A Love Beyond Words

The teasing drew a watery smile. “You’ll regret it. Even before this I had two left feet. On top of that I can’t exactly hear the music.”

“I’ll take you someplace where it only matters if you can swivel your hips.”

“Ah, salsa,” she said knowingly.

“With a little tango mixed in,” he said. “You’ll just have to hang on and follow my lead.”

She gave a decisive little nod. “I can do that.”

“Then it’s a date.”

All the while he talked, chattering nonsense mostly just to keep her attention focused on his face, he cleared debris from on and around her. When he saw the bloody gashes in a long shapely leg, he had to fight to keep his expression neutral.

That was the worst of it, though. If he could free her leg, he thought he could get her to safety. He just had to keep his mind on what he was doing and off the fact that she was all but naked. The T-shirt she’d presumably worn to bed was shredded indecently. She apparently hadn’t noticed that yet or else she was more brazen than he’d imagined.

“Make sure there’s a blanket ready and waiting when we come out,” he murmured into the radio tucked in his pocket, his head turned so she couldn’t read his lips. She tapped his shoulder, her expression frustrated. He smiled. “Sorry. I was talking to my partner. I just wanted to be sure he’d be ready for us when we blow this cozy little cave under here.”

It took another hour of careful excavation around her leg before he felt confident enough to move her.

“You ready?”

“Oh, yes,” she breathed softly.

“I’m not guaranteeing there won’t be some pain.”

“What else is new?” she said bravely.

“You want something for it?”

“Just get me out,” she pleaded.

He cradled her as best he could, aware of every bare inch of skin he was touching, then slowly worked his way back the same way he’d come. It seemed to take forever, but at last he saw Tom’s face peering at them intently.

“You have that blanket?”

“Right here.”

Ricky reached for it, then wrapped it around Allie as best he could in the confined space, before shimmying the rest of the way out.

Allie blinked against the brilliant glare of sunlight and continued to cling to Ricky as if he were all that stood between her and an unfamiliar world.

And, of course, the neighborhood must seem strange—nothing like what it had been the last time she’d seen it before the storm. Ricky could only imagine how it must feel to emerge and find everything changed. He’d seen that same sense of shocked dismay on the faces of other victims of other tragedies as they realized the extent of the damage around them and the likelihood of casualties among their friends and family.

As for the way Allie was looking at him and holding on, it wasn’t the first time he’d seen that reaction, either. The bond between victim and rescuer could be intense, but in most instances it wasn’t long before familiar faces arrived and the bond was broken.

This time, though, only the elderly neighbor stepped forward to give Allie a fierce hug, even as the paramedics moved in to begin their work. Allie was on a stretcher and headed for an ambulance in no time, Jane right beside her, giving instructions. Ricky grinned at the bemused expressions of the paramedics at taking their orders from a pint-size senior citizen in a flowered housecoat and bright-pink sneakers.

“Wait,” Allie commanded as they were about to lift her into the ambulance. Her gaze searched the crowd.

Ricky felt a quick rush of heat at the precise moment when she spotted him. Her gaze locked on his.

“Thank you,” she mouthed, too far away for him to actually hear the words.

“You’re welcome,” he said, then deliberately turned away from the emotion shining in her eyes to move on to another complicated search taking place a few houses away.

“You going to see her again?” Tom asked as they began work on the recovery of a victim who had been less fortunate than Allie.

“I wasn’t down there making a date,” Ricky retorted.

“I was asking about your intentions.”

Those blue, blue eyes came back to haunt him. He wondered if he might not have to see her again before he could get them out of his head.

“I promised to take her dancing,” he admitted, earning a punch from Tom.

“Next time there’s a pretty woman involved, I get first dibs,” Tom said. “There’s nothing like a little gratitude to get a relationship off to the right start.”

“And what would you know about relationships, Mr. Love ’em and Leave ’em?”

“More than you,” Tom said. “I was married.”

“For about fifteen minutes.”

“Three years,” his friend corrected.

“And in that time you learned what?”

“That women get all crazy once you put a ring on their finger.”

Ricky chuckled. “Are you referring to the fact that Nikki thought you ought to stop dating other women after the wedding?”

“Very funny. You know it wasn’t that. I might have looked, but I never went near another woman during that whole three years. Nikki just got all weird about the job. She knew what I did for a living when we met, but for some reason after we got married she seemed to think I’d give it up and go to work for her father.” He shuddered. “Me, behind a desk. Can you imagine it?”

No more than he could imagine himself there, Ricky conceded. “Mama says Nikki still loves you.”

“Not enough to give up that crazy idea,” Tom said, a hint of something that might have been sorrow in his eyes. But it was gone in a flash, replaced by an irrepressible glint of laughter. “That divorce was the best thing that ever happened. Women figure if I got married once, I might risk it again. You’d be amazed what a woman will do when she’s optimistic about your potential. You should consider it.”

“What? Get married, just so I can divorce? Not me. If and when I ever take the plunge, it’s gonna have to be forever. Between Mama and the priest, my life wouldn’t be worth two cents if I even breathed the word divorce.”

“Which is why you never date a woman for more than two Saturday nights running,” Tom concluded. His expression turned thoughtful. “I wonder if Allie Matthews could make you change your mind.”

“Why would you even say something like that? I barely know the woman, and you didn’t exchange two words with her.”

“I got a good look at her, though,” Tom said. “A man doesn’t soon forget a woman who looks that incredible even after being buried under a collapsed building. Besides, if her neighbor is right about what an angel she is, she’s nothing at all like your usual dates. Did you ever consider that you make the choices you do precisely because you know they’re not keepers?”

Ricky scowled at the analysis of his love life. He had a hunch it was more accurate than he wanted to believe. “We’ve got more houses to check out,” he said, stalking away without answering Tom’s question. His friend’s hoot of knowing laughter followed him.

What if he did protect himself from winding up married by dating women he would never, ever spend the rest of his life with? What was wrong with that? It wasn’t as if he led any of them on. As Tom said, Ricky rarely went out with the same woman more than once or twice, and he always put his cards on the table, explaining that in his line of work he was on the go way too much to get seriously involved.