by Janice Lynn
Legs weak, Blair plopped into a chair.
Addy had been out on a sailboat with Oz?
She’d driven the boat?
“We watched the sun disappear, and we saw dolphins,” Addy continued, oblivious to the fact Blair’s blood had all settled below her ankles.
“Oz took you sailing last night? In the dark?” Did her voice sound as breathless as she felt? As panicky as she felt?
“He wouldn’t let me feed the dolphins,” Addy complained, her lower lip momentarily pouty as she tore off a piece of her muffin.
“You went sailing with Oz?” Blair repeated, stunned, trying not to envision Addy leaning over the boat railing to feed fish.
“We sailed into the Gulf looking for treasure,” Addy informed matter-of-factly. “I got to be a pirate and Dr Oz was my first mate.” She giggled at some private memory. “I want to be a sailor when I grow up and sail around the whole world bilfering and blundering.”
“Pilfering and plundering,” Blair automatically corrected.
Oz had taken her daughter out in a sailboat without her permission. She’d trusted him with the most precious part of her life and he’d taken her out to sea, in the dark.
How could he have been so irresponsible?
How could he not have told her when she’d revealed how Chris had died? He’d had to know, yet he’d purposely not said anything. Then he’d had “cheap sex” with her. The bastard.
“Did Dr Oz go sailing without me?” Addy’s forehead wrinkled in consternation. “He promised to take Mommy and me with him the next time he went, but he didn’t.”
“Oz didn’t mention going sailing.” Stephanie stared at Blair with concern. “Just that he was going for a run, but he might have jogged to the marina. He’s been talking about buying a boat someone has for sale down there.”
Boo-boo, scratching at the back door, wanting to be inside the house, saved Blair from saying what she thought about Oz buying a boat. Addy jumped down from her seat to let the dog in.
“Never much cared for sailing,” Dr Talbot said from where he sat at the table, still eyeing Blair.
Stephanie placed her hand over Blair’s. “Are you okay? I take it you didn’t know Oz was taking her out on a boat?”
“No, I didn’t.” Blair tried to keep her voice calm for Addy’s sake, but anger erupted inside her, blowing through her with volcanic force. “But Oz Manning is going to know about how angry I am that he took my daughter out on a boat without my permission.”
Sweat covered Oz’s brow, his body. He’d been jogging for nearly an hour. Usually nothing cleared his head like a good run. In Rochester, he ran a route from his condo to the park and back, a little over five miles total. In Madison, with the sea air filling his lungs, the breeze whipping at his skin, he felt as if he could go on and on.
Or maybe thinking about the night before was what had him so wired.
He’d made love with Blair.
He grinned, probably looking a fool to the older couple walking along picking up shells. Not that he cared. He felt a fool.
A fool high on life.
Last night his eyes had been opened in many ways.
Ways he’d never dreamed of seeing clearly, but thanks to Blair, he saw.
When she’d hurried from his room, he’d sighed. At first he’d thought his sigh had been in relief. But as he’d lain there, analyzing everything Blair had told him, everything they’d shared physically and emotionally, he’d realized his sigh hadn’t been in relief. Instead, he’d sighed at Blair’s backtracking, trying to protect her heart.
He recognized the motions well.
He had a lifetime’s experience.
He’d always compared himself to his father, but wasn’t that taking the safe route? Because, if he wasn’t like his father, that meant he must be like his mother, who had been devastated by Oz’s cheating father. He’d watched his mother’s heart crumble, watched her self-destructive path, and somewhere along the way he’d decided he was like his father as a safety mechanism.
Wasn’t being the cad much easier than being the victim of a broken heart?
For years, he’d operated under that misguided notion. He’d never met anyone to make him question his belief, had never met anyone to make him risk being more than a self-proclaimed cad.
Not until Blair.
While lying in the bed they’d made love in, surrounded by the scent of her on his favorite Egyptian cotton sheets, on his pillow, he’d questioned…well…everything.
The fact that he’d done more than either of his parents, that he had committed to medical school, to Dr T, that he’d met a woman he wanted to explore the possibilities with, a woman worth taking risks with.
Mostly, he’d questioned his feelings for Blair.
From the time he’d met her, he’d recognized something different about her, about the way he treated her, felt about her. He’d thought it secondary to Dr T. Now he knew his feelings went deeper.
He wouldn’t go so far as to say he was in love with Blair, but he cared for her a great deal.
More than he’d ever cared for a woman.
Knowing that she’d been hurt by his silence, that she’d run because she thought that was what he wanted, Oz had snuck across the hallway to the “mermaid room.”
He’d tapped on the door, but Blair hadn’t answered. He’d pushed the door open to see her curled next to Addy, fast asleep.
He’d watched her and Addy sleep, wondering how he could care so much for the two sleeping beauties. How he couldn’t have realized how important they were to him. That he’d used the guise of friendship to give himself permission to be close to Blair.
He’d gone back to his room, content they’d talk when they woke. He’d risen early, anxious to tell her everything, but not surprisingly, Blair had slept in.
Not breaking from his normal routine so as not to alert Dr T or Stephanie that anything had changed, not until he and Blair had a chance to talk first, Oz had taken off for his usual run. Which was likely for the best.
When he came face-to-face with Blair again, he was going to pull her into his arms and kiss her until she was breathless and no longer spouting garbage about why they’d ended up in bed together.
They’d ended up making love because it had been inevitable. From the day they met they’d been moving in that direction.
Just the memory of making love with her had him stirring beneath his gym shorts. Hell, he was going to have to run into the cold Gulf water if he didn’t get his act together.
Only taking a dip would mean being away from Blair longer and surely she was awake by now? Surely when he got back to Dr T’s he’d be able to look into Blair’s eyes and she’d know he wanted her, cared about her, and that for the first time in his life he wanted to pursue a committed relationship.
Blair loaded the few dirty dishes into the dishwasher and started the load. Addy was in the living room with Dr T and Boo-boo. Stephanie sat at the table, still sipping on a cup of coffee.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Blair glanced toward her friend. Did Stephanie know what had happened between her and Oz? “About what?”
“About why you looked so upset earlier.”
“Oh. That.” She almost sighed in relief. When her gaze met Stephanie’s she realized her mistake.
“Is there another reason you might be upset?”
Blair shook her head. “No. There isn’t.”
“Just that Oz took Addy sailing?”
“Yes.” She pulled out the chair next to Stephanie’s. “Oz should have asked before taking her out. He shouldn’t have assumed something like that would be okay.”
“I’m sure he watched her closely. He adores Addy.”
She nodded. “That doesn’t give him the right to decide to take her out to sea without my permission.”
“He’s an experienced sailor. Apparently, his family had a boat that he took out a lot during his younger years. Plus, he’s been out several times sinc
e he’s moved in with Ted.”
“It’s not that.” Blair sighed. “I know I’m paranoid in not wanting Addy out in a sailboat, but her father died in a sailing accident.”
She couldn’t believe she’d just said that out loud. Perhaps telling one person made telling another easier, though, because she didn’t regret her admission.
“I’m sorry, Blair.” Stephanie patted her hand. “I didn’t know.”
“It’s not something I talk about.”
“I understand.” Stephanie gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Let’s go sit with Ted.”
Blair glanced at her watch and nodded. “I’ll visit for a short while, then I’m going to go home, shower and work on odds and ends for the fund-raiser. Can you believe it’s so close?”
She and Stephanie went into the den. Addy sat on the floor brushing Boo-boo’s fur. Dr T’s head dipped forward, his eyes shut, his shoulders slumped.
“Is he already napping?” Stephanie sounded disappointed. “He usually doesn’t nap until around noon.”
Taking in his gray color, his lack of movement, Blair realized Dr T wasn’t napping.
Oh, God.
No, please, no.
She rushed to his side, kneeling next to his wheelchair.
“Dr Talbot?” She shook him, relief filling her when his eyelids fluttered open, when he gasped for a breath.
He attempted to focus on her, slurred a response, then closed his eyes.
“Dr Talbot?” she repeated, grabbing his wrist and taking his pulse. Thready and erratic. She glanced at Stephanie, who was shaking his shoulder and saying his name over and over. “Call 911. Now.”
Oz heard the sirens long before he rounded the corner to Dr T’s street. He’d sped up. Likely he was being paranoid, but he couldn’t get rid of the urgency inside him that said he needed to get home ASAP. Something was wrong.
He’d been right.
The ambulance was parked in front of Dr T’s house. The front door stood wide-open. Two uniformed men carried out a body on a stretcher.
Dr T? No!
Oz ran the distance between him and the driveway. His chest burned from the exertion, burned from fear his friend might no longer be with him, that he hadn’t been there when his friend needed him, that maybe he could have done something. He didn’t slow until he stood next to the ambulance.
“What’s going on?” he asked no one in particular. The two paramedics had lifted Dr T into the truck. Stephanie stood with her arms around Addy on the front porch stoop. Both of them sobbed uncontrollably.
“What the hell is going on?” he demanded, preparing to climb into the back of the ambulance. “Somebody tell me what’s going on!”
Saying something he couldn’t quite make out to the paramedics, Blair stepped out of the ambulance and the men closed the door.
Pale, Blair pulled him out of the way so the emergency vehicle could back up.
“Blair!” He grabbed her shoulders. “Is he alive? What’s happened? Tell me.”
“Alive. Weak, thready pulse. Incoherent. In and out of consciousness.” Her gaze never left the truck, never blinked. The emergency vehicle sped down the road, sirens blasting. “We’ve got to get to the hospital.”
Oz looked down at his sweat-drenched body and shorts. “Let me grab a shirt.”
As if noticing for the first time that he wore only jogging shorts, Blair’s gaze ran over him. Whatever her thoughts, she only nodded.
When he came back out, Blair and Addy were gone and only Stephanie waited.
“Where’s Blair?”
“She’s gone to the hospital. Her sister is meeting her to take Addy home.”
“Fine,” Oz bit out, trying not to read anything into the fact that she’d left him. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER NINE
DR TALBOT had gone into renal failure due to hypovo-lemia, an electrolyte imbalance and severe anemia. With IV fluids and multiple blood transfusions, he was slowly coming around.
Oz sat next to his friend’s hospital bed, along with Stephanie and Blair.
Blair hadn’t said a single word to him. Had barely even acknowledged his presence. Instead, she clung to Stephanie. The two women had hugged, crying, while they waited on news of their friend. The emergency room doctor had acted quickly, got treatment started, then admitted Dr T to the ICU. His and Blair’s employment with the hospital hadn’t hurt, but only because of Dr T’s status had the three of them been allowed to stay in the room.
Oz’s gaze went from the hospital bed to the woman sitting across from him. She looked devastated. Tired.
She leaned forward, her head resting in her hands.
God, he wanted to go to her. He wanted to hold her.
But without words being spoken, he knew now wasn’t the time to confront their feelings for each other. He’d rubbed her back earlier, but she’d gotten up, paced the floor.
Damn, this was all so complicated. His gaze settled on Dr T. So painful.
Oz said a silent prayer for his friend—that he pull out of this, that the cancer would miraculously disappear.
What would Oz do if he lost his friend? How would he cope losing the man who meant so much?
“You should go home and spend some time with Addy.” Stephanie reached over to touch Blair’s arm. “We’ll call if there’s any change.”
Blair glanced at her watch and nodded. Her gaze returned to the sleeping man with multiple wires and tubes hooked up to him. “I hate to leave him.”
“The doctor says he’ll sleep most of the evening, anyway. Go home and give Addy a hug for me.” Stephanie’s hands clenched together. “I hate that she had to witness everything this morning. I’m sure Reesee has smothered her in love, but you know she’s anxious for you to return home.”
Strained, Blair nodded, walked to the bed and kissed Dr T’s cheek. “I love you and will see you in the morning. Please be better. Please.”
The older man’s eyelids fluttered, but he didn’t speak.
Oz’s eyes pricked with tears. All afternoon, he’d stayed strong, had tried to provide strength for Stephanie and Blair, but hell, his insides were raw with grief.
He stood, needing a moment to collect himself.
“I’ll walk out with you.” When Blair started to protest, he added, “I need to.”
With only a glance his way at his brusqueness, Blair hugged Stephanie goodbye, promising to call later to check on Dr Talbot.
Oz followed Blair from the ICU room. Silently, they walked to the elevator. Oz trying to pull himself together. Blair thinking Lord only knew what. She punched the down arrow.
When the door slid closed, locking them into the privacy of the car, Oz reached for her, needing to hold her, breathe in her goodness, to grieve with her just for a moment.
“What are you doing?”
“What I’ve wanted to do since I woke up this morning.” He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her close and closed his eyes. Maybe if he held her just a minute the ache in his heart would ease. Maybe he wouldn’t feel as if his friend were dying.
“No.” She pushed away from him.
Confused, Oz blinked. “No?”
“Don’t touch me.”
“Huh?” God, he hoped she didn’t see the tears in his eyes.
“Just because I’ve been civil does not mean that I’m speaking to you,” she spat at him.
Reeling, Oz just stared at her. She hadn’t said a lot, but he’d thought that was due to Dr T’s condition. “You’re not speaking to me?”
“No.”
“Blair, about last night—” How did he tell her that he wanted a repeat? Lots of repeats? That he wanted her in his life?
“You mean when you took my daughter out on a sailboat without my permission?”
He frowned. “I thought you meant when we made love.”
“Had cheap sex,” she corrected. “You had no right to take Addy out in a sailboat. None whatsoever.”
In everything that had happened since she’d to
ld him about how Addy’s father died, he’d forgotten about the sailing trip.
“We barely went out of Wolf Bay. She was never in any danger.”
“I don’t care how far out you went. You didn’t have my permission to take her out in a boat. That’s so irresponsible.”
“Irresponsible? How is my spending time with Addy and teaching her to sail irresponsible?”
“Because you risked her safety.”
“That’s crazy, Blair.” One hand holding the closed door button on the elevator, he cupped her face, forcing her to look at him. “At no point was Addy’s safety in question. She was with me. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”
“Like when you were watching her play with Boo-boo and her knee had to be sewn up?”
Blair knew she’d delivered a low blow even before Oz’s jaw clenched. He’d hurt her, had risked Addy’s life, and a man she loved dearly lay dying. She wanted to lash out at the world. To lash out at Oz.
His hand fell away from her face. “That was an accident.”
“Exactly. Which proves my point.” She jabbed his chest with her finger. “You can’t stop accidents from happening. Taking her out in a boat is tempting fate.”
“Because of Chris?”
“Because sailing is dangerous.”
“You know this because you’ve spent a lot of time on a boat?”
“I know this because…because…” Because Chris had died during a sailing accident.
“Addy loved being out in the boat. She’s a natural-born sailor.”
Blair lifted her chin defiantly. “No, she isn’t.”
“You’re being unreasonable,” he pointed out. “If Chris had died in a car accident, you wouldn’t forbid Addy from riding in a car.”
“He didn’t die in a car accident.”
He sighed. “I’m trying to make a point, Blair. Be logical.”
“Be logical?” Was he kidding? Her whole world was turning upside down and he wanted her to be logical. Glaring, she told him where he could go and it wasn’t anyplace nice.
She hit his wrist, hard, and, catching him unawares, knocked his finger away from the door closed button. The elevator door slid open.