Evergreens and Angels by Mary Manners Page A

maybe because we’re so close in age. I can’t imagine enduring all she’s been through—first losing a husband and now watching her child suffer. The accident was nobody’s fault which I suppose, in some odd way, makes the whole thing even harder to stomach. Why did this happen? Why did the deer choose just that moment to bolt, and why did the two vehicles have to be in just the right position to crash? Why did Janie endure the brunt of the impact? ”
    “Was Sarah hurt, too?”
    “No. She wasn’t involved in the wreck, which brings us to a whole other set of why’s. She was at work while Janie was with a friend headed back from the park. The driver endured a sprained wrist as well as a couple of bruised ribs while Janie’s little friend sustained a slight concussion. But Janie took the lion’s share of the impact, since it happened on that side of the car—the passenger side.”
    “How, exactly, did the accident happen?”
    “A deer bounded into the road, crashed through the windshield of Gramps’s SUV and landed in the front seat—right in his lap. The shock caused him to cross over into oncoming traffic, where his car collided with the oncoming sedan. Thank goodness a police officer happened to be there at a side road and saw the whole thing. He radioed nine-one-one and had help on the scene right away.”
    “It’s a miracle, really, that your grandparents weren’t hurt worse.”
    “I know. Especially Gramps, who walked away without so much as a scratch. But his damage was more emotional—he feels awful about Janie.” The elevator doors parted and Brynn waited while those inside disembarked before she stepped on. “She wasn’t as fortunate. She suffered a compound fracture of her distal femur as well as a skull fracture resulting in an extradural hemorrhage. And her spleen was compromised—”
    “Hold on a minute…plain English, please.”
    “Janie was hurt, Dillon—badly. Her recovery time will be lengthy and involved.”
    “I see, and where did you pick up all that medical jargon?”
    “I’m a pediatric RN. It’s my job to know the jargon.”
    “You’re a nurse? Where do you work?”
    “Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville. I’m on leave here while Gran recovers. She needs me. Gramps needs me.”
    I need you, too. The words stormed through Dillon’s heart without warning.
    “On leave,” he parroted his mouth suddenly dry. “For—for how long?” He stumbled over the words.
    “I was given a month, and I’ve already been here more than a week, with Gran in the hospital. I have until December twenty-seventh until I’m due to report back.”
    “That’s less than three weeks from now.”
    “I know.” Brynn’s clear, toffee-colored eyes rose to meet his. “But those weeks should give Gran plenty of time to get back on her feet and even Janie ought to be well down the road to recovery by then, too, if she doesn’t experience any setbacks.”
    “So you’ve made up your mind? You know for certain your return to Clover Cove isn’t permanent?”
    “You know as well as I do that nothing in life is for certain but yes, it’s my plan to return to Jacksonville right after Christmas.”
     
     
     
     

6
     
    Two weeks or so…that’s all he had. Dillon forced the thought from his mind as he swung into the Pappy’s Pizzeria lot. Since the winter solstice loomed, dusk hovered, though it was barely four o’clock. He and Brynn had spent a good part of the day at the hospital, affording Sarah Mitchell a chance to have lunch and indulge in a short nap without leaving her daughter without company. Brynn’s experience in nursing proved an added bonus; she aided the on-call nurses and put Sarah at ease.
    Dillon turned to Brynn, nestled in the passenger seat beside him, as the aroma of pizza sauce and spicy Italian sausage poured from the brownstone building brightened by a crimson awning that ran the length of the front. “How long has it been since you’ve eaten