by Gina Wilkins
Joel brushed her hair back again, his fingertips barely touching her skin. “Why don’t you get some rest? I’ll be close by if you need me.”
That reassuring thought made it easier for her to slide into sleep, the feel of his light touch on her forehead overriding the pains assaulting the rest of her body.
Chapter Eleven
Even though he hadn’t been hurt in the lanai collapse, Joel ached all over as he walked slowly to the waiting room. He dreaded what waited for him there and would have preferred to be alone for a little while to process everything that had happened that morning.
No such luck, of course. Heidi limped toward him the moment he appeared in the waiting room doorway, her face pale, her eyes huge. “Joel? How is she?”
“She’s going to be fine, Heidi. She was very lucky.”
“Lucky?” Heidi pressed a hand to her generously rounded chest. “How can you say that after she took that terrible fall?”
“She’s banged up some, but she’s going to be okay. Trust me, it could have been a whole lot worse.”
“She saved my life. She could have jumped to safety, but she grabbed me instead.”
She had been saying words to that effect almost without stopping since the lanai fell. “She’s a cop, Heidi. She’s trained to jump into dangerous situations when others are at risk. She would have done the same for anyone.”
Heidi shook her head. “As grateful as I am to Nicole, I’m glad you and she are only friends, Joel. I can’t imagine you living every day with the anxiety of worrying about her safety, especially when she doesn’t seem to think twice about throwing herself into hazardous situations. First the fight at the game and then this morning…it’s a miracle that she hasn’t been seriously hurt yet.”
For someone who proclaimed herself undyingly grateful to Nic, Heidi seemed awfully critical. But maybe he was just getting a little cranky.
“Why don’t you head on home, Heidi? I’m sure you could use a rest. Nic’s going to be sleeping for a while, so she really doesn’t need visitors. I’ll tell her you were here to check on her.”
Heidi’s husband stepped forward to take her arm. “He’s right, honey. Let’s go home so you can take a long bath and soak those sore knees. Joel will make sure his friend is cared for properly.”
Reluctantly Heidi allowed herself to be drawn away after giving Joel Nic’s canvas tote bag, which Heidi had been keeping safe. Joel spent the next ten minutes dispersing other friends who had gathered in the waiting room to make sure everyone was okay.
It was with a great sense of relief that he watched the Watson twins and their wives, the last of the group, move away. They had made him promise to call them if he needed anything at all, but he doubted that it would be necessary.
Looking forward to a few minutes of solitude, he turned—only to come face-to-face with his brother. “Ethan. What are you doing here?”
Ethan motioned toward a couple of empty chairs in one relatively quiet corner of the waiting room. “Mom called me. She thought you’d want someone to keep you company. She and Dad thought about coming themselves, but I told them to sit tight and I’d keep them updated.”
“Thanks.” Joel was frankly relieved that his parents hadn’t come. His father was much too restless to sit still for long in a waiting room, and his pacing and grumbling would eventually get on everyone’s nerves. As for Elaine, she was such a worrier that she’d be wringing her hands and fretting—and getting on Joel’s nerves. As much as he loved them, his folks weren’t exactly the rock-solid types during times of trouble.
Ethan was just the opposite. His calm, practical demeanor was a reassuring presence during any crisis. Joel couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his older brother truly rattled by anything life threw at them. Their mother worried sometimes that Ethan suppressed too much, cutting himself off from the joys of life as well as the anguish. But who was to say Ethan’s way wasn’t better in the long run?
“You want some coffee or something?” Ethan asked as they took their seats. He motioned toward a couple of carafes in one corner of the room, maintained by hospital volunteers.
“No, I’m good. Get some for yourself if you want.”
Ethan shook his head. “How’s Nic? Mom made it sound like she was on her deathbed, but the nurses said that she’s going to be okay.”
Joel summed up Nic’s injuries, adding the same sentiment he had expressed to Heidi. “She was lucky.”
“Damned lucky,” Ethan agreed. “That could have been a tragedy—for a lot of people. It’s a wonder Nic was the only one who fell when the balcony collapsed.”
“No kidding. Nearly a dozen people had been standing in that corner only minutes before it buckled. I don’t know what caused the supports to collapse just as they rushed inside for breakfast—whether it was the movement or the shifting weight or what—but Heidi and Nic were the ones left behind and in the most danger of falling.”
“Is it true that Nic pushed Heidi away from the edge?”
“Yeah. She grabbed her and shoved her away just as the railing snapped. Her reflexes were amazing, Ethan. Before I’d even had time to realize what was happening, Nic had already grabbed Heidi and all but thrown her toward me. She never even thought about her own safety, she just jumped right toward the edge to help Heidi.”
“That’s what she’s trained to do, isn’t it? Put herself into danger to help other people.”
Heidi had said something similar in reference to Nic’s job. And while Joel had never really worried too much about Nic’s career before, figuring she was hardly keeping the peace in a dangerous urban setting, suddenly he found himself looking at it a little differently. It took a certain personality to be a police officer—bold, determined, maybe even a little reckless—and Nic fit that profile a little too well.
That was something he was going to have to think about later, in private.
The cheery opening tones of “Here Comes the Sun” caught his attention, making him look around with a frown. The sound was coming from Nic’s canvas tote bag, which he’d dropped on the empty chair beside him.
He debated whether he should try to dig out the phone and answer it. It could be one of her family members, in which case he would have to explain what had happened to her and pass along reassurances that she would recover fully. Yet for some reason he thought the caller might be Aislinn. And since she had already expressed concerns about Nic this weekend, he knew she would worry if no one answered the call.
He sighed and dug through the daunting assortment of junk in Nic’s bag to find the phone. The ringtone was still playing when he located it, then held it to his ear. “Hello?”
After a very brief pause he heard, “Oh. Joel. It’s Aislinn.”
So his hunch had been correct. He supposed he should be relieved that it wasn’t Nic’s mother. Nic would probably want to tell her family about the accident in her own way. But Aislinn still made him a little nervous. “Hi, Aislinn.”
“Is everything okay there?”
Aware of Ethan listening in, Joel said, “Nic’s been hurt, but she’s going to be okay.”
A longer pause followed his words this time. “She’ll be all right?”
There was no surprise at all in her voice that something had happened. Just a need for reassurance that her friend wasn’t badly injured. Joel shook his head a little even as he repeated, “She’ll be fine. She has a concussion and some bruises and she’s being kept in the hospital today for observation, but there’s no reason to think we won’t be able to come home tomorrow.”
“What happened?”
He gave her a quick summary of the accident, finishing with, “It could have been a hell of a lot worse.”
He could almost hear Aislinn shudder. “Yes. I wish I’d had a better sense of what was going to happen. All I knew is that Nic was in some sort of danger. I wasn’t any help to her at all.”
“Aislinn, how could you have known that balcony was going to collapse? You would ha
ve had to have been…well, you know.”
“I know.” She sighed heavily. “What good are better-than-average intuitions if they don’t actually keep your friends from being injured anyway?”
Because that seemed to be a rhetorical question—and one he couldn’t have answered if it wasn’t—Joel said simply, “I’ll have Nic call you as soon as she’s rested a bit, okay? You’ll feel a lot better once you’ve talked to her and convinced yourself she’s all right.”
“Thank you, Joel. Is there anything I can do? Should I come there to help?”
“No. My brother’s here with me now, and my parents are available if we need them for anything. But thank you for offering.”
“Take care of Nic, Joel.”
“I will,” he promised.
“And let your brother help you. He needs to feel useful.”
“I, uh—”
But Aislinn had already disconnected, leaving him shaking his head in bemusement.
Ethan was looking at him oddly when Joel dropped the phone back in Nic’s bag, and he was glad his brother hadn’t heard Aislinn’s parting advice.
“That was Nic’s friend, Aislinn Flaherty.”
“The psychic?” Ethan’s lip curled a bit as he said the word.
“She doesn’t claim to be psychic. She just has…feelings.”
“And she had a feeling something happened to Nic?”
“Yes.”
Ethan shook his head in open disbelief. “Bull.”
Joel shrugged. “Well, she has been calling all weekend worrying that something bad was going to happen.”
“Doesn’t prove anything. Maybe she calls all the time with veiled warnings. She’d have to be right every once in a while.”
“No.” Joel shook his head. “That isn’t Aislinn at all. You’d have to meet her to understand, but you’ve got her all wrong.”
“I’m not interested in meeting her. She sounds like a crackpot. But never mind about that. What’s your plan now? You said they’re keeping Nic overnight?”
“Probably. She’ll be watched closely today, but if everything looks good, there’s no reason to think she won’t be released tomorrow morning. I need to call and reschedule our flight for tomorrow afternoon. I know Nic will want to go home as soon as possible. I guess I should call the police department and let them know she won’t be at work for a few days. I should have asked Aislinn to do that.”
“Yeah, that would have been a helpful thing for her to do,” Ethan muttered. “Rather than calling once a day with predictions of doom.”
Joel wasn’t in the mood to argue with his brother about Aislinn at the moment. It wouldn’t accomplish anything anyway. “I’m glad everyone else finally went home for a while. Heidi will probably be back, but I needed some time to take care of details without all those other people hovering around.”
“Have you heard from the resort management yet?”
“Yes. The owner made me promise to call him if Nic needed anything at all.”
“I’m sure his first call was to his lawyer,” Ethan said cynically. “Nic won’t have to worry about any of these medical bills and she’ll probably get some sort of settlement for pain and suffering. Someone’s going to have to take responsibility for that balcony collapse, especially considering that the number of people using it this morning was well within safe limits.”
Joel shrugged off talk of liability and settlements. “We’ll let their lawyers and Nic’s lawyer handle all that stuff. I’ve got more immediate concerns to attend to. And speaking of which, I’d better start making those calls. Nic probably has her work number stored in her phone.”
“What can I do to help?”
Remembering Aislinn’s comment that Ethan needed to feel useful—and what the heck had made her say that anyway?—Joel gave it only a moment’s thought before replying, “I never did get breakfast this morning. If you could round me up a muffin or something…”
“I’m on it.” Ethan was on his feet with an alacrity that made Joel suspect that Aislinn had been right on target again. His head now aching in earnest, he dug for Nic’s phone again.
Nic had never been so happy to walk into her own bedroom as she was when Joel escorted her in late Monday afternoon. Though her head was aching and she was sore all over, she moved quickly and without limping, determined to show Joel that she was well on her way to full recovery.
He hadn’t exactly hovered over her during their trip home, probably knowing how much she would hate it if he did, but she’d been aware that he’d watched her closely. In response, she’d been even more determined to show no weakness, so that now she was about ready to collapse.
She wouldn’t, however, until she was alone. And it didn’t look as if that was going to be anytime soon, since Joel was still right at her heels. He set her bag down at the foot of her bed. “You should get some rest. Maybe have a cup of hot herbal tea first. It will help you relax.”
She managed a smile. “That sounds great. I’ll probably do just that.”
His smile was much too knowing as he raised a hand to cup her cheek. “What would really help you relax is for me to get out of here and leave you alone. But I’d like to stay just a little while longer, if you don’t mind too badly, just to make sure you’ll be okay after that tiring trip home.”
“Of course I don’t mind. You can join me for a cup of that tea you mentioned,” she said, her skin feeling suddenly warm beneath his touch.
Maybe she was developing a fever. Or maybe she’d been suffering from this particular fever for longer than she’d been willing to admit, she thought ruefully, resisting the impulse to nestle her cheek into his hand.
His smile faded as their eyes locked. “I haven’t told you yet how sorry I am about what happened. If I’d had any idea that anything like that would happen, I never would have dragged you to my reunion.”
Touched by the genuine regret in his expression, she lifted her hand to cover his on her cheek. “How could you have known? Aislinn’s as close to being psychic as anyone we know and even she wasn’t able to warn us not to go out on the lanai. I certainly don’t blame you, Joel.”
His thumb slid along the ridge of her cheekbone, just above the edge of the gauze bandage on her chin. “I haven’t told you how frightened I was when I saw you go over that edge. You scared the hell out of me.”
“You forgot that I’m in pretty good shape,” she reminded him. “I know how to take a fall.”
“You aren’t Superwoman. You could have been badly hurt. Or worse.”
“But I wasn’t. A few bruises and a few days off work. No biggie.”
“You must be sorry I ever mentioned my reunion.”
“Actually, it was an…interesting experience.” She couldn’t think of a better adjective, but she supposed that one summed it up well enough.
His lopsided smile expressed his own mixed emotions. “I suppose that’s one way of putting it.”
She couldn’t resist tilting her head just a little, rubbing her cheek against his hand in the process. “You’re probably the one who’s sorry Aislinn ever came up with the idea of taking me to your reunion. It hardly turned out the way you’d planned.”
“Not exactly, no.” And then he lowered his head toward hers. “Some things are better when you don’t plan them,” he murmured just before his mouth covered hers.
Simply because she wanted to, Nic wrapped both arms around his neck. Her bruised right shoulder screamed a protest of the movement, but she ignored it. Anything that felt this good was worth a little accompanying pain.
Careful of her bruises, Joel gathered her closer, his hands sliding around her waist to spread across her back. His palms were warm through the fabric of her pullover top.
Though her mind was beginning to cloud, Nic clearly remembered how it had felt to dance with him for the first time. So natural. So right. As if they had danced together many times before.
Kissing him felt much the same to her. As if she’d been wanting to k
iss him for a very long time. As if kissing him had been inevitable from the day they’d first met.
He released her mouth long enough to draw a deep, sharp breath and then he kissed her again, more deeply this time. There had been wonder in their earlier kisses. Daring. Maybe even a bit of rebellion against all the people who had warned them away from each other—including themselves.
This time there was passion. And a growing hunger Nic wasn’t sure they would be able to ignore for much longer.
She was finding it harder with each passing moment to remember why they should try.
He lifted his head very slowly, ending the kiss with an obvious reluctance. He didn’t release her but pressed his forehead to hers, his voice rough when he said, “I should probably stop doing that.”
Every nerve ending in her body rebelling at the very suggestion, she lifted her mouth to his again. “Don’t stop on my behalf.”
The kiss they shared then was hot enough to almost melt the soles of her boots.
Somehow they ended up on her bed. Maybe later she would remember which one of them had initiated that move, but for now she was too busy enjoying the feel of his hands on her body, his lips against hers. His hands were eager, avid as they raced over her—and yet his touch was gentle, almost tender, so careful not to cause her any discomfort from her assorted scrapes and bruises.
As if she could feel anything but pleasure at that moment, she thought with a low moan.
He stilled. “Am I hurting you?”
“Are you kidding? Has anybody ever told you you’ve got magical hands?” She closed her eyes and concentrated fully on the springy feel of his hair around her fingers. The solid weight of him pressed against her from chest to thigh. The masculine warmth seeping through his shirt and jeans. The hardness pressed so blatantly against her hip.
Wow, she thought in a daze of arousal. This was Joel. Her neighbor, her friend. And he wanted her. Wanted her badly, apparently. And she wanted him so much that she ached with it. Who’d have thought their friendly trip to his class reunion would lead to this?