Forever Together (27 page)

Rachel glanced toward the door leading into
the hallway. “Do you want to sit down? Kate shouldn’t be too much
longer.”

Dan put the corsage on the table and sat on
one of the sofas. He wondered how long it took a woman to put on a
pair of stockings. Then thought about how long it took to take them
off. Which wasn’t helpful when he was on the edge of something that
could change his life forever.

“I’m sorry I’m late.”

Kate stood in the doorway and his heart
dropped to the soles of his shoes. She was beautiful. His breath
caught in his
throat,
made him
dizzy with longing for something just out of reach, something he’d
never felt, never thought he deserved.

“Do you like my dress?”

She spun in a circle, the midnight blue
fabric floating around her body like a soft cloud. She’d pulled her
hair into a fancy knot on the top of her head. Wispy bits drifted
around her shoulders, sitting
against
the edge of the black lace covering her
shoulders.

He stood, picked up the corsage and walked
toward her. “You’re beautiful.”

Kate’s cheeks turned pink and Emily, Rachel,
and Tess sighed.

He held Kate’s hand and slipped the corsage
over her wrist. Her blue eyes were shining with excitement and
something more, drawing him to her, pulling him close.

“Wait,” Tess cried. “I’ve got to get a
photo.” She lifted an orange bag off the sofa and rummaged around
inside. “I know it’s in here somewhere.”

“I brought mine if you can’t find yours.”
Emily disappeared into the hallway and Dan sighed. It was going to
be a long night.

“Found it,” Tess yelled.

Before he knew it, Tess had the camera turned
on and was happily snapping away when Emily joined her.

“We need to get a group shot as well.” Tess
huddled everyone together, put the camera on a bookcase, and rushed
back to her place in the lineup. “It’ll take the shot when the
light stops blinking.”

Watching them smile at the blinking camera
would have been funny if he hadn’t been so nervous. He wished like
crazy the shot was over so he could take Kate to the prom.

The flash blinded him, not once, but twice
and everyone seemed happy.

Rachel, Tess, and Emily lined up for last
minute hugs, waved from the sidewalk, and left them to the rest of
the night.

He glanced across at Kate, not knowing what
to say.

She smiled back. “Have we got time to see
Kaylee? I promised we’d go and see her before the prom.”

Dan glanced in the rear view mirror and
changed lanes. “She keeps reminding me not to forget to see her,
too. Bozeman Deaconess Hospital it is.”

Kate sighed and he thought tonight might not
be so bad after all.

***

As they drove across to the hospital, Kate
held her hands on her lap. She didn’t want to fidget, didn’t want
Dan to know she was scared out of her skin. Going to a high school
prom for most twenty-eight-year-olds wouldn’t be such a big deal.
But for her it brought back so many unhappy memories. She felt as
though she was passing a turning point in her life. A rite of
passage that had been so long in coming.

And Dan…he’d made her stumble, trip over
everything she’d practiced saying. He looked so handsome, so drop
dead gorgeous that she couldn’t believe he was hers. For one
night,
she could pretend this was
the start of something special, something she’d never thought would
happen to her.

“It’s a good night for the prom.” Dan’s voice
sounded strained.

She gazed at the sky, still bathed in a pink
and purple glow as the sun set on another day. “Have you got extra
Police Officers working tonight?”

Dan nodded. “We put another three teams on
duty. The school’s got a strict plan in place for the After Prom
party, but we want to make sure the kids are safe.”

They passed The Beauty Box, took a
right-hand
turn toward the
hospital. Kate adjusted her seatbelt, wondered if Anna and Tom were
with Kaylee or heading across to the prom.

“Here we are.” Dan pulled into a parking
space and turned off the ignition.

She unclipped her seatbelt and gathered up
the skirt of her dress.

“Wait there.”

He jumped out of the truck and came around to
her side of the vehicle, opening the door for her. “Do you need
help?”

“I should be fine. I’m just not used to
wearing a
full-length
dress.” Or
shoes with four inch heels and straps so fine that they were hardly
there, and a man that made her heart race.

He held her arm as she slipped out of the
truck. He was close, so close that she could smell his aftershave.
She inhaled the essence of him, the strength, the kindness, and the
humor.

“Dan I…” She reached up, ran her hands along
the lapel of his tuxedo and smiled. “You look wonderful. Thank you
for inviting me to the prom.” She kissed his cheek and he blushed.
“You’re a special man.”

Dan’s arms wrapped around her waist, pulled
her close, and kissed her with such tenderness that Kate
melted.

A horn honked behind them. Kate jumped and
the truck kept moving. “I guess we’d better go and see Kaylee,” she
whispered.

Dan looked just as unsteady as she felt. He
held her hand, kissed her knuckles. “Let’s go, Cinderella.”

Kate laughed at the wicked smile on his face.
“Does this mean I’ll be home by midnight?”

“We’ll be doing something by midnight,” Dan
whispered.

Kate wanted to wrap him in her arms now, take
him home and show him just how creative Cinderella could be. But
Emily, Rachel, and Tess would be at the apartment. They’d be
toasting her transformation. Waiting to hear what had happened at
the prom.

“I’ll just get something off the back seat.”
Dan quickly kissed her on the lips, then opened the passenger door
of the truck.

He picked up a pink box no bigger than his
palm and locked the truck. “Let’s go.”

They walked toward the entrance of the
hospital. Kate felt like a giddy teenager, drunk on too many
hormones and the man beside her.

When they reached the Intensive Care Unit,
Kaylee was sitting up in bed, reading a book.

Dan tapped on the glass wall and waved at
Kaylee while they were putting on their masks.

“Uncle Dan and Kate.” She was so excited it
was a wonder she didn’t leap off the bed and hug them close. “You
both look beautiful.” Her voice was so soft and wistful that it
made Kate smile.

Dan pulled the pink box out from behind his
back. “We’ve got something for you.”

“For me?” Kaylee opened the box and sighed.
“Flowers.”

“Not just any flowers,” Dan said. “It’s a
corsage. When a boy likes a girl he gives her a corsage when he
takes her to her prom.”

He glanced at Kate and she felt herself
blush.

Dan lifted the soft pink roses out of the box
and slipped them onto Kaylee’s wrist. “When you’re older you can
save me a dance at your prom.”

Kaylee smiled and sniffed the roses. “They
smell sweet. Like cotton candy. What do your roses smell like
Kate?”

Kate sniffed her corsage and grinned. “Like
apple cider.” She held her wrist up to Kaylee’s nose.

“Yep. Just like mom’s apple cider.”

Dan left the pink box beside Kaylee’s Lego
town. “Have your mom and dad been in tonight, Kaylee?”

“They left a few minutes ago. Mom looks
pretty, too. I’ve got a photo if you want to see it?”

She reached across to her bedside table and
opened the top drawer. “Mom bought me a camera the other day. I’m
going to make a story about my time in the hospital.” She flicked
through the images on the camera and smiled at one. “Here’s Doctor
T with Toby. They made a hospital out of Lego bricks.”

She turned the camera around and showed them
a picture of Doctor T and Toby, heads bent, staring intently at a
red brick building.

“Here’s mom,” Kaylee said proudly. “Doesn’t
she look pretty in her sparkly dress?”

Anna did look pretty. Even with her face mask
on, she was smiling into the camera, laughing at something Kaylee
would remember.

“I wish I
was
going with you,” Kaylee said.

Dan sat on the edge of his niece’s bed. “When
you’re all better we’ll get dressed up again and go out somewhere
special. Anywhere you want to go. How does that sound?”

“Anywhere?”

“Anywhere. You can choose.”

Kaylee thought about what Dan had said and
nodded. “Okay. Can Toby come too?”

“Of course. I don’t think he’d want us to go
without him.” Dan kissed the side of her face. “We’ve got to go
now, but we’ll be back tomorrow.”

“I need a photo.” Kaylee picked up her camera
and turned it on. “Stand beside Kate, Uncle Dan. Smile.”

Kate and Dan smiled into the camera and
Kaylee took the shot. “Mom’s going to take photos of the prom and
show me tomorrow.”

Dan kept hold of Kate’s hand, stroking his
thumb along her skin. “Sounds like you’ll be busy.”

Kate tried to wiggle her fingers free, but
Dan held tight. There had to be a rule somewhere that said you
weren’t supposed to get turned on by a handsome man in an Intensive
Care Unit. But if there was, Dan hadn’t heard about it.

He kept stroking her skin until Kate looked
in his laughing blue eyes. She imagined telling him exactly what
she wanted him to do with his hands. The stroking stopped and the
heat in his eyes turned into
pure
need.

Dan kept hold of Kate’s hand and turned to
Kaylee. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

And before Kate could count to ten they were
out of Kaylee’s room and heading toward the elevator.

“I don’t know if the prom was such a good
idea,” Dan muttered as he jabbed the button on the control
panel.

“Why’s that?”

The elevator doors opened and Dan pulled her
inside. “Because of this.” And he kissed her, kissed her until fire
raced in her blood and her heart felt as though it would burst into
flames.

When they reached the ground floor, Kate
stumbled out of the elevator. She thanked her lucky stars no one
was standing in the corridor waiting for the hormonal couple to
unlock their lips.

She glanced across at Dan and wished she
hadn’t. He looked adorably cute with his tussled hair and totally
kissed lips. So adorable that she wanted to ride the elevator
again, just to see how kissable his lips were the second time
around.

“Don’t even think about it,” Dan groaned.
“We’ll get arrested.”

Kate straightened the bodice of her gown and
smiled. Lord only knew what would have happened if they’d been more
than three stories high.

***

Dan had never been the type of guy to get
mushy over a woman. He put that down to a good dose of common
sense. But it probably had more to do with a shortage of women who
wanted to date a man with serious trust issues.

As Kate danced with a teenage boy, he
realized how mushy he’d become. He liked the mush so much that
by his reckoning
he was in over
his head.

“Kate looks as though she’s enjoying
herself.” Tom watched his daughter waltz across the room, laughing
at the antics of her besotted dance partner.

“That’s the kid’s third dance with her.
Anyone would think he’s a junior Fred Astaire the way he’s moving
on the floor.”

“Do I hear a touch of jealousy?”

“Who me?” Dan tried to keep his voice light,
but he was having serious concerns about Kate. She’d flirted with
every man in the room. And then there were the extra things she’d
agreed to. Being one of the prizes in the prom auction was asking
for trouble and what she’d do on that date was bugging him.

Organizing a makeup class for a group of
girls wasn’t so bad. But when Kaylee’s teacher had introduced
himself to Kate, she’d agreed to go and speak to his class. It was
almost a date, for Pete’s sake. And what Dan wanted to know was why
Kaylee’s teacher had been at the high school prom in the first
place.

“Why don’t you go and cut in. The boy’s not
going to say no to the Deputy Chief of Police.”

Tom’s reasoning made perfect sense. Except
Dan had two left feet and Kate looked as though she was enjoying
dancing with someone who didn’t step on her toes. He turned away
from watching Kate, expecting to see Anna beside Tom.

“Where’s my sister?”

Tom nodded to the opposite side of the dance
floor. “Seems like there’s something in the water. Anna hasn’t
stopped dancing since we got here and it hasn’t been with me.”

“Do you think we smell?”

Tom laughed. “Not unless you’ve been rolling
in the hay.”

Dan’s collar suddenly felt tight. His gaze
shot back to the dance floor and landed on Fred Astaire dipping
Kate toward the floor like a watering can.

“Is there something you’re not telling me?”
Tom asked.

Dan didn’t think Kate’s dad would want to
know what had happened in the elevator, or in the truck on the way
over, or in the parking lot before they’d made it inside. Kate had
developed tentacles for hands and they’d been all over him. And
he’d liked it. Liked it too damn much. Especially when she’d
whispered things in his ear that would have made Tom’s shotgun fire
in his direction.

“How was Kaylee when you saw her?”

Tom gave him a withering glance. “About the
same as when you saw her ten minutes later.”

Dan frowned as one song merged into another
and Fred Astaire was replaced by another dancing Romeo. “It’s not
my fault, you know.”

“What’s not your fault?” Tom asked.

“Kate. I love her.”

Tom nearly dropped his glass of juice. “You
what?”

Dan gave up keeping an eye on Kate and turned
to Tom. “I love her. I
don’t
know
when it happened or why it happened, but it’s there all the
same.”