Carly (26 page)

Hearing confident footsteps, Leigh turned and Nate was striding toward her. Unwilling to break the sleepy silence of the hospital
at night but needing him more than she could say, she ran on tiptoe to him.

Nate folded her into his arms and hugged her to him fiercely. “What’s the news?”

She reveled in his reassuring strength but even more in his inexhaustible love for her.
Why have I been so angry with him? I’m the one at fault
. “Grandma Chloe is going home soon. They’re watching her tonight and getting her heart medicine adjusted.”

“Good. I stopped at Ivy Manor first and dropped off my stuff. Dan’s there. He’s staying in the cottage.”

“I’m glad. He can help Mom while I concentrate on Grandma Chloe.”

Nate murmured reassurance. “What about our Carly?”

She loved it that he called her daughter “
our
Carly.” From the very first Nate had loved Carly. Leigh brushed away a tear. “Frank took the call from the hospital ship.
Carly suffered a collapsed lung, a badly broken leg, a few broken ribs, a concussion.” She drew in a deep, steadying breath.
“Her right hand is the most critical. It was almost”—her voice broke—“severed. Carly has to have more surgery to put her hand
back together so it will be functional.”

Holding Leigh against him, Nate rubbed her taut back muscles with both palms. “What’s the outlook?”

Leigh wanted to rest her head against his chest forever, just forget the terrible truth. But she couldn’t give in to the weakness.
She pulled back. “She’s being airlifted to a military hospital in Germany for the hand surgery. Nate, I need to go to her.
But how can I?” She heard the note of hysteria rising in her own voice.

He nodded and tugged her close again. “I know you can’t leave,” he murmured. “Bette, Chloe, and Michael need you. I think
it was a good idea enrolling Michael here for the rest of kindergarten. He already knew a few kids from visits here, and he
seems happy. Everything will be all right.”

How could everything be all right? But Leigh didn’t ask. “Michael’s still clingy. I have to go home soon. I promised him over
the phone that I’d be there when he woke up for breakfast.” Never before in her life had Leigh felt so fractured, dragged
in so many directions.

“Let’s look in on your grandmother.” Nate’s voice soothed her. “And then we’ll go home and see if we can snatch a few hours
of sleep.”

Leigh hugged him close once more, pressing her face close to his neck. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“And I don’t want you to find out.”

Trent Kinnard hung up the phone and stared at the wall. His daughter had been seriously wounded and was on her way to a U.S.
military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. The fear that he might lose her, too, and before he’d ever spoken to her or touched
her, burned through him like molten metal. He picked up the phone and dialed Lufthansa. Within minutes he’d secured a seat
on a flight from Washington, D.C., to Germany in the early morning. He walked to his bedroom closet and pulled out his suitcase.

Then he sat on the bed without the strength to begin packing. He hadn’t felt like crying for a long time. But tears started
in his eyes, and since no one was there, he let them come. Would he see his daughter while she was yet alive? Would he be
allowed to visit her?
She’s my daughter, but I have no legal standing or rights to her. What will I do if I lose her, too?

The next morning early, Nate had boarded a Lufthansa flight to Germany. Ten hours later, he was in a taxi on his way to the
military base hospital. At the gate, he was held up while the sentry checked his bona fides. But Nate knew that Frank had
already arranged for his visit in spite of the late hour. Soon Nate was waved through the gate, and the taxi took him to the
hospital.

Within minutes, he was by Carly’s bed. She was asleep in a room with three other slumbering soldiers behind white curtains.
His first glimpse of her shocked him. She had a black eye. Cuts and abrasions covered her pale face. Her right arm was immobilized
at her side and her right hand was swathed in bandages.

He stood gazing down at her, worried by the number of IVs she was hooked up to. He began to pray again for her life, for her
complete recovery, for Chloe, for Bette, for his wife and son. He didn’t think he’d stopped silently praying since he had
received Leigh’s initial phone call. He rubbed his tight forehead and gritty eyes. He wished Leigh could be there. He must
call her soon.

A nurse came to the door and waved to him. Nate walked out to her. “The gate just called us. There is another man, a Trent
Kinnard, at the gate who wants to see Carly Gallagher. He says he’s her father, too. What’s up?”

Nate digested this unwelcome and surprising news in a quick moment. How had Trent found out? He didn’t want the man there.
But he really had only one choice, didn’t he? “I’m Carly’s adoptive father. Trent Kinnard is her birth father.” He hated saying
this.
I’m her real father
. But he couldn’t say that.

“Oh, okay then. You know him?”

“I know who he is.”

She looked at him as if assessing the situation. “Do you want us to let him in? He has a valid passport and other ID, but
we didn’t receive word about him. But if you are willing to vouch for him . . .”

T
here is another man, a Trent Kinnard, at the gate who wants to see Carly Gallagher
. Nate didn’t want to answer the pretty nurse who watched him closely. He wanted to turn away and ignore her. Kinnard had
hurt his Leigh, treated her with rank disrespect. Kinnard had been responsible for so much sadness and hurt for the two women
he loved most. Savage anger—a violence Nate had never been aware of—roared to the surface of his consciousness.

“Sir?” the nurse prompted.

“Let him come up. He is her father,” Nate conceded gruffly. He couldn’t stop himself from sounding aggrieved.

The nurse gave him a questioning look. “Are you sure you want him up here?”

Nate wasn’t sure, but he nodded.
Do good to those who despitefully use you
. He didn’t want to recall that verse now, or to obey it. But this man was Carly’s father. He must have some feeling for his
daughter or he wouldn’t have flown there right on Nate’s heels. And Carly wanted to meet Kinnard.

The nurse turned away, went to the nurses’ station, and picked up a phone. When she hung up, she gave him a nod. He remained
in the doorway, watching the nurses quietly go about their duties. He wanted to talk to Kinnard before he entered Carly’s
room. Kinnard would have to abide by his rules or he’d send him packing. But Nate had time to deal with Kinnard.
Carly’s asleep anyway
.

It didn’t take long before a handsome, well-dressed though rumpled man got off the elevator, stopped at the nurses’ station,
and looked toward Nate.

Nate waited for him, a grim, silent sentinel at Carly’s door. Kinnard walked slowly toward him, his dark trench coat over
his arm. Nate detected the fatigue in the man’s face and stride, and it stirred his sympathy in spite of the hostility he
felt.
He must have been on my plane or right after it
.

“Trent Kinnard.” The man eyed him warily but didn’t offer his hand.

“Nate Gallagher.” Nate recognized the unmistakable resemblance between the man and Carly. He made himself hold out his hand.

Kinnard gripped it and glanced into Nate’s eyes and then away. “Thank you for telling them I am Carly’s father.”

“I didn’t want to,” Nate admitted, his gaze not wavering from Kinnard’s face. “I think you treated the woman I love and married
without respect. You’ve hurt both Leigh and Carly. To tell the truth, I’d like to take you outside and pound on you for a
few minutes.”

Kinnard looked as if he didn’t know what to say to this candid declaration. Finally, he said, “I know I’m guilty of everything
you’ve said. But I regret it, and that is the best thing I can say for myself. Regret is a dreadful place to live, but it’s
my home and has been for many years.”

In the hushed hospital corridor, Nate digested this slowly, then turned. “Carly is unconscious.” He walked into her room to
her white-curtained area.

Kinnard followed him. When he glimpsed her, he gasped. “How bad is she?”

The man’s concern sounded sincere. “Bad.” Nate recited the list of Carly’s injuries, a painful litany. “The worst is that
hand.” He indicated her right hand swathed in white bandages. “They did surgery on her before I arrived. It was nearly severed.”
The last word caught in his throat. The thought of Carly’s losing a hand was too grisly to imagine.

Kinnard looked appalled. “Do they think they can save it?”

“Don’t know.” Nate rubbed his gritty eyes. “I haven’t talked to any of her doctors. I just got here, too.”

Kinnard looked into his face. “Flight 673 Lufthansa?”

Nate nodded. “Didn’t see you.”

“I always fly first-class,” Kinnard admitted, looking ashamed.

It figures
. Giving Kinnard another once-over, noticing his manicured hands and stylish haircut, Nate recalled that Leigh had told him
that this man had set up a half-million-dollar trust fund for Carly, his illegitimate daughter. The wages of sin were evidently
very good. Nate pushed aside this judgmental thought. Kinnard didn’t look as if he’d gotten away with anything. He looked
miserable. The rain fell on the just and the unjust, and this time it was a dark, painful downpour.

“I don’t know if Carly should be told that you are here,” Nate said, trying not to let his rampant possessiveness bleed through
in his tone.
She’s my daughter
. “It might be too much for her.” And Leigh must be considered too.
My wife’s carrying such burdens already
.

Kinnard frowned but then nodded. “I didn’t come to upset her. I came because I was afraid that she might . . . I might lose
her before I’d ever have had the chance to hear her voice or hold her hand.”

Kinnard’s bald confession blasted away Nate’s self-righteousness and resentment. The man’s love for his daughter glistened
in his eyes moist with tears and resonated in his beleaguered tone. “I came because I was afraid it might be my last chance
to do both of those.” He paused, then drew a long, tortured breath. “Doesn’t it seem that life,” Kinnard muttered at last,
“dishes out more than we can handle?”

Nate didn’t reply, but yes, sometimes that was exactly what it felt like. It did at that moment.

Carly moaned and her eyelashes fluttered. She squinted as if trying to bring the room into focus.

Kinnard fell back behind the curtain.

Carly whimpered, “Hurt. Nurse.”

Nate’s heart lifted at her awakening. Quickly Nate located the call button. Then, feeling as if he’d just seen Carly reborn,
he lightly stroked a small patch of unbandaged and unabraded skin on her face. “Hi, honey, I’m here. Daddy’s here.”

“Dad-dy,” Carly said these two syllables as if they’d exhausted her. “Mom?”

“Mom had to stay with your Grandmother Bette and Michael.” He spoke close to her face, not wanting to disturb the other sleeping
soldiers. “She wanted to come but she couldn’t leave them.” He wouldn’t mention Chloe’s heart attack. Carly might feel guilty
about it.

Carly tried to nod, then grimaced as if it had caused her more pain.

On soundless shoes, the nurse bustled up to the bed. “What’s our patient need?”

“She says she’s in pain,” Nate said, ready to battle the nurse for his daughter.

“Woke me up,” Carly mumbled.

The nurse consulted the IV bags hanging at Carly’s bedside. “Did you forget,” she said kindly, “that you have the morphine
pump here?” She pointed out a line that had been secured to the bed near Carly’s left hand. She slipped the control into Carly’s
hand. “Give it a push.”

Carly obeyed. “I forgot.”

“It would have been hard to give yourself an extra dose while you were asleep,” the woman said with a gentle smile. “Wait
about a half hour and if the pain hasn’t ebbed, give yourself another dose. Then no more till morning, okay?”

“Thanks.”

“No problem. This is my job. And I want to make you as comfortable as I’m able.” The nurse straightened Carly’s bed clothing
and then left.

Aware that Kinnard stood nearby listening, Nate moved close to the bed again. “I’m here for the duration, honey. I’m not leaving
until you’re much better.”

“Daddy, please find out about . . . Sam and Joe and . . . Bowie. We were . . . in . . . mess tent . . . together. No one .
. . told me. . . .”

“I’ll find out, honey. Is that morphine starting to kick in?” He tried to turn her attention away from those potentially disastrous
concerns.
Dear God, let them all be fine
. “I’m going to watch the time for you.” He glanced at his watch. “In case you need to give yourself another dose.”

“Better,” Carly said, closing her eyes. “Stay.”

His love for her expanded inside him, filling him with the same tenderness that he’d felt for her the first time when as a
little girl, she’d snuggled into his lap. “I will, honey. I’ll be here all night.” Nate kissed an unbandaged patch of forehead
and then watched as Carly’s features relaxed. Finally, he said, “She’s asleep.”

Kinnard stepped around the curtain. “She sounded really weak.”

Nate nodded.

“She’s so young. Only seventeen. She shouldn’t have to go through this.” Kinnard’s voice roughened with outrage. “She should
be at school somewhere, enjoying herself.”

“That wasn’t her choice,” Nate said simply. “She’s just like the rest of us. We make decisions and then we must live with
the consequences.” He looked Kinnard in the eye.
You have a lot to make up for
.

Kinnard said nothing, just stared down at his daughter who remained unaware he’d come.

Again, Nate went over in his mind the names that Carly had asked about.
I hope they’re all alive and doing well
. He couldn’t face adding to his daughter’s burden. Kinnard was right. She was too young for this. But it had come anyway.
Dear Father, bless her and restore her. And help me know what to do about her meeting her real, I mean birth, father
. Maybe he should consult her doctors about Kinnard first.
I’m not doing anything but what’s best for Carly
.