Dark Secrets: A Paranormal Romance Anthology

by Colleen Gleason

  Alix liked football so she enjoyed the battle between Danvers and Winthrop. She mostly watched Cord on the sidelines, his powerful figure and handsome features, her heart giddy at the sight of him. She also watched her son as he had a great time with his new friends, cheering on his new school.

  Night descended and the game went into the third quarter with a tied score. Rose was growing listless and Alix was thinking about taking her home when there was a big play on the field, a lot of running, and suddenly everything came to a grinding halt. A player was down, and Cord and another coach ran out onto the field.

  Alix wasn’t paying much attention because Rose was close to pitching a fit, so she was gathering up her blanket and preparing to leave when she began to hear her name. Looking up, she could see several players calling over to her and Kyle, in particular, running in her direction. His young face was stressed.

  “Alix, Dad wants you to come,” he said breathlessly. “He says hurry.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Kyle shook his head. “I don’t know. I guess Bryce is pretty hurt. Dad wants you to come.”

  Concerned, Alix took Rose by the hand and quickly came out of the stands. Kyle was standing there in his football uniform and she put Rose’s little hand in his.

  “Watch Rosie, please,” she commanded. “Go find Sean and have him take her.”

  Kyle nodded as Alix made her way through the players on the sideline and out onto the field. The entire game had come to a halt and several Danvers players were down on one knee, several feet away from the downed player. Players from the opposing team were doing the same thing, everyone down on one knee and very quiet. Alix knelt down next to Cord.

  “What’s the situation?” she asked.

  Cord had his hands on either side of the young man’s head, holding it still. “Bryce,” he said steadily. “Tell Dr. Hendry what you told me.”

  The young man was bordering on terrified tears. “I got hit,” he said, “and I felt this pain in my back and now my legs are all numb. Am I going to be paralyzed?”

  Alix put a comforting hand on his arm. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” she said, then she turned to Cord. “Did you call an ambulance?”

  “It’s on its way.”

  She nodded, assessing the situation. “Bring out the backboard and we’ll get him strapped down. I’m not going to touch his helmet until we get to the hospital. We’ll just strap it all down.”

  Cord was already in motion. He held the young man’s head still as Alix very carefully assessed him, touching his hands, arms, thighs and feet, asking him questions and watching his responses. The kid had feeling, which was a good sign, but he was in a lot of pain. The way he had fallen was kind of odd, so she left him where he was until the paramedics arrived and they were able to use multiple hands to straighten him out and get him on a backboard. As Cord continued to hold the boy’s head still, Alix supervised the paramedics as they strapped him down.

  The boy’s mother and father had come out onto the field and Alix could see the panic-stricken parents standing a few feet away with the head coach. She put in an IV line and as the paramedics taped everything down and got him ready for transport, Alix found out where they were taking him and went over to the parents.

  “I’m Dr. Hendry,” she greeted them in a calm, reassuring manner. “Bryce has feeling in his extremities, but he also has some numbness, so we’ve got him stable and we’re going to transport him to North Shore for more tests and evaluations. I’ll be going with him.”

  The mother was nearly hysterical. “Is he going to be okay? Did he break his neck?”

  Alix held the woman’s hands. “At this point, I can’t tell you any more than I already have,” she said gently. “But he has feeling and he has pain, and that’s a good sign. Meet us over at the hospital, okay? I promise I’ll take good care of your son.”

  The parents, shaken, nodded and turned away, rushing out to the parking lot for their car. Alix turned back to her patient to see that the paramedics had him up on a gurney and were moving him towards the ambulance. Quickly, she went to Cord.

  “Can you please make sure that Rose and Sean get home?” she asked. “I’m going in with Bryce.”

  He nodded. “No worries,” he assured her. “I’ll take care of them.”

  She smiled. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “It was a good game, by the way. I’ll see you later.”

  His eyes were intense, as if she were the only thing that existed in the midst of the football players, fans, ambulance attendants and paramedics. He only had eyes for her.

  “You sure will,” he mumbled. “I love you, honey. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  With that, he turned away and began issuing directives to the football players from Danvers who were still down on one knee several feet away. As the kids got up and began to return to the sidelines, Alix watched the man walk away, shocked at what he had just said to her. I love you, honey. They’d been seeing each other for about a month and that was the first time he’d told her that he loved her. Out in the middle of a football stadium, of all places. All she could do was smile as she turned for the ambulance.

  She was pretty sure she loved him, too.

  * * *

  Alix was at the hospital with Bryce all night. An MRI revealed a dislocated vertebra that was putting pressure on his spine, so around four in the morning, she scrubbed for surgery and stabilized the number nine and ten thoracic vertebra. He was out of surgery by eight in the morning and his parents wept when Alix told them that Bryce would be fine. Exhausted, she went to her new office to finish up her paperwork.

  Still in the clothes she had worn to the football game the night before, she was just finishing the last of her dictation when her intercom rang. It was the front desk in the emergency room asking her to come to the lobby, so she did, not even bothering to ask why. When she came out into the big common area just inside the emergency room entrance, she caught sight of Cord standing at the desk.

  In his blue duty uniform with a radio in his hand, his eyes met hers over the activities of the emergency room and he smiled broadly. Wearily, Alix grinned as she walked up to him. It was then she noticed he had a bag in his hand.

  “Hi, honey,” he bent over and kissed her. “I came to see how Bryce was doing and brought you some breakfast.”

  She was deeply touched that he would go to the trouble, not at all concerned with the fact that he’d just kissed her in front of a room full of emergency personnel. In fact, she was quite happy for people to know they were together even though they’d never even discussed a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. When the man stopped by nearly every day she was working, Alix was pretty sure her new colleagues had suspected there was something going on between them. She took the bag of food from him gratefully.

  “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “You’re so sweet.”

  He just grinned. “You’re welcome,” he said, following her as she moved over to some plastic chairs lined up against the wall. “How are you holding up?”

  Alix sat down and pulled the Styrofoam container out of the bag. “I’m fine,” she said. “Bryce is doing really well, too. Have you seen him?”

  He shook his head, watching her flip open the lid and ravenously dig into the scrambled eggs. “No,” he replied. “I just asked the duty nurse. She said he was doing fine.”

  Alix nodded. “The damage really wasn’t that bad,” she said, her mouth full. “It was just enough to put some pressure on the spinal column, which I relieved when I stabilized the vertebra. He’ll be out for the season, though.”

  Cord sat back in the chair, draping his arm over the back of the chairs so he was fondling her shoulder as she ate.

  “Too bad,” he said. “He’s a senior. He’s got some college prospects, football scholarships and all.”

  She plowed into the hash browns. “If I was him, I wouldn’t play football anymore,” she said seriously. “I just wouldn’t take the chance.”

  “Did you
tell him that?”

  “I told his parents.”

  Cord nodded faintly, thinking about the young man with the ended football career. “Well,” he said after a moment. “That’s a shame, but I get it.”

  Alix nodded as she ate. “Did the team win?”

  “Thirty-one to seven.”

  She grinned at him, licking the fork. “Congratulations, Coach,” she said. “Good job.”

  He stroked her shoulder as she put jam on her toast and took a big bite. “Thanks,” he said genuinely. “It was a privilege to watch you work last night. You’re really amazing.”

  She smiled modestly. “Thank you,” she said. “I guess all those years of medical school paid off.”

  He just smiled, sat there and stroked her shoulder. She was eating like she was starving, which she was, as he watched her. He really was content when he was just watching her.

  “What’s your schedule like over the next few days?” he asked.

  She finished off the toast. “I’m off for the next four days, starting today,” she said. “The contractor is almost finished restoring the floors and he’s going to be moving upstairs next weekend to start the renovations up there. I’m suspecting we might have to move into a hotel for a little while because the fumes from the finished floors are pretty overwhelming.”

  He nodded faintly. “I’m off beginning tomorrow morning,” he said. “I was thinking of taking you away somewhere for a couple of days.”

  She looked at him curiously. “Where?”

  He shrugged, dragging a gentle finger up her arm. “There’s a resort to the west called the Cranwell,” he said quietly. “We could spend a couple of days there going to the spa, or golfing, or just doing nothing. It’s a gorgeous place set in the woods. How does that sound?”

  A twinkle came to her eye. “What about the kids?”

  “Yours or mine?”

  “Yours.”

  He shrugged again. “My boys are pretty self-sufficient,” he said. “They don’t need a babysitter, although I will have my sister check in on them. Do you feel comfortable enough leaving Sean and Rose with Hester for a couple of days?”

  She finished with the food and closed the lid. “I think so,” she said, looking rather torn. “I’d love to go away with you, but it’s such a busy time right now. You’ve got work and it’s football season, and….”

  He interrupted her. “And we can go Saturday morning and come back Sunday night. No one will be impacted.”

  She gazed at him with her beautiful, tired eyes, thinking. A smile began to spread across her lips. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Her smile brightened. “In that case, I can’t say no.”

  He smiled broadly, cupped her face with one big hand, and kissed her cheek. “That’s the answer I was looking for.” He stood up, reaching out a hand and pulling her to her feet. “I need to get going. The guys are waiting for me outside in the engine.”

  Her eyebrows lifted. “You made them wait out there while you came in here to proposition me?”

  He laughed. “Honey, I haven’t even started propositioning you, trust me. This is only the beginning.”

  She giggled because he was. Then his radio crackled, which was apparently something meant for him, so he bent over quickly and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ve got to run,” he said, turning to dash away. “Love you.”

  She stopped him. “Wait,” she said, rather loudly. When he came to a stop and turned to her, she looked at him with a rather stunned look on her face. “You… what you said. You said it last night, too.”

  “What?”

  She looked at him as if he were an idiot. “What do you mean ‘what’?” she lowered her voice. “Cord, you told me you loved me.”

  “I do.”

  She blinked at his reply, no hesitation or embarrassment. He reached out and stroked her cheek. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you later.”

  He was running off again and she followed. “Cord,” she called after him. “Don’t… don’t you think we need to talk about this?”

  He was nearly to the door. “No.” He turned around when she came up behind him, hand on the door knob, and kissed her right on the nose. “There’s nothing to discuss. I love you and that’s a fact.”

  He pushed through the door and out into the parking lot, leaving her standing there with her mouth hanging open. She watched him jump into the front of the fire engine and the thing took off, rotators going. She watched until the engine pulled out of the parking lot, out onto the boulevard, and out of sight. Then she blew a kiss at the departing engine and closed the door.

  I love you, too.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  By the time Alix got home, the kids were at school and Hester was in the kitchen scrubbing down the newly restored hardwood floor. It stunk from the chemicals they had used and she was trying to get the smell out of it.

  Exhausted, Alix dragged herself upstairs to get a few hours of sleep before she had to pick up Rose. She was still thinking about Cord and his declaration, fairly convinced she was madly in love with the man and thrilled to death he felt the same way about her. She suspected she had pretty much smiled from the time he mentioned it earlier, all the way home in the car, and all the way up the stairs because she was smiling now and couldn’t remember when she’d started. Sitting heavily on the bed, she pulled off her shoes.

  The cell phone in her purse went off and she grabbed for the bag at the end of the bed, pulling out her smartphone. Seeing the caller I.D., she answered.

  “Hello?”

  A familiar male voice was on the other end. “Hi, Alix.” It was her ex-husband, Pat Hendry. “How’s the east coast?”

  “Fine,” she said, not particularly wanting to talk to him but trying to be polite. “It’s great and the kids love it. What’s on your mind?”

  She was straight to the point with him. On the other end, Pat cleared his throat softly. “Did I wake you up?”

  “No.”

  “But you’re tired. I can tell. You’re always grumpy when you’re tired.”

  Out of patience, Alix struggled not to be short with him. “What do you want, Pat?”

  He could tell she wasn’t up for pleasantries, which didn’t play well into his intentions. “I just wanted to see how you were,” he said. “I… I’ve missed you, Alix. I miss the kids.”

  “What?” Alix cried with quiet disbelief. “Pat, I don’t have time for this. I’ve been up all night and I need to get to bed. I’d appreciate it if you’d get to the point.”

  “That is the point. Alix, I really need to talk to you.”

  “What about?”

  “Stuff. Us.”

  A warning bell went off in her head. “You’re crazy,” she said. “You don’t need to talk to me and I have nothing to say to you. We’re happy here, the kids have friends, Sean loves his new school, and that’s that. Don’t start with this begging crap again. It isn’t going to work.”

  Pat didn’t rise to spar with her as he usually did. “There’s just a lot going on… you know, in my mind, and I know it’s beating a dead horse, but I’d be grateful if we could just… you know, talk for a while. I’ve got a lot I need to say to you.”

  Alix shook her head. “I don’t want to hear it,” she said. “Pat, I’m not trying to be mean or disrespectful, but I really, sincerely, don’t want to hear anything. You tried this before we moved here and it’s not going to work.”

  “I love you, Alix. I miss you so much.”

  Alix’s jaw ticked with frustration. “Pat, listen to me; I don’t love you. I haven’t for a long time. I have no interest in getting back together. In fact, I’m with someone now and I’m really crazy about him, so I’m moving on with my life and I’m very happy. I would suggest you do the same thing.”

  There was a long pause. “I guess I should be happy for you,” he finally said. “Who is he?”

  “Just someone I met.”

  “Do you love him?”

  “T
hat’s none of your business.” She was growing agitated. “I really need to sleep, so I’m going to hang up now. I’ll have the kids call you later.”

  She hung up the call before he could say anything more and then she just sat there a moment and stared at the phone in her hand. She and Pat had been separated since just after Rose’s birth and she’d lost all feeling for the man long ago. For him to start building bridges again just wasn’t going to work. She loved Cord and that’s all there was to it. She allowed herself a moment of frustration but nothing more. Pat just wasn’t worth it.

  So she fell asleep on top of her bed, too tired to actually get underneath the covers, and her alarm went off a couple of hours later. Dragging herself up, she manage to go pick Rose up from school and left her with Hester while she went back to sleep. She awoke later to the smells of dinner cooking, ate fried chicken with the kids before helping Sean with his homework and putting both kids to bed around nine thirty. She went back to bed shortly after them.

  Around one in the morning, she woke up to use the restroom. As she was emerging from her bathroom, she heard faint whispers again, or at least what she thought was faint whispers. She might have thought she was just hearing things except that she remembered those same whispers from a few weeks back when Cord thought they might have come from a neighbor’s loud television. At one in the morning, there were no loud televisions on, so she slipped from her bedroom to follow the sounds.

  It was very dark in the hall except for a nightlight streaming weak light from the bathroom. Alix crept down the hallway, an eerie corridor of creaking floor boards and shadows, as she followed the sounds to Rose’s bedroom. The door was cracked open, as it always was so Alix could listen for her daughter, and Alix peered in through the gap between the door and the jamb.