Crazy Love - Krista & Chase (6 page)

The elevator doors opened and Krista moved across the hallway. She scanned her employee ID and the double doors leading to the wing she worked in opened.

“Krista.”

She heard her name from behind her and turned to see Chelle, who was married to her cousin Riley, rushing down the hall. Her pretty brown eyes were wide with concern as she said, “I just heard. How are you?”

Chelle was a labor and delivery nurse here at the hospital, and unlike her other cousin-in-law Jamie, Chelle had grown up in Harper’s Crossing and knew Chase and Krista’s past.

“Word sure spreads fast.” Krista figured that by the end of the day the entire hospital would be buzzing about the fact that Chase Malone was here. She just hadn’t thought it would happen less than ten minutes after she’d left him.

“Yeah, well, a few nurses saw him in with Abby and went all groupie-slash-fangirl on him. Jamie had to threaten to call security if they didn’t leave Abby’s room.”

Any energy Krista had drained completely from her body. She hadn’t even thought about the fact that now that Chase was here she would have to see his love life in 3D. It wouldn’t be on impersonal television screens or a flat piece of paper. It would be playing out live in Technicolor.

Chelle reached out and touched Krista’s arm. “Do you need to sit down?”

Her legs did feel like all the muscles in them had unionized and collectively decided to stop supporting her body, but she feared that if she sat down she might not be able to get back up.

“No, I have a patient waiting.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Chelle started walking with Krista towards the PT room. “I didn’t want to keep you. I just thought I should come over and see how you were.”

Krista looked at Chelle and shook her head slowly. “I honestly don’t know how I am.”

Chelle’s lips pursed, and she threw her arms around Krista and hugged her tight. “I’m here if you need
anything
.”

“Thanks.” Krista nodded against her shoulder.

Pulling back, Chelle squeezed Krista’s forearms before heading back down the hall.

Taking a deep breath, Krista pushed open the door and saw that her patient was already lying on the traction bed. “Good morning, Mr. Yates.”

“It’s good now, beautiful,” he said happily as he winked at her.

“You’re such a flirt,” Krista smiled, shaking her head as she moved across the room to the sink.

Mr. Yates wagged his bushy brows and his wrinkled face turned up into a smile.

“Have you been doing the exercises I showed you?” she asked as she turned the hot water knob to the left.

“Yep. I sure have.”

Krista would believe that after she saw what his range of mobility was. Mr. Yates was a retired car salesman, and she’d quickly found out that he liked to tell people what they wanted to hear with little regard for the actual truth.

After scrubbing her hands, she reached for the paper towel dispenser and caught her reflection in the mirror. She gasped at what she saw staring back at her. Not only was her hair haphazardly placed in a loose bun on top of her head with stray hairs flying every which way, but she had dark circles under her eyes, and since she wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup, there was nothing to conceal them. Her skin was pale and her lips looked chapped.

Oh. My. God.

This was what she’d looked like the first time she’d seen Chase in ten years?! No wonder he’d asked if she was okay and said that she looked tired. Sure, it had pissed her off at the time because everyone knew that it was just a nice way of saying that you looked like crap but now—
now
—she wasn’t mad at him at all.

Embarrassed? Yes. Mad? No.

“Everything all right over there?” Mr. Yates’s voice cut through her inner panic.

“Yep,” she said as she pulled her hair out of the bun and wrapped it in a tidier ponytail. At least her hair looked somewhat presentable.

Running her hands down the sides of her scrubs, she closed her eyes for a brief moment attempting to rein in all of the emotions zipping around inside of her like a game of pinball.

She could have her much-deserved nervous breakdown when she was off the clock. Right now, she needed to focus on work, not on Chase—or the fact that she had looked like a zombie for their reunion. Anyways, she was seeing someone, and if Us Weekly was correct, so was Chase, so it didn’t matter what he’d seen her looking like. Yeah, she believed that as much as she believed Mr. Yates had
actually
done his prescribed exercises.

This was turning out to be a very long day.

* * *

“So as far as her recovery goes, what are we looking at?” Chase asked Dr. Corbin, who he remembered from when he’d been in the hospital when his appendix had burst at the age of fifteen. Dr. Corbin had been a good doctor then and someone Chase felt comfortable with overseeing his mom’s care now.

“It really depends. Every patient is different. Things are looking good, but your mom will, in all likelihood, need physical therapy a few times a week even after she is released from the hospital, depending on her mobility. We should know more in a few days.”

Chase nodded. He knew that Krista was a physical therapist here at the hospital. Not only had his mom told him in voicemail messages, but he had a fake Facebook account he’d friend requested her on and she’d accepted. He did feel a little creepy about it, but he couldn’t have an account in his real name. And he got to keep up on what was going on in her life. Plus, it wasn’t like anyone had forced her to accept the friend request from Donald Smith (his FB alias). She’d done that all on her own. Still, he had to admit that his actions had landed him smack dab in the middle of stalker territory.

“It’s a good thing that Krista found her when she did. The longer a patient is unconscious, the less chance there is for a full recovery.” Dr. Corbin set down his mom’s chart and turned towards the door.

“Wait. Krista found her?” Chase asked. He thought about what Krista’s message had said.
“Your mom is headed to the hospital. I am going to take care of Bear and then be right behind her.”
He guessed he should have figured that out from the message, but he hadn’t put two and two together.

“Yes, she did. She is quite a young lady, that Krista Sloan,” Dr. Corbin said in a fatherly tone that reminded Chase of the dad on
My Three Sons
.

When Chase was growing up, his mom had loved that show, and whenever reruns had come on, she’d watch them and laugh. He remembered it so well because laughter in the Malone house was a rarity.

Chase nodded in agreement with Dr. Corbin’s assessment. “Yes she is.”

As the doctor made his way out of the room, Tully rushed in. Chase knew what Tully was going to say before he even had a chance to get the words out.

“We have a situation,” Tully said, his voice strained.

“People know I’m here,” Chase sighed.

Tully nodded.

“How many?” Chase knew that this was the price of fame. He hated it when other stars whined about things like privacy. But at times like these, it was difficult not to feel a little frustrated.

“A few hundred. The hospital is keeping them out, but they are gathered around the main and emergency room entrances. Chip pulled the bus around to the doctor’s parking lot, which you can’t enter without an ID card, but I don’t know how much time that will buy us.”

Chase had wanted to stay until his mom woke up, but Dr. Corbin had just assured him that it could be hours before that happened. He should probably head out of here before he caused more of a commotion.

“Let’s go,” he said, tilting his head towards the door. As he stood to leave, he paused at his mom’s bedside. Leaning down, he quietly spoke to her, “I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow.”

He didn’t know if he was just imagining it, but he swore he saw her eyelids flutter at his words.

As they stepped out into the hall, Tully said, “I’ve already been in contact with hospital administration. They’ve apologized profusely for the behavior of the two nurses earlier and said that they should have a system in place to assure not only your privacy but your mother’s as well by tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Chase followed Tully to what looked to be a service elevator.

They moved inside and Tully reached up and tugged on the leather strap, pulling down the door. “I knew I should have contacted them last night. If I had, then the incident with those nurses would never have happened.”

“It’s fine, Tully.”

The girls hadn’t really done any damage. Yes, they’d cried and screamed, but he was used to that. He’d only been concerned that they would disturb his mom, but she’d slept through the entire thing. The person he actually felt deserved an apology was Jamie. She’d gone above and beyond her duties to get the nurses to leave the room.

When the elevator stopped, Tully pulled up the strap and he and Chase exited the elevator into a room filled with industrial-sized washers and dryers. It looked like a Laundromat on steroids. The air was hot and stifling. They quickly made their way to a door in the back corner, and when they opened it, Chase saw his bus parked about a yard away.

“Marcus wants to know how long you plan on being here and I need to give the magazine a location for the shoot Saturday,” his assistant rattled off.

Damn
. Chase had completely forgotten about the
Hits
magazine shoot and interview. “See if we can postpone,” Chase said as he climbed up into the bus.

“How’s your moms feelin’?” Chip asked, cigar hanging from his lips, fedora tilted on his head.

“Doctor said she has a good shot at a full recovery.”

“Good. My old man had a stroke and came back stronger than ever. If she’s a fighter, she’ll be just fine.” He nodded as the engine of the bus roared to life.

Well, she wasn’t a fighter, but Chase hoped that she would still be fine.

“Where we headed?” Chip asked as his hand hovered over the GPS.

“3902 Crescent Drive.”

Chase was going home.

K
rista pulled into her driveway and slumped her head over her steering wheel. She wasn’t even sure if she had enough energy to walk the short distance required to make it inside of her house. She wanted to take a bath and go to bed.

Her sister Haley’s car was in the driveway, but
fingers crossed,
Haley would be across the street with her fiancé and her soon-to-be stepdaughter. Her two younger sisters Jessie and Becca were both staying with Krista and Haley at the moment, but Krista was hoping that either they weren’t home or at least, she could slip in unnoticed and make it upstairs before any questions were asked. She loved her sisters. She really did. But sometimes it felt like standing in front of a firing squad when they sniffed the blood of a juicy story, and Chase coming home was definitely a juicy story.

As she stepped onto the hard concrete of the driveway, Krista’s bones ached. With every step she took, her body reminded her of the workout she’d put it through during Mr. Yates’s session. As suspected, he’d had extremely limited mobility, which pointed to the conclusion that he had not been doing his prescribed exercises. So Krista had put him through the paces. Sometimes she wished that she could go home with her patients and force them to follow the protocol she’d laid out for them, because if they did, their results would be so much better so much faster.

Sighing as she put her key in the front door, she knew that she had to accept that she couldn’t will her patients to want recovery and results. Her job was to give them the best shot at it, but she couldn’t do it for them. Which was extremely frustrating for someone with Krista’s personality. If she set her mind to something, she made it happen. It didn’t matter what she had to sacrifice, what she had to endure, what she had to deprive herself of—results were all she cared about.

As soon as she entered her house, she was met with a large flash of brown fur and found herself knocked flat on her butt. Lifting her hand and trying to move away from the tongue bath she was receiving, Krista couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hi, Bear. Did you miss me?”