Stacking the Deck (A Betting on Romance Novel Book 2)(92)

Slowly, as the fog began to dissipate, Liz focused her left eye on the people huddling over her. She struggled to sit up.

“Easy,” Carter said, holding an arm behind her to steady her.

Carter?

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Bailey demanded, shoving her hand in front of Liz’s face.

“Three… Plus a Snickers.”

“She’s okay, folks!” Bailey announced. “She’s okay!”

“I don’t feel okay,” Liz said. “My eye—”

“Here’s a boo-boo pack,” Ben said, thrusting a bag of frozen vegetables at her. “For your eye.”

“Thanks.” Liz held the vegetables to her face, wincing as she did so. “What happened?”

“Your brother had some fireworks stored in the shed. Somehow a fire started and set them off,” said Carter.

Liz rolled her eyes and then instantly regretted the motion. “Lovely,” she murmured behind the peas. “Some people never learn.”

Her brain hurt. Among many other parts of her. “How did he get in the shed? I locked it…”

“He took the key from your purse.”

Jeff Dayton knelt beside her. “We’d like to take you to Sugar Falls General if you don’t mind, just to get you checked out. Or, rather, the lady in the iPad told me that’s what we’d like to do.”

“Oh. Sure. All right.” Liz made as if to stand, but was held in place by a rock-solid forearm.

“She needs a gurney,” she heard Carter say. “She’s not walking anywhere until a doctor says she can.”

“I’m—” she began and then saw Carter’s face. “I’m sure that’s wise,” she murmured.

Soon, the paramedics moved her onto a gurney, wheeled her toward the ambulance and lifted her in.

“Oh, Jesus.” Valerie sat on one of the seats in the ambulance already, a bloody bandage held to her wrist. “Are you serious? I have to ride with her?”

Liz would have turned her head away except they’d immobilized her head for the trip. “The other ambulances are out on calls. It’s less than ten minutes away, Val.”

Val winced, looking a little pasty under her tan. “Fine.”




THEY DROVE TO THE HOSPITAL—a caravan of cars, trucks and one ambulance—as the fire department put out the last of the smoldering embers back at the house.

The paramedics unloaded Liz and wheeled her toward the E.R. entrance. John’s car squealed to a stop behind them. He leapt out as Valerie was being helped from the ambulance and onto a second gurney.

“Val? Why are you on a gurney? Why is she on a gurney?”John demanded.

“I got dizzy,” she said.

“Dizzy? Oh God, Val! Babes!” John grasped her hand, squeezed it and jogged next to her as they rolled the women into the E.R. “I’m sorry! So sorry!”

“You should be. What were you thinking?” Valerie winced. She held up her left arm and instructed the male nurse who was trying to help her with the admission paperwork to snap to it and fetch her a hospital gown so she wouldn’t bleed all over her good blouse.

“I was thinking I needed to do something big… to win you back.”

“So you blew up my hand?”

“You’ll be all right, Miss,” said the nurse, smoothing a hospital gown across her.

“Who asked you?”

“Don’t move your head, ma’am,” a paramedic warned Liz as she craned to see what was going on.

“Shh!” she told him.

“It was going to be a big display over at the lake,” John continued. “Big enough for the whole town to see… big enough for you to see how much I want you in my life.”

Valerie’s eyes grew watery. “Shut up. You don’t.”

“I do! And, I don’t care anymore what you think your chances are with Dan. I won’t let you go back to him. He had his chance with you and he blew it. It’s my turn now.”

Val murmured her address and phone number for the nurse to write on his clipboard. “What do you mean, it’s your turn?”

John stuck his hand deep in his pocket, fished around, and pulled out a little velvet box.

The room gasped. Liz nearly threw up.

“What is that?” Valerie asked, alarm creeping across her features.

“It’s a ring, Val. I’m not going to sneak around anymore. You’re worth more than that to me. You deserve more.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” she said as she turned toward the nurse. “I’m allergic to Penicillin, too. Make sure you note that.”

“Valerie—look at me.”

Val swallowed visibly and raised a shaky hand to brush the hair from her forehead. “John, we had a good thing, but it’s over.” She glanced around the room. “Don’t make a scene.”

“I love you, Val.”

Her hand stopped at her temple and stayed there a moment before she let it fall to her lap. “What did you say?”

“I love you, Val. And, I want to marry you.”

Val shook her head and pressed the ring box closed. “No. You don’t know what you’re doing. I’m no good at being married. It won’t work.”