The Way Back to You

by Sharon Sala

“Your ankle! Don’t move, it might be broken,” he said.

  And then she looked up at him, and Duke took a deep breath. He’d never seen eyes that blue, and they were swimming in tears. It took everything he had not to sweep her up in his arms, but he was afraid to move her.

  “Did you hit your head?”

  She wasn’t sure. Maybe. She’d just watched a movie with Jeffrey Dean Morgan in it, and now either she was hallucinating, or his doppelganger was leaning over her.

  “Uh… I don’t think so. Just the right side of my body. My ankle turned, and I think I need a little help getting up.”

  “My name is Duke Talbot. I saw you fall, and from the looks of your ankle, I think you need to go to ER,” Duke said. “Will you let me take you, or would you rather go in an ambulance?”

  Cathy frowned. “I don’t think I—”

  “One or the other,” Duke said.

  She sighed. Dictatorial male. Just what I don’t need. But both her hip and her ankle were throbbing now, and he did have a sweet, concerned expression on his face.

  “If it’s not too much trouble, maybe you could just drop me off at ER, then.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Duke said, and then reached toward her hair, but when she flinched and then ducked, he frowned. Those were instinctive reactions someone might make from fear of being struck. “I’m sorry. You have a piece of grass in a curl. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Cathy sighed. “Then, thank you,” she said, and closed her eyes as Duke pulled it out.

  When she opened them again, he was on his feet and she was in his arms, and he was carrying her toward his truck.

  At that moment, a police car pulled up, and Chief Pittman got out on the run.

  “Hey Duke! We just had a call come in that someone fell. I see you beat me to her,” Lon said, as he ran toward Duke’s truck and opened the door.

  “I saw it happen,” Duke said, as he eased her down inside, and then quickly reclined the seatback. “I’m taking her to ER.”

  “I’ll lead the way,” Lon said, and glanced in as Duke was buckling her in and recognized who it was. “Miss Terry, I don’t know if you remember me, but we were standing in line together at Crown Grocery last week. I’m Lon Pittman, the police chief here in Blessings. My wife, Mercy, and Duke’s sister-in-law, Hope, are sisters, which in the South means we’re all kin. You sit tight and we’ll get you to ER in style.”

  Cathy nodded, then closed her eyes. But even after he’d shut her in, she could still hear them talking. A couple of minutes later Duke got back in the truck, and as he made a U-turn in the street, she grabbed onto the console to steady herself.

  “Lon’s just ahead of us leading the way with his lights flashing. Just hang on for a few minutes more. Are you hurting very much?” he asked.

  “Enough, and I really appreciate this,” she added.

  Duke glanced down at her briefly. Again, their gazes locked, but this time she was the first to look away. He could tell he made her uncomfortable, so he turned his attention to driving.

  As soon as he pulled up at the ER, everything began happening at once. Two orderlies came running out so quickly that Duke guessed the chief must have radioed ahead that they were inbound. He jumped out as they were transferring her from his truck to a Gurney, and then walked beside her as they wheeled her inside.

  “Is there anyone I can call?” Duke asked.

  “No, but I’m fine, and thank you again for all your help,” Cathy said.

  Duke watched until they wheeled her out of sight, and then shoved his hands in his pockets. He was still standing in the middle of the hall when Hope came around a corner. When she saw him, she came running.

  “Duke? What are you doing here? Did something happen to Jack?”

  “No, no, nothing like that,” Duke said. “I came in to get a haircut this morning. I was just going to have my oil checked when I saw a woman take a bad fall. I just brought her in.”

  “Oh no! Who was it?” Hope asked.

  “Her name is Cathy Terry.”

  “Oh, Mercy mentioned her a time or two. She’s renting from Dan Amos. Was she hurt bad?”

  “I don’t know. I felt bad leaving her here on her own, but when I offered to call someone for her, she shook me off. I think I make her nervous…not me personally, but me being a man.”

  Hope was a little surprised by Duke’s insight and concern. Most of the time her brother-in-law was either critical or dismissive of just about everything and everybody.

  “I’m working in ER today. I’ll check on her,” Hope said.

  “Okay. If she needs help, let me know,” he said, then left the ER.

  He got back in his truck and headed for the Curl Up and Dye for his appointment. The last barber left Blessings some years back, and it was either a haircut at the ladies’ hair salon, drive all the way to Savannah, or do-it-yourself, and he’d only tried that once when he was twelve and the results had been disastrous. But his thoughts were no longer on the day ahead of him. He was thinking of the little redhead he’d left all alone in ER.

  * * *

  Cathy was disgusted with herself, and at the same time, a little anxious. Being self-reliant was fine when all your moving parts were working, but from the swelling on her ankle and the huge bruise already spreading on her hip, she wasn’t going to be jogging for a while, and getting to the Crown for groceries wasn’t going to be easy, either. She didn’t have one person in town she knew well enough to ask for help, and she was wishing she’d already leased a car.

  Cathy was watching Rhonda, the nurse who was cleaning the scrape on her hand, when another nurse walked in. She was tall, dark-haired, and looked vaguely familiar.

  “Hi, Rhonda, how is she doing?” Hope asked.

  “We’re waiting for Doctor Quick,” Rhonda said.

  Hope moved to the other side of the bed.

  “Hi Cathy. I’m Hope Talbot. Mercy Pittman, the fabulous baker at Granny’s is my sister, and it was my brother-in-law, Duke, who brought you here. Has someone been in yet to get your personal information?”

  “No, not yet,” Cathy said, but now she knew why the woman looked familiar. She looked like the woman she’d seen at Granny’s.

  “Then they will do that shortly. Is there anyone I can call?” Hope asked.

  “No, but I have a question. Does Blessings have a taxi service?” Cathy asked.

  “We don’t have an official taxi service, but we have a whole lot of good people who will gladly give you a ride home. Do you live alone?”

  Cathy nodded.

  Hope glanced down at Cathy’s swollen ankle. “You won’t be driving for a while.”

  “I don’t have a car here,” she said.

  “Ah…came in on the bus, did you?” Hope said.

  “No, I had been backpacking for several months when I got to Blessings. I decided it was time to find a place to spend the winter.”

  Hope’s eyes widened. “Wow! Go you! As for getting home, that’s no problem. We’ll get you all sorted out. All it will take is one phone call. Have you met Ruby, yet?” Hope asked.

  “No, who’s Ruby?” Cathy asked.

  “Ruby Butterman. She owns the Curl Up and Dye. She’s the go-to person in Blessings when someone is in need. Her husband, Peanut, is the local lawyer.”

  “Her husband’s name is Peanut Butterman? For real?” Cathy asked.

  Hope giggled. “Yes. He always says his parents were smoking weed when they named him.”

  Cathy grinned, and then winced when Rhonda poured some antiseptic on the palm of her hand.

  “I’ll go make a couple of phone calls,” Hope said. “I’ll be back later to check on you. Don’t worry. We’ll get you home.”

  Once again, Cathy was struck by how friendly people were here, and as Hope had predicted, a couple of minutes later, a man came
in and got her personal information, and as he was leaving, the ER doctor arrived.

  Rhonda looked up. “Good morning, Doctor Quick. This is Cathy Terry.”

  He smiled. “Morning, Rhonda,” and then he shifted focus to his patient. “Hello, Cathy, I’m Dr. Quick. What have you done to yourself?” he asked, as he began eyeing the bruising and the swollen ankle.

  “I turned my ankle and fell while I was jogging.”

  Quick was already feeling her ankle. “Can you move it?” he asked.

  “Yes, it hurts, but I can move it,” she said, and proceeded to show him. “Fell pretty hard on my right side. My shoulder and hip are beginning to hurt, too.”

  “Did you hit your head?” he asked, glancing at her thick red curls.

  “No.”

  Dr. Quick nodded. “Okay, I’m sending you down for x-rays. We’ll know more after I see them. Just bear with us.”

  A couple of minutes later an orderly arrived with a wheelchair, and all the way down the hall, she kept thinking, Nightmare or not, I wish I’d gone back to bed.

  Chapter 2

  As soon as Hope was between patients, she made a call to Ruby at the Curl Up and Dye. The phone rang a couple of times before the call was picked up.

  “Curl Up and Dye. This is Mabel Jean.”

  “Hi, Mabel Jean, this is Hope Talbot. I need to speak to Ruby, if she’s free.”

  “Sure, hang on a sec while I put you on hold.” Then she called out from the front of the shop. “Ruby, it’s for you.”

  Ruby gave Duke a quick pat on the shoulder. “Give me a second,” she said, and picked up the call from her workstation. “This is Ruby.”

  “Hi, Ruby, this is Hope. Sorry to bother you at work, but there’s a patient here in ER who’s going to need a ride home in a while, and I wondered if you knew someone I could contact. She asked if there was a taxi service in town, and I told her no, but that I’d try to find her a ride.”

  “Oh, my gosh! Of course. I’m certain I can find someone. Who’s the patient?”

  “Cathy Terry, the cute redhead who’s renting from Dan Amos.”

  “Oh! I know who you’re talking about. I see her jogging past the shop all the time. In fact I just saw her running past this morning. What happened to her?”

  “She took a bad fall while she was running. Turned her ankle and skinned herself up a bit. I don’t think anything is broken, but we’re waiting for Dr. Quick to make that determination.”

  “Well, bless her heart,” Ruby said. “Don’t worry. Just tell her someone will be there in the waiting room for her when she’s ready to be released.”

  “I sure will,” Hope said. “And thank you so much.”

  “Of course,” Ruby said, and then hung up.

  Vera and Vesta Conklin, the two other stylists, had eavesdropped on the call.

  “What’s wrong?” Vera asked.

  Vesta frowned. “Sister, you don’t have to know everything.”

  Ruby grinned. “That was Hope Talbot. I need to find someone a ride home from ER.”

  Duke’s heart skipped a beat. “Is it for Cathy Terry?” he asked.

  Ruby’s eyes widened. “Why yes, it is. Do you know her?”

  “Not really, but I’m the one who took her to ER. I saw her fall. I offered to stay, but she said there was no need, and obviously, she now has a need. I’ll do it. I didn’t like leaving her like that anyway. Felt like I was leaving a job half-done.”

  “This is great!” Ruby said. “And I’m almost finished with your cut, so the timing is perfect.”

  * * *

  Duke parked near the ER entrance and jumped out before hurrying inside. He didn’t know when she’d be ready to leave, but he didn’t want her to be somewhere waiting, and went straight to the front desk.

  “Hey, Carol Ann, I’m here to give Cathy Terry a ride home when she’s ready to leave. Can you let somebody know?”

  “Absolutely,” she said.

  Duke chose a seat that would give him a clear view of the hall. He didn’t know how she was going to take his reappearance, so being quiet and cordial might be his best bet. He was fine with cordial, but as Hope and Jack were fond of telling him, being quiet wasn’t one of his better traits. He had a tendency to talk before he thought about what was coming out of his mouth, and he blamed it on having no one to answer to but himself.

  While he was waiting, Dan Amos came in with a bloody rag wrapped around his left hand. Duke heard him say he might be needing stitches, and then they rushed him back into the exam area.

  A few minutes later, Dan’s wife, Alice, came running inside.

  “What exam room is Dan in? He’s here somewhere getting stitches.”

  “He’s in 3A,” Carol Ann said.

  “Thank you,” Alice said, and went through the double doors into ER on the run.

  Duke continued to wait, thinking to himself how fast someone’s life could change, and remembering the day that drunk driver hit Hope head-on as she was coming into work. If it hadn’t been for her long-lost sister’s appearance on that day to donate blood, she would have died.

  He glanced up at the clock. It had been over two hours now since he’d dropped her off here. He was beginning to worry that she might be seriously hurt when the doors suddenly swung open, and an orderly appeared, pushing Cathy out in a wheelchair.

  Duke stood up and smiled.

  “We meet again. I happened to be getting a haircut when the call came in about you needing a ride home, and since I brought you here, I thought it would be okay with you if I took you home.”

  Cathy hated to admit it, but she was actually glad to see him. Even though their acquaintance had been brief, it was one less stranger to deal with.

  “Of course it’s okay, and much appreciated,” she said.

  “I’m parked nearby. Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll pull up in the entrance.”

  The orderly pushed Cathy to the door as Duke left at a lope.

  “We’ll wait inside until he arrives,” he said.

  Cathy heard but didn’t comment. She was watching Duke Talbot running across the parking lot, wondering how old he was, and guessing maybe late thirties-early forties, then decided it didn’t matter. She wasn’t looking. And if he wasn’t already married, he surely had someone special in his life. Unless he was a complete jerk, anyone that good-looking would surely not be alone.

  Within a couple of minutes he was at the entrance. He had the door open and waiting when the orderly wheeled her out. But when she tried to stand up, he just picked her back up as he’d done when she fell and had her situated in the front seat of the truck and buckled in before she could brace herself for the impact of his touch.

  Duke was rarely uncertain what to do, but today was an exception. He already knew she was leery of men. He didn’t know why, or who had hurt her, but he didn’t want his name on that list.

  He got in, then glanced at her.

  “Can I assume the fact that your ankle is wrapped instead of in a cast means it’s a bad sprain and not a break?”

  “You may,” she said, and then grinned. “The rest of me is okay, too, minus a little skin. Kind of embarrassing, actually, since I hiked half the way across country without so much as a stumble.”

  Duke blinked. “You hiked?” Then he stopped and took a breath. “By yourself?”

  Cathy’s smile tightened as her eyes narrowed. “Shocking, isn’t it? A woman who can take care of herself without a man.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that,” Duke said, and started the truck. He left the hospital parking lot and then drove back to Main Street.

  “Which way from here?” he asked.

  Cathy was already regretting the challenge in her last comment. The man had been nothing but kind. A little bossy once, but it was only out of concern for her well-being.

 
; “When you get back to Main, turn left. Then turn right at the stop light, go down two blocks and turn left on Cherry Street, and I’m sorry I was so defensive.”

  Duke sighed. “I’m sorry, too. I seem to have a propensity for saying the wrong thing to women.”

  Then he drove out onto Main and followed her directions all the way to the left turn onto Cherry Street.

  “Which house?” he asked.

  “The small blue one with the white front porch. I’m renting from Dan Amos.”

  “Nice,” Duke said, and then added. “Dan was actually in the ER when you were. I saw him come in with a bloody hand, and then his wife came in a few minutes later. On the job injury, I suppose.”

  Cathy frowned. “Oh no. I hope it’s not serious. He seems like a really nice man. Very helpful in finding me a place to stay for the winter.”

  Duke felt a moment of regret, and then disappointment. “So you’re only passing through?”

  She was silent for a few seconds before she answered. “I honestly don’t know where I’m going. I just know where I don’t want to be.”

  The lack of emotion in her voice was more telling than what she’d said. He wanted to know more, but he was already pulling up the drive. He parked beneath the empty carport, then got out and circled the truck to open her door.

  Cathy had already unbuckled herself and dug the house key from her pocket when the door swung open.

  “One more time?” he asked.

  Cathy’s lips twitched. “Now you’re asking permission? Just do your thing, big man. I am so over this morning jog.”

  Duke grinned, then picked her up where she was sitting, settled her more firmly into his grasp, and pushed the door shut with his elbow as they passed.

  “I have the door key,” she said, as they started up the steps. “Now that we’re on the porch I can make it from here.”

  Duke put her down easy and held out his hand. “No, ma’am. I don’t do anything halfway. My job isn’t over here until I know you’re safe inside and settled.”

  She sighed, then dropped the key in his outstretched hand.

  Moments later, she was back in his arms and he was carrying her across the threshold.