Saving the Girl Next Door
Page 18
“Where am I?” Jack craned his neck and looked around his hospital room. Piper sat sleeping in a chair, her body curled up, a blanket thrown over her.
He sat up with a frown. “I thought you said Piper was fine.”
The doctor pushed him back with one hand, and Jack realized he was as weak as the baby who was still screaming in the room down the hall. And his head ached, no doubt due to the tight bandage around his forehead, which he immediately tried to shove off.
“Leave that alone, or you’ll pull out the stitches my plastic surgeon sewed.”
“Stitches?”
“Piper insisted you have a plastic surgeon.” Logan Kincaid, wearing one of his designer suits, strode into the hospital room as if he owned the place. “Apparently she thinks you’re too pretty to have a scar. And stop giving Dr. Slade a hard time.”
The doctor gave an aggravated sigh of exasperation. “As if you haven’t been giving me a hard time.”
“I stayed out of your way.”
“While you peppered me with questions. Second-guessing my diagnosis—”
“Never hurts to have a third or fourth opinion,” Logan told her with the ease of an old friend ragging another. Obviously the two of them knew and respected one another. Which might have been interesting—under other circumstances.
At the sight of his boss, Jack would have relaxed, knowing he was in good hands, except that Piper hadn’t moved, despite the loud discussion going on around her and the baby’s screams. “What’s wrong with Piper?”
“I had to sedate her,” Doctor Slade muttered, “before she collapsed from exhaustion. She hasn’t slept much in a week.”
“A week?” Jack’s eyes narrowed on Logan. “You’d better fill me in. And while you’re at it, can you tell me why I’m in a…maternity ward?”
“After you passed out on the boat, we rescued you.”
“Piper must have gotten the anchor down.”
“She was ready to shoot us until I convinced her I was your boss.”
Jack glanced at her. She looked fragile, but he imagined her pointing that gun at Logan Kincaid and he wished he’d been awake to have seen her in action. “Piper didn’t want the stolen information to fall into enemy hands.”
“Until we caught Aaron’s friends, we thought you’d be safer here in a maternity ward.”
“You caught them?”
Logan nodded as if there had never been any doubt. “The feds have them now. Aaron, too. Looks like you and Piper may have shut down a terrorist cell. You have the thanks of both the governor of Florida and your president.”
Jack leaned back into the pillow with satisfaction. “I guess Piper will get her job back.”
“She hasn’t left your side in days.”
“Days? From this little bang on the head?”
“You got an infection and fever, and with the blood loss had a hard time fighting off the infection. At first we couldn’t even get Piper to change out of her wet clothes—”
Piper opened one eye. “What is it with you people—always getting women to take off their clothes?”
Then as if coming fully awake and realizing that Jack was conscious, she scrambled across the room. He expected her to throw her arms around him, kiss him. Instead she glared at him.
“What? What did I do?” Jack asked her in confusion.
“You almost died on me.”
“Did not.”
“You’ve been unconscious for days,” she accused.
“Not by choice. I would much rather have been awake so you could yell at me.”
Logan chuckled. “Jack, you may be a great pilot, but you really don’t know much about women.”
Jack pointed to the door. “If you aren’t going to help,” he told Logan, “you can leave now.”
“But this was just getting interesting,” Logan protested. Luckily for Jack, the doctor slipped her arm through Logan’s and pulled him out of the room. Leaving him and Piper alone.
Jack held out his hand to her. “It’s okay. You don’t have to be scared anymore. I’m fine.”
She ignored his hand. “You have eighty-five stitches in your head.”
“You could kiss me and make it better.”
“You lost so much blood. And then that infection had you feverish.” Finally she walked closer and took his hand. “I didn’t think you would pull through.”
He didn’t know what to say. So he wrapped his arms around her and tugged her close. “Did you really threaten Logan Kincaid with a gun?”
“Yeah. That boss of yours doesn’t scare easy. I must have looked like a wild woman covered in your blood, but when I pointed the gun at his heart, he didn’t even flinch.”
Jack stroked her hair. “And how did Logan convince you he was one of the good guys?”
“He said I could keep the gun on him, but I had to let the medics get to you right away.” She snuggled closer. “And that’s what I did. I held the gun on him until I saw that he was going to take care of you no matter what. Then one of the team members wrapped me in a blanket and tried to force me to drink hot coffee. But I couldn’t swallow. Your face was white as a death mask.” She shuddered. “I’ve seen my share of crime scenes, but I didn’t know a man could lose that much blood and live.”
“You worry too much.”
“We airlifted you from the ship to Tampa General. Once you stabilized, Logan brought you to this hospital and hid you in the maternity ward.”
“No doubt Logan knew I’d be comfortable around all these women.”
The baby in the next room finally stopped crying. She lifted her hand to his face. “Like you’re in any condition to flirt. Besides, all these women are here for one reason—to give birth.”
“What did you think of the babies?”
“The doc let me hold one. She thought it would be therapeutic. Give me something to think about besides you. But all I could think about was that if you died, you’d never have a child of your own. The baby made me sad. I couldn’t bear to hold it.”
“I’m sorry you were so worried.”
“Jack.”
“Yeah.”
“I want us to be together.”
“Okay.”
“I want us to make a baby together.”
“Okay. But maybe—”
She lifted her head and locked gazes with him. “Maybe what?”
“Maybe we should get married first?”
“Maybe you should tell me that you love me.”
He lifted a brow, his heart light and happy. “I agreed that we could marry and make a baby and now you want more?”
“Jack, we’re going to have to work on this thing you have about teasing me.”
“Okay.”
“Jack?”
“Okay, I love you. I adore you. Now, I just have one more thing to add.”
“What?”
“You have too many clothes on.”
Epilogue
Jack stood on the ground, his neck craned as he searched for a glint of silver in the clouds. The weather was clear, but with an inexperienced pilot in the cockpit, he never relaxed until after the plane was down.
With Piper at the stick, his nerves wouldn’t settle. But he understood why she’d wanted her pilot’s license. With as much flying as they did, she wanted to be able to take control of the aircraft—just in case anything happened to him. As if that would happen.
But he’d humored her. He couldn’t help it. He loved her too much to deny her anything. Not that she asked for much. After their honeymoon she’d gone back to work on the force. He’d continued working for the Shey Group. Although the separations were difficult, the time they had together was precious and special. He’d never been happier in his life.
However, he’d be much more content after Piper landed the plane. He didn’t like her going up without him. But she’d never be a great pilot without practice.
Only, now he was suffering the consequences of his broad-minded nature. He wanted her down on the gr
ound, next to him, in his arms where she belonged. Not up there alone.
She’s a good pilot, he reassured himself. And he’d picked the plane and the mechanic himself.
After ten minutes more of waiting and no sign of the plane, impatience got the better of him. He hit the automatic dial button on his cell phone. After three rings he heard a cheery “Hi, Jack.”
“You’re late.”
“In more ways than one.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well…”
He could hear her talking to the tower, and when she was finished, he asked, “What’s your ETA?”
“Oh, that might be hard to estimate. But I figure about eight and a half months.”
Eight and a half months? What the hell? And then he recalled her earlier comment about being late. And put one and one together—but one and one looked as if it added up to three. “We’re pregnant?”
“Yes, Jack.”
Elation and then fear struck him like a hard right to the gut. “And you’re flying an airplane?”
“Well, I’m trying to, but my husband keeps phoning me every fifteen minutes to see if I’ve gone off course and headed to Mars.”
“We’re going to have a baby?”
“Yes, Jack. You’ll get to be a daddy and I’ll be a mommy. Does that sound good to you?”
“It would sound a lot better if you were telling me in person,” he growled. A baby. They’d been hoping, trying. But he hadn’t thought they would succeed so soon.
“I’ll be down in five minutes.”
“You feel okay? You aren’t going to faint, are you?”
“Jack, I have to land the plane.”
He caught the silver speck in the sky. And held his breath. She lined up for the runway with perfect precision. So why was he holding his breath? Why were his fingers clenched?
Because pregnant women shouldn’t fly aircraft. Especially ones with a new pilot’s license. Especially Piper.
With his heart climbing up his throat, he watched her make a perfect landing.
And before the plane taxied to a stop, he started running toward her, running toward his future. The best future he could imagine.
The phone in his hand suddenly rang and he answered. “Yeah?”
“Jack?”
“What?”
“This plane has an automatic pilot, right?”
“So?”
“So can we go back up?”
He reached the plane. “Okay. But I’m going with you.”
He opened the door and climbed inside. Piper was sitting in the pilot’s seat without a stitch of clothes on. Oh, my. She was just full of surprises. And he adored every one of them.
She grinned at him. “I thought we’d celebrate our parenthood by joining the mile-high club.”
He grinned. “We can join any club you want, as long as you take me with you.”
“Good. Because taking you is exactly what I had in mind.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-4083-4
SAVING THE GIRL NEXT DOOR
Copyright © 2003 by Susan Hope Kearney
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