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“What’s your name?” he asked suddenly.
Jolted back into awareness, she said, “Carrie. Carrie Foster.”
He stuck out his hand, and she briefly grasped it. “I’ve never heard the name Keegan,” she said. “It’s Irish, isn’t it?”
“Through and through. Mom and Pop and all the grandfolks.”
Keegan swung into the parking lot of a building Carrie identified as Trumbly County Medical Center. The lot was nearly empty with snow packed up against car bumpers. He didn’t bother with finding a space, instead, stopping at the emergency entrance. He came around to her side and lifted her out of the vehicle.
“I can walk,” she said.
“Sure you can, but humor me. I like to flex my muscles once in a while.”
Inside, he called for a wheelchair. A nurse brought one immediately, and Keegan gently lowered Carrie into it.
“What have we got?” the nurse asked, tenderly probing the wound on Carrie’s head.
“Car accident. Besides the obvious, I suspect a broken leg.”
The nurse wheeled Carrie into a smaller room where a staff member asked her a number of questions about medications, the level of her pain. She took Carrie’s blood pressure and pulse before someone with a clipboard came in and asked for Carrie’s insurance card. Thank goodness she had her purse, and thank goodness the card didn’t show her Ohio address. If there was any way to avoid alerting her father about this trouble, she wanted to do it. She and Dr. Martin Foster had had so many arguments over Carrie’s health, her asthma, her stubborn resistance to listen to reason about being out in nature for her job, she figured this incident might make her dad chain her to Dancing Falls forever. But seeing her family at Christmas had prompted her to set out in this weather despite facing a certain argument with her dad. She’d thought he’d mellow once he realized she had arrived safely. But now...
“Your vitals are good,” the nurse said. “But we’re going to do a CT scan of the head and take an X-ray of the leg. Both tests will just take a few minutes.” Turning to Keegan, whose presence had become surprisingly comforting to Carrie’s peace of mind, she said, “You can wait in the lobby.”
For the first time since Carrie had met him, he seemed indecisive. Stay or go? What would he do? He had no obligation to stay, but for some reason, Carrie wanted him to. “It’s just a quick X-ray,” she said. “I’d appreciate it if you’d wait.”
He shrugged. “Sure. I can wait as long as it doesn’t take too long.”
A half hour later, Carrie was wheeled into an emergency cubicle. A nurse went to get Keegan, and they were told the doctor would be in shortly with the test results.
When the doctor arrived, he stood next to Carrie. “Well, young lady, you were lucky this time. This could have been much worse. As long as I’ve lived in the snowbelt, I’ve seen foolish people try to drive in our crazy weather and come in here with all sorts of...”
“Doctor, I know I shouldn’t have been driving,” Carrie said, trying not to resent the doctor’s parental tone. “What did the X-ray of my leg show?”
“You have a simple fracture. We’re going to put a soft cast and a boot on it. Should be okay in a month or so.”
“A month? I can drive, can’t I?” Carrie asked.
“Drive? Heavens, no. You fractured your right leg. You won’t be driving until you can do it without a cast or boot. Unless you want to get in another accident and maybe take someone else out with you this time.”
She was going to be stuck here for a month? Where would she stay? Would she have to call her father after all? Could she expect someone from her crew in Michigan to come after her? They were operating on limited man power through the holidays.
“You can come into my office in a week, and I’ll x-ray your leg again,” the doctor said, handing her a business card. “Right now a nurse will bandage your head and apply the cast. You do have a slight concussion, which means someone will have to watch you through the night.” He focused on Keegan. “You can do that?”
His eyes widened. “Me? I don’t know...”
“Yes, he can,” Carrie said. “I’ll be fine.”
“You can’t leave the hospital without a responsible party to drive you home and take care of you.” He stared at Keegan. “You’re a relative?”
Keegan started to speak, but Carrie interrupted. “Yes, yes, he is. This man is my husband.”
CHAPTER TWO
“WHY IN THE name of everything that makes any sense at all did you tell that doctor I am your husband?”
Thank goodness Keegan had kept quiet while the nurse bandaged Carrie’s head and provided her with pain meds to get her through the next few days. Now, as they were leaving the hospital parking lot, Keegan’s patience had obviously reached its limits.
“I certainly couldn’t monitor my concussion symptoms by myself, now could I? I needed a husband at that moment, and you were the only candidate.” She waited for him to say something. He merely continued seething. “I could have said you are my father. Would that have made you happier?”
“What you could have said is that I’m nobody to you, that I don’t even know you. You could have avoided a blatant lie somehow.”
“And what would that have done for me? They weren’t going to let me leave the hospital. And even if they did, I would have been on my own in a town I don’t know, in a snowstorm, without a car, with a broken leg and again...a concussion...”
“You’re darn lucky the doctor didn’t ask my name. He’d have noticed that our last names are not the same.”
“I thought of that,” she said. “I had an answer ready.”
He shook his head. “I’m sure you did. I’m starting to feel like you rammed your car into a pole, and I’m the one dealing with the consequences.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a bit dramatic? Besides, you can hardly say that you don’t know me. We’ve been together for—” she glanced at her watch “—almost four hours now. I feel like I know you as well as I know most...” She couldn’t come up with a word.
“Strangers?”
“We’re not strangers. You saved my life.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. And anyway, if I had it to do over again...”
“You’re saying you wouldn’t help me again? For heaven’s sake, Keegan, I could have frozen to death.”
He didn’t say anything. Maybe he was thinking that was a very real possibility.
“If it makes you feel any better, I would do the same for you.”
He gave her a skeptical look. “You’d pull me from a wrecked car, take me to a hospital in a blinding snowstorm and sit with me for three hours?”
“Of course. I don’t know about getting you out of the car, but the rest I would do.” She leaned forward, grateful that the pain injection had started working, and it no longer hurt to move. She could clearly see into Keegan’s face. “I hate to suggest this and give you any ideas, but unless you come up with a place to dump me, I’d say you’re more or less stuck with me for tonight at least.”
“I’d say you put it just about right.”
“I could go to a motel, but I need someone to watch me. Do you have family, a wife, perhaps? She could check on me.”
“I don’t have a wife. I live alone, which makes this whole situation even worse.”
She might have preferred hearing that a motherly Mrs. Breen would be present, but she’d make this work. For some reason she was no longer afraid of this man. She didn’t suspect an ulterior motive in his begrudging acceptance of her overnight stay. If anything, she figured he’d just continue to brood and finally ignore her. “It’s one night, Keegan,” she said. “Tomorrow I’ll call a tow truck and have my car brought to your house, and I’ll be on my way back to Michigan.”
He gaped at her. “Are you so drugged up you can’t remember what the doctor said? You can’t drive for a month.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, I don’t think that’s true. He was being overly cautious. I can manage.”
“Carrie...” This was the first time she could recall him using her name. “You weren’t able to manage an automobile with both your legs working!”
“Look, just let me stay with you tonight. Tomorrow we’ll work something out.” His silence was deafening, so she took a different approach, one she didn’t really believe. “I’m taking more of a chance than you are,” she added. “I’m a defenseless female. You could obviously do whatever...”
He held up his hand. “Stop right there. Do you actually think I’d touch a girl that doesn’t look more than about seventeen years of age...?”
“I’m thirty! I’ll show you my driver’s license.”
He took a moment to let her pronouncement sink in. “Okay, maybe you are, but what if you suddenly go all wonky on me and call the police? How will it look, you, incapacitated, and me in a cabin alone together?”
“First of all, don’t give me any reason to call the police, and second, you’ll look like what you are, a Good Samaritan whose only crime is helping a needy traveler.” She grinned, hoping he saw it that way. “Why, it’s practically biblical in moral righteousness.”
He didn’t seem convinced, but at least he kept driving toward whatever mysterious place he lived.
* * *
HOW DID I end up in a mess like this? Keegan kept going toward the campground where he inhabited a cabin that seemed to grow smaller by the mile. What choice did he have? Carrie was right. She couldn’t stay alone with a concussion. He’d seen enough battle injuries of that type to know that concussions could be serious. But she’d flat out lied telling the doctor he was her husband. Recalling his shock, he almost smiled now. If she only knew. Keegan Breen was not husband material. He’d tried it once. He’d failed. Right now he wasn’t even confident that he should be lifesaver material.
But he could get through one night. He’d let her bunk in his bed with her leg elevated and the pain pills taking her to Neverland. He’d sit up in a chair and watch her, and then this would all be over. Tomorrow they could get her car towed, and then maybe she’d call someone to come drive it for her.
Yes, the perfect solution. He would only be inconvenienced for a few hours. Feeling confident with a plan, he looked over at her. “So, you have family?”
“Of course.”
“Someone who could come and drive your car for you?”
She gave him a sideways glance. “I’m a good driver, you know.”
“Hmm...” He pointed to a mound of white in the road ahead. “Your car, exactly where you left it.”
She stared at the lump of frosty carnage. “Oh, my poor car. But that could have happened to anyone,” she argued. “It was a terrible storm.”
“I don’t drive a tin can, so it didn’t happen to me,” he said smartly. “And aren’t you glad?”
“I was reaching for my inhaler,” she said.
“Why do you have an inhaler? Do you have asthma?”
She didn’t answer but nodded her head slightly.
Oh, great. Another wrinkle to add to his list of nursing duties. Stay on topic, Breen. “Now, about those family members...”
“I have two sisters. Each of them would come here to get me. I have one father who would come also.” Her voice tensed when she mentioned her father. “And I don’t intend to tell any of them about this.”
“Why not?”
“My father has issues about my asthma. I won’t go into that now, but he would somehow turn this broken leg into an example of how I don’t take my asthma seriously. And I don’t want my sisters on the road in these conditions.”
“Okay. What about a husband?”
She shook her head. “Just you, and you’re only temporary.”
“You got that right.” He felt obligated to point out the obvious. “Carrie, you can’t stay with me indefinitely. I live in a Cracker Jack box. You’ve got to go somewhere.”
“I know I do. Why would I want to stay with you? You obviously don’t want me.” She paused as if waiting for him to argue the point. When he didn’t, she said, “I’ll figure it out tomorrow. Right now my head hurts too much to think.”
She leaned forward. Her hair fell straight as an arrow around her shoulders. Her thick bangs caught a waft of air from the heater and blew away from her forehead, revealing more of her face. Such a young face, Keegan thought again. She could pass for a teenager. Maybe, just to keep things honest, he would ask to see her driver’s license.
Now that he studied her, he could detect some subtle signs of age. She didn’t have that rosy glow that healthy teens had. She was pale, but maybe that was due to pain. There were a few tiny lines around her full mouth and a couple at the corner of her eye. But all in all, it was a cute face, Keegan thought. Darned cute.
Hold on, Breen, he said to himself. You’re forty-one years old, old enough to be her jaded uncle, so don’t let your mind go off-kilter about having a houseguest for one night, especially one with her problems. In fact, who knew how many problems this lady had? Physical ones—those were obvious, but why wouldn’t she call someone in her family to rescue her? What was she hiding? He wouldn’t put it past her to start telling a whole new series of lies.
He’d noticed the label on her coat. Top of the line. Her gloves were the finest leather. Her boots probably ticked out at a couple hundred bucks. And he didn’t know much about hair color, but it couldn’t be cheap to keep that two-tone look fresh. It was like she didn’t know if she wanted to be a blonde or not.
Maybe she was a rich brat, though she didn’t seem like it. Yes, she was opinionated, pragmatic to a fault and way too bold for his tastes, but overall he’d peg her as levelheaded even though she wasn’t quite realistic enough about her current predicament. And she was brave. She was staying with an older, unshaven guy who could... Well, she was lucky in that regard. He hadn’t lost all direction in his moral compass.
And she was cute. There was that word again, one that hadn’t been evident in his personal vocabulary in a long time.
“How much longer?” Her voice jerked him back from private thoughts.
“For someone who’s not going anywhere, you sure are concerned with miles. But you’re in luck. See that sign up ahead?”
She squinted into the darkening dusk and light misting of snow. “Yes, I see it.”
“Home, sweet home.” He turned on his blinker and slowed.
She placed the flat of her hand on the car window and said, “You live in a campground? Wow. How interesting.”
* * *
HE GRUNTED A response before saying, “You think that’s cool or something?”
“Not cool I guess, but you certainly are close to nature, and that can never be bad. I don’t understand how you could live in nature and still be so grumpy.”
He ignored the grumpy remark. “Believe me, I’ve lived—and slept—in nature much more than I care to remember. And I only leave the sign up here by the road so people can find where I live. This isn’t a working campground. No one has stopped here for at least fifteen years.”
“You did, obviously. You live here.”
He pulled around a circular path to stop in front of a log-sided building which appeared as a hulking shadow in the darkness. The Cracker Jack box, she assumed. “I own this property. My grandfather left it to me a year ago. I still don’t know if it was a test of my endurance or a joke.”
She couldn’t see much of the surrounding land. Nightfall had reduced the landscape to vague images of a smattering of trees, a few concrete pads mostly covered in snow. “You certainly aren’t very grateful,” she said.
“I will be, come spring, when Cedar Woods becomes only a bad memory in my rearview mirror.”
She wondered what he meant. This had to be a prime piece of property. As far as she could determine, Lake Erie was still just across the road, and there were no buildings to obstruct the view. Since the massive cleanup of the lake several years ago, this property had to be a potential paradise.
Keegan’s phone rang. “Hello, Duke. Yeah, I’m back.” He paused. “I can bring your medication over in a few minutes.” He nodded. “Okay, if you think you can make it over here on your walker. The fresh air will do you some good.”
He disconnected and turned to Carrie. “Hang on a sec. I’ve got to switch on the outside lights so we both don’t end up flat on our butts on an ice patch.”
He did more than that. He flipped on a bright light and brought a snow shovel from behind the structure. In a few minutes he had a clear path from the cabin to the Chevy. Carrie had never shoveled snow. Her father had a service, a nice middle-aged guy who came out with his plow to lay salt and do the driveways at the first sign of snow. And the US Forest Service always maintained the roads for its employees.
She watched Keegan’s movements—sure, strong and practiced. She didn’t doubt he could shovel his way to the main road if he had to.
Keegan left the shovel against the house and came to the Chevy and opened her door. Spreading his arms, he said, “Let’s go, princess. Your humble servant awaits.”
His condescending way of speaking to her prickled. She’d been called “princess” many times in the past, often from males who were suffering from what they called her cold shoulder. And sometimes from folks who referred to her as the favored third daughter of Martin and Maggie Foster. She hadn’t liked the reference then, and she liked it even less now. In truth, the Martins loved all their daughters equally, never showing favoritism of one over the others. Despite his problems with her lifestyle, Martin was a wonderful father, and Maggie once was a caring and loving mother. Unfortunately her advanced Alzheimer’s disease had robbed her of the ability to even communicate with her children now.
“Don’t call me that,” she said to Keegan. “I’m not a princess. I spend most of my time outdoors, where I’m a hard worker. I know what it’s like to have dirt under my fingernails.”
“Sorry.” He almost looked appropriately chastised. “It’s just a logical assumption. I mean you’re wearing a three-hundred-dollar coat and designer boots...”
“That means nothing. You own a piece of lakefront property and this castle made of logs, and I certainly wouldn’t make the mistake of calling you Prince Charming.”
He smiled, showing nice white teeth below the scrub of moustache on his upper lip. “You’re right,” he said. “I’ll try to be more careful with the princess references.”
He scooped her into his arms and began carrying her to the cabin. “I’ll come back for the crutches they gave you.”
“Good. I’m sure I’ll get used to them quickly.”
“Oh, yeah. They’re a piece of cake. You ought to be running a marathon any day now.”
“You don’t have to be sarcastic, and you don’t have to treat me like a baby.” Truthfully, she hadn’t felt so secure in a long time. Keegan had strong arms, a comfy broad chest and a sure step. What more could a princess want?
A cackle of laughter permeated the quiet air. It was followed by the raspy voice of an elderly man. “Hey, Keegan, what you got there? I sent you in for a couple of pills and you come back with a woman. When I send you to have my oxygen tank refilled, you’ll probably come back married!”
Keegan stopped, his hand on the doorknob, and whispered close to Carrie’s ear. “Do not tell this man that I’m your husband.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. I only did that so I could get out of the hospital.”
“Hello, Duke,” Keegan said. “You going to make it?”
Carrie tried to see the visitor over Keegan’s shoulder, but either Keegan was too tall or the man was too short. His voice and a soft metallic squeak of the walker indicated that he was closer. “Yeah, just a few more feet to go.”
Keegan took Carrie inside and deposited her on a large comfortable sofa. “I’ll be right back,” he said, “just as soon as I get Duke his pills and fetch your crutches. You know what they say, a caretaker’s work is never done.”
She thought he might have smiled at her, but if so, he turned away quickly, pulled up his collar and went back into the cold.
Thirty minutes later Carrie had mastered the crutches well enough to make it to a small but tidy bathroom and back to the sofa again. The doctor had told her to use the sticks for a short time and then rely on the walking boot. The transition couldn’t come fast enough. Walking with crutches wasn’t for sissies, and neither was going over eight hours without a meal.
As if reading her mind, Keegan said, “We should eat. What do you want?”
What was he going to do, show her a menu? How much food could he have in this place? She decided to make it simple. “I usually have grilled cheese and tomato soup when I’m not feeling well.”
“I can manage that.” He headed to the kitchen and began opening cupboard doors. “One Christmas dinner coming up.”
Oh, yikes! Christmas! Carrie had left all the presents in her car. And she’d promised to call her family. She dug her cell phone out of her purse, settled into the sofa cushions to muffle her voice in Keegan’s small living room, and dialed her father’s number. She had to be careful with her words so her father wouldn’t conclude that she was having a problem or that she’d disobeyed his very strict orders. Thank goodness her young nephew, Wesley, answered the phone. Carrie adored the six-year-old.
“Hey, Aunt Carrie, this is the best Christmas ever, except you’re not here.”
“I know, sweetie. I miss everyone so much.”
They talked about his gifts and the giant tree that her sister Jude’s friend had brought them. Jude had been furious at first when Liam Manning had carried the tree into her small apartment above the barn at Dancing Falls, but she’d quickly adapted to the Christmas spirit once she realized that she was crazy about the man who’d brought her the tree.
Wesley passed the phone around and Carrie spoke to everyone. Her sister Jude seemed so much more cheerful than usual. And her sister Alexis’s newlywed status made her positively euphoric. Last, Carrie spoke to her niece, Lizzie, and then her father. Their conversation was especially brief, and she ended it with asking her dad to give her mother a kiss for her.
When she finally hung up without telling her family any of the events of her day, Carrie realized she truly did miss them all. But she wasn’t about to make her misfortune a reason for her sisters or father to start out on icy roads, or for her father to keep her at Dancing Falls forever.
“Everybody okay?”
Keegan’s voice cut through her melancholy. “Who? What do you mean?”
“Whoever you were talking to. I hope he had a nice Christmas.”
“If you mean my first-grade nephew, then, yes, he did.”
Keegan set a tray with two meals on an ottoman, and handed Carrie a napkin, a glass of water and a pain pill.
“This looks wonderful,” she said, breathing in the scent of melted cheese and warm tomatoes. She took the pill, and ate a few bites before saying, “Thanks for this, Keegan. And don’t worry about the sleeping arrangements. I’ll be fine on this sofa.”
“You’ll take the bed tonight,” he said matter-of-factly. “Can’t have you thrashing about on the sofa and maybe falling off.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll probably just sit up all night and stare at you.”
She widened her eyes at him. “Now, that’s just creepy.”
He pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket. “I know, but that’s what these instructions from the hospital say I’m supposed to do. So take up the creepiness factor with the doctor.” He picked up his sandwich and the TV remote. “You watch the news?”
“Sure.”
They settled back to engage in world events and images of Christmas cheer until Carrie finished her dinner and fell asleep on the couch.
A few hours later, she didn’t know how many, she heard someone call her name. “Carrie, Carrie, wake up.”
CHAPTER THREE
“I’M SORRY,” a man’s voice said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
She tried to erase the fog in her brain by taking deep breaths and sitting up. Unfortunately, nothing in her body seemed to be working. She heard herself moan.
“I figured you’d be sore,” the man said. “Usually takes a few hours after an accident for the muscles to tighten up.”