Just Married...Again (18 page)

“We’ll need more towels and blankets warmed up. Just drape them over those stools. I think I brought my hot-water bottle; you know how I pack everything I own when I go someplace.” She started out of the room. “See if you can wake him, get him to talk to you.” Maddy hurried down the hall toward her bedroom and located the oversized tote bag that contained what essentials she’d thought she would need for a trip to the mountains. She dumped the contents on the bed—two cosmetic pouches, her bath salts and oils, creams and lotions, her blow dryer and curling iron, and finally her hot-water bottle and a heating pad. Nobody could ever accuse her of not being prepared, she thought.

She reached for them, upending a half-open box of tampons. Any other time she would have paused to pick them all up, but she was more concerned with her nephew than anything else.

She hurried into the bathroom and waited for the water to warm up for the hot-water bottle. Not too hot, she reminded herself. Once she had the bag secured, she made tracks for the living room. Michael was talking loudly to Danny, as though his hypothermia and frostbite had rendered him deaf.

“I pledge … allegiance …” Danny’s words were slurred. His teeth chattered. He drifted off. Michael nudged him gently. “To the flag.”

“The flag.”

“Come on, Danny, I know you can say the Pledge of Allegiance.”

“Of the ’nited States of ’merica.”

Maddy slipped the hot-water bottle at Danny’s feet and propped it with a pillow so it would touch his toes. After locating an extension cord, she plugged in the heating pad, turned it on low, and placed it on Danny’s chest beneath the blanket. Then, using extreme care, she lifted his small frozen hands from his side and placed them directly on the pad.

“With liverty and just for all,” the boy finished. Maddy looked up. “Liverty?”

Michael looked at her. He could tell she was scared. So was he. But they had to keep their heads, or they wouldn’t do Danny any good. “This is not the time to be picky. Once he rests up a bit, I’ll have him sing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ how’s that? Just kidding,” he said, when her mouth dropped open. “Would you calm down? You’re making me a wreck.”

Maddy took a deep breath. Adrenaline was still pumping through her body after the scare and all the racing about she’d done. She looked at Michael. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a cup of coffee.”

“I’ll make it while you put some clothes on,” he said. “I don’t need two sick people on my hands.” He also didn’t need to keep seeing that robe flap open each time she turned, giving him a clear shot of long shapely legs. He had enough to think about.

“Michael?”

He glanced up. “Yes?”

“Leave out the salt?”

He smiled wearily. “Okay, but only because you asked me nicely.”

Maddy dressed in her pajamas and put on thick socks before she stuffed her feet into her bunny slippers. Her dogs, who surprisingly enough had slept through all the ruckus, now raised their heads and yawned wide, each emitting a squeaky-door sound that always made Maddy chuckle.

“Do we need to potty?” she said. They both stood and wagged their tails and followed her to the utility room. Once they’d taken care of their business and Maddy had cleaned up the litter box, she checked on Danny. He was still shivering, though not as badly, and he opened his eyes when she touched his cheek.

“Rambo and Muffin miss you,” she said softly.

He turned his head slightly and gazed at the two dachshunds. He smiled, and then he looked at Maddy once more. “Am I sick?” he asked, still talking through chattering teeth.

“You got too cold out there today, honey,” she said.

“My fingers and toes hurt.”

“You also got a touch of frostbite. Nothing serious,” she added quickly, not wanting to frighten him. “I can give you a couple of aspirin if you like. Do you think you could swallow them?” He nodded, and she smiled. “Tell you what, I’ll make you some hot cocoa, too. That’ll help warm you up.”

“I already beat you to it,” Michael said, when she entered the kitchen. He poured a pan of hot water into a cup of cocoa while she got Danny’s aspirin and water.

Michael gently held Danny up so he could take the medicine and sip the cocoa. “We might as well change the towels and blanket,” he said, “while we have him up.”

“I’d rather go ahead and pull out the sofa bed,” Maddy told him. “If you could just hold him for a minute.” Michael picked up the boy, and she tucked the blanket more securely around him so he wouldn’t get cold.

Michael carried Danny to the chair and sat down, holding him in his arms as he would an oversized infant. As he gazed at his nephew he knew he’d never have been able to live with himself if something had happened to him.

A groggy Danny opened his eyes. His smile was weak. “Are you going to sing me a lul’by, Skipper?”

Michael felt something sting the backs of his eyes. He blinked. “Yeah. When pigs fly.” He voice came out sounding gruff, but the look in his eyes was one of love and deep concern.

Once Maddy had made up the bed and placed the warm towels in the very center, Michael laid the boy down. Maddy put the heating pad on Danny’s chest and placed his hands on top, then covered him with two freshly warmed blankets. She fashioned a towel around his head like before, then checked his hot-water bottle to see if it was still giving off enough heat.

“What do you think?” Michael said quietly as they sipped their coffee in the kitchen.

“He’s going to be okay. You and I need to sleep with him tonight.”

“On the sofa bed? Won’t that be kind of crowded?”

“That’s the point. He can absorb our body heat. Besides, I don’t want to leave him for one minute, and we can’t risk letting the fire burn out.”

“I should never have forced the two of you out in this cold,” Michael said, his expression guilt-ridden.

“Stop blaming yourself. We all dressed warmly and took every precaution. Children are more susceptible to hypothermia because of their size, and Danny’s on the skinny side to begin with.” She reached over and covered his hand with hers. “He’s going to be okay.” She suspected they would probably take turns reassuring each other over the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

“How about you?” he asked, suddenly looking anxious. “Do you feel okay?”

“I’m perfectly fine. And Danny will be, too.”

But Michael couldn’t stop worrying. While Maddy prepared dinner he kept the fire going and sat on the edge of the sofa bed, watching for any sign of improvement. The boy had finally stopped shivering, and he seemed to be sleeping peacefully, but still, Michael fretted. In the past, when he’d thought of children, he’d viewed them as a hardship, what with buying clothes and shoes, feeding and educating them, paying the costs for medical and dental work, and a whole slew of other expenses. He’d sympathized with his colleagues who were parents, who sometimes had to sit up all night with a sick child, only to have to go to work come morning. Now he realized just how lucky those people were to have someone in their lives who loved and needed and trusted them.

He no longer pitied them, he envied what they had.

“Michael?”

He jumped when Maddy called his name. He hadn’t even heard her come into the room. She stood there holding a steaming bowl. He saw the concern on her face, but this time it was aimed at him.

“Why don’t you take a break while I try to get Danny to take this broth?” she suggested.

“I’ll feed it to him.” He woke the boy gently. It took some convincing, but they finally got him propped up on several pillows so Michael could spoon the broth into his mouth.

Maddy checked Danny’s toes and fingers and saw, to her relief, some of the color had returned. Nevertheless, she refilled the water bottle and put it in place.

“How do you feel, Dan-the-Man?” Michael asked, teasing the boy.

“Tired. I just want to sleep, but you guys keep bugging me.”

“It’s for your own good, buddy. You gave us a scare, and you’re not out of the woods yet.”

Once Danny had taken about half the broth, Michael pulled the pillows from beneath him and exchanged his blankets for two that had been warming in front of the fire. As he tucked them around the boy Danny opened his eyes briefly.

“Thank you, Uncle Mike, for taking care of me.”

Michael had never seen his nephew look so trusting, and the emotion was as powerful as if he’d just received a blow to the chest. “You’re welcome, kiddo.”

They sat up late, warming towels and blankets and feeding the fire. As though sensing something was wrong with Danny, Muffin and Rambo jumped onto the sofa bed and curled up at his feet.

It was after two a.m. when Maddy and Michael finally decided to lie down, each of them pressed close to Danny. As Michael draped a protective arm over the boy, he discovered Maddy had done the same. He touched her hand, and they linked fingers. They dozed on and off.

Michael wasn’t sure what woke him the next morning, but he opened his eyes with a start and sat straight up. He automatically glanced over at Danny and found the boy awake. Maddy was sleeping soundly on her side of the sofa bed. “How’re you feeling, champ?” he whispered.

“Hungry.”

“I’ll make you something,” Michael said, taking care to speak quietly. “Let your Aunt Maddy sleep as long as she can. She was up a lot during the night.”

They both had been up and down much of the night. Michael had seen to the fire, since he didn’t trust the electric heater and had finally unplugged it. Maddy had kept towels and blankets warming so that Danny wouldn’t risk getting chilled. Several times she’d made the boy drink something, although he had complained and insisted he was too tired. The sky had already begun to lighten when they’d finally given in to exhaustion.

Michael glanced at his wristwatch and saw that it was after ten o’clock. He climbed from the bed quickly, knowing he had a lot to do. It wouldn’t be easy trying to write a message in the snow with broken tree limbs, but that’s all he had to work with. He would spell out the word
medic
in great big letters, then send off his flares and hope for the best.

And once they’d packed and were waiting for help to arrive, he would call Maddy to the bedroom and have a final heart-to-heart conversation. He’d learned a lot about life during the past ten months; even the last few days had been an eye-opening experience for him. If nothing else, he now knew what was important to him and what wasn’t.

Danny insisted on sitting at the kitchen counter to eat his oatmeal, although Michael draped a warm blanket around him and set the heater nearby. He sipped his first cup of coffee and watched his nephew anxiously while Maddy slept on.

“Uncle Mike?” Danny said, speaking just above a whisper.

“Yeah?”

“Do you think Aunt Maddy’s going to stop the divorce?”

The man shrugged. “I don’t know, Danny. But I don’t want you worrying about it. You need to concentrate on getting better.”

“I could try to talk to her for you and tell her what a good person you are. I mean, look what you went through for her, all that planning. You even pretended to have amnesia for her.”

Michael quickly glanced toward the sofa bed to make sure Maddy was still asleep. She hadn’t so much as turned over. Poor thing was probably exhausted.

“You know the good thing about being sick?” Danny said. “My parents probably won’t come down on me as hard for running away.”

“Does this mean you’ve scrapped the idea of hitching a ride up to Canada after all?” Michael asked, looking amused.

“Remind me never to tell Aunt Maddy my secrets,” Danny said.

“She loves you very much. You ’bout scared her to death when you told her your plans.”

Danny shrugged. “I figure Canada can wait. I’m kinda in a hurry to get back home.”

Michael heard a noise from outside and wondered if that’s what had awakened him in the first place. He hurried to the window and looked out. He was both relieved and disappointed to find two snowplows heading their way. For Danny, who needed to be checked by a doctor, it was good news. As for him, he would be too busy packing and getting the boy ready for the trip back, and probably wouldn’t have time to talk to Maddy the way he’d planned.

His time was up.

Maddy heard the noise, too, and knew what it meant. She’d been lying there quietly, listening to the fire and the sound of her nephew’s voice. He still sounded a little weak, but he was on the mend. It lifted her spirits. Then, just as quickly, they sank.

Michael had faked his amnesia. He’d made a fool of her. What made it worse was that Danny had known. Oh, how the two of them must’ve laughed over her naiveté. When had Michael become so cruel? He had played her like a tune. He’d gained her sympathy; she’d given her heart and body.

But she’d always been a fool where her husband was concerned.

No more.

Planting a cheerful smile on her face, Maddy climbed from the sofa bed and joined the two in the kitchen for her first cup of coffee. She wouldn’t waste time fighting with Michael. She just wanted to pack her things and get out.

Besides, there was no reason to fight. They were finished.

They packed in record time. Michael waved down one of the heavy-equipment operators and paid him fifty dollars to pull Maddy’s Jeep out of the ditch. Once he threw things in the car and put the fire out, they were on their way.

The trip down the mountain was slow; here and there he found patches of ice, despite road crews working to put out sand. Michael constantly watched his rearview mirror to make sure Maddy was following close behind.

The hospital was located in the foothills, a sprawling one-story building on the edge of town, blanketed by snow. Michael carried Danny into the emergency room, where a young intern saw him right away. Maddy found a comfortable chair and sat quietly in the waiting area while Michael paced.

“Are you okay?” he asked her. She hadn’t said more than a dozen words since they’d arrived.

“I’m tired and I’m worried about Danny,” she said, keeping her voice neutral. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, hoping he would take it as a hint that she needed rest more than conversation.