Read Online Light This Candle (Harlequin More Than Words) by Cindy Dees - Free Book Online

in his life. He and
Cassidy tore out of the apartment and down to his truck. He raced across town
like a formula one driver, using every offensive driving skill he’d learned in
the military. They sprinted into the hospital and didn’t slow down until they
were standing in the elevator watching the floor numbers ding past.
    “You okay?” he asked Cassidy. Her face was pale, her eyes
unnaturally large.
    She shook her head, and he pulled her into his arms for a
quick, hard hug. The fact that she didn’t protest was an indication of just how
distracted she was.
    The door opened and he turned her loose. The ICU floor was
crowded with medical personnel he didn’t recognize. The only one he knew was Dr.
Mistler. “Who are all these people?” he muttered to Cassidy.
    “Transplant team.”
    She reached for his hand and squeezed his fingers until they
went numb as the doctors explained there had been a car accident in Columbus. A
young child who was a designated organ donor was in intensive care in the Ohio
State University Hospital and not expected to live. The team here needed to do a
series of tests to match Cody’s blood and tissue with the potential donor’s, and
they had to do it fast. She scrawled her signature a half dozen times on various
forms, and the team surged into Cody’s room.
    He and Cassidy followed. At first the child looked alarmed and
his beeping monitors went wild. But then he saw his mother and his face relaxed.
The little boy looked over at Mitch and mouthed, “Hi.”
    “Hey, buddy,” Mitch replied, grinning. Man, he admired that
kid. Feeling what had to be complete terror, Cody could still smile at him and
Cassidy. The child remained stoic through a series of pokes and prods and an
ultrasound of his heart.
    And then, as fast as the mob had descended upon the ICU, it
disappeared. In a few minutes, only Rose Parker and the bedside nurse were
left.
    “Now what?” Cassidy asked. Mitch heard the quaver in her
voice.
    Rose gestured for the two of them to step out into the central
area. The woman closed Cody’s door behind them before answering, “Now we wait,
honey.”
    “How long?”
    “Until that poor child in Columbus dies.”
    Cassidy slapped a horrified hand over her mouth. “Here I was
all excited about Cody getting better when some other family is about to lose
their precious baby.” She turned into Mitch’s chest and he felt tears wet his
skin through his shirt.
    This compassion was part and parcel of why he was falling for
her so hard and fast. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Rewind. Falling for
a woman? Him?
    He turned the notion over in his head a few times and decided
it wasn’t so difficult to believe, after all. Cassidy was the most extraordinary
mom he’d ever met. Exactly the kind of mother he wished his own had been—
    His thoughts derailed. He wasn’t doing some bizarre
need-fulfillment thing here, was he? Although his conscious mind denied the idea
adamantly, part of him doubted the denial.
    “What do we do now?” Cassidy was asking the social worker.
    “Go sit with Cody,” Rose answered practically. “See if you can
get him to go back to sleep.”
    Still dumbfounded at the idea of falling for anyone, Mitch
followed Cassidy into her son’s room and went through the motions of cheering as
Cassidy and Cody played a few games of checkers. Thankfully, the hour was late
and Cody’s sleep schedule had been interrupted. The little boy soon tired and
Cassidy sang him to sleep so sweetly Mitch had to restrain an urge to weep. This
was not about his own lousy mother!
    Cassidy tiptoed out of Cody’s room and he followed her into the
small private waiting room for the families of ICU patients. It was empty but
for the two of them.
    She sat down on the sofa and he cautiously took the seat across
from her. She curled into a little ball, almost like a child herself. One he
desperately wanted to comfort. But they didn’t need any repeats of that kiss. Or
more accurately, Cassidy didn’t. He