Chapter 7
Jenny
We hadn’t gotten more than a few miles down the road when his cell phone rang. It was connected to the Bluetooth in the truck so the ringtone blared through the quiet cab and made me jump.
He cursed under his breath as he looked over at the screen. “Sorry. Have to take this.” His finger jabbed a button on the steering wheel. “Hey Wendy-”
“Dad?” A trembling voice came over the speakers and Priest tensed up visibly.
“Gabby? What’s wrong, Angel? Where’s Mom?”
Fear gripped my heart at the worry in his voice and the helplessness in hers.
It was hard to determine her age just by voice alone.
I still knew nothing about his kids and that was a bitter pill to swallow.
I was being unreasonable, he wasn’t obligated to tell me anything.
I just wanted him to. Wanted him to let me in.
To let me help him through whatever this was that was making him so tense.
No. You wanted him to before you found all this out. Now you want him to leave you alone. Even with the reminder from my inner voice the desire to know him inside and out stirred in my chest.
“Dad, Mom passed out. I don’t know what to do.”
“Okay, Angel. I’m on my way right now. Just sit tight. Where are your sisters?”
“They’re here. They’re fine.”
“Okay, good. Listen, we’ve been here before. Put a pillow under her head, make sure she’s breathing alright. Is there any blood? Did she fall?”
“Yeah, I think she fell. She’s on the floor in the living room. I don’t know if she’s breathing.” The girl’s voice hitched on a sob and my heart broke apart in my chest.
“Alright, you did good, Gabby. Okay? I'll be there in a few minutes. Just hang on.”
I clicked off my seatbelt and turned in my seat. Caitlyn’s eyes were wide and her skin was pale. “Hey, Sweetie. Everything’s okay. Have you met Priest’s other daughters yet?”
She nodded her head, answering my question, her eyes flicking over to the man who’d jammed his foot on the gas pedal.
The truck lurched forward. Despite her fear, I wasn’t about to tell him to slow down.
Not when his other daughters were alone and scared and their mother was injured.
A thousand questions raced through my mind, but now wasn’t the time to ask them.
I reached back and brushed a lock of her hair away from her face.
The feel of my fingers on her skin had her leaning into the touch.
She was trusting despite what she’d gone through.
Or maybe she just knew no one would ever harm her while Priest was nearby.
He was her protector. I couldn’t blame her, I felt safe with him, too.
At least physically. Emotionally was another story.
Turning back around, I clicked my belt back on then reached over and laid my hand on his bicep. The massive muscles there bunched under my palm.
“I can’t slow down.” Anguish raced over his face.
“Not asking you to. How far are we?”
“Five minutes.” It came out through gritted teeth.
We made it in three. The truck’s tires squealed as we flew into a driveway in a nice subdivision out in Oro Valley. It was beautiful and quiet, with a gorgeous view of the Catalina Mountains.
Expensive.
I wondered if he helped his ex-wife pay the mortgage.
Not that it was any of my business. I could ask for the adoption paperwork and check his financials—and might have to in the future as this moved forward—but for now I wasn’t going to use the process to find out about him.
If he’d wanted to tell me any of this, he would have during one of his trips to Texas.
Or over the phone. Instead, he hadn’t mentioned any of it.
Not a wife. Or kids. Or anything remotely personal.
Whether it was fair or not I was still angry that he’d withheld so much from me when we were originally getting to know each other.
He’d said earlier that I had the right to be pissed at him.
That was part of it. The other part was fear.
I was scared he was going to make me fall in love with him and then drop me the moment things got sticky for him. It seemed to be his pattern.
“Go,” I told him, shoving down the anger and hurt. This wasn’t the time to be focusing on any of that. “I’ll get her.”
He ran inside, leaving me with Caitlyn. I got out of the truck and unbuckled her.
Her hand slipped into mine and I couldn’t help but smile.
Her mom must have drilled it into her head to hold an adult’s hand.
She was five, so it wasn’t always necessary.
Maybe it just made her feel connected. Either that or it made her feel safe.
Which meant I made her feel safe. My heart clenched and I fought the urge to gather her into a hug.
The warmth filling me vanished as we walked into the house. His three girls huddled together, arms wrapped around each other while watching their dad tend to their mom.
He was on his knees next to her unconscious form. I led Caitlyn over to the other girls. “Hi,” I said with a warm smile, trying to keep them calm. The oldest gave me a brief look of curiosity through watery eyes. “I’m Jenny. I’m a friend of your dad’s. Can you watch Caitlyn while I go help?”
“Yeah.” When she spoke I recognized her voice.
“Thanks, Gabby.”
I hurried over to Priest. There was no time to react to the condition of the woman lying on the floor.
Her scarf had fallen off her head, revealing hair loss that could have only come from chemo.
She was skin and bones. I didn’t need to be a medical professional to know she had some kind of cancer.
Sadness for her girls—and for Priest—battered at the calm exterior shell I’d erected around myself.
More questions arose, even as the answers were staring me in the face.
“What can I do?” I asked him as I knelt down by her other side.
“Call an ambulance,” he said, his gaze tracking over her body as he tried to find the pulse at her neck.
I pulled my cell phone out of my back pocket and dialed 911. “Hello, I need an ambulance at…”
He grunted out the address as he began doing chest compressions. The cracking sound of ribs made bile rise in my throat. I choked out the address to the dispatcher. My eyes went to the girls. They looked frozen, terrified, and so unbearably sad.
“Gabby,” I called out, ignoring the operator for a moment. “Take the others into your room, okay?”
Her eyes were wide, tears tracking down her face, but she nodded.
She ushered the other girls from the room and I was grateful she didn’t argue.
His kids were sweet and the last thing they needed was to watch their father try to resuscitate their mother.
I finished giving any information I could to the dispatcher.
I stayed on the phone while he worked diligently to make sure Wendy’s body stayed alive until the ambulance got there. There was a flurry of activity as the paramedics loaded her on a stretcher, one continuing CPR.
“I’ll stay with the girls if you want to go with her,” I told him softly.
His tortured eyes met mine. He wanted to go be there for her, but he was dying to go to his kids. I’d never seen this side of him before and it drew me in even more. Whatever shallow jerk I’d tried to make him into was being proven wrong. He had depth to him, and it was hard not to want more.
“Thanks, Jenny,” he said, voice deep and low. “Take care of them.”
“I promise,” I told him. “Go.”
He nodded, hesitating for a brief moment before walking out the front door, following the others to the waiting ambulance.
I shut the door and leaned back against it. My body was shaking. I needed to get myself under control before I could help those girls. Dealing with a sick patient wasn’t anything new to me. It was the CPR that had gotten to me.
It brought me right back to the afternoon when I’d come home from the grocery store. I hadn’t wanted to leave Grams, but it was either go to the store or starve. I’d found her on the floor in the kitchen, not unlike Wendy lying in the living room. I’d done CPR, but there was no bringing her back.
Tears welled in my eyes, but I knuckled them away. There was no time to sit here feeling sorry for myself. I shoved away from the door, then took a deep breath before going into the room marked ‘Gabby’.
She was sitting on the bed, her sisters gathered in close, reading them a story. This was why I loved kids so much. Their innocent, sweet natures. Gabby must have been terrified herself, but she’d called her dad and now sat comforting the others.
“Hey.”
They all looked up, a mix of fear and hope on their faces. Even Caitlyn had it. I wondered if she was remembering her own mom’s death? I couldn’t begin to understand how awful that must have been for her.
I went and sat down on the edge of the bed. “They took your mom to the hospital. Your dad went with her. Hope you don’t mind being stuck with me as a babysitter in the meantime.” I smiled brightly. One of the younger girls let a shy smile peep through the worry.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Jenny. A friend of your dad and Caitlyn here.” It didn’t surprise me that she didn’t remember my introduction. There’d been a lot happening, and all of it fast, when we’d first gotten here.
Gabby looked over at Caitlyn—who nodded enthusiastically—to confirm she knew me. Some of the wariness slid off her face. “I’m Gabby. That’s Taylor and Cassie.”
I gave them a little wave. “How old are you girls?”
Cassie popped a thumb out of her mouth. “Five.”
“Taylor’s six and I’m nine,” Gabby finished telling me.
“Is Mama going to be okay?” Taylor asked, voice quiet and withdrawn.
“Oh Sweetie, I hope so.” I couldn’t bring myself to outright lie to her. “They’re going to do everything they can for her at the hospital, okay?”
She nodded and looked down at her lap. Gabby leaned back and went back to reading the story to us. I looked around at each of the girls and hoped there would be good news for them.
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