“Oh, thank God. What was it?”
“It was just…something else. Nothing serious.”
“What was it?” she asked again.
He wasn’t going to admit to Sara or anyone else that he was suffering from anxiety. Remington Industries did not promote people who couldn’t handle stress. “Nothing, okay?”
She came closer and placed a hand on his forehead. It felt nice, and for a moment Reece closed his eyes and surrendered to the soft blanket of Sara’s concern.
“It must have been something. Max sounded scared out of his wits when he called.”
He struggled to find an explanation that would satisfy her. He didn’t want to lie, but he couldn’t stand having her see him like this. “I was having chest pains. But it turned out to be nothing.” He removed her hand from his forehead and squeezed it. “Thank you for coming.”
“Wild horses wouldn’t have kept me away. I broke all kinds of laws, including a few laws of physics, to get here.”
“I’m sorry you came for nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” she insisted. “You’re hooked up to machines.”
“They’ll unhook me soon.” Sara didn’t look at all relieved. “Sara, I’m fine, really. How’s the weather out there?”
“Little bit windy,” she answered distractedly. “I haven’t checked on the hurricane in a while.”
Windy. That didn’t sound good. Even if the hurricane dissipated or made landfall somewhere else, high winds here could ground a lot of planes.
He needed to get back to the airport.
“Do you have to stay at the hospital?” Sara asked.
“No, of course not. As soon as Max brings me a shirt, I’m out of here.”
“And you’re still planning on going to New York?”
“Yes, of course. This doesn’t change anything.”
“Oh.”
Except something had changed. His brief brush with death-even if it hadn’t been real-had forced him to realize he was in love with Sara. He’d been ready to tell her. Desperate to tell her.
But now…now was a lousy time.
“Sara, you and I aren’t through.”
“No?”
“No. Remember when you offered to drive my car up to New York?” he ventured. “I think it’s a good idea, and I’ll make it worth your while.” He couldn’t expect her to take off all that time from her other jobs and not be compensated.
“I thought you thought it was a terrible idea.”
He shrugged.
“Well, um, I’ll have to check Valerie’s schedule and see how long she’ll be here to take care of Miss Greer. I don’t want to leave her alone, not yet.”
That was when Reece realized his idea of importing Sara to New York, of keeping his job and having Sara, too, was a pipe dream. Even if she were willing to relocate, she wouldn’t be happy there away from a woman who’d been like a grandmother to her, her friends, the town that had embraced her.
Besides, she had no job up there, no home. She could stay with him, but were either of them ready for that kind of commitment?
“We’ll work something out.”
A doctor entered the treatment room then, looking rushed and harried as E.R. doctors always seemed to. He grabbed Reece’s chart from the foot of the gurney and consulted it, then smiled a bedside-manner smile that didn’t exactly reassure Reece.
“Mr. Remington. You’re looking better. And is this Mrs. Remington?”
“No,” they both said at the same time.
Sara stepped back self-consciously. “I’m not really his wife. I said I was Mrs. Remington so I could see him.”
“Sara was just leaving.” He didn’t want to say goodbye to her so abruptly, but neither did he want her privy to his stress issues.
“Right.” She gave him a sad little smile. “Take care.” She left, and it didn’t feel right at all.
“Can I go now?” Reece asked impatiently.
“Not so fast. You weren’t having a heart attack, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have some serious issues here.”
Reece listened with a sinking feeling as the doctor described the state he’d been in when he arrived-gasping for breath, elevated blood pressure, racing pulse.
“We want to keep you overnight for observation. Then we can release you, but only if you schedule some tests.”
“I can’t stay,” Reece said. “I have to get back to New York.”
“I guess you haven’t heard about the hurricane.”
“That’s why I have to leave now. It’s extremely important that I be on a plane in the next twenty-four hours.”
“Well, all right,” the doctor said on a sigh. “They carry defibrillators on planes now. You should be fine.”
“Excuse me?”
“Mr. Remington, you’re a walking time bomb. Next time, those chest pains really could be a heart attack. If you don’t slow down and address your stress issues, you might not live long enough to become CEO or CFO, or whatever it is you aspire to become.”
Reece closed his eyes. Good God, what was he doing to himself? Was a stupid job, or pleasing his father, worth killing himself over?
To hell with his meeting. He’d have to miss the damn thing. When the doctors cleared him, he would fly back to New York, but only for long enough to resign his job, pack up his stuff and put his condo on the market. Then he would move back to Port Clara.
He would do just what Allie had suggested. He’d start a little accounting business, maybe take up running again. He would take care of himself.
God help him, he would learn to eat exotic vegetables and whole-wheat whatever. He would take yoga classes, if that was what it took to reclaim his health.
He wanted to live to be an old man, and he wanted to do it with Sara.
SARA’S FACE WAS WET with tears as she drove back to Port Clara in Valerie’s rental car. She tried to tell herself they were tears of relief that Reece wasn’t dying.
But that wasn’t it.
She’d been crushed with disappointment when Reece had called to tell her he was heading home early to beat the hurricane. But she’d been able to convince herself-just barely-that she shouldn’t be so selfish, that Reece’s job was a huge priority in his life even if she didn’t understand that. Just because he was going back to New York didn’t mean they were finished.
But when she’d seen him in the E.R., gorgeous even hooked up to machines, she’d seen the truth in his eyes. He hadn’t wanted her there. Then he’d iced the cake. He’d told her he wanted to
She was still Sara the B and B maid to him. Someone who needed his money, not an equal at all. Maybe they could have a good time in New York, and maybe it would never happen. But his attitude had brought everything into clear focus.
He didn’t care for her the way she’d come to care for him. And if she’d learned one thing about relationships, it was that it never worked when one person was wildly in love and the other wasn’t.
She was going to have to break things off with Reece. She would come up with some excuse why she couldn’t drive his car to New York, and that would be that.
Oh, hell. What about the baby?
She had to tell him. But only after she’d figured a few things out, like how she was going to live and pay for
