1105 Yakima Street - Debbie Macomber [121]
She gave him the same tentative smile she had earlier. “I think so. I had a bad night, but I’m a little better this morning.”
“What’s wrong?” He was growing concerned.
“Nothing…I’m just under the weather.”
“You should’ve stayed home,” he said, crouching beside the car.
“Is everything all right, Dad?” Jolene raised a cup of hot cocoa at him.
“I wanted to be with you and Jolene,” Rachel said. “I’ve been looking forward to this all week. I’ve never cut my own tree before. It sounds like fun.”
“Dad!” Jolene again.
Bruce glanced over his shoulder.
“You go ahead,” Rachel said. “I’ll stay in the car.”
Reluctantly he stood. He didn’t feel good about leaving her alone, especially if she was ill. The farm took up quite a few acres and he could be away as long as an hour, searching for the perfect tree.
Jolene joined him and looked anxiously at Rachel. “You okay?”
“I’ll be fine in a little while. You two go on.”
“You sure?” Jolene asked. “You can come, really. I don’t mind.”
Rachel smiled. “I appreciate it, but I’m just not feeling that well.”
“I don’t think we should leave you,” Bruce said.
“I’ll be fine,” Rachel insisted again. “I’ll be here when you get back. Now go.”
Still, Bruce hesitated, worried about her pale, clammy skin and obvious discomfort. In the end he and Jolene went in search of a tree, only his heart wasn’t in it. Halfway up the hill, he stopped.
“Dad?”
“I’m going back.”
“Do we have to?” Jolene asked, clearly disappointed.
“Rachel is my wife,” he told his daughter. “There’s something wrong. I can feel it. You can go on by yourself if you want to. I’m taking Rachel to the doctor or the hospital or whatever she needs. I’m sorry our day got ruined, but Rachel’s more important than a Christmas tree.”
Jolene nodded, biting her bottom lip.
“Do you want to come with me?”
“I don’t know yet.” She turned back and walked over to another tree.
Bruce wasn’t waiting. He headed toward the road, moving quickly. The scent of cut evergreens mingled with the soft mist falling, but he barely noticed. By the time he reached the parking lot he was running. At some point he’d realized that Jolene was right behind him.
Once he was at the car, he jerked open the back door to find Rachel curled up in the backseat. She looked at him and sobbed. “I think you’d better get me to the hospital.”
“Is it the baby?” Jolene asked over his shoulder, her voice frightened.
Rachel didn’t answer, and Bruce saw tears streaking her face. A sense of urgency filled him as he raced around the car and jumped into the front seat. Jolene threw herself in beside him and slammed the door.
“Hurry, Dad!” she cried. “Please hurry.”
How they made it to the Bremerton hospital without causing an accident or getting a ticket, Bruce didn’t know. He roared to a stop at the emergency entrance and dashed inside.
“My wife is pregnant and needs help!”
A minute later, Rachel was whisked onto a stretcher and into an exam room, where she was seen by a physician.
“Is the baby going to be okay?” Jolene asked him, sounding as worried as Bruce.
He paced the waiting area restlessly, wondering how long this would take. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“Oh, Daddy, I’m so scared.”
He was, too, but for his daughter’s sake tried to act confident and composed.
An eternity passed before the doctor came into the waiting room and called for Bruce. Jolene went with him.
“Your wife has food poisoning,” the doctor explained. “As far as we can tell, it was something she ate yesterday afternoon. It isn’t serious but she’s badly dehydrated. We’d like to keep her overnight.”
“And the baby?”
“Your child appears to be fine.”
“Thank God.” Bruce closed his eyes, so grateful for his wife’s health and his child’s that it felt as if his knees might go out from under him. He slumped into a chair.
Jolene sat down next to him. “Why did Rachel come with us if she was sick?” she asked.
Bruce placed his arm around his daughter’s shoulders. “Because she wanted to be with us—to do something together as a family. Rachel never had this opportunity