Montana Love Letter Page 13

  She turned to ask Sharon a question just as the Realtor’s cell phone chimed.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I meant to turn my cell off.” Sharon dug in her pocket.

  “Go ahead, take the call. I’ll check out the spare bedroom.” An extra room would be great for her crafts. She could have a worktable that she could leave out and not have to clean up her mess when it was time for dinner.

  Sharon followed her into the bedroom, her face pale. She extended the phone to Janelle.

  “It’s Adam. He didn’t have your number. Something’s happened to Raeanne.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Janelle’s breath lodged in her lungs as she took the phone from Sharon.

  “What happened?” Her voice cracked. “Is Raeanne—”

  “Easy does it. The doctor says Rae’s going to be fine.”

  “The doctor?” Her hand covered her mouth. Her legs gave out, and she sank down on the edge of the bed. Fighting a sweep of panic, she ordered herself to remain calm. “Where is she?”

  “We’re at Bear Lake Medical Clinic. The doctor wants to talk with you. Hang on.”

  Fear tightened her chest. Raeanne’s injuries must be serious if Adam had taken her to the clinic.

  “Mrs. Townsend, I’m Doctor Johansen, head of E.R. Your daughter’s injury is not serious, but I do need your permission to treat her.”

  “Yes, of course.” She swallowed a shaky sob.

  “She has a head injury, a possible concussion and needs a few stitches.”

  “Do whatever you need to do.”

  “Thank you. I assume you’ll be coming to the hospital.”

  “As soon as I can get there.”

  “Good. I’ll see you shortly. Now I’ll give the phone back to Adam.”

  Her whole body trembling, Janelle looked up at Sharon. “I have to get to Bear Lake Medical Clinic.”

  “I’ll take you.” Sharon took her arm. “Keep talking to Adam. It won’t take us long to get there.”

  In a blur of dread and fear, Janelle let the Realtor make their excuses and they both hurried out of the house.

  “I’m back,” Adam said on the phone.

  “Tell me what happened.” With the phone still at her ear, Janelle got into the passenger seat of Sharon’s car. Guilt assailed her. In all this time, she hadn’t given Adam her phone number. What had she been thinking? At any time Janelle had been away from the house, Rae could have needed her, and there wouldn’t have been any way to reach her. Thank God Adam had thought to call Sharon’s number.

  “The girls were playing around my boat at the end of the dock. I was on the deck watching them. Somehow Raeanne must have slipped. She hit her head and fell into the water. Hailey jumped in after her before I could even get to her.”

  Nausea churned in her stomach. Dear God, my baby! Please don’t let me lose my baby. “Was she unconscious?”

  “Yes, for a short time. Hailey had pulled her out of the water and I carried her up onto the beach.”

  Bless them both!

  “I put her in the car and drove here as fast as I could.”

  Sharon sped through an intersection and then made a sharp right turn. Janelle grabbed for a handhold.

  “You didn’t call the paramedics?” The words came out of her mouth like an accusation, but it was her fear speaking. Not her heart.

  “It was faster to drive her here myself. Like the fire department, the medics are all volunteers. Sometimes it takes them a while to get to their unit and then to the scene where they’re needed.”

  She’d have to thank him later for his quick thinking, and Hailey’s, too, but right now her thoughts were entirely focused on getting to Raeanne as soon as she could. I couldn’t lose Raeanne. God would never be that cruel.

  Sharon roared up to a clinic entrance marked Emergency and slammed the car to a stop. “Give me your car keys. You go see to your little girl. I’ll see to it your car gets back to Adam’s place.”

  In a frenzy of fear and trepidation, Janelle found her keys, handed them to Sharon and blasted out of the car at a run. As soon as the automatic doors slid open, Adam was there waiting for her. Still wearing his grease-stained overalls, his eyes were bleak, the shape of his lips grim.

  “I’m so sorry, Janie. I should’ve been right down there on the beach with them.”

  Beyond Adam, Hailey stood, looking forlorn and frightened. Her hair hung limp, and she’d been given a set of hospital scrubs to wear that were too big for her.

  “Where’s Rae? I want to see her. I want to see for myself—” She headed for the receptionist, but Adam snared her arm.

  “She’s in the emergency room. I told her you were coming.” He eased her toward a door that said Authorized Personnel Only.

  “Dad? Can I come with you?”

  “Not now, Peanut. I’ll come back out in a minute.” He punched a buzzer and the E.R. door opened.

  Vaguely aware of the smell of antiseptic and medications, Janelle rushed to the first of three cubicles. She swept back the curtain. Raeanne! Awake and looking right at her, her child-size body tiny compared to the long gurney. Her hair was still damp. She wore a child-size hospital gown, a blanket draped over her.

  “Mommy?”

  “Yes, sweetie, I’m here now.” Relief and joy filled Janelle’s chest at the sound of her daughter’s soft voice and the sight of her big brown eyes. Tear tracks streaked her baby’s cheeks. A row of stitches slashed across a swab of red on her forehead.

  A doctor in a white jacket stood next to Raeanne, removing his latex gloves.

  “Mrs. Townsend. I’m glad Adam was able to reach you. Your daughter’s been a very fine and brave young lady.”

  Janelle barely acknowledged his comment. Instead, she went directly to the head of the gurney, bent over and kissed Raeanne.

  “Oh, sweetie, what happened to you?” She caressed her daughter’s soft cheek.

  “I fell and got an owie, but Doctor Jason sewed me up. He said he could maybe come sew up Ruff’s owies, too.”

  Tears born of the need to release her anxiety burned in Janelle’s eyes. “That would be very nice of the doctor, wouldn’t it?”

  “Mrs. Townsend, if you’ll step outside for a moment, we’ll let Raeanne rest, and I’ll discuss her prognosis with you.”

  Reluctant to leave Rae, Janelle caressed her cheek again. “I’ll be right outside the curtain. If you need me, you call real loud for me. Can you do that?”

  Rae nodded slowly. “You’ll come back, won’t you?”

  “Of course I will. As soon as I finish talking with the doctor.”

  When she stepped out of the cubicle, she realized Adam had left. Probably to go back to Harley, who had looked almost as upset as Adam. In a way, she wished he had stayed to hear what the doctor had to say. But he had his own daughter to worry about. Rae was her responsibility, not his.

  “Doctor...” Her mind went blank. “I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten your name.” He had a boyish face and blond hair that swept over his forehead, making him appear much too young to be an experienced physician.

  “Jason Johansen. Let me assure you, your daughter is going to be just fine. She may have had a minor concussion from the hit on her head. She swallowed some lake water, but Adam reported that she spit it all out. All in all, with the few stitches I put in to close the wound, her recovery should be complete in a matter of days.”

  Janelle felt the tension drain from her shoulders. He might appear young, but his reassuring words and caring bedside manner gave her confidence that he knew what he was talking about. “Thank you, Doctor Johansen. I’m so sorry it was difficult to reach me.”

  He waved off her apology. “Raeanne will probably experience a headache for a couple of days. Just give her some Children’s Tylenol. You shoul
d also check her pupils every hour or two for the next twelve hours to see that they’re the same size.”

  “Of course.”

  “Other than that, I’d keep her quiet for a day or two, let her rest.”

  “I will. I promise.” And Janelle vowed she wouldn’t go running off house hunting anytime soon. “Will she have a scar?”

  He lifted his lips in a half smile. “Not if I did a good job stitching her up. Her injury is right at the hairline, so worst case she can cover it with bangs. But I think she’ll be fine.”

  “Again, I can only thank you for taking care of my little girl.”

  “My pleasure. You go sit with her while I work up her discharge papers. I recommend you take her to your family physician in a week or so for a follow-up.”

  She’d be happy to do that, if she had a family doctor here in Bear Lake. A chore that had just moved up on her priority list.

  Janelle pulled up a chair next to Raeanne. “How are you feeling?”

  “Can we go home now?”

  “In a minute. The doctor is filling out some paperwork, then we can go. Can you tell me what happened? How did you fall into the lake?” Amazingly, the shock of the accident had brought back Raeanne’s speech. She was even talking in full sentences. The Lord works in strange and wondrous ways.

  Tears welled in Raeanne’s sweet brown eyes. “I was playing with Kitty Cat and I took her outside. I thought she’d want to look at the lake. And then...” Her chin trembled. “I carried her onto the boat. She didn’t like that.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She jumped back onto the dock. I tried to catch her, Mommy.”

  Janelle brushed a tear from Rae’s cheek. “And that’s when you fell and hit your head.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all right, sweetie.” Janelle lifted Raeanne from the gurney into her lap and held her close. “You’re going to be fine. You’ll see.”

  “But what about Kitty Cat? She’ll be scared all by herself, and she’ll get lost again.”

  “I’m sure she won’t go far.” Janelle was far more worried that some forest creature would attack the young kitten and she wouldn’t be able to run away fast enough. “When we get home, I bet she’ll be waiting on the deck ready for her dinner.” At least she prayed that that would be the case. She’d hate for Raeanne to carry the burden of losing her beloved Kitty Cat.

  * * *

  In the waiting area, Adam sat with his arm around Hailey’s shoulders, trying to comfort her. And trying to calm the knot of guilt that had settled in his stomach. The fear that Rae might have been more seriously injured.

  “But what if Janelle’s really mad at me?” Hailey’s eyes were puffy and she’d used up a bunch of tissues blowing her nose. “I shouldn’t have let Rae climb up on the boat.”

  Adam tucked a strand of her stringy, damp hair behind her ear. “Maybe not, but after Rae fell you did exactly the right thing. You jumped in and pulled her out. I think what you did was brave and smart.” The real problem was that his mind had been drifting. He hadn’t kept a close enough eye on the girls and should have known better.

  She sniffed. “I wish there was something I could do to make Rae feel better.”

  “Well, now, let me think.” He leaned back in the chair, wondering himself if Janelle would be mad at them both and how he could fix that. He prayed she wouldn’t be angry enough to up and leave right away just to get out of his house. The fact was, he’d kind of forgotten how quickly a five-year-old could wander out of sight and get into trouble even with him close by. He’d gotten used to Hailey’s unusual maturity, a result of losing her mother at such a young age.

  “Daddy, I know what we can do.” She eased out of the chair. “There’s a gift shop over there. Maybe we can find something that will make Rae feel better.”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “Good idea. Let me roll up your pant legs so you don’t trip over them and crack your own skull.” The scrubs the nurse had given Hailey to change into from her wet clothes might be a size small for a woman, but the pant legs were six inches too long for Hailey. The shirt didn’t fit much better. She looked like a little girl playing dress-up doctor.

  Grabbing the bag of wet clothes, Adam followed her.

  As hospital gift shops went, this one was pretty small. There were paperback books, games and puzzles, magazines, child-size T-shirts and stuffed animals.

  Hailey immediately arrowed in on the stuffed animals. “Look, Daddy, there’s a fuzzy teddy bear wearing a

  T-shirt that says Bear Lake, MT. Isn’t that cute?”

  “Yeah, Rae might like that.” He checked the price tag and figured he could handle that. “Go ahead and get it.”

  She lifted the bear off the table and hugged it to her chest. “What are you going to get Janelle?”

  His head snapped down to meet his daughter’s gaze. “Why would I get Janelle a present?”

  “Because you feel guilty that Rae was hurt and want to say you’re sorry.”

  “I don’t feel—” Yeah, he did feel guilty. But what kind of a gift would make up for not watching Raeanne carefully enough?

  “She likes to read. I could help you pick out a book for her.”

  He eyed his daughter. Had she offered to pick out the book because she knew he couldn’t read? A trickle of unease skittered down his spine.

  “No, a book’s too boring.” He wandered around the small shop. The volunteer behind the counter, an older woman in a blue jacket, smiled at him.

  “If you’re looking for something special, we have some nice jewelry pieces. Everything’s made by local craftsmen. I personally like the pendants with the blue Montana sapphire gemstones. They’re beautiful, and buying them makes me feel proud of Montana. Plus it helps our local artists.”

  He glanced at the display case next to the counter. He supposed they were very pretty, but jewelry seemed too personal somehow. Assuming he could even figure out what kind of jewelry Janelle would like.

  Hailey joined him at the display case. “Those are nice, Daddy. I bet Janelle would like that silver rose with a sapphire in the middle.” She turned to the volunteer. “Don’t you think that would make a good gift for a lady?”

  “I do, indeed.”

  A sound in the waiting area distracted Adam. He turned to see what was happening and saw Raeanne being pushed in a wheelchair by an elderly gentleman in a blue volunteer jacket, Janelle walking beside him.

  “Give me the bear, Hailey. You go tell Janelle I’ll be right out. It’ll just take me a minute to buy this.”

  While Hailey dashed out, he put the bear on the

  counter and pulled out his wallet.

  “What did you decide about the pendant?”

  He shot another look at the necklace, then glanced into the waiting room. Janelle still looked pale, her brow furrowed with worry. And he was the one who had messed up not watching Rae carefully enough.

  Janelle deserved something special. Something classy. Something as beautiful as she was that said that he was sorry.

  He turned back to the volunteer. “I’ll take it.”

  “Would you like them gift wrapped?”

  “Um, no, that’s okay.” He looked toward the lobby. “I’m in kind of a hurry.”

  She put the necklace into a little gift box anyway.

  He strummed his fingers on the countertop while she wrote up the sale. As soon as he’d signed for the credit charge, he gave the woman a smile, took the bag she’d put the bear and necklace in and hurried out of the shop.

  Hailey met him halfway. “Can I give Rae her teddy bear?”

  “Sure.”

  She snatched the gift from the bag and jogged back to Rae’s side.

  Adam followed more slowly. Would Janelle think he was crazy giving h
er the pendant? Maybe he was crossing a line she wouldn’t want crossed. Maybe he’d embarrass her with a personal gift like the necklace. If she didn’t like it, he could always return it to the gift shop for a refund.

  The girls and Janelle were oohing and aahing over the silly teddy bear. He stood apart, not knowing what to do. Except for his mother, he hadn’t given a woman a present of any kind since Lisa. His mouth went dry. What was he going to say?

  She looked up at him. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask you for a ride home. I left my car at Sharon’s office. She’s going to have someone drive it to your place.”

  He licked his lips. “No problem. My truck’s parked right out front.”

  “Young man,” the volunteer said, “why don’t you go get your truck and bring it up to the door? That way these young ladies won’t have to walk so far.”

  “Sure, I can do that.” He extended the jewelry box to Janelle. “This is for you. It’s, uh, my way of saying I’m sorry.” His cheeks heated as if he’d gotten a bad windburn out on his boat.

  “You’re sorry?” She took the box. “Why are you—”

  “I’ll go get the truck.” He trotted out the door, anxious to get out of there. He didn’t want to see her reaction. She might hate the necklace. Or think he was some kind of a geek for giving it to her.

  And the fact was, the one thing she wanted from him wasn’t jewelry. She wanted him to learn to read. She wanted to change him.

  He wasn’t sure he had the courage to try...and risk failure again.

  * * *

  Janelle stood rooted in place, watching him leave the lobby in a rush. Whatever was going on? They weren’t in that big a hurry to leave.

  “You should open the box, Janelle,” Hailey said. “I think you’ll like it.”

  Raeanne looked up at her expectantly. “Did Adam give you a teddy bear, too, to make you feel better?”

  “I don’t think so.” The box wasn’t big enough for that. Carefully she lifted the lid. She drew in a quick breath. “Oh, my...” A delicate silver rose on a chain was nestled on a bed of cotton. In the center of the rose, a blue stone sparkled. Her heartbeat quickened.