Free Christmas Miracle: A Family by Dianne Drake Page B

Tyler? What were you suppose to get?”
    “His cigarette,” he said, snuffling. “I always had to get his cigarette.”
    Fallon drew in a furious breath, trying to keep her voice calm for Tyler’s sake. “So he’d go to sleep while he was smoking and it was your job to take the lit cigarette from him when he did?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    Fallon’s phone rang before she could respond. She glanced at the number. It was Emoline Putters, getting impatient, she guessed. “Look, Tyler, we know the fire up at the lodge wasn’t your fault. Nobody’s blaming you.” While she truly wanted to comfort Tyler over what Donnie had done to him, and tell him that it wasn’t his fault, that Donnie shouldn’t have done that, it wasn’t her place. LikeEdith had said, everybody needed a mother sometimes, but she wasn’t Tyler’s mother, and she had to remember that. Had to remember that the mothering instinct she felt toward him was because he was her son’s brother. But Tyler was not hers . He belonged to James, and this was something James would have to deal with. “Look, I’ll be back in a while, Tyler, and maybe you can show me how to play that game.”
    He poked his head out from under the covers. “I’ll beat you,” he warned.
    She smiled. “I’m sure you will.”
    On her way back to the ER, she thought about the many ways she’d like to throttle that Donnie character, and every which way seemed too kind. A man like that deserved…
    “From the look on your face, I’d say you’re about to tie someone up with surgical tape,” James said. He was bandaging the hands of the cook who’d tried dousing the grease fire with water. Not a good move. The fire had leapt from the pan. Luckily, the cook had managed to jump back far enough that his injuries weren’t serious.
    She went to the sink to scrub her hands. “Surgical tape’s too good. I want something that’ll hurt more coming off.”
    “Not for me, I hope,” he teased.
    “For Donnie.”
    “Donnie? As in…?”
    “The man who isn’t Tyler’s father! Tyler thinks he’ll be accused of starting the fire at the lodge,” she said, trying to keep her temper in check, even though she was so angry she was almost shaking.
    “I don’t understand.”
    “I mentioned that we had to take care of people from the fire and he said he didn’t start it. Because of the wayhe reacted, I asked him if he’d ever started a fire at his house, and he said his dad accused him of it. It seems one of Tyler’s chores was to pull a burning cigarette from Donnie’s lips if Donnie dozed off. Apparently once Tyler didn’t do it and Donnie’s chair caught on fire.”
    “Damn,” James muttered, as he rolled gauze over the fleshy part of the cook’s palm.
    “I hated to leave him but we’ve got several people coming in at the same time and…”
    “I understand,” James said, through gritted teeth.
    “He’s fine, James. For now, he’s fine.”
    “Plucking lit cigarette butts from the lips of his stepfather… A mother who allows that…” He looked up at the ceiling, clearly trying to grapple with his emotions. “Nothing about him is fine, Fallon. The kind of life he has to live with his mother… The thing is, I should be there to help him, right now when he’s afraid he’ll be accused of starting the fire. But I’m not there, like I wasn’t there when you needed me.”
    She stiffened. “Don’t turn this into something about me! I told you I understood, James. Tyler needed you then, and you had to be with him. He needed you, and I was fine. And I’m pretty sure Tyler understands why you’re not there now,” she said, even though she knew James was right. Tyler needed his father…his real father. Right now. “Once Eric gets back, maybe you can go to him.”
    Maybe turned out to be a fantasy when seven patients rolled through the door, one after the other. Not only had Eric come in with them, so had Neil. “Fallon,” Eric called, from down the hall. “I’ll need