Chapter 12
Ascream cut through the night.
Startled, Mabel stepped back.
Zane picked up and tossed her shoes to her, then he started to run in the direction of the scream. The look of anguish he sent Mabel was enough of an apology. He was a paramedic and firefighter. Of course he rushed to any and all people who screamed.
Seriously? We finally almost kiss again and this is what happens?
Her cheeks burning hot, she rushed to keep up with him. She heard muttering and a whine coming from behind a tree. They rounded the tree to find a woman in black attire, a platter and glasses upended all around her. She was clutching her knee, sobs punctuating deep breaths.
Zane knelt beside the woman. “I’m a paramedic; I can help.”
“I couldn’t see because of the platter, and I missed the last step and went tumbling.” She gave a big breath to dislodge some strands of hair that had stuck to her face. Her posture collapsed in pain again.
“Can you straighten your knee at all? Did you hit your head?”
“My head’s fine.”
Ah. Zane in his element. If this poor woman wasn’t in so much pain, this would actually be very nice to watch.
The midnight glow of the full moon helped him as he assessed her injuries.
“I think it’s a sprain. If we can stabilize it, you could wait until morning to be seen by a doctor.
” He tried to ease the woman’s leg to be able to rest a little, causing her to yell out in agony.
“On second thought,” Zane said, “I think we better get you to the hospital.”
After a couple of phone calls, Dr. Flynn, the only doctor in town, agreed to go open up his office to get her x-rayed and braced.
Wasn’t the first time. Dr. Flynn didn’t have to work after-hours very often, but this was a remote farming community, and once in a while there was something that couldn’t wait the forty-minute drive to the nearest hospital.
A look of apology and what could have been regret crossed Zane’s dark eyes as he glanced at Mabel.
He got the woman situated and then ran into the house for some towels, tape, and ice.
Mabel assisted with the wrapping, stabilizing it until the x-ray.
They helped her to a coworker’s car nearby, who opened the passenger door for her.
Once she was safely seated, Zane gestured with his thumb to his truck. “I’ve got my truck back there. I’ll meet you at the office so I can get you in and situated, okay? Just until we’re sure the doctor’s there and everything’s all good.”
The coworker thanked Zane. She made the woman comfortable then gave a slight chuckle and said to her, “Too bad he didn’t have the ambulance here with him. I’d ride in it just to get to look at him longer.”
They drove off, and Zane turned to Mabel.
“Well, that comment from her coworker got her to laugh,” she said as she wrapped a palm around the inside of his elbow.
Zane sighed. “I can’t believe the timing of that.” He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and then blinked them open, shaking his head. “I’m sorry about all this.”
“It’s your moral obligation. I can’t say I mind working with you in emergencies.”
“At least this one didn’t threaten our own lives.” He tried to smile, but it was laced with sadness.
“You’d better go so you can get finished up and in bed,” Mabel said reluctantly. “It’s been a long day.”
The vast chasm they never seemed to be able to cross was suddenly filling in. Maybe Mabel could work with this. Maybe this meant they were closer to finding a bridge.
Nearly an hour later, Mabel stood in her bathroom, flossing her teeth and staring at the vastly transformed creature in the mirror.
At the wedding, she felt beautiful in that periwinkle bridesmaid’s dress. Some of the women had been given a terracotta orange dress, but Hannah had given Mabel, Cady, and Ruby the not-quite-blue-not-quite-purple lacy sheaths. Mabel had felt confident, probably more than she ever had before.
In her work as a lobbyist, she had worn business wear, and nursing school required shapeless scrubs. But tonight? She knew the dress draped her figure perfectly. She’d seen Zane’s reaction, felt the flush that had overtaken him as she stood in the wedding party in front of him.
Now? She was moments away from getting into bed and back to her old self.
Sure, she was cute; she could give herself that.
But in her brother’s old flannel pajama pants and an Idaho State University sweatshirt, still pining after Zane, she felt like she’d regressed ten years. Still yearning to be by his side.
She finished brushing her teeth and then heard a light knock at the door.
Thank goodness her dad had installed a video doorbell. Even in a town as small and wholesome as Silver Plum, Mabel wasn’t crazy enough to just throw her door open without a care in the world at one in the morning. She checked the app on her phone.
Zane.
He was standing on her porch, clutching what looked to be flowers, the porch light illuminating the strength of his features.
“Zane?” she said to him through the app on her phone.
He startled and then moved in closer to the doorbell. “Hi. I forgot you were probably watching me.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Well, yeah.” A frown crossed his features. “Except, it’s not. Not really. Because things ended so abruptly.” He glanced around at the front yard behind him and leaned in closer. He was so massive that not all of him would fit in the frame.
“This doesn’t seem fair that you can see me but I can’t see you. Can I come in?” His eyes gazed right through her, even though it was a black-and-white grainy video.
“No.”
His head reared back. “No?”
She had to bite her lip. She wanted to see him, put her arms around him, and sink into a kiss. “I have my retainer in.”
“So what? I’ve seen you in braces.”
She left the bathroom, her phone in hand, and walked down the stairs to the entry. “That was in junior high. It’s different now, Zane!” It felt a little odd to be talking to him through her phone when he was only a foot away through a flimsy old door.
“Did you just say ‘Thane’?”
A giggle escaped her lips. “I told you I have a retainer in my mouth!”
He laughed, his big hearty one. “Can you say my name one more time? Please?”
“No!”
His gaze challenged her. “Fine, then just say, ‘Suffering succotash.’”
“Zane!” Almost before it even left her lips, Mabel saw what he’d done and the mistake she’d made.
He laughed again. “Music to my ears. Will you always call me ‘Thane’?”
“I can think of several names I’d like to call you right now.
” Mabel rubbed her cheeks. Of course, she’d lisped when she said “several.” Her cheeks were beginning to hurt from all the smiling.
“I am so mad.” But she wasn’t. A bit embarrassed?
Yes. But these happy, carefree moments with Zane were everything to her.
“I’ll stop.” His tone grew serious. “Besides, this could get into ableist territory, and we can’t have that.”
The pause in the air was comfortable. This. This was what she’d spent half her life craving a return to. Maybe they really were meant to be friends. Like this.
Except I’ll never stop wanting more with Zane Taylor.
“Can I be honest with you?” Mabel’s voice sounded small in her own head. Vulnerable. She rested her temple against the door.
“I thought that was the deal from now on.”
“Yes. Right. It’s just that…” She glanced back down at the app, and her stomach wrenched at the look of agony on his face.
She rushed to continue. “I really like you. You know that, right? But I’m at my dad’s house, and he’s a light sleeper. And I’m unable to even say my S’s.”
That lisp! She swallowed hard. She was either on the verge of losing it to laughter or tears because Zane, the man of her dreams, wanted to see her.
Wanted to kiss her. But they’d just decided to take things slow.
He’d said he wanted to prove to her that he wouldn’t run away again, and that would take some time.
He nodded, his smile fading, but there was still peace in his eyes. “I get it. And it’s fine. Can we…talk about this soon?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe you should say ‘yes’ instead of ‘yeah.’ Sounds more official.”
“Zane!”
Ugh. She’d done it again! He was bound and determined to get her to say the “z” sound at all costs, wasn’t he?
“Mabel, just know that I want to break down this door to see you.” He paused. “I won’t. But I could.”
A warm thrill traveled through her. He could break the door down without a thought.
She grasped the tiny bottle of sand hanging inside her sweatshirt.
Just that he wanted to had to be enough right now, because as frustrating as it was, she was reliving her fourteenth year, that trigger sliding over her skull and freezing her in place.
She’d lost her mom and the boy she loved did a one-eighty.
There was a block there that she couldn’t quite figure out to fix.
“I want you to come in. I promise you I do. I’m stuck, Zane.”
“Stuck?” he whispered.
“I don’t know if I’m ready. I want to be.
But kissing you last time is all jumbled in my brain.
I think taking things slowly, like you said, might help me get unstuck.
” She swallowed down the ball in her throat.
She cringed at her next thought but decided to say it anyway.
“Besides, I already took my bra off, okay? And that thing is not coming back on.” She didn’t mention the dot of zit cream she’d applied to a very unfortunate problem spot on her forehead.
He growled and pounded a fist softly on the door. “Seriously, Mabel? What are you doing to me? That’s the worst thing you could have said to me right now.”
He waited for a response. “Are you smiling right now?”
A laugh burst from her. “A little.”
“Good. And, Mabel, we can work through you feeling stuck. Remember, I’m not going anywhere. I will be there for you as long as it takes.” He paused, squeezing his eyes shut before opening them again. “Can I see you tomorrow?”
She nodded, staring into those eyes on her screen. Then she remembered he couldn’t see her. “Yeah.”
Zane shook his head. “I can’t trick you into the lisp again, can I?” His chuckle was growly. “You’ve become very good at this game, Mabel Joan.” His face dipped down out of view a moment before reappearing. “Goodnight.”
She counted to one hundred, watching the app to see him get in his truck and drive away. She unlocked the door and pulled it open with caution, then grabbed the bundle of light-blue hydrangeas he’d laid carefully on her doorstep.
He’d scribbled a note on some lined paper and tucked it in the wrapping around the flowers.
“Don’t tell August and Hannah, but after I got the caterer squared away with Doctor Flynn, I went back over to their place and snagged these for you.
They match your dress and the centers match your eyes.
Thanks for the nice evening, Mabel. Zane. ”
Wow. She peered at the flowers. They did have tiny middles that were light brown, like her eyes.
The retainer and zit cream and bralessness?
If that had been all that was stopping her, she would have thrown the retainer behind her back, scrubbed off the ointment, and the bra?
Well, she wouldn’t have worried about that part.
She would have opened the door, quietly because of her dad, and then she would have kissed him with her whole heart.