Where Angels Tread (8 page)

Shane raised his eyebrows in surprise; if Heidi wasn’t mistaken, and she was praying that she wasn’t, he looked both pleased and flattered. “You’re on,” he said happily, tossing her the ball. She bounced it a few times, trying to familiarize herself with its weight. Then, squaring her shoulders, she lifted it above her head and took aim. She missed the hoop by about three feet.

Zachary shrieked with glee. “Told you!”

Ignoring him, Heidi took a deep breath. She needed to make this next shot. It might be all fun and games for Zachary, but for Heidi, something much more important was on the line. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shane watching her from the sidelines. She wondered if he was hoping she would win.

Raising her arms once more, she lobbed the ball in the direction of the hoop. It bounced off the rim and landed at Shane’s feet. Swearing under her breath, Heidi held her arms out for the ball once more; Shane picked it up and tossed it in her direction. As the ball sailed by her head, she made a wild grab for it. Before she knew what was happening, her finger hit the ball at a strange angle and bent backwards with a sickening crunch.

“I guess it could have been worse,” Shane said, peering at the white cast plastered around Heidi’s finger. Zachary stood behind him, craning his neck curiously.

“Yeah?” Heidi asked. “How so?”

“I could have knocked your finger clean off.” Shane shuffled his feet and offered Heidi a guilty smile. She couldn’t help but laugh, despite the throbbing pain shooting up and down the entire length of her arm.

“Remind me to thank you one day,” she teased. Heidi examined the cast closely, then held her finger up for both of them to see. “This looks ridiculous,” she sighed. “How am I going to do anything useful with this thing on my hand?” It was, she thought wryly, punishment for trying to act coy around Shane. She felt like a fool.

“You’re all set,” Dr. Conway said, jotting down a few notes on the chart hanging from the end of the emergency room bed. Although Shane had rushed her to Saint Andrew’s the moment they realized her finger was broken, she had to sit in the waiting room for nearly three hours as other patients who needed more immediate attention rotated through the revolving doors. “Guess you’ll be on desk duty around here for a while,” the doctor added as Heidi touched her finger and winced. “That needs to heal for about three weeks, then we’ll check it out again.” With one last nod in their direction, Dr. Conway bustled out of the room to help the next patient.

Shane helped Heidi into her coat, gently guiding her swollen finger through the sleeves. Heidi fished around in her pocket for a few coins and handed them to Zachary. “Here. Go get your dinner out of the vending machine.”

“Whatever I want?” His eyes were round with excitement. “Even chips?”

“Even chips,” Heidi agreed.

After Zachary had skipped out of the room to find the vending machines, Shane turned back to Heidi; she was touched to see worry etched along the lines of his face. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Heidi said, smiling reassuringly. “It was an accident, nothing to lose sleep over.”

Shane still looked uncertain. “Maybe I can help you around the house for a few days? You know, to make it up to you.” He toed at the pattern on the linoleum floor. “I can’t help but think this is partly my fault.”

“Partly?” she crowed, swatting him with her good hand. “If it weren’t for you helping my son I’d punch you right in the nose.”

He drew his face in closer. “Go ahead, take your best shot.”

She raised her fist mockingly and pressed it lightly against the tip of his nose. His face crinkled into a smile; as she withdrew her hand, he leaned in ever so slightly, his full lips parted. Heidi’s breath froze in her chest; was she really ready for this? She hadn’t kissed a man other than John since she was twenty years old. At this point, she’d practically forgotten how to go about doing it right. What if she missed?

Zachary pushed open the door to the room, then stopped abruptly when he saw the two of them standing there, staring into each other’s eyes. “What’s going on?” he asked suspiciously. The chocolate bar he was holding fell out of his hand, and he bent down to retrieve it, keeping his eyes on his mother.

Shane backed away quickly, then grabbed Heidi’s purse from the chair and shoved it at her. “Just helping your mom get her things,” he said, and Heidi cringed at the chipper tone of his voice. She was certain that he was trying to cover up the awkward moment. Secretly, Heidi was glad that Zachary had chosen that exact moment to interrupt them. When faced with the possibility of kissing Shane, she felt incredibly conflicted; her body was screaming for her to go for it, but images of John kept flashing through her mind. All in all, Heidi was feeling very confused.

Zachary ripped the wrapper from his candy bar and chomped on it hungrily. “Ready guys?” he asked, shoving his baseball cap on his head and slouching from the room.

“Lead the way,” Shane said, following closely behind Zachary, Heidi on his heels.

As the trio walked down the hallway, Heidi could feel the eyes of her fellow nurses following Shane’s progress. She arched her back proudly; he really was quite handsome, she thought, her eyes on his back. Shane seemed oblivious to the women now muttering to each other and pointing to him with interest.

Heidi felt a tug on her coat sleeve; she whirled around and came face to face with Josie, who had a knowing smile on her face. “Who’s that?” she breathed into Heidi’s ear. “He’s delicious, if you don’t mind me saying.”

Heidi blushed, glancing Shane’s way to make sure that he didn’t hear. If he had, he was doing a good job of pretending otherwise. “I’ll catch up with you guys in a second,” she called to Zachary, who nodded and led the way to the parking lot, where Shane’s car was waiting. She waited until they turned the corner, then rounded on Josie. “Could you be any more obvious?” she hissed, although if she were being perfectly honest she was rather enjoying the attention.

“Sorry,” Josie giggled. “I couldn’t help myself. Who
is
that? Are you two an item?” She was practically frothing at the mouth for the juicy details.

“Put your tongue back in,” Heidi chided her friend. “His name is Officer Shane Kensington, and no, we’re not at item.”

“
Officer
Kensington? That sounds intriguing.”

“He works for the Santa Ynez PD. Remember when I told you the other day that Zachary ran away? Shane’s the one who called for me to come and pick him up at the station. He and Zachary hit it off, so he offered to shoot some hoops with him a couple of times a week. I guess he picked up that Zachary was starved for a little bit of male attention.”

“That’s great and all,” teased Josie, “but it seems to me like you’re skating over the most important detail. Are you dating him?”

“No,” Heidi said, a little too quickly. “He’s just a friend.”

“Interesting.” Josie’s blue eyes danced with laughter; Heidi started to squirm uncomfortably. “So, then, I guess you wouldn’t mind if I made a move on him? Since you’re just friends and all.”

Heidi knew that Josie was sniffing around for the real scoop, but she wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of taking the bait. “Sure,” she shrugged. “He’s all yours. Why would I mind?”

“Great! Can I have his number?”

Heidi hesitated; she was fairly certain that Josie was trying to trick her into admitting her feelings for Shane, but she wouldn’t bet her life on it. Josie was a pretty woman who had never married, and despite being in her mid-forties, had a penchant for younger men. Men like Shane. “I don’t have it,” she lied. “Maybe some other time.”

Josie flashed her another knowing smile, then turned on her heels and walked down the hospital corridor. “Then give him mine,” she called back over her shoulder as she disappeared into one of the patient rooms.

“I need food,” Shane moaned desperately when Jaime answered the door to her apartment, a book in her hand and reading glasses perched on top of her head.

His sister stared back at him in confusion. “What’s going on? Are you hurt?”

“I’m not the one who’s hurt.” Shane cringed as he remembered the cracking sound Heidi’s finger made as it snapped. “Can I come in? I’ll explain.” Jaime opened the door wider and Shane stepped past her and into her tidy two-bedroom apartment, smiling to himself as he glanced around the pin-neat living room. Jaime was a stickler for cleanliness and order; even as a child, she used to wash her dolls’ hands and faces after each tea party. “Remind me again why you still live here?” he asked as she snapped the door closed behind him.

“What do you mean?”

“Your book editing company is hugely successful. You could live in a beach house, take lavish vacations, but here you are in the same apartment you’ve been living in since you took out that first loan to start your business.”

Jaime shrugged. “I guess I’m not as impulsive as the rest of the Kensington children. I like to take my time with decisions, think things through. Right now I’m just hoarding all of my money until I decide what I want to do with it.” She motioned for Shane to sit down on the couch, then set her book down on the table, but not before giving it a look of longing.

Noticing this, Shane said, “I won’t be here long. I just know that you like to make a bunch of dinners ahead of time and freeze them, and I was hoping you’d be willing to share some with me.”

Jaime frowned. “Of course I’ll share, but what’s going on, Shane? You’re scaring me a little. Are you out on the street or something? You said you’re not the one who’s hurt…then who is?”

Shane dropped his head into his hands and shook it back and forth miserably. “I’m such a dunce,” he moaned, and began explaining last night’s disastrous basketball lesson to Jaime. When he finished, her face was twisted into a sympathetic smile. “How badly did I screw this up with her?” he asked, dreading her response. “I want to bring over some dinner so that she doesn’t have to cook for a few days, but you know that I’m a hopeless chef. I might as well dig around for something from the dumpster next to the station. It would probably taste better than anything I could whip up.”

“I think bringing her dinner is an incredibly sweet gesture that she’ll really appreciate,” Jaime said, her voice muffled as she dug around in the freezer. “How about lasagna?”

“Lasagna sounds great,” Shane said, following her into the kitchen. She handed him a heavy ceramic pan lined with tinfoil. “Defrost it in the fridge overnight, the bake it at 350 degrees for about an hour.”

“Thanks.” Shane held the lasagna up to his nose and took a whiff. “This smells amazing. You’re a lifesaver.”

“You’re making me blush,” Jaime teased, sliding her reading glasses back onto her nose. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m in the middle of a tantalizing mystery novel that I’d like to finish before bed.” She glanced at the clock pointedly, then winked at him.

“Sounds intriguing,” Shane said, showing himself to the door. “Keep your fingers crossed that my lasagna—or should I say your lasagna—makes me look like a hero instead of a fool.”

Jaime gave him an appraising look. “Why can’t you be both? A girl likes a man who can keep her on her toes. Just don’t go breaking one of them.”

*

Shane ground the heel of his shoe against Heidi’s front step, peering impatiently through the tiny windows on the front door to see if anyone was coming. He could only see shadows through the thick frosted panes. Perhaps, he thought in horror, Heidi had seen his car pulling into the driveway and was so angry about her finger that she was choosing to ignore him. He pressed the doorbell more insistently.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he heard a voice on the other side of the door call. Shane puffed into the palm of his hand to test his breath, straightened his jacket, and held the pan of lasagna out in front of him like a peace offering. “Shane!” Heidi exclaimed when she opened the door, tightening the belt of her fluffy purple robe self-consciously. “This is a surprise.” She eyed the tinfoil-wrapped pan. “What’s that?”

“An ‘I’m sorry for breaking your finger’ present,” he said, lifting up a corner of the tinfoil and wafting the delicious scent of lasagna in her direction. “Will it work?”

Heidi stuck a finger into the pan and scooped up a gob of sauce. “It might,” she said, then licked her finger. “Wow, this is amazing! I didn’t know you were such a good cook.”

“I can’t take all the credit,” he said. “Or any of it, for that matter. My sister Jaime made it. I told her what happened and she took pity on me.” He handed the pan to her. “I’ve been instructed to tell you that it cooks at 350 for an hour. Enjoy.”

“Thanks,” Heidi said, setting it on the table by the door and crossing her arms over her chest; Shane’s eyes roved over the opening at the top of her robe. He felt a sudden, inexplicable urge to turn and run away. “Would you like to come in?” she asked. “I’d be willing to share.”

Shane swallowed hard and shook his head. “I’d love to,” he said, his voice coming out hoarse. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I have some things to catch up on around the house, though, so maybe I’ll take a rain check.”

Heidi nodded and stepped back into the house, her hand on the doorframe. “I’ll see you around? Despite our minor catastrophe, Zachary’s been talking about nothing but basketball since you left.”