“Oh sweetie, you look awful. How are you feeling?” Brooke sat down in the chair next to Ally’s hospital bed, wincing as she took everything in. “I can’t believe you did all this just from tripping over a rock. It must have been so painful.”
“It wasn’t a lot of fun,” Ally said, her voice croaky. She took a sip of water from the cup next to her bed. “But the painkillers are great. I don’t feel a thing right now.”
“Only you would go out running in the rain,” Ember said. She’d taken the chair on the other side of Ally. Her fiancé, Lucas, was sitting at the end of the bed, and gave Ally a reassuring smile when she looked over at him.
“I wasn’t doing it for fun,” Ally pointed out. “I was trying to stop Riley from jumping off the cliff.”
Lucas sat straight up at that. Always the firefighter, he was alert at the first sign of danger. “It’s okay, Lucas,” Ally told him. “She didn’t jump.”
“I’ll never get why kids do stuff like that,” he said, shaking his head. “As if there aren’t enough dangers around already, they have to invent some more.”
“As I recall, you liked a little bit of danger yourself when you were younger,” Ember pointed out, her eyes soft as she smiled at him. “Or at least, that’s what I’ve heard. There were always more injuries on the sports field than anywhere else at school. Didn’t you break your arm once?”
“Yeah, but that was football. It’s different.”
“Of course it is.”
“Hey, does anybody want coffee?” Lucas asked, standing up and stretching his arms. “I’ll head over to the café and pick some up before I get myself into trouble.”
Ember and Brooke gave him their order, and he left in a hurry, as though he was allergic to hospital rooms and legs in casts.
“Okay, so now that he’s gone, tell us all the gory details,” Ember said, leaning forward. “And don’t leave anything out.”
It took Ally ten minutes to tell them the story of Riley and the cliff – mostly thanks to their questions about who Riley was, why she had Ally’s number, and why Ally had run as soon as she’d called.
“So she’s your boss’ daughter?” Brooke asked. “That’s the only connection?”
“I felt sorry for her,” Ally said, feeling a little defensive. “She’s new in town and she lost her mom earlier this year. Now her dad’s spending night and day running a coffee shop while she has to come to terms with everything.”
“Sounds familiar,” Ember said, raising her eyebrows. “No wonder you feel sorry for her. You know exactly what she’s going through.” She leaned her head to the side. “What’s her dad like?”
“He’s okay.” Ally’s cheeks heated up too much to escape the notice of her two best friends. She quickly added, “For an older guy and a boss.”
“Why are you blushing?” Ember asked. She turned to Brooke. “She’s totally blushing, right?”
“Mmhmm.” Brooke nodded. “As red as they come.”
“It’s hot in here,” Ally complained. “That’s why. It’s warmer in here than it is at the beach.” She pulled at the collar of her gown and looked up at her friends. “Aren’t you hot?”
“Nope.” Ember shook her head. “Let’s take it back a bit. So Riley’s dad is nice for an older guy.” There was a glint in Ember’s eye. “And he makes you get all hot and bothered.”
Brooke rubbed her palms together. “I knew I did the right thing leaving Nick with my parents,” she said. She and Ember looked as though they were having way too much fun for Ally’s liking.
They were both looking right at her, their eyes wide, and their lips curled up while they waited for her to say something.
“What?” she finally responded.
“He’s hot, right?” Ember asked.
Ally shrugged, trying to look cool, which was almost impossible in this heat. “I’ve no idea. He’s my boss.” She pulled at the gown she was wearing, dragging the lines that were attached to the top of her hand. “I can’t believe they’ve put the heat on in here. So we had a bit of rain. It’s hardly arctic conditions out there.”
“The heat isn’t on,” Ember told her, giving her a knowing smile.
“Are you enjoying this?” Ally asked her, grimacing like a child.
“Yep. The hunter is finally being hunted. Remember how much hell you gave me when I first started seeing Lucas?”
“Ugh.” Ally lay back and closed her eyes for a moment. “I’m injured, guys. You’re supposed to be nice to me.”
“Do you need some more painkillers?” Brooke asked. “Shall I call a nurse?”
Ally shook her head. “No.”
But then the door opened, and Ally took a moment to steady herself again. She loved Ember and Brooke like sisters, but sometimes they were way too inquisitive for their own good.
She’d have to remember that the next time she was interrogating them.
“You have some more visitors,” a nurse said, popping her head around the door. “You’re only supposed to have three at a time, but as long as they don’t stay too long I’ll look the other way.”
She stepped back and opened the door wider to allow Ally’s visitors to walk inside. Lorne Daniels shuffled in first, followed by Frank Megassey and his wife. Ember and Brooke immediately stood up, offering their chairs to Lorne and Mrs. Megassey. Frank stood to the side of her, inspecting each machine as though he was planning to sell them in his hardware store.
The room that had seemed so spacious and empty had turned decidedly cozy.
“Heard you got up to some fun on the cliffs,” Lorne said, leaning forward to clasp her hand between his. “What have I told you about cliff jumping?”
Ally smiled at him. “You know me, I never did listen to my elders.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Frank said. He was staring intently at the machine that was liberally dripping painkillers through the tube into Ally’s hand. “Remember how much trouble she was as a kid? Her dad was always pulling his hair out.”
“Well, this time it was another kid in trouble, not me. I’m blameless, ” Ally told him. Her mock petulance made him raise his eyebrows.
“That’s what you always used to say. ‘It’s not my fault, Uncle Lorne. The other kids dared me.’” He said it in a falsetto tone which made Ember and Brooke crack up.
“Remember that time you camped out alone at the Silver Cove Resort?” Brooke said.
“You’re starting in on me, too? I thought you were meant to be on my side.” Ally considered pushing the button to let out an extra shot of painkiller. The doctor had told her she had up to one boost an hour.
“I am. I was in awe of you. That place always scared the hell out of me.”
“Well, I can confirm there are no ghosts at the Silver Cove Resort,” Ally told her. “Just crumbling old buildings and a whole lot of dust.”
“Well, you’re not gonna be camping anywhere for the next few weeks,” Frank said, finally pulling his attention away from all the equipment. “Not going to be doing very much at all until your ankle heals.”
Ally took a deep breath. The thought of sitting around for that long made her want to get up and run away.
Except she couldn’t. And she wouldn’t be able to for a long time.
“The doctor said it’s a clean break. Hopefully it will heal up quickly.”
“Bones always do when you’re young.” Sandra, Frank’s wife, smiled at Ally. “It’s when you get old like us that you have to look out.”
“Hey, less of the old,” Lorne said, frowning. “I still surf every day.”
“Yeah, and I go pole dancing on the weekend,” Sandra retorted.
Ally had to bite down on her lip not to giggle. When she looked over at Brooke and Ember, she could tell her friends were having exactly the same problem.
“I got coffee for everybody,” Lucas said, walking in. He stopped dead when he saw all the visitors crowding around Ally’s bed. “Except apparently I didn’t. Looks like I’m taking another trip to the café.”
As if to add to the chaos, the nurse opened the door again. Her eyes were wide. “Um, you have some more visitors,” she said. “Though, I have no idea where they’re going to fit.” She shook her head and frowned. “I’m sure the doctor said something about you having to stay here because you had no family.”
The nurse backed out slowly as Riley and Nate walked in. Riley was carrying a huge bunch of flowers – pretty roses and lilies that almost obscured her face. She looked with wide eyes at everybody crowding around Ally’s bed, her face turning white.
“You know what?” Ember said loudly, using the same tone Ally imagined she always used with her elementary class. “Why don’t we all go to the café? Brooke, Lucas?” she said, smiling at them. “And if you come with us we’ll buy you coffee too, Mr. Daniels. And Mr. and Mrs. Megassey.”
“But we just got here,” Frank complained.
“That’s okay. We’ll have a drink and then we can pop back in on our way out,” Brooke said, catching on to Ember’s plan. From the way she was staring at Frank and Lorne, she wasn’t taking no for an answer.
Ally looked over at Riley who seemed to be cowering into her dad. Then she looked up, her eyes connecting with his, and he gave her a smile. One that she couldn’t help but return.
She’d noticed that his smiles always had that effect on her.
As soon as the others left, Riley ran toward Ally, flinging the flowers on the chair beside the bed. “How are you?” she said, still sounding scared. “Does it hurt?” She paused for a moment, mashing her lips together before she added in a quavering voice, “I’m sorry you broke your ankle. It’s all my fault.”
Ally reached out for her hand. “It’s not your fault,” she told her. “The rain needs to take some of the blame, and the rock. And a stupid woman who wasn’t looking where she was running.”
“But you wouldn’t have been there if I wasn’t.”
“True. But I’m glad I was.”
“So am I,” Nate said, walking forward. He took the flowers Riley had left on the chair and placed them in an empty vase, carrying it over to the sink in the corner of Ally’s hospital room. “Thank God you were. Even if it means Riley’s grounded for life.”
“I don’t ever want to go out again, anyway,” Riley said, slumping down on the chair and crossing her arms over her chest. “This place is way more dangerous than Seattle.”
Ally gave her a sympathetic look. “Angel Sands is the safest place I know. Just as long as you don’t hurl yourself into the ocean.”
“Yeah, well I’m not planning on doing that any time soon, either.” Riley grimaced. “Not that anybody’s talking to me. Dad called all my friends’ parents and now everybody’s grounded.”
“I thought you didn’t have any friends,” Nate said, his voice light.
“Hmmph.” Riley picked up a magazine that Brooke had left for Ally and started to thumb through it. Nate sat down in the chair on the other side of her.
“The doctor said you’ll be out of here tomorrow, so that’s good.”
“It is. One night in the hospital is enough.” Ally sighed. “I’m not sure I’ll be making it into work this week, though. Not until I get the hang of walking with crutches.”
“You won’t be working at all,” Nate said, raising an eyebrow. “You can’t come back until the doctor gives you the all clear.”
Ally tried to sit up taller, but her damn leg wasn’t playing ball. She ended up sliding to the left like she’d been drinking too much. Nate reached out to steady her, his hands gentle against her bare arms.
And if she’d thought it was warm in here before, now it was feeling tropical.
“You need some help getting comfortable?” he asked her.
“I just need another pillow,” she said, trying to ignore the way her heart started to speed. Surely it couldn’t be good for her, not with the cocktail of drugs that were already pumping through her veins. What happened if they got delivered too fast? Would she explode?
Nate gently pulled her forward and plumped a pillow up behind her, then helped her scoot back a bit until she was fully sitting up. “I had to do this for Riley when she was in the hospital having her tonsils removed,” he told her as he moved his hands from her arms. Her exposed skin felt suddenly cold.
Ally knew she needed to stop reading too much into things. It was obvious that she felt something toward Nate, but even more obvious that it was all mixed up in her father’s leaving and the sudden loss of the café. In spite of their frequent spats, there was a connection between Nate and Riley that made Ally’s heart ache. It made her feel wistful and achy and a little bit envious.
Whatever weird kind of daddy complex she was feeling needed to take a hike right now.
“I need to work,” she told him, trying to push all those crazy feelings out of her brain. “I have a mortgage to pay. Bills. And we both know I’m not owed any more paid time off.”
“You’ll be paid your full wages while you’re off,” Nate told her, his voice firm. “Boss’ orders.”
“I can’t accept your charity,” she told him, shaking her head. “I’ve always paid my own way.”
“You think this is charity?” Nate asked. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s all business. First of all, you’d have every right to sue me, as Riley’s guardian, for lost wages which would cost me a hell of a lot of money in lawyer’s fees. And secondly, what do you think it would do for business if everybody heard you were on unpaid sick leave? You think Lorne would send any more of his surf buddies my way? Or that Frank would put fliers up next to his register to tempt his customers? How about Deenie at the bookshop? She’s your best friend’s mother-in-law, right? I’m pretty sure she’d run me out of town if she thought you were being treated badly.”
“So you’re not doing it out of kindness?”
Nate blinked a couple of times. “No, not at all.”
“You clearly don’t know him if you think he does anything out of kindness,” Riley said from behind her magazine. There was no malice in her voice. “Just let him pay.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be taking some of it out of Riley’s allowance. Since she’s the one responsible for all of this.” He shot his daughter a look that she had no chance of seeing behind the magazine.
“I get an allowance?” Riley retorted. “Could have fooled me. You stopped it after I got arrested in Seattle.”
Ally laughed. She couldn’t help it. The two of them were so damn cute. They reminded her so much of the good times she’d had with her dad. And yes, there had been good times. Nate shook his head and started to laugh, too, the corners of his eyes wrinkling up in the most devastating way.
“It’s not funny,” Riley said, pulling the magazine down. Her lips were twitching like crazy. “Okay, it kinda is,” she said, finally letting her smile shine through. “But it’s true, Dad. I have no money at all.”
“You could take some of my shifts,” Ally suggested. “If you wanted to contribute, too.”
“But I have school.”
“Not on the weekends,” Nate said, raising his eyebrows at Ally. “I like it. It’s natural justice. You incapacitated one of my employees, so now you have to take her place.”
“Come on, let’s not get hasty,” Riley said, looking from Ally to her dad. “I can’t make coffee to save my life. I’ll be more of a liability than help. Plus, I have a lot of homework to do. You don’t want me failing any classes.”
“Do it,” Ally urged. “One day you’ll look back at this time and realize it was one of the best parts of your life. You’ll get to spend time with your dad, you’ll meet new people. And some of the others go surfing after the shop closes on Saturdays. Who knows, you might even want to go, too.”
She could sense Nate’s stare. Could almost see it from the corner of her eye. But she didn’t dare turn her head to see what his expression was.
“Visiting hours are almost up,” the nurse called out from the doorway. Ally turned to look at her, shocked. She hadn’t even heard the door open.
“We should go,” Nate told her. “Let you get some rest.” He stood up and stretched his arms, the action lifting his t-shirt high enough for her to get the tiniest glimpse of toned abs. He tucked it back in again, ruining the view completely. “Come on, Ri.” He leaned down and squeezed Ally’s hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, his breath warm against her skin.
“Tomorrow?”
“Yeah. We’re your designated transport home. The doctor’s going to call me once you’ve been discharged.”
He was? Okay, then. If she wasn’t certain to look like a complete fool trying to navigate herself out of the hospital with her leg in a cast and her body relying on crutches, she might have looked forward to that.