Kenzi was trying to sit up again, but Dale asked her to stay still until he could see how badly she was hurt.
Sophie dropped down onto her knees beside Kenzi. “Dale, she’s bleeding.”
Kenzi blinked several times. “I’m okay, Mom.”
“No, you’re not,” Dale said and stood up. He pointed to Lance. “Call an ambulance. I want to have her looked at.”
“Is Taffy all right?” Kenzi asked. Her words slurred slightly.
Emily bent down with Taffy in her arms. “She’s right here. I have her. Don’t worry. She’s fine.”
Asher said, “Kenzi, I didn’t mean . . .”
Dax shed his coat, rolled it up, and handed it to Dale who placed it beneath Kenzi’s head as a cushion. “Kenzi, I shouldn’t have . . .”
Ian chimed in, “I think you’ve done enough damage for one day, Dax, don’t you?”
Dale backed them up with an authority that silenced them. “Stop. All of you.” He looked over each of the men gathered around Kenzi. “All of you should be ashamed of yourselves for acting the way you did today. You’re grown men, for God’s sake, not boys fighting in a school yard.”
In all of Dax’s life he couldn’t remember ever feeling so badly about something he’d done. If he had held his tongue and walked away, Kenzi wouldn’t be lying on the ground. Do I require more evidence that I don’t belong in her life? One day with her family, and we’re in a bloody brawl. He stepped toward her, feeling about as low as any man could. “Kenzi—”
“Not now,” Dale said forcefully. “First, we’re going to make sure Kenzi is okay. Then you can all apologize to her.”
Asher opened his mouth to say something, but Dale spoke before him. “We’re all going over to the hospital together, and everyone will be on their best behavior. Is that understood?”
Kenzi’s brothers nodded.
Dale met Dax’s eyes. “Whatever our differences are, they can wait until we know that Kenzi is okay.”
Dax nodded in agreement. There was something about Dale that didn’t leave an option for much else. His strength didn’t come from brute force; it came from a moral rightness that couldn’t be argued.
“Dax?” Kenzi called out.
Dale looked down at his daughter then back at Dax again. He moved out of the way, and Dax dropped to kneel beside Kenzi. He lightly touched one side of her face. He’d never been so angry, so scared, so sorry. “How do you feel?”
Kenzi’s voice was shaky. “Like I tangled with the driveway, and it kicked my ass.” She held her hand out to him, and he took it in his. “You look as bad as I feel.”
Dax swallowed hard. “When I saw you falling—”
“I’ll be fine. I have a hard head.”
Dax took her hand and held it to the side of his face. “I shouldn’t have come here today, Kenzi. This is my fault.”
Kenzi gave his hand a squeeze. “You came for me, Dax. You couldn’t have known any of this would happen. It was my fault.”
“No, it—” Dax stopped talking when Kenzi closed her eyes and her face contorted with pain. He looked around until he spotted Lance. “Where is that ambulance?”
“Two minutes,” Lance said, stepping toward them with a towel for Kenzi’s head. “They said we shouldn’t move her.”
Sophie spoke up from the other side of Kenzi. “Dax, we saw what happened. It was no one’s fault.”
A siren announced the arrival of the ambulance. Emergency medical techs asked to be given room while they looked Kenzi over.
Dax reluctantly stepped back. He didn’t want to leave her side, but he also didn’t want to impede them from helping her. They applied a bandage and concluded she was sufficiently injured to warrant a few stitches and further testing to make sure she wasn’t seriously hurt. Dax hardly breathed at all while they put a neck brace on her then moved her onto a gurney. They were pushing her past him when her hand reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Dax?” She looked confused and scared.
Sophie placed a hand on his other arm. “Why don’t you ride with her, Dax? We’ll meet you at the hospital.”
Dax leaned over Kenzi. “Is that what you want, Kenzi?”
She nodded and closed her eyes, and a tear slid down her cheek. An army of men couldn’t have pried him from her side after that. He released her hand only long enough for the EMTs to move her into the ambulance. Then he took his place by her side, careful to stay out of the way of the men who were placing monitors on her, but close enough to once again take her hand in his.
He spoke to her softly for the entire ride to the hospital. Under oath, he couldn’t have remembered what he talked about. He talked about anything that came to mind because the sound of his voice seemed to soothe Kenzi.
Upon arrival at the hospital, he was asked once if he was family. Without hesitation Dax said he was. He wasn’t asked twice. He quickly realized that the lack of resistance had nothing to do with him. Kenzi was ushered into a private room rather than the usual emergency area. A doctor and a couple nurses were already waiting for her. Someone had called ahead.
Kenzi was quickly evaluated and a CT scan was ordered.
In a blink of an eye, Dale and Sophie were in the room with Dax and Kenzi. Dale spoke to the doctor while Sophie came over to check on Kenzi. Dax continued to hold Kenzi’s hand even though part of him felt he should step aside for her mother. He looked at Sophie, feeling conflicted.
Sophie took his other hand in hers. “I understand now what Kenzi sees in you.”
Dax looked down at Sophie’s hand in his. He couldn’t remember his own mother, and none of the women his father had married had been the nurturing type. Sophie had Kenzi’s eyes, and in that moment she was looking at him with the same trusting, grateful expression he never felt worthy of. He didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing. He simply held Sophie’s hand while continuing to hold Kenzi’s.
Kenzi was removed for a few minutes for the scan. Dale and Sophie stepped out of the room to speak with their sons who were waiting in a nearby family lounge. Dax moved to the window and looked out over the hospital parking lot, telling himself that Kenzi was already being cared for by the best doctors money could pay for. All he could do was wait.
Dale returned before anyone else. He walked over to stand beside Dax and said, “I want to like you, Dax.”
Dax fisted the hand he had resting on the window frame.
Dale continued, “When I spoke to you last night, I was angry. I’ve heard your name often recently and always linked to something I didn’t approve of.”
“That’s a reaction I’m used to.”
Dale was quiet for a moment. “I’m trying to figure you out. On one hand you have a solid reputation for being a bastard when it comes to business.”
Dax turned his attention back out the window. If Dale wanted to beat him up he’d have to get in line. Dax was already doing a good job on himself. He knew he should have stayed away from Kenzi. Clay had said it the first time he’d met her, but Dax hadn’t been able to. He’d told himself she needed him. If his only reason for being with her had truly been to help her, he wouldn’t have slept with her.
Dale added, “On the other hand you’ve been kind to my daughter, and it’s obvious that you care about her.”
“I do,” Dax said simply.
“Last night you said love wasn’t in your vocabulary.”
“I meant it.”
“Tell me, what do you think love is, son?”
Dax shook his head in disgust. “A myth. My father loved many women. My uncle loved none.” Mostly due to the anger he felt toward himself, Dax lashed out verbally. “You say you love your wife, but wasn’t infidelity the reason your political career ended?”
Dale’s harshly indrawn breath was the only sound in the room for a moment. “I haven’t looked at another woman since I met Sophie. She’s everything to me.”
“I find that hard to believe. I’ve read the reports.”
