Special Delivery (Mountain Meadow Homecoming 1) (13 page)

* * * *

Jenny rolled over, checking her bedside clock. Two AM. Someone pounded on the door. From years of rising at all hours, she was awake instantly, but then her sleep had been disturbed anyway. Who could it be at this hour? She jumped out of bed, pulled on the thick satin robe lying across the foot of her bed, and belted it. Then she picked up the baseball bat she kept next to her bed. She wasn’t paranoid, just cautious. After all, she was a woman alone out in the middle of nowhere.

When she reached the first floor, she crept forward. The pounding continued, slower and more irregular than before. Jenny peered through the peephole, but all she saw were feet. Large feet, encased in boots like Evan had been wearing.

“Go away, Evan!” she yelled through the door.

“Jenny! Thank God.” His voice was muffled. “Please, let me in…”

“Go away,” she yelled again. He must have gone off and got drunk. She couldn’t take it, couldn’t face him again. She had tried so hard to put the past behind her where it could never hurt her again…

“Bleeding. So cold.” His voice sounded slurred.

Jenny’s fingers trembled against the wood of the door.
Bleeding?
She’d wanted him gone, not hurt. Never hurt. She twisted the dead bolt and yanked the door open.

“Evan! What happened?”

The doctor in her kicked into gear. She squatted next to him where he lay slumped in her doorway. Blood trickled from a laceration along his hairline. He gazed at her with dull and somewhat unfocused eyes.

“Wrecked. When I left. Hit a tree on the curve of your drive.”

“When you
left
? But that means you’ve been out in the cold for hours. The cut might just be a minor part of your injuries. I can’t carry you. If I help, can you get up so I can bring you in?”

“Yes.”

He was huge compared to her. Evan had always been tall. He’d played forward on the high school basketball team and been talented enough to warm the bench at UVA, but Jenny realized the man had added muscle and mass since his teens. His shoulders were heavier, and his arms and legs more muscular. Jenny grunted as she helped him to his feet, realized her robe had come partway open, and belted it back again. He leaned on her and stumbled as she led him into her den. They staggered before Jenny regained her balance and guided him to the couch near the fireplace.

“Sit. I’ll get my bag and we’ll take a look at you before I call the EMT.”

“No ambulance. Court case in the morning.”

All doctor now, she frowned at him with her hands braced on her hips. “Just from what I’ve already seen, Counselor, I can assure you there will be no court case for you. Now sit still until I get back.” Jenny grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch, wrapping it around his shoulders. She snatched another one from a nearby chair and covered his legs.

From habit, she kept a medical bag sitting next to the front door, a little old-fashioned, but necessary in Mountain Meadow because there were times she had to go to her patients. When she returned, his head rested against the back of the couch.

“I’m turning on the lights,” Jenny warned before she switched on the recessed lighting overhead and a lamp on the table near where he sat. Evan blinked. Jenny stood behind him as she cleaned the cut near his hairline.

“This needs stitches. What did you hit?”

“Don’t know for sure. Car’s pretty beat-up.”

“Well, you’ll need an X-ray at the very least, maybe a CT scan to make sure there’s no skull fracture and so we can see the extent of any concussion.” She moved in front of him and pulled out her penlight. As she tested his pupils to see if they were reacting the same, she asked, “Any headache or nausea?”

“No.”

“Dizziness? Or ringing in your ears?”

“No.”

As he warmed, his speech grew stronger, more normal. Jenny sat back on the coffee table. “Follow my finger with your eyes. Don’t move your head. Okay. Now tell me what happened.”

“I missed the curve in the drive, went off the road into the woods, and hit a tree.”

She leaned away from him in surprise. “How did you miss the turn? It’s marked for heaven’s sake.”

His eyes dropped. “I didn’t see it,” he mumbled.

“How could you not?”

His cheeks flushed with anger or embarrassment, which she wasn’t sure. “Just leave it alone. I wrecked, okay?”

Jenny drew a deep breath and pressed her lips together. “Sorry. Were you unconscious?”

“Yes. I don’t know how long. I came here as soon as I could.”

She sighed. So he had been unconscious for more than just a few seconds. Jenny grabbed her cell phone and punched 911.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling the ambulance to have you transported.”

“I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

Jenny glared. “You don’t have a choice. You have a head wound needing stitching, and a concussion. While there’ve been plenty of times I would have liked to see your sorry ass dead, I’m not letting it happen because I didn’t do my job.”

“That’s what it always comes back to isn’t it? The mighty Dr. Owens.”

“Shut up, Evan,” Jenny snapped as the dispatcher answered.

“911, What’s your emergency?”

“Joyce? It’s Doc Owens. I have a thirty-year-old white male with a head laceration and concussion from a motor vehicle accident. I need him transported to the ER.”

“Sorry, Doc. The guys are working an accident on the parkway. Some kids out joyriding. They’re going to be tied up for some time. We’ve already had to call for mutual aid. Can you bring him in?”

“Hmm. I suppose. But if you have accident victims coming, this one will get shoved down the list by the triage nurse. I’ll keep him at my place. Just make sure a deputy gets out here to look at the accident scene tomorrow. If you need me in on the parkway accident, call. He’ll have no choice but to come with me then.” Jenny put her phone down. Evan appeared as uncomfortable as her, and she didn’t like how pale he was. “You’re stuck with me for now. I’ll go ahead and stitch your head. I’ve got sutures and local anesthetic in here.” She opened her bag.

Evan glared at her. “No. Way. I’m not letting you near me with a needle and thread. You’ll make me look like Frankenstein’s monster.”

That would be a cold day in hell. Jenny arched a brow at him. “When did you become such a narcissist?”

“Since you started talking about practicing your sewing on my skin,” he retorted.

Jenny frowned. She studied her hands for a minute, then lifted her eyes to his suspicious gaze. “Evan, no matter how much I detest you, I would never let my personal feelings affect my work. That cut needs to be stitched. The longer you wait, the greater the chances you will be left with a nasty scar. Let me stitch it. I’m good at it.”

“Fine. Do it,” he conceded.

He complained about the anesthetic. He complained about the stitches. Heavens, he was a whiny patient, Jenny thought as she worked. She tuned him out as she continued making a series of minute sutures to draw the skin together. The laceration was close enough to his hairline it wouldn’t be very obvious even if it did leave a scar, but she was doing her best to make sure it didn’t. Evan was handsome. No matter how Jenny felt about him, it would be a shame to mar that.

* * * *

Evan closed his eyes because when he opened them, her breasts were at eye level. Her robe gaped as she worked, so if his eyes were open his gaze feasted on one smooth, creamy globe. He remembered how good she’d always tasted. From the very first time he kissed her when they were both freshmen in high school, it had always been Jenny. She was still the most beautiful woman he knew. He shut his eyes to block her image, but he could still smell her unique, spicy scent. He didn’t want to tell her he’d missed the turn because tears in his eyes had blurred his vision.

“Jenny?”

“Hmm?” she murmured as she tied off the last suture and set her materials on the table.

“Did your dad really drug you?”

Her hand trembled in her lap before she clenched it into a fist. “Now’s not the time for this.”

“Then when?”

“Not now.” She began packing everything and wouldn’t look at him. “Let me help you off with your jacket and your boots. You can stretch out on the couch. I’ll give you a ride to the hospital when I go in for rounds.”

Her voice was cool, impersonal just like she would talk to a stranger. He would get nowhere with her tonight, but he could be patient. He could wait. And in truth, he felt terrible. Sleep was what he needed. Evan leaned forward as she helped him off with his jacket. Then she knelt at his feet, unlacing his boots and taking them off. He stared at the short, practical style of her golden hair. It suited what she’d become, and he hated it. Was it as soft as it had been? Unable to resist, he touched a strand.

“Don’t!” She cringed from him, and he let his hand fall to his lap. This wasn’t his Jenny. This was a stranger. This was Dr. Owens. He wondered if Jenny was still there somewhere.

* * * *

Holly reemerged from the bathroom. Jake tried, but he couldn’t help it. His eyes gravitated to her chest and he swallowed, looking at Noelle instead. He was still rocking her and she was still fussing.

“I think I’ve got it,” Holly said. The relief on her face was obvious. “Here, let me have her and I’ll try again.”

He handed the baby to her and then lounged against the doorway. Holly sat in the rocker and opened her gown. Jake studied his bare feet until the silence told him Noelle had latched on. His gaze drifted up again. Holly stared at her daughter’s small face with such intense love he couldn’t look away. He should go. He shouldn’t be here, but there was no place else he wanted to be.

“I guess I’ll go to bed if you don’t need anything more,” he mumbled, but he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to sit with her, wanted to hold them both and feel that human connection.

Most often when he awoke from a dream, the last thing he wanted was to be around other people. Tonight had been different. When he awoke shaking, Holly’s needs had overshadowed his. She’d made him forget the horror with the most basic of pictures: a mother feeding her child.

He came back to where he was and what he was doing when Holly cleared her throat. She moved her legs to one side on the stool. “Would you sit with me? I could use some company.”

Jake nodded, trying to be casual, but sure his relief must be obvious. “Me, too.”

He perched on the stool, forearms resting on his thighs and hands clasped between his knees, but he kept his face half averted. He didn’t want to spook her or make her uncomfortable so she asked him to leave.

“Jake?”

“What?”

“I’ll be feeding Noelle a lot while we’re living here with you. About every two to three hours right now.”

Jake was careful to keep his eyes above her throat. “So?”

“I have to bare my breast. I try not to flaunt it, but let’s face it, if we’re going to live in the same house, you’re going to have to get used to it.”

Heat suffused his cheeks. His gaze skittered to where Noelle suckled. “Yeah, but I feel like I’m staring.”

She tilted her head. “I don’t feel that way. In fact, it makes me more uncomfortable when you don’t look. I-I like having you here.”

Jake felt himself melt as watched her and the baby. “It’s so beautiful, Holly. You can’t imagine…a miracle. I thought so as soon as I saw her little head crown.”

Her lower lip trembled before she pressed her lips together. He touched her knee and murmured, “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

A tear rolled down her cheek she could do nothing to hide. “It’s just so different than what I imagined. I-I guess I built this fairy-tale picture when I discovered I was pregnant.”

“The handsome prince would marry you and carry you off to his castle where you would all live happily ever after?”

Holly nodded. “But it wasn’t like that.”

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“I do,” she whispered. “Because…because…”

He touched her cheek, sure of what she was going to say and needing to ease the way. “Because there’s already something between us?”

She nodded, obviously relieved he understood. “Yes. Even though we said we’d just be friends. I don’t want there to be any lies. I’ve already been through that.”

Jake swallowed. “Okay.”

* * * *

Holly stared off into the distance. “I met Spence at the beginning of my final year in college. I was bowled over. Now I suspect he intended that. I guess some of my awe was due to his name and his family. I was naive. We dated off and on when he came to Lynchburg, then after my parents died, Spence started putting the pressure on me to take our relationship to the next level.

“Here I was, now legally responsible for Tyler, trying to help him cope with losing our parents even as I was coming to terms with my own grief, and Spence was right there. He seemed supportive at every turn and I began to depend on that. Spring break rolled around. He found a woman to stay with Tyler and took me to New York. We shopped, went to museums, took in a Broadway show and he was a perfect gentleman until the last night.” Holly bit her lip and her brows drew together with the memories of what had occurred.

“I realize now he kept plying me with drinks, and when he took me to my room… He proposed.” Holly paused. “I was so overwhelmed I said yes, and then one thing led to another and…sex wasn’t like I thought it would be. He was impatient and it hurt.”

Why was he so easy to talk to? She hadn’t told anyone the things she was telling Jake.

“It was your first time?”

Holly nodded. She swallowed and picked Noelle up to burp her before she switched the baby to her other breast. Jake waited patiently, and this time she noticed he didn’t look away. She saw the banked heat in his eyes and felt warmed by it. In just the short time since they’d met, she already trusted him. Jake would never hurt her. She knew it. She touched his thigh, so close to hers, and smiled.

“I told him I didn’t want to do it again. I wanted to wait until we were married. I hoped it would give me some time to get used to the idea. He said he was okay with it, but he was angry.”

Holly stared around the nursery Jake had fixed for her and the baby. Actions. Spence gave her words. Jake gave her actions.