Sean's Reckoning - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,47

want to worry you.”

“Nice try, but I’m not buying it. Who were you about to call? And don’t try to pretend it was me.”

“Ryan, actually.”

She nodded. “Good choice. Give me the number. I’ll try him again. I’ll tell him to come by in a couple of hours after you’ve had some sleep.”

For a woman who’d collapsed herself not twelve hours earlier, she sounded amazingly strong. And she didn’t seem inclined to take no for an answer. Sean didn’t know quite what to make of this new, take-charge woman who was facing him down. This woman didn’t look as if she needed anyone to rescue her. She looked more like an avenging angel herself.

“Where’s Kevin?” he asked.

“Asleep in the waiting room right over there.”

“Take him home. As you can see for yourself, I’m fine.”

She reached up as if to touch his face, then pulled back, her eyes filling with unexpected tears. “Yeah, I can see that.”

“Surface burns,” he said, clasping her hand and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “They’ll heal before you know it.”

“It could have been worse,” she said with a shudder.

“But it wasn’t.”

“I heard the whole story. The lieutenant’s mad as hell, but he said you saved two lives tonight—Hank’s and the old man’s.”

Sean sighed with relief. “He’s going to make it, then. I just sent the nurse out to check.”

“Yeah, sure. You sent the nurse out so you could make a break for it.”

He grinned. “That, too.”

“I thought you said Hank was the danger junkie,” Deanna said, her frown back in place. “But the lieutenant says you’re the one who took all the chances tonight.”

“Calculated risks,” Sean insisted. “There’s a difference.” To his chagrin, the night’s events finally caught up with him and his knees almost gave way. He reached for the doorjamb, but Deanna was right there, putting his arm around her shoulder and leading him back into the room, muttering a stream of surprisingly colorful curses all the way. He grinned.

“I hope you don’t use that language around Kevin,” he said.

“Of course not.” She scowled at him. “He never deserves it.”

“And I do?”

She settled him onto his bed and pulled up the sheet as if she were tucking in her son. This time when she reached out to Sean, she did touch him, smoothing his hair gently back from his forehead.

“Yes,” she said softly. “I think you do.”

Sean sighed, relaxing at last. He let his eyes drift shut.

“Not supposed to be this way,” he murmured. “Supposed to be looking out for you.”

“Oh, Sean, don’t you realize you have people who care about you now?” Deanna whispered. “People who would be devastated if anything happened to you?”

Her fierce words drifted into his subconscious and he finally fell asleep, a smile on his lips.

Chapter Ten

Despite assurances that Sean was going to be fine and that he’d probably be released from the hospital by midday, Deanna refused to budge from his bedside. Ruby was just as adamant about staying beside Hank. Deanna left the room only long enough to get her son. Kevin crept in from the waiting room, studied Sean intently as if to satisfy himself that his hero was okay, then fell back to sleep in a chair in the corner.

Deanna had never in her life been as terrified as she had been the night before when the lieutenant had called to inform Ruby about the fire. Nor had she ever seen Ruby as shaken. Despite the lieutenant’s reassurances that both men were going to make it, neither Ruby or Deanna had hesitated before dragging on clothes and heading for the hospital to see the men for themselves.

“I’ve never felt this wiped out in my life,” Ruby mumbled from across the room.

“It’s been a long night. We should probably go home, shower and go to work,” Deanna said half-heartedly.

Ruby looked at her as if she were crazy. “I’m not going anywhere. Give me some change. I’ll call the office and explain things to Charlotte the snake.”

Deanna managed a weak grin at the venomous but fitting nickname. “You really need to stop calling her that. One of these days you’re going to say it in front of her.”

“Well, she is a snake,” Ruby retorted. “Just look what she did to you, making you take the rap for that report that didn’t get mailed to the other law firm. I guarantee she’ll never own up to that to Hodges.”

“She’s been better since then,” Deanna said. “Haven’t you noticed? She actually says good morning when she comes in, and

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