“Now,” he said, his breath ruffling her hair. “Just calm down. Take it slow. Think.” Then as if realizing what he was doing, he slowly released her. “Try to remember, but don’t push too hard.”
She nodded, feeling suddenly alone as she leaned back in the seat and willed her skyrocketing pulse to slow. “It’s coming back. Oh, God, Nick, it’s all coming back.”
“You remember Pam?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “But not as a close friend, no . . . she was more of an acquaintance and we were driving south to . . . to . . .”
“See her daughter?” Nick prompted, “at the university?”
“Maybe, I don’t know.” She thought hard. “There was a reason but . . .” She felt a chill as cold as death run through her blood. “. . . I think it had to do with the baby.”
“James.”
“Yes.”
“But he wasn’t with you.”
“No . . . maybe we were just discussing him, but . . .” Deep in her heart, she sensed there was more to it, but couldn’t quite put the pieces together. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
“It’ll come.” He looked at his watch. “We’d better get going.” He glanced in her direction as he reversed from the curb, then jammed the truck into first. “Are you gonna be all right?”
“I don’t know,” Marla admitted and laughed without mirth. “I don’t even know what ‘all right’ is.”
“Maybe none of us do.” He melded his truck into the stream of traffic moving toward the waterfront.
“Maybe not.” Squaring her shoulders, Marla hazarded one last glance at his strong profile. His gaze was fastened on the street, his hands on the wheel and she felt ashamed because she sensed that she was closer to him at this very moment than she’d ever been with her husband. She ran a hand over her forehead in frustration. “I don’t think I’ve
said ‘thanks’ yet.” He slid one eye in her direction. “You saved my life, you know. Back at the house. I could have died.”
“I did what I had to do.”
“Well, I owe you one. Probably more than one.”
“I don’t keep score.”
“Maybe you should.”
“It wouldn’t do a helluva lot of good,” he said and turned into a parking structure attached to Bayside Hospital and the surrounding clinics by means of a sky bridge. Alex’s Jaguar was idling next to a Cadillac on the first floor of the lot.
Spying the pickup, Alex shot out of the Jag and was at the truck’s passenger door in three swift strides.
“Are you all right?” he asked Marla, his face contorted in concern as she stepped out of the cab. He looked through the open door to Nick, still seated at the wheel. “What the hell happened?”
“Marla can fill you in.”
“You’re leaving?” Alex asked, draping an arm familiarly over his wife’s shoulders and giving her a little squeeze.
Nick’s lips compressed. “Yep. I figure you can handle it from here.” His gaze found Marla’s again and her pulse jumped as she remembered how close she’d come to kissing him.
“I’ll catch you later, then,” Nick said and Marla looked after him, feeling that she was being abandoned. But that was silly. Stupid. Irrational. Alex was her husband. Just because Nick saved her life didn’t mean anything special. He would have done it for anyone. And the scene in the truck, that was all because of the rush and jumble of the trauma of the evening. Nothing more. Right?
Nick’s gaze centered on Marla. Midnight blue eyes held hers for a heartbeat, then he turned toward his brother. “I figure you’re right, Alex. Since I’m down here anyway, I may as well move back to the house.”
“What changed your mind?” Alex asked as Marla thought about living under the same roof as her renegade brother-in-law.
Nick flashed his thousand-watt grin and lied through his damnably straight teeth. “I just figure it’s time.”
Chapter Eleven