Emmett. Diana Palmer

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СКАЧАТЬ got to the apartment was phone the hospital and get an update. Surely Emmett was indestructible, wasn’t he?

      She looked at the children and felt a surge of pity for them. She knew how it felt to be alone. When their parents had died, Randy had worked at two jobs to support them, while Melody was still in school. She’d carried her share of the load, but it had been lonely for both of them. She hoped these children wouldn’t have the same ordeal to face that she and Randy had.

      Chapter 2

      The nurse on duty in Emmett’s ward told Melody that Emmett would have to be confined for at least two days. He was barely conscious, but they were cautiously optimistic about his condition.

      Melody was assured that she and the children would be allowed to see him the next day, during visiting hours. In the meantime, she scoured her apartment to find enough blankets and pillows for three sleepy children. She put two of them in her bed, and one of them on a cot that had belonged to Randy when he was a boy. She slept on her own pullout sofa bed, and was delighted to find that it wasn’t terribly uncomfortable.

      It was fortunate that she had the weekend to look after the children. Having to juggle them, along with her job, would have been a real headache. She’d have coped. But how?

      They had a change of clothing. Getting them to change, though, was the trick.

      “This isn’t dirty—” Guy indicated a shirt limp and dingy and smelly from long wear “—and I won’t change it.”

      “I’m all right, too,” Polk said, grinning at her.

      “We’re fine, Melody,” Amy agreed. She patted the woman’s hand in a most patronizing way. “Now, you just get dressed yourself and don’t worry about us, all right?”

      Melody counted to ten. “We’re going to see your father,” she said calmly. “Don’t you want him to think you look nice?”

      “Oh, Emmett never notices unless we go naked, Melody,” Amy assured her.

      “And sometimes not even then,” Polk said with a chuckle. “Dad’s very absentminded when he’s rodeoing.”

      “He sure doesn’t seem to notice what the three of you get up to,” she said quietly.

      “We like our dad just the way he is,” Guy said belligerently. “Nobody bad-mouths our dad.”

      “I wasn’t bad-mouthing him,” Melody said through her teeth. “Can we just go to the hospital now?”

      “Sure,” Guy said, folding his thin arms over his chest. “But I’m not changing clothes.”

      She threw up her hands. “Oh, all right,” she muttered. “Have it your way. But if your clothes set off the sprinkler system, I’m climbing into a broom closet so nobody will know who brought you.”

      At the hospital, Melody herded them off the elevator and down the hall to the nurses’ station.

      “Look at all the gadgets.” Polk whistled, peering over the counter at the computers. “Wouldn’t I love to play with that!”

      “Bite your tongue,” Melody said under her breath. She smiled at an approaching nurse. “I’m Melody Cartman. You have an Emmett Deverell on this floor with a concussion…?”

      A loud roar, followed by, “You’re not putting that damned thing under me!” caught their attention.

      “Indeed we do,” the nurse told Melody. “Are you a concerned relative anxious to transfer him to another hospital?” she added hopefully.

      “I’m afraid not,” Melody said. “These are his children and they want to see him very much.”

      “Do you have him tied up in one of those white things?” Amy asked.

      “No,” the nurse said with a wistful sigh. She turned. “Come on, I’ll take you down to his room. Perhaps a diversion will improve his mood.”

      “I really wouldn’t count on it,” Melody replied.

      “I was afraid you were going to say that. Here we are.”

      “Dad!” Guy exclaimed, running to his father as a practical nurse laid down a trail of fire getting out the door. “How are you?”

      Emmett stared at his eldest blankly. His pale green eyes were bloodshot. His dark hair was disheveled. There was a huge bump on his forehead with stitches and red antiseptic lacing it. He was wearing a white patterned hospital gown and looking as if he’d like to eat half the staff raw.

      “It’s almost noon,” he informed Melody. “Where in hell have you been? Get me out of here!”

      “Don’t worry, Dad, we’ll spring you,” Guy promised, with a wary glance toward the nurse.

      “You can’t leave today, Mr. Deverell,” the young nurse said apologetically. “Dr. Miller said that you must stay for at least forty-eight hours. You’ve had a very severe concussion. You can’t go walking around the streets like that. It’s very dangerous.”

      Emmett glared at her. “I hate it here!”

      The nurse looked as if she might bite through her tongue trying not to reply in kind. She forced a smile. “I’m sure you do. But you can’t leave yet. I’ll leave you to visit with your family. I’m sure you’re glad to see your wife and children.”

      “She’s not the hell my wife!” Emmett raged. “I’d rather marry a pit viper!”

      “I assure you that the feeling is mutual,” Melody said to the nurse.

      The woman leaned close on her way out the door. “Dr. Miller escaped. When he comes back, I’ll beg on my knees for sedation for Mr. Deverell. I swear.”

      “God bless you,” Melody said fervently.

      “What are you mumbling about?” Emmett demanded when the nurse left. “And why haven’t these kids changed clothes? They smell of pizza and dirt!”

      “They wouldn’t change,” she said defensively.

      “You’re bigger than they are,” he pointed out. “Make them.”

      She glanced at the kids and shook her head. “Not me, mister. I know when I’m outnumbered. I’m not going to end my days tied to a post imitating barbecue.”

      “They don’t burn people at the stake,” he said with exaggerated patience. “That was just gossip about that lady motorist they kidnapped.”

      “That’s right,” Polk said. “Gossip.”

      “Anyway, she got loose before she was very singed.” Amy sighed.

      Melody gave Emmett a speaking look. It was totally wasted.

      “Are you really okay?” Guy asked his father. He, of the three children, was the most worried. He was the oldest. He understood better than they did how serious his father’s injury could have been.

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