Читать книгу Mother In A Moment - Allison Leigh - Страница 15

Thunder crashed overhead, sounding as if mountains were caving in on the house. Darby pressed her hands to her ears, wishing she could blot out the violent sounds of the electrical storm raging outside.

Another rumble. Starting far off in the distance, rolling closer and closer, building strength, plowing over Garrett’s two-story rented house. Windows rattled. Glasses inside the cupboard rattled. The entire house seemed to rattle.

Darby shuddered and decided that sitting in the kitchen wasn’t the place to be, after all.

She gathered up the newspapers that had been piling up on the counter and carried them, along with her iced tea, into the living room. It was odd, she thought, listening to the storm brewing while it was swelteringly hot outside. There just seemed to be something wrong with that picture.

Georgie had told her about the storms that seemed to shake the world with fury. All noise and no show, she’d said.

Frankly, Darby figured the noise was bad enough to give the unwary a heart attack.

She set the newspapers on the couch, peered into the playpen where Keely and Bridget were sleeping, sound as could be. She didn’t know how it was possible to sleep while thunder shook the house, but she wasn’t going to argue with it. Tad was gnawing halfheartedly on his frozen teething ring. Hopefully, he’d fall asleep, too.

Regan and Reid weren’t seemingly bothered by the racket, either. The two blond heads barely looked up from the video they were watching over the coloring books Georgie had given them.

She sat down on the couch and flipped through the newspapers, hoping that she wouldn’t see another article about Phil Candela’s connection to Rutherford Transportation. So far, the newspaper had run several little blurbs about the man, including details of his funeral in Kentucky. Darby had sent flowers, but she’d been too cowardly to sign her name to them.

She bypassed articles about the increase of housing starts in Fisher Falls and the appointment of a new police chief, skimmed one about an upcoming carnival and lingered over a half-page advertisement of G&G Construction and Development, which was currently hiring in the area.

She flipped to the comic-strip section, which was more her usual focus and had been for years and years.

It was an old habit learned when she’d been only fifteen and the front pages were always containing some piece of news about her family. Her father was squiring around another starlet or heiress even as he inked the deal to acquire another small, struggling company. Her brother had won another race, received another award.

Every time there had been an article, Darby had found herself being approached by yet another person claiming to be her friend. A friend who wanted an introduction to her sexy older brother. A friend who wanted an invitation to their estate, just coincidentally when the governor and his wife were visiting for the weekend.

It had taken Darby a while to understand that she wasn’t the appeal for these people, but when she’d finally learned, she’d learned it well.

Too bad she hadn’t learned it before it was time to walk down the aisle with a groom who’d decided she wasn’t worth her father’s bribe after all.

Disgusted with the depressing thoughts, Darby pushed aside the papers and leaned into the playpen to pick up Tad. “You don’t need a bribe to like me, do you, Tad?”

But instead of spitting out his teething ring and grinning at her the way he always did, he just looked at her with his brown eyes fever bright.

Darby’s adrenaline kicked in. She propped him on her hip and carried him upstairs to take his temp. Something that he did not like at all.

And she didn’t like at all the fact that it was so high. He was teething, but that didn’t account for a temp this high.

She didn’t even know any of the pediatricians in town. The only doctor with whom she’d had any dealings had been Georgie’s physician.

Smiling into Tad’s unhappy face, she maneuvered him into shorts and a clean shirt and carried him back downstairs. He rested his hot face against her neck, his fingers tangling in her shirt.

“Regan, sweetie.” She sat down on the coffee table where Regan and Reid were drawing. “Do you remember ever going to the doctor?”

Regan nodded. “For a shot.” Her eyes slid to Reid. “He cried. But I didn’t.”

Reid pushed her arm. “Uh-huh,” he argued. “You did too cry.”

“Do you remember his name?”

“Who?”

“The doctor, Regan. What did you call the doctor when he gave you the shot?”

Her lips pursed. Then she shrugged and picked up another crayon. “I dunno.”

Darby gave up on that tack. Another boom of thunder rocketed the windows, and Tad started to cry. She hugged him gently and searched out a phone book. There were three pediatricians in town, but when she called them, none had any of the Northrop children listed in their records.

She called Garrett, but reached only Carmel, who said she was on her way out the door to a meeting and Garrett was at one of their building sites. Growing more frustrated by the minute, Darby called Smiling Faces. The only medical information in the children’s files was their parents’ insurance policy number and a notarized form that said Smiling Faces could obtain medical care for the children in an emergency—two things that didn’t help Darby in the least. Molly finally offered to send Beth over to watch the children while Darby took Tad to the hospital for a quick check.

It was about the least appealing solution Darby could have imagined, but at least she wouldn’t have to cart all five of them around in the brewing storm. When Beth finally arrived, Darby wanted to drag the young woman into the house and throttle her for taking so long. Instead, she gathered up Tad and hurried out to her car, fastening him into the car seat as she kept one eye on the angry-looking sky overhead. So far, Georgie’s words had proved true. All noise.

Tad started crying again when her car backfired, and she tried singing to distract him. It didn’t work and by the time she carried him into the emergency room at the hospital, she felt like crying herself.

Particularly when the admitting nurse refused to admit him without the guardian’s approval. Darby leaned over the desk and stared the prune-faced woman in the face. Calmly explaining the situation had gotten her nowhere. “I want this child examined. Right now.” There wasn’t one other single person in the waiting room.

“Then find the child’s guardian,” the other woman retorted.

“I’ve told you. He’s not available right now. For heaven’s sake! This is the mayor’s grandson,” Darby gritted.

“I don’t care if he’s the president’s grandson.”

Darby hissed with annoyance. Carrying Tad on her hip, she walked right past the admitting desk, through the double doors, to the first exam room, ignoring the voluble protests following her. “You can’t just go back there!”

“Watch me,” Darby muttered. She pressed her lips to Tad’s hot forehead, looking around until she found an otoscope. He’d been tugging at his ears, and she wasn’t surprised to find them both red. Inflamed. She carried him back out to the admitting desk where a security officer had been summoned. “He needs an antibiotic,” Darby said.

“Miss White, I don’t know who you think you are, but—”

“What’s going on here?”

Darby whirled on her heel, gaping at Garrett who was standing behind her. When he’d left the house, he’d been wearing a black suit. But now he was in worn-white jeans and a black T-shirt that hugged his chest and arms. She swallowed, determined not to think about how it had felt to be held against that wide, warm chest, and cuddled Tad. “You look as if you’ve been installing windows yourself again. When did you get here?”

“Just now. Carmel told me you were looking for me and when I called the house, someone named Beth told me you’d brought Tad here.” His gaze flicked over the infuriated admitting nurse and the bored security guard. “So what’s the deal?”

“Otitis—” she broke off at the sharpened look he gave her. “Ear infection,” she finished. “I suspect. But they won’t examine him without your permission.”

“So I’m giving my permission now.” Garrett raised his eyebrow at the nurse. “Well? Some reason why you’re still sitting on your thumbs?”

The nurse rose, shoving a blank form toward them. “Give him to me.”

Darby shook her head. Tad was clinging to her with a grip that was nearly painful, but even if he hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have surrendered the precious boy to this cranky woman. “I’ll come with you.”

They went into the same examining room. Two minutes later, the doctor arrived and confirmed what Darby already knew. He wrote out a prescription and disappeared with a flap of his lab coat. Darby and Tad rejoined Garrett before he’d even finished completing the lengthy medical form.

“Ear infection,” she said, handing the square of white paper to Garrett. “We need that filled right away.” She carried Tad over to a molded plastic chair in the waiting room and sat down, holding him in her lap.

After several minutes Garrett walked their way, folding a pink sheet of paper and tucking it in the pocket of his jeans. “That nurse isn’t real happy with you,” he murmured as they left.

Darby sniffed. “That woman shouldn’t even call herself a nurse. She didn’t have one iota of compassion for Tad here. I’d be ashamed if I were her.”

Thunder banged overhead, seeming to agree with her. Tad cringed. Darby shuddered. And Garrett grinned. “Don’t like the percussion?”

“Not much.” She tried to reach her purse, but couldn’t. Not with the way Tad had his arms and legs wrapped around her. She gently detached him and handed him toward Garrett.

His grin faltered, then he took the tot, holding him awkwardly.

Tad howled.

Darby frowned at them both. “For heaven’s sake, Garrett. Hold him next to you. He’s probably afraid you’re going to drop him like that.” She rooted through her purse, found her keys, then dropped them again when another clap of thunder exploded around them.

“I think I’ll drive to the pharmacy,” Garrett suggested. He pushed Tad back into her arms and tugged her over to his truck. “We’ll get your rust bucket later.”

She knew she should be insulted, but she was too glad to climb into the safety of his big truck where the thunder overhead didn’t seem to be quite so near. She fastened Tad into one of the built-in car seats the shiny new vehicle possessed, then Garrett drove out of the hospital’s parking lot, heading to the drugstore that was just down the block.

He went inside and came out a short time later with a small white sack that he tossed into her lap. Darby didn’t waste any time. She climbed into the backseat and gave Tad a dose of the sticky pink liquid right then and there.

Garrett watched her in the rearview mirror. Saw the way she tenderly smoothed Tad’s wispy blond hair and tucked his soft little blanket against his cheek, murmuring sweet nothings under her breath as she tended to him.

Then she climbed back into the front seat and sighed deeply. Her fingertips drummed against her thigh, just below the hem of her toast-colored shorts. “I should’ve known he was getting sick. Garrett, I didn’t even know who their pediatrician is. It wasn’t even on record at Smiling Faces. You’ve got to get that information so this doesn’t happen again.”

He nodded. “I’ll get whatever you need.”

Her blue gaze settled on him. “It’s not what I need. It’s stuff that you need. As their guardian.”

“Fine. I’ll make sure I get it.” He glanced in the mirror again at his nephew. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Sure. He’ll be fine, as long as the antibiotic does its work. He’ll probably be feeling better within a few hours, actually.”

“That fast?”

“Children are pretty resilient.” She looked out the window.

“Good. I wouldn’t want Caldwell to go around saying tomorrow at the hearing that they were receiving inadequate care. He doesn’t need any additional ammunition against me.”

“Not even the mayor could prevent ear infections,” she murmured. “Children just get them. Some more often than others.”

“You’re good with them.” He forced his attention away from the vulnerable curve of her neck, exposed by the scoop-necked shirt she wore and her feathery hair, and concentrated on negotiating the surprisingly busy rush-hour traffic. “It’s a wonder you don’t have a passel of kids yourself already. You’ll be a good mother.”

“No husband,” she reminded him.

“Lack of a husband didn’t stop my mother.” He wished he’d kept his mouth shut as soon as the words were out.

“Yes, well, having parents who are married isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be, either.”

She looked as enthusiastic about her statement as he felt about his. Then another explosion of thunder rocked through the air and she leaned forward, looking up through the windshield at the sky. “I can’t believe it’s not raining. Does it do this a lot?”

“Every year. You haven’t been here that long?”

“Just a few months,” she admitted.

“Where from?”

Her shoulder lifted. “Everywhere. Nowhere.”

“And Georgina Vansant took you in.”

“She’s my…friend. I’ve known her a long time.”

Garrett was certain that wasn’t what Darby had been going to say. “She’s a good woman. Fair. She offered me a job once. Way back when.”

Her lips curved. “Really. Doing what?”

“Yard work.” He smiled faintly, remembering. “She probably thought if I was busy enough trimming the hedges around her property I couldn’t get into trouble elsewhere.”

“Did you work for her, then?”

He shook his head, his smile dying. “Nope. Never even saw her house up close. My mother sent me to New Mexico to live with her cousin, instead.”

“How did you like it there?”

He pulled into the driveway and parked. “I lived. Obviously. He was an ex-cop turned finish carpenter. He put me to work with him, mostly because he didn’t trust me out of his sight at first.”

“So that’s how you got into construction?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it seems that has worked out fairly well for you.”

He nodded and watched as she climbed into the back to release Tad’s restraints, then carry him into the house. Garrett pocketed his keys and followed.

As soon as he entered the living room, Regan popped up and ran headlong into him, wrapping her arms around his leg as if he were her absolute favorite treat. He was so surprised he nearly jerked back. She smiled up at him, her brown eyes twinkling and her blond curls bouncing. “I drew you a picture,” she announced.

Garrett gingerly unlatched her hands. “Uh, that’s nice.”

She skipped back to the coffee table and waved a piece of paper in the air. “See?”

Darby came down the steps just then. “That’s beautiful, Regan. Why don’t we put it on the refrigerator door so we can look at it every day.”

Regan nodded and disappeared into the kitchen with Reid right on her heels.

Beth—Garrett remembered her now from the day he’d gone to Smiling Faces—was smiling at him. Her teeth were white and even and her white-blond hair flowed over shapely shoulders, curling just beneath a pair of breasts that gave new meaning to the short-sleeved pink sweater she wore.

She swayed over to Garrett, her long lashes fluttering. “You poor man,” she pouted. “You must be just overwhelmed with everything that has happened.”

“No.”

His short answer didn’t deter her. “I can’t imagine how you’re getting by.” Flutter-flutter. “I was so glad that I could help you out today when you needed me.”

“Darby needed you.”

“That’s right,” Darby said from the kitchen doorway. “So thanks a lot, Beth.” She crossed the carpet, holding out a folded bill. “That ought to cover your time, I think.”

Beth’s expression tightened a hair. “Don’t be silly, Darby. I wouldn’t dream of taking money for helping you out.”

Darby’s eyebrows rose. “Oh. I guess I misunderstood you then when you said it’d be ten dollars an hour.”

Garrett swallowed a chuckle at the consternation on Beth’s face. “I’ll be in the den,” he said, and escaped while the escaping was good.

Darby continued holding out the cash. Beth snatched it out of her hand, her lips tight. “You didn’t have to do this in front of him,” she hissed.

Darby shrugged. “Thanks for coming over. I do appreciate it.” That was sincere, at least.

“When are you coming back to Smiling Faces?” Beth’s eyes were fastened hungrily on the closed door to Garrett’s den.

“If Garrett has his way, no time soon.” She ought to feel ashamed for baiting Beth, but then Beth should be ashamed for the way she was practically throwing herself at Garrett.

And she didn’t exactly appreciate the disbelieving look the other woman cast her way.

“Molly’s not going to like that,” Beth predicted. “You know, the only reason she hired you in the first place is because she’s friends with Mrs. Vansant.”

Since it was true, Darby couldn’t very well argue the point. She started herding Beth to the door. “Whatever I end up doing, I’ll work it out with Molly.” She smiled. “Unless you’ve been promoted and are handling more than the check-in desk?”

Beth’s lips tightened. She gathered up her purse and flounced out of the house.

“Thank you and goodbye,” Darby murmured after the door slammed shut.

Thunder pounded overhead, making the windows shake again.

“Now there goes a woman who is not the least bit intriguing.”

Darby turned to see Garrett standing in the doorway of his den. “Who? Beth?” The windows rattled again, and Darby quickly moved deeper into the living room. Away from the windows. “She’s all right. She’s just—”

“On the prowl for a man.”

She picked up several crayons that had rolled from the coffee table to the floor. “I bet you say that about all women.”

“I wouldn’t say that about you.”

She pushed the crayons into the box. “Am I supposed to be flattered by that or insulted?”

He crouched down beside her, reaching for the red crayon that she’d missed under the table. “Neither. It’s just another intriguing thing about you.”

Darby snatched the crayon out of his hand and jammed it into the box with the others. “Stop calling me intriguing. I’m nothing of the sort.”

“Did you ever go to college?”

She stood up so fast that she felt light-headed. “What? Yes.”

“What did you study?”

“Is this your version of Twenty Questions?” He kept watching her, and her lips tightened. “Nursing,” she said shortly. “Now, I’ve got to get dinner started.”

He followed her into the kitchen. “That explains this, then.” He held up his hand. His cut had healed enough that it was covered only with an adhesive bandage. “So why are you playing nursery worker instead of nurse?”

“I didn’t say I was one.” Darby grabbed a deep pot and filled it with water. She wasn’t one anymore, that’s for sure. Nurses were licensed and licenses could be traced. “We’re having spaghetti. But we don’t have any garlic bread. Would you mind running to the store to get some?” Anything, anything to get him to move away. To get him out of her personal space so she could think of something more than the way he smelled so warm and male and— “In other words you don’t want to discuss your nursing aspirations.”

She turned the water up higher.

“Garlic bread,” he murmured. “I’ll see what I can do.” He smiled faintly and left.

Darby drew in a deep breath and let it out in a rush.

What a mess she’d gotten herself into.

She turned off the water and set the pot on the stove, glancing out the window at Regan and Reid who were chasing each other around in the backyard, perfectly oblivious to the crackling thunder.

A mess she was beginning to feel awfully comfortable in.