets with debris, Monique shook her by the shoulder. “Please, answer me.”

  Mia looked at her friend. “Because I’m too scared to stop.”

  “You don’t eat well. You don’t sleep well. This is killing you, don’t you see?”

  “Do I give up? Do I give it all up and walk away? The walking away has to stop, why shouldn’t it be me first?”

  “Because the sun does not rise and set just because you have arranged it. Because this is a town full of people who, like it or not, are going to make up their minds the way they want to about the future of this town.” Monique’s voice rose as she spoke. “For the record, though, I hate the thought of you walking away. I missed you when you lived in Boston and Portland and I know I couldn’t stand it if you left again.”

  Mia put a hand on Monique’s heaving chest. “I’ve made you mad, sweetie. You don’t get mad. I’m so sorry.”

  “Does that mean you’ll come with me and get some dinner?”

  “Later. I just need to get a little more finished.”

  Monique’s shoulders drooped. “If you’re still here in two hours when Lenny gets off work, he’ll either help you or he’ll carry you out of here.”

  “Don’t have Lenny come. I can’t have him getting into trouble on my account. Please, promise me.”

  “But you can get into trouble on account of the town?”

  “Maybe you should leave. I need to get back to work. Please don’t send Lenny.”

  “But I’ll—”

  “Just go away, please.”

  Monique walked away and Mia immediately regretted her last words. Her friend did not deserve to be treated badly. As soon as this was all over, she’d make it up to her, somehow.

  * * *

  A COUPLE HOURS after Monique left, Mia was about ready to take a break. Eat the sandwich she had made this morning for lunch, a lunch she should have eaten hours ago. Get some water because she was really thirsty. She lowered herself down the ladder. Each muscle in her legs screamed until she got to the floor. Then she moved the heavy ladder to the next spot.

  When she checked to see how much she had left, she was not sure she had the strength to do the rest. Maybe she could leave it. No. Mr. Markham had said the first people in on Monday would be the inspectors to see what needed to be fixed before the electricians got there shortly after that. If he was to get the work done on time, she was to have held up her end, the demo.

  Just get these buckets out and emptied, she thought.

  The empty buckets seemed to weigh a ton each. The three steps up into the Roost, Mount McKinley. She needed to go home, rest, eat something before she couldn’t even stand.

  Back inside with the buckets, she decided on just one more trip up the ladder. She put the buckets down and got the small claw hammer and crowbar. As she stepped up the ladder, she lost her grip and her balance. Her heel flew out from under her and she hit the floor.

  A split second later and she knew the ladder was coming down on top of her. The only recourse she had was to duck.

  She threw her arms over her head—

  And nothing happened.

  The ladder seemed to be suspended at an impossible angle and then it actually moved back into place against the wall. In that instance her addled brain figured out she wasn’t alone.

  Slowly, afraid to look, afraid not to, she tried to focus her gaze. Daniel MacCarey stood next to the ladder.

  His dark eyes glittered in the harsh work lights, the work lights he had left behind, and for what seemed like the thousandth time since she met him, she could not breathe.

  “Daniel.” She had to force his name out with the air left in her lungs.

  He extended a hand and she shook her head. “I’d get you dirty.” She collected the hammer and pry bar and struggled up from the floor.

  “You look very sexy wielding a hammer.”

  “Oh, you are so cruel.” She knew just how she looked. Sweatband around her head, a flannel shirt so old, no one could possibly remember who the original owner was over a faded orange tank top with a juice stain between her breasts. Dust from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

  “Finished?”<
br />
  “What?”

  “Doing an ‘I look terrible’ inventory because you’re wrong.”

  She took in a short breath to try to banish the tremble her chin seemed to have adopted. He knew her so well. He was such a loss, a great loss.

  “Daniel.” She breathed again because just saying his name turned the tremble into quaking. She tried to turn away, but her feet wouldn’t move. Fatigue made her knees sag and she slumped toward the floor.

  Before she knew it, she was being lifted into the air and pulled close to Daniel’s chest. He didn’t say a word as he carried her to his car and put her into the passenger seat. Five minutes later he carried her up to her bathroom and sat down on the edge of the tub with her on his lap.

  She curled up with her head down, too tired to be embarrassed. He tugged the kerchief from her head. Next her boots and socks went, followed by her jeans and flannel shirt.

  She vaguely heard him speak to her and then he slid off her tank top and sports bra followed by her panties.

  He must have turned the bathroom heater on because she didn’t feel the cold at all. When she slid into the water she felt herself falling sleep almost immediately.

  The next thing she remembered was waking up with Daniel next to her on the bed, and her kissing him and snuggling against him as she nodded off to sleep again.

  When she awoke the next time it was still dark but she was alone. She must have dreamed Daniel had been there. She wondered when those dreams of him would fade away.

  She stretched to look at the time but what she saw seemed wrong. It was nine o’clock?

  She sat up.

  Daniel was there. He came to Pirate’s Roost and kept the ladder from falling on her head. But that couldn’t be. It was almost one o’clock in the morning when he got there.

  Things were fuzzy after that. A bath. She had a bath. He was beside her in bed.

  She hurled off the covers and stood up until dizziness made her sit down again.

  She couldn’t have slept all day.

  Pulling her arms into her robe, she staggered down the stairs.