Читать книгу The Home Is Where The Heart Is Collection - Maisey Yates - Страница 11
ОглавлениеAIDAN’S PHONE RANG with the signature ringtone for his father just as he pulled into a parking space near the sign for the emergency department at the modern-looking redbrick hospital along the lake.
He briefly entertained the temptation to ignore the call. He loved his father dearly but at the moment his primary focus centered on finding out Eliza’s condition and checking to make sure Madeline had someone looking after her.
On the other hand, after such a traumatic afternoon, he was drawn to the safe, warm, familiar connection with his father.
“Pop. Hi.”
He pictured Dermot Caine—hearty, strong, still handsome even as he headed toward seventy. Wherever his father might be when they spoke on the phone, Aidan always imagined him in his favorite environment, the Center of Hope Café, where he ruled as master and commander—pouring coffee and serving up pie and conversation to tourists and locals alike.
“Are you in the country?” Pop said. “I wondered if you might be abroad.”
Aidan winced a little as he watched the snow pummel the windshield with increasing intensity. Calling his father had been on his to-do list for a week.
“I’m here. I got your messages. Sorry we never connected. I’ve been in the middle of some pretty intense negotiations this week.”
“You work too hard, son.”
He couldn’t argue. He had been working twenty-hour days for the past week trying to iron out some contract disputes with one of their vendors in China and for several weeks before that, he had been neck-deep in product development projects.
Everything seemed harder since September. He wanted to think he was almost back to full throttle but he still had times when he had to collapse and sleep for almost twenty-four hours straight.
He didn’t tell his father any of that, of course.
“How is Katherine?” he asked, choosing a topic certain to distract his father.
“Lovely. Just lovely.” The delight and satisfaction in his father’s voice made him smile, despite the bleakness of his errand. “I had forgotten so many little things about sharing a home and a life with a woman. How she straightens up the towels in the bathroom and fills the house with fresh flowers and scented candles and little fancy soaps. She’s had such fun decorating for Christmas. The house is beautiful.”
His father, who had been a widower for most of Aidan’s adult life, had married just a few months earlier to a woman he had secretly cared about for years.
Aidan was deeply happy for his father, who deserved to find love and joy again after all these years on his own.
“And how are things coming there?”
“Good, I guess. I haven’t been up to the house yet.”
“Katherine is anxious to see it. We all are.”
“Everyone is still coming, then? I was afraid you might be calling to tell me you’ve decided to stay in Hope’s Crossing, after all.”
“No. We’re all excited to be together for once. No one else has any place big enough for all of us, now that we’ve absorbed all these new people into our midst.”
In the past year, two of Aidan’s siblings had also married and another had become engaged. When his family was already unbelievably large, every new person added a little more chaos into the mix.
“You’re sure about having us all, then?” Dermot asked.
“Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it.”
He was, even if he was beginning to have a few misgivings as the holidays approached. The whole plan to host everyone for Christmas had been his idea, actually, during that dark time in September while he waited for test results and feared the worst.
He had only recently come into possession of the property here at Lake Haven and his initial visit had convinced him the rambling ten-bedroom lakeshore lodge would be the perfect place for his overlarge family to gather.
Now that the reality of it all was sinking in, he was beginning to wonder if this was yet another decision he had made when he wasn’t precisely in his right mind. He loved his family best in small doses. Having everyone at Snow Angel Cove was certain to be noisy, chaotic and intense.
“I wanted to talk to you about the travel arrangements.” His father’s voice turned disapproving. “That’s the reason for my call.”
He braced himself for the lecture he knew was coming. “What don’t you like about the arrangements?”
“A private jet, son? Really? You’re sending a private jet for us?”
“Yes. And?”
“And it’s a ridiculous expense, that’s what it is. Why, we can drive there in no more than thirteen, fourteen hours, on a few tanks of gas.”
“Do you have a school bus I don’t know about, big enough for twenty people plus luggage?”
“Smarty. We could take separate cars. We could each drive our own and it would still cost less than a chartered flight.”
He sighed. His humble, hardworking father couldn’t quite grasp the fact that Aidan was loaded, even after all these years.
“I don’t want everybody to have to spend their whole holiday in the car. I can get everyone here from Hope’s Crossing in less than two hours.”
“It’s a big waste of money. That’s what it is.”
“It’s my money. If I want to waste it giving my family a happy Christmas, that’s my prerogative, isn’t it? I’m excited for everyone to be here. We haven’t spent a Christmas together in years. It’s too bad Jamie can’t make it.”
“Yes.” He could tell his father was still fretting about the expense.
“Just relax and let me worry about the details, okay? The flight is already arranged. It’s too late to back out now so you might as well just sit back and enjoy it.”
“I don’t see that you’ve given us a choice, if you’ve already paid for it.”
He would have smiled at Pop’s reluctance if he wasn’t parked outside a hospital, about to go in and check on the woman he had injured.
“I’ve got to go, Pop. I’m sorry.”
“I know. You’re a busy man.”
“I’ll see you in a few weeks, though, and we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.”
“You know I love you, son.”
“I love you, too, Pop.”
He had said those words whenever he spoke with his father since September. Each time, they seemed to carry a new weight, to ring with resonant depth.
He loved his family, each crazy one of them. His father had set a fine example of the way a man should live, with dignity, compassion and Dermot’s inherent goodness. As a result, his brothers were all men of honor and strength and he admired each one of them for different reasons—and the women they had chosen.
He only had one sister, the sweet and kind Charlotte, who impressed the hell out of him for the determination and courage she had directed toward turning her life around the past few years.
Aidan had neglected them all. For years, he had been immersed with single-minded focus on building Caine Tech into the powerhouse it was today. Something else had to slide along the way and his personal life had, by default, dwindled to nothing. As a result, he had missed countless birthdays, holidays and special occasions over the years.
This year, he wanted everything to be different. Life had taken an unexpected, disconcerting turn for him in the fall but he had emerged from it with a new determination to tighten and strengthen those ties binding him to his family.
He wanted this Christmas at Snow Angel Cove to be perfect for all of them, his way of making up for all those years of neglect.
First, he had to make sure the woman he had injured would be able to enjoy a merry Christmas of her own.
* * *
OH, HOW SHE hated this.
From the drafty hospital gown, to the smell of sickness and disinfectant, to the frustrating and unsettling sense of being completely out of control of her circumstances, Eliza heartily disliked hospitals.
She had a great respect for medical professionals and understood that certain instances required their services but she would rather be standing out in the middle of that storm out there in bare feet than be tucked here under warmed blankets in the emergency department of the Haven Point medical center.
Okay, she seriously loved the warmed blankets. They made her feel sleepy and cozy and safe. She probably should be ashamed at her fierce desire to just curl up on the uncomfortable exam bed and sleep for a few days.
All the more reason she had to get out of here. She didn’t have the luxury of dawdling under blankets, warmed or otherwise, when she and her daughter were now basically homeless.
“I’m fine, I promise,” Eliza insisted for at least the twentieth time. “Can’t I just go?”
The lovely red-haired young woman frowning at her appeared far too young to have earned that stethoscope and the name tag on her lab coat that read Dr. Devin Shaw.
“You were hit by a car, Ms. Hayward. The head CT showed a concussion.”
“And you said yourself, you saw no evidence of bleeding or swelling.”
The doctor made a dismissive gesture. “Yet. Sometimes those things can develop hours or even days after the initial injury. With all that’s been in the news lately about professional athletes and concussions, you surely understand that any head injury is potentially serious.”
“I know. I will be very careful, I promise.”
The doctor jotted a note on her chart. “I would still like to X-ray that wrist and possibly your shoulder where the vehicle struck you.”
All of which would take time and money, both of which she had in very short supply right now. “That’s hardly necessary. The SUV barely tapped me. Nothing is broken.”
“You sound very certain of that.”
“I’m sure I would know if I had any broken bones. Besides the concussion, I’ve got some scrapes and bruises and possibly a sprained wrist. That’s all. I don’t need to waste any more of your time.”
“You’re not wasting anything. It’s my responsibility to make sure we don’t let you leave the hospital until we’re absolutely certain it’s safe for you to do so.”
She shifted in the flimsy gown, wanting rather desperately to be done here. It was growing dark and a storm was poised to deliver a hard uppercut to this little corner of western Idaho. She didn’t have time to lie here being coddled and fretted over, not when she needed to find somewhere safe and warm for her daughter to stay.
“Look, I appreciate what you’ve done so far but, really, I’m fine. Please.”
She couldn’t stay here. The hospital was nice enough. Over the past five years with Maddie, she had seen the inside of more than her share of medical facilities and as far as she could tell, the Lake Haven Hospital was small but modern and seemed to have all the necessary diagnostic equipment.
The doctor might seem young but she also projected a calm, comforting bedside manner that Eliza appreciated.
That didn’t make her any more eager to stay a moment longer than necessary.
She craned her neck to see Maddie curled up in the visitor’s chair, watching one of her favorite Disney movies on Eliza’s tablet while she colored a picture with crayons and paper provided by the hospital staff.
Maddie had plenty of experience with hospital rooms and didn’t seem at all distressed to be in a new one. In fact, she had spent the past hour chatting up all the doctors and nurses in her usual friendly fashion.
Every time Maddie touched a surface, Eliza wanted to cringe and grab the spray disinfectant. Having a child with a serious health condition had given Eliza a severe case of germaphobia, at least when it came to hospitals.
No matter how good the hospital’s housekeeping department might be, most emergency departments were a breeding ground for viruses and bacteria by the very nature of the cases they treated.
She had to get out of here.
“Look, I appreciate your concern and I understand you’re just doing your job, but what do I have to do to convince you I’m fine so you’ll let me go? As I said, the SUV barely touched me. I don’t need X-rays or stitches and I don’t want any pain medication.”
“You might be singing a different tune in the morning. You’re probably going to hurt everywhere.”
She already hurt everywhere but she wasn’t about to tell this earnest, concerned young doctor that. “I promise, I’ll pick up a bottle of ibuprofen and take them faithfully.”
The doctor still didn’t look convinced so Eliza decided to appeal to her sympathy, if nothing else. “I appreciate your concern. Everyone here has been really great. I can highly recommend the hospital and will be happy to post good reviews on Angie’s List or wherever you hospitals need reviews, but I have had a really miserable day. The worst.”
The doctor gave her a sympathetic look. “The paramedics told me you were supposed to start work at the Lake Haven Inn. I’m so sorry. What rotten timing.”
“Almost as bad as being in the crosswalk at the exact moment a driver coming down the hill hit a patch of ice, right? Haven Point hasn’t been really great to me. Right now I just want to take my daughter and go.”
The doctor frowned again, looking torn. She studied the computer screen again and studied Eliza carefully.
“If I were to release you, where will you go?”
“I was going to drive back to Boise. I have friends I can stay with for a few days, until I figure things out.”
That was a blatant lie. Yes, she had plenty of friends but she wouldn’t feel comfortable calling any of them a few weeks before Christmas and inviting her and her daughter over for an open-ended visit.
She didn’t like the bleak option of an extended-stay hotel somewhere, but she would figure out a way to make it work for a while.
Dr. Shaw chewed her bottom lip, looking more like a middle-school student prepping for an algebra test than the attending physician at an emergency room.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t feel good about you driving two hours back to Boise when we haven’t properly assessed your injuries, especially with that storm. It’s already snowing pretty hard out there and I can imagine the mountain passes between here and Boise are restricted to chains or four-wheel drive only.”
“I have four-wheel drive on my vehicle and chains in my trunk.”
She also had a pounding headache that would make even driving to the mountain pass an interesting exercise, but that was another thing she decided not to mention to the physician.
“How about this. I’m all right with releasing you from here but I don’t feel good about sending you out into the storm. Do you know anyone in town you could stay with tonight?”
She shook her head then fought a wince as her pain cells reacted quite negatively to the gesture. “Megan Hamilton is the only person I know—besides the nice EMTs and your staff here, of course. I imagine Megan has her hands full right now, dealing with the fire at the inn. I can’t add another burden onto her plate.”
“We’re at a stalemate, then.”
“What if I were to find a hotel room for the night and drive back tomorrow?”
“I’m afraid that might be easier said than done. A lot of our hotels are only open seasonally, during the summer. With the fire at the inn, we lost half the available hotel rooms in town. All their guests had to scramble to find lodging here or in Shelter Springs, from what I understand.”
She sighed. Finding a way through this quandary was more effort than her aching head wanted to handle right now. “I suppose that’s our answer, then. I can’t stay overnight in the hospital simply because of a lack of hotel rooms. Not with Maddie to think about, too. I’ll drive back to Boise to stay with friends. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
The doctor was quiet. “I’m still not crazy about that option. You’ve got a sprained wrist and a concussion. We both know you’re in no shape for driving under perfect conditions, forget about driving at night during a winter storm. Give me a few moments to see if I can arrange something.”
“I may have the solution.”
The sudden masculine voice in the room startled both of them. Only Maddie, happily watching her show with her headphones on, didn’t jump.
Eliza and the doctor both turned to find Aidan Caine standing in the doorway, looking lean and sexy in a blue sweater, jeans and worn leather boots.
She knew who he was now. She had figured it out during the ambulance ride, when she heard the EMTs mention his name. She should have recognized him immediately but she had been too dazed after the accident to place why the face of the man whose vehicle had hit her seemed so familiar.
Aidan Caine. The Geek God. That’s what the magazines called him. He was a tech genius whose company had recently been named one of the five most influential in Silicon Valley. Though only in his midthirties, he was reported to be worth well into nine—possibly ten—figures.
She had never met the man in person but they were connected by a tangled web that went back far further than the events of this afternoon. What an odd coincidence, that he had been driving in the little town of Haven Point at the exact moment she was crossing the road.
If she didn’t know better, she might think Aidan Caine had some kind of vendetta against her and was determined to ruin her life—all while looking like a cover model for Sexy Geek Monthly.
“Hi!” Maddie exclaimed suddenly, distracted from the Disney princess movie she was watching. She pulled off her headphones and beamed at Aidan.
“Hey, Mama, look! That’s my friend! The nice man who helped me when you were hurt.”
Nice man? Aidan Caine? She really needed to have a talk with her daughter about developing more discriminating taste. From all reports, the man was ruthless and cold, used to taking what he wanted, to hell with the consequences.
He had just mowed her down with his car, for heaven’s sake.
Eliza had plenty of reason to know Mr. Caine and the people who worked for him only cared about the Caine Tech bottom line, not about all the people they stepped on to protect it.
Oblivious to just how much this man had indirectly altered the course of her young life, Maddie slid off her chair and trotted over to him holding out her paper. “Look, Mr. Aidan. I’m coloring a picture. It’s a Christmas tree. You can have it, if you want.”
Eliza braced to swoop in and protect her baby, fully expecting him to be impatient and brusque with a little girl’s childish drawing. Instead, he surprised her by taking the paper with apparent delight. “Thank you. It’s very nice. I especially like the angel on the top.”
“We always have an angel on the top of our tree,” Maddie informed him. “Except this year. This year we don’t even have a Christmas tree. Isn’t that sad? We were going to have one at our new apartment but it burned down. Now I don’t know what we’re going to do. All our ornaments are in boxes. So are most of my toys, even my Barbie Malibu Mansion.”
Dr. Shaw stepped forward before he could answer. “This is a secure area, Mr. Caine,” she said, her voice cold. “How did you get back here?”
The young doctor didn’t seem very impressed or intimidated by Aidan’s reputation, either. She faced him down, chin up and arms crossed over her chest like she was a one-hundred-pound offensive lineman protecting Eliza, who had the ball.
“I asked where I could find Eliza Hayward and the receptionist gave me the room number. Is that a problem?”
“Yes! We have strict security protocol. This area is restricted to family and friends of patients. As far as I know, you’re neither.”
“He’s my friend,” Maddie said firmly. “I want him here. He’s nice.”
Eliza flushed. Maddie had become very good at pushing her weight around in hospitals.
“There. You see?” Aidan said, after flashing a rather devastating smile to her daughter. “I’m Maddie’s friend. And I do believe I have an answer that might help everyone.”
She sincerely doubted that. Eliza pulled the warmed blanket—quickly losing its comforting capabilities, anyway—up to her chin, wishing she were wearing something other than this atrocious hospital gown.
A little battle armor would be nice when confronting a man like Aidan Caine.
“You need a place close by to stay for the night so you can leave the hospital, is that correct?”
Eliza didn’t want to answer but she could see no point in dissembling. “I want to drive back to Boise to stay with friends but Dr. Shaw is concerned about the storm.”
“With good reason. It’s really coming down out there.”
He was not helping her position with the doctor. Maybe he was trying to sabotage her life.
“Here’s the thing,” he said. “I recently took ownership of some property in town.”
Dr. Shaw gave an inelegant snort. “More like half of Haven Point,” she muttered.
To Eliza’s surprise, a hint of dusky color rose on the man’s cheekbones. “Not quite. But one of the properties is a large lodge on the southeastern shore of the lake about two miles from Haven Point.”
“Snow Angel Cove,” Dr. Shaw offered.
He looked surprised. “You know it?”
“I grew up on the lake, Mr. Caine. Everyone knows Snow Angel Cove.”
“Then you can confirm that there’s plenty of room for Ms. Hayward and her daughter to stay while she recovers from her injuries.”
He really thought she would just merrily pack her daughter up and go move to a stranger’s home? Either he was unbelievably arrogant or ridiculously clueless. She would bet on the former.
“That’s not necessary. I’ll figure something else out,” she said, her tone stiff. Her head throbbed as if someone had wedged it in a car door and was slamming the door against it again and again for fun. The rest of her wasn’t faring much better.
After the miserable day she had endured, she just wanted to be alone somewhere where she could whimper and sniffle and lick her wounds by herself.
“There aren’t any hotel rooms left in town. You heard the doctor. I don’t feel good about you leaving town, either, in the middle of that storm. I promise, I’m not a homicidal maniac.”
No. Only a fiercely ruthless competitor who had built his business from nothing in only a few years—and the man who had indirectly contributed to her husband’s death.
She didn’t want anything to do with him.
“That’s impossible,” she said. “Completely out of the question. I’m not staying with you.”
Surprise flitted in his blue eyes, as if he had never expected her to refuse. “If it makes you feel any better, a very nice couple has been overseeing the renovations on the property for me the last few months. They’re staying on the property, as well.”
That made the whole thing sound more like a genuine offer to help her out of a tough situation and help her get released from the hospital and less like he planned to drag her to his evil lair for his own nefarious purposes. But still.
“This is stupid. I’m fine to drive back to Boise. I’m used to driving in snow. I’ve got a four-wheel-drive SUV and I have good tires on my car. Unlike someone else I could mention,” she said pointedly.
Where was all this snarkiness coming from? She was never caustic or sharp. She considered herself a nice person, darn it. Apparently, leaving one job and apartment, losing another of each in a terrible fire and then being mowed down on the street, all in the same day, tended to bring out the worst in her.
Unfortunately, reminding him of his contribution to her situation only seemed to strengthen his resolve.
“That is exactly the reason you should stay at Snow Angel Cove for the night. I feel responsible that you were hurt.”
“You are responsible,” Devin Shaw murmured.
He nodded. “There. What the good doctor said. I am responsible for you being hurt. I would offer to put you up in a hotel for the night but as Dr. Shaw pointed out, I doubt there’s one room to be found in town. This is the next best thing. Please, Ms. Hayward. Better than some cramped couch at a friend’s house.”
“Do you have a Christmas tree?” Maddie asked eagerly.
He looked down, apparently disconcerted by the question. “Um, I don’t think so. Not yet, anyway.”
“That’s okay,” Maddie said.
She seemed to accept this failing—and the whole situation—with far more equanimity than Eliza. She also seemed to have developed an immediate liking for Aidan.
Eliza wanted to pull her daughter close and whisper to her a bit of maternal advice about being careful about the men you decide to trust, but this probably wasn’t quite the time.
“It’s not a bad solution,” Dr. Shaw said with a pensive nod. “As a last resort, I was going to offer my own house for you to stay. It’s not far from here and I have an extra bedroom. The only problem is, I’m on shift all night tonight and you and your daughter would be alone there. I’ll tell you quite frankly, I feel much better about you staying somewhere with people around than I would even if we could find you a hotel room here or up in Shelter Springs.”
Eliza studied all three of the people in the room, looking at her with varying degrees of expectation. She was too tired and battered to make this kind of decision right now! This whole thing was so ridiculous.
If she only had herself to consider, she would jump up from this bed, grab her coat, tell them all to go to hell and drive to Boise, against medical advice or not.
But she would be a poor mother not to be concerned about her daughter’s well-being. Maddie had already had a long, hard day. She was a trouper but she had to be exhausted. Subjecting her to at least a two-hour car ride in poor conditions—and with a driver who, like it or not, probably wasn’t in any shape to drive—would be foolhardy.
He had an abundance of bedrooms and a caretaker couple in residence. She likely wouldn’t even see the man before she and Maddie left in the morning.
The thought of having a safe, comfortable bed suddenly held enormous appeal. One night. What would be the harm in that?
And anyway, what choice did she really have in the matter? She had a feeling it was either stay with him or be stuck here in the hospital overnight.
“I suppose we could stay for one night, if you’re certain you have the room.”
Relief blazed across his features and she realized with some surprise that his concern was genuine.
“Absolutely,” he answered. “We have more than enough room.”
“The place is huge,” Dr. Shaw said.
“Yay. Now we can help you get a Christmas tree!” Maddie exclaimed.
“Great,” he answered another quick flash of that devastating smile.
“I do have one caveat,” Dr. Shaw said. “Someone will have to check on Eliza during the night. I would prefer every two hours but at least once or twice will suffice.”
“That can be arranged,” he said.
“Great. Then I’ll start work on your discharge papers.”
She hurried out of the room, leaving Eliza alone with the man who had put her in the hospital bed in the first place.
