Rescue Me (a quirky romance novel about secrets, forgiveness and falling in love) (6 page)

She shrugged, first turning back to grip her bag and then following him down the narrow aisle way. It didn't matter what she thought of him. After today, she wouldn't see him much. And after the tests were completed, she'd be back on a plane, and he would be a distant memory.

"My car's in the long-term parking lot. We'll have to catch a shuttle," he said when they stepped from the gate.

She simply nodded and followed him, watching people she passed as they hurried through the airport. She hated Detroit. Especially in the summer. It was hot, humid, filthy and smelled bad.

There wasn't a single thing she missed about it.

Except her sister. And her mother, and her brother. She bit her lip when an unexpected rush of regret gripped her. She swallowed over and over again to keep from crying and followed Rainer through the concrete parking structure, not trusting herself to speak.

He silently studied her for a moment over the car's roof as he unlocked the doors, and after they each took their seats, he said, "What's wrong? We step from the plane, and you clam up. Does Detroit always do this to you?"

"Can I ask you a question?" she hedged, finally succumbing to the temptation she'd repressed throughout the flight.

He started the car and looked at her again, his eyebrows huddled together. A moment later, he returned his regard to the windshield, put the car into gear, and drove toward the exit. "I imagine I'll regret this, but go ahead."

"Why are you doing this? You flew across the country, paid for my airfare, dragged me back with you, nearly kicking and screaming, and all without my sister's blessing."

She watched his profile. It softened, the muscles along the side of his face, which had been stretched taut since they'd boarded the plane, slacking a tiny bit. "I told you, Heidi is my patient."

That didn’t explain anything. She wanted to know why. What made this guy tick? And she wanted to know why he was being so patient. "Still. Doctor or not, that's a lot of trouble to put yourself through." She looked down at her hands and toyed with the gold ring on her thumb. "Especially when you're dealing with two stubborn, thick-skulled women."

His chuckle was throaty and not unpleasant, and she smiled. Without looking at her, he answered, "I've always been a little excessive when helping my friends. I have this uncanny ability to see what they want before they know it, and I'm not afraid to ignore their protests and step in if I have to."

"Is that right? Sounds more controlling than helpful. I don't know if I should envy or pity them."

This time he laughed. They drove into the darkness, within moments whizzing down I-94.

Suddenly exhausted, feeling like she'd walked across the country instead of flown, Hailey let the steady hum of the engine lull her into a partial sleep. "What time is it?" she asked before she slipped deeper.

"Quarter past one."

"One... already?" she asked in shock. No wonder she felt like she'd been beaten. No wonder her eyelids felt like they weighed fifty pounds and her eyes were full of grit. "One in the morning?" She moaned.

"Yes, you lost several hours when we crossed time zones." He sounded more amused than she liked.

"So where do you get all your energy? Are you popping uppers with your coffee?"

"It's a natural high. In my line of work, going without sleep for a night is fairly common."

"What are you talking about? You're in Family Practice. How often do you get called into the hospital in the middle of the night?"

The radio blared to life.

"What's wrong?" she challenged. "Don't want to answer?"

Morning talk shows and occasional bits of oldies punctuated grating static as he changed channels. "I'm looking for the traffic report," he answered.

"It's one in the morning. The streets are empty. There's your traffic report." She looked at him. He scowled as he drove, his gaze dancing between the rearview mirrors and the windshield, but never straying toward her.

Then she looked out the window. Low clouds rumbled overhead, promising a thunderstorm and blocking out the moon.

They exited onto northbound I-275.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"I didn't call your mother, haven't told her you were coming to town, but I assume you can stay with her." He maneuvered the car around the cloverleaf curve and onto the freeway. "We can come up with some excuse for your being here if you don't want to tell her you're donating."

"I can't stay there!" She sat bolt upright, wide-awake. "Hasn't my sister told you anything?"

"She said she had a problem with you but never mentioned the rest of your family, so I assumed it was a sister thing." He eyed her, until she grew nervous by both the intensity of his gaze and the fact that he wasn't watching the road.

"Would you please watch where we're going?"

He jerked his gaze back to the road.

She continued, "Besides, my mom is no fool. She would know I was donating the marrow. Why else would you be picking me up from the airport?" Moments later, Rainer drove past the exit to her mother's house. A wave of stress slid from her body, down through her toes. The muscles along her back relaxed. "So where are we going now?"

"My place."

"I can't stay there, either. You should have thought this through before you dragged me here, don't you think?"

The muscles along his jaw tightened again, and she almost laughed. He was so easy to set off, and she was hysterical from exhaustion and worry. This isn't funny, she scolded herself. He'd forced her out here, and now she had no place to stay.

"My condo is plenty big. You won't even have to see me--until we go to the hospital later."

Later? That didn't sound good either. "How much later?" she asked, afraid to hear the answer.

"You have an eight o'clock appointment."

"Eight? That's less than seven hours from now." He scheduled an appointment? How did he know I'd come? Either this guy had a lot of nerve, or he was the most confident man she'd ever met.

He nodded. "Even more reason to stay at my place. But if you insist, we could drive around for a while and see if we can find a hotel with a vacancy. There's a big computer convention in town, but we can check a few places. I know there are some hotels on Ford Road--"

"Oh, just shut up and drive. I'll stay at your house." She scolded herself again. No matter how irritated she was, she shouldn't snap at him. She'd been doing okay until now. Expecting to see another scowl, she peeked at him.

His smile caught her off-guard.

Rainer bit his lip and tried not to smile, but it was impossible. He turned from Hailey to hide the amusement he suspected shone clearly there and rolled down the window. A bite of cool air slapped his face and jolted the drowsiness from his weary body.

That had to be it, he decided. Whenever he was sleep-deprived he got a little slaphappy, found strange and unexpected things funny. It was the only explanation he could accept.

Either that, or maybe it was stress. This whole situation had every muscle tied into knots. It was a miracle he could function, walk or drive. But whenever he thought about dropping into bed and succumbing to a deep, nourishing sleep, thoughts of Heidi lying in a hospital bed wiped the thought from his mind in a flash. No one else was going to do this. Heidi depended on him.

Now, with Hailey in town, there was even more to worry about. There were blood tests to coordinate and the physical to perform. Then if those came out all right, there was the chemo that must be timed properly, the donor preparation and extraction of the stem cells, and finally the transplant.

Plus, now he had to make sure no one, not even Heidi's mother, knew who the donor was. What if the sisters saw each other before he was ready for them to? Heidi was no fool. She knew they didn't have a match. What would he tell her when a donor suddenly surfaced?

He sighed, anxious to get back to his condo and pour over each question with a bucket of coffee. He had to be prepared. There were too many consequences if he wasn't.

As he parked the car in the driveway, Hailey's soft snore buzzed in his ear, and her head slumped sideways until it rested heavily on his shoulder. He hesitated moving, feeling awkward and stiff.

He slid his hand under her cheek and supported her head so he could slip from the car. Once he was out of his seat, he laid it against the seat back. Several heavy drops of rain pelted him as he stood half-in, half-out, staring at her slumber-softened face. In the light of the overhead dome light, she looked different, sweet and innocent.

Shaking his head at his crazy thoughts, he walked around the car, opened her door and nudged her, softly calling her name. When she didn't answer, he tried again, this time shaking her a little harder and speaking a little louder. Still, she didn't wake.

Great. A deep sleeper. Exactly like her sister.

Memories of the times he'd carried Heidi from the car after late concerts and road trips to nowhere just for the heck of it slashed through his mind.

He cradled Hailey in his arms and carried her up the steps and into his home. As he laid her upon the bed in the guest room, his thoughts drifted back to her--to the way she smiled, to how she'd chatted relentlessly on the plane, to how she'd looked in that God-awful coverall when they first met.

If any two people could be more different, he'd never seen it.

What happened between the sisters? He saw the pain on Hailey's face when he told her about Heidi's illness, and the sorrow hung in her eyes throughout the flight. Although he wanted to know what had torn them apart, he didn't ask, didn't know how. But he hoped he would have the chance to approach it with Heidi later.

He walked from the guestroom, softly closing the door. More than helping his friend battle a disease, he would have the opportunity to heal her family too, to crumble whatever walls the sisters had erected between each other. He hated to admit it to himself, but Heidi had no better than a fifty-percent chance of surviving the transplant, and that was if everything went well.

If he couldn't change her odds of survival, if he couldn't assure her success, then maybe he could at least help her reconcile with Hailey. That was something no drug, no doctor, and no lab could do for her.

That was exactly what a friend was for.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead!" a deep voice cut through Hailey's dream.

Not sure where she was, or who had spoken, she ignored the sound, trying to slip into the comfort of unconsciousness again. Her face warmed and bright light glowed through her eyelids. Annoyed, she rummaged through the bedding for a pillow, smothering herself in cool darkness. "I'm tired. Leave me alone." Her voice cracked.

An instant later, the soft blanket ripped from her grip. The pillow slipped from under her head. Bewildered and angry, she opened her eyes. "What the hell?"

Rainer stood over her with a triumphant smile, the blanket fisted in one hand and the pillow in the other. "I can see you're not a morning person."

"Actually I am, but not when I don't go to bed until morning," she answered, then rolled over so her back was to him. "Can't you reschedule the appointment for later today? I mean, I realize Heidi's condition is grave, and she needs the transplant right away, but can't the blood tests wait a few hours?"

"Sure, I can call and reschedule," he answered, his voice far too mirthful for comfort. When his footsteps sounded on the wood floor in the hallway, she rolled back over to stare at the empty doorway.

That was too easy. What is he up to now?

She lay on her back, staring at the shadowed ceiling then at the window partially covered by a mini blind, and tried to psych herself up to get out of bed. Whatever Rainer was going to do, she had to stop him. If she'd learned anything last night, it was that Rainer Hartmann did not give up once his mind was set.

And his apparent acquiescence hinted at underhanded scheming.

She slid from the bed, and stars immediately shrouded her vision. Shaking them away, she stumbled into the hallway and half-walked, half-tripped down the narrow flight of stairs. At the foot, she stood in the foyer before the most God-awful singing revealed his location.

Following the sound, she took a little time to inspect his condo, a traditional interior with antiques and deep jewel tones on the walls. She wandered through several rooms before finding him in the kitchen, belting out the most ear-shattering rendition of Fontilla Bass's Rescue Me she'd ever heard. An instant headache split her skull, and she winced at the effect his voice had on its intensity.

"Would you stop singing?" she asked. "I'm up, if you haven't noticed."

He glanced over his shoulder, then returned to his task at the counter. "So you are. Too bad, it's too late. I already rescheduled your appointment for later this afternoon. You could have slept in." He turned to face her, gripping a huge knife in one hand. "Why'd you get up? I said I would change it."

Her gaze shot first to his playful smirk, then back to the flashing metal blade pointed in her direction. "Could you put the knife down? You're not the most trustworthy person in my book right now."