Me And Mr. I.T. (Kupid's Cove Book 2) (12 page)

“There is probably some swelling around the nerves in the face. That’s common with these types of injuries. A little ice, Advil, and rest over the next few days will return it to normal. Not to worry.”

She had a hold of my hand tightly and I could see on her face how scared this made her, even if she thought she kept it hidden. Before I could say anything to her, they arrived to take her to x-ray.

I kissed her forehead. “I’m going to go call Lei. I’ll be waiting when you’re done.”

She waved a little as they rolled the gurney out of the room and I went outside the ER doors to use my phone where it was quiet. I dialed a familiar number and waited while it rang twice.

“Mally? How is she?” Katie asked without even greeting me.

“She’s hanging in there. They’ve taken her down to x-ray now and then I’m sure they’ll decide to release her or make her stay. Either way, I’ll keep you updated. She’s having some problems with the nerve in her face working right, but the nurse assured us it would go back to normal in a couple days.”

“I’ll send Gideon in the morning with the chopper to bring you back. I’m sure she would rather be at home where she’s comfortable.”

I leaned on the building so my tired body could rest. “Let’s hold off until I call you in the morning. Even with one side of her face swollen to twice its normal size, she can’t stop talking about work. The ballroom isn’t finished with the renovations, so she planned to stay low-key for the next few days anyway. If I can keep her in the suite working quietly and resting, she may be just fine. Besides, if Gideon shows up here, I’ll be the one in trouble, since I promised not to tell you she got hurt.”

Katie groaned. “What’s wrong with that girl? She worries too much about everyone else.”

“She said you had an appointment today and she didn’t want to make anything worse.”

Katie sighed and I felt her resignation all the way to my soul. “It was a simple checkup,” she answered, but I knew otherwise. “Tell her I’m fine. No, don’t tell her, you’re right, if you tell her you’ll get in trouble. I’ll call her in the morning.”

“I’ll text you any updates as I get them. Tell Gideon this won’t hold up the turnaround time on the business center. I can ask Lei to stay with her if I need to work.”

“Mally, honestly. We aren’t the kind of employers who think work is more important than taking care of a loved one. Take tomorrow off. Keep me updated and I’ll check in with you in the morning.”

I promised to text her and hung up, tapping the phone on my hand a few times before I slipped it back in my pocket. I pulled the contact case out and unscrewed the lid, looking at the contact floating in the liquid. Unlike most contacts that are clear, this one had a blue circle around it. I had no doubt it would change the color of a person’s eye. It seemed odd that she only wore one, but I screwed the lid on and went back into the hospital. It was time my wife and I had a little chat.

Chapter Ten

Ellie

The waiting room sat empty save for a woman with a stroller in front of her. Maltrand deposited me there to wait while he brought the van around, so I had no choice but to sit in the dumb wheelchair and try to pretend I didn’t feel ridiculous looking like a victim of a mugging.

Diagnosed with a severe contusion to my eye socket and facial nerve swelling due to the trauma, Dr. Vandeguard said I would be back to normal in a week. Nothing would be normal though, because now Mr. I.T. was going to find out my closely guarded secrets and that would change everything. I guess telling him now saved me heartache later on when someone else told him. I tried to figure out why I even cared. The marriage wasn’t real, so I don’t owe him anything.

The baby in the stroller was crying so loudly it made my head throb. The woman went to the front desk to ask how much longer it would be, exasperation clear in her voice. I pushed the wheelchair over by the stroller and waited for the woman to return while I smiled at the little bundle in the stroller.

“Aloha, she’s gorgeous,” I cooed, as the mother sat down next to the stroller. “How old is she?”

“Aloha, only five days. She won’t stop crying and I can’t figure out why.”

I looked up and the woman sucked in a breath when she saw my face. I pointed to it. “Sorry, had a run in with a Frisbee at work. Doc says I’ll be fine in a few days.”

“Good, that looks nasty. I want Hope to be fine in about five minutes. I’m at my wit’s end.”

I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but only one side of my face turned up. “I can only imagine how exhausting it is to be a new mom.”

“Oh, I’m not her birth mom. I’m her foster mom. She’s an emergency placement in my home. I have three other little ones and none of us are getting any sleep.”

“Is her name Hope?”

“No, technically, she doesn’t have a name. We call her Hope because my eldest son keeps saying, ‘I hope she sleeps soon’.”

I laughed as my eye traveled back to the little girl. She opened hers when I spoke softly to her. Pulling the blanket out of the way, I looked up at the woman. “Does she have birthmarks anywhere else?”

“Her left leg has a whole bunch of them,” she answered.

I nodded, soothing the little girl by stroking her cheek. “Can I hold her?”

The woman looked at my eye again, but for lack of a better idea, she pulled her from the car seat and laid her in my arms. I cooed to Hope who seemed to notice she wasn’t in the uncomfortable seat anymore. She sucked at her fist and I laid her tiny body on my legs, opening the blanket wrapped around her. She wore a hospital gown still and I could easily slip it up around her waist. Her left leg revealed a red mottled birthmark from hip to ankle.

“Do you see how her left leg is slightly bigger than the right?” I asked the foster mom and she nodded. “Do you see this vein that goes up her leg and behind it?”

“They told me she might have a syndrome of some kind.”

“Has she seen a pediatrician?” I asked, rubbing the baby’s leg.

“She was abandoned at birth, so now she’s a county kid and the wheels turn slow. I hope to get a referral when I take her in for her one-week checkup in a few days.”

“I think that would be a good idea. For now, if you would ask the attendant for a roll of gauze I’ll show you how to make her more comfortable.”

The woman jumped up and practically ran to the desk, asking the receptionist for gauze.

I ran my finger down the little girl’s left cheek, talking softly to her. “Hello, Hope. We’ll make you feel better in a few minutes. The silly adults need to understand how you feel, and they don’t, do they, sweetheart?” I asked, pulling her to my shoulder to rock her again as she started to fuss. I felt a hand on my right shoulder and knew without turning it was Maltrand.

“Who’s your friend?” he asked.

I kept my voice low when I answered him. “Her name is Hope. She’s five days old.”

“Where’s her mother?” he asked, sitting in the seat next to my wheelchair.

“She’s getting a roll of gauze from the nurse,” I explained as Hope settled again with the jiggling. He leaned back when the foster mom returned and handed me the gauze roll.

I laid Hope on my lap again and opened the roll. “I’m Ellie, by the way.”

“Aloha, Ellie. I’m Marcy.”

“I think it’s wonderful what you do for these little angels. I’m going to make your life a whole lot easier right now.”

“Anything would help,” she laughed a little, obviously frustrated.

I held up the roll of gauze. “If you use gauze and wrap her left leg with it, like this.” I showed her how to wrap it starting at the ankle up to the hip and then back down. “You’ll keep the thumping sensation in the limb to a minimum. That long vein is essentially a varicose vein, the same as adults get later in life. It has a lot of blood flow through it, which is why her left leg is bigger than her right. You can use anything to wrap the leg with, a blanket, gauze, even a small ace bandage, but don’t wrap it tight. Too tight and it will be painful. Think of the wrap as a compression stocking you would wear after surgery. You want to support it, but not squeeze it. You should take it off when she’s awake during the day, but put it back on before naptime and bedtime. It will keep her comfortable until she grows and it becomes less prominent.”

Hope was staring up at me with hopeful eyes. She wasn’t fussing anymore, so I handed her to Marcy. “I’ll let you swaddle her. I’m not very good at it.”

Marcy looked up from the baby who was dropping off to sleep already. “I don’t know about that. I think you’re an angel. I can’t thank you enough. Look at her, she’s going right to sleep.”

“I’m glad I could help. Poor little things don’t understand why they don’t feel well and it breaks my heart.”

She looked up at me again after she laid the sleeping babe in the car seat. She had tears in her eyes. “It breaks my heart, too. That’s the reason I keep taking them into my home and the reason I let it break my heart when they leave. They have to have someone in this big world they didn’t ask to be born into.” She leaned down and hugged me gently. “I’m going to let you head home and so am I. I don’t think little Hope needed a doctor. She just needed you.”

I patted her back and shrugged. “It’s no problem. She’s adorable. Remember, it will get easier, I promise. And not too tight,” I emphasized again.

She nodded. “Not too tight, just enough to make her feel swaddled. I can do this.”

She waved and pushed the stroller to the front desk to take Hope’s name off the list of patients.

“Your work here is done,” Maltrand said, standing and taking the handles on the back of the chair. “Now we need to get you home.”

I let him push me to the van and I climbed in the passenger seat, buckling myself in while he returned the wheelchair. I laid my head back on the headrest while he put the van in gear and headed to the hotel.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, holding my hand as he drove with the other.

“I’ve been better, but I’ve been worse. Mostly I’m tired and want to sleep.”

“I’m going to feel bad waking you up every two hours, but Katie said to take the day off tomorrow, so I think I’ll take her up on that.”

I groaned. “You weren’t supposed to call her!”

He laughed without opening his mouth. “I didn’t call her. Lei called her and told her you were injured. I got a text from an angry momma bear. I called her while you were in x-ray and assured her you were fine. She wants to send Gideon with the chopper to pick you up tomorrow.”

I banged my head gently on the headrest, but thought better of it after the first thump. “No, I haven’t even started my work here. You heard the doctor; he said I’ll be fine in a week.”

He let go of my hand to turn the van behind the hotel. “I know, and I told her that. She said she would call you tomorrow. You can assure her you’re okay, or ask her to come get you. Either way, I’ll stay and get the business center running at the very least.”

What he didn’t say was he had no way to find the thief without me. Instinctively I laid my hand on his shoulder while he pulled the van down into the parking garage. The headlights illuminated the other vans until he switched the ignition off.

“I’m not leaving until we’ve found the thief. I know how worried you are, and so am I. The only way they’re getting me back to Maui is if I’m dead.”

He turned in the dark van and slipped his hand behind my neck, gently tugging me closer to him. “Don’t ever say that again. You scared me in a way you don’t understand tonight. I’m not even sure I understand it, but I know one thing, I don’t even want to think about you dead. Got it?” I nodded and he leaned in closer, the heat from his hand seeping into my skin like the warm summer sun. “You might as well know I’m going to kiss you now.”

He laid his lips on mine and waited for me to react, good or bad. I reached for him, my hand going into his hair, and my head turning to the right to protect my face. He kept the kiss gentle and undemanding, but there was an underlying sense of urgency I felt, but didn’t understand.

His mouth let my lips go slowly and I sighed. “If I didn’t have a concussion I would suggest we take this upstairs.”

He smiled and rubbed my cheekbone with his thumb. “I’m taking you upstairs and you’re going to climb into bed. I’ll order some food to the room. I’m sure you’re hungry.”

I let go of his neck and tried to remember what he felt like under my hands. I would never hold him in my arms, but I would hold onto the memory of his touch for a long time to come.

“Ellie, wake up, honey.”

“I’m already awake,” I said, my voice hushed in the dark of the night. “I can’t sleep; my face is pounding.”

The bed depressed and he helped me sit up. “I have an app for that. It’s called Tylenol and an icepack.”

I accepted both from him and attempted to swallow the pills, without all the water dribbling of my lip.

“Thanks for taking care of me,” I said, only partly tongue in cheek.

“I’m your husband; it’s my job,” he said while winking at me, which even in the low light of the room I could see was playful.

He stood and went around to the other side of the bed, climbing in. Earlier, before bed, I insisted he could sleep on the left side of me. I don’t know what possessed me to argue with him about having the bed to myself. Maybe it was the head injury scrambling my brain.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked and he turned on his side to look at me.

“Sure, anything.”

“When we were on the beach you said you overcame a lot to finish college. I was wondering what you had to overcome when the Frisbee came at me.”

“I wasn’t your traditional college student. I didn’t start until I was almost twenty-three and then it took me five years to graduate.”

I did the math in my head. “Wait, so you’re twenty-eight?”

He smiled and ran a finger over the swollen edge of my face where the icepack lay. “I’m almost thirty. I’ve been working for Gideon for a year already.”

I tried to hide the surprise on my face. “You don’t look thirty.”

“And you don’t look twenty-five. Age is a number and irrelevant.”

“I guess you’re right there. You worked your way through college?”

“You know that old cab we took into town the other night?” I nodded and he grinned. “I drove a cab when I wasn’t at school, which is how I met Gideon.”

I shifted the icepack a little so it didn’t slide off. “Really? He needed a cab?”

“In the worst possible way,” he answered, taking my hand and holding it loosely. “I was waiting for another fare when he came running up the beach carrying an unconscious and bleeding Katie. He stuffed her in my cab, crawled in the back and told me to drive it like I owned it. When I got them to the hospital he handed me his card and told me if there was anything I ever needed I should call him.”

“So you called him when you needed a job?”

He flipped his hand up until our fingers laced together the way lovers do. I didn’t pull my hand away, though. It felt good to connect with another person this way.

“Not at first,” he looked down at the bed and I wondered what he didn’t want to tell me.