Light This Candle (Harlequin More Than Words) (2 page)

CHAPTER TWO

Mitch turned the corner and paused to draw a steadying
breath. Man, it had been hard to look into that woman’s eyes and not believe he
was somehow responsible for the tragedy she’d suffered. He knew without question
there was nothing he could have done to save Jimmy, but that didn’t make it any
easier to face the man’s widow.

She looked so young. Small and slender, her light brown hair in
a youthful ponytail. At a glance, he’d have guessed she was about sixteen. But
then he’d peered into her eyes. The suffering written there had made her look
older than time.

He hadn’t had the nerve to ask about her kid. He spied a
nurses’ station ahead and realized that the curving hallway he’d just left must
run along a semicircular bank of intensive care rooms, all of which had glass
fronts facing the station. He stepped into the brightly lit hub.

“Can I help you?” a woman in bold blue scrubs asked him.

“Hi. I’m Mitch McConnell. What can you tell me about Cody
Frazier’s condition?”

“Are you a family member, sir?”

“Jimmy Frazier, Cody’s dad, was one of my troops. The way I
hear it, I’m as close to family as Mrs. Frazier has right now. You could think
of me as Uncle Sam’s stand-in for Jimmy Frazier.”

“Cassidy could use a stand-in. Poor girl is going through this
all alone.”

“What is ‘this,’ exactly?”

The nurse sighed. “Hospital policy prevents me from releasing
that information.”

“I heard he needs a heart transplant. Is that true?”

The nurse nodded infinitesimally, and Mitch’s pulse lurched.
That sucked
.

“How old is he?” When the nurse hesitated, he added, “I can
find out from my own records at the office, so I doubt it’s a breach of
confidentiality for you to tell me now.”

“He turned five a few weeks ago. We had a little party for
him.”

Mitch winced. Five years old and the kid had to have his
birthday in an ICU? That double sucked. “Can you tell me anything about how sick
he is?”

The nurse shook her head, but her eyes darkened with worry.
That said more to him than all the medical terminology she could have thrown at
him. Alarmed, he asked, “Is there anything I can do for Cody or his mom?
Anything you know they need?”

“You’d have to speak to the social worker for that. But
whatever you can do for that girl would be a blessing.”

Folks around here seemed to like Cassidy Frazier. And feel
sorry for her. The kid must really be in terrible shape. “Where can I find this
social worker?”

“She usually doesn’t stay this late, but if she’s in her
office, it’s down that hall. Last door on the right. Her name’s Rose
Parker.”

He followed the nurse’s directions and was relieved to see a
strip of light under the indicated door. He knocked quietly.

“Come in!” a female voice barked.

He stepped into the room and flashed back to the first time
he’d had to formally report in to his commander’s office as a brand-new, baby
lieutenant.

A woman fully as tall as he was stood up behind her desk as he
entered the closet-sized space. There was nothing flowerlike about Rose Parker.
She was a big-boned, gray-haired woman with an imposing presence. She reminded
him of portraits of Eleanor Roosevelt more than a little. He looked into her
black-as-midnight eyes, and the compassion and humor shining there put him at
ease immediately, though.

“Hi, Ms. Parker. I’m Mitch McConnell.”

“Well, aren’t you pretty? Come right on in, young man. Feel
free to close the door. And you can call me Rose.”

He grinned at her outrageous flirting and did, indeed, close
the door. “I’m here to talk about Cassidy Frazier. Her husband was in my unit. I
met her briefly a few minutes ago, and she was less than thrilled to see
me.”

The social worker nodded sympathetically. “Don’t take it
personally. It’s the uniform she resents. Can’t say as Uncle Sam has been too
kind to her, taking her husband and then making her life miserable while she
tries to take care of her baby.”

“Does she have a job?” he asked, curious.

“Not anymore. She was an office manager, but she had to choose
between her job and being with her baby.”

“Are you aware that she’s about to be evicted from her
apartment?”

Rose’s jaw fell open. “She told me she was doing fine. I
assumed when she left her job that she still had plenty of cash left from her
husband’s insurance settlement. She should have told me. There are things I
could do to help....” She trailed off, muttering under her breath about foolish
pride and stubborn independence. He assumed she was referring to Cassidy
Frazier.

A job or being at the side of her dying child. A home or
spending her son’s last days with him. What a choice to have to make. Mitch
declared, “I want to help her. But I don’t know what she needs or what she’ll
let me do for her.”

“Sit down.” Rose did the same, half hidden behind tall piles of
manila folders. “What did you have in mind, Mitch McConnell?”

“I don’t really know. Whatever she needs. I’d like to stop her
being evicted from her apartment. From the sound of your comments, though, it
sounds like Mrs. Frazier would resist my paying her rent for her.”

Rose nodded slowly. “I might be able to help you out with that.
There’s an organization in town that assists single parents with sick children.
It’s called Patches of Light. They anonymously pay rent and utility bills and
the like so parents with seriously or terminally ill children can stay by their
babies’ sides where they belong. Had I known Cassidy was in such trouble, I’d
have already contacted them.”

“So I could pay her rent through this group without her
knowing?”

“If you’d like to make a donation to Patches of Light, I can
earmark it for Cassidy. That’s not usually how they do things, but I know the
founder, Mindy Atwood. Great lady. She’ll work with me. Lord knows, Cassidy
Frazier could use a break. Her luck’s been nothing but bad for a long time.”

Mitch felt as if a ten-ton rock had just been lifted off his
chest. “That would be perfect. What do I have to do?”

“Well, I’ll have to fill out the paperwork. But as you can see,
I’ve got nothing else on my plate at the moment.” Her eyes twinkled and he
chuckled at her overflowing desk. “You just write a check, and I’ll take care of
the rest.”

“How soon can you arrange for these people to help her? I’m
told Ms. Frazier’s being evicted at the end of this week.”

“The Patches of Light folks move fast. In twenty-four hours
they can swoop in and get rid of the most pressing bills for parents.”

“That’s amazing.” He pulled a blank check out of his wallet. “I
wish the military was that efficient.” He wrote out an amount that he guessed
would cover the young widow’s rent, utilities and maybe a few other bills.

He handed it to the social worker along with the apartment
manager’s contact information. “If that’s not enough, let me know and I’ll write
out another check. Here’s my business card, too.”

She whistled between her widely spaced front teeth as she
looked down at the check. “That’ll be more than enough. You sure you can afford
this much?”

“I’m single and I’ve been overseas for over a year. I haven’t
had a chance to spend a dime of my earnings. I can’t think of a better way to
unload a little of it.”

“All right, then. I’ll get right on it.”

“And she won’t know the money came from me?” he asked
anxiously.

“Cassie won’t hear a peep from me. And the Patches of Light
folks work completely anonymously. Your secret’s safe.”

“Perfect.”

“Now, about the other thing that girl needs,” Rose
announced.

He froze in the act of standing up and sank back into the
plastic chair. “Name it.”

“She needs a good man in her life.”

His jaw actually dropped open. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, boy. You’re not gay, are you? Darned if the
pretty ones don’t always seem to bat for the other team.”

“Uh, no, ma’am. I’m not, umm, you know.”

“All right, then. You wanna help that girl? Well then, she
needs a man in the worst way.”

Surely she wasn’t trying to tell him that Cassidy Frazier was
desperate for sex! He said cautiously, “I don’t understand.”

“What is there to understand? She needs a man to change the oil
in her car. Do little fix-up jobs around her place.”

“I can do that.”

“More important...” The woman leaned forward and pointed an
accusing finger at him. “She needs a shoulder to lean on now and again. Don’t
get me wrong. Cassie’s been as strong as steel for all these months. But she’s
getting worn down by the waiting. And she’s got no one to talk to.”

“No one?”

“Nope. She’s from Oregon. Moved here with Jimmy right before he
got deployed and, well, you know what happened better than most, I imagine.”

An image of a blood-spattered crater and the screams of the
wounded flashed into his mind.

“Mmm-hmm. Better than most,” she repeated soberly. She leaned
back in her chair and studied him with eyes that he suspected didn’t miss a
thing. Ever. “So. Can Cassidy Frazier count on you?”

Could she? He’d made more than a few of these visits over the
years, and he’d always offered to help out in any way he could. A few widows had
taken him up on his offer. An outing with a fatherless son. A few small home
repairs. But that was about it. The widows eventually got on with their lives
and drifted away.

He’d never stepped into the middle of a bona fide crisis like
this. And it wasn’t as if it had ever been his style to commit to much beyond
his career. But Cassidy Frazier’s need was urgent. He dared not let her
down.

He must have hesitated for a moment too long.

The social worker harrumphed abruptly. “Forget I said anything.
You’re not the man for the job.”

Startled, he automatically rose to his feet as the woman stood
up.

“Thanks for your money, Major.”

Her disappointment was palpable. He’d scratched a few words on
a piece of paper and a few numbers disappeared from his bank account. Big deal.
He’d really put himself out to help the widow, he berated himself. And Rose’s
tone of voice said she wasn’t much impressed with him or the military he
represented.

Stung, he backed out of Rose Parker’s office. What the heck did
she want him to do? Adopt the widow and her kid? He’d barely met Cassidy, and
she’d hated his guts on sight. He’d never even laid eyes on the woman’s son.
Frowning, he made his way back down the hall to the nurses’ station.

He was passing directly in front of the tall desk when a series
of alarms beeped simultaneously. One of the nurses called out, “It’s Cody.
Respiratory distress. Heart’s tachycardic. Oxygen sats are crashing.”

Mitch screeched to a halt to avoid being run over by a trio of
nurses racing toward the room on the far left.
Cody
.
Cody Frazier. He should keep on walking. Get out of here before he ticked off
the kid’s mom any more with his unwelcome presence.

He looked through the glass wall into the room. A medical team
worked over the small figure in the bed, and beyond them he caught sight of
Cassidy. She was pressed up against the wall just inside a door that must lead
out to the hall he’d first met her in. Her eyes were huge and terrified, her
hands pressed over her mouth as if she was holding back screams by sheer force
of will.

He’d never seen someone simultaneously so afraid and in so much
pain. Staggered, he stared at her, unable to tear his gaze away. How long he
stood there he had no idea. But at some point one of the nurses gestured Cassidy
toward her son’s bed. He watched as she moved to Cody’s side and reached out.
Probably to hold his hand.

The transformation on her face was miraculous. The terror faded
away and a look of pure adoration lit her entire being from within. Her lips
moved as if she was talking, then curved into a smile.

In that moment she personified the strength of a mother’s love
like nothing he’d ever seen before. An angel couldn’t have looked down at that
child with more devotion. A strange tightness at the back of his throat and a
burning sensation in his eyes startled him into an awareness of his
surroundings.

He glanced around self-consciously and jolted when he spotted
Rose Parker leaning against the wall to his right. Studying him. “How long have
you been there?” he blurted.

“Long enough. Maybe you are the one, after all.”

What
was she talking about? “I beg
your pardon?”

She ignored his question and instead asked, “You headed out
soon?”

“I probably ought to stick around and find out how Cody’s
doing.”

“That boy’s in God’s hands now. There’s not much any of us can
do for him until a donor heart becomes available. Since the doctor has quit
scurrying around in there, I’d say the worst has passed. That man beside
Cassidy. That’s Dr. Mistler. Best pediatric cardiologist in this part of the
country. If he’s not doing anything, then Cody’s okay.”

The physician in question was speaking quietly to Cassidy and
she was listening intently to him.

“C’mon. You can walk me out to my car, hot stuff.”

He did as Rose ordered. She was just that kind of woman. “You’d
make a heck of a military officer, Ms. Parker.”

“I told you. Call me Rose.” She added gaily, “And I wouldn’t
last two minutes in the military. First time someone told me to do something
dumb and I told them my opinion of it, they’d bounce me out on my ample
behind.”

“They probably would, at that,” he allowed.

The elevator door opened and he held it for her while she
stepped inside.

She said warmly, “I got in touch with the Patches of Light
folks. Cassidy’s bills will be taken care of tomorrow, thanks to your generous
donation.”

All of a sudden this woman seemed to have warmed up to him. Not
that Mitch was complaining. She scared him a little. He escorted her into the
parking garage and held her car door for her while she climbed into an original,
1970s vintage Dodge Charger.