“Has she woken up?” he asked when the paramedics lifted the stretcher from the back of the ambulance and then rolled it through the automatic double doors into the hospital’s emergency room.
“Not yet,” one of the two men responded as they rushed past the nurse’s station and wheeled the stretcher into a treatment room. The man’s voice sounded grimmer than Luke cared to hear and fear twisted his gut into a tight knot.
“Sir, if you’ll please come with me, I need to get some information from you,” a woman instructed from somewhere behind him.
Turning to the nurse walking toward him, he shook his head. “Can’t it wait until later? I don’t want to leave her.”
“I’m afraid not, sir.” The woman gave him a sympathetic smile. “I know how worried you must be, but I need to get the patient’s medical background from you. Now, if you’ll please follow me, we can get this taken care in just a few minutes.”
Luke looked at Haley through the window of the treatment room where a bevy of medical personnel had surrounded the narrow bed. There was a flurry of activity as tubes were unrolled, IVs were hung on metal poles and an oxygen mask was placed over her nose and mouth.
He shook his head again resolutely. “She needs me and I’m not leaving her.”
“But sir, I have to get—”
Luke turned to glare at the woman. “Let’s get this straight. You can ask me whatever you need to know right here and I’ll do my best to give you the answers you need. But I’m not leaving her side. Understand?”
Realizing that she wasn’t going to win, the nurse disappeared for a moment, then returned with several papers on a clipboard. Luke answered what little he knew about Haley’s medical history, but when the woman wanted to know who to list as the next of kin, he had no problem giving her his name.
“And what is your relationship to the patient?” the woman asked.
Luke kept his gaze trained on the activity taking place in the treatment room. “I’m her husband.”
Nodding, the nurse added it to the chart and started through the treatment room door to give the medical team the information. “The doctor will be out to talk with you as soon as he knows something, Mr. Garnier.”
Luke continued to watch through the window as he thought about what he’d said to the nurse. In any other set of circumstances, he might have been surprised at how quickly the pronouncement had rolled off his tongue. But telling the nurse that he was Haley’s husband had come as naturally as taking his next breath.
And that’s when it hit him. He’d tried not to think about it, denied it was happening and fought hard not to do it, but he’d fallen in love with her.
But before his realization could sink in, his heart stalled at the sight of a man in hospital scrubs walking out of the treatment room and heading straight for him.
“Mr. Garnier?”
“Is my wife going to be all right?” he demanded, tightness in his throat.
“I wish I could say she is, but at this point, we just aren’t sure. We’re going to have to do some tests before I can give you a prognosis.” He reached out to shake Luke’s hand. “My name is Dr. Milford and I’m the resident neurologist on call this evening. I’ll be in charge of your wife’s care and I’ll do everything I can for her. But before we take her to Imaging, I need to know, is she pregnant or is there the possibility that she might be pregnant?”
“I’m not sure,” Luke advised, feeling as if he was an unwilling participant in a horrific nightmare. “We’ve been trying to get pregnant, but I don’t know if we’ve been successful.”
The doctor nodded. “In that case, we won’t risk doing a CT scan of the head because of radiation and the possible harm it could do to the fetus.”
“I want you to do whatever you have to do to bring Haley out of this. Even if there is a baby and it comes down to a choice of tests to find out what’s wrong, you do what’s best for my wife,” Luke directed without hesitation.
“We’ll do an MRI and that will be safe for both of them, in case she is pregnant,” Milford concluded, his voice filled with understanding.
As Luke watched, two nurses maneuvered Haley’s bed through the door and out into the hall. “Where will you take her after the test?” he asked, wanting to be as close to her as possible.
“I’m having them ready a bed on the third floor. That’s where we take care of our head trauma patients,” Dr. Milford answered as he turned to follow the gurney. “She’ll be taken there straight from Imaging and I’ll meet you in the waiting room with the test results.”
Getting directions from the nurse’s station, Luke prayed like never before on the elevator ride to the third floor. When he found the waiting area closest to the room Haley would be taken to, he lowered himself into one of the chairs and ran a shaky hand over his face in an effort to keep his choking emotions in check. God, he couldn’t lose her now, not when there was so much he needed to say to her, so much that he needed to make right between them.
What had made him so damned relentless with his questions? Why had it been so important that he force her to tell him what he’d known for weeks?
Haley was in love with him and had been for years. Hell, after getting to know her intimately this past month, he knew for a certainty that she would have never married him if she hadn’t loved him.
And the ultimate irony of all of it was that he’d probably loved her just as long. He’d just been too blind to see it.
But even after he’d figured it out, he’d been an arrogant jerk about it. He’d known the hell he was putting her through, but he’d wanted her to be the one to admit her feelings, had been determined to get her to say the words first.
He reached into his pants pocket and withdrew the small black velvet box. Flipping it open, he stared at the white gold wedding band, with an array of sparkling white diamonds, that was nestled inside. He’d bought the ring just that morning and intended to surprise Haley with it right after they returned home from dinner with his brothers.
Why hadn’t he bought it for her earlier? Why had he waited until Chet Parker goaded him into even thinking of it?
Luke snapped the box shut and stuffed it back into his pants pocket. He knew exactly why he’d finally purchased the ring. He’d wanted to send a message to dirtbags like Parker to keep their hands off of Haley.