Читать книгу A Soldier's Reunion - Cheryl Wyatt - Страница 11

“What’s up, bro?” Brock clapped a hand on Nolan’s shoulder.

Vince hawk-eyed him. “Yeah. Look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Nolan swallowed. “Feel like I have.”

Petrowski looked up. “Don’t tell me. You just saw that woman you always used to talk about.”

Brock leaned in. “You mean the one he never got over? The reason he won’t go on dates, least not second ones?”

Nolan tensed his jaw and gave a slight nod.

“No way!” Vince stood and eyed Mandy from afar.

“Dude! Seriously?” Brock’s eyes widened.

“Yeah.”

Chance eyed the lot over Nolan’s shoulder. “That her?”

Nolan nodded, turning with his team and commander to watch Mandy.

Joy and sadness played ring-around-the-rosy with his heart as he watched her interact with the children and tend their scrapes and bumps despite her injury.

Chance moved to stand next to Nolan. “Didn’t y’all part ways so she could go to med school when you joined the military?”

“Yeah.”

Petrowski pivoted. “As natural and calm as she was with those children back there, obviously she realized her dream.”

Nodding, Nolan pulled out his beret and settled it on his head.

“At the expense of your relationship, though,” Brock said.

“I encouraged her to go. At the time I couldn’t have offered her as much as medical school.” Nolan shrugged, but the niggling feeling of failing Mandy and the hard goodbye they’d had the day he left wouldn’t recede. “She’d have lost her funding had I not kept up my end of the bargain.” Had he fought for what he wanted—made a way for him and Mandy to be together—her dreams would have been flushed down the drain by those in authority, who wanted nothing more than Nolan away from her.

To get in their way would have resulted in Mandy losing her chance to do the one thing she’d always dreamed: help salvage the lives of children.

As she’d done amazingly today with outstanding bravery and grit.

“What I did was for the best. For both of us.” Now whom was he trying to convince? Needing a moment of space, Nolan stepped away from his closest friends and eyed the horizon where purple streaked into pink above the bridge that sat cockeyed over Refuge River. In fact…

Reunion Bridge. The hair on Nolan’s neck and arms prickled.

No coincidence. God had meant them to meet again.

Why?

And why when he was in the midst of having to use every bit of time and energy to be proactive at finding a way out of being taken from his team? And from Refuge, a town he’d come to love. And now from Mandy, right when they’d reunited. Nolan wished Joel was here. And Manny. They’d help him make sense of it all.

He could look to Petrowski, but Aaron was in the same boat as Nolan and then some. Aaron—a single dad and trying to be there for his little boys and his “big” ones, the Pararescue team.

No, Nolan couldn’t burden Petrowski further. He’d find a way on his own and trust in God’s help.

One by one, the guys knuckled his shoulders and cupped hands on his back, then turned as a unit and started walking off.

Nolan took a step to follow, then turned back. Unable to leave or even look away just yet.

“Ready, Briggs? Or you gonna stand here and gawk at that gorgeous doctor all day?” Petrowski said moments later.

“Gorgeous is right.” Mandy had always been pretty. But this woman Mandy had grown into could kick any guy’s testosterone into high gear. And his pulse. Yeah. Definitely his pulse.

One more moment. He’d linger. He’d look. But the more he looked, the more he couldn’t look away. His heart had hoisted to her the moment he’d seen her again. And heard her voice. And looked into her mesmerizing cat-shaped eyes. Shimmery green. Like sleek, waxen southern Illinois soybean fields.

Eyes that still held a decade-old hurt.

Memories he’d forgotten assaulted him in waves as he remembered all they’d shared.

He faced Petrowski. “Even before we were sweethearts, we were inseparable growing up. Neighborhood buddies. Confidants.” Nolan smiled, recalling a particular blackberry bush burglary. “Partners in crime at times. Best friends.”

Soul mates.

The thought shook something loose. A determination he didn’t know he possessed blasted forth. He lifted his binoculars, aimed her way.

An unseen pressure moved them back down.

Chance grinned. “Dude, that borders on stalking.”

Nolan lowered the binoculars and tucked them away, wishing he could do the same with the film of memories reeling through his mind right now.

“You still have a thing for her?” Vince reached for the binoculars. “Lemme see why.”

Nolan laughed and knocked away his hand. “Not on your life.”

“You two have a history.” Petrowski’s world-wise eyes smiled. “Strange you’d meet again. Here. This way.”

“What kinda history?” Brock waggled his reddish brows.

Nolan shook his head. “Not that kind. She was a good girl.” Who fell for the bad boy. At least that’s what Mandy’s mother and her pastor claimed. Their influence had been like a tumor in his and Mandy’s relationship, metastasizing it with the poison of pious principles.

Nolan hadn’t shared Mandy’s family’s faith. Therefore she was off-limits, according to them and the Bible they quoted. The book he’d wanted nothing to do with because he feared it would judge him as harshly and unmercifully as they did.

Now, as a new Christian, he understood completely. But at the time, their judgmental precepts had incited and incised him.

“Where are they transporting?” Nolan asked Petrowski and forced his feet to move. He observed a Red Cross volunteer finishing up paperwork with Mandy and directing her to the far end of the parking lot with waiting ambulances.

“Refuge Memorial for now. Completely swamped from so many bridge victims being brought in. So patients will be diverted elsewhere.”

Nolan shucked off his jumpsuit, glad he’d worn jeans and a T-shirt beneath. “So all injured are being taken there initially?”

Zips sounded as Aaron shirked his own suit. “Far as I know.”

“I can go talk with her there. We never had proper closure.” Nolan wadded his suit and tossed it in his rucksack.

Aaron tilted his head. “And, according to her response back there, you need to.”

“Exactly right.” He couldn’t let this go. Not again. He didn’t realize the impact of that open wound until the moment they’d laid eyes on one another after a decade of zero contact.

They needed to talk, if nothing more than to ease shut the chapter of a very painful book. He’d seen it in her eyes.

He’d hurt her. Majorly wronged her.

And he needed to make it right.

“How rude,” Mandy muttered to herself as she stepped away from the volunteer, and Nolan’s scrutiny. Ow, did her hand hurt. Starting to swell, too. A blue-black discoloration had begun. Hand elevated, she trudged toward the distant line of ambulances she’d been directed to. Maybe they’d have pain relievers on board. And another ice pack. To cool off her wrist.

And her temper.

Nolan and his friends had been openly staring and talking about her. Without trying to hide it. What kind of friends did he have nowadays? She couldn’t hear what they said but knew for certain she was the object of conversation.

And she had felt Nolan’s stare above the rest.

Where was he?

She started to look around but stopped herself. She’d jump off the bridge before she’d broadcast how badly he’d rattled her. He had to be tracking her. She could still perceive him. Right now. Gaze drilled into her back right to her heart.

No matter.

This freakish accident tumbled them together but she wasn’t about to make anything out of it. He’d better not follow her to the hospital, either. She had nothing to say to him. Nothing.

Never mind small pings of joy that he would actually make an effort to come see her. Why would he?

The cold, sharp truth smarted like a dull needle. She hadn’t meant enough to him ten years ago or he would have found a way.

And she would not risk her heart to a man like that again. She’d have to mean more to him than his dreams.

To be fair, she hadn’t considered giving up hers, either. Couldn’t have expected Nolan to give up his. He really hadn’t had a choice whereas she had but hadn’t taken it.

Seeing how he rescued people today made her glad he hadn’t. The world needed men like that, willing to risk their lives so others can live. Their relationship had been a casualty of his creed and her cause.

She was no longer on his radar. Not even close. No use hoping for a relationship that had ended a decade ago.

Sweat trickled down Mandy’s back as she continued her trek across asphalt so hot it probably melted the tread on her soles. An EMT approached. “Think you can ride sitting up, Dr. Manchester?” he asked as she reached the line of open-door ambulances that had come from towns around to assist.

“Yes.”

Reece, Caden and Jayna sat like three lost baby ducks in a row inside a middle ambulance. The urge to shelter them hit her. How she loved children. She had an especially tender heart for fragile ones. She nodded that way. “If there’s room in there, I’ll ride with them.”

“Sure. But might be a bit before transport since we may need to stick a couple others in it.” He eyed her injuries.

Mandy nodded. “That’s fine.”

Hand lent, the EMT assisted her inside, and closed the door.

“Miss Mandy!” Reece scooted over and patted a place beside her. Bless the child’s assessment that her bottom could actually fit in that small space.

Caden must have noticed Mandy’s dilemma. He unlatched the strap across his thighs and moved to the bench.

“Scoot an itty bit more,” Mandy said, then sat between Reece and Jayna.

Grinning, Reece fisted her hand and lifted it to Mandy.

She smiled. “Just what am I supposed to do with that?”

Jayna giggled. “You go like this.” She fisted her hand and bumped Reece’s knuckles.

“Hi-fives aren’t hip anymore?”

Caden scowled. “No way. Neither is ‘hip.’ It’s older’n my grandma’s dinosaur’s grandma.”

Reece and Jayna erupted in giggles and squashed themselves up against her.

“Hey, Caden, I never did catch your last name.” Mandy wiggled her nose at the little boy.

“Boyle,” he said. Mandy caught sight of Nolan walking past. Looking for something? Someone? Her heart slammed against her sternum when he passed by, then disappeared from sight.

God, I miss him. Hurts too much to hope…

Mandy consciously repressed it all.

“Chief Boyle…” Mandy tilted her face in a dreamy lilt, making pretense of eyeing the ceiling, while actually looking for emergency items. Habit she supposed. “I do believe I like the sound of that.”

The children chortled.

Mandy joined them and felt the unprecedented stress of an unbearably hard day melt away. “Well all-right-y then. Fist bumps are what people do nowadays.” She raised hers and bumped each child, causing bubbly giggles to fill the ambulance.

The door opened and the EMT poked his head inside. “Dr. Manchester, you well enough to be the transport medic if I stay and ready other patients for air evacuation?”

“Absolutely. I’m right in my element here.” She smiled.

So did the EMT. “Any questions on where stuff is?”

She looked around, catching sight of the most important things. Oxygen. IV equipment. Code meds, though none of these children would need any of that. She searched for a seatbelt for the booth. “How do I secure them in?”

The EMT whose nametag read “Cole” tugged a clasp from a crack between padded benches. “Any other questions?”

“Why yes, in fact I do. Did you know fist bumps are in and hi-fives are old news?”

Cole laughed. “I’d heard fist bumps were a wave of the future.” He lifted his hand and touched gentle knuckles to each child, then Mandy’s. “Thank you.” He cast a deeply thankful look to her and closed the door.

Past him, through the windows, she could see men dressed as Nolan had been, assisting other paramedics with stabilizing those who would be flown to other hospitals. Probably those specializing in head and spinal trauma. The thought made her want to leap from the ambulance and help her fellow medical workers.

Likewise, the thought that Nolan, though unseen, could be on the other side of the doors made her want to bolt out and see him. Hold him. Catch up. Connect. Recapture something, anything. The sensation of being the only person in the world who knew the other so profoundly. They’d had a bond like nothing she’d ever known.

Then, one day, nothing.

Hands fisted, Mandy pressed them beneath her thighs and tilted toward the children. “So, what was your field trip?” The bus driver had explained it was an end-of-the-year gig but hadn’t said where. Chitchat would keep the kids’ minds off missing their parents, and her mind off missing Nolan.

Reece grinned. “We went to a science museum. It was fun.”

As the children chattered on, Mandy stacked pillows under her elbow and leaned back. Her wrist throbbed like crazy. But she didn’t want to trouble Cole or any others for pain meds. From some of the serious injuries she’d passed on her way to the ambulance, she definitely sat at the bottom of the triage totem.

Through the windows, a tawny-haired man with a military buzz came back into view. She didn’t have to strain her eyes to know it was Nolan. Nor did she have to see his eyes to know they were the most brilliant shade of blue.

As if sensing her stare, he shifted and looked around. She stiffened, then relaxed and craned her neck. He couldn’t know she was in this ambulance. Nor that she could watch him unaware. She could only see him from the shoulders up, and he was totally out of sight of the children, who would undoubtedly bombard her with questions should they notice her noticing Nolan.

He conversed with someone she couldn’t see, but his gaze kept coming back to sweep the line of ambulances.

She grew enthralled watching him. The lithe motions. Firm jaw. That lopsided grin that had graced her almost daily growing up as he’d walked her home from school because they lived in a bad neighborhood. The familiar yet now mature animation on his face elicited a sense of loneliness that made her miss him.

He bent and lifted something, probably a patient. He looked utterly in his element. Like he was born to do this.

Just like you were born to be a doctor.

Unfortunately their dreams were like two strong arms tugging them apart and in opposite directions. Yet they’d championed one another’s hopes and goals practically since the day they met.

IV bag in hand, Nolan shifted something and raised his arm.

“Miss Mandy, why do we gotta go to the hospital if we aren’t hurt?” Caden asked, breaking the bittersweet trance.

Metal clanked together as Mandy secured a seatbelt over him. “Because that’s where they’re telling your parents to come pick you up. And because the doctors and nurses will want to check you out and make sure you didn’t get any bumps and bruises that might need Band-Aids.”

He nodded. “Miss Mandy, do you have any Band-Aids?”

She spread fingers on her good hand. “Sadly, I’m fresh out. But the nice doctors and nurses at the hospital will have Band-Aids and stickers. Maybe even lollipops. How about that?”

Mandy laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Reece asked.

“Just thinking about how nurses give the shots and doctors give the lollipops.” Mandy wiggled her nose at Reece, who grinned. “But my office will be different.” She might call the shots and have her nurses give them, but she’d let them also dole out stickers.

Nolan moved from her line of sight. The air inside the ambulance vacuumed all hers in a sudden panic. She resisted the urge to push open the door.

Focus. Focus on the children. Forget about Nolan. Focus.

Caden grinned, revealing lost teeth. “I wanted the Band-aids for Bearby. Looks like he could fall apart.”

Reece clutched the brown bear appendage to her. “He does not! It’s just that his fur falls out because I love on him so much.” She sent a harsh scowl at Caden.

He blinked at her like she was an alien. Then tilted his face up. “Miss Mandy, why do you want to be a doctor? Our teacher says it takes lots of school. School’s boring.”

Mandy chuckled as she brushed a hand along Bearby’s disheveled fur and contemplated the question.

Jayna leaned her head against Mandy’s side and hugged her arm. “You were right, Miss Mandy. They came for us.”

“And got us all off,” Caden said. “Every single one.”

Mandy forced a calm, convincing smile. These precious children did not need to know that not everyone had made it off the bridge or out of the water alive. As sure as she lived, she would take those horrific images of the collapse to her own grave.

Reece leaned close to Mandy’s other side. “And you kept us not afraid anymore. Thank you.” She pressed her stuffed animal’s ebony nose to her ear. “What? Oh.” She turned his smooshed-in face toward her ribs, like the toy was being shy. She leaned in and whispered, “Bearby says he thinks he loves you.”

Emotion lodged words in Mandy’s throat. She’d noticed Reece projecting thoughts and emotions onto the toy earlier. Mandy couldn’t have spoken if she’d wanted. So she smiled. Deeply, at each little expectant face.

This is why. These children. This feeling of accomplishment and knowing she could make a difference in the life of a child and their family in a difficult season.

She wrapped an arm around the two girls, and reached over to bump a gentle fingertip playfully on Caden’s nose.

“Children like you are why I do what I do.”

Leaning in, Mandy knuckled her hand and lightly fist-bumped Bearby’s tattered paw. “And for the record, Bearby, I think I love you, too.”