Her face crumpled, and her gnarled fingers shook as they reached for her leg. “I—I can’t. My knee . . .”
“Hold on to me.”
Mitch slid one arm behind her knees and the other behind her back, waited for her to grasp his neck weakly, then lifted her in his arms. Even soaked to the bone, she was so light he barely felt her weight in his hold.
She pressed her cheek to his, her fingers pressing against the back of his neck and her weak sobs in his ear. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to . . .” Her tone was lost, disoriented. “I hurt, but I don’t know why.”
Voice strained, Mitch whispered, “It’s okay, Emmy. If you want to, go ahead and cry.”
And she did. Her soft cries continued as Kristen helped him get her in the truck. Tears poured down her creased cheeks the entire drive back up the muddy track to the house.
A sedan and a truck were parked in front of the house when they arrived. Ruth Ann and Lee rushed down the front porch steps to greet them as they pulled up.
“Is she okay?” Ruth Ann asked, holding an umbrella over Mitch’s head as he lifted Emmy down from the cab.
“She’s soaked clean through.” He cradled Emmy closer to his chest, wincing as she shivered against him. “I need a blanket and dry towels. Once we get her warm, I want to take her straight to the hospital, just to be safe.”
“I’ll help, then drive you,” Ruth Ann said, walking with him toward the house.
“Kristen?” Mitch glanced over his shoulder. An almost palpable relief poured through him when she fell in step beside him and her hand covered his on Emmy’s shoulder. “Will you follow us with—?”
“Don’t worry.” Her hand tightened over his. “I’ll wake Sadie and Dylan, and we’ll meet you there.”
She hurried ahead and disappeared inside the house.
After helping Emmy change clothes and wrapping a thick blanket around her, Mitch settled into the backseat of Ruth Ann’s car with Emmy at his side. As they traveled down the driveway, he hugged her closer and rubbed her arms briskly, glancing back anxiously, hoping for a glimpse of Kristen close behind.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Emmy’s truck appeared and followed at a close pace.
Emmy whimpered, and Mitch smoothed a hand over her wet hair, smiling sadly. “I’m sorry about this, Ruth Ann. Thank you for watching the kids and for driving us.”
She glanced back at him from the driver’s seat. “No need to thank me. I’m here for Emmy whenever and however she needs me.”
“In a way, I’m hoping this is one event she won’t remember,” he whispered as Emmy drifted off, breathing deeply against his chest. “She’d hate this. She’d feel awful about your being dragged out at this hour and Kristen searching on foot for her in a storm. Emmy never did like to put people out, and she never cared for charity.”
The rhythmic squeak of the windshield wipers slowed as the storm weakened. Ruth Ann looked in the rearview mirror at the headlights following them, then met his eyes. “I know I’m speaking for me and Kristen when I say this isn’t charity,” she said softly. “This is love.”
CHAPTER 15
Kristen slid her clay-covered sneakers beneath her chair and shifted to a more comfortable position. Or at least as comfortable as it could get in a hospital waiting room.
She fixed her attention on the wide double doors on the other side of the room. One door opened, the sunlight streaming through the windows at her back glinting across the metal handle as it swung outward.
“Mr. Pittman?” A nurse, bright eyed, with a warm smile, nodded as a man rose from one of the seats lining the back wall. “You can come back now.”
A woman seated beside him stood, too.
The nurse held up a hand. “I’m sorry. Only immediate family is being allowed at the moment.”
Smothering a sigh, Kristen sank farther back into the stiff chair. She’d spent the early hours of the morning in the emergency room waiting area after Emmy had been checked in, hoping for good news or, at the very least, some kind of reassurance that she was okay.
But hour after hour had passed with no news. She hadn’t seen Mitch since moments after she arrived with Sadie and Dylan. He’d come out briefly to tell her that they’d taken Emmy to a back room and that he’d return with news as soon as he could.
That had been around two in the morning. It was almost eight now.
“Is Nana gonna be okay?”
Kristen glanced to her left, where Sadie sat, blinking up at her with sleepy eyes and a fearful expression. Dylan was slumped in a chair on the other side of his sister, his eyes closed, snoring softly. Both of them had to be exhausted. After the full day they’d had yesterday, they’d barely managed to fall asleep before she’d had to wake them, load them in the truck, and drive to town to sit and wait for hours on end.