Redemption Road (Jackson Falls #5) (25 page)

Eyes closed, he slumped on his tailbone, those long legs stretched
out before him. “If ever in my life I needed a drink, it would be now.”

“Sorry, but you’re stuck with hospital coffee. And unless you’re a
masochist, you’re better off going without.” At the Admissions window, the
nurse was waving a clipboard. Colleen strode across the room and took it from
her. She returned to Rob and put it in his hands. “We have paperwork to do, my
friend.”

He opened his eyes and slid to an upright position. Picked up the
pen she gave him. Read the first question and made a fumbling attempt to write
an answer. But his hand was shaking so hard, he couldn’t write legibly. Even
when he wasn’t shaking, Rob’s handwriting was illegible. Under duress, it
didn’t even resemble the English language. “Give it to me,” she said. With her
brow wrinkled in concentration, she filled in her sister’s name, address, date
of birth. “Social security number,” she read aloud. “Do you know that?”

He shrugged, ran the fingers of both hands through his hair.

“Okay. Primary physician is Dr. Klein. OB/GYN is Levasseur. Any
known allergies?”

“Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” he exploded. “They already have this
stuff somewhere. She’s been coming here for years.”

“Presenting problem,” she read, and wrote
uterine hemorrhage/miscarriage
.
“Here.” She shoved it back into his hands. “Sign and date it at the bottom.”

His signature was indecipherable, but then, probably so were the
signatures of half the doctors on staff. She took the clipboard back to the
nurse, said, “This is the best we can do,” and returned to her brother-in-law.

They sat silently, side by side, each of them alone with their
thoughts. She didn’t dare to let him know how frightened she was, for fear that
he’d lose it completely. She’d never seen so much blood come out of a human
being. If anything happened to Casey, she’d probably stop breathing. All those
years they’d been estranged, all the time they’d wasted. And for what?  Casey’d
had a right to live her life, out from under their father’s thumb. Her sister
hadn’t owed her anything. It wasn’t Casey’s fault that she’d screwed up her own
life so bad.

“For the first time,” he said, “I understand how Danny must’ve
felt.”

She turned her head, waited for him to continue.

“They were in the middle of a knock-down, drag-out fight. She was
screaming at him. That woman has quite a set of lungs on her when occasion
warrants it.”  He spoke the words almost proudly. The man was so besotted with
her sister that if Casey robbed a bank, he’d probably be right there taking
pictures to commemorate the occasion. “One minute she was fine. The next
minute, she was sitting on the kitchen floor with blood streaming out of her. I
was the one who called 911.”  He snorted. “Danny didn’t even know she was
pregnant.”

“But you did.”

“We told each other everything. And Danny was so wrapped up in his
own stuff that sometimes he just looked right through her. He was the one who rode
in the ambulance with her. I was the one who got left behind to mop the blood
off the floor.”

She reached across both their chair arms and took his hand. “You
loved her even then, didn’t you?”

“I did. I don’t think I realized how much. We were just kids,
y’know?”

“She’s going to be fine.”

“Yeah.”  He let out a hard breath. “What if she’s not?”

“Casey wouldn’t leave you. My sister is a rock. She’d never leave
you and Emma and Paige.”

“You know what they say about a woman being the heart of a home? 
In her case, it’s really true. She’s like superglue. She holds us together with
her love.”

She squeezed her brother-in-law’s hand. “Oh, I suspect you have a
little input in that area.”

“Nah. I’m just window dressing. She’s the nucleus we all orbit
around.”

The door to the outside world swung open, and her sister-in-law
Trish blew through it. She looked around the waiting room, saw them, and made a
beeline for Rob. “Oh, honey,” she said, enveloping him in a hug. “I’m so sorry.
Is Casey okay?”

Colleen made her escape while she could, followed the corridor
until she found a restroom. Inside, she stood in front of the mirror, hands
braced against the counter. She’d aged twenty years since this morning. What if
this was her fault?  What if the accident had somehow mortally wounded Casey’s
unborn child? If she was responsible for this heartache, she would never
forgive herself. And if Casey died, life without her would be unimaginable.

Tears stung her eyelids. Colleen turned on the faucet, splashed
cold water on her face. She was blotting it with a paper towel when somebody
came through the door. She stiffened at the approach of footsteps. Instead of
continuing on to one of the stalls, they stopped behind her, and a hand touched
her shoulder. Colleen opened her eyes and met Trish’s in the mirror. “Are you okay?”
her brother’s wife said.

Colleen shook her head no, turned, and let Trish fold her into her
arms. “It’s all right,” Trish said. “Cry it out, sweetheart. You’ll feel
better.”

The floodgates opened, and she cried and cried on Trish’s shoulder,
cried until her eyes felt dry and dusty in their sockets. “This is all my
fault,” she said, when there was no more crying left to do. “We went off the
road last night, and we hit so hard, and we were arguing and I wasn’t paying
attention.”

Trish brushed the damp hair away from Colleen’s face and gripped
her firmly by the shoulders. “You listen to me. This kind of thing happens. This
isn’t her first miscarriage. She may have some physical problem that makes it
hard for her to carry a baby to term. The fetus may have been defective. There’s
no reason to think it had anything to do with your accident. We’ll probably
never know why it happened, so it’s pointless to lay blame.”

“But what if she dies?”

Trish touched her cheek, swiped at a tear. “Oh, honey, she won’t
die. She may look frail, but Casey’s strong as an ox. She’ll outlive us all.”

“I thought you hated me.”

“I never hated you. I thought you took advantage of my brother
when he was hurting. Casey had just dumped him, and he was nursing his wounds,
and there you were, and…well, we both know the rest. I didn’t mean to be
spiteful. I’ve always loved you. I just forgot for a while. But when I heard
you and Casey singing, it brought back so many memories, of what life was like
when we were all kids, bouncing in and out of each other’s houses. Of your
amazing mother. Of you and Casey, two beautiful little girls, singing like
angels in matching outfits. You were so close back then. Two peas in a pod. And
I realized I should have forgiven you for marrying my brother a long, long time
ago. So I guess my question to you is, can you forgive me?”

“I was hurt. You were like a big sister to me until I married
Jesse, and then I felt so rejected.”

“You’ll never know how sorry I am for that.”

Like the shining thing it was, hope sprang to life inside her
chest. “You don’t think it’s too late for a fresh start?”

“I think as long as we’re both upright and breathing, it’s never
too late for a fresh start.”

***

When they returned from the bathroom, the surgeon was talking to
her brother-in-law, who looked immensely relieved. The doctor nodded, clapped Rob
on the shoulder, and hurried off. “Well?” Trish said as they approached.

“She’s in Recovery. It got a little scary for a while. She lost so
much blood.” His voice thickened, and he cleared his throat. “But she’s stable.
They’re keeping her overnight. We can see her in an hour or so.”

The tight band of fear constricting Colleen’s chest loosened. “Did
he offer any opinion as to why this happened?”

“He didn’t know. I asked him if it might’ve had anything to do
with the accident. He said probably not. If there’d been severe enough trauma
to cause miscarriage, it probably would’ve happened right away. He thinks the
fact that it happened less than twenty-four hours after the car went off the
road is probably just coincidence.”

Trish squeezed her hand. “What about future pregnancies?”

“This shouldn’t affect them. But he advised waiting a year before
we try again. Casey won’t like that.”

“Well,” Trish said, “it takes two to tango. I guess that means
it’s up to you.”

“Believe me, we won’t be taking any chances. I don’t intend for her
to go through this again. And I’m not sure I’d survive it again.” He took a
deep breath. “Now that the worst is over, I’d kill for a decent cup of coffee. And
I have to call Paige. I imagine she’s worried to death. That wasn’t a pleasant
scene this morning.”

“I can run to Dunk’s,” Colleen said. “Pick up coffee and a box of
doughnuts.” She eyed him and added, “Swing by the house and get you a change of
clothes.”

“That would be great. I’m staying the night at the hospital. If
you want to take the car home and pick us up in the morning, it’s fine with
me.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m calling Mikey and letting him know
I won’t be home tonight. I’m staying here with my sister.”

Mikey

He was napping when she rapped on the window, and he awoke
abruptly, disoriented until he saw her face peering at him through the glass. His
heart drumming so loud he could hear it in his ears, Mikey reached across the
seat and unlocked the passenger door. He’d been sitting here for an hour, engine
idling while he waited for midnight to arrive, half-afraid she’d back out and
wouldn’t show. But here she was, looking so beautiful in the red parka that she
took his breath away. Paige MacKenzie. The woman he was about to marry.

Paige opened the door, set her guitar case on the torn blue vinyl
that he’d patched with electrical tape. He picked up the case and placed it in
the storage compartment behind the bench seat. Her suitcase followed, and he
tucked it neatly beside his duffel bag. She climbed up into the cab and
silently pulled the door shut behind her. “Hi,” he whispered.

She dropped her hood and shook out her blond curls. “Hi,” she
whispered back.

“You have everything?”

“I have you,” she said. “None of the rest of it matters.”

“Come here.” She slid across blue vinyl until her thigh brushed
his, and he leaned over and kissed her, hard and possessively. She leaned back
against the crook of his arm and gazed at him from beneath long, thick lashes. “You
got away okay?” he said.

“Dad and Casey went to bed early. She’s exhausted.”

“Mom told me about the baby. That really bites. I know how much
she loves kids. She okay?”

“It hit her hard. And Dad…I know he’s shook up. I was there when
it happened. He was so scared for her. He loves her so much.”

He nudged her cheek with his nose. “You sure you’re okay with
this?  Because if you’re not, now’s the time to say so.”

“I think you need to shut up and drive, before Dad’s supersonic radar
goes off and he comes looking for us.”

***

They were really doing this.
His heart rate didn’t slow to
normal until he crossed the Piscataqua River Bridge into New Hampshire. Then he
relaxed and opened the Beast up, cruising at a precise 7 mph over the posted
speed limit. There were places he’d seen, out west, where the road went on in a
hazy line forever, and nobody cared how fast you drove. But here, in New
England, that seven over was pretty much standard operating procedure. Sure,
the cops could ticket you for going 66 in a 65. But generally, as long as there
was nothing else to arouse suspicion, they left you alone if you stayed below
that 7 mph cap.

As he drove through the night, sharing the road with truckers and
other nocturnal creatures, the tires beat an insistent rhythm against the
pavement, the mantra inside his head repeating with that rhythm
:  I’m getting
married. Getting married. Getting married.
It was still hard to believe
that Paige had accepted his proposal. Exciting, but also scary, because now he
was responsible for her, and he took that responsibility seriously. Every time
headlights lit the cab of his truck, he glanced down at her, cat-napping
against his shoulder, her blond curls in glorious disarray. She’d been
unnaturally silent ever since they left. Leaving Leroy behind had to be
devastating. Even worse was leaving behind her baby sister. She doted on Emma
the same way he did on Beth. But it was different for him; he’d already been
living away from home for almost a year. Paige had only been with her dad since
she was fifteen. They’d barely had time to get to know each other. It was an
extraordinary thing she was doing, giving up all of that to be with him.

He drove all night and half the morning, his hand clasped tightly with
Paige’s while she stared silently out the window at snow-covered fields and old
farmhouses with the weekly wash flapping on the line. Outside of Buffalo, he
finally pulled into the parking lot of a seedy motel. He gave the desk clerk a
song-and-dance about being newlyweds on their way home to visit the family. He
wasn’t sure the woman bought it; she eyed them hard over the rims of her
glasses. But he had an honest face, and Paige smiled brilliantly throughout the
transaction, so in the end, the woman photocopied his driver’s license and
handed him a key.

“Room 14,” she said. “Around the back. No smoking, no partying. Checkout
time’s ten a.m.”

Instead of going directly to their room, they found a place nearby
that served breakfast all day. “We have to be frugal,” he told her as they
perused the sticky menu. “Use our money carefully. Gas is expensive, and the
truck’s on its last legs. We’ll probably have to buy a new one once we get
settled.”  So they both ordered the $1.99 special:  fried eggs, greasy bacon,
and burnt toast, washed down with stale coffee. The food was awful, but it was
filling, and all that really mattered to him, all that really mattered to
either of them, was being together.

While they ate, they talked about their future, about the trip,
about their planned stop in Vegas to get married. One of Mikey’s friends knew a
guy who knew a guy, and for fifty bucks, he’d managed to obtain a fake I.D. that
magically changed her age from seventeen to nineteen. The guy had done a good
enough job so that nobody would question its validity.

“I think if we drive at night and sleep during the day, there’ll
be less chance for them to find us.”  He spread jelly on his toast, hoping to
make it palatable. “Assuming they actually look for us.”

“My dad will be looking. He’s probably freaking out by now.”

“After we’re married,” he said, “once we get to California, you
should probably call him.”

She absently dragged a spoon through her cup of coffee while she
stared out the window. “The timing of this is just so bad,” she said. “With
Casey’s miscarriage and all.”

“You’re feeling a little guilty.”

“I’m feeling a lot guilty. Their stress level was already through
the roof. Dad must be at red alert by now.”

He studied her eyes, clear and honest, a beautiful shade of
MacKenzie green. “Yeah,” he admitted, surprising himself. “Me, too. But it
couldn’t be helped. It’s not like I had a choice. I have to be there when I
have to be there.”

She set down the spoon and lay a hand atop his. “I’m sure they’re
upset, but it’s too late to worry about it now. What’s done is done. We’ll deal
with the fallout later.”