Heartwishes Read online

  “No one saw you,” the girl said as she sat up straight in the chair and yawned.

  “Saw me?” Gemma asked.

  “With no clothes on. Uncle Tris made the men leave before he examined you. That’s okay because he’s a doctor.”

  “I’ve heard of him.” She was trying to look at the big bandage over her ribs.

  “My mother says that all the women in three counties know about her brother.”

  Gemma smiled as she managed to sit up. “You wouldn’t know what happened to me, would you?”

  “The whole world saw everything.”

  Gemma looked at the girl in question. What did that mean?

  “When you climbed on Uncle Colin and got that boy down, Deputy Carl filmed it, and he put it on YouTube.”

  “That’s not good,” Gemma said as she swung around to get out of bed, but she was dizzy, so she lay back down.

  “Uncle Tris gave you happy drugs.” She lowered her voice. “He thinks I don’t know what narcotics are, so that’s what he calls them to me. He’s afraid I’m going to grow up to be a drug dealer.”

  “I have to agree that that wouldn’t be a good choice of careers.”

  The girl stood up, her bear held tightly to her. “This is Landy. Would you like to shake his hand?”

  “Sure,” Gemma said and held out her hand to grip the fuzzy paw. The bear wore a patch over its left eye. “Named for Orlando Bloom?” she asked.

  The child’s eyes widened. “Nobody knows that. Uncle Colin said you were smart and you are.”

  “What else did Colin say about me?”

  “Just that he was worried that you were going to die. Uncle Tris said that if Uncle Colin didn’t sit down and shut up he was going to give him some happy drugs.”

  Gemma smiled. “What’s your name?”

  “Nell Sandlin. My daddy is in Iraq.”

  “Oh,” Gemma said and offered up a silent prayer for the man’s safe return.

  “When he comes home, Momma says we’ll move back to Detroit—unless she can get Daddy to stay here in Edilean.”

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I want my daddy to come home. We can live in an igloo, I don’t care. Just so my daddy is with us.”

  Gemma would never tell the girl so, but she’d felt the same way when her father was taken away in an ambulance. But he’d never returned.

  They heard voices outside the door.

  “Uh oh,” Nell said. “I promised I’d tell Uncle Tris when you woke up.”

  There was a clock on the table by the chair. It was ten minutes after four, which meant that Gemma had been out for hours. “Maybe you should tell Dr. Tris that I’d like to see him.”

  “Sure.” Nell went to the door but paused with her hand on the knob. “Do you think you’ll fall in love with my uncle?”

  “I’ll do my best not to,” Gemma said, repressing a smile. “Unless you want me to.”

  Nell took a moment to consider this. “Momma says Uncle Tris is in love with an ‘impossible dream’ and that’s why he doesn’t fall for real women. But maybe you are that dream.”

  “I doubt that, but I’ll consider it. I think—” She didn’t finish because the door opened and an extraordinarily handsome man came in. He was wearing a doctor’s white coat, a stethoscope hanging out of a pocket. He had black hair, blue eyes, and a jawline that could have been sculpted out of marble.

  Gemma could see why there was talk of falling for the man, and she waited for her own temperature to rise—but it didn’t.

  Dr. Tris looked around the door at his niece. “I thought you and Landy were going to play nurse and tell me when my patient woke up.” His voice was very pleasant.

  “Landy fell asleep,” Nell said. “And his necklace was blinking so . . .” She shrugged.

  “I want you and Landy to go next door and tell Uncle Colin that Gemma woke up.”

  Nell’s face was serious. “Should I tell him you found a brain tumor?”

  “Out!” Tristan said as she ran past him, giggling. “And if you frighten Colin I’ll sue you for malpractice,” he called after her. Shaking his head as he shut the door, he turned to Gemma. “Sorry about that. My niece is much too knowledgeable for her own good. I blame it on TV. Or the Internet. I haven’t decided which.”

  He paused at the foot of the bed and stared down at her. Gemma wasn’t sure, but she thought he might be trying to ascertain if she was going to . . . well, probably start flirting with him.

  But beautiful as he was, Gemma wasn’t attracted to him. She couldn’t explain it, but there was a faraway look in his eyes that almost made her feel as though he wasn’t really there.

  What the doctor saw seemed to relieve him and he let out his breath. “I’m Tristan Aldredge.” He held out his hand to shake hers.

  “Gemma Ranford.”

  He walked around the side of the bed. “I’ve heard about you from Colin. That was some feat you two pulled off this morning.” He folded back the cover and lifted her gown to look at her bandaged side.

  “What happened to me?”

  “When the branch broke, it hit you and cut you along the rib cage. It wasn’t too deep. The stitches I used will dissolve in a few days. You’ll be sore for a while, so you shouldn’t go dancing—or climbing on Colin—for a week or two.”

  “Did I pass out?”

  “Yes, but I think you mostly had an overload of adrenaline. I hear you got a job you really wanted, then you were subjected to Colin’s driving, then you climbed up and rescued a little boy. It’s been a hectic couple of days. I suggest you rest for a day or two and you’ll be fine.”

  “Has everything really been posted on YouTube?”

  “Every second of it.” Tristan smiled. “Tom has suspended Carl, but the rescue is on the Web. There’s a second where you and the boy are standing in midair and some kid’s already selling posters of it.”

  Gemma frowned. “It doesn’t look bad, does it?

  “Bad?” He was checking her pulse.

  “I mean I wouldn’t want to cause any problems for Colin. Or with any of the Fraziers.”

  Still holding her wrist, Tris looked at her. “Afraid of losing your job?”

  “Yes.”

  “The Fraziers would never fire you just because you—”

  He broke off when the door flew back and Colin burst in—and Gemma’s face dissolved into a smile. As pretty as Dr. Tris was, to her eyes, he looked small and insignificant next to Colin.

  “How do you feel?” Colin asked. “Sore? In pain? Weak?”

  “Hungry,” Gemma said.

  Colin grinned at her. “We can fix that.” He looked at Tris. “When can we leave?”

  “As soon as she’s dressed.”

  When both men kept standing at the foot of the bed and staring at her, Gemma said, “Could I have some privacy please?”

  “Sure,” Tris said. “Mrs. Frazier sent some of your clothes over, and they’re in the closet. Take your time.”

  She watched the two men leave, then slowly got out of bed.

  Outside in the waiting room, Colin looked at Tristan. “You’re sure she’s okay? Nell said something about a brain tumor.”

  Tris cut his niece a look, and she muffled a giggle. “Gemma is fine. That was a scary thing she went through and that combined with the cut made her faint.”

  “Then Uncle Tris gave her narcotics,” Nell said. “So Gemma slept for hours.”

  Colin shook his head at her. “You’re already an Aldredge. What medical school are you going to?”

  “None. I’m going to be a ballerina,” Nell said as she got off the chair. “Could I have five dollars?” she asked her uncle.

  “How about two?” he said, getting out his wallet. “And where are you planning to go?”

  “You know Mr. Lang is picking me up.” She looked at Colin. “He has puppies, and I’m going to get one.”

  They saw out the window that Brewster Lang’s old truck had stopped in front of the office.