Stacking the Deck (A Betting on Romance Novel Book 2) (39 page)

“Liz!” He hollered again, as she tried to drown him with the hose. “Get inside!
Now!”

“But—”

“
Inside!
”

More fireworks exploded in a shower of sparks nearby, and he heard a scream from the driveway. He turned to grab Liz, but she tripped and pitched forward, falling hard to the ground in front of him.

Carter threw his body over hers to shield her at the same moment the shed exploded like a sonic boom.

His heart pounding in his ears, he let his face sink into Liz’s hair and waited for the sirens.

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
____________________

“S
HE’S AWAKE.”

Liz heard the whispered words somewhere outside the drumming fog in her head. Her forehead throbbed, and when she tried to open her eyes, her right eye, in particular, stubbornly refused.

“She’ll sport quite a shiner.”

That was Aunt Claire. Liz recognized the gravely dead-pan tone, although the slight hitch at the end was unusual.

“Liz? Can you hear me? It’s Trish.”

A hand covered hers. Liz soaked in its warmth. She tried to open her eyes again. “Anyone catch… license…  of the truck… ran me over?” she mumbled.

Her voice felt disused, raspy, and she scowled, or tried to, as the air filled with relieved, low chuckles.

“No. No one else to blame for this one,” said Aunt Claire. “For such a smart girl, you’d think you’d know enough to break a fall with your hands, not your face.” She was cracking a joke, but you could hear the underlying concern in her no-nonsense voice.

Slowly, as the fog began to dissipate, Liz focused her left eye on the people huddling over her. She struggled to sit up.

“
Easy
,” Carter said, holding an arm behind her to steady her.

Carter?

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Bailey demanded, shoving her hand in front of Liz’s face.

“Three… Plus a Snickers.”

“She’s okay, folks!” Bailey announced. “She’s okay!”

“I don’t feel okay,” Liz said. “My eye—”

“Here’s a boo-boo pack,” Ben said, thrusting a bag of frozen vegetables at her. “For your eye.”

“Thanks.” Liz held the vegetables to her face, wincing as she did so. “What happened?”

“Your brother had some fireworks stored in the shed. Somehow a fire started and set them off,” said Carter.

Liz rolled her eyes and then instantly regretted the motion. “Lovely,” she murmured behind the peas. “Some people never learn.”

Her brain hurt. Among many other parts of her. “How did he get in the shed? I locked it…”

“He took the key from your purse.”

Jeff Dayton knelt beside her. “We’d like to take you to Sugar Falls General if you don’t mind, just to get you checked out. Or, rather, the lady in the iPad told me that’s what we’d like to do.”

“Oh. Sure. All right.” Liz made as if to stand, but was held in place by a rock-solid forearm.

“She needs a gurney,” she heard Carter say. “She’s not walking anywhere until a doctor says she can.”

“I’m—” she began and then saw Carter’s face. “I’m sure that’s wise,” she murmured.

Soon, the paramedics moved her onto a gurney, wheeled her toward the ambulance and lifted her in.

“Oh, Jesus.” Valerie sat on one of the seats in the ambulance already, a bloody bandage held to her wrist. “Are you serious? I have to ride with
her
?”

Liz would have turned her head away except they’d immobilized her head for the trip. “The other ambulances are out on calls. It’s less than ten minutes away, Val.”

Val winced, looking a little pasty under her tan. “Fine.”

T
HEY DROVE TO THE HOSPITAL—a caravan of cars, trucks and one ambulance—as the fire department put out the last of the smoldering embers back at the house.

The paramedics unloaded Liz and wheeled her toward the E.R. entrance. John’s car squealed to a stop behind them. He leapt out as Valerie was being helped from the ambulance and onto a second gurney.

“Val? Why are you on a gurney?
Why is she on a gurney?”
John demanded.

“I got dizzy,” she said.

“Dizzy? Oh God, Val!
Babes!
” John grasped her hand, squeezed it and jogged next to her as they rolled the women into the E.R. “I’m sorry!
So sorry!”

“You should be. What were you thinking?” Valerie winced. She held up her left arm and instructed the male nurse who was trying to help her with the admission paperwork to snap to it and fetch her a hospital gown so she wouldn’t bleed all over her good blouse.

“I was thinking I needed to do something big… to win you back.”

“So you blew up my hand?”

“You’ll be all right, Miss,” said the nurse, smoothing a hospital gown across her.

“Who asked you?”

“Don’t move your head, ma’am,” a paramedic warned Liz as she craned to see what was going on.

“
Shh!”
she told him.

“It was going to be a big display over at the lake,” John continued. “Big enough for the whole town to see… big enough for
you
to see how much I want you in my life.”

Valerie’s eyes grew watery. “Shut up. You don’t.”

“I do! And, I don’t care anymore what you think your chances are with Dan. I won’t let you go back to him. He had his chance with you and he blew it. It’s my turn now.”

Val murmured her address and phone number for the nurse to write on his clipboard. “What do you mean, it’s your turn?”

John stuck his hand deep in his pocket, fished around, and pulled out a little velvet box.

The room gasped. Liz nearly threw up.

“What is that?” Valerie asked, alarm creeping across her features.

“It’s a ring, Val. I’m not going to sneak around anymore. You’re worth more than that to me. You deserve more.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” she said as she turned toward the nurse. “I’m allergic to Penicillin, too. Make sure you note that.”

“Valerie
—look at me.”

Val swallowed visibly and raised a shaky hand to brush the hair from her forehead. “John, we had a good thing, but it’s over.” She glanced around the room. “Don’t make a scene.”

“I love you, Val.”

Her hand stopped at her temple and stayed there a moment before she let it fall to her lap. “What did you say?”

“I love you, Val. And, I want to marry you.”

Val shook her head and pressed the ring box closed. “No. You don’t know what you’re doing. I’m no good at being married. It won’t work.”

“Miss…?” Valerie just kept shaking her head, tears seeping from her baby blues, John clutching her good hand, the nurse standing by the gurney, waiting. “Miss?”

John let out a sigh and put the box back in his pocket.

Val closed her eyes for a moment then turned and snapped at the nurse, “It’s Ma’am to you, kiddo. You don’t look a day older than my baby brother.”

“Ma’am?” the man tried again.

But, Valerie wasn’t listening, was just shaking her head at John. “You almost ruined everything,” she whispered.

“Ma’am?” the nurse said again, clearly not moved by romantic displays as he lowered his voice. “I have to ask before we do x-rays… is there any possibility that you are, or have reason to believe you may be, pregnant?”

Valerie’s eyes leaked even faster, huge tears plopping like rain onto the front of her hospital gown.

“Ma’am? I need to know—”

“I do two hundred sit-ups a day!” she blurted, rounding on the man. “
Two hundred!
Would my stomach look like this if I
weren’t
pregnant!” And then she shook off John’s grip, huge, ugly racking sobs shaking her as she tried to bully the nurse into wheeling her off to a private room.

He wrote something on his clipboard instead.

“Val,” John whispered from her side, “is it true?”

“
No.
”

“But you just said—”

“I know what I said! Forget what I said! Isn’t there such a thing as patient-doctor confidentiality anymore?”

“Ma’am, I’m not a doctor…”

“
Oh, shut up!”
Val and John said in unison.

“But you said… you said you and Dan were getting back together! I can’t believe it. I can’t believe you’d…” John’s shoulders were shaking as he reached out and grabbed Val’s arm so she’d look at him. “You were going to, weren’t you? After everything we’ve been to each other… You were going to try and pass off
my
baby as his, weren’t you?
Weren’t you?”

Valerie didn’t answer, she just yanked her arm out of his hand and continued to sob.

“Don’t you think he would have figured it out, Val? Huh?”

Trish popped baby Clara over her shoulder and turned to John. “How can you be so sure it’s yours?”

Everyone leaned in. It
was
a valid question, after all—even if the timing was questionable.

Valerie looked up. “Dan’s infertile. Old football injury.”

“
Oh.
” The room said, collectively.

“
Val
—” John began.

“Can you blame me?” she shot back. “What are my options? I’m knocked up, Johnny. Just like my mom. Knocked up and…
alone!”

“Honey.
Babes.
Don’t cry,” John pleaded.

“Don’t tell me not to cry!” Val cried louder. “Why are you even here? Go away! Shouldn’t you be running to the hills like you’re so good at?”

“I’m done running,” is all he said.

Val hiccupped and swiped her eyes with her good hand. “
Ha!
You left for three months—
three months!
—with barely a word! You’re just like my father! Only ever was there to knock my mother up and smile at the babies… Well, I’ve got news for you, Johnathan Beacon, I can take care of this baby myself!”

“You won’t have to,” John said, tears of his own slipping onto his cheeks. But, he didn’t seem to care. He gripped Val’s hand in both of his and leaned down to kiss her knuckles. “I’ll take care of you both. I swear.”

“Stop that,” Valerie croaked, tugging her hand. “Stop doing that.” But, John wouldn’t let go. “How are you going to take care of anything?” she demanded. “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll work. I’ll take care of you—of you and the baby. I promise.”

“How?” Aunt Claire interjected.

“Yeah,” Val said, suddenly seeming to be aware of just how big a spectacle they’d become. She pulled their joined hands up to her hair to smooth it again. “How?”

John shrugged sheepishly. “Since I finished the last of my coursework over the winter and applied for my Journeyman’s license. I’m an electrician, Babe. For real. I’m sure I can find work around here. I’ve been saving up. Working my ass off to get in my required hours and save enough to buy you the ring you deserve. I didn’t say anything before, in case…”

“In case you didn’t finish?” Val whispered. John nodded. “You idiot. I’ve always told you you were smart enough to make something of yourself. Why won’t you believe me?”

“I believe you now,” he said, crouching down beside the gurney.

Val tensed again. “What are you doing?”

“I’m kneeling.”

“Get up,” she said. “Get up, right this moment.”

“No,” John said. “Not until I ask.”

“I won’t.” Val was shaking her head, shaking her head and crying again all at the same time. “I told you. I’ve done this before. It’s no good, Johnny…”

But John ignored her as he fished in his pants pocket a second time, a little awkwardly now that Valerie didn’t seem able to let go of the death grip she had on his other hand. He managed to retrieve the box, and Trish leaned over helpfully to pop it open, tears welling up in her eyes, too.

“Valerie Mirabelle Stinson?” John began again, “Will you make me the happiest man alive by agreeing to become my wife?”

“You’re an idiot,” Val whispered, her eyes glued to his face.

“Maybe,” he said, “but this is one idiot who will never leave you.
Ever
. I love you, Val. You’re the strongest, gutsiest, smartest, most beautiful woman I know. Marry me?”

John waited, watching, the room completely silent around them.

Val sucked in a shaky breath, pressed her lips together a moment, and then rounded on the nurse. “Can someone around here stitch up my damn hand so my fiancé can put this ring on my finger?”