Back to Eden. Melinda Curtis

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СКАЧАТЬ eyes and willed her stomach to settle. “That’s bullshit and you know it. I did what I had to do to save that crew. If anyone’s lost anything from the crash, it’s me…and Danny.” Rachel blinked back the tears. Stubborn old coot. She hadn’t even been able to say goodbye.

      “The incident commander mentioned agencies investigating the accident, like the TSB, FAA and NIFC.” He pronounced the acronym for the National Interagency Fire Center as NIF-see. “But that’s not the point. The point is that this little girl is mine and no one saw any need to tell me.”

      “Did you want her?” Ignoring her head, along with the stabs of pain in her ribs and her heart, Rachel snapped at him, hating that it had come to this—she and Cole pitted against each other. “You didn’t even love Missy enough to stay in Eden. What would you have done with a child? What would you do with one now?”

      Before Cole could answer, the nurse came squeaking into the room. “That’s enough. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

      “Fine,” he growled. “I’ll be back tomorrow to pick her up when she’s released.”

      Rachel’s head throbbed and her body was covered in a cold sweat. Ignoring Cole’s continued insistence that he was taking her back to Eden, Rachel drove her point home. “It’s fine to be offended because you didn’t know about Jenna, but remember this—Missy sacrificed everything because she loved you enough to make sure you lived the life you wanted, which didn’t include her or the baby. Are you willing to make as big a sacrifice for a little girl who doesn’t even know you exist?”

      “JACKSON?” Having punched a number in his cell phone without much thought, Cole struggled to hold it together, hoping that the roar of his truck’s air conditioner would cover the sound of his ragged breathing. On shaky legs, he’d somehow made it to the hospital parking lot after Rachel had confirmed that Cole was indeed a father.

      “Chainsaw?” Jackson paused to tell his wife, “It’s Cole. I’ll be a minute.” A door opened and closed. “What’s up? Did you make it back to Missoula okay?”

      “Yeah, I’m here.”

      “How is she?”

      “She looks like hell.” Her head was swollen. Her complexion was pale despite her tan, and the smooth skin over her face was marred with tiny cuts.

      And she’d lied to him.

      Jackson replied with something totally appropriate that Cole instantly forgot.

      Instead, he blurted, “The kid is mine. The girl in the picture. She’s my daughter. Mine and Missy’s.” Their child existed, yet Missy was no more. Cole put his head on the steering wheel. “What in the hell do I do now?”

      A few days ago he’d been envious of what Jackson, Logan and Spider had—loving wives. But kids…kids needed attention, closets full of stuff…and millions of other things of which Cole was blissfully ignorant. He’d wanted a wife, someone to spoil him with long, slow, passionate kisses and home-cooked meals. What did he get? A kid.

      And what was he going to do about his mom? By some cruel twist of fate, Jenna looked incredibly like his sister, Sally, and Cole knew meeting her would send his mother over the edge, because she’d never really recovered from Sally’s death at age ten. Maybe it would have been easier on his mother if Jenna had been a boy. But she wasn’t. All in all, Cole was starting to think he was better off not knowing he had a kid. Could he just not tell his parents?

      He swore. Wasn’t that just what Rachel had said?

      “You’ll be a good dad. Don’t worry about it.”

      A dad? Is that what he wanted? The title implied involvement—nearly impossible from another state—and demanded he come clean with his parents. And that was something he wasn’t sure he could do.

      “Who has custody?”

      Cole’s careening thoughts screeched to a halt on Jackson’s question. “Rachel seems to,” Cole answered woodenly. At least with Rachel Cole knew his daughter was in good hands, especially if he could convince her to give up firefighting.

      “That’s good. You’ve always gotten along with her.”

      “Sure. A decade ago we were friends.” That was before he realized everything about his time in Eden was a lie. “Why did she do this to me?” Cole wasn’t sure if he meant Missy keeping Jenna a secret or Rachel telling him about Jenna.

      “Why don’t you ask Rachel?”

      “I will. Tomorrow.” And all during the drive back to Eden. Like it or not, Rachel was getting a ride home from Cole. Cole hoped that was enough time to get to know more about his daughter and what he should do, and crack the mystery that had been Missy. Somehow, Cole knew that if he didn’t understand Missy better, his heart would never let her go. And the only person with answers was Rachel.

      “ARE WE CLOSE?” Matt asked, walking with wobbly steps as he tried to balance the plastic-wrapped flowers Pop had purchased in the gift shop with one chubby hand. His other hand held Pop’s.

      Jenna wasn’t sure what to be more worried about—her grandfather falling down and hurting himself or Matt tripping and crushing the flowers. She pressed the bunch of flowers back against Matt’s chest before looking at the numbers on the wall. “The lady said 112. This is 104.”

      Jenna didn’t like hospitals. Bad things happened there. She walked next to Pop and Matt with her head down, concentrating on pulling the small wheeled suitcase. Trying to be quiet. Only, it was hard to be quiet in cowboy boots. She wished they could walk faster, but Pop had been wobbly on his feet since his eyes had gotten worse.

      “Is this it?” Matt peeked into the next room. He’d just started kindergarten and wasn’t good with numbers yet.

      Jenna shook her head. “No, 106.”

      Matt ran to the next doorway, almost tripping over his own feet. “Is this it?”

      “No.” Sometimes Matt was annoying. Jenna bit her lip to keep from yelling at him.

      Pop’s gnarled hand rested on her shoulder with a gentle squeeze. “I’m real proud of you. We couldn’t have made this trip without you, Jenna.”

      “I got us lost,” Jenna mumbled, burning with embarrassment.

      “Yes,” Pop chuckled. “But then you found us again.”

      Matt was running ahead, dragging the flowers on the gray floor as he stuck his head in room after room, calling out, “Is this it, Jenna?”

      “Matt, stop,” Jenna hissed, seeing the nurse at the desk ahead of them frown, then stand up. “Wait for us.”

      “Can I help you?” The nurse didn’t smile. Jenna could tell by her frown she didn’t really want to help them. The last time Jenna had been in a hospital was when Matt was born. Her mom had been crying. The nurse had pushed her out of the room and warned her to stay put or else.

      Matt had stopped in the middle of the hallway, moving the bunch of flowers up and down and around as if he held a toy airplane. Jenna shushed him before he started making engine noises. Any minute now the nurse was going to kick them out.

      Pop СКАЧАТЬ