The Backup Plan (26 page)

Bobby got to her first. “Don't you dare fall apart on me now,” he told her emphatically. “Cord needs you to be strong.”

Rianna appeared and slipped her hand into Bobby's, but the look she turned on Dinah was filled with compassion. There wasn't even the faintest whiff of jealousy. “Bobby's right. Cord needs you. He loves you. I could see it in his eyes the day I came to the house.”

Bobby's gaze searched Dinah's face. “You ready to go in there? They want us to take turns sitting with him and talking to him. Just a few minutes at a time. Something tells me, it's your voice Cord would want to hear when he's coming around.”

“But you're his brother,” Dinah protested.

“I'll get my chance,” Bobby assured her. “Go in there and tell him you love him. Tell him you're sticking around.” His gaze met hers. “You are, aren't you?”

Dinah nodded.

“That ought to pull him out of this, knowing what he has to look forward to,” Bobby told her. He squeezed her hand. “You ready? I'll walk back with you.”

Dinah sought out Warren, who was sitting with her mother and with Maggie. He gave her an encouraging nod. She turned back to Bobby.

“Let's go,” she said, drawing on every last ounce of courage she possessed.

“He's alive, Dinah. That's what we need to hold on
to,” Bobby said. “It's up to the doctors and us to keep him that way.”

“Heap on a little pressure, why don't you?” she retorted uneasily.

“You don't have to do it alone, Dinah. You saw that roomful of people back there. And I'm right here beside you. We'll do it together.”

She nodded slowly, feeling some of her distress ease. Having backup really did made a difference.

 

Cord heard Dinah's voice in his dreams. She told him over and over that she was staying in Charleston, staying with him. He kept trying to fight his way through the fog in his head to tell her they were going to have a great life together, but he couldn't seem to get all the way back.

And though he had no sense of time passing, he knew on some level that it had, because she kept growing more and more frantic as if she feared he was slipping away.

He felt her holding his hand, felt the dampness of her tears and ached for the pain he was putting her through. He had to get back to her, had to take away the anxiety.

“Dinah,” he whispered, his voice raspy.

He sensed her moving, getting to her feet, leaning over him as if she couldn't quite believe that she'd heard his voice. He tried to whisper her name again, but it was beyond him. Instead, he just squeezed her hand.

“Oh, Cord,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “You are coming back. Let me get the doctor.”

“No.”

She looked into his eyes, which he was having to fight to keep open.

“Just you. Need to look at you.”

“I'm right here,” she said, a smile on her lips.

“Never left?”

She shook her head. “Not for a minute.”

“Leaving town?”

She touched a finger to his lips. “Sssh! No, I'm not leaving. Not ever.”

Even in his semiconscious state he could see that her complexion was pale and her eyes were haunted. He'd obviously scared her. Was that why she was staying?

“Because of me?”

“Because of us,” she corrected. “Now rest. I want to let the doctor know you're coming back to us. I've got to tell you, Cordell, it was a revelation to all of us that that head of yours wasn't as hard as we'd always believed.”

“No jokes,” he murmured. “Hurts to laugh.”

Since it hurt to do anything, Cord decided to go back to sleep.

Later he was awakened by Dinah's cries, a whimper at first, then more of those gut-wrenching sobs that had brought him back to consciousness out at Covington the day of the accident. He forced himself awake and saw that she was asleep in the chair beside the bed, her head resting on the edge of the mattress.

Moving gingerly, he managed to reach out to stroke her hair, murmuring soothing words and coaxing her awake with reassurances. It took some effort, but he swung his legs over the side of the bed and pulled her into his arms.

When her eyes finally blinked open, she sucked in a deep, shuddering breath and swiped impatiently at the tears on her cheeks.

“You're awake,” she said happily.

“You were crying.”

“Sorry.”

“Don't you dare apologize,” he said. “Tell me about the dream. It didn't have anything to do with me, did it? And it's not the first time you've had it.”

She shook her head.

“Tell me.”

The story he'd been waiting weeks to hear finally spilled out in fits and starts in his hospital room. The nightmare she had lived—hearing a car bomb explode, finding the man she'd loved blown to bits beside a road in Afghanistan, blaming herself for all those long months because she'd lived and Peter hadn't—was even worse than Cord could have imagined.

“I was ready to die. I
wanted
to die,” she told him. “But I didn't. I got another form of death sentence. I had to go on living with the memory.”

“So for all these months you've been dealing with the trauma of seeing him die coupled with survivor's guilt,” Cord said. “I'm so sorry. If I had put it all together long before now I could have been more help.”

She regarded him with a wry expression. “How could you, when I refused to let you in? I'm sorry about that. I just couldn't talk about it. It made it all too real. But when I saw you lying on the ground out at Coving ton…” She shuddered. “I came unglued all over again. I thought I'd lost you, too.”

“You're never going to lose me.”

She met his gaze. “I've told you this before, but I'm not sure if you heard me or understood what I was saying. I decided not to go back.”

A whoop of pure joy was beyond him, which was probably just as well. Besides, he needed to know why she'd made the choice. “Because I fell?” he asked war
ily, knowing if that was it, he'd have to find the strength once more to encourage her to go as she'd planned.

“Well, it's true that if you're going to take these idiotic chances, someone needs to be around to look out for you, but no, that's not why I'm staying. I'm staying because I love you. I was coming to tell you when you fell. In fact, I thought you'd get the message when I showed up on the motorcycle.”

The relief that flooded through him nearly overwhelmed him. Still he felt compelled to ask, “You're sure about this?”

“As sure as I need to be. I can't change the past. And you're my future, Cordell. I'm not entirely sure who I am anymore, but I do know that I don't need to be the intrepid woman who wasn't afraid to go anywhere ever again.”

Even though she seemed to have made peace with her decision, Cord wasn't entirely convinced. He found the words to say a few things she needed to hear.

“Sugar, I want you to hear what I'm telling you. You don't need to be that woman because you are Dinah Davis, of the South Carolina Davises. You
are
strong. You're talented. There are lots of different kinds of reporting. If you don't want to put your life in danger again, so what? That seems damn sensible to me. There's injustice and corruption to be exposed any where, even right here in Charleston, I imagine.”

He tucked a finger under her chin. “You're also the woman I love, and that makes you the most important woman on this earth to one man.” He searched her face. “Or maybe you don't consider me to be that much of a catch.”

“Any woman would be lucky to have you, Cordell, but you know that.”

“I only care about one woman. Do you want me, Dinah? You say you're not going back to Afghanistan, but are you ready to stay here in South Carolina and make a home and babies with me and maybe spend your spare time chasing crooks and criminals for a local TV station? Maybe dressing me up in a monkey suit and dragging me to a charity gala from time to time to keep your mama happy?”

Her expression brightened. “Is that a proposal, Cord ell Beaufort?”

“Yes, indeed it is, sugar. I'm no Bobby, but I think I'm offering a mighty fine backup plan. What do you think?”

“I think you're crazy as a loon to want me in my cur rent state of mind and to propose when I must look like a train wreck, but I accept. And just so you know, you're not a last resort, Cord. This is the smartest decision I ever made.”

“It's for damned sure the best one I ever made,” he said. “Now if you don't mind, I'm going to kiss you and crawl back into bed before I pass out cold.” He grinned. “But fair warning, sugar…give me a day or two and I'm dragging you into this bed with me. This old hospital can use a little scandalous behavior to shake things up. You with me?”

“Always.”

There it was, he thought as he drifted back to sleep. The conviction and certainty was finally back in Dinah's voice. And damned if he hadn't helped put it there.

C
ord paced the back of the chapel, sweat beading on his brow. Where the devil was she? Had this whole wed ding thing been too good to be true? Dinah was already twenty minutes late and nowhere in sight. Even Doro thy Davis was beginning to look just the teensiest bit nervous, though she murmured reassurances with her usual aplomb.

“She'll be here any minute,” she promised Cord.

“Of course she will,” Marshall said gruffly. “Though I have to say this isn't a bit like her.”

“Stop it!” his wife ordered in a hushed voice. “Don't get Cord any more nervous than he already is.”

“At least she never stood me up at the altar,” Bobby murmured under his breath.

Cord knew the crack was meant to lighten the tension, but he scowled at his brother. “Would you just shut your mouth?”

Bobby grinned. “Hey, you're the one who insisted on marrying an unpredictable woman. I know where my wife is. She's inside sitting in the front row.”

“Okay, everybody, hush,” Maggie ordered. “Dinah will be here. She is not about to miss her own wedding.”

“Then where the hell is she?” Cord muttered.

Just then he heard the roar of a motorcycle tearing through the Saturday afternoon downtown traffic. “Dear God in heaven,” he said as the candy-apple-red motor cycle whipped around a corner with Tommy Lee driving and Dinah clinging to her brother for dear life.

“Sorry,” she said, leaping off the back as it skidded to a halt in front of Cord. “I was covering a story outside of town and my car broke down. Thank heaven, I caught up with Tommy Lee as he was about to leave the house.”

“And you couldn't have gone to pick her up in a car?” Dorothy asked her son indignantly. “What were you thinking?”

Tommy Lee shrugged. “It was an emergency and Laurie had already left for the church in my car. Dinah flatly refused to ride in my pickup. Can't say that I blame her. I was hauling lumber back from Savannah for the floors out at Covington. It's a mess.”

“Actually the motorcycle was kind of a thrill,” Dinah claimed, grinning at Cord. “I think we should get one, unless Mother and Daddy will agree to loan us theirs from time to time.”

“Are we going to stand around out here all day and argue the merits of owning a motorcycle?” Cord grumbled. “I was hoping to get married sometime today.”

Dinah pressed a soothing kiss to his cheek. “Me, too,” she assured him. “Give me ten minutes.”

Her mother regarded her with dismay. “You can't possibly be ready in ten minutes. This is your wedding, Dinah. You're not going out for burgers and fries.”

“Stop fussing, Mother. Between you and Maggie, you'll have me whipped into shape in no time. You're both magicians when it comes to hair and makeup.”

Cord gave her a resigned look. “Is this the way it's always going to be? You're going to be chasing after some big story and nearly miss all the important occasions in our life?”

“I promise I'll be on time for the birth of our children,” she teased. “Will that do?”

Cord finally felt the tension in his shoulders ease. “I suppose it'll have to. I'll go inside and tell the guests the ceremony will be in a half hour.”

“I'll do that,” Bobby said, giving his shoulder a squeeze. “Maybe you should have a drink.”

Cord's gaze followed Dinah as she headed for the choir room where her wedding dress was waiting. “I don't need a drink,” he told his brother. “I have everything I need now.”

 

“You scared Cord half to death,” Dinah's mother scolded as she lowered the wedding gown carefully over Dinah's head.

“It was good for him,” Maggie claimed. “He was getting entirely too complacent.”

Dinah ignored both of them and stared at herself in the mirror with a sense of shock. After years of wearing mostly black, she was stunned by the image of her self in sleek white satin. The gown was the simplest one she'd been able to find, a slim sheath that pooled at her feet with just the barest hint of a train. Even so, for the first time in her life, she felt more like a woman than a tough-as-nails journalist. A Southern woman, she thought as her mother handed her the bouquet of lily-of-the-valley and white roses with its trailing ribbons.

“You're breathtaking,” her mother said with a satisfied sigh.

“Absolutely glowing,” Maggie confirmed.

Dinah winked at her friend. “Want to hold the bouquet so you can get the feel of it? I'm tossing it straight to you.”

“Don't you dare,” Maggie said. “I'm not ready to get married.”

“Neither was I,” Dinah told her. “Things have a way of happening when you least expect them.”

“Not to me,” Maggie insisted.

“What about Warren?”

“Bad idea,” Maggie said succinctly.

Dinah regarded her with dismay. “But I thought things were going so well. What happened?”

“I guess once he dug deep enough into my psyche, he didn't like what he found,” Maggie said with a shrug. “No big deal. There are plenty of fish in the sea.”

Dinah thought of the gorgeous, impudent man she'd met weeks ago when she'd gone searching for Bobby in Atlanta. Cord or Bobby would certainly be able to track him down for her. What was his name? Josh some thing? Parker, that was it. Josh Parker.

Pleased with her plan, she gave Maggie's hand a squeeze. “You don't need plenty of men. One will do. And I think I know just the one.”

“Would you stop matchmaking on your wedding day?” Maggie grumbled. “Concentrate on marrying Cord and living happily-ever-after.”

“Haven't you heard? I excel at multitasking,” Dinah responded. She reached for her mother's hand. “I learned from a master.”

“Then let's go get you married,” her mother said. “After that, you can multitask to your heart's content.”

But minutes later at the front of the church, Dinah gazed into Cord's eyes and promptly forgot everything except this man and the vows he was saying with such
solemn sincerity. In that instant, she knew she'd never, ever need another backup plan. All she'd ever need was Cordell Beaufort.

And maybe a cherry-red motorcycle.