She inhaled through her mouth with obvious relief and closed her eyes for a moment. “I used to get bloody noses all the time when I was a kid. You’d think I’d remember how they felt.” She looked at the shirt, stained crimson. “Oh, geez. That’s going to be hard to wash out.”
Half a choked laugh escaped. He sank down on his knees beside the chaise. “The last thing I’m worried about is a stained shirt.” He unwound the bundle enough to find a shirttail and used it to gently dab her cheek. “I never thought the sight of blood bothered me until I saw it covering half your face.”
“Half my—” She groaned, then winced sharply and yanked back when his careful dabbing got too close to her nose. “What does a broken nose feel like?”
“Don’t know. I’ve never had one. Who elbowed you?”
“Just a scared liddle girl. She didn’ know.” She gave a cautious sniff, only to lean over with a choked cough which sent droplets of blood spattering everywhere. “Ohmigod,” she groaned.
“We’ll get it cleaned up.”
“Yeah, by someone who’ll have to wear a hazmat suit or something.” She raised the back of the chaise, grimaced when she saw the smear she left, and then leaned back against it. She took the bundled shirt from him and held it beneath her nose as she tilted her head back. Her eyes were blue crescents beneath her lashes. “Where’d you cubb frob, anyway?”
They both went still when the strident fire alarm cut off midwail.
“Texas,” he said a moment later.
She raised an eyebrow.
“It’s where I come from.”
She gave a groaning sort of laugh. “Keep your day job,” she advised. She slid her fingers through his. “Stadd-up comedy may nod be in your future.”
He smiled and kissed her knuckles.
She made a soft sound that finished the job of melting the remnants of panic inside his gut.
“Reminds me of January,” she murmured.
“Me, too.” Even though there really wasn’t room, he slid onto the chaise beside her, careful not to tip it onto its side before he could get his weight centered with hers. “Are you going to disappear on me this time, too?”
She nuzzled her head against his chest. “I didn’t want to disappear. You were the best thing about that trip.”
He pressed his lips to her temple. “Not the bread?”
He felt her soft laugh. “Nod the bread.”
The alarm might have been shut off, but that hadn’t stopped any of the emergency responders.
Fire engines were in position, parked strategically around the hotel entrance. Police cruisers had arrived, too, and several officers were busy pushing the crowds back even farther while two more stretched caution tape across the divide.
“What were you going to tell me that night?”
“When?”
Her palm flattened against his abdomen and she pushed herself up a little so she could look at him.
“In January. At the birthday party.” Her eyes shied away from his. “You were going to tell me something, but then we heard the balcony start to go and—” She sat up even more, which—unfortunately—was enough to upset the chaise and it tipped them right over the side.
They landed in a heap barely a foot from the edge of the pool. Jay’s shoulder hit hard, but at least he reacted quickly enough to turn so that Arabella landed on him versus the unforgiving travertine.
Her shoulders were shaking. “What else?” She lifted her head and he realized she was laughing. “What else can possibly happen?”
He ran his hand up her slender back as they both sat and disentangled the legs of the chaise from their own. “What else?” he echoed, watching Detective Teas duck beneath the caution tape and head toward the hotel.
It took two hours before the fire chief announced that the alarm was false. Word spread through the crowd waiting outside a lot faster.
There wasn’t a single guest remaining in the hot afternoon sun by the time the police cars departed. The fire crews were slower to leave. Before they left, one of the EMTs mopped up Arabella’s face and taped her nose. “Looks like a simple break,” he told her. “Check with your doctor, though, if it starts bleeding again or the pain gets worse instead of better.”
Nicole and Mariana opened the doors of Roja, offering complimentary meals. Standard rooms were upgraded. Additional free nights were doled out.
In short, Hotel Fortune did everything it could do to appease their guests who’d been so inconvenienced by the false alarm.
They still lost half of them before morning.
Arabella learned that from Beulah when she checked in the next day for her room assignments.
“Broken?” Beulah peered over her half glasses at Arabella’s face.
She nodded. Just as the EMT the day before had warned, she’d woken up with bruises beneath both eyes.
“You look like you’ve done a round with my ex-husband.” It was the first time Arabella had heard anything approaching compassion in the other woman’s voice. “Had my share of black eyes just like those.”
“That’s horrible. I’m so sorry, Beulah.”
“So’s he.” Her tone went right back to its usual terseness. “Pig’s still doing time for it.” She pulled something from her drawer and tossed it on the counter. “Shake it up and it’ll stay cold for a couple hours. It’ll help the swelling.”
Arabella’s eyes suddenly stung. “Thanks, Beulah.”
As if she regretted her momentary lapse, Beulah’s lips pinched together and she turned back to her computer.
Arabella pocketed the thin pack and left the office to start her day.
Fortunately, it progressed better than the day before. Hallie still wasn’t the chatty, friendly soul she’d been initially, but at least she was satisfied enough with Arabella’s work to release her rooms the first time around. By the time her lunch break rolled around, she was actually on schedule with the rooms. Which was amazing, because she’d even taken a few minutes in between them to press the cold pack against her tender face.
She knew Jay was working the wedding—that, at least hadn’t been canceled—so she wasn’t surprised when the whole day passed without
