Lucy and The Lieutenant. Helen Lacey
and head out and another fifteen to get to the hospital. He called Grady again once he was out of the truck and headed for the ER.
By the time he reached Reception he felt as though his chest might explode. The woman behind the counter said she’d inquire after his uncle and told him to wait.
Great. Exactly what he didn’t want to do.
He knew Grady was on his way to the hospital, so he paced the room for a few minutes and then finally sat. The hospital sounds reverberated in his eardrums. Phones, beepers, gurneys, heels clicking over tiles. Each sound seemed louder than the last.
He sat for five minutes, swamped by a building helplessness that was suffocating.
When he could stand it no more he got up and headed back to the counter. “Is there any news about my uncle?”
The fifty-something woman scowled a little and flicked through some charts on the desk. “No, nothing yet.”
“Then can you find someone who might know something?”
She scowled again and Brant’s impatience rose. He wasn’t usually a hothead. Most of the time he was calm and in complete control. Twelve years of military training had ingrained those traits into him. But he didn’t feel calm now. He felt as though he could barely stand to be in his own skin.
“Brant?”
He knew that voice.
Turning his head, he saw Lucy and relief flooded through him. In some part of his mind he wondered how she had the power to do that, to soothe his turbulent emotions. Just knowing she was there somehow made things easier. Better. He swiveled on his heels and watched as she walked toward him, wearing scrubs and a white coat. Brant met her gaze and swallowed hard.
“You’re here.”
“I’m here,” she said and smiled fractionally. “What do you know?”
“Not much,” he said and shook his head. “What happened?”
Her eyes gave it away. It was serious. “He had a heart attack.”
A heart attack? Fear coursed through his blood. “Is he...is he dead?”
The second it took for her to answer seemed like an hour. “No.”
Brant fought back the emotion clogging his throat. “Is he going to make it?”
She nodded slowly. “I think so.”
“Thank God,” Brant breathed and, without thinking, reached out and hauled her into his arms.
Lucy melted.
She’d never pegged Brant as a hugger. Nor did she want to think about what was going on in the minds of the two nurses at the reception desk. Cedar River was a small town. She was a doctor on staff and the most gorgeous man on the planet was holding her so tightly she didn’t dare breathe.
There might be talk. Innuendo. But she didn’t care. In that moment he needed her. Wanted her. It might be fleeting. It might be the only time she would ever get to feel what it was like to be in his arms. She heard his heart beating and felt the steady thud against her ear. His chest was broad, hard, the perfect place to rest her head, and all her plans to get him out of her mind quickly disappeared.
When he released her she was breathing deeply, conscious of the sudden intimacy between them. He pulled away and dropped his arms, watching her, his gaze so intense it weakened her knees. There was something in his eyes, a kind of wary vulnerability that tugged at her heartstrings.
“Sorry,” he said quietly, clearly aware they were being observed by the two women at the desk. “That wasn’t appropriate.”
Maybe not, she thought, but it sure felt good. It wasn’t the first time she been embraced in the waiting room. Relatives of patients had done it before when they had received news, good and bad. But this was different. This was Brant. Lucy forced some movement into her limbs and gathered her composure. She was a doctor and needed to act like one.
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I can take you to see your uncle now.”
He nodded. “Thank you.”
“We’ve done a few preliminary tests and it looks as though he has an arterial blockage. So he may need surgery,” she explained as she used her key card to open the doors that led to the small emergency room. “We’ll keep him here under observation tonight and then he’ll be transported to the hospital in Rapid City tomorrow. They have excellent cardiology and surgical departments there and he’ll be in really good hands.”
He walked beside her through Triage, his expression impassive and unreadable. Lucy linked her hands together and headed for the cubicle at the far end of the room. She eased the curtain back. Joe Parker was resting and she leaned a little closer toward Brant to speak.
“He’s asleep. I know his pallor looks a little gray, but that’s not unusual after an episode like he’s had. We’ll let him rest for a while and do his OBS again in half an hour. You can sit with him if you like.”
Brant nodded and sat. “Thank you.”
Lucy lingered for a moment. “We’ll do our very best for him. He’s a special man and, despite his age, he’s quite strong.”
“Yeah, he is.”
She knew how much the older man meant to Brant. She’d witnessed his affection for Joe Parker many times when he’d come to visit him at the veterans home. And Colleen had told her about the special bond they shared. They were both soldiers. They’d both fought for their country and had seen war and destruction and death. It was easy to understand why Brant cared so much for his uncle and had such a strong connection to him.
“I’ll come back in a little while,” she said and lightly touched Brant’s shoulder. He tensed immediately and she quickly pulled her hand away.
She left the cubicle and pulled the curtains together. There were three other patients in the ER. A woman with a nasty burn on her arm, a toddler with a fever and a teenage boy with a fishing hook through his thumb. She checked on the baby and was pleased that his fever had gone down fractionally, and then instructed one of the triage nurses to get the teenager prepared so she could remove the hook. By the time she was done a little over half an hour had passed and she headed back to Joe Parker’s cubicle.
Grady and Colleen were both there, bending the rules since regulation stated only two visitors were allowed at a time. But Colleen was well-known at the hospital and sometimes rules needed to be broken. Colleen was sitting in the chair and her sons flanked either side of the bed. Joe was awake and smiled broadly when she pulled back the curtain.
“Here she is,” he said. “My guardian angel. She’s been looking after me since I got here.”
Lucy grinned. “Well, you’re a model patient, so it’s been easy.”
“Never a more beautiful girl have I ever seen,” Joe said and chuckled. “Makes me wish I was forty years younger.”
Lucy smiled at his outrageous flirting and glanced toward Brant. He was watching her with blistering intensity and she quickly shifted her gaze. “How are you feeling?” she asked, grabbing the chart from the foot of the bed.
“Better for seein’ you, Doc,” he said and winked.
“Joe,” Colleen chastised her much older brother-in-law gently. “Behave yourself.”
Joe Parker smiled again, wrinkling his cheeks. “Ha! There’s no fool like an old fool, right, Doc?”
He made a breathless sound and Lucy stepped toward the bed and grasped his wrist. He was overdoing it. She urged him to lay back and rest. She checked him over and scribbled notes in his chart. When she was done she asked Grady to walk with her outside the cubicle. The eldest Parker son had his