A Heart Decision (4 page)

Ben shoved him in the shoulder. “What’re you looking
so smug about?”

“Nothing. I’m just—”

A loud squeal of skidding tires sliced the air a
split second before a child screamed. Luke catapulted from his
chair and sprinted toward the front of the house. Sabrina handed
the puppy to Mandy and dashed after him, her pulse pounding in her
ears.

A tan minivan sat in the middle of the road. A
little girl lay sprawled on her back in the street. A portly,
gray-haired man bent over the child, his face twisted in
anguish.

“When the wee lassie’s ball rolled out in front of
me, I did me best to stop,” the man explained in a thick Scottish
brogue.

The smell of burnt rubber and the skid marks behind
the van testified to the fellow’s claim.

“We understand, Mr. uhh....”

“McKinnon. Innes McKinnon.”

“Somebody get a blanket and call 911,” Luke
shouted

“I feel terrible, the old man said. “I have a
granddaughter not much older than this sweet lassie.”

“Accidents happen.” Luke scanned the people gathered
at the curb. “Where’s Sabrina?”

She pushed her way through the crowd. “I’m right
here.” She dropped to her knees and pressed two fingers to the
child’s neck, holding her breath until she found a strong pulse.
She, then, pulled up the unconscious little girl’s eyelids. “Her
pupils are even, but at the very least, she probably has a
concussion.”

Adam Chase knelt beside her. “Her labored breathing
suggests she may have a broken rib or a punctured lung.”

Mr. McKinnon released a tortured groan.

“Whose kid is she?” Luke hollered.

Long russet waves streamed behind a woman who had
bolted out of the house across the street, sobbing. “Oh, my God,
Jillian! She’s mine. I’m Mary Cooper.”

Luke held the woman back as she lunged for her
daughter. “No. We don’t want you to move her, Mrs. Cooper. I’m a
police officer,”—he gestured toward Adam and Sabrina—“and this
gentleman and lady are a doctor and a nurse.”

“She’s only six. Please help her,” Mrs. Cooper
pleaded.

Annie handed Luke a quilt. “I called for an
ambulance. The squad is out on another emergency, so they’re
scrambling a team from another town. It’ll be at least twenty
minutes before they get here.”

“Oh, no.” The child’s mother wrung her hands. “We
could be at the hospital by then. Can’t we take her?”

Luke looked at Adam. “What do you think, Doc?”

“If we secure her to something flat, and I come with
you, I don’t see a problem.”

“You can use Annie’s Navigator,” Tyler suggested. “I
took it to pick up a new lawnmower yesterday, and the rear seats
are still stowed.”

“Good plan.” Luke covered Jillian and glanced over
at Tyler. “You got anything flat and rigid enough to use as a
backboard?”

“How about one of the kids’ boogie boards?”

Nodding, Luke barked out a string of orders, “Noah,
go get one of the boards. Annie, get me a bunch of dishtowels.
Tyler, find some duct tape.”

“How can I help,” Ben asked.

“Get Annie’s keys and pull the Navigator out of the
garage.”

A silver-haired woman hurried down the sidewalk with
a portable canister of oxygen under her arm. “My husband has
emphysema. We thought this might help. It’s one of his spares.”

“Thank you, ma’am, it will,” Adam told her.

Sabrina took the tank from the woman and turned the
nozzle on before fitting the plastic tubing to the child’s face and
pressing it to her nose. By the time she finished, Noah had
returned with the Styrofoam raft.

She silently prayed the child would regain
consciousness as she and Adam transferred her onto the makeshift
backboard, padding and immobilizing her head and neck with the
towels and duct tape.

As they carefully loaded the child into the rear of
Annie’s SUV, a police cruiser rolled up. Luke explained the
situation to John Gilbert, Redemption’s police chief, and requested
an escort.

When they were ready to roll, Sabrina and Adam
climbed in back with Jillian.

“You ride up front, Mrs. Cooper,” Luke called as he
carefully closed the rear of the SUV.

“But my husband is—”

“He can follow in your car or one of the neighbors
can drive him.” As Luke slid behind the wheel and started the
engine, the cop’s radio squawked as Chief Gilbert called dispatch
to inform the hospital they were en route and cancel the request
for an ambulance. He told Mr. McKinnon another officer was on his
way to take his statement.

Before Luke even pulled out of the subdivision
behind the police car’s flashing lights, Jillian stirred. Sabrina
heaved a relieved sigh. “She’s coming around.”

“That’s a good sign, right?” Mrs. Cooper asked,
panic rising in her voice.

“It’s a very good sign,” Adam said.

Luke winked at Sabrina in the rearview mirror. “Your
daughter has an excellent nurse, so relax. If you’re upset, Jillian
will be, too.”

Sabrina hated to think how everyone would’ve handled
the crisis if Luke hadn’t been there. His levelheaded, take-charge
demeanor stirred her nesting instincts and made him seem even more
desirable as a mate.

When the little girl began to cry, Sabrina stroked
her cheek to keep her calm. “I know it hurts to breathe and your
head aches, sweetie. Try to take little, baby breaths. We’ll be
there any second.”

She sang to the child while the police siren blared
ahead of them, allowing Luke to make the normally twenty-minute
trip in slightly more than ten.

Blessedly, when they pulled in at the emergency
entrance, the trauma team was waiting outside. David Lambert, a
pediatrician Sabrina knew well, took charge.

While Luke gave him the rundown on what had
happened, the team quickly transferred the boogie board onto the
hospital’s gurney. Mrs. Cooper squeezed Sabrina’s hand. “I don’t
know how I can ever thank the three of you.”

“You don’t have to. We just want Jillian to be
okay,” Sabrina assured her. “She’ll be in good hands with Dr.
Lambert.”

“I know. He’s Jillian’s doctor, and he’s wonderful
with her.”

Adam offered Mrs. Cooper his arm as they followed
the gurney into the hospital. “I’ll sit with you until your husband
gets here.”

“You two might as well go back to your party,” Chief
Gilbert told them. “I’ll give Dr. Chase a ride back when he’s
ready.”

“Thanks.” Sabrina waved and turned back to Luke,
catching a pretty triage nurse giving him the eye over her
shoulder. The petite woman was exactly the type Luke had always
dated—
everything Sabrina wasn’t
.

She couldn’t recall him ever getting involved with a
blond. His tiny dates all had dark hair and eyes and boobs big
enough to serve as personal airbags in a car crash.

Aside from the requisite centerfold breasts,
Sabrina’s sister-in-law exemplified Luke’s taste in women. When
they’d met the previous fall, his teasing threats to steal Annie
from Tyler had made Sabrina insanely jealous.

As the busty Florence Nightingale hurried inside
after the rest of the trauma team, Luke slung his arm around
Sabrina’s shoulder. “Maybe we should start an ambulance service
together?”

Being rescue buddies wasn’t at all the kind of
partnership she wanted with him. She turned into his chest and
buried her face in his knit shirt. The overpowering smell of
laundry soap masked his usual masculine scent. Someone needed to
teach the idiot not to put so much detergent in his wash.

“Truthfully, working at the hospital was less
stressful. I don’t think I could handle this much excitement every
day. I have no idea how you do it.”

“You get used to it.” Luke wrapped his muscular arms
around her and pressed his cheek to the top of her head.

“I guess it’s easier for an adrenaline junkie,
huh?”

“Mmm....” He rubbed his face in her hair and
whispered, “You were great with Jillian, Princess.”

Taking care of the little girl had only driven home
how much she missed caring for sick and injured patients. This past
year, working as a school nurse and then at a summer camp, treating
mostly healthy children, had been much less rewarding.

As he stroked her back and shoulders, left bare by
her sundress, a warm shiver tingled down her spine. Every inch of
flesh he caressed begged for him to touch her like that all
over.

The orange sun dipped below the horizon, painting
the sky a wide spectrum of pinks and lavender. Endless seconds
ticked by while they stood outside the emergency room, bathed in
the glowing sunset, locked in a less-than-platonic embrace.

Ben had been right. Before she could marry him, she
needed to tell Luke how she felt. If there was ever a perfect time
to do it, it was now.

Unfortunately, the words stuck in her throat like a
thick glob of ketchup refusing to budge from the neck of its
bottle. If she couldn’t verbalize her feelings, at the very least,
she needed to show him. She drew back a few inches and slid her
palms up his hard chest while each muscle she grazed rippled under
her fingers.

Winding her arms around his neck, she stared into
the depths of his dark eyes for several breathless heartbeats. Her
stomach flip-flopped at the intense desire flaring in his
half-lidded gaze. He dropped his arms to his side and squeezed his
eyes shut. “Brina, please.”

“Please what?” she whispered.

His sexy bedroom eyes popped opened and stared down
at her with a helpless expression.

Standing on tiptoe, she pressed her mouth up to his.
He stiffened and remained as unflinching as a Buckingham Palace
guard. The tension in his body proclaimed his hesitation to let her
kiss him, but the hard shaft pressing into her belly told her he
also didn’t want her to stop.

As she traced the crease between his lips with her
tongue, heat spread through her like liquid fire. She wanted him so
much.

His breath hitched in his chest as his mouth
relaxed, giving her access to its inner recesses. A millimeter at a
time, his head gradually dipped, allowing her to maintain contact
with his lips without stretching so far.

Her nipples puckered into two tight nubs against his
heaving ribs. If only she felt this way when Ben kissed her....or,
for that matter, when
any
other guy kissed her. She flicked
her tongue between Luke’s lips in a seductive invitation, receiving
only a sharp intake of air from him in response. He stood
motionless, letting her enjoy the luscious taste of the chocolate
after-dinner mints he’d eaten.

His refusal to respond didn’t surprise her. She was
engaged to one of his best friends—a man to whom he owed a great
deal. If nothing else could be said about Luke, he was intensely
loyal.

He could’ve pushed her away—
yet he
hadn’t
.

His erratic breaths and fierce trembling suggested
he ached to return her kiss—
but he didn’t
.

The contradictory nature of his actions said he must
be torn between wanting her and remaining true to his friend. And
if he gave in to the passion between them....
he
wouldn’t
.

What kind of woman tempted such an honorable man to
betray every principle he possessed? She was pathetic—and deeply,
passionately in love with Luke Marino.

~*~

Please, please don’t let her stop
. He wanted
this moment to last forever—or at least another few moments. As
Sabrina’s hands moved over his chest and shoulders, Luke groaned
inwardly and dug his fingernails into his palms, reminding himself
to keep his paws to himself.

Damn she tasted good. Better than he ever dreamed.
And the skin on her back had been so smooth—silkier than any other
woman’s.

The pressure in his groin intensified, urging his
hips to press into her soft belly. He ached to push her into the
back of the SUV, strip off her panties, and take her right there in
the parking lot in broad daylight. He wouldn’t care if the whole
damn hospital watched.

If he had even a speck of honor, he’d stop her
before this went any further.

Luckily, he didn’t have to. As she stepped away, it
took every bit of his willpower not to yank her back against him
and ravage her. He never should’ve put his arms around her to
comfort her.

Sabrina cupped his cheek in her palm and caressed
his jaw. “Oh, Luke, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

He sucked in a giant breath, trying to slow his
breathing and heart rate. “You’re damn straight you shouldn’t
have.” Turning away, he stared at the ground. “But worse than that,
I should’ve stopped you.”

“So why didn’t you?”

What could he tell her? That he’d spent every moment
of his adult life dreaming of doing a lot more than just kissing
her?

As a teenager, he’d loved her hero worship and felt
as fiercely protective of her as he had his own sisters. But, then,
his freshman year in college, everything changed.

When he came home for Christmas, after not seeing
Sabrina since summer, the spunky little girl he’d always had a soft
spot for had transformed into a long-legged hottie with dangerous
curves.

His sudden longing for his best friend’s younger
sister suggested he might be an even bigger deviant than his father
had accused him of being the night before he died—only a few weeks
shy of Luke’s fourteenth birthday.

He was no damn good and didn’t deserve someone as
sweet and pure as Sabrina. But knowing that still hadn’t kept him
from wanting her.

She tugged on his chin and turned his face toward
her, yanking him back to the present. “Well? Why didn’t you stop me
from kissing you?”

“Because I’m a bastard. I should have the crap
kicked out of me for letting my hormones talk me into betraying a
man I care about as much as one of my brothers.”

“You’re going to blame this on hormones?” Tears
shimmered in her eyes. Obviously, she wanted him to admit something
he didn’t dare put into words.