They continued staring at the phone. Finally, Dawn couldn’t stand it another minute and went outside to look toward the lake. Even the end of the street was now obscured by the rain. Gusts of wind pushed small tree branches into gutters and along sidewalks. Cars in the distance were stopped and flashing their hazard lights.
She went back inside. Lark was sending another text.
Thoughts of the Wind Spray offshore with Gordon and Miles—and Jerrod and his crew—raced through her mind. When Lark looked up at her, it was through frightened eyes. Her friend had never been good at hiding her emotions and they were on open display now. Dawn put her hand over her heart, vainly thinking it would quiet the thumping in her chest. In itself that wild beating was urging her to do something. Take action. She couldn’t stand there and wait for a message.
“Let’s go down to the marina, Lark. It’s not that far. I parked my car there when I dropped Gordon off, anyway. You walked here, too.”
Lark nodded. “I thought of that, but I tried to convince myself I was overreacting.”
“Maybe we are, but let’s just do it,” Dawn said emphatically. “I’ve got a couple of sweaters in my car and a beach towel. We’ll dry off when we get there.”
Dawn pushed against the wind to open the mall’s heavy glass-and-metal door. Once outside, Dawn led the way around deep water-filled dips in the pavement. They jumped over a few too big to skirt. The storm drains couldn’t handle the rain fast enough, leaving the winding narrow street that led to the winery and the Bean Grinder mostly underwater. They hadn’t seen a storm like this one in several summers, Dawn thought. A disquieting fact when she pictured Jerrod and the others caught unaware.
Dawn slowed down and caught her breath, looking behind her to check on Lark, whose hair, like her own, was flat against her head. Their clothes had soaked through and standing still, Dawn shivered. So did Lark. They had to keep moving.
“I know this sounds irrational,” Dawn said, “but as drenched and miserable as we are, I don’t really care.” She gestured to her right. “We could take the path—well, what we can see of it—to the Bean Grinder and wait it out there, or we can keep going straight to the marina.”
“Let’s get to the marina. If the office is locked, we can warm up in your car, like you said.”
They broke into a jog again, but the blare of a siren immediately brought them to a stop. Dawn looked behind her and through the wall of rain saw the blurred flash of red lights. Both the siren and the lights got closer by the second.
“It’s coming this way,” Dawn said. A wave of nausea hit hard. “It’s probably going somewhere else. Maybe to the Bean Grinder.”
“It’s an ambulance,” Lark said. “Not a fire truck—someone is in trouble.”
“Let’s go.” Dawn forced worry aside. If she gave into the feelings coming over her, fear would paralyze her. Her legs were already wobbly.
They were half a block from the marina when the ambulance passed them and pulled into the lot. Dawn didn’t know she could go any faster, but she picked up her pace and Lark matched it. When they finally reached the parking lot, Dawn stopped next to the ambulance and bent almost in half. With her hands across her thighs above her knees, she finally caught her breath. A couple of feet behind her, Lark was in the same stance. An EMT in rain gear ran to them.
“What are you doing?” the man asked.
“Why are you here?” Dawn asked. “Who called you?”
“We got an emergency call from a dive boat, the Wind Spray. Someone’s hurt. It sounds like a head injury.”
“Who?” Lark demanded, her voice loud. “What’s his name?”
“We don’t know. It’s a boy, a teenager.”
Dawn reeled forward, her legs barely holding her weight. Only Lark’s hands on her shoulders kept her upright. “Decompression sickness? Could it be that?” In her mind, she recalled each of the hospitals equipped with a hyperbaric chamber. One was Northeast Memorial. Only ten minutes away.
“Uh, ma’am, that’s not what they indicated. The captain would have said as much. They tell us, so we’re prepared. I don’t believe they were diving when it happened.”
“Where are they?”
“They’re coming in now.”
Nelson, covered head to foot in yellow rain gear, approached them. “We got the message on the radio.”
“I texted Miles,” Lark said. “Dawn tried to reach Gordon and Jerrod. No response.”
“They were either busy or in a dead spot. Happens all the time.” Nelson stared at them both. “Come on, follow me. I opened Jerrod’s office when I saw the ambulance pull up. You can wait inside.”
“It’s Gordon,” Dawn said. “I just know it is. How many teenagers would Jerrod have on a typical dive?”
Nelson didn’t contradict her, but urged her along toward Jerrod’s office door.
“Miles is on the boat, too,” Lark said. “We don’t know who else. It could have been another young person with them.”
Nelson didn’t offer any piece of information that left open that possibility. Dawn detoured to her car and pulled out the towel and sweaters. Lark searched her purse but realized she hadn’t brought her spare key to Miles’s car.
“No problem, Lark,” Nelson said, “I’ve got whatever you need to dry off and warm up.”
“Cold or warm, I don’t care. None of that matters now,” Dawn said, going inside but positioning herself by the window. Lark put the towel around her.
Nelson and Lark exchanged a pointed look—Dawn saw it clearly. Neither one looked calm—or hopeful.
“Here it comes, the boat,” Lark said.
Dawn pushed past her and was the first out the door. She started running, but Nelson followed and cupped her shoulder in his palms to hold her back. “Stay here, Dawn. Let the EMTs get to the end of the dock. They can work faster if we stay out of the way.”
“You’re right,” she hollered over the wind. “I know you’re right.”
Everything that followed happened slowly, or so it seemed to Dawn. Rob steered the boat to the dock, Wyatt jumped off and secured the lines. Miles and a woman Dawn didn’t know were in wet suits when they stepped off the boat. They hurried up the dock, but Miles stayed where he was at the end.
“Is a boy hurt?” Dawn yelled at the woman as she went by.
“Yes, yes,” she said, “but he’s awake. Are you his mom?”
Dawn nodded, keeping her eyes on the EMTs in their rain gear rolling the stretcher down the dock. “Did he hit his head? Was he diving?”
The woman shook her head frantically. “We never went down. It all happened pretty fast. Your boy tripped and fell. The captain, Jerrod, took care of him. We couldn’t bring him back right away, because of the storm. Jerrod told us it was safer to ride out the worst of it.”
Dawn was vaguely conscious of Lark draping a rain jacket around her shoulders and murmuring reassuring words. She wanted to break away, run to the end of the dock, but even she, despite her panic, saw she’d only complicate things in the narrow space.
It took only a minute for one of the EMTs to board the boat with a backboard. After what seemed like hours later, Dawn saw the EMTs maneuvering the board, with Gordon on it, off the boat and onto the stretcher. They covered him in a waterproof casualty blanket and rolled him down the dock. Jerrod was only a couple of feet behind the EMTs, but Wyatt and Rob stayed on board.
Dawn broke free when they rolled the stretcher toward the ambulance. “Gordon, Gordon,” she shouted over the wind. She grabbed the edge of the stretcher and walked along beside it.
“I’m okay, Mom,” Gordon said. “Don’t worry.”
“It’s not a diving accident,” Jerrod said, looking her squarely in the eye. “He tripped and fell in the cockpit when the boat pitched in a strong gust.”
“The woman who came down the dock told us you canceled the
dive.” That only got one worry out of the way.
Jerrod went to talk to the EMTs, but Miles stayed with her. “Jerrod saw changes in the weather before the storm began. But the wind came up fast and we had to ride it out.”
Dawn searched Miles’s face. “But why would Gordon fall?” She heard her own tone, accusatory, angry.
“It just happened,” Miles said. “An accident. He lost consciousness for a few seconds, not very long.”
She touched Gordon’s shoulder. “But you can talk?”
“Yeah. I’m okay.” He closed his eyes. “I’m kinda tired, though.”
“He’s going to be checked out,” Jerrod said, coming to her side. “That’s why I got on the radio with Nelson and made sure the ambulance was here. It’s possible he has a concussion, probably mild, if at all. But—”
“He didn’t answer my text. Neither did you.”
“I’ll check my phone later,” Jerrod said, putting his arm around her, “but we didn’t have reception during the storm.”
The EMTs collapsed the wheels of the stretcher and transferred Gordon into the body of the ambulance.
“I’m going with him,” Dawn told the EMT, who then helped her step up inside.
“I’ll follow in my car,” Jerrod said.
For the first time she noted Jerrod’s mouth was not only frozen in a grimace, his skin looked as gray as his eyes. He probably blamed himself. But that made sense. She blamed him, too.
“Then I’ll see you there,” Dawn said tersely.
“We’ll bring you dry clothes,” Lark called out just before they shut the doors and drove away.
Dawn looked down at her white jeans, the bottom edges muddy from the run to the marina. Her yellow tank under the huge rain jacket clung to her skin, and her feet were almost numb with cold in her sneakers. Only now, looking at her son’s face, knowing he wasn’t in a coma or worse, did she allow relief to ripple through her.
“I think I’m hungry,” Gordon said.
“That’s a good sign,” Dawn said, squeezing his arm.
Gordon grunted. “I don’t like all this fussing over me, Mom. It’s just a bump on my head. Like you had in the car accident.”
Dawn looked up at the EMT sitting where Gordon couldn’t see the woman’s face. She was trying very hard not to smile. “That remains to be seen. Let’s leave the diagnosis to the professionals. That’s what I had to do when I showed up in the ER. As for the fuss, that’s too bad. You’ll adjust.”
“Ha ha,” Gordon said. “Very funny.”
“It’s the best I can do when I’m cold and dripping wet. And scared out of my mind that something happened to you.”
“Uh, do you think Jerrod will let me dive with him again?”
“That’s not up to him,” she said firmly. “It’s up to me, and I’m saying no.” Since Gordon took his diving and working for Jerrod seriously, she was prepared for words of protest.
“Anyone can fall on a boat, Mom.”
“Anyone didn’t fall. You did.” She couldn’t help the rising fury at herself for letting him go. She’d taken her son’s interest in diving way too casually. He was a kid, thirteen. But most of all, she was angry with Jerrod. Even worse, she realized with a jolt, that she didn’t trust him. It was like a blow to her chest.
She looked up as they pulled into the ambulance bay at Northeast Memorial. “We’re here.” The hospital never looked so good.
* * *
JERROD CHECKED IN at the desk, but wasn’t surprised when the intake clerk asked if he was family. He almost blurted not yet. Instead, he explained that Gordon Larsen was on his boat when the accident occurred. And when that freak storm had happened. He called it that because of how little warning there had been. No predictions for it, either. The barometric pressure dropped and he could almost detect the peculiar scent of an oncoming thunderstorm. That’s why he’d cancelled the dive.
“I know the boy’s mother well,” he added, eager to see Dawn to know how she was doing. It was always easy to write this sort of event off and say no one was to blame. Technically true, Jerrod still accepted responsibility. It went with the territory of his type of business. But even more so, it went with being a dad, and now loving Dawn—and Gordon.
“And your name is?”
“Jerrod Walters.”
The woman disappeared and Jerrod wandered around the waiting room, impatient, still worried that his hunch could be wrong. All signs pointed to Gordon having, at worst, a mild concussion. No matter how mild, he’d never forget seeing the boy lose his balance when the boat pitched. He’d crashed into the wood trim of the companionway ladder. Ironically, Gordon had been trying to soothe the woman who Miles later helped off the boat. A new diver, like Miles and Gordon, the storm upset her, but instead of being honest about it, she tried to hide it—at first.
When fear took over, Jerrod understood everyone was apprehensive, including Rob and Wyatt. Boating of any kind meant accepting a degree of risk. Finally, when the woman admitted she was afraid, Gordon paid attention, and when a wave hit the boat he tried to move closer to her, intending to steady her. That happened fast, before Jerrod could intervene. The teenager forgot to protect himself, and Jerrod didn’t step in fast enough.
“Jerrod.”
He knew that voice. “Dawn, there you are. How’s Gordon?” He crossed the room to hear the answer.
“We’re waiting for him to have a scan. They’re concerned because he doesn’t feel well. Kind of sick to his stomach.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean he has a concussion, though.”
“Of course not,” she said, her voice tinny. “I know that, but they still have him on an IV.”
“Could be he got a little dehydrated,” Jerrod offered. “It was hot before the storm and I don’t remember when he last drank any water.”
The look she tossed his way wasn’t pleasant. Did she think he should know when Gordon had finished off a bottle of water? “I’d like to see him. Can I come back and wait with you?” He was going to be this boy’s stepdad, after all, as well as the person in charge of the boat.
She hesitated, but then shook her head. “Not just yet, Jerrod.” She turned to walk away. “Why don’t you go update Lark and Miles?”
“Dawn, I really would like to see him. I’m upset about what happened, too.”
She shook her head. “Maybe so, but I’m... Let’s just say I don’t feel good about this. He’s the only child on the boat. He’s the one who gets hurt.” She took a few steps back. “We can rehash this later.”
“Wait, wait,” Jerrod said, “Obviously, I take responsibility for this, but you’re acting like I let him get hurt out of carelessness.”
Her hands flew to her flaming cheeks. “We were just talking about the possibility of having a child. You and me.”
“I know.” He frowned, taking a step closer. “You aren’t saying...” He grabbed the back of his neck in frustration and groaned. “What are you saying?”
She stared at him, her eyes light brown just then, and filling with sad tears. “I don’t know you well enough, deeply enough. I’ve been paying attention to all the wrong things. And you warned me. You told me how long it took you to fully be a father to Carrie. But I didn’t listen.”
“Dawn. Stop. You can’t mean this.” He put up his hands in surrender. “You were right earlier. We should discuss it later.”
“There’s actually not much to say.” She wore Nelson’s oversize rain jacket, which made her look small and vulnerable, even as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. “You told me yourself you let someone else take charge of Carrie for a whole year before you stepped up again.”
Slam. Another blow. “I can’t believe you’re throwing this back at me. That’s low. I’ve confided in you about what happened to my family. You know I blamed myself.”
“But J
errod—”
“Let me finish. What happened to Gordon was an accident. Accident. Don’t pretend I haven’t been up front about the risks of diving.” He paused, opening and closing his jaw in frustration—and disbelief. “I was honest with you about having nothing to give. And then, because of you, I opened my heart again. I fell in love with you.”
When Dawn glanced around her, he became conscious of being in a hallway, where any minute people could be coming and going.
Jerrod stared at her, determined to fight for this. Did she think he didn’t understand what it was to be so scared she’d lash out at anyone close by? But when she nodded grimly and turned away to walk through the doors back to the examining room, he had no choice except to wait. But he meant it. He would fight, maybe not today, but he wasn’t letting this go. Or letting her go.
In the lobby, Jerrod faced Lark, Miles and who he assumed was Evan coming toward him. Miles carried a duffel, presumably with clothes for Dawn. When they met, Miles introduced the boy.
“Is Gordon going to be okay?” Evan asked.
“It looks that way,” Jerrod said, addressing the concerned boy. “He’s having a head scan, though, just to be sure. He scared us all. You’re his good friend, aren’t you?”
Evan nodded.
“Gordon’s told me how the two of you started the chess club. I guess you do a lot of things together, huh?”
“We play basketball.” Evan grinned. “He really likes diving with you.”
“Are you leaving?” Lark asked, strain showing on her face, especially in her eyes.
“No, no. I’m off to the cafeteria to get Dawn something to eat. Gordon has an IV in and can’t eat yet.”
“What? An IV?” Evan looked at Lark. “Isn’t that serious?”
“Not necessarily,” she said, patting his shoulder.
“Dawn says he doesn’t feel very good and needs some fluids,” Jerrod explained, “but after the scan is done, I imagine they’ll let him have some food.”
Something to Treasure Page 20
