Amanda's Blue Marine (26 page)

Mandy thought about what he'd said and realized that from his narrow point of view, he was correct. From what he knew about both of them and their experience together he had reached the logical conclusion. He was perceptive, but quiet, and usually didn't articulate his opinions. He observed and processed and decided but kept his world view to himself. That had changed during their last two meetings, he had opened up and told her what he really felt and thought. She hadn't liked all of it but his candor demonstrated a level of trust she hadn't seen before and it made her love him all the more. But now in the face of what he saw as her rejection he was retreating into the silence and resentment that had been his refuge before he met her.

"Kelly, will you promise me that you will give me a chance now and just listen to me? You've had your say, I know how you feel and now it's my turn. Isn't that fair?" She drew back and looked at him.

"You're such a lawyer," he said shortly. His voice held just a hint of the old teasing note she loved.

She smiled. "I see that we're back to Detective Silence. Just the facts, ma'am. I've missed him the past few days. In the entire time I have known you you’ve rarely spoken more than seven words in a sentence. Then since you got that freakin’ medal you've been like Henry Clay filibustering the Senate."

"Liked me better when I wasn't talking, huh?" he said lightly. Again, his tone wasn't angry and that encouraged her. She took a deep breath.

"I tried to call you last night on your cell phone after I left my parents’ house. It was really late but I kept trying. I left 12 messages. I thought you weren't picking up because you saw the calls were from me."

He sat up and released her. "I never saw the messages," he said.

"Why not?"

"I was a little ...unsteady... after you stood me up. I didn't want to be alone. The poker game had cleared out so I drove to my brother's house and spent the rest of last night on the spare bed in his basement."

She waited. This wasn't an explanation of the cell phone silence.

He stared at the floor a long moment and then said, "I told you I got smashed once I got to Mike's. I was too drunk to care about anything after that and then this morning when I woke up I couldn't find the phone. It must have fallen out of my pocket. It's probably buried in the sheets on the bed."

Mandy inched closer to him again. He didn't pull away but he didn't look at her either.

"Kelly..." she began.

He turned his head away from her. "If you're going tell me that we'll both be better off apart in the long run and I'll get over it eventually, I swear to God I'll start breaking up the furniture." His profile was set in stone, but his voice was uneven.

"That's not what I was going to say."  Her tone was measured, deliberately unemotional. "I told Tom last night that I couldn't marry him because I was in love with you."

He looked back at her swiftly, his expression blank. Then it became hopeful, then cautious.  He wanted to believe but was still doubtful.  His long lashes, black and silky, framed his cat's eyes as he gazed at her.

“I went to my parents’ house and told all three of them I wasn’t marrying Tom,” Mandy continued. “I told my father he could do whatever he wanted with his business deal but it didn’t include me. I said I was very sorry if he lost his investment because Tom didn’t get what he wanted but my life was my own. I said that I wanted to help Rick but it wasn’t fair to expect me to put aside my happiness to bail him out yet again.”

"You were right about everybody being happy with me and Tom," she whispered. "My mother has told me repeatedly to forget you, that I was physically infatuated with you, and it would pass."

He drew in a breath.

"I don't want it to pass," Mandy added, and lifted his hand to her lips. She kissed his palm. He closed his eyes.

"I am totally besotted with you," she went on, curling her arms around his neck. His left arm came up and held her against him.

"I can't look at you without wanting to undress you," she whispered, "and I don't want that to change."

He said nothing, but once again his grip tightened.

"My father told me once before that maybe I wasn’t in love, maybe I was just grateful that you saved my life," she went on, speaking into his ear. "That's true, I am grateful, but I am also totally and completely in love with you."

He pulled her into his lap.

“I know that our initial attraction was physical but that’s true of many relationships. It’s so much deeper than that now. I wish you would believe that you have a lot more to offer than just sex.”

She could see that he was trying not to laugh. That was such a good sign that she buried her face in his shoulder and clung to him with relief.

He looked down at her and she saw that his eyes looked foggy, almost dazed. Concerned, she said to him, “Are you all right, Kel? You look a little… off.”

He shook his head. “I’m never sick.” Then he blinked. “Wait. There’s one in that kitchen drawer. Kate left it there for the kids.” He pointed.

His glazed expression was really alarming her.

“Come with me and we’ll lay down on the bed inside,” Mandy said.

“Is that an invitation?” he asked lightly, but she saw that when he tried to stand up he sat back down again, quickly. She knew he wouldn’t want to be assisted so she followed him closely as he rose again, slowly, and walked to the bedroom. She didn’t miss his sigh of relief as his head hit the pillows and he closed his eyes gratefully.

“I’m going to call your sister. She’s a nurse, right?”

His eyes opened. “She’s on the first vacation she and her husband have taken in twenty years. They left the kids with her sister- in -law and went to Aruba. You are not going to call her and tell her that Brendan has a boo-boo.”

“Your brother?’

He shook his head. “He has classes all weekend, filling in for me. He wanted me to take the time off for the medal thing.”

She could see that the effort of talking was tiring him, so she stopped asking him questions. She found the oral thermometer, still wrapped and unused, and stuck it in his mouth to take his temperature. He didn’t even protest.

When she saw the digital result she groaned inwardly.

102.5

Mandy sat on the bed next to him and said, keeping her voice even, “Kelly, we have to get some help. Your fever is really high and I don’t know what to do. I want to take you to the ER at Mercy. Karen works there and she is on duty.”

“You’re really sick and I’m scared. This happened so fast and you need help. Can I at least call Karen to come here?” Her voice sounded wobbly.

He barely nodded, not opening his eyes. His acceptance of her direction without a debate told her that he was too ill to argue with her.

As soon as Mandy was out of his earshot she dialed Karen on her cell phone. Karen was just finishing a 36 hour shift. Mandy caught her as she was getting into her car to leave the parking garage.

“Karen, I need your help,” Mandy said without preliminary. “Can you get over to the Greenvale apartment complex right away? Like now?”

“Whoa, wait a minute. I’m dead on my feet, all I can think about is a shower and a nap. What’s going on? Why are you at Greenvale?”

“I’m in Kelly’s apartment and he’s sick. I think he’s really sick. He looks awful and his skin is so hot, he’s burning up. I don’t have anything here and if I call an ambulance I know he’ll kill me once he’s capable of standing up again. But he needs help. I need help. Can you come right now?”

There was a protracted silence. Then, “My shift just ended and I’m beat.”

“Please,” Mandy said. “I’ll owe you forever. I’m really worried. He’s one of those people who never complains but he’s looked bad since I first got here today and now he’s almost unresponsive, I can barely get him to answer me. Please come, and bring your bag. Number 436, you know where the entrance is, by the dry cleaners on Claremont.”

It was the longest ten minutes of Mandy’s life. She checked on Kelly twice and both times his breathing was labored and he hardly stirred when she touched him.

What was wrong with him? He had said he was drinking the night before and Mandy knew that could cause aftereffects. But this had happened so fast that it seemed like one minute he was talking to her and the next he was falling on the bed.

Mandy paced and kept looking out the window of Kelly’s apartment, on the alert for Karen’s old convertible. Mandy was so unnerved by Kelly’s sudden collapse that she thought wildly about drugs and various other explanations, but she felt she knew him well enough to rule out everything except illness. Even if he had a monster hangover it wouldn’t explain the high fever.

Mandy opened the front door and closed it again. Karen had still not arrived. Mandy was restless and jumpy but knew there nothing she could do until Karen examined Kelly. And there was another reason for her discomfiture, and it took her a minute to realize what it was and admit it to herself.

It was a startling experience to see that Kelly was human and subject to the same weaknesses that plagued everyone. Since she’d met him she’d thought of him as her protector and her rudder, invulnerable to the calamities that afflicted lesser people. It was a shock to see him fall victim to the flu or a virus, whatever this was.

It proved that he was mortal, and she didn’t like that at all.

Mandy saw Karen’s car pull into a space across the lot and she ran to the door, yanking it open and pulling Karen inside by her arm as soon as she saw her.

“Come in and see him,” Mandy said anxiously.

“Take it easy, I’m sure he’s not dying,” Karen said irritably, removing her arm from Mandy’s grasp and following her down the short hall to the bedroom. They both stood looking down at Kelly silently.

“You can’t wake him up?” Karen asked, opening her satchel and taking out a forehead thermometer. She waved it across his brow smartly.

Karen didn’t answer, which alarmed Mandy more than the number had. Karen listened to Kelly’s heart through his back and took his pulse as Mandy waited for her to say something.

“Well?” Mandy finally demanded.

“His heartbeat and pulse are normal, I’m going to take his blood pressure.” She unrolled a cuff from her bag. “He’s not into drugs, downers or painkillers, anything that would make him go out like this?”

Mandy shook her head. “He said he drank too much last night but that was some hours ago and it wouldn’t cause this kind of a reaction, would it?”

“It doesn’t look like alcohol poisoning to me, we get them in the ER all the time. He was awake and talking to you before this happened?”