Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Daphne
Despite my protests, one of the Sisters shoved me into the back of the ambulance with Travis. “Up you go, dear.”
The other took my suitcase and George. “We’ll meet you there,” she said, giving me a finger wave.
“Careful with my cat,” I called out as the EMT was closing the door. “He can be a really—” The door shut with a bang. “—naughty kitty.”
I had no choice but to take a seat on the bench next to Travis.
The man was distractingly handsome with his tousled dark hair, chiseled features and a muscular, well-proportioned body.
I couldn’t believe the Sisters thought we were together together.
Okay, so I’d kissed him. I mentally slapped a hand to my forehead while trying to stay outwardly calm.
Ugh. What was I even thinking? I was thankful, yes, but a simple handshake would have been sufficient.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” he said. “The Sisters can be pushy sometimes, but they mean well.”
“As long as they don’t try to take George out of his carrier. He’ll scratch the hell out of them. The heck out of them,” I corrected since they were nuns.
A dimple formed on Travis’s cheek. “Trust me. They’ve dealt with worse. They taught me in Sunday school.”
I laughed, appreciating the levity after almost getting killed, then cast a wary glance at his leg. “Does it hurt a lot?”
He shook his head, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “All of this is just an overreaction, but that’s what you get on Darkaway. People nosing into your business, thinking they know what’s best for you.”
“Doesn’t seem like an overreaction to me. You got hurt and could’ve been killed.” Had he really braced his hands on the hood of his car, thinking he could stop it?
“Nonsense,” he said, rolling his eyes like it was no big deal.
His gaze swept over me as if he were seeing me for the first time.
Acutely aware of our close proximity, I felt the little hairs on my arms prickle.
I hoped I didn’t look as disheveled as I felt after a day of traveling and being windswept on the ferry deck.
Then I remembered Portia’s offer to fix my appearance and realized I probably did.
Oh well. I wasn’t here to impress anyone.
Although damn, why did he have to be so incredibly hot?
“You’ve...uh...got a pen mark there,” he said, pointing to my face.
Of course, I do. I licked my thumb and rubbed my cheek. “Here?”
“A little higher.”
I followed his direction. “Here?”
His brows drew together. “You got it. Most of it, that is.”
The ambulance lurched forward, and the paramedic, a short man with rather pointy ears, squatted down in front of Travis. “Got yerself into a wee pickle, aye, Mr. Monroe?”
“It appears so.” Travis gave me a little side-smile that turned the butterflies in my stomach into jumping beans. “Call me Travis, though. Mr. Monroe is—was—my father.”
The EMT reached for the storage bins to the right of the bench and rummaged through the drawers. “I was sorry to hear of your old man’s passing. The whole town was. The memorial service was very moving.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Travis clipped out. “But I appreciate the sentiment.” The way he said this made me think he didn’t care much for his dad. Had his father been a deadbeat dad like mine? I wondered.
The ambulance felt like it was moving at a snail’s pace.
Or a slow-motion ocean liner making a turn.
Maybe they sped only when someone’s life was on the line.
When we went over a bump, I had to grab a nearby handle to keep from bouncing clear off the seat.
I looked back to see that Travis’s cowboy boot had been removed and one muscular leg was bare all the way past his knee.
I glanced around to see what the pixie-ish EMT had used to cut Travis’s jeans but saw nothing.
The guy must be fast and efficient—he’d already put it away.
“So ye were driving, aye?” the man asked, carefully attaching a brace to Travis’s knee. “I thought ye flew yer float plane back to the island whenever ye visit. At least, that’s what the Daily Epitaph says.”
Travis pointed a thumb over his shoulder.
“I did, but it’s being serviced on the mainland right now.
Haven’t been able to find a place up in British Columbia that I like as well as the one near Seattle.
Figured that since I’m staying on the island until after the White Wolf Moon, it was as good a time as any for its annual maintenance. ”
The EMT perked up. “Ye’ll be here for Monsterval? That’s fantastic, mate!”
Travis frowned. “Festival of the Monster falls on the same weekend as the White Wolf Moon?”
The EMT nodded. “Yes. It’s going to be a huge event this year. The missus is on the organizing committee. She’ll be thrilled that Darkaway Island’s favorite son will be home for the festivities.”
Favorite son? As in, small-town boy goes out into the world and gets famous? That would explain him getting mobbed on the ferry. And all those cell phones recording him after the accident. It really irked me that I didn’t recognize who he was. I hated not knowing something that everyone else did.
I pulled out my phone and turned the screen slightly away from Travis so he wouldn’t see that I was searching his name. Bummer. I didn’t have any cell service.
When we arrived at the hospital, I stopped in the waiting area and tried to tell them I didn’t belong here, but the place was bustling with activity and no one would listen. An orderly pushed Travis in a wheelchair through the double doors of the emergency room, and I was ushered along with him.
“Is that his fiancée?” I heard someone whisper as we passed the nurses’ station.
“I didn’t know he was engaged,” said someone else.
“It’s all over the tabloids, silly.”
“I don’t read that trash,” the second person remarked.
So, I’d impulsively kissed a guy who was engaged. Great. Inwardly cringing, I sent out a sincere apology into the ether to his fiancée. I’m not the kind of girl who preys on taken men. Trust me. That’s a job for wedding singers.
Once inside the exam room, the orderly helped Travis get onto the bed.
This was getting even more awkward. Here was a man I hardly knew getting ready to be examined by a health care professional. I definitely needed to get out of here. “I should probably just—”
The door opened, and a tall, blond man in scrubs strolled in.
“They told me you were on your way in,” he said, giving Travis a fist-bump. So, these guys were friends too. Sheesh…did everyone on the island know everyone else? “You don’t look too worse for the wear. Sorry I couldn’t be at the old man’s memorial service—I was in emergency surgery all day.”
“No problem, Carlisle. You didn’t miss much.”
“Still, I wish I could’ve been there,” the doctor said, adjusting his stethoscope. “For you, Ruby, and the rest of the family. Your father may have been a major asshat, but he was the step-asshat I never had.”
Ruby? That must be his fiancée.
The doctor held out his hand to me. Though his smile was warm, his skin was unexpectedly cold. “I’m Alexander, an old friend of Travis.”
Hadn’t Travis just called him Carlisle? Maybe that was his last name. I glanced at the hospital badge clipped to his lab coat and frowned. It said Dr. Lesauvage.
Noticing my confusion, Travis chuckled. “Have you seen the Twilight movies? They were a big hit on the island when they came out, weren’t they, Doc?”
The movies? Humph. The movies wouldn’t have existed if it hadn’t been for the books.
The doctor shrugged and washed his hands at the tiny sink in the corner. “It started as a joke. The nickname stuck.”
A joke? I scrutinized him again. Handsome, blond, and a doctor. Okay, I got it. The island sure took this monster stuff to the Nth degree. Well, I could play along too.
Smirking, I covered my neck with a hand. “I hope you’ve fed recently, Dr. Cullen.”
The doctor winked. “I’m a vegetarian, remember?”
I laughed. Good one.
He turned his attention back to his patient, and I took it as my cue to go. I didn’t want to see any needles or hear any groans of pain—much less see this guy naked. Well…at least not in a hospital and under these circumstances.
Girl, no. He’s engaged. Remember? And you’re not a skanky wedding singer.
“Guess it’s time for me to skedaddle. Let you have a little privacy. Thank you for—”
Travis shot a hand out and grabbed mine, pulling me closer to his bedside. If I’d been wearing heels, I probably would’ve lost my balance. “Stay here, Daphne. Please.”
This took me completely by surprise, as did the electric tingle running up my arm. His fingers were long, the short nails neatly trimmed, not bitten like mine. And unlike the doctor, his touch was surprisingly warm.
I looked into his handsome yet worried face. Did blood and needles always freak him out? Maybe he was in a more fragile state than normal because of his father’s recent death. What if his father had died in a car accident and the almost-accident with me had traumatized him further?
I couldn’t tell him no. He…needed me. I owed him that much. “Um…okay.”
“There won’t be any blood, if that’s what you’re worried about.” The doctor pulled an overhead light and shone it on Travis’s swollen knee.
I felt so guilty that George and I were the cause of this. And those stupid dogs. The island ought to have stricter leash laws.
“It should heal quickly on its own,” Travis proclaimed in a low, gruff tone. “I’m not sure what all the damn fuss is about.”
The doctor removed the brace that the EMT had put on and prodded the joint, manipulating it this way and that. “You really wrenched this thing. The full moon was…what? Last week?”
Travis groaned, squeezing my hand tighter. “You bloodsuckers are all the same. Couldn’t care less about the moon or what phase it’s in, but I’ll bet you know exactly what time the sun sets tonight.”
Alexander chuckled without looking up. “Point taken.”
Another monster reference? I gave them a courtesy laugh.