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“Oh, no, Janey, what—?”
“She’s all right. Brad saw her before her own doctor came in. He said she’s got bruises and she’s shaken, but it doesn’t look like there’s any serious damage.” Janey drew in a breath. “Her doctor told Brad to tell us to wait out here and she’d find us after she examined Tessa.” Thank God Janey’s husband was a doctor.
His body went limp. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to calm down. Dan could do this now. He could do anything so long as she was all right. “What happened?”
Janey looked over his shoulder.
Dan tracked her gaze and saw a firefighter coming toward him.
“Hey, Dan,” Jake, their neighbour, said. “I was the first responder. Tessa’s rattled and bruised, but basically fine.”
“You’re sure?”
“Her doctor’s examining her, but, yeah, I think she’s okay. Except…”
“Except what?”
“She’s really shaken. We had to pry her hands off the steering wheel. They’re black and blue from holding it so tight.”
“Is that uncommon in a car accident?”
“It happens. But she also kept saying she was sorry.”
“Poor Tessa.” She hated to drive and this would make it worse. “Was she at fault?”
“Nope. A red Mustang T-boned her when he ran a light. Luckily on the passenger side, which was empty.”
His stomach roiled. If one of the girls had been with her…
“The driver of the Mustang is okay, too. He admitted the accident was his fault.”
“It’s just like Tessa to believe she could have driven more defensively so this didn’t have to happen,” Janey said.
“She’s a sweetheart.” Jake smiled. “My kids love her. Anyway, count your blessings it wasn’t any worse.”
When Jake left, Dan turned to Janey. “I think it’s more than what you said.”
“What do you mean?”
“Tessa hates to drive. She didn’t even have her license when I met her, which is odd for someone her age.”
Her sister said nothing.
“Look, Janey, you know that accident when she was nineteen made her gun-shy. I had to coax her into learning to drive after we were married.”
Janey sank into a chair. “That would make anybody gun-shy, wouldn’t it?”
Dan dropped into an adjacent seat. “I guess.” He watched Janey fidget with her wedding ring, and his gut instinct—the one that made him a successful lawyer—kicked in. “Is there something I should know?”
“No, nothing.”
He grasped Janey’s hand. It was cold and clammy. “Honey, I’m crazy about your sister. If there’s any way I can help her, please tell me.”
“What do you want to know?”
“What was she like when she had the accident? I know so little about how you two grew up. I wish I had more information, but it upsets Tessa to talk about it.”
“You know the important details.”
Some of them, he thought. They never knew their father. Their mother drank and took off with some guy when they were little. Child protective let them live with their grandmother.
“Tessa said she worked in a diner after high school. I always wondered why she didn’t go to college. She did great at Buffalo University when she got her librarian’s degree.”
“Sometimes people aren’t ready for college right away.”
“That’s what she said.” But he always thought she was hedging. Just like Janey was doing right now.
“You’ve been so good for her, Dan. That’s all that counts.”
“Dan, is that you?”
He glanced up to see that their doctor, Lisa Benton, had come out of E.R. “How is she, Lisa?”
“Physically, she’s fine. Emotionally, she’s shaken.”
“Pretty common after an accident, right?” This from Janey.
“Yes, often it is.” Lisa looped her stethoscope around her neck and looked down at a chart. “But Tessa’s response is a bit exaggerated. She’s quiet and withdrawn. She’ll answer my questions, but there’s some kind of, I don’t know, fear in her behavior.”
“She hates driving,” Dan said.
“Maybe that’s all it is.”
“Should we do anything?” Janey asked.
“Not now. Take her home, keep her in bed the rest of the day, and call me tomorrow. If she’s still this upset, we’ll think about what to do.”
“All right.”
“I can stay with her,” Janey said after the doctor left.
Dan looked askance. “I’m not going back to work after this.”
“Okay. Could I have some time alone with her?”
An odd request. “Why?”
Janey’s lower lip trembled. “I was scared that something bad was going to happen to her, Dan.”
Janey loved Tessa unconditionally. And he knew being with Janey was good for his wife. Her mood was lighter after her visits with her sister or even after talking to Janey on the phone.
Dan touched her shoulder. “Tell you what. We’ll get her home and make sure she’s all right. The girls will need to see her, then I’ll take them to a McDonald’s restaurant and you can have an hour alone with her.”
“Thanks, Dan. For understanding our bond.”
“Janey, I want what’s best for Tessa. If being with you for a while will help, so be it.” He put his arm around her. “Now let’s go get our girl.”
TESSA BURST INTO TEARS when Dan walked through the curtains of her cubicle in the E.R.
He strode to the bed. “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
“It was my fault,” she said, clinging to him, burying her face in his chest. This was what she needed now. His closeness. The feel and scent of him. “I should have been more careful. I should have waited at the light longer.”
His hand in her hair was soothing. He kissed the top of her head. “Tess, the driver of the other car admitted guilt. He said he ran the signal light. He took legal responsibility. None of this was your fault.”
“It’s all my fault.”
“No, no.”
After a moment, his steady heartbeat quieted her and she drew back. She raised her hands to her cheeks and flinched. “My face hurts.”
“It’s banged up a little.”
Her gaze flew to Janey.
“The bruises will go away,” Janey said.
On the outside, maybe. Tessa fell back into the pillow. “Lisa said I can go home, right?”
“Uh-huh. As soon as you get dressed and I sign the papers.”
She took Dan’s hand. It was big, and holding it always made her feel safe. But she had to be careful here. “I’m okay. Just shaken. When I think that Molly and Sara could have been with me. The other car hit the passenger side so hard.”
Dan drew a handkerchief out of his pocket, and she wiped her eyes. “They weren’t with you. They’re safe with my mother. She picked them up after school and brought them to her condo.”
“Do they know what happened?”
“Not yet. I wanted to wait to tell them until they could see you in person.
“I’ll stay with you while he gets the girls,” Janey said.
“Oh, okay.”
Dan kissed her nose. “I’m so sorry you have to go through this, honey. I know driving is hard for you. This must be your worst nightmare.”
“I’ll be fine.” She fisted her hands in the lapels of his suit coat. “I’m sorry I’m being such a baby.”
“You’re entitled.” He stood. “Want me to help you get dressed?”
“I’ll do it.” Janey stepped closer to the bed. “Maybe you can take care of the hospital stuff.”
Dan cocked his head and looked puzzled. “Sure.” He squeezed Tessa’s shoulder, and walked out of the cubicle.
When Dan was gone, Janey sat down on the side of the bed and enfolded Tessa in her arms. “Oh, God, Janey, what did I do?”
“You did nothing. Not this time or the last.”
“Yes, yes I did.”
She could still hear the screeching tires and breaking glass. The screams and the sirens.
“Don’t associate the two accidents, honey. They’re unrelated.”
“I was driving this time.”
“I know.”
“I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt someone again.”
“The only person hurt today was you.”
Releasing her sister, Tessa lay back. When she closed her eyes, she could feel the terror creep up on her. “I can’t forget what happened fifteen years ago. This has brought it all back in Technicolor vividness.”
Before Tessa could say anything, the curtain swung back. Dan stood in the entryway.
How much had he heard?
“DOES IT HURT, MOMMY?” Molly cuddled into Tessa on their bed, and Dan watched his wife wince. Sara stood across the room in the safe circle of his arm.
“Yes, sweetie, a little bit.”
“Hey, kiddo,” Dan said to Molly, “I think your snuggling could be a little less fervent today.”
Molly glanced over at him. If it had been Sara, Dan wouldn’t have said anything and let Tessa bear the brunt of her daughter’s enthusiasm. Sara was sensitive and unsure of herself and even a gentle chiding would have made her feel bad.
But Molly was tough. Maybe too tough. “Okay, Daddy.” She drew back, and touched the purple bruises on Tessa’s face. “It looks yucky.”
“I know, Mol. But what’s most important is that nobody was hurt.”
Not today, anyway.
Dan had overheard his wife and Janey talking in the E.R. Once again, he squelched his anxiety that Tessa was keeping something from him. Something important. He’d have to deal with that sooner or later, and he would, but Tessa was at her worst right now and he wasn’t going to force the issue.
Even if secrets were abhorrent to him. Even after he’d made Tessa promise she wouldn’t lie to him, either outright or by omission, as his parents had. She was the one person he’d trusted in his life to be honest with him.
He made sure there was no concern in his voice when he said to the girls, “Are you two ready to eat yet?”
Molly catapulted off the bed. “McDonald’s!” she shouted. “They got a mad-cool slide in the playground now.”
