Six-Week Marriage Miracle. Jessica Matthews
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anything so drastic and so final to happen to him. Yes, a divorce was like a death—the death of a marriage—but part of her consolation had been that they each would carry on and eventually find the happiness they couldn’t find with each other.
Unfortunately, Sheldon’s announcement had irrevocably destroyed that thin hope. Why had he felt compelled to deliver the news now, at this very moment, with patients breathing down her neck, when she wasn’t mentally prepared to deal with the finality of the situation?
“No,” Sheldon corrected in her ear.
“No?” She stared at him in surprise.
“What he’s trying to say unsuccessfully is that they found us.” Sheldon’s voice suddenly sounded closer … and deeper … and more like … Gabe’s.
And it was coming from inside the ambulance.
She focused in that direction, ignoring the paramedic to glance at the human cargo—two men and a woman. They looked tired and dirty in clothing that was tattered and torn, but broad smiles shone on their faces. An uncanny sense of familiarity struck her.
In spite of their gaunt and disreputable appearance, she knew all three. Yet her brain couldn’t reconcile what she was seeing with what she’d been told.
She homed in on the man who’d spoken. He was just as dirty as the other two and equally as disheveled. His right pants leg had been cut open at some point but in spite of being tied closed with strips of gauze, she glimpsed a white bandage circling his shin. A splint encased his left forearm and another bandage was visible above the open neck of his torn shirt. But there was no denying that this man was Gabe.
“I tried calling you all morning,” Sheldon babbled in the background as the identities of Gabe’s colleagues—Jack Kasold and Theresa Hernandez—registered before they stepped onto the concrete. “You never answered my messages.”
The pink scraps of paper tucked in her tunic pocket suddenly weighed like the proverbial ton of bricks. She’d ignored them when she’d seen who’d phoned because she’d assumed he simply wanted to hash out more details for the foundation’s upcoming charity ball. Apparently, she’d been wrong.
“I was going to call you during my break,” she said numbly as she looked past all the people to study her husband once again.
Tape bisected his forehead, his beard was scruffy, his hair shaggy, and lines of apparent pain bracketed his full mouth, but his midnight-black eyes were so familiar.
Could it be true? Really true? Her heart skipped a beat as she feared she might be hallucinating and hoped she was not.
“Gabe?” she finally asked, aware of how thin and reedy her voice sounded.
He stepped out of the ambulance, balancing himself on one crutch. His reassuring smile was one she’d seen before—the same one that belonged to the man she’d married when their future had been bright and it had seemed as if nothing could stop them from living their dreams.
“Hi, honey. I’m home.”
CHAPTER TWO
UNCERTAIN of the reception he’d receive when he finally saw Leah again, Gabriel’s tension had escalated with each mile closer to his destination. Considering how Sheldon hadn’t been able to reach her all morning, Gabe had expected her to be surprised and shocked by his astonishing return and she didn’t disappoint him.
“Gabe?” she whispered in that soft voice he remembered so vividly. “Is it really you?”
He met her gaze and offered a rueful smile. “A little the worse for wear but, yes, it is.”
“Oh, my.” She covered her mouth with both hands. Suddenly, she turned pale and a dazed look came to her eyes.
She was going to faint. Cursing because he wasn’t in a position to catch her himself, he roared, “Sheldon!”
Fortunately, his second-in-command was beside her and grabbed her arm. At the same time the paramedic did the same. For an instant she sagged, then straightened and shrugged off the two men’s hold.
“I’m okay,” she insisted, losing a bit of her deer-caught-in-the-headlights look.
“Are you sure?” The paramedic didn’t sound convinced as he eyed her closely.
“I’m fine. Really.”
Of course she was, Gabe thought wryly. Leah thrived on her ability to handle anything and everything by herself, without help from anyone. In fact, at times he’d felt rather superfluous in their marriage, but he intended to change all that.
“Truly,” she insisted, tentatively reaching toward him.
Eager to touch her and prove just how wrong the reports of his death had been, as well as to reassure himself that he was truly home, Gabe grabbed her hand.
Her skin was soft and warm and soothingly familiar. Oh, how he’d missed her!
Before he could say a word, before he could do anything but entwine his fingers with hers, she flung herself against him and buried her face in his shoulder.
His crutch clattered to the concrete and his ribs protested, but having her in his arms where she belonged was worth the pain. When his plane had landed and Leah hadn’t been standing with Jack’s and Theresa’s elated families on the tarmac, he’d been so afraid … but this was the response he’d dreamed of and hoped for every night they’d been lost in the jungle.
The coldness of despair, the survivor’s guilt, and the soul-racking regret that he’d labored under for weeks now began to diminish until he slowly felt warm from the inside out.
His wife’s fresh, clean scent filled his nostrils and reminded him of how desperately he needed soap and water. If he’d been thinking properly, he might have asked Sheldon to detour to his corporate offices where he could have made use of the executive washroom, but he’d been too eager to see Leah to consider it. Quite frankly, though, with his stiff shoulder and the slow-healing gash on his leg, he wasn’t sure he could manage the feat on his own, anyway.
He gripped her with his good arm, feeling her slight frame shake beneath his hand. As her tears soaked his shirt, his throat tightened and his eyes burned with more emotion than he could begin to describe.
“Oh, honey. Don’t cry,” he said hoarsely, relieved by her reception and grateful the paramedics and ER staff were giving them a few minutes before they whisked him away.
“I’m not,” she sniffed, swiping at the moisture on her cheeks as she stared at him. “Oh, Gabe. I can’t believe it.”
As he gazed at her, one thought ran through his mind. She was beautiful—more beautiful than the picture he’d slipped out of his wallet and stuck in his shirt pocket shortly after they’d crashed. The photo was now dog-eared and a little dirty, but her image had given him the incentive to keep going when he’d sworn he couldn’t hobble another step.
“I can’t quite believe it, either,” he said ruefully. As far as he was concerned, this was a dream come true. A bona fide miracle.
More importantly, it was a miracle he wasn’t going to let slip through his fingers.
“What happened?” she asked.
“It’s a long story.” Rather than dwell on that fateful day and the events leading up to it, he drank in everything about her, from her acorn-colored hair and eyes that reminded him of the Grand Canyon’s various shades of brown to her retroussé nose and sensual mouth. She’d lost weight, too, if his hands hadn’t deceived him.
The paramedic stepped close to interrupt. “I don’t mean to cut short your reunion, Dr. Montgomery, but let’s get you inside before you fall.”
Whether she suddenly realized how heavily he was leaning against her or the