The Sheriff's Christmas Surprise Part 13

Those were the words he used when he showed up on Rick's doorstep that morning just as Rick was finishing up his breakfast.

"Miss Joan said that the lady who's got the keys to that sorry vehicle's staying here," said the tall, almost painfully thin mechanic. He raised himself up on his toes in order to peer into the sheriff's house, most likely to see if he could spot the woman in question. Rick was six-two, but Henley was approximately two inches taller, seeming even taller because he was so rail-thin.

Drawn by the sound of voices, Olivia came up behind Rick, holding Bobby in her arms. She heard the stranger's last sentence.

"It won't start," she told the mechanic. She looked at him a little uncertainly. This was the town mechanic? The man looked more like a wild-eyed prophet out of some poorly cast movie set in biblical times. All he needed was a flowing robe and rope sandals to go with his long, straggly gray hair and the three-day stubble on his gaunt face.

"So Miss Joan tells me. She also tells me that Bruiser used your car as a big teething ring." He laughed shortly. The noise sounded more like a cackle to Olivia. "I always did say that dog was a decent judge of machinery."

She didn't feel overly optimistic about leaving her car's fate in the hands of a mechanic who took his lead from a dog, but, since Henley was the only mechanic in town, she had no choice.

"Do you think that you can fix the problem?" she asked, trying to sound as upbeat as she could.

"Can't rightly say," he told her honestly. "Haven't figured out what the problem is yet. Well, since I ain't got nothing else to do, I'll tow your car to my garage and have a look-see." About to leave, he paused. "You got the keys?"

"Not on me, but I'll go get them," she said, debating whether she should add, "don't go anywhere," or if that was understood. The man didn't seem overly bright, but she decided not to state the obvious. She was counting on Rick to keep the man there until she retrieved the car keys. "I'll be just a minute," she promised.

With that, Olivia hurried off to the bedroom, where she'd left her purse. She was back within moments. Bobby gurgled, obviously enjoying the quick sprint to the rear of the house and back.

Returning, she was just in time to see the semi-amused, utterly envious look that the older mechanic was giving Rick. Curious, she instinctively knew to keep her question to herself.

"Here they are," she said, rejoining the two men. She held out the car keys to Henley.

Long, sun-browned and permanently stained fingers wrapped themselves around the keys. Henley nodded. "We'll talk again," he promised, taking his leave.

About the car, or about something else? An uneasy feeling slid up and down her spine. But then, if the old man had meant anything sinister, Rick would have called him out on it, right? The latter was the law around here, she reminded herself, for whatever that was worth.

She was beginning to feel as if she'd gotten trapped in an episode of The Twilight Zone. How else could she explain this sudden, strong attraction for Rick? It just wasn't like her and yet, every time she came within close proximity of the man, her system suddenly and loudly declared: Go!

"And he's the only mechanic in town?" she questioned Rick again, watching Henley's back as he retreated to his vehicle, a fifteen-year-old truck that had definitely seen better days.

"Yes." Rick added for her benefit, "Don't worry, Mick's good at what he does."

"I certainly hope so," Olivia murmured. Any further exchange was curtailed as they both became aware of the fact that Bobby had pungently recycled his breakfast. "I'd better go change him," she said with a sigh.

"Not a bad idea," Rick agreed as she turned to hurry back to the bedroom.

WHEN RICK TOOK her to the hospital later that day, her hopes that Tina had regained consciousness quickly died. Her sister was no better. On the bright side, the surgeon told her, when she caught up to him, that Tina was no worse, either.

"You've got to understand, Ms. Blayne," he told her, "This is a process that doesn't have a specific timetable. It doesn't punch a time clock that says it'll be gone in a certain amount of hours or days. We just have to wait and see how she responds. And you're going to have to stay patient," he added.

That was easy for the doctor to say. His whole life was here. He didn't have a job waiting for him back in Dallas. A job that came with a very impatient boss who, when she'd asked for some time off, had looked as if it physically pained him to give her even a short leave of absence.

A leave of absence that might not be nearly long enough.

She would have to call Norvil tomorrow to request an extension. She definitely wasn't looking forward to that. All things considered, she would rather go before Susan Reems, known as the district's "hanging judge" to plead a case rather than ask Harris Norvil for a favor.

She stayed with Tina for several hours, talking to her, reading to her, hoping to bring her sister around, if only just a little.

But nothing changed and, finally, she asked Rick to take her back to Forever.

"At least there was no bad news," Rick said as they drove back, trying to be encouraging. And he was right, she thought. Things could have been a lot worse.

The bad news waited for them once they got back to Forever. They stopped to pick up the baby at the diner and returned to Rick's house. No sooner did they walk through the door than the phone rang.

"It's for you," Rick said, holding out the receiver. "It's Mick. Here, I'll take the baby," he offered, trading her the receiver for the infant.

She had a bad feeling about this. "h.e.l.lo?"

Mick started talking immediately. "It ain't a death sentence or nothing like that," he a.s.sured her. "But your car needs parts I don't carry-don't usually work on fancy, pricey cars-but I can order them. Shouldn't be but a couple of days-"

"A couple of days?" she echoed. She'd hoped it was something simple, like a new battery.

"If we're lucky," Henley tacked on. "Now, you want me to send for 'em, or just forget the whole thing?"

That wasn't an option and she had a feeling this skinny highwayman knew it. "Send for them," she instructed, biting back a sigh.

"First thing in the morning," he promised.

The connection went dead. She stood there holding the receiver, fighting the urge to throw it across the room. Olivia hung it up instead.

She went in search of Bobby and found him in the guest room. Rick was playing peekaboo with him and Bobby was laughing a funny belly laugh that had already become part of his personality.

Standing there, watching them for a couple of minutes, she could feel the knot in her stomach unclenching. The child wasn't really hers. Neither was the man. But it didn't matter. For one isolated moment in time, she looked upon it as a family scene, something she was part of by virtue of simply being there and it made her feel good.

She found that she could even smile.

Chapter Twelve.

For the next three days, as the threat of rain hung in the air, so prevalent that Olivia could almost taste the drops, the sheriff-with-the-heart-of-gold drove her to see her sister every morning and then drove her back to Forever and her nephew at the end of the day. In between, Rick would disappear, leaving her to stay with her sister and pray for a miracle as she kept up almost a steady stream of conversation, interspersed with reading the local newspaper out loud to Tina.

It made no difference.

Tina remained in a coma, out of reach. It was getting harder and harder to see her sister that way.

As her mind searched for positive things to dwell on, Olivia began to wonder where Rick went during the day after he left her at the hospital. Was he visiting friends he knew in town? Going to the movies? What?

When he came to Tina's room to pick her up the evening of the third day, Olivia decided to ask him outright. She knew that he had every right to his privacy and she had no right to pry.

But knowing that didn't diminish her curiosity.

However, before she could open her mouth to ask, Rick handed her an umbrella. That was when she noticed that his hat and jacket were wet. Not damp from acc.u.mulated drizzle, but wet, really wet.

"You're going to need this," he told her. "It's raining like there's no tomorrow." The sheriff glanced over Olivia's shoulder at the unconscious young woman in the bed, then back at her. "No change?"

"No change." G.o.d, but she hated the sound of those words. They were the same two words the nurses told her every morning as she walked into the ICU, asking how Tina was doing.

Rick gave her an encouraging smile as he led the way toward the front entrance. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Yes, maybe tomorrow," Olivia echoed, wishing she could actually believe that.

Whether Tina regained consciousness or not, once her car was back among the running, she was going back to Dallas to talk to their family physician to find out what it took to get Tina airlifted from Pine Ridge Memorial and brought to Parkland Memorial Hospital, one of the outstanding hospitals in the state. The doctors there must be able to bring Tina around. Parkland Memorial attracted a more gifted cla.s.s of surgeon, she thought, tamping down the desperate feeling within her.

It wasn't raining when she walked through the door and went outside. It was pouring. Relentlessly.

"Here, take this," Rick said, opening the umbrella and thrusting it into her hand. Before she could protest that he needed it more than she did, he was gone, weaving through the parking lot to retrieve his vehicle.

The wind came from all angles, driving the rain almost at a slant on one side, then shifting positions and sending it lashing at her from the other side. She found herself shifting the umbrella from one side to the other in an attempt to keep at least semidry.

It was a losing battle.

When he drove the car up to the hospital's front entrance several minutes later, she saw once again that Rick looked absolutely soaked to the bone. Shutting the umbrella as swiftly as she could, she dived into the front pa.s.senger seat and quickly shut the door. Despite her efforts, she was almost as wet as Rick.

"Why didn't you take the umbrella?" she asked.

The shrug was dismissive and careless. "It would have just held me up."

It was a lie and they both knew it. He'd left it with her in hopes that it would keep her relatively dry. Apparently chivalry was not dead, at least not in Forever, Texas. She didn't realize she was smiling.

Shifting in her seat and looking at his profile, she could barely make it out in the encroaching darkness and rain. "Where do you go every day?"

That struck him as an odd question. The most logical answer would have been to say "to Pine Ridge," but she wasn't simpleminded. He could tell that she a.s.sumed he didn't hang around town.

"When?"

"When you drop me off at the hospital. You never stay," she pointed out, not that he was under any obligation to stay with her. "Do you go visit friends, or...?" She let her voice trail off, waiting for him to fill in the blank.

"Or..." Rick responded, his lips curving in amus.e.m.e.nt.

Reaching over to the side, he turned on the rear window defroster and switched on the window defogger. The windshield was clouding up. Impatient, he wiped the mist away with the palm of his hand. It didn't exactly improve visibility.

"Or," she repeated. "And that would be?" Olivia pressed, waiting.

"I go back to Forever and deal with whatever comes up during the day," he told her simply.

The heater wasn't helping all that much. Visibility was going from bad to worse. He slowed the car down to a crawl.

She must have missed something, Olivia thought. Good Samaritans were only found in Bible pa.s.sages and movies of the week. "You drive all the way over here, drop me off then drive back and in the evening you repeat the whole process all over again?"

He slanted her an amused look, sparing only a second. The road needed his undivided attention. "Nothing gets by you, does it?"

"Why?"

"Why doesn't anything get by you?" he speculated as to the nature of her question. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's because you're sharp."

She wanted answers. She desperately wanted clarity for a change. And he was having fun at her expense. "Don't mock me, Rick, you know what I mean. Why are you going out of your way like this for me?"

He would have thought that it was evident. But then, life in a large city tended to make people suspicious of random acts of kindness. He spelled it out for her.

"Because your car's dead in Mick Henley's garage and your sister's in a coma in Pine Ridge Memorial and you have no way to get there," he said.

"Yes, but none of that is your problem. It's mine."

"While you're in my town, I see it differently."

Olivia watched him for a long moment as the windshield wipers rhythmically dueled with the wind-driven rain that crashed against the windshield. They were equally matched.

"Thank you," she finally managed to say. "I don't know if I remembered to tell you, but I'm very grateful to you for everything you've done for Bobby and me-and my sister."

Taking credit always made him feel awkward. Taking credit that wasn't due him only made it that much worse. "Didn't do anything for your sister except manage to locate her," he said.

He was taking modesty to a whole new level. The people she a.s.sociated with in the firm would have torn him apart in a matter of moments. "But don't you understand? That was the important part. I wouldn't have found Tina if not for you."

"You would have found her," he guaranteed. "You're too stubborn not to."

Whatever she was going to say in response was swallowed up as they suddenly hit what felt like a giant pothole or, in this case, just a plain hole in the ground. The car listed to the right, her side dropping about half a foot. Olivia screamed as she slammed against the door.

"We're fine, we'll be fine," Rick insisted, raising his voice above the howl of the wind so that she could hear him.

His forearms strained and then ached as he hung on to the steering wheel, fighting for control of the vehicle. It swerved, sliding first one way, then the other as he tried to compensate.

Struggling, he finally managed to get them beyond the sinkhole and to the side of the road. He pulled over and stopped to catch his breath.

"Do you charge extra for that?" Olivia quipped, trying to sound unfazed as she waited for her heart to stop racing.

"No extra charge," he told her.

The rain continued to get worse as they drove on. Rick began to talk, trying to take her mind off what was going on beyond the windshield, but it was futile. Visibility had gone to practically zero.

He blew out a long breath. "I think we're going to have to stop somewhere for the night. If the rain keeps up like this, I might wind up driving off the road again, or into some swollen creek."

As it was, the rain was seeping into the car via the doors. The floor had already acc.u.mulated half an inch of water and it promised to only get worse. "Is there anywhere out here to stop?" Olivia asked skeptically. She didn't remember seeing a hotel.

Rick glanced at the car's navigational system. For now, it was still working, but he didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to say that. He hit the square that said "hotels." Only one name and address popped up. It barely qualified.

"There's this run-down motel about two miles from here. It doesn't look like much, but the rooms have got roofs and it's a place to stay dry while waiting for the storm to break, or for morning, whichever comes first." He glanced in her direction. "From the looks of it, some of the roads going back home are going to be flooded. They tend to flood when it really rains hard," he explained, then began to drive again, going very slowly. "Staying at The Sunshine Inn's going to be our best bet."