“Hey, we got help?” She smiled as she came closer to the new handsome face. “Ryan, I thought you said you were gonna round up some homely fellas?”
“You must be Annie.” Jake took a second to smile, showcasing a dimple in his left cheek. “So, Ryan, you want to ride with me? We can talk about the repairs.”
“Oh, absolutely not.” Annie pulled open the door to the truck, launching herself up precariously into the cab. “I have massive ideas about those repairs, Jake. I’m sure it will take the whole of the ride over there to discuss them.”
Jake shrugged before he turned towards the truck. “Fair enough. We’ll meet you over there.”
Laughing, Harley tossed Ryan the keys to the BMW. “Something tells me we won’t need to bother checking that guy’s references. Between Annie driving him half insane on the way to her apartment and watching him like a hawk when he’s at the house, if he’s up to no good, he’ll disappear in a flash.”
“Just as long as you don’t disappear. I’m not sure I want a good looking guy hanging around my girlfriend’s house all the time.”
“Wow, you went from ‘I’m not sure what this is’ to jealous boyfriend in one weekend. Bravo.”
The conversation lulled as they both opened their car doors, and Harley settled inside and fastened her seatbelt as the engine roared to life. She glanced at Ryan as he turned his face to look out the back window and pull out onto the sleepy street, and he offered a slight shake of his head.
“I’m not jealous…yet. Although you did get pretty fidgety when I put my arm around you at church.”
Shocked, she allowed her mouth to gape a touch. “I did not!”
“You started tapping your foot, and then you slid your hands under your thighs. Oh, and then you were drumming your fingers against your jeans, don’t you remember? I grabbed your hand?”
“That?” She let a laugh escape as she turned to gaze out the passenger window. “The sermon was just making me feel a little weird, that’s all. That ‘God ordering your steps’ spiel.”
“You don’t believe it?”
Frowning slightly, she pondered a response far too long to remain comfortable. When she realized how long she had hesitated, she began to feel a bit defensive.
“It’s not that I don’t believe in God. That doesn’t even really feel like an option…there’s just this innate feeling in me that there’s something more. Whether I think there’s an all-powerful being that is orchestrating minute details of my life? No, I think that’s crazy. Surely you don’t believe that.”
She dared to look at him just in time to see a crooked smile appear on his face.
“Actually, yeah.”
“With Kelsey and everything that’s going on? Honestly, that would make me even less likely to believe that, I would imagine.”
He rubbed his neck, and Harley sensed that she was making him uncomfortable. Whether it was from her stance or from his own misgivings, she couldn’t tell.
“I’m not going to pretend that I have a great handle on theological things, but there are a couple things I know. First of all, this is a fallen world. I can’t tell you why Kelsey is sick, but I’ve been there on the days when her faith’s all that’s gotten her through. My best evidence, though, is you.”
“Me? What do you mean?”
“Earlier this week, I was having a conversation with my mom about you. Complaining about the timing. I said you seemed like a broken heart waiting to happen.”
“Ouch.”
“I meant that in a good way,” he quickly added with a short laugh. “My mom said, ‘Why would God send Harley into your life just to break your heart?’ I didn’t really have it worked out in my mind at that moment, but now I think I know.”
She almost couldn’t force herself to ask, “Know what?”
“Because of you, I actually had a day off yesterday.”
“Until you got called in.”
“Yeah, but I had part of a day. I got to go to church today. Before that fund was set up at the bank, I would have felt like taking five minutes would sabotage everything.”
“So you think God brought me into your life so you wouldn’t have to work so hard?”
Bringing the car to a halt at a stop light, Ryan turned and looked her directly in the face, only a touch of a smile playing about his eyes.
“No, Harley. I think I finally have the chance to slow down a little because God brought you into my life to love me. To love all of us. Because He knew we needed you.”
C hapter Twenty-Two
Mitch was parked at Harley’s desk when she came back from an assignment Monday morning, wearing an evergreen-colored shirt that wasn’t straining against the buttonholes for a change. He even had a tie around his neck. It was a bright blue monstrosity that clashed with his shirt, but it appeared that he was making an attempt. That mere fact filled Harley with a measure of dread.
“There’s my star reporter!”
His sing-song voice gave her the desire to roll her eyes, but she kept her emotions under control. It wasn’t that long ago that he was prohibiting her from covering politics and sending her after fowl, so she remained leery and wasn’t going to allow herself to become comfortable.
“Good morning, Mitch. To what do I owe this greeting?”
Rising from her chair, he strolled around her desk and placed his hand on her shoulder protectively, like a father figure might.
“Do I really need a reason to say hello? Just a friendly visit to tell you to keep up the good work, kiddo. Oh, and you’ll have the desk tonight.”
“What?” Her hackles rose significantly, because even though those words filled her with excitement, they were also intimidating. “What about Summer?”
“I gave her the night off.” He waved his hand dismissively, as though Summer was an afterthought. “It’s good to have a new face there now and again. And Denton’s been bugging me to give you a shot. Of course, the powers that be were a little hesitant until all the recent success you’ve had.”
Capitalizing on her accidental popularity?
All of her hard work and research and the hours she spent on her stories, and the reason she was finally getting a shot at the desk boiled down to the fact that she thought she saw a boy, and she made a stupid decision. Ryan might have believed everything that was happening to him was because of her, but in a weird twist, everything that was happening to her was because of him.
Well…Ryan and Kelsey, to be more precise.
“So, what do you want me to do today?” Shifting uncomfortably in the Valentino heels that Annie let her keep for allowing her to move in so quickly, she twisted her mouth to the side. “Before the desk, I mean? What would you have Summer doing?”
“There are going to be some basketball players visiting children at the hospital. I want you to get in the middle of that.”
“Basketball…that sounds like Trip’s gig. I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes.” The sportscaster might have been getting up there in years, but he surely wouldn’t want the pretty little upstart reporter stealing his fluff stories.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s more a human interest story, and that’s right up your alley. Besides, you do the stories, and let me get paid to do the thinking.”
Right. Do the stories, not the thinking.
This is a proud moment for women everywhere.
“I’ll figure it out,” she informed him with a sigh, crossing to her chair and lowering herself. “Anything else?”
“Nope. Just try not to injure yourself today.”
Very funny.
She watched his back as he walked away, wishing she had the nerve to speak her mind. That action would inevitably lead to not working the desk, at the very least, and possibly an extended Christmas vacation.
Straightening in her chair and resolving to forget about Mitch, she nearly jumped when Denton pounded his knuckles on her desk.
“Paging Harley Laine. I hear she’s supposed to man the desk with me
tonight. Or woman the desk, perhaps?”
“So I’ve been told. It’s your lifelong dream come true.”
Rather than give her a smirk and continue on his way, Denton pulled up a chair in front of her. Inwardly cringing, she readied herself for taunting.
“So…strangest thing happened to me this weekend. I ran into a coworker at the mall.”
“I can’t think of anything strange about that, unless you literally ran into your coworker, and in that case you definitely owe him or her an apology.”
“Ever the comedienne.” Denton lifted one foot from the floor and set it atop his knee, bouncing it slightly as his eyebrows arched upward. “I was beginning to feel a little sorry for myself that you would date that boring Kip Stanton and couldn’t even be bothered to go to dinner with me, but I didn’t know you secretly liked…rockers? Bikers? I’m not sure what category that guy even falls into.”
“Ryan’s an EMT.” She wasn’t sure why she felt she needed to throw that into the mix, but it was hanging between them, and she couldn’t take it back. Not even when Denton eased himself back in the chair and gave her a smug grin.
“Ah, so it’s the Florence Nightingale scenario.” When his statement prompted no response, he leaned forward and pressed his fingertips together. “You know, the patient falling for the one who nursed them to health?”
“I get it, but you’re wrong in this case. I met him before I had the unfortunate accident.”
“And where did you meet, exactly?”
Harley’s mind flashed to that night on the back of Ryan’s motorcycle, clinging to him only to arrive at Annie’s apartment smelling like greasy food and masculine body wash.
“That’s not important. What we should be talking about is work, since you managed to talk Mitch into letting me have a guest spot on the Denton show this evening.”
“That’s our show. At least, it should be.”
The phone atop Harley’s desk let out a chirping ring, and she glanced down to see an unfamiliar number. As she reached for the receiver, Denton offered a sly wink.
“Just don’t let your guy get in the way of what we’ve got going, with the witty banter.”
Shaking her head, she watched him retreat before she committed to wrapping her fingers around the phone.
“Harley Laine,” she said succinctly, holding a pen above the notepad on her desk expectantly.
“Harley Davidson?” the voice clarified.
Glancing around conspiratorially, Harley slouched in her seat slightly. “Yes, this is Harley.”
“We have your results back from the recent donor testing, and you’re a match. Is there a good time for you to return to our offices? We’d like to see you right away.”
The room practically started spinning, and for a moment, it was as though she had forgotten how to breathe. All the thoughts she and Ryan had wrestled through the day before came rushing back, about whether God had planned for Harley to be part of their lives. Was this the answer all along? Had she been drawn to Ryan because she was the match for Kelsey?
“Does Kelsey know?” It came out as not much more than a whisper, and Harley could barely hear her own voice through the pounding of her pulse in her ears.
“Kelsey?”
“The girl who needs the liver.”
A couple of her male coworkers chose that moment to stroll past her desk talking about a sports score, and it seemed so odd that someone could be having such a blasé conversation at a moment that was so pivotal.
“Oh, dear.” The voice on the other end of the line sounded almost apologetic. “I never paused to think that you might have been waiting on other results. This is for the National Marrow Donor program. We have a match on that, honey.”
The National Marrow Donor program. Right.
Not for Kelsey.
An odd sense of disappointment washed over her in that moment, but not for the reason she expected. It had nothing to do with Kelsey, really. For a split second, she thought there really might be a divine plan for her life, and the idea filled her with hope.
So much for blind faith.
She wrote dates and times on her notepad without really listening, plugging out the numbers like her hand was working separate from her brain, unattached and doing the bidding of another individual on the opposite end of that phone line.
“We’ll see you then. Sorry again for the mix-up.”
Even after she heard the dial tone on the other end of the line, Harley sat a minute with the phone cradled to her ear, marveling at how easy it was for the other woman to simply label something a mix-up that caused her to go through the gamut of emotions in the span of seconds. The fact that she didn’t know her own heart was troubling, and it pricked her conscience that her immediate sympathies weren’t for Kelsey, but for herself.
The truth was, it would be nice to think her life had a purpose. All those years of wanting to be important to the world paled in comparison to wanting to matter to one person, or even a few people.
She didn’t have time to think about that, though. She had basketball players to greet, and sick children to hurt for, and precious few hours to prepare herself for Denton’s flirty banter.
Harley pressed her fingers against the hand extended to her, lining up her cold palm to one that was significantly warmer. She stretched her fingers to their longest state, but still barely reached the back of his knuckles. Turning to her little audience, she opened her mouth wide to express her shock.
“You guys were right! His hand is bigger than mine!”
The good-natured young man laughed as he shrugged his shoulders, and a mischievous-looking boy in the front placed his arms across his chest.
“Could you bench press Harley?”
“My goodness, what a question!” Harley widened her eyes in exaggeration for the other children as she smiled at the boy.
“She’s pretty small, so yeah.”
Harley shot the power forward a quick glance that begged him not to attempt it, and he grinned shyly.
“But could you pick her up with one hand?” the boy pushed, tilting his chin up rather smugly.
“I don’t know, should we find out?”
The children cheered, so he centered his palm on the top of her head, his fingers gingerly cradling her skull. As he lifted his hand ever so slightly, she followed his lead and slowly rose to her tiptoes, giving the appearance that he was drawing her upward. A couple of the children looked visibly shocked, until the boy in the front realized what was happening and called them on the hoax.
“Do you think I should challenge him to a one-on-one matchup?” Harley suggested, glancing from face to face and settling on one little girl who was peeking from behind another child. She wrinkled her nose just enough that the girl managed a smile.
“Definitely not,” the boisterous boy spoke up. “He would smash you like a bug.”
“Well, I definitely do not want to be a bug, so I guess our friendly game will have to wait for another day.”
The amiable giant pretended to be disappointed as they said their goodbyes to the children, and Harley turned to Kenny, who said he was going to grab a few more background shots. Stepping into the hallway, she strolled towards the main entrance, checking messages on her phone. Pausing before the elevator, she pulled up a text from Ryan.
Thinking about you.
Smiling privately, she glanced up to see a nurse walking toward her.
“Harley? I hope you don’t mind, but I saw you come in and thought I’d catch you before you left.”
“Sure.” Dropping her phone in her purse, she took on a professional air, assuming the woman wanted to ask her something related to Channel Six.
“Do you have a moment? I have your test results back.”
Again with the test results?
Nodding slightly, Harley simply stood there until the nurse motioned her towards a more private area.
“We ran the antibody screen.” When that news was met with nothing but a blank stare
from Harley, the nurse took a deep breath. “An antibody is made by the body’s immune system in response to an antigen…a foreign substance such as a blood transfusion or a transplanted organ. Antibodies attach the transplanted organ, so the white blood cells of the donor and the serum of the recipient are mixed to see if the antibodies and antigens react.”
“And?”
The fact that the nurse felt she had to place her hand over Harley’s told her everything she needed to know.
“I’m sorry, but you’re not a match.”
Rubbing her right hand across her forehead, Harley peered at the nurse through squinted eyes. “Does Kelsey know yet?”
“I thought you might want to tell her.”
“Yeah, of course,” Harley said, straightening as she caught a glimpse of Kenny coming down the corridor. “Thank you.”
The nurse turned and strode in Kenny’s direction, passing him as he checked a strap on the bag he was carrying. Harley watched him continue toward her with purpose, looking very much like a man without a care in the world.
“So, we good?” he wanted to know.
Good. So many implications wrapped up in that one little word, spinning through Harley’s mind in a torrent of thoughts that she couldn’t pinpoint, let alone process. Ryan’s unanswered text remained in her purse—an electronic reminder that she was on his mind. As she thought about what he would think of her news, Kelsey’s beaming face the day before flashed unbidden through her memory, and she wondered if she had the strength to disappoint her friend.
With a slight air of defeat, she shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, Kenny. We’re good.”
“The week of Christmas? But that’s next week. Does it have to be so soon?”
Harley listened for the voice on the other end of the line, heart pounding in her chest.
“Those are the only auditions we’re doing at this time. If you aren’t available, perhaps there will be other opportunities in the future.”
“Oh no. I’m definitely available.”
I will make myself available.
Crowned (Girls of Wonder Lane Book 2) Page 23