Free Coast Road by Barbara Delinsky Page B

there and was scheduled to meet with the owner, an electrician, a plumber, and a kitchen consultant.
    "Next Wednesday."
    "Good. I want shop drawings before then. And San Jose? " He was supposed to have a preliminary meeting with the owners of a computer company that had outgrown its space and wanted to build.
    "Wednesday, also. David was pushing for this Friday. He wants to get them hooked. Lucky they couldn't make it. You're supposed to be in Austin on Friday." After the space of a breath, she asked, "Think you'll make it? " Jack closed his eyes and massaged tired lids.
    Standing there at the phone, he felt shrouded in fog. "God knows. She could wake up later today. Or tomorrow. Or Thursday. Or next week.
    This is bizarre."
    "Are you staying down there with the girls? " "Well, I don't have clothes. But, yeah, I guess I am. Just for a night or two, until we know more of what's going on. Rachel will wake up.
    She's too healthy not to, but even then, her leg is smashed up, so she won't be doing much driving, which means I'll have to do something about the girls." He pushed a hand through his hair. "Austin on Friday may be tight, but leave it for now. Clear my appointment book for tomorrow.
    I'll take it a day at a time."
    "David won't be happy."
    "No. I don't suppose he will." But Jack couldn't worry about David.
    There were now more urgent players in his life.
    The second call he made was to one of those. His "Hey" was gentler, but the sense of wallowing in fog remained.
    "Jack! " It came through with the delighted smile that he thrived on.
    Jill always liked hearing from him, liked being with him, and it showed.
    What man wouldn't value that?
    "It's early' she said, still smiling audibly. "I didn't think you'd be calling so soon. Is your meeting done? " "Never took place. I have a problem, Jill. Rachel's been in a car accident. She's in Intensive Care. I'm here with the girls." There was a pause, then, minus the smile, a cautious "In Big Sur? " "In Monterey. She's in a coma." He passed on the basics of the case. "She could wake up in five minutes, five days, five weeks�or never. The doctors have no way of knowing, and the girls are terrified. I can't leave them alone right now. " The pause that followed was long enough for him to hear the static in his mind loud and clear. Finally, Jill said, "You won't make it to the ball." Her disappointment was as obvious as her delight had been.
    She wore her feelings on her sleeve. Usually that was a plus. He preferred it when her feelings were positive.
    "Not unless she wakes up within the next few hours. I'm sorry, Jill.
    I really am. I know what you've put into tonight, but you're not the only one I'm doing this to. I canceled three meetings today and just told Tina to do the same for tomorrow. I stand there looking at Rachel, thinking there has to be something that someone can do to bring her out of this, but no one has any answers. So it's a stinking, lousy waiting game."
    "You can't be there all the time. Isn't there someone who can stay with the girls tonight? " Duncan Bligh could, he supposed. Maybe even Katherine Evans. But Jack remembered the scene he had just witnessed and felt again the same annoyance�annoyance, defensiveness, pride. It had become a matter of principle.
    "The girls are my responsibility. They're still young. They don't understand why this has happened. Not that I do. But I can't leave them, Jill. Not today. The situation is too shaky. I mean, I don't know what in the hell to say to them, how to make things better, but I can't just drive off. Trust me. This is not what I want to be doing right now."
    "I'm the cochair of this, Jill said. What she didn't say, because she wasn't a shrew, but what Jack heard, was that she didn't want to be without a date.
    "You told me you'd be running around most of the time."
    "But I wanted you there." It wasn't whiney�mere statement of fact, which only increased his sense of guilt.
    "I know." He pushed a hand through his