Читать книгу Unlikely Lover - Diana Palmer - Страница 9

Chapter Four

Lillian was comfortably settled in a room in the small Ravine hospital. The doctor had ordered a series of tests—not because of her broken leg but because of her blood pressure reading taken in the emergency room.

“Will she be all right, do you think?” Mari asked Ward as they waited for the doctor to speak to them. For most of the evening they’d been sitting in this waiting room. Ward paced and drank black coffee while Mari just stared into space worriedly. Lillian was her last living relative. Without the older woman she’d be all alone.

“She’s tough,” Ward said noncommittally. He glared at his watch. “My God, I hate waiting! I almost wish I smoked so that I’d have something to help kill the time.”

“You don’t smoke?” Mari said with surprise.

“Never could stand the things,” he muttered. “Clogging up my lungs with smoke never seemed sensible.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “But you drink.”

“Not to excess,” he returned, glancing down at her. “I like whiskey and water once in a blue moon, and I’ll take a drink of white wine. But I won’t do it and drive.” He grinned. “All those commercials got to me. Those crashing beer glasses stick in my mind.”

She smiled back a little shyly. “I don’t drink at all.”

“I guess not, tenderfoot,” he murmured. “You aren’t old enough to need to.”

“My dad used to say that it isn’t the age, it’s the mileage.”

His eyebrows arched. “How much mileage do you have, lady?” he taunted. “You look and feel pretty green to me.”

Her face colored furiously, and she hated that knowing look on his dark face. “Listen here, Mr. Jessup—”

“Mr. Jessup.” His name was echoed by a young resident physician, who came walking up in a white coat holding a clipboard. He shook hands with Ward and nodded as he was introduced tersely to Mari.

“She’ll be all right,” he told the two brusquely. “But I’d like to keep her one more day and run some more tests. She’s furious, but I think it’s for the best. Her blood pressure was abnormally high when we admitted her and it still is. I think that she might have had a slight stroke and that it caused her fall.”

Mari had sudden horrible visions and went pale. “Oh, no,” she whispered.

“I said, I think,” the young doctor emphasized and then smiled. “She might have lost her balance for a number of reasons. That’s why I want to run the tests. Even a minor ear infection or sinusitis could have caused it. I want to know for sure. But one thing’s certain, and that’s her attitude toward the high blood pressure medication she hasn’t been taking.”

Ward and Mari exchanged puzzled glances. “I wasn’t aware that she had high blood pressure medication,” Ward said.

“I guessed that,” the young doctor said ruefully. “She was diagnosed a few weeks ago by Dr. Bradley. She didn’t even get the prescription filled.” He sighed. “She seems to look upon it as a death sentence, which is absurd. It’s not, if she just takes care of herself.”

“She will from now on,” Mari promised. “If I have to roll the pills up in steak and trick them into her.”

The young resident grinned from ear to ear. “You have pets?”

“I used to have a cat,” Mari confided. “And the only way I could get medicine into him was by tricking him. Short of rolling him up in a towel.”

Ward glared at her. “That’s no way to treat a sick animal.”

She lifted her thin eyebrows. “And how would you do it?”

“Force his mouth open and shove the pills down his throat, of course,” he said matter-of-factly. “Before you say it,” he added when her mouth opened, “try rolling a half-ton bull in a towel!”

The young doctor covered his mouth while Mari glared up at the taciturn oilman.

“I’ll get the pills into her, regardless,” Mari assured the doctor. She glanced at Ward Jessup. “And it won’t be by having them forced down her throat like a half-ton bull!”

“When will you know something?” Ward asked.

“I’ll have the tests by early afternoon, and I’ll confer with Dr. Bradley. If you can be here about four o’clock, I’ll have something to tell you,” the young man said.

“Thank you, Doctor…?”

“Jackson,” he replied, smiling. “And don’t worry too much,” he told Mari. “She’s a strong-willed woman. I’d bet on her.”

They stopped by Lillian’s room and found her half sedated, fuming and glaring as she sat propped up in bed.

“Outrageous!” Lillian burst out the minute they entered the room. “They won’t give back my clothes. They’re making me spend the night in this icebox, and they won’t feed me or give me a blanket!”

“Now, now.” Mari laughed gently and bent to kiss the thin face. “You’re going to be fine. They said so. They just want to run a few more tests. You’ll be out of here in no time.”

That reassured the older woman a little, but her beady black eyes went to Ward for reassurance. He wouldn’t lie to her. Not him. “Am I all right?” she asked.

“You might have had a stroke,” he said honestly, ignoring Mari’s shocked glare. “They want to find out.”

Lillian sighed. “I figured that. I sure did. Well,” she said, brightening, “you two will have to get along without me for a day or so.” That seemed to cheer her up, too. Her eyes twinkled at the thought of them alone together in the house.

Ward could read her mind. He wanted to wring her neck, too, but he couldn’t hurt a sick lady. First he had to get her well.

“I’ll take good care of baby sister, here,” he said, nodding toward Mari, and grinned.

Lillian’s face fell comically. “She’s not that young,” she faltered.

“Aunt Lillian!” Mari said, outraged. “Remember my horrible experience!”

“Oh, that.” Lillian nibbled her lip. “Oh. That!” She cleared her throat, her eyes widened. “Well…”

“I’ll help her get over it,” Ward promised. He glanced down at Mari. “She’s offered to help me get some of my adventures in the oil business down on paper. Wasn’t that nice? And on her vacation, too,” he added.

Lillian brightened. Good. They weren’t talking about his “fatal illness” or her “brutal attack.” With any luck they wouldn’t stumble onto the truth until they were hooked on each other! She actually smiled. “Yes, how sweet of you, Mari!”

Although Mari felt like screaming, she smiled at her aunt. “Yes. Well, I thought it would give me something interesting to do. In between cooking and cleaning and such.”

Lillian frowned. “I’m really sorry about this,” she said, indicating her leg.

“Get well,” Ward said shortly. “Don’t be sorry. And one more thing. Whether or not this fall was caused by your blood pressure, you’re taking those damned pills from now on. I’m going to ride herd on you like a fanatical ramrod on a trail drive. Got that?”

“Yes, sir, boss,” Lillian said, pleased by his concern. She hadn’t realized she mattered so much to anyone. Even Mari seemed worried. “I’ll be fine. And I’ll do what they tell me.”

“Good for you,” Ward replied. He cocked his head. “They said it could have been an ear infection or sinusitis, too. So don’t go crazy worrying about a stroke. Did you black out before you went down?” he persisted.

Lillian sighed. “Not completely. I just got real dizzy.”

He smiled. “That’s reassuring.”

“I hope so. Now, you two go home,” Lillian muttered. “Let me sleep. Whatever they gave me is beginning to work with a vengeance.” She closed her eyes as they said their goodbyes, only to open them as they started to leave. “Mari, he likes his eggs scrambled with a little milk in them,” she said. “And don’t make the coffee too weak.”

“I’ll manage,” Mari promised. “Just get well. You’re all I have.”

“I know.” Lillian sighed as they closed the door behind them. “That’s what worries me so.”

But they didn’t hear that troubled comment. Mari was fuming all the way to the car.

“You shouldn’t have told her what the doctor said.” She glowered at him as they drove out of the parking lot.

“You don’t know her very well,” he returned. He pulled into the traffic without blinking. Ravine had grown in the past few years, and the traffic was growing with it, but speeding cars didn’t seem to bother him.