“Dakota, hi. Sorry to bother you when you’re so busy but I had a thought.” He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, doing his best not to come over as needy or desperate. “Since we’re working on the gala together and I’ve already offered to be your second in charge tree decorator, do you think we should go to the gala night together?” He waited for her to answer.
“Um, sure if that’s what you want to do.”
He let out a sigh of relief. “Great. Yeah I do because we’re going to be the ones that keep the evening going. Keep everything on track and it wouldn’t be fair to another date if we kept dumping them to do the job, if you know what I mean.”
“Couldn’t agree more.”
Thank goodness.
“I wanted to say thanks once again for my crystal bumble bee too. It was very sweet of you.”
“It was the least I could do. I noticed you have quite a collection of crystal and you reminded me of a busy bee. Besides, I enjoyed watching your face when you opened the gift.”
He heard a gasp of pain over the phone and sat up, panic rising in his chest. “Are you okay? What’s happened?”
She gave a tiny cry, groaned and he heard a clunk as she dropped the phone.
“Don’t move. I’ll be there in a minute.” Adam hung up and grabbed his car key, bolting out the door for his vehicle. It was hard to keep to the speed limit as he drove toward the cottage thinking the worst. Had she broken a glass object and was bleeding out while all he cared about was getting her to agree to go to the gala with him before anyone else could claim her as their date? How pathetic. He raced through town, toward her cottage, pulled up in front of the property, slammed the car into park and ran to her door. He pushed through it without knocking and came to a screeching halt at her workshop door, panicked and out of breath.
She stood looking at him, her hand out, her lips in a tight line. “Adam, stop.” She wiggled her fingers. “It’s a burn. Nothing more, so calm down.”
He dropped his head, waited for his heart to stop pounding.
*
“My fingers cop a few burns now and then because I can’t always feel the heat against them until it’s too late. I blame it on the accident, severed nerves in my fingers. While it hurts it’s not a big deal.” She stepped forward and put a hand on his arm, noticed the pale trembling lips. “Hey, this isn’t just about me, is it? Something is worrying you.” She put an arm on his back and pushed him out to the lounge room toward the couch.
“No. I’m fine, I panicked when I heard you cry out.” He took her hand. Ran his fingers around the welt coming up on her fingers. He guided her into the kitchen, turned on the cold tap and held her hand under the running water to cool down the burn. “Let me deal with this. Where’s your first aid kit?”
“Under the bathroom cabinet.” Most of the color had come back into his face.
“Don’t move.” He squeezed her arm and strode away. Dakota watched him leave, his purposeful strides giving her reason to believe what she already decided. He wasn’t immune to her at all. Moments later he was back. He turned off the tap and handed her a towel. “I’ll let you dry that so I don’t hurt you.”
Dakota took the towel, dabbed at her hand and then let him dress the burn. When he put the first aid kit back in the bathroom, he came out looking almost as stressed as he did when he arrived.
“Go sit in the lounge. You need a coffee as much as I do and I can manage by myself so don’t fuss.” She filled the coffee machine while keeping an eye on him. He’d leaned back and closed his eyes but his skin was still pasty.
Dakota made them each a mug and joined him in the lounge room. “Here. Get this into you and talk to me.” She sat down beside him and waited while he gathered himself.
“Thanks.” He sipped and put his cup down. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I’m not usually such a panicy person. It’s just when I heard you cry out, I freaked out.”
“You’ve patched me up and I’m fine. Thank you.” Dakota took note of the sweat breaking out on his forehead. Adam had something more than her pressing on his mind and she knew what it was.
“Do you think this has anything to do with the panic you felt when you heard about your father?” Made sense to her and as much as Adam might think he’s dealing with it, she had other ideas. Nearly dying herself and having plenty of rehab gave one a different perspective on life and with the counseling she’d had in the aftermath, it wasn’t a stretch to think he was super imposing his thoughts about his own health crisis onto her. One little burn didn’t warrant this kind of all out panic even though she loved that he cared.
“I don’t think so. I mean, I was worried, sure but he’s okay now.”
Treading delicately, Dakota searched for the right words. “Do you worry about what you’re going through, about how you might have the same disease?”
He looked at her and she could see the idea taking shape in his head.
“I’m no psychologist, Adam, but you do seem to have an overactive reaction when it comes to someone getting hurt. Is it possible you’re more worried about your own mortality than you’re letting on?”
“I’d never let my own worries take over like that.”
She raised her eyebrow and waited.
“I wouldn’t.” He
