by Cindi Myers
“Yes!” Taylor clapped her hands together. “He’s going to be so surprised when he sees me.”
“You should have someone waiting with a camera. Now hop up here.” Darcy patted the chair beside her. “I need to measure the hem.”
Darcy measured and pinned, then Taylor changed back into her jeans and sweater. Darcy tucked the costume into the closet with all her outfits. “You can stay after class again next week,” she said. “We’ll check the hem and add any finishing touches you think the costume needs.” It was time to drive to Mike’s office. Darcy wished she could drive slower, to make her time alone with Taylor last longer.
“I knew Dad didn’t mean it when he said I shouldn’t dance anymore,” Taylor said. “He always acts like that when I try new things he thinks might hurt me. He was the same way about skiing. The first time I wanted to go skiing after my surgery he was worried I’d get too tired or too cold or I’d fall, or all the people there would have too many germs. It took forever for me to talk him into letting me go.”
“Are you a good skier?”
“Pretty good. I’d be better if I could go more often. I wish we could live in our condo in Breckenridge all winter, but it’s too far from Dad’s office.”
The mining town turned ski resort was a picture postcard place of restored historic buildings and colorful new ones against the backdrop of snow-covered peaks.
“We’re going this weekend,” Taylor said. “I can hardly wait. I hope we get lots and lots of snow.”
A weekend she wouldn’t see them.
“Are you dancing this weekend?” Taylor asked.
“No, I have the weekend off.” March was a notoriously slow time of year. She was doing transcription at home for a law firm to fill in the gap in her income.
“You should come skiing with us!” Taylor strained against her seat belt.
Darcy felt a flutter of excitement. “Your father might have other ideas,” she said. She parked and shut off the engine, wondering what Mike would think of the prospect of the two of them—the three of them—spending the weekend together.
“We’ll ask him now,” Taylor said, unbuckling her seat belt.
“Taylor, I don’t know…” But the girl was already out of the car, racing up the driveway. By the time Darcy reached the front door, Taylor was there with Mike. “Daddy, can Darcy come skiing with us this weekend, please?”
Darcy felt his eyes on her. She couldn’t read his expression. Their eyes met only briefly before he returned his attention to Taylor.
“I asked and she’s not dancing this weekend and she likes to ski and the condo has plenty of room,” Taylor said in a rush.
“Your mother sent a package for you from Italy. I put it in your room.” He patted her shoulder. “Why don’t you go check it out while Darcy and I talk?”
He waited until Taylor had shut the door behind her before he turned and pulled Darcy into his arms.
By the time he raised his head they were both breathless. “I’ve been wanting to do that ever since you left my house last week,” he said.
“Mmm.” She stroked his cheek, the sharp bristles of his five-o’clock shadow rasping against her palm. “You know where I live.”
“It hardly seemed appropriate to make out with a ten-year-old in tow, and I couldn’t think of a good excuse to abandon my patients during the day.”
She nodded. “My students might have been shocked at your sudden appearance, as well.”
He kissed her again, and she arched against him, loving the feel of his body, hard and muscular, against hers.
“So will you come with us to Breck this weekend?” he asked.
“I’d love to.” A full weekend of sun, snow and Mike’s kisses. It would be tough, behaving themselves in front of Taylor, but Darcy had always liked a challenge.
CHAPTER TEN
“LOOK HOW HARD it’s snowing, Dad. Isn’t it great?” Taylor said, her nose pressed to the car window. It looked as if someone was emptying out hundreds of feather pillows. The tops of cars, shrubs and fire hydrants were quickly disappearing beneath the onslaught.
Mike carefully maneuvered the car over the barely visible pavement. “I don’t think the weathermen predicted such a big storm for this morning,” he said.
“I hope it’s snowing in Breckenridge,” Taylor said. “It’ll be great for skiing.” She turned from the window. “I don’t know how I’ll sit through school. I wish I could skip just this one Friday and we could go to Darcy’s house and leave now.”
“Darcy and I have work to do, and your job is to go to school,” Mike said. “Three-thirty will be here before you know it.” He’d agreed to take off early to drive to the mountains.
“I’m so glad Darcy can come with us,” Taylor said. “It’ll be so much fun to be with her all weekend.”
Mike had hardly slept last night, his thoughts too full of everything that might happen this weekend, and everything he wanted to happen. Darcy still had the power to throw him off balance, but he was growing accustomed to the feeling, and even looked forward to it. At almost forty it was exciting to think a woman could inspire new feelings in him.
He followed a bus into the school driveway. Traffic was lighter than usual. Even Taylor’s usual carpool buddy, Curtis Askew, had decided to stay home. “I’ll see you at three-thirty,” Mike said, as Taylor unbuckled her seat belt and leaned forward for her goodbye kiss.
“With this snow, maybe they’ll dismiss us early,” she said.
“I still have to see all my patients before we can leave.”
“Maybe the snow will make your patients cancel their appointments and stay home.” She slid out of the car. “Bye, Dad. See you soon.” Backpack over one shoulder, she disappeared into the mass of students and swirling snow.
The weather certainly wasn’t keeping any patients home this morning. By the time Mike arrived at his office the waiting room was full and Nicole greeted him with a stack of charts. “Typical Friday ‘I need to get well before the weekend’ stuff,” she said.
He nodded. People might let their kids limp along all week with symptoms, hoping they’d get better on their own, but the prospect of a weekend wiped out by illness drove them to the doctor, hoping for an instant cure he was rarely able to offer.
He worked steadily all morning, snow forgotten. At noon he retreated to his office to wolf down the sandwich Peggy ordered from the deli down the street and was surprised to see a near whiteout outside his window. Traffic to the resort would be a nightmare. Any sane person would stay home. But he had a little girl and a woman who were looking forward to this weekend. And he’d spent his life driving in the snow. If they took it slowly, they’d get there fine, but the sooner they left, the better.
An hour later, the school called. “They’re releasing classes early,” Peggy told him. “Taylor wants to know if she can ride the bus to Darcy’s house.”
“Yes, that’s a good idea.” He had Taylor’s ski gear and suitcase in the car with his own things. He could swing by Darcy’s without making the extra trip back to his house.
At two he took another break and checked the highway department Web site. Plows were keeping the major highways clear and though traffic into the high country was moving slowly, it was moving. “Heavy snow is expected into the night,” the site in formed him.
“How many more patients?” he asked Nicole. If he could wrap it up here, they could get started well before dark.
“Two. Nothing major.” She smiled. “We’ll have you off to your romantic weekend in no time.”
“I’m taking my daughter skiing, Nicole.”
“And that dancer is going along to babysit?” Nicole laughed. “Have a good time, Dr. Mike. You deserve it.”
“Mrs. Jankowski is on line one,” Peggy interrupted them, no humor at all in her expression. “She says Brent is ill.”
Mike took the call. “I’m so sorry to bother you on a Friday afternoon,” Sarah Jankowski began. “I wouldn’t have called, but the school
sent Brent home today with a horrible cough and he says he’s not feeling well.”
“How long has he had this cough?”
“Well, he coughs some all the time, you know. Since that last bout of bronchitis it’s almost like a habit with him. But this is different—deeper. And he says it hurts.”
“You’d better bring him in.”
“It’ll be a bit before I can get there, with this weather.”
“That’s all right. I’ll wait.” He hung up, sighing. So much for getting away early. But he couldn’t let Brent go the weekend with a possible return of his bronchitis—or something worse.
He let Peggy and Nicole know Brent was on his way, then picked up the phone again and punched in Darcy’s number. “Hello,” she greeted him. “Taylor phoned and said she’s taking the bus to my house, so we’ll be ready when you get here.”
“I have an emergency patient coming in, so I’m going to be late,” he said. “I’ve been monitoring the traffic and weather reports and while things seem to be okay now, as it gets dark they’re bound to get worse. I was wondering if you wanted to take Taylor and head on up to the condo. I’ll follow in my car when I wrap things up here.”
“Oh.” Pause. “Are you sure you don’t want us to wait for you?”
“I’d feel better knowing you and Taylor were safely out of here in daylight. I should only be a couple hours behind you. That is, if you’re okay driving in the snow.”
“Oh, yes. I did a birthday party during the Blizzard of 2003, and you’d be surprised how many people still show up at a restaurant when the weather’s bad. It’s like no one wants to get trapped at home, so they all head out.”
“It’s freeway almost all the way to Breck, so you should be fine.” He gave her directions to the condo.
“Taylor knows it well, so she’ll help you find it and show you where to park,” he said. “I’ll be up there as soon as I can.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Simple words, but there was an extra heat behind them that sent a shiver of anticipation through him. Damn Brent’s cough. He hated to be away from Darcy one moment more than necessary.
DARCY STOOD at her front window, watching a world covered in white. The snowflakes were smaller than they’d been this morning, more powdered sugar than feathers. She’d been truthful when she told Mike she had plenty of experience driving in snow, but she hadn’t told him she dreaded going out in it.
It had been snowing the night Pete and Riley had died—a storm much like this one, not a full-out blizzard, just steady, heavy snowfall. She hadn’t thought twice about driving to the party where she was the featured entertainment.
She would never know what possessed Pete to head toward his buddy’s house in the mountains. If Darcy had been home, she would have kept Riley with her. If she’d known Pete was drinking, she would have taken his keys. If only…
A small figure materialized in the snow, struggling up the driveway. Darcy opened the door and ran out to greet Taylor, taking her backpack and ushering her into the kitchen, where she helped her out of her parka and snow boots. “There’s so much snow!” the girl said, wide-eyed. “Skiing’s going to be awesome.”
“Your father called and he has to work late,” Darcy said.
“No!” Taylor’s face crumpled. “It’s not fair.”
“No, it’s not. But he asked me to go ahead and take you to the condo. He’ll meet us there in a few hours.”
“Yay!” Taylor jumped from the bench and hugged Darcy. “I wish Dad could come with us right away, but it’ll be fun to go there, just the two of us.”
“Sure it will.” Not fun, exactly, but she was grateful she’d have the girl to distract her. “Let’s go ahead and have a snack, then you can take your medicine and help me load the car.”
Traffic was light through town, and the snow had all but stopped, so Darcy began to relax. In the backseat, Taylor chattered about the A she’d gotten on a history test, the spider that had emptied out the girls’ locker room during sixth period, and skiing.
“I want to learn to slide rails in the terrain park, but Dad won’t let me,” she said. “He thinks it’s too dangerous.”
“It looks dangerous to me.” Darcy moved into the right lane to allow a snowplow to pass.
“But lots of kids do it. And I have a helmet.”
You’re not lots of kids, Darcy wanted to say. But she didn’t. It was the sort of thing adults said that children hated to hear. Besides, every time Taylor looked at her scars or took her handfuls of pills she was reminded of how different she was from other children. Of how unfair life could be.
The freeway was plowed and the snow had stopped. They should have had a smooth drive all the way to Breckenridge, but Darcy had driven only a few miles when traffic came to a standstill. Three lanes of glowing red taillights curved ahead as far as the eye could see, eighteen-wheeler trucks idling alongside SUVs with ski racks and economy cars topped with snowboards.
“What’s going on?” Taylor asked.
“I don’t know. An accident, maybe?” Darcy reached for her phone and punched in the number for the highway department. A recorded voice informed her that due to weather conditions there were a number of road closures in the area, including the freeway they were traveling.
Darcy hung up the phone and sighed. “The road’s closed.”
“Closed? But it’s stopped snowing.”
“There’s been an avalanche. They’re detouring people onto a side road and back the way we came.” She inched the car forward as everyone ahead of her did the same.
“That’s okay,” Taylor said. “We can go the back way. I’ll show you.”
The back way was an alternative route into the mountains, down a winding, two-lane state highway. The road passed sleepy ranches and a few small towns. In the summer it was a pleasant, scenic drive. In the winter it was lonely and could be treacherous.
“I don’t know,” Darcy said. “Maybe we should contact your father and see what he wants to do.” Mike may have finished with his patients, then he could take over the driving. Darcy would feel safe with him at the wheel.
“He said to go ahead and he’d meet us later,” Taylor said. “I can show you the road to take. It’s easy.”
“I know the way,” Darcy said. It was the route Pete had taken the night of the accident. A route that would take her right by the place where his car had plunged off the road. Darcy had avoided driving the road ever since that night.
As they continued to creep forward with the traffic, she picked up the phone again and called Mike. “Hi. This is Dr. Mike Carter. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you.”
She hung up without speaking, and turned up the heater against the chill that numbed her from the inside out.
“Dad keeps his phone off when he’s with patients,” Taylor said. “Somebody else probably came in and needed him. He can’t turn sick people away. Doctors take an oath about that.”
Darcy imagined Mike explaining this to Taylor, how he had to help people because of the promise he’d made when he’d received his medical license.
“We’ll go the back way,” she said. She wouldn’t think of the bad things that had happened on that road. She’d focus instead on all the good things that lay ahead.
“THE CONGESTION IS definitely back, Mrs. Jankowski, but I’m not sure it’s bronchitis this time.” Mike moved his stethoscope slowly across Brent’s back, listening to his constricted breathing.
“What do you think it is?” Sarah Jankowski held the boy’s shirt, wringing it like a dish towel.
“It could be pneumonia.” It could also be congestive heart failure, but he didn’t like to raise that alarm without more proof. “I want to send you to the hospital for a chest X-ray and some blood work.”
“The hospital? Can it wait until Monday?”
If only everything could wait until Monday, until after his weekend with Darcy and Taylor. “I’m afraid not. I’ll have Nicole call ahead and let th
em know you’re coming.”
After he’d explained to Nicole what he wanted and Brent and his mother were on their way, Mike retreated to his office and tried to call Darcy. Out the window he could see the snow had stopped, so traffic should be clearing.
Her phone went straight to voice mail. Good for her, not driving and trying to talk on the phone. But the depth of his disappointment at not being able to speak to her surprised him.
There was a knock on his office door. “Come in.”
Peggy stuck her head in. “I just heard an avalanche above Georgetown has closed Interstate 70.”
“An avalanche?” He stood. “Darcy and Taylor were headed that way.”
“The only injury was to a truck driver and he’s going to be okay. They’ve diverted everyone else. The only way to Breckenridge now is along Highway 285 to Highway 9.”
He sat again. “Taylor and I have driven that route sometimes. There’s that one bad patch through South Park, but after that it’s fine.”
“I don’t care much for Hoosier Pass.”
“I’m sure Darcy’s a careful driver,” he said.
“Oh, I’m sure. What do you think is wrong with Brent?”
“I’m worried his heart is failing,” Mike admitted. “He’s caught an infection he can’t shake and the damaged heart muscle can’t compensate. I’ve got a call into Dr. Munroe for his opinion.” Munroe was the pediatric cardiologist who’d cared for Taylor.
“I hope he’s okay,” Peggy said.
“Me, too.” He hoped everyone was okay, but knew too well that life seldom granted that kind of peace, where everyone you cared about was safe and happy and well, all at the same time.
He checked the clock on his desk. Five o’clock. Not so late. Brent would have his tests, Mike would talk to Dr. Munroe and, if necessary, turn Brent’s care over to the specialist. In a few hours he’d be in Breckenridge, enjoying a nice steak and a glass of wine across the table from Darcy, looking forward to what might happen later, when Taylor was tucked into bed….