Flight Nurse's Florida Fairy Tale
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Deanne Anders
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CHAPTER ONE
“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”
Casey Johnson looked up from the crossword puzzle he had been working on for the last thirty minutes. He should have left work an hour ago, but he just didn’t have the energy or the desire to face his empty house this morning. It was funny how watching someone fight for their life made you look at your own in a different light.
A pretty blonde stood above him, her face flushed red, with one baby on her hip and another in some type of sling across her chest. He searched his mind for what he could have done that would have set off Summer, his coworker and his boss’s wife. The only thing he’d done in the last fourteen hours was work. Had he done something wrong on duty? Had someone complained about something he’d said or done?
The last call they’d responded to had been a rough one and the reason he had gotten himself engrossed in the daily crossword challenge. It was his way of escaping from all the horrific scenes that were sometimes part of the job. But this last call, a head-on collision, had been particularly hard to deal with. He pictured the small child they’d flown to the children’s hospital in Miami. He had fought the urge to call and check on her condition ever since they had arrived back at headquarters. But sometimes not knowing was for the best. Otherwise this job could destroy you. You did everything possible for your patient, and then you had to walk away.
No, there was nothing that anyone could have been upset about on that call last night. He’d done everything in his power to keep their tiny patient alive. He just hoped it had been enough.
“Well, what did you do?” Summer’s voice had lost some of its demand, but it still had a bite to it that he didn’t understand.
“Maybe you could give me a hint?” Casey said as he laid down the daily paper, all interest in it gone now that he was remembering the last call of his shift. It was better to deal with Summer and whatever it was that had gotten her upset at him than to think about the patient he’d left clinging to life.
“Uh, Jo, of course.” Summer juggled the baby from one hip to the other without taking her scorching glare from him.
“What about her? All I did was cover for her last night, just like she asked. It isn’t like it was my fault that she got sick. It was probably that five-alarm salsa she ate at that new cantina we went to yesterday. I warned her that it would burn a hole in her stomach.”
“She didn’t tell you?” Summer asked, then turned away from him. “Of course she didn’t. If she had, you would have talked her out of it.” It was as if Summer deflated in front of him as she sunk into the chair beside him while repositioning the babies in her lap.
“Tell me what?” Whatever had Summer this upset couldn’t be good. But why did she think it was something he had done? It wasn’t his fault Jo was so sick that she couldn’t work her shift.
“Jo called this morning and turned in her resignation. She’s leaving the island,” a voice said from behind him.
He watched as his boss, Alex Leonelli, aka Prince Alexandros of Soura, stepped around him, bent down to kiss his wife and then each of his children. Casey was happy that his two coworkers had finally managed to patch things up, but there was something about that secret look that passed between them that sent a jolt of jealousy through him.
Not that he was truly jealous. He didn’t need all the drama that came along with a serious relationship. He was happy with his life as it was. He had a job he loved and friends, like Jo Kemp, who he could always count on.
It hit him then what Alex had said. Jo had turned in her resignation? No. That was impossible. It hadn’t been twenty-four hours since he’d last seen her. They were best friends. There was no way she would do something like that without talking to him about it first. Besides, she loved her job as flight nurse for the Key West office of Heli-Care. She’d never quit.
“Is this some kind of joke?” he asked them. “Are you two punking me?”
“Of course not,” Summer said. And from the sag of her shoulders and the miserable look in her eyes, he had no choice but to believe her.
“There has to be a mistake.” He’d been surprised when Jo had called to say she couldn’t make her shift. She’d seemed fine earlier in the day, but there had been no missing the anxiety in her voice. He’d assumed she was worried about finding someone to cover her shift, though now that he thought about it, her voice had still seemed strained after he had reassured her that he could cover for her. So what had happened?
“She had to have given you a reason,” Casey said as he stood, turning toward Alex.
“She said it was personal.” Alex bent and took one of the twins from his wife.
“I tried to call her,” Summer said as Casey pulled his phone from his pocket, “but she’s not answering.”
“Maybe she’s still sleeping.” Casey looked at the time on his phone, surprised when he saw that it was after eight in the morning already. “I’ll just stop by on my way home and see if I can get to the bottom of this.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Summer said, grabbing hold of his arm as he went to pick up the duffel bag he’d dropped earlier. “Maybe you should wait until she tells you herself.”
Casey patted her hand before pulling his arm away and taking his sunglasses out of his shirt pocket. “I don’t think so. I know Jo. She loves her job. Something has to be wrong, and I’m going to find out what it is.”
He’d heard it in her voice last night. She’d been breathless and very anxious to get off the phone. He’d assumed it was because she wasn’t feeling well, but now he wasn’t sure. Had she just been afraid to tell him that she was leaving?
He headed to the door. He and Jo had started at Heli-Care the same day over four years ago. He’d come to the company after flying search and rescue for the coast guard and then obtaining his nurse’s license, while she had been an experienced nurse on her first flight assignment. They’d become the best of friends, and the Jo he knew wasn’t afraid of anything. Especially not him.
“Casey, please tell her to call me,” Summer called from behind him.
He waved back at her, acknowledging her request. By the time he finished talking with Jo and fixing whatever the problem she had, the only call she’d have to make was the one telling Alex that she had changed her mind. There was no way he was going to let Jo quit her job. And there was no way he was going to let her leave him behind. And if she didn’t stay?
Choosing to ignore that thought, he blamed the sudden gnawing pain in his stomach on his last shift. He wasn’t worried. Jo had been fine the day before. Whatever had happened since they’d had lunch together yesterday could be fixed. It was the fact that she hadn’t told him about any of this that bothered him the most.
What could be so bad that she couldn’t tell him? He’d thought they had a special friendship. One where she would be able to tell him anything. That she couldn’t trust him to help her, that was the real problem. Because if she didn’t trust him enough to talk to him before she did something as drastic as quitting her job and leaving town, how could he help her?
Jo sat on the floor and rubbed Moose’s head. Her Great Dane had known something was wrong the moment she’d gotten off the phone, and he had spent the night trying to comfort her. Finally, unable to sleep, she’d gotten up and started the job of packing. Again.
For four years she’d stayed hidden. Four glorious years of feeling safe. She should have known it couldn’t last. Nothing ever did.
“Well, Moose, we can sit here and bemoan our future, or we can start working. What will it be?” The dog’s large tongue shot out and licked her from collarbone to cheek in one swipe. “Yeah, I don’t want to do it either, but we don’t really have a choice.”
She’d spent the night going over all her options, and the only one that made sense was for her to get out of town as soon as possible. The last thing she wanted was to drag her friends into her problems. As her parents’ had reminded her, she’d created the problem and it was her job to take care of it. Though as her sister had said, running away was not really taking care of anything. And then there was her brother offering to take care of the problem for her, something that would have had him spending time in jail instead of in college where he belonged. Thank goodness the courts had dealt with Jeffrey before her brother had gotten his chance.
The knock on the door startled her. Instinct had her hand going for Moose’s collar while she looked around the apartment for a weapon of any sort.
The knock came again, but this time it was followed by a voice both she and Moose recognized. “Jo, open the door.”
Moose pulled out of her hold, reminding her that she only remained in control of the big dog because he chose to let her. Standing, she looked down at the corner where she had been huddled then raised her hand, which held a spatula. How had that gotten there? She laid it on the kitchen counter and followed her dog to the door. A part of her, the scared part, wanted nothing more than to throw herself into Casey’s big arms where she knew she would be safe from whatever it was her ex had planned for her.
Another part, the sane part, knew that would be a mistake. The last thing she needed was to let Casey know that something, or someone, had scared her. If she was lucky, he had just stopped by to check and see if she was getting over being “sick” the night before. She’d hated having to lie to him, but the alternative wasn’t something that she could share. Eventually she’d have to tell him her plans, not that she had formed any, but for now Casey didn’t know that she had turned in her resignation.
“Hold on a moment,” she called as she tried to pull Moose away from the door so she could open it. Once the door was opened and all six feet five inches of the man she considered her best friend stood in front of her, she truly realized just how hard leaving her home and her friends was going to be. How was she supposed to walk away from here? How could she leave someone like Casey who had become so important in her life?
Her hands shook as she let go of Moose and he launched himself into Casey’s arms. The dog had a special friendship with the man, just like she did. There had been a time when she’d hoped that she and Casey could be more than friends, but she’d accepted long ago that that was all Casey wanted from her. And it worked. They worked. If she occasionally suffered from a stray dream that had them participating in more romantic activities, what did it hurt? They were her secret, and something that she would never have to share with him.
And just because she still felt that little zing of pleasure that was far from friendly whenever he threw his arm around her or that painful sting of envy whenever he brought his latest girlfriend around, that wasn’t a good enough reason to risk losing him and their friendship.
Though now it looked like she would be losing it anyway. Maybe she should have taken a chance for more when her friend Summer had suggested it a few months ago after Casey had broken up with his fifth girlfriend in as many months.
But none of that mattered anymore. Right now, all that mattered was that she keep him from seeing the fear that had her heart pounding with a tachycardic rhythm that it couldn’t maintain if she wanted to keep standing.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as she held on to the door, hoping to stabilize her trembling hands as well as use it to help hold her up.
The look in his green eyes and the arch of one blond eyebrow told her all she needed to know. Had it been too much to hope Alex would keep the news of her resignation for at least a few hours?
She started to tell him that she was still feeling ill and he shouldn’t be around her. It wasn’t really a lie. She’d definitely felt better. But one look at Casey’s stubborn squared-off jaw told her he wasn’t going to leave until they talked.
“Come on in,” she said as she opened the door. Now that her body was getting over its fight or flight instinct, she knew it was for the best to get this over with. Better to deal with him now than let the anticipation of telling him goodbye keep her tied up in knots.
Her apartment was small, a little living room, dining room and kitchen combination, with one small bedroom and bathroom in the back. When Casey walked in, it seemed to shrink even more. His head was just inches from touching the ceiling, and his shoulders barely fit through the small opening between the dining room and kitchen.
The size of him had intimidated her when she’d first met him, but within days she knew that she could trust this man to never hurt her. He didn’t have a violent bone in his body.
“So it’s true. You’re leaving,” he said as he stared down at the pile of pots and pans she had pulled out of the cabinets to pack.
“You spoke to Alex,” she said. Not an answer really, but it was all she had. Admitting that she was leaving was too hard.
“You know I spoke to Alex. And when he told me that you had resigned, I told him he had to be mistaken. You’d never leave a job that you loved or a crew that is as much family as coworkers. And to do it without giving any notice? I knew he had to be mistaken.” His eyes, those sweet, light green eyes that were usually filled with warmth and humor had gone hard now. “Do you know why I told him he had to be mistaken?”
She shook her head. His voice, usually booming, had gone quiet. He was angry. Very angry. At her.
And even though he was almost twice the size of Jeffrey, her ex-husband, his anger didn’t scare her. She’d seen this man intubate the smallest of infants, his big hands gentle in their touch. She’d watched him carry a fragile elderly woman, who’d fallen and broken her hip, all the while reassuring her with his calming voice. She knew Casey. Knew him better than she had ever known her ex-husband. Even when he was as angry as he was at her right now, she knew she was safe.
And it wasn’t just her heart that told her this. It was her body. It didn’t tremble as Casey glared at her. Her eyes didn’t dart around the room looking for a place to hide. She was safe with him. He was someone she could trust. Someone she could share her fear with and know that he wouldn’t judge her because of the mistakes she’d made years ago.
So why hadn’t she told him about her past before now? Pride? Embarrassment? Both? Her marriage had ended more than five years ago, and she still felt stupid for falling for her ex’s lies.
And then there was the shame. While she knew she had been an innocent victim, she still felt shame when she thought of how she’d let her husband break her. She’d let her fear of him imprison her, freezing her in place, until she had lost the ability and the will to fight back.
Did she admit all this to Casey now? Would he still respect her when he discovered she wasn’t the badass nurse he thought her to be? She guessed she’d soon find out.
“No, why?” she asked, knowing he needed to tell her, even though she already knew the answer.
“Because I knew that you would never have done something like that without talking to me, telling me first,” Casey said. He’d begun to pace the six-foot path from the kitchen to her living room, making it necessary for him to turn every couple steps. She started to laugh at the sight, but she knew he wouldn’t appreciate it.
“I can explain,” she started, and then recognized the words as ones she used to use with Jeffrey. Why did she have to explain herself? She’d called Alex because her first responsibility was to her boss and the company she worked for. She was going to be leaving them short-staffed, and that was something she would never have done if she’d had a choice. But still, it had hurt Casey that she hadn’t told him first and she couldn’t help but feel bad about it.
She straightened her shoulders and began again. “I’m sorry I didn’t notify you of my decision. I was going to call you later today after you’d gotten some sleep.”
“What? On your way out of town?” he asked.
She didn’t answer him. His words were too close to the truth.
“I just don’t get it,” Casey said. He stopped pacing and took a seat on the leather love seat she’d saved for months to buy. She’d decided sometime during the night that she could only take what she could load in her car. She’d have to leave it behind, just like the life she’d made here. She was leaving almost everything. Including a piece of her heart that she wasn’t certain she could ever get back.
Casey ran his hands through his blond curls, which always seemed to be in the need of a trimming. “Just tell me why. Why have you suddenly decided that you need to leave? It can’t be the job. You love your job.”
“I do love my job,” Jo said, taking a seat next to him.
“I know it’s not the island, you love the Keys. Has someone made you a better offer?”
“No. Of course it’s not another job. I wouldn’t do that to Alex.” There wasn’t another job out there that would be good enough to make her leave the island and her friends.
“Is it me?” Casey asked. “Did I do something?”
“What?” His question startled her. “Why would you think it was something you had done?”
“Maybe because Summer thinks it’s because of me,” he said. He turned toward her, his eyes questioning her.
“Well, Summer is wrong. It has nothing to do with you,” she said.
She’d known she should never have admitted her attraction to Casey to Summer. They’d been at a party. It had been late. She’d worked the night before, and they’d responded to a multicar pileup that had stayed with her long after they’d flown the last victim to a Miami trauma center. Both she and Casey had known that the young man wasn’t going to survive. She’d been in a gloomy mood as she wrestled with the age-old question of why life wasn’t fair. Then she’d seen Casey leave the party with another woman. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d spilled everything that she thought was wrong with the woman to Summer and why she, Jo, should have been the woman leaving with him.
It was the next morning, when she realized what she had done, that she made the decision to put whatever feelings she had for Casey behind her. She wasn’t going to be that bitter woman who wasted her time over a man who wasn’t interested in her that way. Since then, no matter how much Summer had tried to get her to tell Casey how she felt, she’d refused. She had to accept their friendship for what it was. And she was glad that she had. No matter that sometimes she found herself shooting invisible arrows at the women he dated, she was happy with their relationship as it stood. She had to be.
“I’ll never understand women,” Casey said. His hand reached out and covered hers, but the intimacy of the act was lost on him. To him, she was just a best friend he was comfortable touching. To her, his touch reminded her of things she would never experience with him. Things that would have her blushing if he could read her mind.
“No, you never will,” she said, shaking her head then laughing. “And that’s probably a good thing.”
“What?” he asked, before shaking his own head. “Never mind. Forget about Summer. Tell me what’s wrong.”
Pulling her hand from under his, she turned toward him. Did she tell him the truth? That the reason she’d moved to Key West in the first place had been because she was running away from her abusive ex-husband? Did she tell him that now she had to run again?
She didn’t believe Casey had ever been afraid of anything. He’d told stories about his time in the coast guard that made her shiver with the knowledge of how close he had come to being killed each and every time they’d conducted a raid on a drug cartel’s boat. How could she expect someone like him, someone who knew no fear, to understand the terror that filled her every time she thought of her ex finding her?
