Page 56 of The Hero
Bob held her tightly. Lying on his side was uncomfortable, but he didn’t move even an inch. This woman had literally saved their lives ... and she loved him. Two things that he wouldn’t have thought possible when he’d met her two weeks ago. Now she’d agreed to move to Newton with him. To have a family. He couldn’t be more content than he was right that moment.
Chapter Eleven
Marlowe woke up groggy and confused. She opened her eyes and saw that she was still on the stretcher with Kendric, but they were being wheeled into a huge building, which could only be the hospital in Bangor.
“Hey ... we ...what? Kendric, you didn’t wake me up,” she scolded.
He chuckled. “I tried. You smacked me and told me to give you another ten minutes,” he told her.
“I did not!” Marlowe said, horrified.
“All right, you didn’t. But you were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t have the heart to wake you up. You slept through the transfer to the ambulance and the ride here.”
Marlowe turned her head left and right, and she saw three men walking alongside the stretcher as the automatic doors in front of them opened.
“Oh crap,” she said under her breath, bringing a hand up to her hair to try to smooth it down at least a little.
But Kendric caught her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “You look fine.”
Marlowe shook her head. She didn’t. She’d seen her reflection in the mirror in the small bathroom on the plane, before she’d crawled into Kendric’s arms. She was a mess. And she reallyhadwanted to at least try to clean herself up before she met his friends. But it was too late now.
She lifted her chin. She had to make the best of the situation. It was what it was.
She and Kendric were wheeled down a hallway and into a room. The three men crowded in as well. She shifted in Kendric’s grasp, and he squeezed her tight for a moment, as if he wasn’t going to let her go, before leaning forward, kissing her forehead, and finally releasing his grip.
She swung her legs off the edge of the stretcher and hopped to the ground—and promptly would’ve fallen flat on her face if one of the men hadn’t caught her arm.
“Easy,” he said.
“Marlowe?” Kendric asked in concern.
“I’m fine. Just a little dizzy from getting up too fast,” she reassured him. Then she turned to his friends and held out a hand to the man still clutching her elbow. “Hi. I’m Marlowe.”
The man grinned. “Chappy.”
“And I’m JJ,” another guy said.
Marlowe shook his hand, then turned to the last man. She hadn’t thought about what she was going to say when she met Cal face to face. Now, overwhelmed, she couldn’t help throwing herself into his arms and giving him a tight hug.
The man chuckled and hugged her back.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.”
“That’s my line,” Cal told her quietly. “You have no idea how much the guy on that stretcher means to me. What he’s done for me. Getting you both out of Cambodia and back home was only the tip of what I owe him.”
“Shut the hell up,” Kendric said irritably from behind her. She smiled at Cal as the man released her, while Kendric continued, “You don’t owe me crap, and you know it. I’m thinking I’m the one who owesyounow.”
“We can argue about who owes who later,” JJ cut in. “I want a doctor to look at those wounds of yours. See what the next step is inmaking sure you’re healed, so we can get you back on the job. While you were off caring for yoursick aunt, we’ve been taking up the slack. There was a huge windstorm while you were gone, and we’ve been slammed.”
Marlowe could tell by his expression that JJ was kidding, but she still felt guilty.
“About that,” Kendric started. “I—”
JJ held up his hand. “Not now. We’ll talk about it later, when you’re healed up and home. For now, just know that we’re good. All of us. Got it?”
Kendric nodded, and Marlowe was so relieved she felt light headed.
A man in a white coat strode into the room then and introduced himself as Dr. Galloway. He greeted Kendric and was all business when he asked him to turn onto his stomach so he could see what he was dealing with.
