by Kate Kisset
“Okay, I don’t want to ask this, but I have to.” Danica cast her eyes down. “How long did I lie there in the dirt, with my legs splayed and my dress up around my waist?” The banging in her head escalated to a jackhammer.
“Not long. According to Michael, a woman working in the Snack Shack saw you get hit and called 9-1-1.” Her father scratched under his chin. “You were coming to by the time the ambulance got there, but apparently were in and out of consciousness.”
“Michael?” Blood rushed to her cheeks. “Oh God.” The one day I actually ride in an ambulance, I wear beige Spanx. She reached under the covers to check if they were still on.
“He called from the ambulance and rode here with you.” Her dad looked away.
“He rode in the ambulance with me?” Danica snapped the elastic waistband of her tummy-reducing granny panties and moaned. “I don’t remember any of it.”
“It’s common for patients to not remember every detail. Don't even try to think, honey.” Her mother turned to the others. “We’re long past the time limit the nurse gave us, and she’ll probably show up to chase us out any minute. Maybe we should call it a night and let her” —she kissed Danica’s cheek— “get some rest.”
After her family and friends gave her good-bye kisses, Danica heard the soft, muffled voices of the group making arrangements just outside the door to her room before she fell asleep.
Danica’s left cheek stayed glued to her pillow and she cracked one eye open. An annoying nurse was nudging her arm.
“Huh,” Danica croaked, suddenly remembering the accident. Thankfully, her head wasn’t thudding anymore.
“You’ve been out for two hours, time to wake up,” barked the nurse, who sounded like she’d downed fifty cups of Blue Bottle Coffee. As soon as Danica’s eyes were open, she bustled out.
After shaking off her grogginess, Danica slid out of bed, tucked into the slippers and robe Juliet left for her, and shuffled down the eerily quiet hall. She passed someone mopping the old linoleum floor with a rag mop, and caught a whiff of ammonia coming off the bucket. Its distinctive, sickly, pungent smell always made her queasy filled the hallway. Bright lights flickered at the end of the passageway, and she headed for them.
“What are you doing up, honey? You shouldn’t be walking around. You knocked your head pretty hard.” The tallest of three nurses standing by the counter at the station moved toward her. “You feel okay, shortcake?” Tall Nurse reached for Danica’s wrist and checked her pulse.
“Do you guys have a candy machine around here?”
Tall Nurse chuckled. “Your pulse is perfect. Maybe we can sneak you a piece of what’s in our secret stash, but only after we get something nutritious in you, sugar.”
Danica wondered if Tall Nurse enjoyed torture, because she just referred to her as shortcake and sugar, but refused to give her anything sweet.
“Never mind, I’ll just go back to my room.” She turned and took baby steps back down the hall.
“Hold on,” Tall Nurse ordered. “Let me help.”
Trying to be cheerful, Danica called back over her shoulder, “I’m okay.” But she was at least seven notches down from being in full, confident Danica mode. She didn’t care about tucking in her tummy or holding her head up. She slouched while slowly putting one leopard-covered foot in front of the other.
“No, you don’t. No walking unassisted on my watch.” Tall Nurse’s voice came from behind, and in a heartbeat, her strong arms and gardenia scent wrapped around her.
Danica slouched against her, grateful for the help.
“Don’t you worry,” Tall Nurse whispered into her ear. “Miss Lulu has taken care of everything. Dinner will be here soon, and it’s not from the hospital kitchen, either.”
Did she already thank Lulu for this? Danica tried to remember, but couldn’t, and kept trudging toward room forty-seven with Tall Nurse’s help. After ten more paces of what seemed like walking in quicksand, they reached her open door. Danica stopped and moved to step back, but Tall Nurse prevented her.
The sight of a dark-haired man with broad shoulders wearing a dusty baseball uniform startled her. He stood facing the window, and she couldn’t help but notice a large earth-brown stain running up his left leg and covering part of his perfect left butt cheek.
“Is this the right room?” she asked the nurse.
“Well, looks like you found her,” Tall Nurse informed the stranger. “Despite me telling you visiting hours are over.”
The baseball player turned around and held out an enormous bouquet.
Danica angled her face toward the nurse, who seemed to have all the answers. “Who’s tha—?”
“Danny Deep. The one who hit you, honey.” Tall Nurse adjusted her grip around Danica’s waist. “He’s been waiting for hours.”
“Thank God you're okay, Danica! I am so sorry that ball hit you.”
Danica’s spirit surprisingly rallied while simultaneously setting off internal red flag danger signals. She shifted on wobbly legs.
Approaching with strong, confident strides that somehow made the room smaller, Danny held out the flowers. “For you.”
A mix of sweat and dust stained the white collar of his Crushers’ jersey, but he didn’t smell the way her brothers did after their games. He smelled like sex. He looked like sex. Naughty, bad, hot, excellent, brain-melting sex.
“Hold up there, Casanova.” Tall Nurse said while leading Danica to the bed. “You can put the flowers in that.” She pointed to the plastic water pitcher on the table by the sink. She huffed. “I’ll have to get her another one.”
Danny sauntered to the basin, turned his back, and filled the container with water. Tall Nurse removed Danica’s bathrobe, placed it on the bed, and tucked her under the covers. With her hands on her hips, she stepped back, frowning. “Are you comfortable being alone with him?” She pointed her chin at Danny.
Danica examined him while his broad shoulders hunched over the tiny sink as he adjusted the bouquet. He didn’t appear threatening. If anything, he looked awkward stuffing the delicate flowers into the pitcher. She looked up at Tall Nurse. “I think I’ll be okay.” There was something familiar about the way he moved.
“The buzzer is here.” Tall Nurse placed a white-corded gizmo in her hand. “Any funny business, you squeeze.”
He returned to the foot of her bed, his dark eyes narrowed. “Now you’re being ridiculous,” he said folding his arms across his chest.
“Safety first, cowboy,” Tall Nurse harrumphed on her way to the door. She left the room, and then popped her head right back in. “Five minutes, and this door stays open.”
Danny’s eyes remained on the empty door frame for beat, and then met Danica’s. “I am so terribly sorry,” he said, moving to the side of her bed. Crouching next to it, he reached over and rubbed the top her hand.
Danica’s heart stopped in her throat. What the hell?
“Will you ever forgive me?” He clasped his enormous hand around hers and gave it a little squeeze.
Danica nodded, but had no idea what to say. “I’m sure you didn’t mean to hit me with your baseball.”
“Ugh. This is just the worst possible scenario.” Danny let go of her hand and sat sideways on the bed.
She examined his profile and tousled hair, hoping he wouldn’t notice her staring, but he suddenly shifted to face her. His deep indigo eyes locked on hers. Her pulse quickened and heat crept up her neck. His gaze was so intense, she couldn’t maintain her stare, and she looked down at the bedspread. In a heartbeat, an overwhelming magnetism drew her attention back to his face.
That must have been some crack on the head. She leaned back against her pillow, studying his upper arms, following the muscles all the way down to his taut forearms and sculptured hands.
“I’ve already called your parents to apologize.”
She looked up. “You talked to my mom and dad?”
“I spoke to your fath
er, but I’m sure he gave your mom the message.” He grabbed her bathrobe and stood again. “I hope they forgive me.”
He moved to the closet like a sleek, sinewy jaguar, and rummaged till he found a hanger. With a body and face like his, he probably attracted a whole section of bleacher babes devoted entirely to him.
He hung up her robe and carefully smoothed it on the hanger. “I hit you,” he said under his breath. “I hit you.” He turned, locking on her eyes with the gloomiest expression.
Didn’t he know she didn’t take the accident personally? Danica shifted under the covers. “I’m going to be okay. Really, I am.”
“I called from the dugout,” he explained, shaking a strand of dark hair from his eyes. “I couldn’t leave the game, but I called the hospital to make sure you weren’t—hurt worse.”
“I guess that’s why they call it a foul ball. Super foul.” Danica stuck out her chin, happy to lighten the subject, and amazed at how much having him in the room lifted her mood. She almost laughed at the word “moo-d,” and decided whatever meds they gave her made her punchy. Hell, this guy could possibly be a hallucination.
“It wasn’t a foul ball.” He shocked her with a flash of perfectly straight teeth.
Shit. She hadn’t even seen him smile until now. She felt guilty checking him out, and knew she should probably be resting but… alone in the sad room, with him taking up most of the space, she couldn’t help herself. Head injury or not, he was ridiculously handsome.
“The ball was good, in perfectly fair territory.” He mimicked swinging the bat all the way through. “It was my best hit. My first home run of the season, and I hit it out of the park.”
“And I caught it.”
“And I’m going to make it up to you. I promise you I will, Danica.”
Who is this guy?
“Knock, knock,” Tall Nurse bellowed from the doorway, bearing a large, metal tray full of plates. “Party’s over, Slugger. Time to get your buns in gear and out. I promised you five minutes, and you got fifteen.”
Danica’s stomach rumbled in response to the mouthwatering garlic and butter aroma filling the room, and the sight of steamed mussels. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten. Did Lulu arrange a delivery from her favorite restaurant, The Girl and the Fig? What did she ever do to deserve a landlord, a friend, like Lulu? She’d call her tonight and thank her.
Danny glanced between the nurse and Danica. “I could stay? Maybe help feed her?
“Nice try, but that’s not happening.” Raising her eyes to the ceiling, Tall Nurse heaved a loud sigh.
“I better go, then.” He eyed Danica. “Will you miss me?”
“Move on out, Mr. Danny Deep, visiting time is over.” The nurse shifted the tray of dishes in her hands.
“Danny Deep?” Danica studied him again, this time with her reporter hat on. “Really?”
He shrugged. “That’s what they call me.”
“Do you have a card? I work for the Napa Register. My next project is an article on the Crushers, and—”
“And now, you’re working? Your brain needs rest.” Tall Nurse marched into the room. “Just settle it right down, here. I’m serious. He’s got to go.”
His delicious gaze didn’t move from Danica’s face, but traveled from her eyes to her mouth and back. He reached into the back pocket of his uniform without looking away, pulled out his wallet, and took a card from it.
“You know where to find me if you lose this card, Danica.” He waved it from across the room and placed it on the table next to the straw bag. Instead of heading to the door, he strutted to the bed just as Tall Nurse pulled the rolling bed table over and set down the tray.
“Time’s up.” Tall Nurse swatted at him. “Get away from my patient,” she scolded in a teasing voice and leaned over the bed, blocking him from Danica.
“Just one more thing, it’ll only take a sec, I promise.” He flashed a smile at the nurse that he must store in his other back pocket to use in case of emergencies, because it worked like a charm.
The nurse placed the tray on the bed and reluctantly stepped back. “Go ahead.” She folded her arms, watching him lean over the bed and maneuver around the steaming dishes.
Danica didn’t have the strength for this, and pulled a deep breath. He shot her a fiery gleam under thick black lashes and moved closer.
His breath caressed her cheek and she closed her eyes. There was only so much a girl with a head injury could handle.
“Now, don’t forget me, Danica.” His voice rumbled through her, and he brushed his nose against the side of hers. If she moved a fraction of an inch, her mouth would touch his. She held her breath, and her heart suspended in midair while his lips trekked slowly up from her mouth and over her nose, to finally land a kiss on her forehead.
Yeah, right, as if she could ever forget something like that.
Danica’s room greeted her with the scents of cilantro, roses, and tomatoes. Welcome back to Bella Villa. Handpicked bouquets of summer herbs tucked into canning jars, casual sprays of chamomile, and tender stalks of cherry tomatoes stuffed into wine bottles...gifts from Lulu’s garden club...covered her mantel.
When she left her room days before, her bed was unmade, and there were piles of sorted laundry on the floor. Lulu must have hired a housekeeper, because Danica’s fluffy bed linens were neatly tucked into the mattress, the wood floor gleamed, and the dirty clothes had vanished.
Cheerful roses combined with blue and yellow flowers from The Napa Sun and the Sonoma Crushers baseball team adorned her bedside tables. An enormous sunflower arrangement with grapevines trailing over the sides perched on her polished dresser. Danica sauntered to it, flipped open the envelope, and grinned when she saw they were from the Santino Family.
She put her hands on her hips, surveying the profusion of bouquets. It hadn’t occurred to her so many people would know, never mind care, that she’d been hospitalized.
The sheer white linen curtains billowed in a soft puff of wind, and she closed her eyes. Chuckling under her breath at the relief of being home, she savored a whiff of the cabernet grape-scented breeze. Lulu always tried to make her feel that Danica was helping her out by paying rent at Bella Villa, when the opposite was true. Danica would still be sharing a dismal two-bedroom apartment in Santa Rosa if it wasn’t for Lulu’s generosity.
“Knock, knock.” Juliet stood at the doorway with a tray. “The doctor says no wine, so I guess we’re skipping Chill Hour for a few days.” She scooted into the room, looking a lot like Jennifer Lawrence with her newly blond hair. “We’ll have to make do with tea time instead. What are you doing out of bed?” Juliet pointed to the pillows with her nose. “Get back in there.”
“Aye, aye, sir.” Grinning, Danica hurried under the covers.
Juliet placed the silver tray on the nightstand and adjusted the covers around her. “Just take your time and get better. I’m glad you didn’t go to your mom or dad’s house to recover. I know they’re probably crushed, but it’s awfully quiet without you here, especially now Sarah’s taking those culinary classes.
Sarah Dupont, the other villa roommate, and Danica’s best friend, had plunged headfirst in love with Michael Santino’s younger brother, Jamie, the actor. Danica set them up last summer, when Jamie needed to learn how to bake for an upcoming role. Michael asked her if she knew anyone who could help, and voilà, she suggested Sarah. “Sarah’s been a little preoccupied with Jamie, and who can blame her?” Danica grinned.
“Speaking of Sarah...” Juliet moved the large platter onto her lap. “She made these for you, sweetie.”
Danica poked around the tray of butter horns, cinnamon twists, and her favorite chocolate croissants. “Oh, man, head injury, and thunder thighs.” Her tummy rumbled the moment she caught a whiff of the buttery, sweet scents wafting up from the tray. “I’ll never eat all this.”
“Sarah came home earlier and dropped them off, but had to get back to
the cafe.” Juliet carefully picked up a soft cashmere blanket draped over a chair. “She also told me to make sure you use this.”
Danica’s gaze locked on the precious blanket, and her heart broke a little. She fell silent. Sarah cherished that throw. It was one of the few things she had from her mother, who'd passed away a few years ago.
“She thinks it will help you heal faster.” Juliet laid the throw over her.
“No wonder Jamie’s in love with her.” Danica took a halfhearted bite of a croissant. “At least I was right about their love match. I knew they’d be perfect together. I totally misread Michael. Guess the double wedding is off.”
“He cares about you. I know he does. Michael rode with you in the ambulance.” Juliet sat on the corner of the bed.
“He wasn’t with me when I got beaned.” Shrugging, Danica took another bite of croissant. “Maybe he cares—as a friend. We weren’t on a date. He only invited me to join a group of buddies. Why did I make such a big deal over it?”
“I don’t know…” Juliet sighed. “You were hoping? There’s nothing wrong with hoping. You’ve been working so much, you’re out of practice.”
“I don’t think I know how to date anymore.” Danica rummaged through the pastries and selected a bear claw.
“I think your parents’ split made you a little gun-shy.”
“Maybe.” Danica bit into the bear claw and offered what was left to Juliet. She waved it away. “My dad is still at the house all the time…to argue, I guess. I don’t know what’s going on with them. Twenty years of marriage, three kids, and poof?”
“That doesn’t mean it will happen to you.”
“I’m almost thirty. All my friends are getting married.”
“Ahem.” Juliet grabbed a croissant and took a bite. “Not all of them.”
“You know what I mean. I’m sure Sarah and Jamie will get married soon, and I’m the oldest… Michael just seemed perfect. Why did he have to kiss me in the first place? That’s what started this whole thing.”
Juliet took another chomp of the croissant and brushed a few crumbs off her blouse. “You deserve an answer, but not today. Right now you need to rest, or I’ll turn into Nurse Ratched.”
