Dare to Love (13 page)

It all happened so fast that Doug never had a chance to think, only to react. He laid his body out across as many kids as he could cover, urging the others to stay as close to the wall but also as close to him as possible.

“Lie flat, and no matter what, keep your heads covered,” he hollered. He knew he was frightening them, but there was no time for niceties anymore. The next few seconds could mean their lives.

He didn't know where Andrea was. He hoped to God she was doing as he'd instructed. He didn't know what he'd do if anything happened to her.

The rumbling started again, like a heavy wind was blowing things against the building or onto the roof above them. It got louder, then even louder. And just when the crescendo became deafening, Kyle Winslow darted away from the wall and took off down the hall.

Doug was after him in a flash, catching the boy just as he would have turned the corner and run for the side exit. Kyle flailed at Doug, landing a couple of good ones on his jaw and nose, and coming dangerously close to emasculating him with a wildly kicking foot. Doug finally calmed the boy by flattening him and lying on top of him.

“Stay put, you fool. Do you want to kill us both?”

He felt Kyle go limp beneath him, but he didn't dare let the boy get up.

The cacophony continued until plaster gave way someplace nearby and Doug heard the horrifying sounds of the building falling around him. He covered the boy as best he could, knowing that he and Kyle were in a dangerous area at the hallway intersection, but not daring to move.

He thought of Andrea, of the time he'd wasted in not trusting her to see in him the man he was becoming. And then he thought nothing at all as a piece of drywall came loose above him and splintered across his upper body.

T
HE DEAFENING ROAR
lasted only a couple of minutes. But it was followed by a deathly silence that was almost as frightening. Andrea lay at her end of the hall feeling the heartbeats of the children plastered beneath her, listening for the breathing of those she couldn't reach.

Was it safe to get up? The children were going to need attention. Many of them were crying quietly. Some were probably in shock. From somewhere off in the distance Andrea heard a louder cry. It sounded like someone in another hallway was hurt. No one moved, too afraid of what might yet lie ahead.

Andrea heard sirens in the distance. Help was on its way. Which probably meant that the immediate danger was past. It was now just a matter of assessing the damage and getting the kids safely out of the building. She thanked God that their little hallway had remained intact. They had all come through safely.

“Stay put for a few more minutes,” she told the kids at her end of the line. “I'm going to see how bad it is and then I'll be back to get you out of here.”

She got up, releasing the children beneath her, and reached out to brush Sara's hair off her tear-stained cheeks.

“Try and relax, guys. I think the worst is over.”

She walked down the line, repeating her instructions to the children as she went, all the while looking ahead for Doug. She couldn't see him anywhere. Had he already gone on ahead to assess the situation?

“Officer Parker?” The words were muffled by a pair of skinny arms.

“Yes, Jimmy?”

The boy looked up at her with worried eyes.

“Do you see Officer Avery, ma'am? I don't think he ever came back.”

Andrea felt light-headed as the boy's words sank in.

“Came back?” she asked, forcing herself to remain calm. The children were watching her.

“Yes, ma'am. Kyle freaked. He ran off. Officer Avery went after him.”

“I'll find him, Jimmy. You kids stay put.” Andrea's words were said on the run. If anything had happened to Doug, or to Kyle, either, for that matter...

She rounded the corner into what used to be a main thoroughfare of the school and stopped dead in her tracks. The entire hallway was a mass of plaster and dust. The ceiling was nonexistent. Only the brick walls and roof were still intact.

Her throat was dry, her heart pounding so heavily it was practically choking her. She didn't see how anyone could be alive in that mess. She hoped Doug had made it far enough to get past it. There were no north walls here, so hopefully there hadn't been anyone in the area when it had been hit.

She was debating the advisability of picking her way through the rubbish when she heard a moan. It was very faint at first, but as she moved toward the biggest pile of drywall scraps, it grew stronger.

“Help!” She heard the word again, coming from the middle of the thoroughfare. She continued to pick her way toward the pile.

“Please, someone, help me!” The words were growing stronger by the second as Andrea neared the pile of plaster. She fought down panic. It was Kyle's voice. But where was Doug?

“Kyle?” she called.

“Over here!” The boy didn't sound as if he were too badly hurt.

“Keep talking, Kyle, until I find you. Have you seen Officer Avery?”

“He's here, ma'am, but I think he's hurt bad. I can't get him to move. He's crushing my right leg.”

Andrea had pinpointed Kyle's position in the pile, and as she drew closer, she saw a patch of dark blue—the exact color of the standard-issue police uniform she was wearing.

“Are you hurt at all, Kyle?” she asked, the officer in her taking over as she realized the woman in her could no longer face what she might find.

“I don't think so. Except I can't feel my right leg anymore. I think it went to sleep.”

Andrea kept Kyle talking while she pulled pieces of drywall from the pile covering them. She wanted so badly to ask if Kyle could tell whether or not Doug was breathing, if he could feel his heartbeat, but she didn't want to alarm the boy.

Andrea couldn't even contemplate the possibility that Doug might be dead. As she pulled and lifted, slowly uncovering his limp body, she could no longer deny that she cared for him—deeply, personally, as a woman cares for a man. At that moment, with Doug's life resting in the balance, the fact that she couldn't get involved didn't occur to her at all.

Sweat was trickling down her back and between her breasts. Her arms ached from lugging the heavy plaster, her throat was clogged with dust and unshed tears, but still she kept plowing through the rubbish.

After she'd lifted a particularly large piece of ceiling panel, Doug's back came into full view. He was frighteningly still. Not moving herself, she stared at him, waiting for any sign of life, willing it to be there. After what seemed an eternity, she was rewarded. There was an ever-so-slight movement. Doug was breathing.

“Officer Parker? Could you hurry? It's getting really stuffy down here.”

“I'm almost there, Kyle. Just hold on a couple of seconds longer. Try to put your nose in Officer Avery's shirt. That should help block some of the dust.”

She pulled away part of a two-by-four, and then a piece of what looked to be a heating duct. The duct had been resting against Doug's upper body, and by the looks of it, might have protected his head from being crushed by the board.

Andrea found herself noting every little detail with a detachment she would never have believed. She wondered if she was in shock, but kept on working as if she were someone else looking down on the scene, registering every sensation.

“Is everyone else okay?” Kyle's voice was starting to wobble.

“We're all fine, Kyle. The hallway's still completely intact. I can't tell about the rest of the school. We seem to be cut off from everyone else by this cave-in. Hopefully it's the only one.”

Gathering her strength, Andrea removed the last piece of constricting rubbish. Doug still didn't move. He didn't even groan. She reached for his pulse, and was reassured to feel it beating strongly against her fingers.

“I have to check him over a little bit before I move him, Kyle. If he's broken anything we could make it much worse if we don't move him properly.” She was running her hands up and down Doug's body as she spoke, neglecting to tell the boy that she was looking for signs of a broken neck or back. To move Doug under those conditions could be fatal.

“Please hurry.”

“His legs seem to be all right,” she said, trying to keep Kyle's mind off his own discomfort. She'd seen something she didn't want the boy to know.

And as soon as Doug was moved, Kyle wouldn't be able to miss the fact that his own leg was twisted grotesquely beneath him. His right leg had not gone to sleep. It was severely broken. She thanked God that Kyle was too numb to feel the pain.

“Officer Parker? Are you there?” The voice came from along the corridor, where she'd left the rest of the class.

“I'm here, Jimmy. I think the danger's over, but we need a paramedic here. Do you think you can get out that side entrance and try to go around the front to get help?”

“Sure thing, ma'am.”

“Jimmy?”

“Yeah?” His voice already sounded farther away.

“Take someone with you and
be careful,
” she yelled.

“Is...is something wrong?” Kyle was starting to cry. Andrea wondered if he was feeling more of his leg than he'd led her to believe.

“Nothing that can't be fixed,” she said, hoping she was right. She didn't think Doug's back or neck were broken, but his stillness was frightening. She didn't even want to consider the internal injuries he might have suffered. She just knew that with Kyle's leg the way it was, she couldn't do anything more on her own.

It was only a matter of minutes before she heard someone coming in the side entrance of the building, but they were the longest minutes Andrea had ever lived through. Kyle was sobbing, and Doug remained as still as ever.

“Okay, what've we got here?”

Tears flooded Andrea's eyes when she turned and saw a paramedic crawling across the rubbish toward her.

“Officer Avery's unconscious. The boy beneath him is not.”

She saw the paramedic take a quick scan of Kyle's leg. He lifted a handset from his belt and called for a splint.

“Has he moved? Moaned? Anything?” he asked, motioning to Doug.

“No.”

“How long has he been here?”

“I don't know for sure. Twenty minutes, maybe.”

The paramedic had taken Doug's pulse and blood pressure within seconds. And then his hands flew over his body, probably to determine whether it was advisable to move him.

“I don't think anything's broken, and his blood pressure's good.” He reached for his handset again and called for another stretcher and someone to take care of the rest of Doug's students.

Ten minutes later Doug was on his way to the hospital. Andrea rode in the ambulance beside him. She wasn't about to be separated from him until she knew he was going to be all right.

She watched nervously as the driver turned off the highway. The hospital was just around the corner.

“So you finally decided to take me to bed, huh?”

Andrea's head jerked toward the stretcher beside her. Doug's eyes were wide open, gazing up at her with just a touch of the sardonic humor she'd missed these past weeks.
Thank God.

“H-how do you feel?” she asked. She felt for his pulse, encouraged by its steady strength.

“Like my head got hit by a steamroller.”

“Do you hurt anywhere else?” She continued to hold his wrist.

“Everywhere else, I think. But most especially here.” He lifted his other hand slowly and dropped it against the fly of his trousers.

She smiled down at him through a haze of relieved tears as she read the message in his eyes. He was going to be all right.

“You can talk to the doctor about that in just a minute.”

“I don't think he can help me with this.”

The look in his eyes made the past weeks of missing him melt away. She was only sorry it had taken a tornado to bring that look back.

* * *

“S
O HOW'S
K
YLE
?” Doug asked early that evening. He was half lying across the passenger seat in Andrea's cruiser. He felt like hell, but other than a few stitches, many bruises and a concussion, he was fine. He'd refused to stay in the hospital, and Andrea had refused to take him home to stay by himself. They'd compromised by his agreeing to stay at her place for the night.

“He's going to be all right. They had to do surgery on his leg, but they think it'll heal fine. He'll be playing baseball again by spring.”

“Poor little tyke.”

“Yeah. He's feeling pretty bad about running off. He says he'll never forgive himself if you don't get better.”

“I'll try to call him tomorrow.”

“I'm glad. He made a mistake, but don't we all.”

Her statement reminded Doug of a thought he'd had right before the world had come crashing down on him. He'd been a fool to think that Andrea wouldn't be able to see him for the man he was rather than the boy he'd been. A woman with as much capacity for caring as she had would surely be able to forgive him for his past mistakes.

“So how'd everybody else do? The doctor said that hallway was the only one with any damage.”

“Pretty much so. There were a few broken bones, a few kids needing stitches, but other than Kyle, everyone was treated and released.”

“Will they be closing school for a while?” Doug was getting sleepier by the second, but he loved the sound of Andrea's voice. He'd keep her talking as long as he could.

“It's too early to tell, but they think they can use mobile units until the hallway's rebuilt.”

“We were lucky,” Doug said, hoping his words didn't sound as slurred to her as they did to him.

“Yeah. We were lucky...” He didn't think he'd ever heard that particular tone in her voice before. She sounded so...so personal.

* * *

“I'
M NOT GOING
to throw you out of your bed.” Doug insisted. He was swaying on his feet.

“You're not sleeping on the couch. The doctor said you needed to rest.”

“He said I have a concussion. He said you have to wake me up every hour all night. What kind of rest is that going to be?”

“You're not sleeping on the couch.”

“I'm not taking your bed.”

“Doug, please lie down before you fall down.”

“Only if you lie down with me.”

“I'm not sleeping with you!”

“That's a relief. I'm not sure how good I'd be with a freight train running through my head.”

“You know what I meant.”

“I know that I'm not getting in that bed until I have your word that you aren't going to go sleep on the couch.”

Andrea eyed the armchair in her room. “Okay, I promise. Now will you please lie down?”

“Do you mind if I shuck these first? They're a little dusty.” He tugged on the waistband of his uniform trousers.

Andrea blushed, feeling foolish all of a sudden. “Of course.”

She turned quickly toward her closet, telling herself to get a grip. She'd been married, for heaven's sake. This wasn't the first time she'd had a man in her bedroom. She thought of the look he'd shot her in the ambulance. Of the fact that he still wanted her.

She heard the rustle of his clothes, the rasp of his zipper, and almost dropped the sweat suit she was reaching for. She remembered that night in the spa, how he'd looked with the water splashing around his thighs. She remembered how affected she'd been by his heavy strength, and thought of that strength touching her, surrounding her, entering—

“You can turn around now. I'm safely tucked in.”