“Right, Calvin. I’ll teach you all to save yourselves by being smart and prepared. Let’s get your safety equipment on. Jeff, give me a hand here.”
Fifteen years of regret burned in Drew’s gut while he worked on the straps of Bruce’s life jacket. Fifteen years of guilt and regret that he couldn’t keep his parents safe. He needed to put it all to rest. Find closure with their decisions and his.
I will. Soon.
Lost in his plans, he didn’t hear the phone buzzing in his windbreaker until Jeff nodded toward his pocket.
Drew shook his head, ignoring it. He needed to get the kids organized.
The damn phone kept buzzing. He yanked it out. “Christ, Connor, I’ll be back at Clayworth’s in an hour. I’m teaching the kids now,” he barked out at his cousin.
“Drew, I’m at Northwestern Hospital with Aunt Bridget.”
Fear cut through him like a steel blade, but he didn’t flinch, didn’t give anything away.
“What’s wrong with Bridget?” he asked, maintaining the outward calm he’d had to learn at nineteen.
“It’s not Aunt Bridget.”
He heard the relief in Connor’s voice and felt the same rush of emotion. Bridget was his family, too.
“Something happened out at the Secret Closet. Aunt Bridget brought Athena Smith to the ER.”
Athena’s tear-streaked face from a lifetime ago flashed in front of Drew’s eyes.
A different emotion drove him across the deck. He turned his back, not wanting anyone to read his face. “What happened to Athena?”
“She’s disoriented and hallucinating. The resident on duty is examining her, but they can’t find—”
“Call Lewis Stemmer. Now!” Drew interrupted. “He’s the best diagnostician in the country. If he can’t find out what’s wrong, no one can. I’ll be there in half an hour.”
He swung back to find Jeff watching him.
“Got a problem, Mr. Clayworth?”
“Yeah, I need to go, but the van from the center for the kids won’t be here for twenty minutes.”
Jeff squared his shoulders. “I can handle it. Don’t worry. I won’t let you down.”
Drew hesitated, wanting to stay to keep everyone safe, needing to go for his family, hoping to trust the determined expression on Jeff’s face.
Need and hope won out.
He turned back to the waiting boys. “Guys, Jeff will show you the safety features of this Morgan 46. I’ll see you next week.”
Calvin’s eyes darted between Jeff and Drew. “You say so?”
“Yeah, I say it’s good.” He looked at Jeff, already talking to Washington and Bruce, and knew it was true.
Drew sprinted down the gangplank and along the dock. He hunched his shoulders against the stiff, cold wind chopping at the lake. A new weather front had come in. If he believed in omens, this would be one.
Athena Smith coming back into his life now meant trouble.
“I’ve told you both ten times, I’ve never felt better in my life. I’m sick with worry about Athena. I got her here. Now we’ve got to help her.”
Drew heard Bridget’s voice before he saw her, Connor, and Lewis Stemmer in a corner of the ER waiting room.
She looked up and sighed. “Thank the good Lord you’ve come, Drew. We’ve got to help Athena.”
“We will.” He bent and kissed her cheek before he shook Lewis’s hand. “Thanks for coming. Have you seen Athena?”
Cool, collected, always self-confident, Lewis nodded, and Drew felt the odd catch in his chest ease up.
Whatever’s wrong can be fixed.
“I’ve examined her. I’m waiting for the toxicity and blood work. Her vitals are good. She’s conscious now. She is still experiencing intermittent disorientation and hallucinations.” Lewis’s calm voice held all their attention.
“Whatever happened to Athena out at the closet, we’ll get the blame. Damn it, we shouldn’t have agreed to this in the first place. Now add up this mess, the rumors about the store and Alistair, plus how the Smith sisters feel about us, and we’ve got a lawsuit on our hands.” Connor narrowed his eyes, much like his Aunt Bridget’s.
Hers shot green fire at him. “Spoken like a true lawyer, and you may be right. But you need to lighten up and stop always thinkin’ the worst. Wish you weren’t such a tight-butt like your mom.”
Connor’s mouth fell open, Lewis studied Bridget over the top of his wire-rimmed glasses, and Drew looked down to hide his smile. He knew truer words were never spoken about Connor. But coming from Bridget, they were a shocker.
What the hell is going on?
She clasped her hands over her mouth. “Don’t know why I said that. Love you to death, Connor, just the way you are. Always have. Always will.”
Bridget cast her slightly unfocused gaze in Drew’s direction. “You’ve been the smartest one of the boys since kindergarten. I suppose you think it’s your job to go charm Athena like you do everyone else on the planet. I know it’s your job to fix things for Clayworth’s, but you know what? You need to fix things for yourself. It’s more than time. Right now, though, you and I need to go see about Athena. Is it hot in here?” Bridget asked in her next breath and pulled the carefully folded handkerchief out of Connor’s blazer pocket to fan herself.
Lewis slid down next to her. “Bridget, I think you should stay here and rest while Drew visits with Athena. She’s been asking to see him.”
In a day full of shocks, this one stopped him.
If Athena is asking for me, she really is hallucinating.
Connor hovered beside Bridget, who had shut her eyes. “What are you waiting for, Drew? Keep communication open so we know what we’re facing. But remember, we can’t discuss the situation with her father until we have more answers.”
He nodded. Christ, he didn’t know what the hell had happened to everyone out at the Secret Closet, but his job would always be to keep Clayworth’s safe, so he needed to find out. “Where is she?”
“I had her moved to room one. Her sisters are with her,” Lewis said.
Triple trouble.
“I’ll be back.”
Drew moved through the ER, dodging nurses and interns taking care of patients in rooms three, four, and five. A few guys stood at the main desk, staring at Venus and Diana Smith hovering outside the glass partition to room one.
He didn’t blame them. People always used the word beautiful to describe the Smith sisters. A man could drown in their large and luminous aquamarine eyes. Once, Athena’s eyes had taken his breath away. Maybe the two interns drooling over her sisters from across the room were feeling the same slow burn in their guts.
But Drew knew what they didn’t. A prudent man needed to tread carefully when confronted by the combined forces of the Smith sisters.
When they saw him coming, Venus threw herself in front of the door and Diana, a head shorter, stepped in front of her.
“We should have known your family would send for reinforcements. Go away,” Venus muttered, tossing ropes of apricot hair over her shoulder.
Yeah, I remember. Middle child.
Diana, hands on hips, stared up at him. “I’m sure Dr. Stemmer told you Athena’s calling for you. Obviously, she was hallucinating. Earlier she thought we were both our mother. She seems fine now. I don’t think—”
“Diana,” Drew said, smiling to soften his interruption. “Lewis Stemmer is the best doctor in the state. If he thinks I should see Athena, I should.”
Through the half-closed door, he heard Athena’s voice, faint and muttering.
Diana glanced up at her sister. “I think she’s calling his name again. Maybe we should let him in if Dr. Stemmer thinks it’s a good idea.”
“Five minutes. Not a second more,” Venus snapped, stepping out of the way.
He walked past them into the small cubicle and closed the door.