Bridge to Forever Page 2

  As Mickelle remembered from several prior visits, the kitchen and adjoining family room were immense, full of windows, deep hues, and quality furniture. Today, she had little time to take in any details, except a huge bowel of fat red grapes spilling over onto the counter. Belle grabbed a few and popped them into her mouth on her way by. “Dad says these are to eat in the hot tub,” she announced. “I don’t know why. I think it’s something romantic.”

  “Belle,” Tanner warned, but he flashed Mickelle a smile, silently telling her he approved of her relationship with his dad.

  Bryan glowered at the reference, but Jeremy skipped blithely ahead. “I don’t care much if the pool is cold,” he announced. “I’m going to jump right in.”

  “I’ll have to change first.” Mickelle had felt awkward about wearing her swimsuit over to the house. Besides, she would need clothes for afterwards.

  “Damon can watch me until you get changed, can’t he, Mom?” pleaded Jeremy.

  “I suppose. If he’s willing.”

  “He will be,” Belle said.

  The group went outside, over the back patio and along the covered walkway to the pool house, which was nestled behind a row of pink dogwood trees on the far side of the yard. Behind the pool house lay a tennis court, too, according to Belle and Tanner. Mickelle had always meant to challenge Damon to a game, though neither of them really knew how to play. Perhaps today they would have time for Tanner to show them a few moves.

  The warmer air of the pool house hit them as they opened the door. Mickelle wrinkled her nose at the strong chlorine smell.

  “Yippee!” yelled Jeremy, gazing at the pool. While not as large as the public pool in American Fork where Mickelle lived, this one was certainly more than adequate for several families to swim in comfort.

  Damon was nowhere in sight. Mickelle looked around, eager to be with him after so much waiting. Through the large, floor-to-ceiling windows on the right side she could see the outdoor pool, covered now, and an area for barbeques. Damon wasn’t on any of the lounge chairs there.

  “Daddy!” Belle shouted.

  “He must have gone upstairs or somewhere.” Mickelle shot a glance over her shoulder at the main house through the open pool house door. She knew the house had two separate wings on the top floor and an entire basement where Tanner and their live-in maid had their rooms, but where Damon slept in all that hugeness was still a mystery.

  “He just came out here,” Tanner told them. “He said he had something to do before you got here—besides checking the water temperature. He acted nervous.”

  Mickelle’s heartbeat, which had finally settled to a normal pace after expecting Damon at the front door, resumed thumping again erratically. Goose bumps covered her skin, and her stomach felt queasy. She pushed past the children, searching the pool with her eyes. “Damon!” she called forcefully.

  No answer.

  Something wasn’t right. She could feel it in the tingling of her spine, in the thundering of her heart.

  “You kids check the house,” she ordered. She hurried along the side of the pool, praying as she went.

  Then she saw him, floating face down in the pool under the diving board. She must have screamed because the children hurtled toward her. Not waiting for them, Mickelle forced her fright-frozen limbs to work, and rushed toward his unmoving body.

  Not Damon, please not Damon!

  This wasn’t happening! This wonderful, attractive, alluring man couldn’t leave her too!

  Like Riley.

  She heard a splash and realized that Tanner was in the water, swimming at high velocity toward his dad. Spying a lifesaving hook on the wall, she lunged toward it and reached for Damon at the same time Tanner arrived at the inert form. Together they pulled him to the side. Belle and Jeremy were sobbing and clutching at Mickelle, making her job more difficult.

  “911!” she shouted at Bryan. He glanced at her, eyes wide with shock, as though he couldn’t hear. Reaching now for Damon, Mickelle caught Belle’s tearful gaze with her own. “Belle, call 911. Your daddy needs help—now!”

  Belle galvanized into action, racing for a phone on the wall near where Mickelle had found the hook.

  With great effort Tanner and Mickelle pushed and dragged Damon from the water. She knelt beside him, trying to remember what to do.

  “Heartbeat!” yelled Tanner. He was pale and shaking as he pulled himself out of the pool.

  Mickelle felt for a pulse, and nearly cried with relief. “Yes! He’s got one.”

  Together they rolled him onto his stomach, trying to force water from his lungs. A flood of liquid gushed onto the cement. Still, he didn’t start breathing. Mickelle willed him to open those intriguing amber eyes, but they were unmoving beneath the thick, expressive eyebrows.

  “Mouth-to-mouth,” she said faintly.

  With a quick nod, Tanner helped her roll Damon to his back. He was on the tall side for a man, with broad shoulders, but she had never dreamed he weighed so much. She tipped back his head as she had seen people do in the movies, and pinched the end of his slightly hooked nose. Please let me be doing this right! Why had she never taken a course on lifesaving?

  She put her mouth to his and fleetingly recalled those other moments when their lips had met—firmly, passionately, sending heat throughout her body. The heat was utterly missing now. His lips were slack and cold. Oh, so cold! Deathly cold. The coldness slammed into her, made her shiver and gasp for breath. Above all there was the blind urgency and the terrible, looming fear.

  “Someone’s coming!” Belle called from her place by the phone. “They said to keep doing mouth-to-mouth.”

  Mickelle didn’t look her way, but continued forcing air into Damon’s lungs. I can’t do it, she thought. But she didn’t quit.

  She hadn’t been able to keep Riley from dying. Where had she been when his truck went off that cliff?

  It wasn’t my fault. She knew that, but sometimes the guilt still ate at her. She’d threatened him with divorce.

  “Dad! Dad!” Tanner cried, losing his composure. “Don’t die! Oh, it’s too late! We’re too late! Oh, no! Oh, no!”

  Mickelle wanted to soothe him, to tell him what a good sign it was that his dad’s heart still beat in his chest, but she couldn’t stop breathing for Damon long enough to explain.

  In. Out. In. Out. Never faltering. While she worked, she prayed.

  Chapter Two

  An eternity seemed to pass before four men burst into the pool house, two of them carrying a Gurney. Mickelle was so dizzy that their faces looked blurred and distorted as they approached at a run.

  Still she continued. In. Out. In. Out. She tasted salt and knew it came from her tears.

  Please, Damon, she thought.

  “We’ll take over,” one of the ambulance workers said, kneeling beside her.

  Suddenly, Damon’s blond moustache moved against her mouth. His chest rose and fell of its own accord.

  “He’s breathing!” she exclaimed joyfully, looking up at the children. Belle and Jeremy clung together on her right, while Tanner knelt on the other side of Damon’s body. Bryan was still frozen in place several paces beyond Belle and Jeremy, as pale as the white Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt he wore.

  Mickelle fell back, holding onto Belle and Jeremy while the ambulance men checked Damon. “Good work, ma’am,” one said. “He’s breathing and his heartbeat’s strong.”

  “Then why doesn’t he wake up?” Tanner asked.

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to take him in and let the doctor take a look at him. Could be his body just needs to rest. That happens a lot. Look here. He’s had quite a blow to the side of his head. That’s probably given him some trauma.”

  Meaning what? Brain damage? Mickelle didn’t voice the words aloud.

  She watched as they loaded the unconscious Damon onto their Gurney. He wore nothing but a pair of knee-length swimming trunks, and she realized that this was the first time she’d seen him in shorts and without a shirt. His che
st was broader than she imagined, and his muscular legs were covered with curly blond hair.

  “Can I go with him?” Tanner asked.

  The men looked at Mickelle, obviously assuming she was Damon’s wife and Tanner’s mother. “Sorry, you’ll have to come along separately.”

  Mickelle nodded, not bothering to explain her relationship. “We’ll meet you at the hospital. Which one are you taking him to?”

  “That’s up to you,” one of the men told her. “And your insurance. If he were having heart trouble, and could wait a bit, we’d take him to Provo, but either American Fork or Timpanogos can handle this.”

  “American Fork then,” Mickelle said. Besides being the closest hospital, several women from church worked there, and she knew the staff was dedicated.

  “I want to go with him,” Belle complained in a high, wavering voice.

  Mickelle knelt down and hugged her. “I know you do, honey, but we’ll be at the hospital almost as soon as they are. Don’t worry. Those men will take good care of him. Come on. Everyone to the car.”

  Now that the immediate danger was over, Mickelle began to shake, but she forced herself into the blue Metro. The drive to the American Fork Hospital was very quiet. Jeremy and Belle wore sad faces as they took turns muttering quiet prayers in the backseat of the Metro. Their faith eased the terror in Mickelle’s heart.

  The color had returned to Bryan’s face, but his eyes were still wide with shock. He hadn’t spoken since they had found Damon.

  Mickelle put her hand out to touch his. “Are you okay?”

  He swallowed and opened his mouth to speak, but the words were difficult in coming. “Is he going to die?”

  “No.”

  He nodded, but didn’t speak further.

  At the hospital, Mickelle and the children had to wait thirty minutes before someone finally came to talk to them. “We’re taking him to a room now,” said the intern. He was tall and thin, with brown hair and kind hazel eyes. “He’s awake and doing well, and there doesn’t seem to be any permanent damage. We want to keep him overnight for observation, however. He was out for quite a while, and it always pays to be careful.”

  Mickelle’s entire body felt weak with relief.

  “We do have some papers to check over. Tanner here has supplied most of the information, but he didn’t know about the insurance.”

  “I don’t know about that, either,” she said. “We’ll have to ask Damon.”

  Only when the intern eyed her strangely did Mickelle realize that, like the ambulance workers, he thought she was Damon’s wife.

  “There’s no problem with paying,” she assured him hurriedly.

  To Mickelle’s embarrassment, Jeremy added, “He’s really rich.”

  “Can I see my daddy?” Belle pleaded. “Please?”

  The man smiled. “You can all go see him right now. In fact, he’s been asking for you.”

  Bryan shook his head. “I don’t want to go in. I’ll wait here.”

  “Okay,” Mickelle said. “But stay right here, okay?”

  “Sure. Well, I might go check out the vending machines is all.”

  Mickelle, Belle, Tanner, and Jeremy went into Damon’s room. Immediately, Belle ran into her father’s outstretched arms. “Are you okay?”

  “Of course I am, ma Belle.” He hugged her tightly as his amber-brown eyes met Mickelle’s over the top of Belle’s soft curls. Damon had told her that ma belle, meant “my beauty” in French, and she agreed it was a perfect description of his daughter.

  Tanner hugged his father for a long time, wiping tears from his eyes. “I’m sorry,” Damon muttered. “But it’s okay now. Everything’s okay.”

  Jeremy approached the bed hesitantly. “I thought you said no swimming by yourself,” he said, his blue eyes accusing.

  “I did say that, Jer, and occasionally I have broken that rule because I put it into place mostly for Belle and Tan. Since they pointed out to me that I was also vulnerable, I’ve begun to obey it. I wasn’t swimming today.”

  “You weren’t?” Belle appeared surprised. “But we found you in the water.” Her round face grew bleak at the memory. “Tanner and Mickelle had to get you out.”

  He sighed. “I fell. It was a stupid mistake.” Again his eyes met Mickelle’s. “I was trying to do . . . something. It doesn’t matter now. I’m all right—thanks to you guys.”

  “I called 911,” Belle said importantly. “I told the ambulance to come and get you.”

  “Mom breathed in your mouth,” Jeremy put in, not to be outdone in the telling.

  “So I heard.” Damon’s eyes still held Mickelle’s. He gave Belle another squeeze.

  Minutes ticked by as the children talked to Damon, assuring themselves that he was all right. The tightness in Tanner’s face eased and Belle no longer looked close to tears.

  “Look, you guys, can I talk to Kelle a minute?” Damon said after a while. He used a nickname for Mickelle as he did for everyone special in his life. According to Belle, Mickelle’s nickname was the most special because it rhymed with hers.

  Belle smiled widely, showing her twin dimples, her fears forgotten. “I bet you want to kiss her!”

  “Ew, gross!” added Jeremy as they headed to the door, making smooching sounds.

  “Maybe.” The laugh lines that gave Damon’s angular face so much character deepened as he grinned.

  Tanner went after the kids. “I’ll go see what Bryan’s doing.”

  “Thanks,” Mickelle said. “You others stay right outside the door. “I’ll be right out.”

  She approached the bed with more reluctance than Jeremy had shown. Damon was alive and she was glad—more than glad—but she never wanted to go through such horror again.

  Like with Riley.

  “What is it?” Damon asked, his voice gentle. He sat up a little higher in the bed and reached for her hand. The electricity of his touch flooded warmly her entire body and she longed to throw herself into his arms and weep out her relief.

  “You scared us.” She was unwilling to explain how utterly terrified she had been; she simply couldn’t.

  His strong jaw clenched with compassion. “I’m sorry. I know that was tough on you. I’m thankful you and Tan knew what to do.”

  “I didn’t really, I . . .” Her voice trailed off. They’d come so close to losing him. What an unbearable thought! Deep inside, she felt his death would even be worse than Riley’s had been for her. But why was that? She had loved Riley enough to marry him. What did that say about her feelings for Damon?

  Damon squeezed her fingers more tightly. “Where’s Bry?”

  “He’s with Tanner.”

  Silence fell between them, but it was uncomfortable and tense. Mickelle shifted nervously, feeling oddly alienated from this man whom she thought she loved.

  Slowly, without taking his eyes from hers, he held up his free hand and opened it slowly. Mickelle followed the movement with her eyes, but it took some time for her brain to process what she saw.

  “This is what I was trying to do,” Damon said softly. “I was putting this on the end of the diving board for you to find, only I slipped or something and hit my head. One of the ambulance guys found it still clenched in my hand in the ambulance.” He laughed. “Not even unconscious would I give it up.”

  She barely heard him, her attention riveted on his hand where the largest heart-shaped diamond she’d ever seen stood out sharply against the white skin of his palm. The band that held the diamond was thick, and glistened like only fine gold could. As she stared at the obviously precious ring, a desire to possess it—and all it represented—grew in her heart until she was almost bursting with the feeling.

  Yet she didn’t allow herself to take it from him. Sometimes safety was only an illusion.

  “I hope it’s not too big,” Damon said earnestly. His overlong hair had swept forward, making him seem younger than his thirty-eight years. “I know you’re not into showy things, but the heart shape was perfect, and
I didn’t want to wait for them to put in a smaller diamond. It’s only three carats, though, so it’s not unreasonably big . . . I hope. Oh . . .” His voice sounded frustrated. “This isn’t at all as romantic as I’d planned. I should have kept it in the bowl of grapes—would have if you’d come a little earlier . . . forget all that. Please, Kelle, I’ve been waiting to ask you for weeks—will you marry me?”

  He was so sincere and stared at her with so much love that the fear almost left.

  Almost.

  “I love you more than I’ve loved anyone,” he continued. “And I’ll do my best to take care of you and be a father to your boys. Everything I have is yours, not the least of which is my heart.”

  Mickelle’s heartbeat increased and her vision dimmed. The room seem to whirl as she struggled for breath. Fear loomed over her, as tangible as anything else in the room. A panic attack. She hadn’t experienced one of those for weeks—for nearly as long as she’d been dating Damon.

  She pulled from his grasp and backed away from the bed until she felt the solid wall behind her. “Damon,” she managed. “I—I’m sorry, but I can’t marry you!” Before he could demand a reason, she turned and fled from the room.

  * * *

  Damon looked from the closing door to the ring in his hand. Mickelle’s refusal had nothing to do with the size of the diamond, he knew, but with the fear showing so plainly in her eyes. It twisted his gut and made him ache to take away her pain. Not that she would let him any time soon. Worse, he felt her response would have been quite different, if he hadn’t been such a clumsy fool.

  A lovesick fool, he amended silently. That was good enough reason for him.

  He loved Mickelle, loved her every bit as deeply as he’d loved his wife, dead now these past two years from cancer. With Mickelle, he’d found the companionship and physical attraction he hadn’t known with a woman since Belle’s birth and Charlotte’s regression. While he still wondered what it might have been like for him and Charlotte under different circumstances, Mickelle had filled every remaining emptiness within his heart.