Debbie Macomber - Debbie Macomber Navy Series Box Set

“He’s alive.”

Lindy didn’t hear anything more than that before she broke down and started to weep, covering her face with her hands, her shoulders heaving with the depth of her relief. But these tears were ones of joy. A sheer release from the endless unknown. She tossed her arms around her brother’s neck and he gripped her waist and swung her around. Susan and the others were jumping up and down, hugging each other, laughing and crying as well.

When everyone had settled back down, Steve gave them the rest of the information. “They found Rush buried under a pile of rubble; he’s lost a lot of blood and in addition to internal injuries, his arm has been severely cut. He’s being flown to Tripler Army Hospital in Hawaii for microsurgery. Apparently the nerves in his left arm were severed. He’s unconscious, but alive.”

“I’m going to him,” Lindy said with raw determination, as though she expected an argument. Nothing would stop her. She wouldn’t believe Rush was going to live until she saw him herself. Touched him. Kissed him. Loved him.

Steve nodded. “I already made arrangements for you to fly out today.”

* * *

A pumpkin and a picture of a witch decorating the wall across the room from him were the first things Rush noticed when he opened his eyes. His mouth was as dry as Arizona in August and his head throbbed unmercifully. A hospital, he determined, but he hadn’t any idea where.

Carefully and with a great deal of effort, he rolled his head to one side and stared at the raised rail of the bed. He blinked, sure he was imagining the vision that was before him.

“Lindy?”

The apparition didn’t move. Her fingers were gripping the steel railing and her forehead was pressed against the back of her hands. She looked as though she were sleeping.

Rush tried to reach out and touch her, gently wake her, but he couldn’t lift his arm. Even the effort sent a sharp shooting pain through his shoulder. He must have groaned because Lindy jerked her head up, her eyes wide with concern. When she saw he was awake, she sighed and grinned. Rush swore he’d never seen a more beautiful smile in his life. The pain that stabbed through him with every breath was gone. The ache in his head vanished as the look in his wife’s eyes immersed him in an unspeakable joy that transcended everything else.

“You’re real,” he murmured. He refused to believe that she was a figment of his imagination. His head remained fuzzy and his vision blurred, but Lindy was real. He’d stake his life on that.

She nodded and her hand brushed lightly over his face, lovingly caressing his jaw. “And you’re alive. Oh, Rush, I nearly lost you.”

She bit into her bottom lip and Rush knew she was struggling not to cry. He wished he could have spared her all worry and doubt.

“Where am I…? How long?”

“You’re in a hospital in Hawaii. Two days now.”

He frowned. “That long?” Now that his eyesight was clearing, he could see the dark smudges under Lindy’s eyes. She was as pale as death, as though recovering from a bad bout of flu. And much thinner than he remembered. Too thin. “You look terrible.”

She laughed, and the sweet, lilting sound wrapped itself around his heart, squeezing emotion from him. Dear God, he loved Lindy. So much of the accident remained clouded in his mind. All he could remember was hearing a horrendous noise and seeing a ball of fire come hurling toward him. Everything had happened so fast that there had barely been time to do anything more than react. All he knew was that he didn’t want to die. He wanted to go home to Lindy. His Lindy. His love.

The next thing he remembered was pain. Terrible pain. More acute than anything he’d ever experienced. He knew he was close to dying, knew he might not make it, and still all he could think about was Lindy. Dying would have stopped the agony; slipping into the dark swirling void of death would have been welcome if only it would end the torment, but Rush chose the pain because he knew it would lead him back to Lindy.

“Have you looked in a mirror lately?” she asked, her lips twitching with a teasing smile. “You’re not exactly ready to be cast as Prince Charming yourself.”

“You’ve been sick?” he pressed, his tongue faltering over the words. It was a struggle to keep awake, the pull back to unconsciousness greater with each second.

“No, just worried. It took them nearly forty hours to find you after the accident and until then you were listed as missing.”

“Oh God, Lindy, I’m…sorry.”

“I’m fine now that I know you’re going to be all right.” Again her fingers touched his face, smoothing the hair from his brow, lingering as though she needed the reassurance that he was real.

“How many…dead?”

“Seven. Three on the flight deck and four on the bridge.”

Rush’s jaw tightened. “Who?”

Lindy recited the names and each one fell upon his chest like a boulder dropped from the ceiling. “…good men,” he said after a moment, and was shocked at how fragile his voice sounded.

“More than twenty suffered serious injuries.”

Rush felt himself drifting off; he resisted, but the pull of the tide was too powerful for him to fight. “How bad…”

“The burn victims are the worst.”

He nodded and that was the last he remembered.

When he woke again the room was pitch-dark. He felt a straw at his mouth and he sucked greedily. “What time is it?”

“Two a.m.”

“Lindy, is that you?”

“Do you need something for the pain?”

He shook his head. “No.” Her fingers curled around his own and he held on to her, savoring her touch. He slept again.

* * *

Lindy sat in a chair at her husband’s side. She’d tried to sleep countless times, but the rest her body craved continued to elude her. Just as she’d start to drift off, the horror of those two days of not knowing if Rush was dead or alive returned and snapped her awake. She’d come so close to losing him. Seven men had died. Honorable men. And Rush had come a hairsbreadth from making the count eight. The men who had died were husbands, fathers, lovers—and now they were gone.

Standing, she walked over to the window. Palm trees swayed in the late afternoon breeze. The sun shone and the ocean lapped relentlessly against the white, sandy beach. The flawless beauty of the scene should have soothed her troubled spirit, but it didn’t. Instead she felt a cold hard feeling settle in her lungs. It spread out, making her breathing labored and causing her throat to ache. Those men had died, and for what? Lindy had no answers, and every time she closed her eyes the questions started to pound at her, demanding answers when she had none.

“Lindy?”

She took a minute to compose herself, pasted a smile on her face and turned around. “So Sleeping Ugly is finally awake. How are you feeling?”

“You don’t want to know.”

Concern moved her to his bedside. “Should I get the nurse? She said if you needed something for pain, I could…”

“I’m doing okay.” His brows folded into a tight frown as he looked up at her. “You’re still looking like death warmed over.”

She forced a cheery laugh and decided to put her makeup on with a heavier hand before her next visit. “That’s a fine thing to say to me!”

“When was the last time you had a decent meal?”

She opened her mouth to tell him, but paused when she realized she didn’t know herself. “I’m fine, Rush. You’re the patient here, not me.”

He looked for a minute as if he were going to argue with her, but he didn’t. “If you’re not hungry, I am.”

“I’ll see what I can scrounge up.”

She returned a few minutes later, carrying a tray. But it was soon apparent that Rush had no appetite and had used the excuse of hunger as a ploy to get her to sample something.