Wildfire Sweethearts

by Leigh Bale

  “Oh, Daddy,” she groaned.

  “There’s a good possibility he’s gonna require physical therapy of some sort, because he’s experiencing some muscle weakness on one side, mostly with his arm. Barring any unforeseen issues, he should make a near, if not complete, recovery.”

  More tears sprung to her eyes. “I should get in there,” she said, her gaze drifting to the double doors leading into ICU.

  “I’ll walk you back,” he said as he reached for the handle of her suitcase. “Jack’s in the first room on the left.” If one could call the small, glass-enclosed cubicle where patients could be monitored visually as well as with machines a room.

  “Is he conscious?” she asked fearfully.

  “Yes,” he answered with a nod as the ICU doors swung open. “However, he was sleeping when I stepped out here to return a few work calls.”

  “Did you tell him I was on my way?” she asked as they entered the intensive care unit.

  “He doesn’t know that you’re aware he’s in here,” he said evenly. “He didn’t wanna cause you any worry.”

  “I’m glad you called,” she said. “Not that Daddy will be, I’m sure. The man’s too proud for his own good.”

  Logan gave a shrug. “I did what needed done. He’ll get over it.” Jack had never been a man to hold grudges.

  Hope stopped just outside the cubicle, staring at her daddy through the floor-to-ceiling wall of windows. “He looks so helpless. He’s never been helpless,” she said, biting at her bottom lip.

  Logan stepped up beside her, his gaze focused on the man beyond the glass. “Don’t worry. You know Jack’s got more grit in him than most men I know. You’ve just gotta trust in the Lord to watch over him.”

  “Where was the Lord when Daddy had his stroke?”

  She sounded so bitter. Not at all like the Hope that he used to know. But the woman he’d thought he’d once known was little more than a stranger to him now. She’d seen to that.

  “He was there,” he assured her. “I know it’s hard to see your daddy all hooked up to wires and tubes, but you’ve gotta stay strong for his sake,” he told her, resisting the urge to reach for her hand as he would have done back when they were a couple. Back when he was a naive teenage boy who thought he knew what true love was.

  He watched as she shored up her slender shoulders. No doubt gathering the emotional courage to step into the room, into the reality of the situation she found herself in.

  Logan followed, wheeling her suitcase up against the glass wall by the entrance where he stood waiting, giving Hope a moment of privacy as she moved to stand beside Jack’s hospital bed.

  Reaching for Jack’s limp hand, Hope covered it with her own. “Oh, Daddy,” she said as her worried gaze took in the medical equipment that surrounded the head of his hospital bed. Leaning over the bed rail, she said softly, “Daddy, it’s Hope. Can you hear me?”

  He stirred, his lashes lifting slightly as he peered up at his only child. “Baby girl?” he said, his thick brows furrowing in confusion.

  She managed a bright smile, as she settled into the chair next to the bed rail. “You gave me a scare.”

  “What are you doing here?” he asked in surprise.

  “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

  “But how did you know I was...” His words trailed off as his tired gaze shifted to where Logan stood waiting. One lone salt-and-pepper brow lifted. “You called her?”

  He nodded. Not that he’d wanted to. “She had a right to know.”

  “Not one for sticking to the plan, I see,” Jack grumbled.

  “No, sir,” Logan replied with a shake of his head as he stepped closer. “Not when it means keeping something this serious from your daughter.” No matter how poorly things had ended between the two of them, he knew what it was like to lose a parent. Hope had already lost her momma. If Jack, God forbid, took a turn for the worse, she deserved the chance to say goodbye. Even if she had pretty much abandoned Jack when she’d moved away, her visits too few and far too short. Jack deserved more from his only child.

  “I see,” his friend said with clear disapproval.

  Betraying Jack wasn’t something Logan had done lightly. But his momma had raised him to do the right thing. This, in his opinion, had been the right thing to do, whether Jack liked it or not. “I’d do it again if the situation called for it,” he admitted.

  Hope turned her head, looking up at him. “And I thank you. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy call to make, seeing as how Daddy asked you to keep this to yourself.”

  She had no idea how difficult. Not only because of the news he’d had to give her, but also because hearing her sweet voice again had succeeded in twisting him up in emotional knots all over again. It had also stirred up the bitterness and hurt he’d long since tucked away.

  “If not for your finding Daddy...” she continued, emotion drawing her voice tight.

  “Yes,” Jack agreed with a nod. “If you hadn’t been there... Thank you, son. For everything.”

  “Don’t thank me,” he told the older man with a smile. “Thank the man above. Appears He’s still got plans for you.”

  “Appears that way.”

  “Well, now that you’ve got family here, I’ll be on my way,” he said, needing to put some distance between himself and Hope. Pulling Jack’s smartphone from the front pocket of his flannel shirt, Logan placed it atop the narrow lap table that hovered over the foot of Jack’s hospital bed. “In case you need to reach me. Take care of yourself, Jack. I’ll be by tomorrow to check on you.” Looking to Jack’s daughter, he tipped his hat. “Hope.” Then turning, he made his way toward the open doorway.

  “Logan,” Jack called after him, his voice weak.

  He stopped then turned to find knowing eyes watching him.

  “Everything will work itself out, son. The good Lord’s got plans for you, as well.”

  He didn’t miss Hope stiffening at her daddy’s words of faith in the Lord. Just as she had earlier.

  He acknowledged Jack’s words with another nod and then walked out of the ICU room. Back to what he knew best—landscaping.

  But when his thoughts should have turned to that day’s business, they stubbornly refused. They were caught up in the change he’d seen in Hope. She wasn’t the sweet, smiling girl he remembered. The one he’d spent countless Sundays sitting beside in church all those years ago. The one he’d laughed with. Learned with. Loved. No, the woman he’d seen today had lost that spark of joy that used to light her green eyes. Even more troubling, she seemed to have lost her trust in God’s will.

  He sighed, wishing he could push the troubling thoughts away. Getting caught up in Hope again wasn’t something he would ever allow to happen. But it didn’t mean he wasn’t affected by her rejection of a faith she’d once held dear.

  Granted, there had been a time when her trust in the Lord had been shaken. Right after her momma had lost her long, courageous battle with cancer. But she’d been young and scared and hurting. His momma, who had been close with Hope’s, had done her best to step in and help fill in some of the void. She’d also been there to help an eleven-year-old little girl understand and accept that the Lord had a far greater plan for her momma.

  Now he had to wonder if Hope had ever really accepted that. Had she merely put on a front about having faith all these years just as his own brother had done after the loss of his wife? Logan couldn’t even begin to guess what was going on inside her head. He’d already been so wrong about so many things where Hope Dillan was concerned. Best thing for him to do was keep his distance.

  * * *

  Hope watched him go, tears pooling up in her eyes. Logan Cooper was no longer the boy that she had fallen in love with all those years ago. He was a full-grown man. Tall, lean, broad-shouldered and with an even greater ability to make
her heart pound. He was everything she had always dreamed about. Everything she could ever hope for. Not that it mattered. She had lost him long ago.

  Frowning, she turned back to her daddy, who was watching her, his tightly pressed lips pulling downward. “Are you hurting?” she asked worriedly, forcing all thoughts of Logan Cooper from her mind.

  “I’m thinking I should be asking you that question,” her daddy said.

  She forced a smile. “I’m not the one lying in a hospital bed. Now stop worrying yourself over me.”

  “No can do, honey,” he replied. “You’re my baby girl. It’s my job to worry over you.”

  “Well, there isn’t anything to be concerned about,” she said, wondering if she was trying to convince her daddy or herself. Seeing Logan again, talking to him again, being so near to him, had left her thoroughly shaken. Pushing thoughts of him from her mind, she said, “And it’s my turn to worry about you. Not the other way around.” Standing, she reached out to dim the light over the hospital bed. “Now get some rest. We can talk more later.”

  Jack nodded, his heavy-lidded eyes drifting shut.

  Hope sat watching him for a long time, knowing how close she had come to losing him. The thought of no longer having him in her life had shaken her to the core. The Lord had already taken her mother away. A hurt that had only deepened when she’d learned she would probably never be a mother herself.

  As it had so many times over the past nine years, a deep ache filled her at the thought. Her hand moved to smooth over her flat stomach, unshed tears filling her eyes. It would never grow round with a child. She would never feel the stirrings of life that came with carrying a baby of her own. Never find the true happiness she’d come so close to having before her life as she had known it came crashing down around her.

  Copyright © 2017 by Kimberly Duffy

  ISBN-13: 9781488018299

  Wildfire Sweethearts

  Copyright © 2017 by Lora Lee Bale

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