* * *
There was a blood draining scream coming from somewhere in the room. I realized it was coming from me. My adrenaline had been geared for an intruder, when all the while it was simply Blake, coming back to have probably a last word. And I now silenced him, so indeed it was the last word?
There is a commotion behind me as Sarah and Kirk came running down the stairs into the room. I turned and looked at Sarah. “Take Kirk back upstairs and don’t let them come down.”
“Okay. Are you all right?”
“Fine. Just get him out of here please.” I ran through the door and around to where Blake lay on the porch. He was unconscious, but alive, although there was a great deal of blood coming from his upper thigh. Evidently when I had shot, his knee had been on the windowsill trying to raise the window. I ran for my phone and dial 9-1-1.
The sirens began almost immediately. I knew Blake was in serious trouble, the blood was pooling about his thigh. I ran back into the house and clawed open the closet, looking for something that I could use as a tourniquet. I saw the belt of my trench coat and whipped it out of the loops, running back to Blake and tying it about his upper thigh. I pulled the belt as tightly as I could and prayed the ambulance would hurry. My prayers were answered as it spun up my driveway just a few moments later and attendants leaked out and ran up onto the porch.
“What happened?” one of them asked me.
“I thought he was a burglar,” I said in an anguished voice. “Will he be okay?” No one answered me as they were working on Blake. He began to stir a bit, his eyes trying to open as his head was turning from side to side. The attendants removed my belt tourniquet and replaced it with their medical version.
“Do you know who this is?”
I nodded. “His name is Blake Temple. He’s the father of my son. He lives in Dallas. He’s a rodeo rider, rides the bulls. You can contact Dallas General for his medical records. I don’t think he’s allergic to anything but you’d better check with them to be certain.”
The attendant said nothing but continued to work on Blake to staunch the flow of blood. By this time, the sheriff’s car had arrived and there were deputies on the porch taking notes.
“Ma’am, can you tell me what’s happened here?” one of them asked me.
“This is my son’s father. He was just here and we had a bit of an argument. He left and I had gone up to bed. That’s when I heard a noise downstairs and came down to see a figure at the window trying to open it. I thought it was an intruder, someone who was here to harm us. I had brought my gun down with me and as he began to raise the window, I took a shot. I didn’t know it was Blake.”
“Why was he coming in the window?”
“We don’t live together. He doesn’t have a key. I’m only guessing that he came back to try to heal the argument. I’m so sorry. I would’ve never hurt him in a million years. I truly thought with all this going on in town that this was an intruder coming in to rob or to harm us.”
The deputy nodded and said, “Why don’t we go inside and have a seat so I can get some more details from you?”
I nodded and as the ambulance attendants loaded Blake onto a gurney and wheeled him toward the ambulance, I went inside with the sheriff’s deputy. I told him everything I knew, repeating it over and over again.
“Is there anyone else at home?”
“Yes, my son is upstairs, as is his nanny.”
“Would you call them down so that I may speak with them?”
“Of course.”
I did as he asked, and one at a time he spoke to Kirk and to Sarah while I sat shaking on the sofa in the living room.
“Please? May I go to the hospital to be with Blake?”
“Yes, ma’am. This appears to be a clear case of mistaken breaking and entering. He should not have been coming in through your window. And you should’ve probably waited a bit longer before you took a shot. I have everything I need for now but you will hear from us again tomorrow. Please don’t leave town in the meantime; if you do, check with us first.”
I nodded and ran upstairs to change my clothes. As I came down, I looked to Sarah and could see she was visibly shaken. “It’s okay, Sarah. Why don’t you and Kirk go into the family room and put something on television? Take blankets and pillows and a snack in. The both of you will relax and fall back asleep. Do you think you’re okay? Do you need to see a doctor?”
“No, I think were both just a bit shook up. I’ll look after him, Meli. You go on to the hospital and look after Blake.”
I didn’t waste any time arguing. I gave Kirk a quick hug, picked up my bag and hurried out to the car, heading toward the hospital.
When I arrived, Kirk was in the emergency room. Since I wasn’t legally immediate family, they wouldn’t let me in to see him. I even tried telling them that he was my fiancé. Their rules were strict however and they forced me to stay in the waiting room. I felt so helpless. There was absolutely nothing I could to.
It was almost three hours later before a doctor entered the emergency room and called for the family of Blake Temple. I leapt to my feet and he motioned me into a small consultation room. “I’m not able to tell you any details other than Mr. Temple will survive,” he said. “We consider his condition serious but stable.”
“Thank God. When can I see him?”
“He will be under observation for the time being in our ICU. You should check with the hospital desk for further updates regarding when he’s transferred to a private room. At that point you may visit according to normal visiting hours.” He left the room, closing the door with a hard pull as though he were disgusted with me.
I couldn’t blame him. I had done the unforgivable: I had hurt the man I loved. The shock was beginning to wear off and tears were streaming down my face. I went out to my car and drove home, shaking and filled with guilty regret. The others were asleep when I arrived home. I went up to my room, lay down across the bed on top of the covers, and from sheer exhaustion, I fell asleep.
Blake was still in the ICU when I telephoned the next morning, but by the afternoon he had been transferred to a private room. I hurried to the hospital, intent upon seeing him. I asked at the front desk for his room number.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. Mr. Temple has requested no visitors for the time being.”
I staggered backward at these words. He had obviously left these orders intended solely for me. Of course he knew no one else would know what happened or that he was even in the hospital. I left the hospital with a black cloud hanging over my head. I couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything other than how misguided my intentions had been. I had planned to help him, when in return I may have may well ended his career forever.
That next day I kept calling the hospital, hoping his directions had changed. I vacillated between trying to focus on work, but the sorrow and regret of what had happened kept bringing me back. Finally, that afternoon I called the hospital and pretended I was florist calling for Blake’s room number. With that information, I headed back down there and simply walked through the emergency entrance to the bank of elevators. I wrote went up to his floor and headed toward his room. The door was only open a couple of inches, so I pushed on it gently to go inside.
Blake was lying in the bed, a massive bandage around his upper thigh. He was pale, and I knew he had probably lost a great deal of blood. “Blake?”
He looked up at me and a frown blackened his face. “You need to leave, now.”
“Blake, you don’t understand. I thought you were a burglar.”
“How convenient.”
“Blake, I swear it’s true. What did you think would happen by coming into my window?”
“I was coming back to straighten things out,” he said. “I never expected to find a raging mad woman.”
“I guessed that now, but at the time I was scared to death. I thought you had gone. I am so very, very sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it, sister,” came the words from the corner of the room.
“I swiveled my head and there sat Jill in a chair. Her face held a look of contempt, and my own turned to a look of jealousy. Why was she here?
“Blake doesn’t need your kind of help,” she told me in a cold voice. “I’m here now. I’ll take care of him. You go home and don’t come back.”
I looked to Blake and I could see multiple emotions crossing his face. However, his words sealed the deal. “Go home, Meli. I’ve got this.”
I nodded slowly, tears attempting to wash the guilt from my face. I slowly turned and walked out of the room and down the hall. All I could think of was that he had called me Meli.
And the image my own sister, my Jill whom I had always protected, always looked after. There she was, sitting in the room of the man I loved and claiming him for herself. I knew he needed to be away from me in order to find himself again, but I had never expected him to find himself with her.