Fanning Flames Page 6

  Pamela leaned back in her bar stool and laughed.

  “Well, looks like you’ve been hit by the fairies, you two.”

  Alex looked around at the table, and all eyes were locked on Lindsey. He rubbed the back of his neck and thought desperately for a way out of there. He reached down behind the back and pushed the squawk button on his radio.

  “Oops, duty calls,” he said as he handed some money to his dad. “This should take care of ours. Gotta run. Nice to see you all.”

  He gripped Lindsey’s elbow and smiled at her, hoping she would just say her goodbyes and help him get out of there as fast as he could. And she did.

  The door closed behind them before he finally stopped.

  “Sorry for the rush,” he said to Lindsey.

  She burst into laughter.

  “Are you kidding? I was ready an hour ago. Jaclyn was just icing on the cake.”

  “Aw, that bad?” he asked.

  She shook her head and took the arm he offered her.

  “Oh, no, not really. I’m just not used to that much—family.”

  “They can definitely be a bit much.”

  He liked the feeling of her warm arm in his and looked up at the stars as they walked slowly to the Copper Cabin.

  As they reached the cabin, he stopped and turned her toward him. The moonlight glistened in her eyes, and he thought again how pretty she was. And smart. And funny. And interesting.

  He’d tried to avoid the subject, but thought she might be wondering.

  “I’m sorry about Jaclyn,” he said.

  “Oh, no worries,” she said lightly. “I love snickerdoodles. It’s all good.”

  He realized that she didn’t know Jaclyn was the resident matchmaker at the ranch, and he made a quick decision not to tell her. She had a big event coming up with Travis, and would be leaving shortly after that. The last thing she needed to worry about was the fact that he was smitten with her. Which he was. It would only make a very complicated situation worse.

  He took a step back and stomped his boots to get rid of the urge to kiss her. It worked, but he knew he wanted to see her again. As soon as he could.

  “Hey, what do you think of coming out to the command center tomorrow morning and—um, making sure the inventory is all where it should be.”

  She cocked her head and met his gaze, her eyes twinkling. “We did that tonight.”

  “Well, what if we made a mistake. I think we should check again. The outside bins are pretty empty, too.”

  She laughed and pulled out her phone.

  “Okay. Sounds good to me. Here’s my phone number. Call when you’re ready for me to come over.”

  He put her number in his phone.

  “Can I take a picture of you to match it with?” he said, feeling silly as he said it.

  “Sure,” she said, and she smiled and stuck out her tongue at him as he took the picture. He turned it and showed it to her, and they both laughed.

  “That’ll be a tough one to ignore,” he said as he dropped his phone in his pocket.

  “I bet,” she said as she matched his phone number to the picture she’d taken of him in his apron.

  “There you go. Turnabout is fair play,” he said with a laugh.

  “Good night. See you tomorrow,” she said, and he stood there for a moment after she closed the door, wondering what it was about her that was keeping him rooted to the floor.

  Chapter 12

  Lindsey was up early, wondering when she might hear from Alex. He hadn’t called, and she checked her watch—almost nine. Maybe he had some errands to run before he got to work, and she decided just to make herself busy.

  She’d done two crossword puzzles before her phone buzzed. She picked it up and laughed at the picture of Alex in his frilly apron, brushed her hair aside and answered.

  “Good morning,” she said, looking forward to hearing his voice.

  “Lindsey, it’s an emergency. Can you come over to the command center? And maybe run?”

  “What is it, Alex,” she said, her nurse’s emergency antenna in high alert.

  “It’s Dani. Hurry.”

  She clicked off, pulled her boots on, grabbed her coat and was over to the command center in a shot. She did run, and fast, her stomach clenched the whole time.

  Alex was waiting at the door, holding it open.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he said, his face clouded with worry.

  Their eyes met, and Lindsey was about to echo his sentiment when they heard a groan from inside the command center.

  Alex rushed in before Lindsey, and yelled, “Dani!”

  “Oh, gosh, what’s wrong?” Lindsey asked as she knelt beside Dani, resting her hand on her forehead and taking her wrist to get a pulse.

  “I...I don’t know,” Dani said as she rocked her head from side to side and clutched her belly.

  “Her blood pressure and pulse are really low,” Lindsey said quietly to Alex, who was pacing by the computer monitors.

  “What do you need?”

  “I could use a blood pressure cuff and stethoscope,” Lindsey said as she turned back to Dani.

  “Dani? Dani, can you hear me?” she asked, as Dani’s eyes were still closed and she continued to groan.

  “Yes,” Dani said under her breath.

  “How long have you been here?” Lindsey asked as Alex handed her the stethoscope and she put it on Dani’s chest.

  “I...I don’t know. Just a few minutes, I think. I was so tired. I came looking to see if you guys were in early. About sunrise, I think. Or just after.”

  Lindsey glanced at her watch—nine thirty. “And you’ve been here all this time?”

  “Yeah,” Dani answered. “Just a few minutes, right?”

  Alex and Lindsey exchanged quick glances.

  “Just a little bit, yeah,” Lindsey said and winked at Alex.

  Dani groaned again and clutched her belly.

  “You said your stomach’s been off lately. Have you had any other symptoms? Diarrhea? Vomiting?”

  “No,” Dani said, her eyes still closed. “Well, maybe vomiting, but I haven’t been eating much either. Kind of weird.”

  Lindsey wrote Dani’s vitals on a notepad and asked Alex to get a bottle of water. He was back in a flash and handed it to Dani.

  “Dani, can you drink some water for me?” Lindsey held the cup to her lips, but Dani shook her head and pushed it away.

  “I can’t. I feel sick.”

  Lindsey rested on her heels as she looked at Dani and then checked the notepad.

  “Dani, do you have a regular doctor?”

  Dani shook her head again. “No. I’m never sick.”

  “Do I need to call 911?” Alex asked, his face pale.

  Lindsey checked Dani’s pulse again. “How far is the hospital?”

  “About twenty minutes.”

  Lindsey thought back to all of her disaster training. She knew that it would take paramedics longer than that to get to her, and then double that to transport her to the hospital. While it didn’t seem to be a life-threatening emergency, a nagging in the back of her mind told her Dani needed to be seen. If only to be on the safe side, for having passed out for a couple of hours. Not a good sign.

  “Dani, Alex and I are going to take you to the hospital. I think you need to be checked out. This came on suddenly, and passing out is nothing to mess around with. Your vitals are not great. So we’ll take you in.”

  “No, that’s silly. Maybe I’m just hungry,” she said.

  “Okay, let me get you something to eat. I have some snickerdoodles in the car—”

  “No,” Dani said and her face turned an odd shade of green as she said it.

  Lindsey smiled and was even more sure of her decision.

  “Do you think you can walk?”

  “She doesn’t have to,” Alex said as he swooped Dani up in his arms. “Open the truck for me. I’ll lay her down on the back seat and we’ll take her in.”

  “I can call Tr
avis and your parents on the way,” Lindsey said as she locked the door and followed Alex to the truck.

  “No, no. No calls. None,” Dani mumbled.

  Alex and Lindsey looked at each other again. “Just get her into the truck and we’ll see,” Lindsey said. “It could be nothing. Let’s just get her to a doctor and we can decide.”

  “Hm. I don’t know about that,” Alex said as he turned over the engine. “My mom would shoot me if I was in the hospital and didn’t call her.”

  “We’ll call. Just not quite yet. Dani was very clear about her wishes,” Lindsey said, crossing her fingers that she was making the right decision. It would have been better if they hadn’t mentioned calling—ask for forgiveness after rather than permission. But they had, and she’d said what she wanted and as a nurse, Lindsey felt like they needed to respect that. At least now, when it didn’t seem life-threatening in any way, just urgent. Maybe as simple as dehydration.

  She had her own suspicions, and while serious, it didn’t seem completely dire. At least not right now.

  Chapter 13

  “What happened?”

  Lindsey rubbed her eyes and sat up on the couch beside Dani’s bed, where she’d stayed all the previous day and the following night. The sun was just beginning to peek over the mountain tops, and Lindsey stretched and walked over to Dani.

  “Good morning,” she said as she pushed the call button to let the nurses know that Dani was awake.

  Dani looked up at the IV of fluids and then down to her hand, where the insertion needles were taped securely.

  She looked up at Lindsey, her eyes questioning, if not quite fearful.

  “Alex and I found you passed out this morning,” Lindsey said softly. “Your blood pressure and pulse were really low, and you complained of a bellyache. And nausea.”

  “Oh, I remember now,” Dani said. “How did I get here?”

  “Alex and I put you in the back seat of the truck. Brought you here. They did some tests overnight, and we should get some results soon. For now, they just gave you fluid, but you’ve been sleeping for almost twenty-four hours.”

  Lindsey got up and checked Dani’s chart. She’d woken up when the nurses came in to take vitals overnight, but she’d missed the last one.

  “Things look a little better. How do you feel?”

  “I feel fine. Great,” Dani grumbled, pushing herself to sit up. “I need to get out of here.”

  “Not so fast,” Alex said as he came in the room with a tray full of coffee. “You need coffee, I’m sure.”

  He handed a cup to Dani, but she shook her head and held her nose.

  Alex blinked a couple of times and looked and Lindsey, who just shrugged her shoulders.

  “Has she eaten anything?” he whispered to Lindsey. “This is her favorite coffee. She has one every day.”

  Lindsey smiled. “I guess her stomach is still off. She just woke up. Maybe she’ll have an appetite later. For now, the IV fluids will take care of that.”

  “Oh, okay.” Alex handed Lindsey a coffee and set Dani’s on the other side of the room.

  Alex looked at his watch. “When do you expect the doctor?”

  Lindsey shook her head and poured a cup of water for Dani. “I don’t know. It took a while for them to do all the tests they wanted. The on-call ER doctor last night said they might take twelve hours or so. That should be pretty soon.”

  “Alex, would you go on to work? I’m still worried about the fire. I see you have the radio—thanks for taking it overnight. Everything good as far as you know?”

  Alex pushed the radio button twice and Dani covered her ears when he laughed.

  “Oops, sorry. Just wanted to show you I had it and it’s on. And it works. I’m happy to head into the command center and report back that everything is A-OK,” he said with a salute.

  Dani groaned and rolled her eyes. “Just let me know all is well, all right?”

  Alex squeezed Lindsey’s shoulder. “You want a ride back to the ranch?”

  Lindsey started to answer, but Dani said, “Oh. Um, Lindsey, would you be willing to stay? I don’t think they’re going to let me out of here willingly. I might need you to help break me out.”

  “Sure,” Lindsey said and she waved at Alex as he left the room. She turned to Dani. “I’m happy to stay as long as you like, but I won’t help you break out.”

  “Come on. This is ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with me. See?”

  Dani wiggled her hands and her toes and blinked her eyes fast.

  Lindsey couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, okay, but it wasn’t your fingers or your toes or your eyeballs that were the problem.”

  “What was the problem?” Dani asked softly. “And you didn’t call Travis or my parents, right?”

  Lindsey sighed and pursed her lips. “I did respect your wishes, yes. Alex wanted to, but I’m still trying to keep him from it. Hopefully, he follows instructions well.”

  “If he doesn’t, I’ll sock him myself,” Dani said, and Lindsey was happy to see her crack a smile. “I just don’t like people fussing over me. You don’t fuss. You just answer questions.”

  Lindsey glanced at Alex, and he looked ten shades of guilty, turning away from Dani. She wondered if he had, in fact, followed instructions.

  Should she have called? Lindsey thought about that for a minute. She wasn’t sure. Nurses were supposed to be kind and compassionate and helpful. She hoped she was all of those things, and respectful of peoples’ boundaries, too.

  “Well, I’m happy to help if I can. The doctor should be in pretty soon, and then you’ll know a lot more.”

  They spent the morning doing crosswords puzzles—Alex had picked up a book for them on his way in with coffee—and just chatting. Well, Lindsey was getting to know it was Dani’s version of chatting, which wasn’t much. She was pretty quiet, and fell asleep off and on. She was keenly aware that there were more topics that they really couldn’t talk about than they could, since Lindsey wasn’t willing to divulge anything about Travis, or why she was there in the first place.

  Dani did let her know how she and Travis had met, and it was a sweet story.

  “He drove all the way across the country just to see something different? And bring you a truck?”

  “Yeah, can you believe that? And my brother was in the hospital at the time and I was really busy. I couldn’t really give him five minutes for a week, but he brought me lunch every day and...well, he just wouldn’t go away.”

  Lindsey laughed hard at that one. She could just imagine.

  “And then when Jaclyn brought snickerdoodles, that sealed the deal. I guess I always knew he was the one for me, just didn’t want to go there.”

  “Snickerdoodles? Like she brought for me?”

  Dani laughed. “Like she brought for you and Alex. She’s the River’s End Ranch resident matchmaker.”

  “What?” Lindsey blinked rapidly, not believing what Dani said.

  “Yep. Good luck. She seems to have set her sights on you and Alex.”

  “Oh, gosh. We’re just friends. And I’m only here for a little bit. It’s impossible.”

  “That’s what everybody says,” Dani said before taking the cup of water that Lindsey held out to her.

  She took a gulp and didn’t seem to feel ill, which made Lindsey feel better.

  “You’ve never wanted to get married?” Dani handed the cup back to Lindsey, who filled it up again.

  Not only had Lindsey never wanted to get married, it had never really crossed her mind seriously. She’d had boyfriends here and there, but was never in one place long enough to have a meaningful one, and she told Dani so.

  “Before you met Travis, had you thought about it? My guess is you were a little more like me and that wasn’t on your mind.”

  “Two points on that one. No, it had never crossed my mind. And when it happened, there were all other kinds of things to think about that I had never anticipated. Like weddings, and families and all kinds of things
. I was in no way prepared. I still don’t feel like I am.”

  “I can certainly understand that. But sometimes life has a way of taking you by surprise.”

  Dani chuckled. “Yeah, you should take your own advice. Have another snickerdoodle.”

  They did another crossword puzzle and Dani was able to eat half a sandwich without turning green when the nurses brought in their lunch.

  They were just starting to get a little impatient—or at least Dani was—when the doctor came in the room with her chart under his arm and a wide smile.

  “Hello, Mrs. Montgomery,” he said.

  He wasn’t the doctor who’d looked after Dani last night so Lindsey didn’t know him, and it appeared Dani didn’t know him either.

  He breezed in, his smile all white teeth to match his white coat.

  “Well, young lady, how are you feeling?” he asked.

  Dani tensed and sat up in bed.

  “I’m fine, thank you. Can I leave now?”

  He flipped open the metal chart and turned some pages. He smiled even wider, if that was possible.

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better. Some fluids, maybe some soda crackers. It’ll only last another month or so, and then you’ll feel fine. But for now, I’d like to keep you another night at least, just to make sure everything’s fine. Then you can go home and have a healthy, happy baby.”

  Dani’s shock was palpable to Lindsey, and she instinctively moved over to her side and gripped her hand.

  “What did you say?” Dani whispered.

  “I said things look good. No miscarriage, just some dehydration. We’ll give you some extra instructions for prenatal care and after a short stay here to regain your strength, you’ll be good to go. Glad everything worked out.”

  Lindsey breathed deeply as Dani squeezed her hand with what seemed super-human strength when the doctor left the room.

  Lindsey guessed that this was a surprise to Dani and squeezed her hand back best she could.

  “Did he say baby? Me?” Dani said, her eyes full of panic.

  Chapter 14

  “Would you like me to go?” Lindsey asked softly as she pulled the blanket up over Dani. She was shivering and looked like she might honestly be in shock.