Lori Avocato - Dead On Arrival

Buzz swallowed and turned pale.

And I sat motionless, waiting for my mind to catch up to the scene that had just played out in front of me.

Sheepishly and yes, foolishly, Buzz said, “Someone has to be there for you, Dan.”

Yikes! I started to get up to run interference should Dano attempt another attack, but he merely looked at Buzz and said, “She’s doing it.”

I looked around the room to see who’d gotten the short straw and was going to have to stay the night at ER Dano’s place, taking her life into her hands by waking him up? Ready to offer moral support and sympathy, I noticed that everyone in the room, including ER Dano, was staring at…me.

Oh…my…God.

My attempts to get out of the job of “nursing” ER Dano had failed miserably, and here I sat in my car, on my way to his place with a stop off at mine for some clothes, makeup and a check of my phone recorder (no more riddle threats for days now)-and him sitting next to me since he couldn’t drive.

Not that I needed much in the line of clothes or makeup, as Dano was not one to be impressed, but I was one to feel more comfortable, and any reason to get out of my scrubs was a good one.

I pulled into my assigned space, got out and said I’d be right back. Before I made it up my front steps, he was right behind me.

“I need a drink,” he said. “Damn shit they gave me in the ER made me thirsty.”

I paused to try and choose the right words and then thought, Oh, hell. “You shouldn’t be drinking with a head injury. You know that.”

He looked at me and kind of grinned.

Phew.

“Nightingale, I’m talking water here, and don’t try to nurse me. The last woman that attempted ended up…” He grinned again.

My heart did a tiny dance, and I smiled and opened the door to Spanky, who ran up to me and looked behind me. I think the little creature was looking for Jagger!

But the dog settled for ER Dano, who growled a bit that he wasn’t a pet lover, and the next thing I knew, he was sitting on the couch with ice water in hand and Spanky on a pillow nearby. Dano did not, however, pet him, but just sitting there gave Dano a more human quality.

And a rather tasty one at that!

I looked at the pile of clothing on my floor and felt like a teenager. Then again, what I wore was important tonight because I didn’t want to look too sexy-since I was only there as a friend and nurse. And, I didn’t want to look not sexy because, well, I was going to be there-and I was a red-blooded, single, thirty-something woman!

After much contemplation, trying on things I hadn’t worn in a while and wishing my roomies were home to give their expert opinions, I settled on jeans and an aqua long-sleeve top and stuck some toiletries into my makeup bag. I decided my slip-ons would be most like slippers and the jeans weren’t too tight, so I could sleep in them.

Because no way was I parading around ER Dano’s place in my nightie.

ER Dano’s place?

I flopped onto the end of the bed and in my wildest imagination could not think of what it would look like. That’d be one step below figuring out what Jagger’s place looked like. That is, if Jagger really lived someplace and didn’t simply drive around in his SUV.

My thoughts were that Dano’s place would have chrome and glass, and be dark, rather scary, and…male.

Since I had a “job” to do, I pushed any Jagger thoughts out of my head, took my scrubs and shoes for tomorrow and stuck it all into my gym bag. My suitcase looked too girly. Too purple. I couldn’t do purple girly in front of such a guy as Dano.

Brown paper bag might do it though.

When I walked down the stairs, Spanky was not on his pillow any longer. And he wasn’t on Dano’s lap as I’d expected. Evidently Jagger was the only one Spanky had taken a liking to other than myself, Goldie and Miles.

“All set?” I asked.

“Um.” Dano stood, wobbled a bit, and steadied himself on the couch’s arm. “Hold on.”

“Wha-”

He was out the door and into the kitchen before I could finish.

“What the heck?” I muttered, and followed.

There near the back door was Spanky eating out of his dog food dish. But not his dry food. Nope. Dano had raided our refrigerator and helped himself to morsels of leftovers that he’d given to the dog.

After my attack of muteness left, I said, “He has to watch his weight. If he gets another pound heavier, his little kneecap goes out of joint.”

Dano looked at me and then Spanky. “He needed a treat. That’s about as low-cal and wholesome as you can get.” With that he turned and walked back out toward the front.

Spanky gave me a quick look, as if agreeing with Dano.

“Shut up,” I said to him, gave him a pat on the head, looked to see no phone messages, and left. By the time I got out to my car, Dano was in the passenger seat, eyes shut and occasionally wincing.

The tough guy was in pain and despite how he felt, he had taken care of an eight-pound dog.

Life has never ceased to amaze me. My mother used to tell me things that I never believed unless I saw them for myself. “Doubting Thomas,” she and my sister used to call me, after the apostle who didn’t believe that Jesus had been crucified and had risen from the dead.

Well, no one could have prepared me for this.

ER Dano’s house.

Yeah, house. First of all I was expecting an apartment, or condo at the very most. But nope. He lived-and owned, I’d learned-an old Victorian house on the west side of Hope Valley, in one of the finer, older neighborhoods.

Bachelor: grumpy at times, grouchy at others. House: burned-out-bachelor pad, it was not.

As I followed him up the pink flower-bordered walkway, I couldn’t even speak. Without a green thumb on either hand, I knew nothing about the flowers other than that they were pink and pretty, and that Dano must either live with someone or had hired someone to landscape. Yet, what would make him do that?

Then he bent to pick a brown leaf off one of the plants and I mumbled, “He planted them.”

“I planted them. Don’t sound so shocked. Did all the landscaping myself. Good therapy to empty my bucket of ambulance runs when I need to forget,” he said, and opened the large, dark paneled wood front door with a leaded and frosted glass window in the center.

“Oh,” was all I could manage until I stepped inside and added, “Oh, my.” Oh, again.

Dano appeared to ignore me as he pointed out, “Here’s the living room, the john’s in there and you can stay upstairs in the room to the left of the railing. When you try to wake me, don’t get close.”

I wanted to ask why, but figured he must have been a deep sleeper and would probably clock me if I startled him.

We went into the kitchen, which had copper pots hanging from the ceiling, large tomato plants growing in pots by the bay windows and old large-plank hardwood floors. At a white enamel sink, he took a glass from a cabinet, filled it and drank it down in one swallow.

“This place is neat,” I said, sitting down at the white wooden kitchen table. There were even crocheted doilies on the table as placemats.

“My grandmother made those,” was all he said when he noticed me noticing them.

“Ah. That’s nice. Look, Dano, I’m here to help you. Let me get you whatever you want while you sit and take it easy. I don’t want your head to start hurting.”

He looked at me.

Gulp.

Damn. The guy had a way of looking that I felt. Actually felt.

“Already hurts like hell. I’d go to bed now, but then I’d be up all night long…thinking.”

There was pain in his voice, and I knew ER Dano had really been on the job far too long. It’d taken a toll on him, and grabbed his life without releasing. I could sense that he didn’t like to go to sleep-obviously since job-demon dreams awaited him.