EMBER - Part Two (The EMBER Series Book 2) (8 page)

The moment to capture her portrait had been lost when she'd started to cry. I'd reached forward not sure if offering her the comfort of an embrace would help her. She hadn't even glanced in my direction before she pulled a tissue from a box on her desk, and wiped the tear away as if it, or the emotion behind it, never existed.

She'd closed herself up then and as I gathered together my things, she promised that she'd call me to finish the portrait. I know that she won't. The moment of vulnerability that took her to a place where she felt she could open up, had disappeared. I'll work with what I have on paper and the memory of her face in my mind's eye and I'll finish the sketch.

I feel the vibration of my phone in my pocket as I walk out of the lobby of Harper's building and into the languid heat of the late morning. I scoop the phone out, feeling a sharp burst of pain in my wrist when I do.

I glance down at the screen, realizing that the sunlight's reflection is making it impossible for me to read the text message. I push my bag onto my shoulder as I cup my hand over the phone's screen to block out the light.

It's a text message from Zoe.

Vanessa can have dinner tomorrow. Your place at six?

I type out a quick text back to her.
              Works for me. You bring the white wine.

I smile knowing that the message will bring a smile to her face.

I take a step forward before my breath catches in my throat when I feel a large hand circle my waist. I've never been mugged and in my imagination when it did happen, it wouldn't be on a busy street in the middle of the day. I always thought it would happen when I left a club at night alone.

I ready myself to scream when I hear his voice in my ear. "How did you end up in the very spot in Manhattan that I am?"

I pivot on my heel, looking up into his dark eyes. "It's fate."

"Call it whatever you want, Bridget." Dane lowers his face until his lips are level with mine. "I call it destiny."

***

"You didn't follow me to my appointment, did you?" I rest my hand on his thigh. "I know I didn't tell you that I had a therapy appointment today, so the only way you would have known that is if you were following me."

"You're a creature of habit." He scoops my hand into his palm before he brings it to his lips for a kiss. "You kept all of your accident paperwork on the kitchen table in your old apartment, and you do the same in your new place."

He's right. I did dump everything into my purse before I left the old place and I dumped it all onto the table at the apartment in Murray Hill the minute I arrived there. It may not be the best filing system, but it's working for me.  "You looked through those papers?"

"Those papers are a mess, Bridget. You write notes on napkins, and paper bags and take-out menus."

"I do that." I nod.

"I sat at the table to drink the coffee I made myself the other morning when you were still asleep." He grazes his hand over the back of my hair. "I was reading a magazine you had there about some beauty products."

I pull my hand up to stifle a giggle. "You didn’t read that, did you?"

"I bought some stuff so I can exfoliate tonight."

I shake my head, not certain whether he's joking or not. "Your skin is perfect the way it is."

"Spoken by a true beauty expert." He nuzzles his chin into the side of my hair. "You wrote the details about your appointment today on the cover of that magazine. It was scribbled across the face of the model."

I remember doing that when Harper's office manager had called to tell me that she needed to change my appointment so it was a day earlier than scheduled. "It was the closest thing I had to write on."

"I saw it as a sign from the heavens above that I was supposed to meet you there so I could buy you a coffee."

I look down at my empty hands. "You forgot the coffee part."

"I can do one better." He points to where a hotdog vendor is standing at the entrance to Central Park. "I can go over there and get my favorite girl a hotdog for lunch, with a pretzel for dessert."

"I'm your favorite girl?"

"You're the only girl in the world."

I stumble over my emotions as I nod faintly knowing that they're not just words meant to romance me, they're coming from his heart and they're pulling every one of my emotions right to the surface.

"I'm sorry I can't stay for your appointment, but I'm working tonight. I need to work every night this week."

I look up into his face as we stand in the lobby of the hospital. I need to check-in for my appointment with Ben in five minutes. I know he's likely running late but I don’t want to hold him up. "I need to get up there."

"Do you have plans tonight? Can I call you on my break?"

"You can call me anytime you want." I glance over his shoulder at the large clock hanging on the wall. "Did you want to talk about something in particular?"

"I hate to do this now when you have to go."

The words stall me. I know what he's about to say. It's Maisy. We've been blissfully avoiding the subject of his ex-girlfriend since he told me he was willing to give up his house for her. I didn't take that statement literally. I had hoped that we could talk about it more and that I could reassure him that I wanted to be a sounding board for him if he needed that. He has a right to at least the portion of the investment he made in that property and now that I know that he'd sacrifice so much for me, I want to help him get back what's rightfully his.

"Is it about Maisy?" I ask with little noticeable emotion in my voice. I want to be mature about this. I want him to understand that I don't feel threatened by her, even if I did at one time.

"I think I have a solution for all of that." He pulls me into his arms. "I think I found a way to finally get her out of my life."

"And out of the house?" I ask.
              "I know you have to go but I've realized that I don't want to live there anymore. I can't live there. I was there with her."

I rest my head against his hard chest. "Will you just sell it?"

"If I moved back in, I'd see her in every room and I'd never be able to bring you there. That was the house I shared with her. I want to start fresh and new."

The idea of him selling the property and then giving Maisy something to compensate her for her contributions to their living expenses seems more than fair to me. "Have you talked to her about this?"

He pulls back suddenly. "You have a minute to get up there. You need to go. Tell Ben it's my fault if he asks you why you're late."

I look into his eyes. "You'll come see me tomorrow after you sleep, right?"

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

***

"I was going to suggest we take another x-ray of your wrist, but I don't think that's necessary." Ben squeezes his fingers near my thumb. "This doesn't hurt, does it?"
              "No." I watch as he bends each of my fingers.

"Have you experienced any pain at all?"

"I hurt it earlier when I was reaching into my pocket to pull out my phone."

He nods. "You're going to get that from time-to-time. If it happens often, come back in and I'll take a look at it."

I look past him to a poster hanging on the wall of the human skeletal system. "Are my ribs fully healed?"

"Ribs are tricky." He moves his gloved hand to my side. "Lift your arms over your head."

I do. "What do you mean tricky?"

He doesn't say a word as he runs his fingers over my side. "You're the best judge of how they're healing. If the pain has subsided, you're on the right track."

"I don't feel any pain in my side." I drop my hands when he turns towards a tablet that is resting on the edge of the exam table.

"Any headaches?"
              It's a question no one has asked me for weeks. I expected to have splitting headaches after my head crashed into the windshield of the police car, but that hadn't happened. The pain radiating from my forehead had been intense for a few days and then it had disappeared. I'd gone home with a stern warning about reporting any unusual symptoms including loss of memory or balance, but I had been fine. The worse thing had been a slight ringing in my ears, which my mother had reported to the nurse on call in the ER. She assured us it was normal and that with rest it would pass.

"My head is fine."

"Have you thought about being a stunt woman?"

I giggle at the suggestion. It's the same thing he said to me the day I was discharged. "You've already used that joke on me."

"I know." He darts his head to the side so our eyes meet. "I was testing your memory."

I slide off the edge of the exam table and onto my feet. "I can go now, right? There must be other people waiting to see you who are actually sick."

He cocks a brow when I brush past him on my way to the door. "Take care of yourself, Bridget and take care of Dane too. He's one of the good ones."

I smile knowing that he already knows I see and feel that. I don't need anyone to remind me that the man I can't stop thinking about is almost too good to be true.

"I thought you said that your boyfriend was going to be here."

I had said that. Call it wishful thinking but yesterday when Dane told me that he'd be here after he woke up, I decided that asking Zoe to come over early would give them an opportunity to get to know each other better. I'm not one of those women who need the absolute approval of her friends in order to fall in love with a man, but I want to know that my closest friend sees what I see in Dane.

In some ways I regret telling Zoe about Maisy and Dane's almost engagement and I wish I hadn't confided in her about the struggle he was facing over his house, but she knows those things now and if I can counter those first impressions with a few minutes of one-on-one time between the two of them, I want to do that.

When I'd called him earlier to ask what time he'd be stopping by, he'd told me that he had a few errands to run before his shift tonight and he couldn't make it. My heart had sunk, not just because I wouldn't get the chance to see him but because it meant I'd have to explain to Zoe why he wasn't here when she got here.

"He had stuff to do," I say with a heavy sigh. "I'm going to start back at the pub at the end of the week so I don't know when I'll get a chance to get you two together again."

"You'll invite him to the pub when he has a night off." She wraps her arm around my shoulder. "I'll stop by to have a glass of white wine and I'll visit with him."

I tap my hand over hers. "You'd do that?"

"You have no idea how much your face lights up when you talk about him." She squeezes her side into mine. "I've never seen you act like that about a guy."

"I've never known anyone like him, Zoe."

"I said that to you when I met Beck." She laughs. "Or I thought it. He was different. I knew there was something special about him."

"I know that about Dane too."

"We've got a couple of hours before Vanessa gets here so what do you want to do?"

I point at the last few boxes that I stacked in the corner of my living room. "I need to unpack those. You game for that?"

"I'm game." She reaches for the half full glass of white wine she poured for herself when she arrived. "Let me finish this and I'll help."

I laugh as I brush past her to pick up the first box.

***

"I like this so much better than your last apartment." Vanessa pushes past me to look down the hallway. "I'm sorry I was late, Bridge. There was way too much going on at the hospital today."

I don't ask. Every time I've ever asked about her work, she launches into a rant that's filled with medical terms that make no sense at all to me. I admire her for having the drive to chase after her dream of being a nurse. I just don't understand any of the medical jargon or how she can stay so cheery when she's facing so much illness on a daily basis.

"I was early. I came to meet her boyfriend but he never showed," Zoe spits the words out.

She's had more than a few glasses of wine. I'd peg it at three but while I was busy unloading the last of the boxes containing my belongings, she was playing a game on my tablet and downing the wine like it was water.

Thankfully Vanessa is so busy texting someone on her smartphone that she doesn't hear a word that Zoe just said.

"You should see her studio." Zoe pulls on Vanessa's elbow. "She has some of her drawings set up in there."

Vanessa's eyes darts up. "You have a studio here?"

"No." I half-shrug my shoulder. "It's not an actual studio. It's a spare bedroom."

"Show me." Vanessa's gaze moves towards the hallway. "There's a three alarm fire, I may need to go back into work depending on the number of injured. We're short staffed right now."

I glance down at her phone. It's too early for Dane to be at work yet which offers a strange sense of comfort I didn't think I'd need. I saw him in his gear the night of my accident. I know that he's trained to protect not only himself, but the people he works alongside, during a fire. I'm just grateful when I know that he's safe.

"I'll turn it on." I brush past her and Zoe. "You two go look at my spare room. I'll be right there."

I hear them walking the tiled floor toward the far end of the hallway as I push the button on my remote to turn on the television. I don't watch it often but when I do it's almost always tuned onto the news channel so I'm not surprised when a reporter sitting behind an anchor desk pops onto the screen. She's talking about a shark attack in a remote area of the world and just as I turn toward the hallway I hear my name being called.

"Bridget, get in here now."

"I'm coming," I call back to Zoe as I steal one last glance at the television.

The image that greets me is completely different now. It's a male reporter. He's standing outside the smoldering shell of a house in Queens. I stare, open mouthed at the rushed scene of the fireman milling about, all working hard to save the neighboring homes. It's utter chaos and the chilling site of a woman on her knees crying as the camera pans over her quickly, stops my breath.

This is Dane's life. This is what he faces each and every time he goes to work. I want to call him. I want to tell him that I'm falling in love with him so that tonight, when he gets called to an emergency, he'll have those words in his heart.

"Bridget." Zoe's voice is more demanding.

I drop the remote onto the coffee table as I turn on my heel to rush down the hallway.