Sean's Reckoning - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,43
was out of the room, Ruby frowned at her. “Okay, you want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Nothing. I’m fine. Really.”
“And I’m first lady of the United States,” Ruby retorted in a tone heavily laced with sarcasm.
“Okay, it’s Sean,” Deanna admitted reluctantly. “He just took off. One minute he was there watching me with that worried frown on his face. The next he was gone.” She noticed that Ruby didn’t even try to deny that there was anything odd about Sean’s behavior. Evidently she’d noticed it, too. “Did you see him go? Was he upset?”
“A woman he cares about keeled over while serving spaghetti, what do you think? Of course he was upset,” Ruby retorted impatiently. “When he walked into Joey’s and spotted you on the floor, I thought he was going to pass out right beside you.”
Deanna recalled the gentle, coaxing tone in his voice as he’d tried to draw her back to consciousness. She also recalled something else, the quick glimpse of a totally bleak expression on his face when she was holding Kevin. Then she’d been concentrating on reassuring her son, and by the time she looked Sean’s way again, he’d gone.
She was still puzzling over that memory when the doorbell rang.
“Eat your dinner while I get the door,” Ruby said. “Unless it’s a tall, handsome man, I’m sending whoever it is away.” She regarded Deanna with a stern expression and added, “As for you, drink the juice when Kevin brings it.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Deanna said with a salute that mocked her drill sergeant manner.
After Ruby had gone, she toyed with the now totally unappetizing eggs, then sighed. She couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something just wasn’t right about the way Sean had disappeared.
“That’s no way to get back on your feet,” a disapproving voice chided her.
Deanna’s gaze shot to the doorway, where Sean stood regarding her uneasily.
“I’m not hungry.”
“Isn’t that how you landed in bed in the first place?” He crossed the room, took a look at the plate of cold, congealed eggs and dry toast, and made a face. “Give it to me.”
She held tight to the tray. “Why?”
He rolled his eyes. “Do you have to argue about everything?”
“Pretty much. Otherwise, people tend to steamroll right over me.”
“This could be one instance when you should let them,” he said, gently disengaging her fingers and taking the tray. “I’ll be right back.”
She stared after him, more confused than ever. He didn’t seem angry or even upset, just a little sad.
It was twenty minutes before he returned, carrying the same tray with a plate of steaming French toast with a dusting of sugar and cinnamon. He set the tray across her knees, then stood scowling down at her.
“Now, there are two ways we can do this,” he said. “You can eat that like the intelligent woman we both know you are.”
Deanna had to fight to hide a smile. “Or?”
He grinned, looking surprisingly eager for her to test him. “Or I feed it to you.”
“I’d like to see you try,” she muttered, but she picked up the fork and began to eat. After a couple of bites she stared at him in surprise. “This is really good. You made it?”
“With my own two hands,” he acknowledged. “When you live on your own, you learn a thing or two about cooking or you live on frozen dinners. And at the station, we all have to take a turn at kitchen duty. Believe me, none of us are slackers. Hungry men take no prisoners.”
She grinned at the image. “What else can you cook?”
“Give me a cookbook, and I’ll try anything.”
“You’re going to make some lucky woman a wonderful husband.” She’d expected the teasing remark to draw a smile, but instead, that bleak expression darkened his eyes again before he turned away to stare out the window.
“Sean?”
“Yeah?” He turned back slowly.
“Thanks for coming to Joey’s tonight. I know it wasn’t your call.”
“No big deal.”
“It was a big deal to me,” she insisted. “I heard you.”
He turned to face her. “What?”
“When I was still pretty much out of it, I heard your voice. I think it pulled me back to reality.”
He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “You said something like that at the time.” A smile tugged at his lips. “You said that was why you wouldn’t open your eyes, ’cause you didn’t want to have to face me when I said I told you so.”
She vaguely remembered saying that. “But you didn’t say it, did you?”
“Nope. I figured you’d gotten the message