Northern Rebel: Daring in the Dark Page 7

  IT HAD STARTED out as a glimmer and then blossomed into a smile, which gave way to laughter. It was a bit like watching the sun emerge over the horizon in the morning.

  “Okay, so I’ll pretend I’m interested in talking to you.”

  “Blondie, I’m not sure if I can handle all this ego-stroking,” he said, leading them off of the dance floor.

  “Marine, I’m so sure your ego is just fine.”

  Here they were in the midst of a small mob and he wanted to kiss her again. In fact, he was starting to feel a little desperate with the need. He was, however, sure that would reverse all the progress he’d made with Delphi.

  “Would you like something to—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, the music ended and the DJ spoke into the microphone. “If I can have your attention, Liam and Tansy are about to cut the cake and they’d like for everyone to enjoy a piece.” He smiled out at the crowd. “And afterwards, could all the women move to one side of the room and all the men to the other? They’ll be tossing the bouquet and the garter soon afterwards.”

  “I’m amazed he’s lasted this long,” Lars said to Delphi in an undertone. “Liam isn’t one for either crowds or parties.”

  She leaned in closer and her breast glanced against his arm, sending another surge of heat through him. “Well, it’s not as if he gets married every day.” Her breath was warm against his cheek.

  He suddenly felt as if his shirt collar had grown too tight. “He must love her to go through this.”

  There was a musical note to Delphi’s laugh. “I’d hope he loves her. He’s marrying her.”

  “I hope so, too.”

  They both hung back as everyone moved toward the front. They had a good view of Liam and Tansy from where they stood. His brother and new sister-in-law laughed together and exchanged a look as they both held on to the knife and cut a piece of cake.

  “Did you see the way they looked at one another during the ceremony?” Delphi said. Lars wondered if she heard the note of wistfulness in her voice. He doubted it.

  “I could only see Tansy.” But he saw both of them now as they fed cake to one another, and he had to admit it’d be nice to have a woman look at him like that. Of course, the expression on Liam’s face left absolutely no doubt as to how he felt about his wife. It was there for everyone in the room to see—fierce protection tempered by tenderness, love and joy. It was the oddest sensation to know that of all the experiences he and Liam had shared as brothers and twins, this was a moment Lars had never had. An awareness rippled through him that he brushed aside.

  “It was quite lovely.”

  Delphi was quite lovely, too, even with the internal scars she obviously carried. He’d seen far too many soldiers who had suffered a lapse of one kind or another—he recognized the look of pain. Awareness rippled through him again. He dragged his attention back to Liam and Tansy. “Liam looks at her differently than he did his ex-wife.”

  “I didn’t realize he’d been married before.”

  “They aborted that mission. Luckily there were no casualties.”

  “Have you ever been married?”

  “Nope. I never answered that particular call of duty. You?”

  “Call of duty. Do you think of everything in military terms?”

  “Pretty much. Conditioning.” Was she avoiding the question? “So, do you have an ex floating around somewhere?”

  “Nope. I’ve had other priorities.”

  “Such as?” It wasn’t a challenge, as much as curiosity. Not that every woman he’d dated had been marriage-oriented, but there was something different about Delphi. She just didn’t seem to fall into any neat categorization.

  “Hold that thought. I want a piece of cake.”

  “How about you snag me a piece, too, and I’ll recon two glasses of punch?”

  “It’s a deal. I’m parched.”

  She didn’t look parched at all. She looked lush and vibrant—flushed cheeks, sparkling eyes, full lips, ripe breasts teasing at the top of her sundress.

  Lars gave in to temptation and pulled her to him, kissing her hard and fast. Her eyes were wide as he released her.

  “Sorry. I...” He trailed off, for once finding himself at a loss for words.

  She ran the tip of her tongue along her lower lip. “No apology necessary, Marine.”

  He was one second away from suggesting they skip out and create their own private festivities when a situation developed at the front of the room. Lars didn’t even have to look to know.

  The only thing that surprised him was how long it had taken.

  * * *

  THE CRASH STARTLED Delphi out of her stupor of desire—that was really the only way to describe it. It also threw her immediately into medical mode. In the back of her head, as she hurried toward the crash, she wondered at Lars’s muttered comment. He was surprised it had taken so long.

  Delphi moved quickly through the crowd. Thank goodness people had enough sense to get out of her way. Janie Reinhardt lay crumpled on the floor amid overturned chairs, a rumpled tablecloth and spilled table contents. Delphi quickly scanned the room for Skye and Nelson but didn’t see either one of them.

  Lars’s mom’s color was good, Delphi noted as she leaned down. Normal, not clammy and sweaty.

  Visual stimuli? Delphi waved her hand in front of the woman’s face. No response.

  Auditory stimuli? “Dr. Reinhardt? Jane? Can you hear me?” No response.

  Delphi checked her pulse. It was a little accelerated, but not bad.

  The room was eerily quiet considering how many people were packed in. Jane still appeared unconscious. There was really nothing she could do now—she didn’t want to move her in case of a head or spinal injury.

  Pain stimuli. Placing her knuckles midway on Jane’s sternum, Delphi rubbed.

  Jane Reinhardt nearly howled as she slapped at Delphi’s hand. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  Okay, the patient was no longer unconscious. “No, ma’am. I was checking your response to stimuli. And I see you’re conscious now.”

  Jane’s attitude mellowed and she looked around in bewilderment. “What happened?”

  Murmurs rippled through the group.

  “You passed out. Has this kind of thing happened before?”

  “Oh, dear. I suppose the excitement was simply too much. It happens sometimes when I get too excited.”

  Jane began to sit up and Delphi gently but firmly restrained her with a hand to her shoulder. “Let me check you out before you try to move.”

  She did a brief, but thorough, exam on the older woman’s reflexes and visual responses. She checked Jane’s head for any obvious concussive swelling. There was also no blood anywhere. Everything seemed in order. In fact, Delphi was a bit surprised Jane didn’t exhibit any bruising or swelling considering her fall and the items she’d taken down with her. She was one lucky lady.

  “I think you’re fine. Do you hurt anywhere? Any blurred vision, dizziness or nausea?”

  “Well, of course I hurt,” Jane snapped. “I fell.”

  Delphi let the comments roll off of her. She had plenty of experience with difficult patients. “Is it just a general soreness or one area specifically?”

  Delphi saw the exact moment when Jane bit back a caustic comment and switched to pathos. “I’m sorry, it’s just a general soreness.” She glanced pointedly at the debris surrounding her. “But then I guess I took a pretty hard fall.”

  Delphi kept an impassive, professional smile on her face as she slipped one arm behind Jane’s back for support, and grasped her under the elbow with her other hand. “Let’s just go slow getting up.”

  Jane tried, and even though Delphi had her firmly, she sank back to the floor. Oddly, she actually exerted pressure against Delphi’s arm to return to the floor.

  “I think perhaps a couple of the men might be able to help me better. I don’t want to fall again.”

  A couple of men stepped forward at the same time, ready
to help.

  Lars’s cryptic comment on the plane, that Delphi could perhaps handle his mother, came to mind. Delphi, in that instant, totally got it. She smiled at the men and shook her head, declining their unspoken offer. She said to Jane, “No. You and I are doing just fine. Work as hard at getting up this time as you just worked at going back down.”

  That earned her a baleful look, which quickly shifted to long-suffering as Delphi kept her arm firmly in place. “Okay. I’ll try again.”

  They both stood on the second try, although Jane wobbled once she’d regained her feet and reached out and grabbed one of the men’s arms. “Thank you.”

  Jane’s thanks were directed at the man, not Delphi. However, that didn’t surprise Delphi in the least. She’d thwarted Jane and held her to a line. She was fairly certain that didn’t happen very often with Dr. Reinhardt.

  In her brief scanning of the room for Nelson, Delphi had noticed the set, hard look on Lars’s face—definitely an expression she hadn’t seen before. Now she noted that none of Jane’s family—Liam, Lars, Dirk or Bull—moved to help her, but instead simply stood by watching. For that matter, Merrilee and Tansy were doing the same. Hmm.

  Delphi rechecked Jane’s vitals after she was escorted to one of the chairs and seated. The mother of the groom seemed fine.

  Once again, everyone turned to focus on the newlyweds’ tossing of the bouquet and garter and subsequent exit, but the energy had shifted. Tansy and Liam’s departure felt fairly anticlimatic following Jane’s fainting spell.

  Lars materialized by her side. He was still wearing that hard look. “I’m surprised it took that long. I was holding my breath all through the wedding. But it kind of makes sense that she waited that long.”

  By unspoken consent, she and Lars stepped to the side, away from the others. “Are you saying that fainting spell was deliberate?”

  She’d suspected as much given that Jane had ostensibly taken quite a fall but had no bumps or bruising. It had been a little too staged.

  He crossed his arms over his chest, radiating annoyance. “One hundred percent.”

  “Okay....” Delphi was a bit at a loss as to what to say. She was in uncharted territory here.

  “Did she break anything? Was there a knot on her head where it hit? Of course not, because she didn’t really faint. She’s been pulling that stunt since we were kids. Mom just can’t stand it when she’s not the center of attention, so she ‘faints’ and lo and behold, everyone suddenly focuses on her.”

  “That’s—”

  He cut her off before she could say she’d come to the same conclusion. “Narcissitic? Self-involved? Yes and yes. And the best thing to do is simply ignore it or at the most, downplay it. She plays to an audience, which is why lecturing in front of a captive audience as a professor works so well for her.”

  It seemed a little harsh but it also held a ring of truth. Jane Reinhardt’s pupils hadn’t indicated even temporary unconsciousness. “Which is why none of you stepped forward to help?” It was part observation, part question, but it was devoid of censure.

  “Exactly. We might look unfeeling to everyone but it escalates if any of us react.”

  The best way to defuse drama for the sake of drama was to ignore it. “I get it.”

  “You do, don’t you?”

  “What’s not to get?”

  “This one chick...girl...I mean, woman, told me I just didn’t understand my mom and I should be more sympathetic. She thought I was a jerk.”

  All the unfair, unwarranted accusations and all the lies that had been believed about her came rushing back at her. “Some people want to offer an opinion when it really doesn’t have anything to do with them.”

  Narrowing his eyes, he subjected her to a questioning look. “True, but rather cryptic.”

  She suddenly craved the privacy of her room. “It was fun. I’m going to head back now.”

  “I’ll walk you back.”

  “There’s no need.”

  “I want to.”

  “Maybe I don’t want you to.”

  “Suck it up, Blondie. My reputation would be shot to hell and back if I let my date wander back escort-less.”

  It hovered on the tip of her tongue that his reputation wasn’t her business or her responsibility, but arguing with Lars was proving useless. He just charmingly ran roughshod over you or argued a point that was really convoluted but seemed to make perfect sense while it was coming out of his sexy mouth. And what did it matter in the scheme of things?

  “Okay.”

  “Be reasonable—”

  “I said okay.”

  He grinned sheepishly, which was an altogether attractive look on him. Of course, she had yet to see him looking unattractive. He elevated handsome to a knee-weakening, mind-numbing state in his dress uniform.

  “Then...well...okay, let’s head out.” He formally offered the crook of his arm as if they were at a gala. In a moment of carefree silliness that she hadn’t known in a long time, she slipped her arm through his. “Why, thank you, sir.”

  “Damn, Blondie, you’re slipping. You were just nice to me.”

  “No worries. It was a momentary slip. You shouldn’t get used to it.”

  And neither should she. The one thing she knew for certain about Lars Reinhardt was that he was temporary.

  * * *

  “THANKS, DIRK,” MERRILEE said as he put the last table back in place in the community center.

  “No problem.” He’d offered to hang around and help with the cleanup after the party, well, actually the reception, was over. Once Tansy and Liam hightailed it out, the joint had cleared as quick as a honky-tonky bar fight when the cops rolled in. He’d been glad to stay behind and help Merrilee.

  It wasn’t as if he had anywhere to go, anything to do or anyone to see. Liam and Tansy were honeymooning at some undisclosed destination, but he was pretty sure they were holed up at Shadow Lake, where they both stayed when they got together. Lars and that new nurse, Delphi, had been cozying up during the party and left afterward. He and Merrilee were the last two left in the building. Bull had gotten stuck taking Aunt Janie back to the new bed-and-breakfast where she was staying. His uncle had definitely got the short end of that stick. Dirk would rather mud-wrestle an alligator than hang with Aunt Janie. The gator was nicer.

  On Monday, he and Lars were flying out to the camp. Lars would spend the day checking it out and then the bush pilot would swing back around and pick him up. Staying at the camp alone for the rest of the week suited Dirk well enough. He had some things to get ready for the next training session, which would start a week from Monday. And seeing as how he felt alone all the time, he figured he might as well be alone.

  “I think that about does it,” Merrilee said, looking around the room to make sure they hadn’t missed anything. It looked fine to him. “It was a nice wedding, wasn’t it? Liam and Tansy are a good match.”

  “Better’n him and Natalie.” Damn, that just sort of slipped out. But he wasn’t surprised—Natalie was always on his mind. Kind of like one of those brain-eating parasites he’d seen on some TV show.

  Merrilee gave him what he always thought of as a “sorting out” look. After a second or so, she said, “I never met Natalie, but it’s hard to imagine anyone suiting Liam more than Tansy. What’s Natalie like?”

  “She’s nice. Real pretty. Kinda bubbly. She’s a schoolteacher. We grew up next to one another.”

  “I take it you two have stayed friends and keep in touch?”

  “Not really, well, not that much. I hadn’t talked to her for years until Tansy and Liam got together. Since then, we’ve emailed a couple of times.”

  “Oh. I see.” The heat of a dull flush climbed his neck to his face. Hopefully Merrilee wouldn’t notice. Her tone and her smile said she did. She knew he was miserably in love with Natalie.

  He tucked a chair more firmly under the table and stared at it. If Merrilee looked at him as if he was a joke, he really didn’t want to se
e it—but he didn’t think she’d do that.

  “I was thinking of inviting her out here for a visit,” he said quickly, adding, “Lars said I should. It was his idea.” He figured it wouldn’t hurt to get a woman’s opinion on the idea, but there was no way he’d bring it up to his own mother—he’d never hear the end of it. Merrilee was a good choice.

  She didn’t hesitate. “Sure. Why not? It’s beautiful here and since she and Liam parted on good terms, it shouldn’t be too awkward. Invite her, if that’s what you want to do.”

  “When do you think I should ask her to come?” he mumbled. Just thinking about it made him feel as if he had a cement block in his gut.

  “I didn’t catch that, honey.”

  He repeated his question, making sure he spoke up.

  Merrilee smiled and rubbed his arm reassuringly. “There’s no time like the present. If she’s a schoolteacher, she’s about to be out for summer break.”

  “I’d forgotten about that.” Really, all he’d been able to think about was the chance that she’d say no—that is, if he actually got up the courage to ask her in the first place. He shoved his hands in his pockets.

  “The days are nice and long now. We can put her up at either my place or Alyce’s. One of us should have a room available.”

  Both Merrilee and Lars made it sound so simple. “So, what should I say? I’m not very good at this kind of thing.”

  “Have you ever mentioned it when you emailed her?”

  He shifted from one foot to the other. “No. Not really.”

  “What does ‘not really’ mean?”

  “Well, she’s said a couple of times that it sounds real nice here.” He had a quarter and two dimes in his pocket. He could feel the shapes with his fingers.

  “It sounds to me like she’s been waiting on you to invite her.”

  “You think? I figured she was just being polite.”

  “I don’t know her so it’s hard to say. But if she’s brought it up a couple of times, she’d probably be up for a visit.”

  He rubbed at the back of his neck, feeling an itch starting there at the thought of what to say and how to say it. Maybe he’d just wait a while longer. “Um...okay.”

  “Dirk, I hope I’m not out of line with this, but would you like for me to help you write to Natalie?”