by Cheryl Wyatt
He chuckled. “You wrote that in, or what?”
She shrugged. “You know from being a military medic that humor is what gets us through hard nights and heavy case loads.”
He nodded slowly, enjoying having that military and medical connection with her. Maybe being friends with her while keeping the secret from her wouldn’t be awkward after all. Sure, he wasn’t as smooth as he’d been as BB, but they were still getting along.
“We’re bound to run into each other at the trauma center and in surgery,” she continued. “Plus, Bri and Ian invite me for dinner once a week, and I assume, since Bri can’t stand to leave anyone out and you’re her beloved brother, you’ll be there.”
Caleb coughed. He’d swallowed a piece of ice whole when she said beloved brother. Okay, yeah. Totally awkward here. After he recovered, Caleb leaned in. “Good point. Look, you don’t have to try so hard to convince me to be friends, Kate. That’s not like you, anyway.” He grinned. “I’m fine being friends with you. To friendship?” he suggested, lifting his water glass in a toast.
“To friendship,” she agreed, clinking her glass against his.
Chapter Four
Kate had been right about one thing—Caleb had been told in no uncertain terms that he was absolutely required to attend weekly dinners with his sister, Ian, Tia and Kate. And that’s where he found himself the next week’s Thursday evening, grinning as he watched his soon-to-be-niece give the doll he’d brought her a “ride” on the back of her puppy, Mistletoe.
The cotton-on-ginger-colored dog pranced in a regal circle, but the entire back half of the dog wagged as he stopped and peered up. Caleb, looking down at him, was met with soulful brown eyes, a playful bearing, a happy pant and breath only a puppy could get away with. His expectant, hopeful expression matched Tia’s mischievous one.
“It’s a toss-up as to which of you is cuter.”
Tia’s increasingly comical antics caused him to chuckle. He’d about decided that someday having a little girl wouldn’t be half bad. Caleb glanced over to see Kate watching them with an approving smile as she chopped apples in the kitchen for a fruit salad. He grinned back at her and winked.
For a guy with limited experience dealing with kids, his babysitting gig seemed to be going pretty well. Sure, Bri and Ian were there to step in if anything went wrong, but they were so wrapped up in each other, he wasn’t sure they’d notice if he and Tia set the kitchen on fire. Things had been so busy for both of them lately that he knew the engaged couple needed time together.
Two beepers sounded. Bri shrank in disappointment. Ian and Kate sobered and pulled out their chiming cell phones. Caleb’s grin faded as he stood, instinctually knowing Ian’s creasing forehead meant something bad was headed to the trauma center. Tia quieted, and the dog seemed to sense her unease because he moved closer.
“I’m sorry, babe. I gotta go.” Ian kissed Bri’s forehead, hugged Tia then followed Kate, already out the door. Every nerve ending in Caleb strained and ached to go with him. He’d been doing combat medicine for so long it felt strange to sit back and watch an emergency go by without running headlong to help.
Bri sighed. “He’s been on call four days in a row. With Mitch and Lauren away, and Dr. Lockhart, the anesthesiologist, taking some personal time, the trauma center is short staffed. He really has no choice but to be there,” Bri said, as if to convince herself it was all right and temporary.
But Caleb could tell she missed Ian and he her. The center had erupted with traumas this week and the engaged pair barely saw each other in the two weeks since Caleb had been here. Even then, they’d only waved in passing when Ian came to pick up Tia. No wonder Bri’s renovations had fallen behind. She couldn’t take a child into a construction zone. Caleb grew even more thankful he’d received military leave. His sister and her cabins needed him.
Caleb felt heartsick at her disappointment over not being able to cook for her fiancé and not getting to enjoy the meal, much less the evening, with Ian. Caleb rose from the rug to meet her in the kitchen but she bravely waved him back down and approached the carpet, instead.
“What did you decide to name her, Tia?” Bri asked in a light tone and brushed a hand down the doll’s long, flaxen hair.
“Calebina, of course.” Tia’s bright smile sent unfamiliar feelings through Caleb. “After my awesome, amazing uncle, who rescued her from the clutches and brought her to me from a land far, far away.”
Actually, it had been the discount store down the street at the local airport, but he wasn’t about to wipe the adoration off the kid’s endearingly cute face, framed in a riot of brown curls and bedazzled with freckles. Though he knelt on the rug beside her, he felt easily three feet taller. Especially since she really looked convinced he’d rescued the doll from “the clutches.” Clutches of what, he had no idea. The twinkle in Tia’s eyes and the joy in Bri’s as she peered lovingly at Tia made the worst clutch he could imagine not seem to matter.
“Calebina.” Bri smiled and winked at Caleb. “Of course. I should have guessed.” The love between Bri and Tia was tangible. Caleb could see how much happiness the two brought each other. They’d both been through hard times, but those experiences had brought them together. Thankfulness shifted something small but vital inside him. Maybe it was a bit of the grudge he’d been holding against God?
“What clutches did Caleb rescue her from, Tia?” Bri asked.
“The clutches of death! Death by broccoli,” Tia announced dramatically. Commotion across at EPTC’s lot cut their laughter short. Whipping rotor blades beckoned Caleb to the window where he watched two helicopters land outside the trauma center. Twin ambulances also pulled up. Staff scurried to them. Caleb grew concerned when stress mounted on the faces rushing around. He thrummed to go help, but he hadn’t exactly been hired yet. Could he—should he—go? Should he not? He shuffled foot to foot in an effort not to bolt there.
Bri’s phone rang. The second Bri said, “Yes, he’s here,” Caleb skied across the waxed wood floor and grabbed the phone.
“Hey, Landis, if you’re up for it, we could use a hand over here.” Ian’s voice strained through the cacophony of background noise.
Adrenaline, gratitude and readiness buzzed through his veins. “Be right over.” Caleb hugged Bri, scrubbed a quick hand through Tia’s hair before shoving his shoes on and hopping out the door, while trying not to trip over the rug-of-a-dog. He jumped the steps and sprinted to the trauma center. Ian waved him past staff and occupied gurneys near the first set of surgical doors.
“Scrub up. The surgeon needs someone else in there, stat.”
At Ian’s directive, Caleb found and changed into scrubs, washed his hands at the sterile sink, donned a hat and mask and backed through the O.R. doors into complete chaos—raised voices, code alarms and a slick floor that wasn’t supposed to be covered in crimson. He eyed the man’s blue lips and nail beds. Dear God...Caleb surprised himself by praying. This guy’s toast if You don’t step in.
“Grab another unit,” Kate directed as he rushed over. A nurse gloved him up, then Caleb exchanged one bag of near-empty blood for a full one resting amid a pile of others on a stainless-steel cart.
Realizing her mind could trigger a different masked encounter, he put his back to her as soon as he could, prepping a second IV. When Caleb turned back to the group and the emergency still going south on the table, he secured a second IV line without having to be told, which drew nods of approval from Kate and Ian.
Caleb looked around for code meds in an effort to crash-orient himself to the room setup and supplies they’d need. It was a struggle to locate everything, since he’d never set foot inside this room before. He piled meds and supplies on the table and started quickly ripping open package after package of whatever they needed.
Moments later, Kate nodded to him, then down. He swiftly took over compressions, wh
ich freed her to grab supplies he’d have a longer time finding. He appreciated her intuition and rapid actions.
When the vascular surgeon suggested they call the code, Kate flat-out refused to give up. Over the next hour Caleb was filled with respect as he watched the team battle to save the man’s life.
Kate not only multitasked but drilled order after order to the other nurses and staff, who looked to her skill as much as to the doctors for guidance. Even the vascular surgeon cast admiring glances her way as the patient actually improved and was transferred.
Another patient followed, and while this one was less critical, a third patient tanked, which took most of the staff out of the room, leaving Kate to man the care of the third patient and the code of a fourth. Caleb watched once more as her quick actions and stream of split-second decisions saved two lives in a row.
Hours later, after the accident victims were stabilized and the next crew took over, Ian motioned Caleb into the doctors’ lounge.
Ian extended a phone to Caleb. “Mitch wants a word with you.”
Caleb smiled, knowing Ian’s smirk meant he was about to be offered a job. Indeed, Mitch thanked Caleb and confirmed his employment before ending the call so Mitch could, as he put it, “return his attention to his beautiful wife.”
Ian perched on the desk and Caleb thought it odd that his smirk hadn’t retracted. “Mitch told me to have Kate show you the ropes in terms of in-house policy, procedure, et cetera. You gonna be okay with shadowing her, Landis?”
The statement seemed loaded, somehow. Too much like a baited trap for Caleb’s ease. Ian watched Caleb the way Asher did when studying unclear overseas maps of potential explosive-device hot spots.
Caleb stood his ground, poker face in place. “If you have somethin’ to say to me, Shupe, let’s get it on the table now.”
Ian’s smirk stretched into a full-fledged grin. Had Bri shared about the bandit with him? Or was Ian’s perceptive radar picking up stuff on its own? Like Caleb’s innate attraction to Kate that had flared as he’d watched her in action?
Regardless, Caleb couldn’t get out of his mind Kate’s words that night on the patio. She’d confided to the bandit how much it weighed on her when people expected her to be invincible all the time.
He saw it firsthand tonight. He now fully realized the intense pressure Kate felt to live up to others’ perceptions of her. How could he ease her burden? Or at least ease others’ galactic expectations of her?
People truly did depend on her. She was the best at what she did and exemplary in emergency care, even in the midst of her own private-life trauma. She didn’t buckle, bend, weaken, break or even flinch tonight in the face of some of the worst injuries he imagined she or her team had ever seen.
He admired her. Big-time.
If respect was what Ian was sensing, so be it. Kate had more than earned it.
Yet Ian was acting as if he knew something more than that. Caleb was reminded of the way Bri had bragged about Ian’s ability to see inside people and realize things about them even before they did.
Ian play-slugged Caleb’s shoulder. “All I have to say, Landis, is keep up the good work. On all fronts.”
With that, Ian strode out, chuckling.
Leaving Caleb alone to vacillate between confusion and determination not to ponder what Ian might have meant.
* * *
“I have a proposition for you,” Kate said to Caleb. Her on-call shift had just ended, and when she’d had a second to think about the rest of her day, an idea had occurred to her. As she walked to the employee parking area, she hoped Caleb could help her put it into action.
She hadn’t seen the man since they’d worked the traumas together a few nights prior. They had made a great team. Surgically speaking, of course.
She knew he’d been officially hired, but unfortunately, unlike her, Caleb actually had a couple days off. Bri mentioned he’d left town for a military training operation with some of the Refuge Pararescue Jumpers—PJs for short. Kate knew he’d be back today, hence her phone call. She was hoping he could help her work out her plan to get Ian and Bri some much-needed face time.
“Yeah?” he answered. “What’s that?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but then her eyes caught on a paper on her Jeep’s windshield, flapping in the rare summer breeze. From BB? Her heart jumped, even as she tried to tell herself it was probably just an advertising flyer. “Hold on. Someone stuck a piece of paper on my— Holy smokes! He did it again.” Kate stared at the homemade greeting card under her windshield wiper blade.
Once again, BB had left something on her Jeep and sneaked away without getting caught. Probably because Kate hadn’t alerted anyone to watch. She hadn’t wanted to admit to anyone how much she was hoping for another gesture from her secretive friend. To tell about the bandit would be admitting the needy, emotional train wreck she was right now. She struggled to get herself on track, even with prayer. So, to Kate, the benevolent bandit was a Godsend for all.
He was a therapeutic distraction—and his anonymity was the best part. She still didn’t have a clue who he might be or where he was from.
“Kate?” Caleb said, reminding her she held him hanging in silence. “You still there?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” Kate smacked fingertips to her forehead.
“All right. Thought I lost you for a sec. What’s up?”
Like she was about to tell him she’d received a fancy card from a human enigma. “Nothing. Let me call you right back.”
Kate tugged the paper from the card and laughed out loud at the image of a playful-looking monkey swinging from a tree vine. “Hang in there,” the message read, simply signed BB.
A flutter went through Kate. Prior to this, she’d been in a bad mood since talking to Dad while on her break at work. Mom had asked for a court date and Dad actually gave it. Their nonchalance about the whole thing had sickened and upset Kate. Now, standing here, BB’s gift eased the emotional strain. “I love monkeys,” she whispered. “How’d he know?”
Or maybe he didn’t. It could be coincidence and this just happened to be the animal on a message he’d picked out. She didn’t care either way. All that mattered was that the card made Kate feel cared for.
This person, whoever he was, had thoughtfulness and stealth that intrigued her. She reminded herself that it could be dangerous to become too intrigued. Still, she decided, there’d be no harm in filing the paper memento and its predecessors firmly away, both in her mind, heart and in her keepsake box at home.
She looked around EPTC’s parking lot and the woodsy area surrounding it, but her military training had already alerted her that he was long gone. Otherwise she’d have sensed him watching.
She slid into her seat, relishing the relief of taking a load off her aching feet and back. “Long night,” she mouthed to the greeting-card monkey grinning up at her from the passenger seat.
She called Caleb back. When he answered she said, “I wondered if you’d want to help me watch Tia for a few hours this evening so Bri and Ian can go out on a real date. A nice one. This is the only night Ian’s not on schedule, but I just finished a long shift, and if I watch Tia alone, I might nod off.”
“How many hours we talking?” He seemed to be chewing something. The strawberry Twizzlers he lived on, perhaps? Or maybe gum. Spearmint, like the bandit?
She scowled at her musings. She must be exhausted. That was the only reasonable explanation for the unruly direction of her thoughts. She’d go home, take a nap and head over to Bri’s this afternoon with a clear head and heart.
But first, she had to get an answer from Caleb. “Long enough for them to see a movie and have dinner. Well?”
“Wish I could, Kate, but I have plans. Fantastic idea, though.”
That couldn’t possibly be disappointment singeing her tummy. Co
uld it? “No worries.” Kate forced her curiosity down as to what he might be doing on a Friday night. None of her business.
“I’ll see you at work, Kate.”
Soon as he hung up, Kate wished the call had lasted longer. Weird.
Hours later, a deafening tone assaulted Kate’s ears and infringed on her sleep. She smacked at the alarm, confused as to why it was still buzzing before she figured out the culprit was her cell phone. “Do you have a death wish?” she mumbled into the phone.
“Pardon?” Caleb’s voice drew her swiftly from her mental fog.
She raked a hand across her hair and stared at the clock. Four. Four in the evening or in the morning? It seemed dark outside, but not quite dark enough to be the middle of the night. “Sorry. I was asleep and I hate getting woke up. What day is it?”
He chuckled. “Still Friday. I’m calling because Mother Nature cancelled my plans for this evening. Still want company watching Tia?”
She smoothed her top and put flip-flops on. “Sure, sounds good.”
“What time?”
“Come over to Bri’s now, far as I’m concerned. I’ll meet you on her side deck and we’ll surprise them. I have movie tickets and a dinner voucher to the Golden Terrace for them.”
“Ah, GT. I heard they rock the best steaks in the state.”
“Yeah. See you at Bri’s cabin in a few.” Kate wasn’t about to suggest she and Caleb go eat there sometime. Golden Terrace was the kind of romantic place a man took a date to.
“I see what you mean about the weather,” Kate said when he joined her on Bri’s deck. “We’re under a severe thunderstorm watch.”
“Yep. I have a weather radio and flashlights.” He slid his backpack off his shoulders but it caught in his hoodie zipper. “The temp dropped twenty degrees in a matter of hours.”
She reached to unhook his backpack strap from his zipper and they both stilled when the back of her hand brushed his chest. Her mouth dried. “Ready?” she managed and stepped back.