by Kaylea Cross
Molly’s smile slipped a fraction. She loved Sierra and Beckett and wanted them to have a wonderful life together. But she no longer believed in happily ever after. Her own fairy tale had turned into a waking nightmare, and she would never put herself or the baby in that position ever again.
After Ella and Tiana ate, they talked more about the wedding plans and then the adults visited while Ella played with Walter. He retrieved the ball exactly three times before losing interest and flopping down on the floor in stubborn refusal, feigning exhaustion.
“Well, it’s getting late,” Tiana said two hours later, rising. “Ella, we should go, sweetie. It’s a school night.”
“Oh, but Walter’s cuddling with me,” she protested, turning big blue eyes up at her mom. Walter was passed out with his head in her lap, tongue lying on the floor, snoring like a champ.
“You wanna take him for a sleepover?” Sierra asked. “Poppy and I are going to pull an all-nighter helping Molly get unpacked. And we’re not letting her lift anything heavier than a quart of milk, either,” she finished with a warning look at Molly.
Ella’s face lit up but she sliced a look at her mother. “Can I?”
Tiana shrugged. “Sure.”
“I’ll run over and get him before work in the morning,” Sierra said.
Ella was already nodding and shaking Walter awake. “Come on, Walter. You’re sleeping on my bed tonight.”
“No, not on your bed,” Tiana said with a laugh, and started for the door.
“I’ll walk you out,” Molly said. “The porch lights aren’t up yet, so I’ve got a flashlight by the door.” Jase was coming to install them tomorrow.
She grabbed the flashlight, turned it on and followed Tiana and Ella out into the driveway, a moment of clarity hitting her. She’d sort of been avoiding Jase for the past few days because her attraction to him unnerved her, but it wasn’t something she was willing to lose his friendship over. She should invite him to dinner and smooth things over. If she felt that tug of awareness again, then she needed to seriously examine what it meant and what she was prepared to do about it.
The air was muggy and still, not even the breath of a breeze stirring the trees. Strange for the coast at this time of year, reminding her of summers back in North Carolina. Weirdly, it even made her a little homesick, and brought up another question she’d been pondering. She’d thought that staying here to raise the baby was the right decision, but was that really true?
“Would you be interested in coming to yoga class with us next week, see if you like it?” Molly asked Tiana as she walked them to their car.
Hand on Ella’s shoulder, Tiana glanced over at her, seeming surprised by the invitation. “When is it?”
“We try to go on Thursday nights at six, but the day varies because of my shifts. The class is only an hour, and then we sometimes go out to eat after. You should come.”
“Maybe, if I can find someone to watch Ella.”
“Bring her along. She can join in if she wants.”
“Oh, can I, Mom?” Ella said, clearly enchanted with the idea of being included.
A genuine smile tugged at her mouth, the first one Molly had seen in a long time. “We’ll see.”
Molly watched her open the car’s back door for her daughter. Ella climbed in, coaxing Walter into the back. Tiana lifted him in. “He weighs a ton for his size,” she said with a laugh, then waved and got behind the wheel.
Molly waved back and headed for the house, thinking. Now there was a woman who seemed to have figured out single parenthood while juggling a full-time job, and her kid was pretty damn awesome. If anyone understood the challenges Molly faced, it was Tiana.
Molly made a mental note to pull her aside after yoga this coming week to talk.
Chapter Eight
Bing Crosby’s mellow voice filled the cab of Jase’s truck when he pulled into his driveway the next evening after work. He liked listening to 40s music. Every night after dinner it had floated up the stairs of the farmhouse while he’d been in his room studying.
Normally he’d hit the gym but he needed to get the porch lights installed at Molly’s place so he’d swung by to pick them up from his garage. As he was loading them into the back, he paused when he heard a faint voice calling out. He straightened, listening.
“Help,” a woman said, her voice thin, weak.
Jase glanced around, frowning. What the hell? Had someone come onto his property and fallen somewhere?
He started around the side of his house to check the backyard.
“Help. Jase, please help.”
It was coming from the next house.
Shit. “Mrs. Wong?” he called, breaking into a jog as he pushed through the cedars between their properties.
“At my…side door,” she answered.
Jase ran faster, heading right to skirt the side of her house. His heart lurched when he saw her lying on the ground beside her wooden steps, her knit hat lying nearby and two bags of groceries spilled all over.
He knelt beside her, carefully unwrapping her scarf so he could check her for injury. “What happened?”
“I…slipped,” she said, a grimace of pain tightening her wrinkled face. She grasped her right hip with both hands, her golden-toned face pale and damp with sweat. “I can’t get up.”
Hell. “How long have you been out here?”
“I don’t know. I got home at just after one.”
Jesus, it was almost three-thirty. “I’m not going to move you right now, just in case you’ve hurt your spine or your neck.” He slipped off his bomber jacket and laid it over her to help keep her warm, then pulled out his phone to call for help.
She grabbed his wrist, shaking her head. “No, no. Don’t bother them. I—”
“You need an ambulance.” He made the call.
She continued to clutch at his arm, squeezing when a spasm of pain hit her. Jase kept talking to her, keeping her calm, promising help would be there soon. He took her wrist, pressed his fingers to the inside of it.
“Are you checking my pulse?” she asked. “Because with you here, it’s going to be a lot faster than normal.”
Jase smothered a laugh. “Mrs. Wong, are you seriously flirting with me right now while you’re lying here broken?”
Her grin turned into a grimace as another spasm hit her. “If you have to ask, then I’m not doing it right.”
“No, your flirting game is strong.”
The firefighters arrived first, stabilizing her spine and moving her onto her back for transport. Jase stayed with her, talking to her to try and distract her from the pain. “It just so happens I’ve got a good friend who works in the emergency department,” he told her. “Tell her you’re my neighbor and she’ll take extra special care of you.”
Mrs. Wong nodded distractedly, the pain and fatigue etched into her face. “What’s her name?” she managed, trying to pay attention.
“Molly.”
When the ambulance arrived, it was just a matter of putting her on a gurney and loading her into the back for the ride to the hospital.
Just before they left, Jase grasped her hand and leaned over her. “Is there anyone I can call for you?”
She shook her head tightly. “No.” Her rheumy eyes fixed on him. “Will you come with me?”
He was supposed to say no to her when she had no one else?
He gave her a reassuring smile. “Of course.”
****
“Three patients en route from an MVA. Husband, wife and young child, arriving by ambulance, ETA twelve minutes. Husband has possible fractured pelvis and facial injuries. Wife has head trauma but is conscious. Son has probable fractured clavicle, and lacerations on his face,” Molly finished, then organized her team and everyone prepped for when the ambulances arrived.
The moment the paramedics pushed the gurneys into the ER, she and the others were ready. She oversaw the initial assessments and alerted the on-staff physician, tending first to the husband, who had the mo
st serious injuries. While two other nurses got to work cleaning the mother’s face, the radiologist did x-rays of the husband’s pelvis and prepped the CT scan for the mother.
Finally, Molly moved to the little boy. Wesley, six years old. He laid on his back on the gurney, his face bleeding from a few lacerations along his cheekbone and jaw. His big brown eyes were filled with tears as he stared up at Molly.
“Hi, Wesley,” she said, giving him a gentle smile. “Your mom and dad are both going to be all right. They’re being taken care of right now, and I’m going to take care of you. Okay?”
“Kay,” he whispered. His bloody jaw was trembling, a combination of shock and fear.
Molly kept her voice low and calm while speaking to the other staff members assisting her. They did a thorough assessment, checked his vitals and got him cleaned up for the doctor to come examine. The bleeding on his face had slowed to a trickle, but the wounds were deep and would need suturing.
“It’s twenty minutes to shift change,” the nurse opposite her said. “You don’t have to stay, I’ve got this.”
“Thanks, but I’ll stay,” she answered. Kids were different, and she’d promised to take care of him. No way would she leave a frightened little boy to another nurse’s care just because he happened to come in at the tail end of her shift.
She kept tabs on the parents and stayed with Wesley while the doctor came and checked him. They closed the lacerations with steri-strips for the time being while they waited for the plastic surgeon on call to arrive.
She talked to him softly throughout, found a children’s book in a basket at the nurse’s station and read to him until the surgeon got there. She held Wesley’s hand and continued reading as the specialist injected the freezing into the wounds and carefully stitched them up.
“Do I look like the monster in Frankenstein?” he finally asked her when the plastic surgeon was all done.
Molly gently applied an antibiotic ointment and covered the sutures with dry gauze. “No. Frankenstein’s monster was scary-looking. You’re handsome. And the doctor who just put the stitches in is so neat and tidy, you’ll barely see the scars once they heal up.”
Wesley seemed to perk up at that, and he was quite content once Molly raised the head of his bed and tucked him underneath a warm blanket. “Now. What about a popsicle?” she asked him.
His eyes lit up. “You have popsicles here?”
“We don’t give them out to just anyone. Only our bravest patients. What flavor do you like?”
“I like red or purple.”
“Coming right up.” She brought him one, then wheeled him down the hall to the room where his mother was being treated. Another nurse waited outside to take over. “Okay, buddy. This is my friend Trisha. She’s going to stay with you for just a few more minutes and then you can go see your mom. The doctor is just putting her stitches in now.” A few dozen more than Wesley had needed, but at least she would be okay.
“Can she have a popsicle too?”
“Only if she’s as brave as you.” She ruffled his dark hair gently, his crooked little smile making her heart squeeze. His dark hair and eyes reminded her of Carter’s. Would her child look similar to this one day? “You take care, okay?”
“I will.”
She was headed into the back to do her files when she was informed of another ambulance inbound.
“Eighty-three-year-old female, possible femoral or pelvic fracture due to a fall.”
A few minutes later, Molly watched in astonishment when the ambulance arrived and Jase climbed out after the patient. “What are you doing here?” she blurted.
“She’s my neighbor.”
The woman flung back a hand to grab Jase’s arm. “You’re not leaving, are you?” She sounded almost panicked.
Jase walked alongside the gurney, the smile he gave the elderly woman turning Molly’s heart over. “No ma’am.”
The man had a serious thing about rescuing damsels in distress. How could she not love that about him?
The patient—Mrs. Elsie Wong—relaxed visibly, then switched her focus to Molly. “Are you his friend?”
“Yes,” Molly answered. “And we’re going to take good care of you.” She shot Jase a little smile and hurried Mrs. Wong into a curtained room for examination. After an initial assessment she was sent off for x-rays. Molly went with her because the woman clung to her hand and wouldn’t let go, and waited in the hall until she came out of the room.
“Oh, son of a bitch, that was awful,” Mrs. Wong moaned as the tech wheeled her out. “Almost as bad as childbirth.”
Molly’s eyebrows went up. “That bad?”
“Yes. But of course, nothing hurts as much as pushing out a baby.” She cast Molly a pleading look. “When do I get some drugs?”
“Soon as we get you back to the ER.”
“Thank God. Make sure you give me the good stuff.”
“I will.”
Jase was waiting for them when they arrived, and Molly immediately began administering the pain relief the doctor had ordered. Within a minute, Mrs. Wong sighed. “Oh, God, yessss.”
Molly smothered a laugh and met Jase’s amused eyes. “Think that did the trick.”
Mrs. Wong shot out a hand to grab the sleeve of Jase’s bomber jacket. “You’re still not leaving, right?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he replied, deadpan. He was adorable.
“Good.” She focused on Molly. “He told me that once I get better, he’ll take me dancing to celebrate.”
“Did he? Well color me jealous, because he’s a fabulous dancer.” She’d never met a man so at home on the dance floor. Jase was smooth and confident. Made a girl wonder if that translated to the bedroom. Molly was betting it did.
Mrs. Wong frowned at her, her eyes a little unfocused. “You’re not just saying that?”
“No, it’s the truth.”
“Well now my pride is wounded,” Jase said, rising from his chair. “I feel the need to defend it.” He held out a hand to Molly. “Mind being my partner?”
Something quivered low in her belly at his low, intimate tone. “No, not at all.” She took his hand, the shock of the connection shooting up her arm.
Her gasp got lost beneath a giggle as Jase tugged her close and spun her, smoothly turning her in an elegant circle there in the midst of the emergency ward, then reeling her back in and sliding a rock-hard forearm beneath her lower back to finish with a dramatic dip.
Slowly, Jase pulled her upright, all easy strength, and spoke to his neighbor. “Satisfied?”
“Not as much as her, I’ll bet,” she answered, grinning at Molly, obviously feeling no pain anymore. “But now I can’t wait. Bring on my bionic hip.”
Molly’s heart beat erratically. Heat suffused her face even as she stepped away, grinning at Mrs. Wong. Holy. The way Jase had handled her just now with such ease was seriously sexy, and she’d enjoyed the feel of his hands on her way too much.
Hands on hips, Jase gave a satisfied nod. “Good.” Then he turned his gaze on Molly, and a velvet shockwave rippled through her middle. “Isn’t it past the end of your shift now?”
“Yes. I’m supposed to meet the girls at yoga.”
He nodded. “Don’t let us keep you. I’ll sit with her awhile longer. I’ll get to the porch lights tomorrow.”
He was such a good guy. “Don’t worry about them. You’re needed here more.” And how freaking endearing was it that he was taking care of his elderly neighbor?
Yeah. If she wasn’t really damn careful, she could wind up in deep trouble where he was concerned.
Chapter Nine
She left the hospital tired but lighter inside than she’d felt in weeks. After rushing home to shower and change, she arrived at the yoga studio late. Class was already in session.
“Hey,” she whispered as she quickly unrolled her mat next to her friends. “Sorry, got caught up at work.” But worth it. So very worth it to see that side of Jase she’d never known about before.
Sierra wore a resigned expression, but Poppy and Tiana were bright-eyed. “Hey, glad you could make it,” Molly said, patting Tiana’s shoulder. The other woman gave her a smile. “Where’s Ella?”
“She’s with Beckett. And Walter.” She tossed a grin at Sierra. “It was her doing.”
“Well, you wouldn’t have come otherwise.” Sierra shrugged and stretched out on her yoga mat between Molly and Poppy. “And Beckett was happy to watch her for a couple hours. You know he loves her.”
“Of course with Walter,” Molly whispered back, shaking her head. “She’s in love with that dog.”
“I know,” Tiana said with a sigh and a fond smile. “I thought for sure she would have lost interest by now and stopped wanting to spend time with him, but that hasn’t happened at all.”
Molly nodded. “I’m impressed with how responsible she is.”
“I’m pretty proud of her,” Tiana said and unrolled the yoga mat she’d borrowed from the basket in the corner. “So how advanced is this class, anyway? Is the teacher going to break me in gently?”
“I’d say it’s a middle of the road class. Just do what you can. She’s great, she’ll adjust poses for you if she sees you’re struggling.”
As soon as she got into the poses, the tension she’d been carrying around in her neck and shoulders all week started to melt away. Yoga was one of the only things she’d ever found that helped managed her stress level. Now that she was coming out the other side of her personal trial by fire, she craved the sense of calm and relaxation it brought her.
Inner peace, however, was a different story.
She was still tangled up with conflicting emotions about Carter. Grief and loss and anger, bitterness and disappointment. Loneliness and uncertainty about the future. But on the whole, she was in a much better place now than she had been for the past few months.
Except now she was increasingly mesmerized by a man with pale turquoise eyes. She couldn’t help notice how sexy his smile was. How he seemed to intuitively know what she needed and always watched out for her.
