A Love Beyond Words

She watched as Jane left, admiring her still-brisk step in her favorite pink shoes. She wore them today with an orange skirt and flowered shirt. A bright-orange baseball cap sat atop her white hair. It was an outfit that could stop traffic, which Jane counted on, since she hated wasting time on a corner waiting for a light to change. It was a habit that scared Allie to death.

All in all, her neighbor was a wonder, interested in everything and everyone. Allie saw her pause in the hallway and watched her face as she carried on an animated conversation with a nurse she’d befriended on her first visit. Jane had all of the doctors and nurses wrapped around her finger. Allie didn’t doubt that Jane was the reason they’d been taking such extraspecial care of her, bringing her treats from the cafeteria and lingering to chat to make up for the fact that she’d had so few visitors.

Once Jane was gone, Allie struggled to her feet, determined to take a walk around the room at least to begin to get her strength back. She closed the door on her way past so no one would witness her awkward, unsteady gait.

She was still limping around the confined space, filled with frustration, when the door cracked open and eyes the color of melted chocolate peered at her. When her visitor spotted her on her feet by the window, a grin spread across his face.

“You’re awake. They told me not to disturb you if you were sleeping.”

“Come in,” she said, glad to see her rescuer again so she could thank him properly for saving her life. “I just realized that I don’t even know your name.”

“Enrique Wilder,” he said. “Ricky will do.”

“Thank you, Enrique Wilder.”

He looked almost embarrassed by her thanks. “Just doing my job.”

“So you spend your life scrambling around like a cat saving people?”

“If I’m lucky,” he said.

She shuddered a little at the implications of that. “Well, I’m grateful.”

He moved carefully around the room, his gaze everywhere but on her. He seemed so uneasy, she couldn’t help wondering why he had come. He paused to gaze out the window, and after a moment she tapped him on the shoulder so he would face her.

“Why are you here?” she asked finally.

“To tell you the truth, I’m not entirely sure.”

“So this isn’t follow-up you do on everyone you’ve pulled from a collapsed structure?” she teased lightly.

He looked away. She could see his lips moving, but because of the angle of his head, she couldn’t read them. She touched his cheek, turning his head to face her.

“Oh, sorry,” he apologized. “I forgot. I just came to make sure you’re okay. No lasting damage?”

“None. You can check me off as one of your success stories.”

“When are they springing you?”

“Not fast enough to suit me,” she said.

“I thought the goal these days was to get people out as quickly as possible, too quickly sometimes.”

“That’s the general rule, yes, but these are unusual circumstances. It seems I don’t have a home to go to, and they don’t want me alone.”

“You don’t have a friend you could stay with?”

“None I feel I could impose on. I haven’t been in Miami very long. Most of my friends are neighbors.” She shrugged. They both knew the situation most of her neighbors were facing.

“Of course. How is Mrs. Baker, by the way?”

“Living with her sister and grumbling about it,” Allie said with a chuckle. “Jane is very independent. She thinks her sister is a stick-in-the-mud. A half hour ago, you could have heard all about it.”

His devastating smile tugged at his lips. “She was here?”

“Yesterday and today. She says it’s to check on me, but I think she’s just desperate to get away from her sister.”

“I know the feeling,” Ricky said.

“You have a sister?”

“Four of them.”

Fascinated by the idea of such a large family, Allie sat on the side of the bed and regarded him eagerly. “Tell me about them.”

He looked doubtful. “You can’t really want to hear about my sisters.”

“I do,” she assured him. “I was an only child. I’ve always been envious of big families. Tell me about your parents, too. Is your mother Cuban?”

“How did you guess?”

“Your coloring and your first name are Hispanic, but your last name is Wilder. Those looks had to come from somebody.”

He laughed. “Ah, deductive reasoning. Yes, my mother is Cuban. She met my father at school when she had just come to the United States. She swears she fell madly in love with him at first sight.”

“And your father, what does he say?”

“He says she didn’t look twice at him until they were twenty and he’d used up all his savings sending her roses.”

Allie chuckled. “Maybe she just liked roses.”

“That was part of it, I’m sure, but Mama has always understood the nuances of courtship. She might have been madly in love, but she wanted my father to prove his love before she agreed to a marriage that would be forever.”

“And the roses proved that?”

“No, but the persistence did.”

“And she passed all of this wisdom on to her children, I suppose, assuring that all of you have nice, secure relationships.”

“Let’s just say that my sisters each made their prospective husbands jump through hoops before they said yes. On occasion I felt sorry for the poor men. They had no idea what they were getting into. Sometimes I tried to warn them when they showed up for the first date, but it was too late. My sisters are very beautiful, and the men were already half in love with them before they arrived at the house.”

“How about you? How have you made your mother’s wisdom work for you?” she asked, surprised by how much she wanted to know if Ricky Wilder was married or single and how very much she wanted it to be the latter.

“I haven’t. Haven’t met a woman yet I wanted to impress.”

“But I’m sure you’re swimming in eager admirers,” she said, teasing to hide her relief.

“What makes you think that?”

“Please,” she chided. “Look in the mirror.”

His grin spread. “Are you trying to say that you think I’m handsome, Allie Matthews?”

“Facts are facts,” she said, as if she were stating no more than that. She hardly wanted him to know that he was capable of making her blood sizzle with little more than a glance. “Back to your sisters. Tell me about them.”

He settled into the room’s one chair. “Let’s see, then. Maria is the oldest. She’s thirty-six and has four children—all boys, all holy terrors. Each of them is fascinated by bugs and snakes and chameleons. To her horror, they’re constantly bringing their finds home and letting them loose in the house. I told her it’s penance for all the rotten things she ever did to me as a kid.”

Allie laughed, sympathizing with the other woman’s dismay. “How does she handle it?”

“She gives her husband and the boys exactly five minutes to find the missing creature and get rid of it.”

“And if they fail?”

“She leaves and goes shopping. She can buy herself a lot of perfume and lingerie in a very short period of time. She claims her skill with a credit card is excellent motivation for her husband.”

“I don’t know,” Allie said doubtfully. “Some husbands might consider the prospect of a little sexy lingerie as a benefit, rather than a threat.”

Ricky grinned. “I know. I don’t think she’s figured that out yet.” His expression sobered. “Then again, maybe she has. Maria is a very sneaky woman.”

“And the others?” Allie prodded.

“Elena is next. She’s thirty-five and is married to a doctor. They have only one child so far, because they waited until her husband’s medical practice was well established before starting a family. My mother prayed for her every day. She will not be happy until there are enough grandchildren to start their own school.”

“Are the other two sisters cooperating?” Allie asked eagerly, already able to envision the noisy family gatherings.

“Daniela and Margarita are twins. My mother despaired of ever getting them both married, because they took their own sweet time about it. Neither married until they turned thirty and had their own careers. Daniela is a stockbroker. Margarita is a teacher. Daniela has two daughters and insists that she’s through. Margarita has a son and a daughter, but she’s expecting again and the doctor thinks it might be twins. Needless to say, my mother is ecstatic.”

“I think I would love your mother,” Allie said wistfully. “And your sisters. I love my parents dearly, but they never anticipated having children at all. They’re both college professors and loved the quiet world of academia. I came as a total shock to them. Not that they didn’t adore me and give me everything a child could possibly want, but I always knew that I was a disruption in their lives. They would be horrified if they knew that I’d sensed that.”

Ricky’s gaze narrowed. “Do they know you’re in the hospital?”

“Yes, and before you judge them, they did offer to fly down, but it’s the beginning of the fall semester.”

“So what?”

“I couldn’t ask them to do that. It would disrupt their classes.”

Ricky stared at her incredulously. “You can’t be serious. That’s why they’re not here?”

“They’re not here because I told them not to come,” Allie said defensively. “We would have ended up in a hotel, anyway. It just didn’t make sense.”

“You’ve just been through a terrible storm,” he said indignantly. “Your house was destroyed. You’re in the hospital. They should have been on the next plane, no matter what you said.”

Allie refused to admit that a part of her had hoped they would do exactly that, but she had known better. They had taken her at her word, because it had suited them. It didn’t mean they didn’t love her. They were just practical, and they’d never been especially demonstrative except for those weeks after she’d lost her hearing. That it had taken such a thing to get their attention had grated terribly.

“I won’t defend my parents to you,” she said stiffly.

He seemed about to say something more but fell silent instead, his expression troubled.

Allie waited, and eventually he met her gaze.

“What will you do?” he asked.

“Stay here a day or two longer, I imagine. Then the insurance company will no doubt insist the hospital kick me out no matter what. Or I suppose they could send me to an intermediate treatment center of some kind for rehab if the insurance would cover it.”

“A nursing home? At your age?”

“There aren’t a lot of options,” Allie said. “Besides, I don’t think it will come to that. I’m getting stronger every minute.”

“I saw you limping when I came in here. You’re probably not even supposed to be on your feet, are you?”

The doctors had insisted on a few days of bed rest for her ankle and knee, but she didn’t have the luxury of waiting. She had to prove she was capable of managing on her own. “It’s nothing,” she insisted.

“I could ask your doctors about that,” he challenged. “Would they agree?”

She frowned at him. “Really, you don’t need to worry about it. You did your job. I’ll manage.”

“Allie—”

“Really,” she said, cutting off his protest. “It’s not your concern. The social worker is looking into some possibilities.”

“I can just imagine,” he said dryly. He stood up, then moved to the window to stare outside as if something out there fascinated him.

Allie used the time to study him. Even if he hadn’t been the one to rescue her and carry her out of the rubble, she would have recognized his strength. He was slender, but the muscles in his arms, legs and shoulders were unmistakable in the snug-fitting jeans and T-shirt he wore.

More important, there was strength of character in that handsome face.

As she watched, it was evident that he was mentally struggling with himself over something. She didn’t doubt that it had to do with her. He seemed to be feeling some misplaced sense of responsibility for her predicament and nothing she’d said thus far seemed to have lessened it.

Finally he faced her and spoke very deliberately. “I have a solution.”

“To what?”

“Your situation,” he said with a touch of impatience.

“Which is?”

“You need a place to stay.”

She told him the same thing she’d said to Jane earlier and to him repeatedly. “It’s not your problem. I’ll work it out.”

“I’m sure you will, eventually, but you’d like to get out of here now, right?”

She couldn’t deny it. “Of course.”

“Okay, then. You could come home with me.”

She wasn’t sure which of them was more startled by the invitation. He looked as if he wanted to retract it the instant the words left his mouth. If she wouldn’t impose on her friends, she surely wasn’t about to impose on this man whose duty to her had ended when he saved her life.

“That’s very kind of you, but—” she began, intending to reassure him.

“It’s not like I’m there a lot,” he said hurriedly, cutting off her automatic protest. “But I’d be there enough to satisfy the doctors, and it would be a roof over your head till you figure out what you want to do.”

Before she could follow her first instinct and turn him down, he seemed to reach some sort of decision. His chin set stubbornly.

“I’m not taking no for an answer,” he said, then headed for the door. “I’ll speak to your doctors.”

She launched herself off the bed and managed to get between him and the door. Her ankle throbbed with the effort. “You will not,” she declared, trying not to wince at the pain. “I have no intention of being a burden on anybody, much less on someone I barely know.”

“I don’t think you have a choice,” he said, his gaze unwavering.

“Of course there are choices,” she insisted, even if most of them were impractical or unpalatable to someone who treasured her independence and didn’t want to lose it even temporarily.

“Give me one.”

“I’ll go to a motel and hire a nurse,” she said at once, grabbing at the first idea that came to her.

“Why waste that kind of money, when you can come with me? Do you have money to burn?”

“My homeowner’s insurance will pay for the motel, and my medical coverage will pay for the nurse,” she said triumphantly, praying it was true.

“And where will you find this motel room?” he asked.

“Miami’s a tourist destination. There are hundreds of hotel rooms.”

“And most of them are either packed with tourists willing to pay two or three hundred dollars a night or are filled up with insurance adjusters, fly-by-night contractors who’ve swarmed down here hoping to make a quick killing doing repairs or people just like you who’ve been displaced by the hurricane and who got there first.”

Allie sighed. He was probably right. “Then I’ll go into a treatment center. How bad can it be? I’ll only be there a few days.”

Ricky shrugged. “If that’s what you want,” he said mildly. “Institutional food. Antiseptic smells. A hard hospital bed. If you prefer that to my comfortable guest room and my mother’s home-cooked meals, which I’m sure she’ll insist on bringing over, then go for it.”

He wasn’t playing fair. This room was already closing in on her. She doubted a change to another medical facility would be an improvement. And she’d definitely had her fill of bland, tasteless meals. Cuban food was her very favorite. Her mouth watered just thinking about sweet, fried plantains.

But could she move in with a man who was virtually a stranger? Especially one who stirred her hormones in an extremely disconcerting way?

As if he sensed that she was wavering, he gave her an irrepressible grin. “I won’t even try to seduce you, if that’s what’s on your mind.”

“Of course that’s not on my mind,” she protested a little too vehemently, even as a guilty flush crept up her cheeks. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

His grin spread. “If you say so, mi amiga.”

Friend? she translated derisively. That’s all she was to him? For a man she’d barely met forty-eight hours ago, it was actually quite a lot, but for reasons she probably shouldn’t explore too closely, she found it vaguely insulting.

As if to contradict his own words, he lifted his hand and caressed her cheek, allowing his thumb to skim lightly, but all too sensually across her lips.

“Come on, Allie. A few days. It’s a way out of here. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

She swallowed hard. More than anything, she thought. More than anything, she wanted not just out of the hospital, but to go home with Enrique Wilder. The powerful yearning terrified her.

Not once in recent years had she given in to her own desires. She had become cautious and practical and self-protective. Heaven help her, without even realizing it, she had turned into her parents.

And two nights ago she had almost died. Maybe it was time she got back to living every single minute of every day.

“If you’re absolutely sure that it won’t be an inconvenience,” she said finally, trying to ignore the wave of heat that continued to build simply from that light touch against her cheek. “And it’s just for a few days.”

His gaze locked with hers. “A few days,” he echoed softly. He bent his head, his mouth hovering a scant inch above hers.

She yearned for him to close the distance, prayed for it, but he jerked away instead, his expression suddenly troubled.

“Sorry,” he said roughly. “I’ll go find the doctor.”

And then he was gone.

Sorry, Allie thought, sinking gingerly to the side of the bed. He was sorry he’d almost kissed her. She was trembling inside, filled with anticipation, and he was sorry?

If she could have backed out of this deal of theirs right now, she would have, but he would have no trouble at all guessing why. It would be too humiliating.

She could keep this crazy lust under control for a few days, especially if he was gone most of the time as he’d promised. It was probably no more than some out-of-whack hormonal reaction to coming so close to dying. It probably had nothing to do with Enrique Wilder at all.

He walked back into her room just then, and her pulse ricocheted at the sight of him. Okay, she thought despondently, it had everything to do with him.

But she could control it. She had to.

“All taken care of,” he announced. “Let’s get you out of here and go home.”

Just the mention of the word did her in. Two days of pent-up emotions crowded into her heart. Allie thought of her own home, unrecognizable now, and had to fight the sting of tears. Ricky regarded her with alarm.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “What did I say?”

Before she could respond, he gave a low moan and knelt in front of her, taking her hand in his. “Home? That’s it, isn’t it? I’m sorry. You’ll rebuild, Allie.”

“Of course,” she said with sheer bravado. “It just caught me by surprise for a second, realizing that I don’t actually have a home anymore.”

“Well, for now you have a home with me,” he reassured her.

The promise gave her comfort. It might be only a stop-gap solution, but it was enough for now. For the first time since the whole ordeal began, she didn’t feel quite so terrified and alone.

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