Kitabı oxu: «Healing His Widowed Heart»

Chapter One

Smoke burned the back of Lexie Campbell’s throat as she took a breath and kept walking, staying clear of the officers guarding her evacuated neighborhood. She only needed to get inside her home for five minutes—just long enough to grab the dress.

Heart pounding, she edged along the woods behind a row of houses. From the news, she knew the wildfire was still a mile away. She’d be completely safe to go to the house she’d rented for the summer and retrieve the only thing of importance she’d brought with her. She’d always dreamed of wearing her grandmother’s dress on her wedding day—a day that was supposed to be two weeks from now.

Change in plans.

Tree limbs crunched loudly beneath her leather boots as she broke into a run. Bringing the dress here had been foolish. She’d come to Carolina Shores, North Carolina to take her mind off her problems and focus on helping others. That was her grandmother’s remedy for a broken heart. Not the kind of medicine that Lexie practiced, but her grandma Jean had always known best. When Dr. Marcus had called to ask for help opening a free health care clinic here, Lexie had jumped at the chance. Looking at the black, smoke-filled sky now, she wondered if her decision had been rash. Unlike her ex-fiancé, though, she kept her commitments.

Seeing the house ahead, Lexie breathed a sigh of relief, which ended in a fit of coughing. She hurried toward the front porch and quickly unlocked the door. Inside, the air was stale, the smoke already seeping through the poorly insulated walls. She ran into the back bedroom and grabbed the dress from the closet. In the kitchen, she found a black garbage bag and stuffed the white-laced fabric inside. She wished she could throw herself in the bag right now. Surely no air was better than this.

Her head spun as she cinched the bag tightly.

Time to get out of here!

She hurried out the front door, making the mistake of sucking in another deep breath. Coughing again, she stumbled down the steps and started to cut across the lawn, heading in the direction of the neighborhood’s front entrance. No reason to sneak around now. She’d left her car parked along the roadside. If she could just make it back, then she’d be fine. After arriving and unloading her belongings here late last week, she’d gone away for the weekend to visit a friend, taking a few changes of clothes and her toiletries with her, which were still in her car—a blessing in disguise. Little had she known she’d be returning to a neighborhood evacuation.

Lexie didn’t bother glancing around to make sure she went unnoticed. No one was here. Everyone in Chesterfield Estates had evacuated. And with good reason, she thought now, feeling her world tilt and re-center like a ride at the amusement park.

A siren stopped her in her tracks. Looking up, Lexie saw a man with dark hair and a hard jawline leaning toward the passenger-side window of a white pickup truck. It was marked with the local fire department’s logo.

“What are you doing out here?” he called. “Don’t you know there’s a mandatory evacuation in this neighborhood?”

Lexie erupted into a fit of coughing as she tried to explain. She wasn’t a material girl, but the dress was sentimental to her. She couldn’t risk letting it burn up in the forest fire.

Stumbling toward him, Lexie doubled over as she coughed. “I...was just...”

Just about to fall over if I don’t get fresh air soon.

“Get in,” he ordered.

Lexie straightened, still wheezing. “Am I under arrest?” she asked through painful speech.

His brows lowered over disapproving blue eyes. “I’m not a cop. If I were, then absolutely. Being here right now is against the law.”

She approached his vehicle and pulled weakly on the door’s handle. She’d gladly accept a ride into fresh air. If not for him, she wasn’t sure she’d have made it out of the neighborhood and back to her car without collapsing. Clearly she’d misjudged the situation.

She tried to open the door, but her hands wouldn’t work.

“Ma’am?” she heard him say, although his voice was fading quickly. She thought she heard his truck door open, and then two hands turned her around and firmly grasped the front of her shoulders. “Ma’am? Are you okay?” He leveled his eyes with hers, forcing her to look at him.

Her knees went weak and not because of his rugged good looks, which didn’t go unnoticed even in her condition.

“Take a deep breath,” he told her, his voice calm and in control.

Her vision grew dim. She clutched the fabric of his shirt in her hand, holding on to him so that she didn’t fall. The garbage bag that she’d stuffed the dress into minutes earlier dropped to the ground below. “Don’t let me die,” she pleaded, feeling her legs buckle. Then she felt the weight of her body being swept up into the man’s arms. He opened the passenger door of his truck and laid her inside as she struggled to hold on to consciousness, watching the colors around her blur like the view inside a kaleidoscope.

“You still there?” he asked, flipping the sirens on as he took the driver’s seat.

The loud sound made her head throb. She tried to nod or say something intelligible. Instead her eyes closed, the world and the handsome stranger beside her fading away.

* * *

Mason Benfield had been hoping to find someone in the evacuated neighborhood, but it wasn’t the woman lying across his passenger seat right now. On a tip, he’d driven through the neighborhood, looking for a teenage girl and suspected runaway. If the runaway was here, he needed to find her before she got hurt like the woman beside him.

He glanced over. The woman appeared to be in her mid-to-late twenties. And either she couldn’t read, didn’t watch the local news, or had a death wish.

He dialed 911 as he sped toward the neighborhood’s front entrance a few blocks away. “I have an unconscious woman who suffered a possible asthma attack. We’re at the entrance of Chesterfield Estates,” he told the operator. He relayed a few more details, and then slowed the truck as he drove past the orange caution cones. He parked and got out, waving over one of the policemen enforcing the evacuation.

Mason wasn’t up for giving the guy a lecture about making sure no one got past. If anyone, the woman in his passenger seat was the one who needed a harsh speaking-to. What she’d done had been senseless. They’d evacuated the neighborhood because it was dangerously close to the forest fire. They were trying to control the blaze, but one change in the wind and the flames could rage in this direction. The fire could engulf miles in a matter of hours. Walking inside the neighborhood on foot was a foolish thing to do.

As he scooped her body into his arms, she stirred, drawing his eyes down to her oval face. He didn’t recognize her. Must be new to town, he thought, carrying her to a patch of grass near the road. He laid her gently on the ground, letting her legs drop first and then cradling her head until her soft auburn hair splayed out around her. He slid his fingers to the side of her neck and checked her vitals—good. Her complexion was rosy—and beautiful.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

“She okay?” the officer asked, walking up beside him.

Mason’s jaw tightened. “Talk to your guys and make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said, straining to hear any sign of help coming their way. “And keep a lookout for a teenage girl in this area. There’s a suspected runaway that’s been spotted around here.”

The officer nodded. “Will do.”

Mason couldn’t stand the thought of a child finding themselves helpless in the dense smoke. Hopefully the girl had relocated. Hopefully, he thought, she’d gone home where she belonged. His late wife crossed his memory. Once a runaway, too, someone had helped her find her way. Because of that she’d founded the Teen Center, a cause close to her heart, and had helped a few dozen teens when she was alive.

Mason angled his head, listening as the sound of sirens grew in the distance. The woman on the ground stirred. Her eyelids flickered and then she reached for his hand. The feel of her skin on his was like silk. Reflexively, his fingers tightened around hers. He stared down at their interlocked fingers for a long moment, unable to break away. She was scared, that’s all it was, which intensified his desire to keep her safe.

Don’t let me die.

Her words back on the street had been too close for comfort. Pressing down the memories of his late wife, he nodded at the paramedics as they arrived.

“She breathed in a little too much smoke. Maybe an asthma attack,” he said, as they carefully picked the woman up and laid her on a stretcher. His hand broke free from hers. Mason had the sudden urge to follow her inside the ambulance and ride along just to make sure she got there okay, to relieve her fears and tell her everything was going to be all right. He knew from experience, though, that sometimes things didn’t turn out all right.

“My bag,” she said in a barely audible voice.

Mason stepped closer as she was carried away on the stretcher. “What did you say?” he asked.

Her eyes opened just slightly. “My bag. I need that bag,” she said, her eyes widening. Then she was lifted inside the small confines of the ambulance and the doors shut behind her.

What could possibly be so important that she would put it in a black garbage bag and risk her life to save it? Watching the ambulance scream into the distance, he climbed back into his truck to go find out. As he drove, he pushed back those haunting memories of the day his wife had died. His chest throbbed with the deep wound that the memory always reopened.

Everything is going to be okay, he’d told her. The doctors will fix you right up.

At the time he’d truly believed in what he was saying. He’d put his faith in the young doctors at Carolina Memorial, and his late wife had put her faith in his words.

Mason parked on the cul-de-sac and slipped on a mask this time because the air was thick. Just because he was a firefighter didn’t mean he could gulp in smoke and not be affected. Somehow the woman had thought herself invincible. He grabbed the bag and carried it back to the truck. Inside, he ripped open the knot cinching the plastic, surprised when white lace fabric peeked through.

A wedding dress.

Which meant the woman on her way to the hospital was spoken for. Taken. Off the market. That knowledge stung a little, leaving him with something akin to disappointment, which didn’t make sense. She was a stranger and he had no interest in dating or relationships, or ever getting married again. Shifting his truck back into gear, he headed out of the neighborhood with the bagged dress beside him. The smell of smoke was hard to kick. Foolish or not, he didn’t want the bride-to-be to smell like a forest fire on her special day.

A short drive later, he pulled into a gravel driveway and parked.

“Mason.” The woman he rented his garage apartment from turned from the stove as he walked into the adjoining ranch-style house. “What are you doing here at this hour?” she asked.

He set the garbage bag against the wall. “I thought I’d leave this with you for safe keeping if that’s all right. I rescued someone from the fire earlier and—”

Clara Carlyle’s hands flew to her mouth. “Are they okay?”

“Well, she wasn’t exactly in the fire. She just got too close, and inhaled a lot of smoke. She’ll be fine.” That’s what his head was telling him at least. His heart, on the other hand, was sick with worry. Ambulances and hospitals made him nervous. “Do you think you could check on her for me?” he asked. Clara checked on a lot of hospitalized people from church. It was something she enjoyed doing.

“Of course I will. I’m going to the hospital to visit Mr. Jacobs from the choir this afternoon.”

Mason nodded. “Thank you.”

“How are you doing?” she asked then, her brown eyes studying him intently.

A bunch of descriptions rattled off in his head. He was tired. Hungry. Anxious... Lonely. “I’m fine,” he told her, grabbing an apple from her fruit basket on the counter and kissing her temple. “I have to get back to work. Then I’ll be at the Teen Center tonight.”

“You won’t be home for dinner?” Clara asked with a frown.

“Maybe tomorrow night,” he said. If the fire was contained.

“Be careful out there. I don’t want to be visiting you in the hospital, too,” she said.

Not a chance. “I will.” He closed the door behind him and walked back to his truck.

* * *

Lexie awoke to the familiar sounds of a hospital. She was usually the one controlling the sounds. Now, for a reason she tried to remember, she was the patient lying in a stiff, narrow bed. There was an IV poking into her right arm.

Pieces of her morning started to reassemble in her memory. The rental home she was staying at had been evacuated while she was out of town. She’d gone back to get her—

Lexie sat up, her eyes suddenly wide as she scanned the room for her grandmother’s wedding dress.

“You need to relax, dear.” A short woman with white hair and a ready smile knocked as she entered the room, holding a large, leafy potted plant.

Lexie had never seen the woman before, so she guessed she was on her way to see another patient.

“I’m Clara Carlyle,” the woman said, placing the plant on the nightstand beside her and pulling up a chair. “Mason sent me to check on you.”

Lexie didn’t know him, either. “Who?”

Clara smiled softly. “Your knight in shining armor. He rescued you when you passed out this morning. Don’t you remember, dear?”

“Y-yes. I was going back to get—”

“Your dress. Yes, I know.” The older woman looked sheepish. “I may have peeked inside the bag. Oh, it’s a beautiful dress.”

“You have my bag?” Lexie asked hopefully.

“At home. A hospital isn’t the place for something like that. Neither is a fireman’s truck. That’s why Mason brought it to me. I’ll take it to you after you’re discharged. Where will you be staying?”

Lexie’s mouth fell open. That was a very good question. The rental home had been cheap. It was run-down and needed renovations. Until she started her real job in the fall, she didn’t exactly have the extra funds to rent one of the more livable, touristy places in town. She could always go back home to Raleigh, she thought, discounting that idea immediately. She’d promised Dr. Marcus she’d help him open and run the free health care clinic in Carolina Shores this summer. She would also be in charge of the clinic’s outreach to the local teens in the community. “I’m not sure yet,” she told the woman.

“You don’t have any family in Carolina Shores?” Clara asked.

Lexie shook her head. “No.” She’d needed a break from the concerned looks of her family and friends. They meant well, but seeing them only made her dwell on her canceled wedding and happily-ever-after.

There was another knock on her hospital room door. Lexie smiled for the first time since waking up at the sight of a short-statured man with an overgrown, scraggly beard. Dr. Marcus had taught a year of her medical school before returning to the field at Carolina Medical to practice medicine.

“Lexie! When I called and asked you to come to Carolina Medical, I meant to work alongside me, not to be my patient. Although it’s always a pleasure to see you.”

“Good to see you, too. And as soon as I’m discharged, I’ll get right on that,” Lexie promised. “I’m so excited about the work we’re going to do together.”

He smiled. “Me, too.”

Clara stood to greet the doctor. “Hello, Dr. Marcus. How are you?”

He nodded and gave her a hug. “I’m well. Yourself?”

Clara patted his back and sat back down in the chair beside Lexie’s bed. “I’m blessed. I didn’t see you in church last Sunday.” She lifted a brow.

Dr. Marcus shook his head. “I’m sorry I missed it. I hear the sermon was a good one, but duty called. I see you’ve met one of my favorite students from the time when I was a professor in Raleigh.”

They both turned to Lexie. She’d passed her medical boards last month. She was officially a doctor now, and couldn’t wait to start practicing.

“I have,” Clara told him, folding her hands in her lap. “Is she going to be okay?”

Dr. Marcus gave her a serious look. “You know I can’t break patient confidentiality, Clara.”

“So you keep telling me.” Clara winked at Lexie. “He never tells me anything when I come to visit.” Clara pretended to whisper, intending for Dr. Marcus to hear every word.

Lexie laughed. “Am I going to be okay?” she asked, turning to Dr. Marcus. “When can I trade in this hospital gown for my real clothes?” And start looking for a place to stay in Carolina Shores temporarily.

“Just as soon as you promise to stop running toward wildfires,” he said, writing something on the clipboard in his hand.

“Oh, trust me, I won’t be doing that again anytime soon,” Lexie said. Heat moved through her cheeks.

“That’s good, because part of being a good practitioner is setting a good example. Especially when it comes to the teens.”

“Right.” She felt conviction in her spirit. She hadn’t started the job yet and Dr. Marcus was already mentoring her.

“And where will you be staying when you leave here?” he asked.

That seemed to be the question of the moment. Lexie knew that Dr. Marcus would offer her a place to stay if she told him she was now homeless, but she also knew he was a newlywed. He and his new wife were late to find love, and had only been married for a couple months. Lexie had attended the wedding here in Carolina Shores. It was the first time she’d visited the coastal town, and she’d wished she could stay a little longer at the time. Now she was here for the entire summer.

She opened her mouth to tell Dr. Marcus she wasn’t sure, but Clara stopped her.

“She’s my new houseguest, Dr. Marcus. A friend of yours is a friend of mine.”

Lexie shook her head. “I couldn’t let you do that. You don’t even know me.”

“You could and you should. Please,” Clara said. “I never turn down an opportunity to bless someone in need. And you’ll be helping Dr. Marcus with the new health care clinic. Our community really needs medical help for people without insurance. The least I can do is put you up in our guest room.”

Dr. Marcus placed the clipboard under his arm. “It’s settled, then. You’re free to go, Lexie.” He pointed a finger in her direction. “But be back in the clinic downstairs tomorrow morning and ready to start working the other side of the bed.”

Lexie’s head was spinning. She lived according to a plan, always had, and going home with a complete stranger was not part of it. But she didn’t see any other option at the moment.

Clara stood and clasped her hands at her chest, looking excited. “Great. You get dressed and I’ll wait outside for you in the hallway, dear. I’ll call my husband and tell him the good news.”

Reluctantly, Lexie nodded, forcing a smile. “Okay. Thank you,” she said as Clara exited. Lexie stared at the closed door for a long moment, then started to put on her clothes. Another change in plans. This was becoming the theme of her summer. She’d been with Todd, her ex-fiancé, for so long that marrying him had seemed like the next logical step—even though she wasn’t in love with him. That realization hurt. Then her plans had crumbled around her. So she’d planned out her summer here, and now her plans were falling apart again.

Okay, I can do this.

Clara Carlyle seemed like a nice enough lady, and since Dr. Marcus knew her, she wasn’t exactly a total stranger. Lexie would spend her summer helping others at the health care clinic as planned, and then return home to the job that would be waiting for her in Raleigh. There would be no gold band on her finger at the end of the summer like she’d thought, but she was sure that was best. God’s plans were better, Grandma Jean always said, and Lexie believed it. She’d been brokenhearted after Todd had called off the wedding, but she was trying to see the bright side. They’d gotten along fine, but maybe there was something, or someone, out there who was more than fine for her.

“Ready?” Clara asked as Lexie poked her head out of the hospital room.

Lexie nodded. “I left my car at Chesterfield Estates,” she told Clara. “Along the side of the road.”

Clara waved a hand. “My husband, Rick, works on cars for a living. He’ll tow it back to our place. Don’t worry, dear. He’s excited about having you as a guest, too. It’s the more the merrier in our home,” Clara continued as they reached the elevators. “Our other houseguest lives in the spare room above the garage.” She talked excitedly. “Did I hear Dr. Marcus say you’ll be working with teens, too?” she asked.

Lexie nodded as they stepped inside the elevator and headed down to the hospital’s first floor. “Yes. It’s part of the health care clinic’s outreach. I’ll be helping teens learn about proper health care.”

“Oh, that’s marvelous. The two of you will get along just fine,” Clara said.

Lexie was only barely listening. Her head was still a little foggy from her ordeal this morning. Something about another guest who lived in Clara and Rick’s garage apartment. Lexie guessed she’d meet him when she got to her new summer home.

* * *

Mason hadn’t been able to take his mind off the woman who’d broken through evacuation lines all afternoon. The fire covered a little over a thousand acres at this point. He needed to be focused on that instead. He also needed to find the runaway girl as soon as possible, before something happened to her. It eased his mind that Clara had promised to go visit the woman from this morning. Knowing Clara, she’d gone as soon as he’d left earlier and had probably taken a care package, too.

He wiped the sweat from his brow as he pulled the hose from the truck and handed it to one of the guys at the station. They were keeping the fire away from the roads while helicopters circled overhead dumping water where the trucks and firemen couldn’t get.

His actions were on autopilot. There was usually a fire like this one every few years. Either someone had burned a trash pile too close to the woods on a windy day or lightning had struck dry land, such as it was in the current drought that Carolina Shores was suffering. No one usually got hurt. Of course, most people abided by the rules set forth for their own safety.

His thoughts drifted back to the redhead with eyes as verdant as this land once was. She’d risked her life for a wedding dress, which meant not only was she crazy for running toward a burning forest, but she was engaged. Somewhere out there was a man who loved her, who needed her to stay safe for him. She’d acted foolishly this morning and now she was lying in a hospital bed. The bride-to-be had been reckless with her health and her fiancé’s heart—just another reason Mason planned on staying single. Loving someone meant the possibility of losing them, and he’d lost enough people he loved.

After spending another hour as close to the fire as he could safely get, he headed to his truck to grab a drink of water.

Fire Chief Henry Rodriguez stepped up beside him. “Your shift is over, Benfield.”

Mason shook his head. “We don’t keep to our regular shifts during something like this.”

The chief raised a bushy eyebrow. “Let me rephrase that. You need a break.”

Mason twisted the cap off his water bottle. Men with families needed breaks. No one was waiting for him at home—not anymore. Unless he counted Clara and Rick, who treated him like a son and always set an extra place at the dinner table on the chance that he’d make it in time.

The chief held up a hand. “It’s not up for discussion. Get out of here.”

Mason frowned. There was no arguing with his chief. He got inside his truck and drove to the Teen Center for a quick minute, then headed to the Carlyles’ house. He was late for dinner, but at least he’d made it.

So had someone else, he noticed, seeing the unfamiliar gold sedan in the driveway. Clara was always caring for someone. It’s what she did best. He wasn’t a man who usually liked to be doted on, but Clara made it feel like he was doing her a favor when he let her.