Crazy Love(11)

After a stroke, a lot of patients experienced impaired speech. Krista asked, “She was able to speak clearly?”

Jamie’s ponytail swayed as she nodded. “A little groggy, but that’s to be expected.”

Relief swept through Krista. Abby had woken up. She was speaking, and she was hungry. All of those facts were very good news. She should call Chase and let him know. Even if he hadn’t returned her phone calls up until now, he deserved to know how his mom was doing.

Then a thought struck Krista. Just because he wasn’t contacting her did not necessarily mean he wasn’t checking in.

“Have there been any calls to check on Abby’s condition?”

“I haven’t fielded any.” Jamie shook her head as she swiveled in her chair and began typing. “There’s nothing reported on the call log either.”

“Okay, thanks. I’m gonna go check on her. I have to be back downstairs in fifteen. Send in a search party if I’m not out by then. I have a feeling the second I sit down I may be out like a light.”

“Will do,” Jamie acknowledged before answering the ringing phone at the station.

Krista stepped around the yellow sign that cautioned that the floor was wet and into the darkened hospital room. Abby was lying peacefully in the bed farthest from the door, her eyes closed. The heavy drapes were pulled shut, and the only noises that filled the room were the beeps and swooshes of the monitors.

As Krista moved across the small space, she noticed that Abby’s coloring was a little better than it had been yesterday. Her skin, however, looked paper-thin. Her small frame appeared frail beneath the blue knit hospital blanket that covered her. Dark strands of hair fell across her pale forehead.

Krista slumped down into the recliner chair beside the bed. The physical demands that her job put on her were so much greater than most people assumed. Her body ached from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She knew it was impossible, but she was so tired it even felt like her hair hurt.

Leaning her head back against the mauve pleather, Krista decided to rest her eyes for just a moment. Her heavy eyes closed and she felt her chest rising and falling in an even rhythm.

The sound of the door clicking shut stirred her out of her restful state. Had fifteen minutes already passed and Jamie was coming in to get her? Forcing her eyelids open she saw the outline of a man, not Jamie, in the doorway.

Standing to her feet, she was about to ask if she could help him when the figure took a step towards her and she could clearly make out his face. Her entire body immediately responded to what her eyes saw. Her mouth went dry. She was so dizzy it felt as if the room were spinning. Goose bumps broke out all over her skin. She tried desperately to take in air, but it was as if the wind had been knocked right out of her.

Krista’s voice was barely audible as his name fell from her lips. “Chase.”

* * *

Chase knew that he wasn’t hallucinating. Krista was really here. Standing in front of him. All night, he’d been mentally preparing himself for what it would be like when he saw her again after all these years.

Now he knew the truth—that nothing could have possibly prepared him for the jolt of awareness coursing through him as his eyes scanned down her body. Every cell in his body came to life just being in her presence. His hungry gaze greedily roamed all over her, trying to take her in all at once.

His pants grew tight in response to the curves that he knew lay beneath her loose scrubs. His hands tingled, wanting to reach out and touch her silken skin. As his eyes made their way back up and met hers, he noticed that there were dark circles beneath them.

“Are you okay?” Concern instantly flooded him as he drew closer to her. “You look tired.”

A look of irritation flashed in her blue-green eyes and her back stiffened as she responded with a clipped, “I’m fine.”

Shit.

“I didn’t mean… I was just worri… You look beautiful.” He stumbled over his words as he quickly tried to pull himself out of the hole he’d managed to dig for himself with his unfortunate choice of words. Instead of trying to explain what he knew she already knew, he just said the words he’d wanted to say to her every hour of every day since he’d left Harper’s Crossing, “God, I’ve missed you.”

Krista’s posture was defensive, her tone flatter than a pancake. The only evidence that this reunion   was affecting her at all were the tight buds of her nipples that were clearly visible through the thin cotton material of her scrubs and the shallow breaths she had not been able to disguise. Her thick, dark lashes dipped as her gorgeous eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms in front of her chest.