“And if Martin says no?”
“We’ll do it anyway. If you’re too worried to fly, I’m too worried to let you.”
He turned his head a bit too quickly, and his nose brushed hers. The tantalizing proximity caused him to look into her eyes for a second, wondering how she’d respond if he kissed her.
But she was already pulling away, smiling as she did so.
SIX
TUESDAY, DAY 2 ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
April Rosen closed her cell phone and tried to focus as the streets of Anchorage flew by essentially unseen. She was vaguely aware that the landmark Anchorage Hilton was in view in the distance, but her mind was already at Providence Hospital, as she recalled Gracie’s words from the cell phone conversation when she’d stepped off the flight.
“There’s a Dr. Swift, April. He’s like a parrot saying ‘fine, fine, fine, they’re fine,’ but he won’t give details because my name isn’t Rosen. So I think your mom and dad really are fine, but when you get there, give him a cracker and make him define the word in clinical detail.”
“Okay,” was all April could manage.
“April? Really, they’re going to be okay. You got a grip?”
“I’m gripped,” she’d replied with a small, forced laugh. The three-hour flight after the connection from Vancouver through Seattle had been an agony of worry and waiting, even though Gracie’s unexpected appearance at the Seatac Airport gate had helped tremendously.
“I’m not here, you didn’t see me. I’m actually at the office working my buns off in the law library,” Gracie had instructed as she’d guided April to the outbound Alaska Airlines gate for the flight to Anchorage.
“How did you get out here to the gate to meet me without a ticket, Gracie? They don’t let people out here anymore, do they?”
“I bought a ticket,” Gracie had explained. “I’ll cash it in later.”
April looked up suddenly, realizing she was in Anchorage. The man behind the wheel glanced at her with concern. “Are you okay?” They were passing Chilkoot Charlie’s and half a block evaporated before she completely returned to the present and looked at him.
“I’m sorry?”
“I didn’t mean to interrupt your thoughts. I just wondered if they’d told you anything about your folks. On the phone just then.”
April shook her head as she looked at him, letting the image register. In the airport he had been just a needed male with a hand-printed sign bearing the name Rosen. But now his image coalesced into an athletic young man in his thirties, sandy hair, large, powerful hands lightly gripping the wheel, and big brown eyes watching her.
“You lift weights, don’t you?” she asked, jolted by the stupidity of her question in light of her mission.
He merely smiled and looked sheepish. “Yeah. More in the winter to avoid terminal boredom.”
“The answer is no,” she said.
“I’m… sorry?” he replied.
She was shaking her head. “I can’t get any details out of them other than that my mother and dad are stable. Hello? What the heck does ‘stable’ mean?”
“Actually, it means they’re not in any serious danger and their condition is steady and not deteriorating.”
The words brought her attention back to him. “You a doctor?”
“No. I was an emergency-med tech while in college.”
“Oh.”
“Ambulances, mainly.”
“I want to thank you, by the way,” she said, her eyes forward again. “I’ve been very rude just using your help and hardly even saying hello.” Her voice was coming out flat and metered, as if she were in a daze, which, she thought, wasn’t far from the truth. “I don’t even recall your name, I’m embarrassed to say.”
“That’s okay, April. It’s Kimo.” He caught her puzzled expression and smiled.
“Kimo,” she repeated. “Is that… Hawaiian?”
He laughed easily. “No, just an old family name. I’m part native.”
“Well, Kimo… thank you very much.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, dodging a large truck that had stopped too quickly in the middle of the roadway. “And no apologies are necessary. Gracie explained everything.”
“How do you know Gracie?”
She watched him skillfully negotiate an icy corner before looking back at her. A large smile had spread over his face. “Gracie and I were classmates in law school at the University of Washington. She’s… one incredible gal. We studied together, but she was just plain frightening, she was so sharp and… I don’t know… energetic.”
“Gracie is that, all right.”
“I once called her a gerbil on steroids, and I think she kinda liked that.”
“Did you two date?” April asked, trying to keep the conversation going as a shield against the incredible anxiety she was feeling. There was a roaring deep inside her yelling silently at him to step on it, and only her slightly forced questions were keeping it from bursting out as a scream.
Kimo chuckled. “Lord, I wish. Gracie’s a beautiful, desirable woman. But… she was my study partner, and… we just kind of ended up platonic.”
“Bummer,” April managed as she spotted Providence ahead.
She heard him laugh softly. “You have no idea.”
The entrance to the hospital slid up to her door and she threw him a quick smile and a thank-you, took the piece of paper with the number of his cell phone, and bolted inside, almost daring someone to stop her from going straight to room 312 East.
Arlie Rosen heard his daughter’s voice before he could open his eyes. He raised his hand in greeting as she came in and ran to hug him, her face glistening with tears.
“Daddy! Thank God!”
“It’s okay, baby. I’m okay.”
She pulled away and looked him up and down, relieved to see him shift his legs under the sheet.
“Everything’s working, Dad? All your parts are still here?”
He smiled and nodded. “Yeah. If I recall, that was the first question your mom asked.” He shifted position suddenly and winced. “Ow. I gotta remember not to do that.” There was a large butterfly bandage on the right side of his forehead and she leaned over to touch it carefully.
“What’s this, Dad?”
“Just a scratch.” His voice was low and slower than normal, she noted, his pacing a bit leaden. An IV bag was at work, but she saw no casts or traction devices.
“Where is Mom?” April asked, looking at the empty bed next to him and feeling a momentary panic until she remembered he’d already referred to Rachel in the present. Arlie focused on the question and waved away her flash of fear.
“She’s fine. They just took her down for an X ray, but she’s in better shape than I am. Don’t worry.”
April blinked back tears of relief and held her father’s hand as a nurse slipped quietly into the room and introduced herself.
“Would you like to speak with your parents’ doctor, Ms. Rosen? Miss O’Brien said you would.”
April followed her out to the corridor, where a tired-looking, silver-haired physician was working on a set of charts. He put his pen down and turned, offering his hand at the nurse’s introduction.
“They’re still thawing out,” Dr. Swift explained, “but all signs are stable. Your dad has a nasty contusion on his forehead and, I suspect, a light concussion. Your mom may just have a few bruises, but that’s it. They were very lucky. When the chopper crew started warming them up, their body temperatures were in the upper eighties. There wasn’t much time left.”
The memory of the abortive search request to the Coast Guard officer in Juneau a dozen hours before replayed in April’s head.
If Gracie hadn’t been successful, she thought, they would have died.