Cale stopped and let out a stream of breath. “Curiosity. There’s a damn good reason if you’re hanging around a hospital when you don’t have to be here.” He repeated the words slowly, as if Drew was being deliberately obtuse. “I’m betting she’s one hot reason, too.”
Drew could continue to argue with Cale, thereby raising his brother’s suspicions and determination, or he could drop the subject as if it held little importance. Either way, he knew from a lifetime of experience, Cale wouldn’t back off until he’d thoroughly satisfied his curiosity.
Drew followed Cale through the electronic glass doors into the heart of the ER. Nurses, orderlies and physicians moved at a brisk pace between curtained partitions, through trauma room doors or hovered around a large horseshoe-shaped desk area, filling in charts, speaking on telephones or viewing lab reports in an efficient display of organized chaos. Positioned at the counter in a pair of mauve scrubs stood Tilly Jensen.
“Hey, Tils,” Cale called to their childhood friend and neighbor. “Where’s the woman Drew brought in? The heat exhaustion.”
“Curtain three,” she told Cale.
Tilly glanced up from the chart she’d been reading, her gaze intent on Drew. He and Tilly had been best buddies from the time he and his brothers first went to live with their aunt Debbie. Tilly’s mother had died in childbirth, and the Perry boys had not only lost their mother, but their father, who had passed away less than two years later. The Perrys and Tilly had been kindred spirits, with Debbie Perry filling a void in all their lives.
“She’s going to be fine.” Tilly pushed a stray lock of her soft brown, chin-length hair behind her ear. “We don’t think it was the heat, but we’re waiting on labs just to be sure before we release her. It shouldn’t be much longer, then you can take her home.”
“Thanks,” Drew said, oddly relieved, yet frustrated with himself for even harboring the emotion. Heat exhaustion or heatstroke could easily be fatal if not immediately treated. He ignored the knowing lift of his brother’s eyebrows and attempted to convince himself the relief stemmed from the fact he’d been handy when Emily had needed someone with a modicum of medical training.
The argument was a hard sell, even to himself.
“What about her grandmother?” Drew asked. “Velma Norris?”
Tilly capped her pen and stuffed it into the front pocket of her scrubs. “She’s staying the night. Her burn isn’t too bad, but her doctor decided to keep her for observation as a precaution because of her age.”
A doctor motioned for Tilly. “Curtain three,” she said to Drew, pointing down a short corridor, before heading into another room.
Cale was unusually quiet as they neared Emily. Drew pushed through the opening in the curtain and his heart thumped heavily against his ribs.
Emily lay resting on a gurney. With her eyes closed and the cloud of wavy shoulder-length blond hair surrounding her face, she looked like something out of a fairy tale, waiting for the right guy to come along and kiss her awake so they could live happily ever after.
He didn’t believe in fairy tales.
She must have sensed their presence. Her lashes fluttered, and then Drew found himself drawn into a pair of big soul-searching eyes the color of sweet, dark chocolate. Cale’s assessment of hot didn’t exactly sum up Drew’s impression. Breathtaking did, however.
She looked from Drew to Cale, then back at Drew. The barest hint of a smile curved her lips. “Please, tell me I’m not seeing double.”
“Nah.” Cale stepped up to the gurney. “There’s two of us. I’m Drew’s older, much better-looking brother.”
Drew ignored that comment and adjusted the head of the gurney for Emily as she attempted to sit upright. “Emily Dugan, my brother, Cale. The maladjusted middle child.”
“Middle? You mean there’s more of you?” Her gaze scanned them both again. “And you’re both firemen?”
“Paramedic,” Cale said. “Drew here likes to catch firebugs, and Ben, our oldest brother, he’s the firefighter.”
Emily frowned and looked at Drew. “You’re an arson inspector?”
Cale slapped a hand down on Drew’s shoulder. “Yup, he knows what a fire thinks.”
“Don’t you have somewhere to go?” Drew asked his brother.
“Not at the moment.” Cale never could take a hint.
Drew decided to continue ignoring him. “Have they told you about your grandmother?” he asked Emily.
She nodded. “I’m going up to see her as soon as they release me. Do you know how it happened?”
He had a pretty good idea. Someone was setting fires. Until today, no one had been injured. Velma Norris’s burns might not be life-threatening, but next time she might not be as fortunate.
“A fire was smoldering in the trash bin outside the school,” Drew told Emily. “When your grandmother opened the bin, oxygen fed the flames. Her right hand and part of her forearm were injured.”
Emily opened her mouth to say something just as a young doctor pushed through the curtain. He glanced at Emily, then at Drew and Cale. “Which one of you is responsible for the patient?”
“I am,” Drew said, before he could stop himself. He wasn’t really responsible for her, but he sure felt as if he’d been assigned the task of taking care of her. Exactly why, however, remained a mystery, especially since rescuing damsels in distress was Cale’s gig, not his.
The doctor looked down at the chart, then back at Emily. “We have good news. Your labs came back in good order, and there were no signs of heatstroke. But I do suggest you take it easy and be sure to drink plenty of liquids as a precaution.”
“May I leave now?” Emily asked, a hopeful note in her husky voice. The kind of voice that held the power to drift over a man’s heart.
The doctor nodded, then tucked the chart under his arm. He gave Drew a stern look. “Don’t leave her alone tonight. Just to be on the safe side…considering.”
Drew frowned. “Considering?”
“Yes, considering her condition.” The doctor smiled suddenly and extended his right hand to Drew. “You’re going to be a father, Mr. Dugan. Congratulations!”
2
PREGNANT?
How on earth had that happened?
Emily wasn’t stupid or naive. She knew all about the how, but the whys and why nows had her more than a little dumbfounded.
Alone on her grandmother’s side of the semiprivate room, amid the get-well bouquets already arriving from friends and relatives, Emily lounged in the hard taupe vinyl chair and absently nibbled on her thumbnail while staring at the television screen where Pat Sajak interviewed the contestants on Wheel of Fortune. She hadn’t spent five minutes
