Sugar And Spice (Holidays: Valentine)

by Charlotte French

  “Come on, sugar,” she said. “Let’s go for a walk.”

  “But…”

  “I have to find the restroom and I don’t want to leave you.”

  “I should be here. In case anything changes.”

  “If that happens,” Pete said, “I’ll call you. Not looking very likely though at this point.”

  “You’re winding yourself up too tight, sugar,” Amy said. “I can feel it. Staring at that clock will do that to you. So let’s just go for a quick walk and I’ll have you back in five minutes tops. Cross my heart.”

  Crissy sighed and helped Amy to her feet. Amy hooked her arm through Crissy’s elbow as they went in search of the restroom. Once Crissy got moving, she did feel a little better, though she didn’t admit it out loud. And her brain never stopped worrying over Quinn. The reality that he had been burned, and badly, still hadn’t sunk in yet. She didn’t want to believe it, couldn’t believe it, until she saw it for herself.

  After Crissy had splashed some ice cold water on her face to wake herself up, Amy steered her out of the bathroom and back to the waiting room. But one glance was enough to see that nobody had moved. Pete had his head resting on Stephen’s shoulder, Stephen’s hand laid comfortably on Pete’s knee, both of them dozing, half-asleep. Manu had slid a little further in his chair, his head propped up on one hand.

  “We should find a coffee machine,” Amy said. “We’re probably going to be here a while.”

  “That’s sacrilegious,” Crissy replied, more an automatic, knee-jerk reaction than actually thinking about it. She was too preoccupied with Quinn to register the horror of buying coffee from a machine rather than making it fresh.

  “Then we’ll get coffee for the boys and we’ll snub our noses at it.”

  Amy tugged on Crissy’s arm, pulling her away from the mind-numbing waiting room and down the hallway in search of coffee. But the side trip only lasted a few minutes and didn’t kill nearly enough time as Amy had hoped it would. Before Amy could come up with more excuses to distract her, Crissy headed straight back to the waiting room, coffees in hand.

  As Crissy distributed the coffee, Megan came barreling up to the front desk. She spotted Crissy and did a double-take. Crissy hurried across the waiting room and Megan wrapped her arms around her in a suffocating hug.

  “He’ll be fine,” Megan said.

  Crissy screwed her eyes shut and held on a little tighter.

  “How can you be so sure of that?” she finally managed to squeeze out past her sandpaper dry throat. “You don’t even know how bad he is.”

  Megan pulled away and placed her hands on either side of Crissy’s face, looking her right in the eye.

  “Because Quinn is my brother. I kicked his ass much worse than any trouble he could ever get himself tangled up in.”

  A small breath of a laugh escaped Crissy but her heart stuttered too at the shadow of concern in Megan’s eyes despite the firm, confident pressure of her hands against Crissy’s cheeks.

  “He’ll be fine,” she repeated.

  But Crissy couldn’t tell if Megan was providing comfort for Crissy’s sake or reassuring herself now. Her voice was still strong, solid and unwavering, but there was a hitch in her tone, barely discernible buried underneath her brave façade.

  Crissy nodded and returned Megan’s stare. “He’ll be fine.”

  Megan pulled Crissy into another hug and they stood there for several minutes, not saying anything, silently fighting to keep their heads above the rising tide of worry that threatened to suck them under and drown them. Then Megan took in a bracing breath and let it out. She patted Crissy’s back and swiped her hands over her cheeks, putting a wobbly smile in place as she pulled away.

  “Mom promised to watch the kids,” she said. “So you won’t be able to get rid of me for a while.”

  “He’s still in the emergency room,” Crissy replied. “None of us have seen him yet.”

  Megan nodded as she hooked Crissy’s arm through her elbow and for a split second, Crissy’s breath hiccupped in her throat. Quinn always did that, taking her hand and tucking her arm through the crook of his elbow. She rarely had to make the move herself. He was always so eager to just have her near, to be in contact with her in some small, comforting way.

  “That’s all right,” Megan said. “I need time to sort out what I want to say when I finally do see him.”

  “My vote,” Pete said from where he sat, “is a good solid tongue lashing.”

  “I second that,” Stephen said.

  “What happened anyway?” Megan asked.

  Pete sighed and the exhaustion in his face only seemed to get heavier, dragging his shoulders down.

  “You know, old Q,” he said. “Once he sets his sights on something, he doesn’t back down until he drops. He’d been at the blaze non-stop for hours.”

  Megan shook her head and swore under her breath.

  “Did he forget to check his air supply again?” she asked.

  “I wish it was something mundane like that. There was a little girl caught in a ravine. The fire was ripping through the dry leaves and fallen trees like a box of matchsticks but he didn’t hesitate to slide right down in there to get her. He put his mask over her face and we hauled her out. Not a scratch on her.”

  Pete hesitated and rubbed at his eyes. “The wind kicked up and the fire blazed like…some hungry monster. I didn’t even think about it, just jumped in there to drag him back up.” He paused and added so quietly Crissy almost didn’t hear it, “Never should have let him go down there in the first place.”

  “You know he wouldn’t have listened,” Crissy said softly.

  Pete glanced up and she smiled slightly, bravely, despite the black hole of worry still eating away at her stomach. He huffed a dry laugh and nodded.

  “That’s true,” he said. “And I…”

  He broke off as a doctor walked out of the emergency wing and approached the waiting room.

  “Quinn Spencer’s family?” the doctor asked.

  All at once, Amy, Manu, Pete, and Stephen rose to stand with Crissy and Megan. The doctor nodded.

  “He’s out of the emergency room,” she said, “but he’ll need to stay in intensive care for a few days.”

  Megan tightened her grip on Crissy’s arm with a quick triumphant look.

  “Told you he’d be fine,” she whispered.

  “Any damage from the oxygen deprivation?” Pete asked.

  “Some of his short term memory may be affected,” the doctor said, “but his long term memory shouldn’t be. Still keeping tabs on his motor functioning though. He’s a little slow to respond for my liking but his body is still recovering from the trauma he’s been through and it’s not unusual for a slow response time. In short, we’re keeping an eye on him before we’re coming to any definitive conclusions.”

  “When can we see him?” Crissy asked.

  The doctor hesitated. “After coming all this way in the middle of the night, I wish I could let every one of you see him right now. But he needs to stay calm and to rest. His breathing is still not one hundred percent so nothing exciting. For now, I can only let one visitor in and for no more than ten minutes.”

  For the span of a heartbeat, silence filled the waiting room. Then hands were on Crissy’s back, pushing her forward. Megan, Stephen, Pete, Amy, and Manu. Not a word of argument or protest from any of them, just the solid, unwavering knowledge that if one person had to see Quinn, it would be Crissy. She glanced at Megan.

  “But you’re family,” she said.

  “So are you, Crissy,” she said with a smile. “Now get moving. And tell him Megan is never going to let him hear the end of this either.”

  Crissy lingered only for a moment before she nodded and trailed after the doctor down the hallway to Quinn’s room. The doctor eased the door open and stepped aside to let Crissy enter. Light spilled in from the hallway but the rest of the room was swathed in shadows. She edged closer to the bed, taking in the expanse of b
eeping machines surrounding Quinn’s bed, the tangle of wires and tubing like tentacles twisting off of the bed. Bandages were wrapped around his chest and his neck, completely covering his left arm and leg. An oxygen mask was strapped over his nose and mouth.

  Crissy took the chair next to the bed, perched on the very edge, her hands tucked together in her lap despite the ache in every muscle to touch him. But she didn’t know how, didn’t know what might hurt him further.

  “Quinn?” she whispered.

  He blinked slowly, looking up at the ceiling. Crissy inhaled a tentative breath and sat forward a little more, her hand inching closer to rest on the bed but didn’t quite touch him.

  “I’m right here,” she said.

  Quinn’s gaze shifted to hers. And for a moment, Crissy saw no recognition in his eyes, only a blank stare. She gritted her teeth and willed herself to be calm, to not cry despite the threatening burn of tears.

  Then his hand crept forward on the bed and he curled his little finger into hers.

  “Crissy,” he rasped.

  A tiny, strangled noise escaped Crissy and she took Quinn’s hand in both of hers, pressing a kiss to his palm.

  “Megan said she’s never going to let you hear the end of this,” Crissy said, her voice trembling.

  He coughed a laugh only to break off with a wince, his eyes screwed shut. He sucked in a rattling breath before he opened his eyes again and fixed his gaze on her.

  “Don’t…make…me laugh…sweetheart,” he wheezed.

  Crissy had barely been managing to not fall apart, ever since Pete showed up at her door. Even before that. When Quinn got that call and looked so sick with the thought of leaving her and facing that wild fire. The squirm of something black chewing away at her had never left and now, after seeing him awake, recognizing her, and speaking so carefully to her when it was obvious every word he scraped out of his raw throat hurt more than anything…it was finally too much.

  Crissy ducked her head and pressed a hand to her mouth. She couldn’t cry now, not when she only had a few precious minutes with him. She had to keep it together just a little while longer.

  “Hey,” Quinn said, his voice rough and ragged around the edges. “Sweetheart…I’m okay.”

  She shook her head and shot him a look. “No you are not. You scared the hell out of me. Out of everyone. You’re never allowed to do that again.”

  Despite the pain, despite the haze in his eyes from the heavy pain medication he must be on, he still managed the faintest smile, tucked behind his oxygen mask.

  “Yes ma’am,” he said.

  “You shouldn’t be teasing me when you can barely breathe.”

  “Worth…it.” He squeezed her hand with the slightest pressure. “But I’m…serious…Crissy. I’ll be…fine.”

  “You know, I’m the one who’s supposed to be saying that to you. Not the other way around.”

  “So…tell me…then.”

  Crissy pulled her chair closer until she could look him in the eyes as she brushed his hair back from his forehead.

  “You’re going to be just fine,” she said, the last word hitching in her throat despite her best attempts to keep her voice even. “When you come home, I will never let you out of your room again. I’ll make more apple turnovers and beignets than you can ever possibly eat in your entire life. I’ll ask you a thousand times a day if you’re okay until you want to scream because I’m driving you insane.”

  He slipped his hand away from hers and slowly brushed his thumb over her chin.

  “All…sounds good…to me, sweetheart,” he whispered.

  A nurse tapped on the door and poked her head into the room with an apologetic look.

  “Time’s up I’m afraid,” she said.

  Crissy took Quinn’s hand one last time and very carefully leaned over him to press a feather-light kiss to his forehead. The sharp smell of smoke was still clinging to his hair and his skin was too warm to the touch. When she pulled away, he had already drifted back to sleep. She squeezed his hand and tore herself away.

  Before Crissy reached the waiting room, she stopped in the hallway, her back pressed to the wall, sucking in gulps of air. After hours of white knuckling this emotional roller-coaster, sitting around, wondering how bad it would be, he was going to be fine. He remembered her. He teased her. Everything would go back to normal eventually. Her body felt as limp as a rag doll now and every step she took back to the waiting room was like sinking through a pit of quick sand. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up to her, dragging her down.

  But everything would be fine. Quinn was okay. That’s all that mattered.

  Megan was lingering just outside the waiting room for her. As soon as Crissy came into view, Megan surged forward with a bruising grip on her arm.

  “I had no idea she would be here,” she said, her voice pitched low enough so only Crissy could hear. “If I had known, I would have warned you. I swear.”

  “She?” Crissy said. “Who are you talking about?”

  Megan nodded to the waiting room. Pete and Stephen were standing, talking to a slim, tall woman with loose wavy black hair and pale blue eyes. Even in the middle of the night, with everyone else in the waiting room looking disheveled and wrecked from the turmoil of the past few hours, this woman, whoever she was, seemed as fresh as a daisy.

  “Shannon,” Megan sighed.

  As relieved as Crissy had been a moment ago, she felt her body go rigid again, her muscles locked up tight for yet another disaster she wasn’t prepared for.

  “Wait,” she said. “You mean that’s…?”

  She turned to take in the woman again.

  “Yes,” Megan said. “That’s the Shannon. Quinn’s ex-girlfriend.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Crissy didn’t feel anything at the news of Shannon’s arrival. Not at first anyway. It was too much to take in all at once and she couldn’t process any more on top of everything else. Megan dipped her head to look Crissy in the eye.

  “Crissy?” she whispered. “Are you okay?”

  Slowly, Crissy nodded.

  “I’m so sorry,” Megan said. “If I’d known…”

  “It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. But…how did she get here so fast? I thought she was in California?”

  Megan blew out a breath and Crissy could have sworn it sounded like a growl.

  “Turns out, she’s been living only an hour and a half away,” Megan said. She hesitated before adding, “Quinn had her down as his emergency contact when they were…you know. But I guess he just…never got around to changing it.”

  That got Crissy’s heart jackhammering away at her ribs. Only an hour and a half away. Did Quinn know? And why hadn’t he taken her off of his emergency contact? Didn’t Megan say they broke up years ago?

  “How long has she been living so close by?” Crissy said.

  Megan shrugged. “Didn’t think to ask her that. I was too busy trying to get Pete to let me go so I could kick her out.”

  Despite the concern settled in the middle of her chest, a dead weight pressing down on her lungs, Crissy still managed a small smile.

  “That’s not necessary,” she said.

  “Yes it is.”

  “If she’s here, she’s concerned about him, just like the rest of us.”

  “She has no right to be here, Crissy,” Megan hissed. “She broke my brother’s heart and left him. He’s happy now. She doesn’t get to waltz back into his life whenever she wants to.”

  Megan squinted at Crissy and crossed her arms.

  “Why are you so calm about this?” she demanded. “I’m ready to strangle her.”

  “Believe me,” Crissy said. “I am not calm. I am…the opposite of calm right now.”

  Shannon turned and spotted Crissy and Megan lingering just outside the waiting room. Heat flushed up Crissy’s face and her fingernails bit into her palm until she was sure there would be crescent shaped tattoos permanently embedded in her skin. Shannon crossed t
he room and held out her hand, glittering with a dozen different rings. Gold bangles hissed and clanked on her wrist from reaching out.

  “You must be Crissy,” she said. “I’m Shannon Carter.”

  In a haze, wondering when this whole surreal experience would finally be over, Crissy shook Shannon’s hand. Her grip was firm, confident…but clammy and too cold for the warmth of June. Her gaze dropped to Crissy’s hand with the ghost of a bittersweet smile.

  “So the rumors are true then,” Shannon said.

  “Excuse me?”

  She took Crissy’s other hand and raised it up to get a better look at her ring.

  “Quinn finally found his blushing bride,” she said.

  Crissy frowned and pulled away. There was something…sharp edging Shannon’s voice, something that put Crissy off balance and she didn’t like it. Maybe it was because Shannon knew about her and had kept up to date on Crissy’s life with Quinn when Crissy was still getting used to the idea of Shannon’s existence and how she had hurt Quinn years ago.

  “That was uncalled for,” Shannon said, ducking her head. “I only meant congratulations. Quinn deserves someone who can make him happy.”

  Megan coughed into her hand and turned away, her shoulders rigid. Shannon’s gaze darted to Megan’s back and something softened in her gaze, in her posture. She folded her hands and glanced down the hallway.

  “Did you see him?” she asked.

  Crissy nodded. “Only for a few minutes. He’s…very tired.”

  “Is he in a lot of pain?”

  Megan whipped around. “What kind of question is that? He’s been burned over half of his body. He stopped breathing for several minutes on the way to the hospital. Of course he’s in pain.”

  Shannon blinked, startled, and pulled back. Crissy put a hand out towards Megan.

  “Megan,” she said, “it’s okay.”

  “No it’s not and –“