Miracle Road: Eternity Springs Book 7 (34 page)

James said, “Not a problem. I think you needed to pay attention to your angel.”

Lucca did, too, which was why he increased his speed, hoping to catch up with the school bus. Honestly, he wouldn’t rest easy until he saw Hope step into her house and shut the door.

He intended to have her leave the bus in Creede and ride home with them. His Range Rover handled the road much better than her bus. They could make the return trip over the pass without trouble as long as they attempted it in the next hour or so before the ice began to stick. Tomorrow, someone from Creede could drive the bus back and deal with their own broken one. The weather report called for sunshine and temperatures above freezing. Plus, the plows would be out. That should work.

“I see lights up ahead,” Tony said. “Doesn’t look like a car. Might be her.”

Lucca’s foot grew heavier on the gas, and within moments his headlights illuminated the familiar back end of the yellow school bus. “Thank God.”

He no sooner exhaled a relieved breath than he saw the lights of an oncoming vehicle and then a shadow cross in front of them. In seconds that seemed to take hours to pass, he watched the oncoming vehicle strike the shadow … and veer into the school bus.

It happened in an instant. Hope saw the elk, saw the oncoming truck strike the animal. When the truck headed her way, she knew a collision was coming and recognized it as unavoidable.

Thank God, the district had installed seat belts in this bus. Thank God, she’d made everybody buckle up. Grabbing hold tightly to the wheel, she prepared to put the lessons she’d learned in Texas to use.
Thank God for Lucca.

Control the crash, she told herself, and she turned the wheel just as the truck collided with her bus.

It seemed to happen in slow motion. She fought the wheel to keep the bus on the road, hearing the echo of Johnny Tarantino’s calm instructions all the while. Behind her, boys yelled in fear and panic, but she tuned them out, listing to Johnny talk in her memory. Just when she thought she had won—that she’d managed to keep the bus on the road—the truck that had hit them completed a spin by clipping them again. Momentum carried the school bus onto a bridge.

The front of the bus crashed through the guardrail. Hope felt herself fall forward, and in that instant, for the first time since the initial hit, bone-chilling fear washed through her. She didn’t recall this section of the road. This was a bridge over what?

Wham. Crash.
Forward movement came to an abrupt stop. Glass flew. Metal crunched. Hope slammed against the steering wheel, her seat belt and shoulder harness restraining her from falling into the broken windshield. When movement stopped, she hung suspended—cut, scraped, and bleeding—but alive.

Her first thought flashed through her mind.
The baby!

Sound that had seemed muffled during the wreck came roaring back. The boys were yelling, cursing, hollering for help. Even as she tried to rouse herself to full awareness of their situation, she heard the most miraculous sound.

Lucca called, “Hope! Hope! Are you okay? Answer me! Hope!”

How in the world?
“I’m okay. I’m all right. Boys? Is anyone hurt?”

“We’re okay, Coach,” one of them called. “We’re all okay.”

“Thank you, God,” she prayed as she became aware of flashlight beams and creaking hinges and men’s voices.

She attempted to look behind her and take stock, but she couldn’t see anything past her shoulder. All right, then. Think. The bus sloped downward, so it made sense that the back of the bus hadn’t left the bridge. She saw no water in front of her. They hadn’t landed in a river or creek. Maybe a dry gully only a short drop from the road. Again, she repeated, “Thank God.”

“Hold on, Hope,” Lucca said. “We’re coming. We’re going to help you.”

“Help the boys first. Get them out of the bus.”

“I’m on it,” James Preston called. “Don’t worry.”

Lucca said, “Hope? Are you hurt? Honey? Are you okay?”

She didn’t miss the panic in his voice, so she injected calmness into hers. “I’m fine, Lucca.”

But, was she fine? The seat belt went across her lap. She’d jerked against it hard.
Is the baby okay?

Now that the immediacy of the accident was behind her and there were others on the scene to take responsibility for her passengers, Hope was free to focus on what was happening inside her own body. Pain. Soreness. What else? Any cramping? Any fluid between her legs?
Dear God in Heaven, don’t let my baby be hurt.

Then, Lucca was beside her. He tested the handle that opened the door. It worked. She saw him—no, his brother, his twin—standing outside. Lucca said, “You made it down okay. Good. Which way will be easier to get her out?”

“This way,” Tony replied. “Hand her to me, bro.”

Lucca maneuvered to plant his feet against the console and dash. Then, tenderly, he touched Hope’s face. “All right, baby. Let’s get you out of here. Ready?”

She saw that fear filled his eyes. “Lucca? Don’t let me fall through the windshield.”

“I won’t let you fall. I’ll never let you fall.” Lucca released the seat belt catch and she slumped into his arms. “Gotcha. It’s good. Now, let’s get out of here.”

Stepping carefully, he moved toward the door where Tony stood reaching inside. Hope felt Tony Romano’s strong arms slip beneath her knees and around her shoulders, and Lucca released her into his brother’s care, then scrambled down beside her. “Here. I’ll take her.”

“I can walk,” Hope said. “Set me down.”

“Are you sure?”

“I think so.”

Carefully, he set her down. “Ankles okay?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let’s get you up out of this draw.”

It took only a couple of minutes for Hope to climb back onto the road. An ambulance and a sheriff’s department’s Range Rover arrived at the same time. Hope sighed with relief when she heard James Preston say, “We don’t need an ambulance here. The kids are all okay. No cuts or scrapes or anything.”

Zach all but flew out of the sheriff’s vehicle. “What have we got?”

Lucca carried Hope toward the ambulance, saying, “Hope needs medical attention.”

“I could use a hand from someone,” Tony called out, and Hope realized he was still in the gully. “Twisted my knee.”

“Damn,” Lucca muttered as Zach went to help his brother. Standing beside the emergency vehicle, Dr. Rose Anderson gestured for Lucca to place Hope on the stretcher. Speaking softly so that only Rose could hear, he said, “She’s pregnant.”

Rose stopped a moment, considering this new information. Then she nodded. “Okay,” Rose said. “Any pain, Hope?”

She opened her mouth to say no, but she started shaking, trembling like a tree in a gale. Rose called to Zach. “Any other transport needed?”

Zach looked at Tony who shook his head. Following a quick survey of the teens, he said, “We’re good, Rose.”

“Then let’s start back. Lie down, Hope. We’ll get a warm blanket around you.” The doctor and a tech moved her into the ambulance. Lucca started to climb in with her, but Rose placed her palm against his chest. “There’s no room for you back here.”

“I’m coming with her, Rose.”

“Ride up front, Lucca. I’ll take good care of her.”

Lucca hesitated a moment, then nodded. Soon, the ambulance began the drive back to Eternity Springs.

Rose put a blanket around her, but Hope continued to shake, her teeth chattering as she answered the physician’s questions. When she’d collected the information she required, Rose did a quick external exam and said, “We’ll give you a thorough exam when we reach the clinic, Hope, but based on where your bruising is located on your abdomen and in the absence of pain, I am confident that the accident did not hurt your baby. We’ll make sure, but I need you to try and relax, okay? I know it’s hard, and I know you’re scared. I want you to concentrate on deep breathing. You need to get that blood pressure down. Okay?”

Hope’s throat went tight and tears flooded her eyes. Rose gave her hand a comforting pat. “Relax. I will take excellent care of you and your baby. I’m a great doctor.”

Hope nodded, closed her eyes, and tried to relax. Instead, fears, doubts, and concerns came at her like bullets, tearing into her heart, ripping through her soul, messing with her mind. Echoes of her ex-husband’s accusations reverberated through her. As the ambulance began the climb up Sinner’s Prayer Pass, seeds of panic found fertile ground and began to sprout an unthinkable idea.

Lucca waited outside the examining room, angry and unhappy. The doctor wouldn’t let him in Hope’s room during the tests and examination. He wasn’t her husband. He had no right to be there. Hope, curse her, hadn’t asked Dr. Anderson to let him stay.

In fact, Hope hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t even looked him in the eyes.

She must be in shock. It was certainly understandable, and he wasn’t annoyed with her, just the situation. She was his love; this was his baby. He wanted to share his life with her, both the good times and the bad.

He needed to rethink this whole plenty-of-time business. Maybe once this crisis was behind them, he should put his effort into getting a wedding scheduled ASAP. He paced up and down the hallway in front of Hope’s room. Finally, the door opened and Dr. Anderson stepped outside. “Hope gave me permission to speak with you about her condition. She is fine,” she told him. “The baby is fine. She’s eleven weeks along. Almost through with her first trimester.”

“Oh,” he breathed, taking the news like a most welcome punch to the gut. “Oh. Good. That’s wonderful. That’s great news.” He fastened his gaze on the door. “Can I go in now?”

“Yes, but don’t stay long. She needs to rest. I’m going to keep her overnight just for observation.”

“Okay. Thanks, doctor.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome. And congratulations on the baby.”

His smile bloomed slowly and genuinely. This was a first. “Thank you. Um … Rose? No one knows. We haven’t said anything yet.”

“Doctor–patient,” she said. “I’m a vault, Lucca.”

He waited until she walked away, then he opened the door and stepped inside. Hope lay against white sheets dressed in a blue flower-print hospital gown, her head turned toward the window, where, outdoors, the sleet had turned to snow.

“Hey there,” he said, softly.

She didn’t look at him. “How is Tony?”

“Tony?”

“His knee. Is his knee okay?”

Oh. Lucca experienced a twinge of guilt. He hadn’t thought about Tony. “I don’t know. I haven’t checked to see if he’s come in. I’ve been worried about you.”

She closed her eyes. “Go see your brother. Go see your family.”

He crossed to her bed and sat on the foot of it. “I want you to be my family, Hope. I love you.”

She shook her head, slowly at first, then faster and faster and faster. “No, I can’t. I won’t.”

“Hope—”

“Stop it,” she interrupted, meeting his gaze for the first time, the look in her eyes that of a wounded warrior. “Just stop it. I can’t do this, Lucca. I can’t. But you can. You are such a good man. Such a smart man. The driving lesson … I knew what to do. I thought I knew before the lesson, but I didn’t. No telling what would have happened if I hadn’t had Johnny Tarantino’s voice murmuring in my ear. We weren’t hurt because of you, Lucca. You saved the team and me and this baby. You are a wonderful man and you will make a wonderful father.”

Okay. Why did he feel like another shoe was about to drop?

Because it was.

“I can’t do this. I can’t be responsible for destroying another child. I won’t do it. I won’t be part of this baby’s life. I know I must be for the next six months. I will care for him and for myself during the pregnancy, but once he’s born, if you want him, he is yours. I will give this baby to you.”

Lucca froze. “What? What are you talking about? Hope, don’t be ridiculous.”

She stared at him with brown eyes that reflected a timeless universe of misery. “I won’t be this baby’s mother. I won’t do that to him.”

She’d let her ex get to her. And the accident. These weren’t her true feelings. She’s overwrought. “You’re distraught. Now is not the time for this.”

“It’s the perfect time for this. I want you to leave, Lucca. Leave now and leave me alone. For your sake. You’ll be better off.”

“Dammit, Hope. I’m not going anywhere. I love you.”

She pressed the nurse’s call button, and when a woman answered, said, “I want Mr. Romano to leave my room, and he refuses to go. Will you call security, please?”

Lucca had a thousand pounds of torque in his jaw as he clenched his teeth. He knew she wasn’t thinking straight, but this had been a helluva long day for him, too. She was okay. The baby was okay. He needed a drink.

“Fine. I’m out of here. You call me in June when it’s time for me to pick up my child.”

He whirled around, charged out of her room, and marched down the hall, barreling toward the front door until he almost ran into a woman rushing in. “Lucca?” his mother said, her eyes going wide when she got a good look at his face. She clutched his arm. “What’s wrong? Tony? Is he hurt worse than they said?”

Lucca wanted to be ten years old again. He wanted to climb into her lap and let her hold him and rock him and comfort him.

The dam broke. “She’s pregnant, Mom. Hope is pregnant, and she just told me she doesn’t want anything to do with our baby. She doesn’t want me. She told me she was giving him to me and then walking away. We don’t even know if it’s a boy. She’s not even that far along and she’s making all these decisions. I know she has issues because of the kidnapping, but damn. I love her. Why doesn’t she want us? Why doesn’t she love us?”

Maggie Romano gazed up at her son, her expression filled with compassion and concern. “Oh, Lucca. I’m sure Hope doesn’t mean it. Her emotions must be a jumble right now.”

He didn’t want to hear his mother make excuses for the woman who had just plunged a knife into his heart. Suddenly, he was angry, as angry as he’d been in a very long time. She didn’t want him. She didn’t want to fight for him. For them. She was letting her past rule her present and her future, and he was tired of coming in second to the lost memories of a life she once had. “You know what? It’s okay. I’m done. I have my own demons to battle. If she doesn’t want help, doesn’t want me, well, fine. I’ll be okay without her. The baby and I will be just fine.”