Chapter 16 #2
It was the same thing Kiki said to her the other night. What if it was time to move forward and let go of some of the grief of her childhood? Let go of the past and open herself up to the possibility of love and a life bigger than her show and flipping houses.
Don’t get her wrong, she loved her job. But there were times, like the past few houses, when she wished she’d had someone to celebrate with. And sadder times, like when someone said something particularly bad about her in the press, that she’d wished she had someone to hold her.
Is that what Decker needed the other night? Just someone to hold him? Then why did it morph so quickly into a green light for a game of naked exploration?
Opal pulled her into her side. “Let’s go get some fresh air and take a moment.”
“You mean eat our cupcake on our favorite lounger?”
Opal gave a bright smile. “That’s the one.”
“You bet.”
Hand in hand, the two Hart women made their way through the construction zone and were about to clear the sliders when Opal stumbled over the ledge.
Poppy’s instincts kicked in and she tried to balance her aunt with their joined hands. When it was clear her aunt was going down, she wrapped her arms around Opal and broke the fall.
Like a slab of bricks, they hit the floor, with Poppy’s right side taking the majority of the impact.
“Oh my,” Opal yelped.
Poppy just grunted through the pain as all the air was forced out of her lungs. Knowing she’d be bruised from ribs to her hip bone, she took stock. Poppy was acting like a mattress and Opal was on top. They were twisted together like a couple of coiled cables.
“Auntie, are you okay?”
“Why did you do that?” Opal scolded. “It was just a silly fall. Then you made it into a big something.”
“That’s what family does,” Poppy said, quietly feeling like she was fifteen and being scolded for jumping off the roof into the pool.
“Whoa!” someone yelled and that someone was Decker.
Like a real Prince Charming, he came bounding over and was on them in seconds. He ran his hands over Opal, likely looking for broken bones.
“Can you move your neck?” he asked Opal.
She batted his hands away. “Get your hands off me and put them on my niece. She’s the injured party.”
“Then let’s carefully lift you up and better assess how everyone is doing,” Decker said. “Miles, you take her other side and help me gently lift. I want to bring her to the patio chair.”
The two went to work and lifted Opal as if she weighed no more than a feather. He looked at Jack, who was too busy shooting to help. Decker put his hand in front of the camera and shoved them back. “Not this. Now someone get medical.”
“Medical to the set,” Jessika said into her walkie-talkie. “Medical to set.”
Poppy had barely pushed herself to a sitting position when the medical team came rushing out. They headed toward her, but she waved them off. “Check my aunt first. I’m fine.”
“Fine, my ass,” Decker said, kneeling beside her. With gentle and probing hands, he ran them up and down her body in a very clinical kind of way.
“Where does it hurt?” He eyed her. “And before you tell me you’re fine, I will strip you down to nothing and examine you myself.”
Poppy rolled her eyes and even that hurt. “Right here,” she said, holding her side.
His hands were immediately there. When she winced, he lifted her shirt. No warning, no asking permission, just tugged her T-shirt just under her bra line.
When his bare hands met her nude skin she shivered. “Are you cold? That could mean you’re in shock.”
He raised his hand to get the attention of a medic when she took his hand in hers. “It’s just a bruise. I promise.” Suddenly the air between them thickened like a storm before lightning hit. “Can you check on Opal?”
“She’s with the medics. I’d rather stay here with you.”
“Do we need to call a board meeting?” She meant for him to laugh—he did not. She gave his hand a squeeze. “Really, I’m going to be okay.”
He gripped the back of his neck. “When I saw you tumble down that concrete step my heart literally stopped. I needed to know if you were okay.” The intensity in his voice was something she’d never heard before—from him or any man.
And especially with regard to her. “I want you to get checked out by medical.”
“Deal. But first I need to know if my aunt is fine. She’s been having these dizzy spells and we’ve just brushed them off.” Her heart started pounding. “What if that’s what caused her to fall? What if there is an underlying condition?”
“Or she tripped. Let’s not borrow worry.”
But she was already too worried to even take in a full lung of oxygen. All the possibilities and what-ifs spiraled through her mind.
“I just need to know she’s okay.”
She could tell he didn’t want to let go of her hand, but he finally did. “Don’t move until you get checked out. Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Your ass doesn’t leave that square foot of concrete.”
She chuckled. “My ass is firmly planted.”
With a nod he walked over to the other side of the patio where the medics were kneeling in front of Opal.
One was wrapping her foot with an ace bandage.
It took everything she had not to move. When the urge became too much, she was about to stand when, as if he could read her mind, Decker shot her a warning raise of the brow.
Decker talked to the lead medic for a moment and then, as he promised, returned to her side. “If anything, she suffered a minor sprain. So minor the medic can’t detect anything wrong, but wants her to get checked out just to be safe.”
“I am not going to the hospital. Imagine what the tabloids would say, seeing me taken out of here by ambulance,” Opal said, her arms firmly crossed. “They’d say I was retiring because I’m too old. Not on my watch.”
“You are going,” Jack said. “It’s a liability. You fall; you go get checked out.”
Poppy was about to thank Jack when he looked at her. “You too, missy.”
“I was planning on going anyway,” Poppy said. And that’s when she saw the reality of the situation hit Jack.
“But it’s a closed set,” Jack said. “Maybe we can get a doctor to come here.”
“Opal needs an X-ray and an MRI. Last I looked, the delivery app for that has yet to be invented,” Poppy said. “Plus, where she goes, I go. End of story.”
“No car with sirens of any kind,” Opal explained.
“I’ll take you guys,” Decker said.
“That’s a hard no,” Jack said. “All it takes is one fan to see you, one photo of you two out of this place, and TMZ will report that the rules of the show have been broken. It will be devastating for ratings.”
“I know someone at the hospital who works the discreet door that celebrities go through,” Decker said.
“It has its own private waiting room, and the staff is beyond discreet.” Jack seemed to think this over.
“We’re going with or without your permission.
So do you want us pulling up with sirens or… ?”
“Then I’m going with you,” Jack said, waving his hands with dramatic flair. “But there are rules. At no time are you allowed to interact with the public, watch television, use a phone, look at a newspaper—”
“Fine,” Decker said, the picture of calm and control. “But we’re leaving now.”