She shot forward instead, toward Heidi and the crumbling corner of the lanai.
Joel was walking toward Nic, his pulse thumping at the base of his throat in response to the smile they’d exchanged, when the deck collapsed. His heart stopped altogether when he saw her stumble toward the broken edge of the two-story lanai. She caught herself immediately, but then, to his horror, threw herself directly toward the break.
The lanai shuddered again beneath him and people began to scream behind him. He surged forward, calling Nic’s name.
He saw her grab Heidi and all but shove her toward Joel. Joel managed to catch Heidi without stumbling, and he acted on pure instinct when he half turned to push her toward the doors and safety. She fell, but Ernie Watson caught her arm and half-pulled, half-dragged her inside.
Nic threw herself toward Joel the moment she was certain that Heidi was safe, but the collapsing foundation had started a chain reaction that made the whole lanai start to crumble. She stumbled and slid backward as the wood sloped beneath her.
It all happened in a fraction of a second, but Joel felt as though he were watching Nic fall in slow motion.
“Nic!” he shouted again, reaching for her.
She jumped toward him. He made a desperate grab, but his grasping fingers closed around empty air. Someone latched on to him from behind just as the lanai split again with a loud crack. Even as he struggled against the force pulling him back toward the doors, Nic tumbled over the broken edge and out of his sight.
Nic’s head hurt. She didn’t often wake with a headache, she thought without opening her eyes. And why did the rest of her body feel so stiff and sore?
Her bed felt odd. Hard. Lumpy. Strange noises surrounded her, and an acrid antiseptic scent tickled her nose. Some part of her mind was aware that she wasn’t in her own bedroom, but she was having trouble making her eyelids open so that she could figure out exactly what was going on.
“Nic?”
Joel’s voice. She latched on to the familiar sound and tried to force her eyes open. She wanted to see him.
Her vision was blurred. His face was seriously out of focus as he leaned over her, saying her name again. She blinked rapidly—or tried to. It seemed as though even her eyelids were moving slowly. “Joel?”
What was that funny croak? Surely not her voice. She cleared her throat, then winced when another bolt of pain shot through her head.
“Hey,” he said softly, very lightly brushing a strand of hair away from her face. “You’re awake. How do you feel?”
“I, um…” Her mind was still hazy, the words hard to retrieve, but she was relieved to see that his face was slowly coming into focus. He was smiling, though his eyes were very grave. “I’m okay. Where…?”
“You’re in the hospital, but you’re going to be okay,” he assured her quickly. “You fell. Remember? The lanai collapsed. Some sort of structural defect.”
Though he was still smiling at her, she heard an underlying fierceness in his voice. She’d rarely seen Joel angry, but something about his tone made her glad it wasn’t directed at her.
“Is everyone else okay?” she asked as the memories began to creep back into her aching head. “Heidi?”
Joel’s smile broadened. “Heidi’s out in the waiting room, telling everyone in sight that you are a hero. She says you saved her life with your quick thinking. She’ll probably cry all over you the minute she has a chance.”
Nic grimaced. “That’s really not necessary,” she said fervently.
He gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “I’ll hold her off as long as I can.”
“Thanks.” Shifting on the bed, she winced again when her movement tugged at the IV taped to her left hand and sent shooting pains through various parts of her body. “Was anyone else hurt?”
“Earl Watson twisted an ankle when he made a grab for me when the lanai collapsed. He was still able to hold on to a doorway and keep us both from going over after you. Heidi skinned her knees when she fell scrambling to get inside, but she’s fine. Everyone else had just gone inside for breakfast when the structure gave way. We don’t know whether it was already broken while they were standing out on the deck or gave way just as they moved inward.”
“It’s sort of coming back to me now. I remember the lanai falling and I sort of remember being in an ambulance.”
“It’s natural that you would have some memory gaps. You have a concussion.”
“A concussion. Okay. Anything else?”
“Quite a few br
uises. You’ve got six stitches just under your chin—you’ll have a scar, but it’ll fade to a very thin line, barely noticeable, with time.”
Wiggling her jaw tentatively and feeling the gauze taped to her chin, she nodded. She wasn’t worried about a scar—she had several of those already.