“Broken glass at your wrist can never be a good thing, especially for a frail man.” He squeezed my shoulder. “I need to go and activate the front gate so the ambulance can enter. I think I better jog out to the fork in the road, too… make sure the ambulance doesn’t waste any time by taking the wrong direction and coming our way.”
“I’m coming with you,” I said, starting toward the door before he had a chance to argue with me.
“I’ll wait here for Wes,” Valeria told me as we passed.
By the time we reached the front steps, I could tell by the sound of the siren that the ambulance had reached the mountain road turnoff to Les Jumeaux. “We’d better run,” Evan said.
So we did. Inevitably, I fell behind his long-legged, athletic pace.
“Go ahead,” I panted when he glanced back at me over his shoulder.
He took off like a jet.
I reached the fork in the road just in time to see Evan waving the ambulance in the correct direction. They barely slowed upon seeing him, just swerved to the left and disappeared into the pine forest.
I bent over, bracing myself with my hands above my knees, trying to catch my breath. The air felt unusually heavy and humid for typically arid Tahoe. I wondered if we’d get rain later.
In the distance, the siren abruptly stopped. When I straightened after my breathing had evened a little, I saw that Evan just stood there at the fork in the road, staring in the direction the ambulance had just taken with the oddest expression on his face.
“Evan?” I asked uncertainly.
He blinked and looked at me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said quickly, walking toward me even though his gaze was glued again to the road that led to South Twin.
“Ready to head back?” I asked, turning toward the house.
“Wait.”
My feet froze at the terseness of his tone. He gave me a brief apologetic glance, informing me he’d been aware of how sharp he’d sounded. He came to me and put one arm around my shoulder, hugging me against him.
“Let’s wait for them to pass.”
“All right,” I agreed uneasily.
I stared up at his stoic profile. I wanted to ask him if he was upset at the idea that the Madasters had been living next to us the entire time we’d been there… to inquire about how he was feeling about the fact that his one time father-in-law and apparent enemy had become so incapacitated that he was wheelchair bound, and now was headed to the hospital with a possible serious injury.
But he seemed so preoccupied, so far away from me. I couldn’t bring myself to do it at that moment.
The ambulance approached us silently. I had the fleeting impression that perhaps Madaster’s wounds weren’t as bad as we’d worried, because while the vehicle traveled with good speed, it was nowhere near as fast as it had when it had arrived.
After it passed, Evan grabbed my hand and we walked into the center of the road. We stood side by side, Evan staring fixedly into the rear windows of the ambulance.
Wes and Valeria were on the front porch waiting for us when we returned to the house. I thought they were holding hands when we first broke the tree line onto the circular drive, but couldn’t decide for certain as we got closer. Maybe it’d been a trick of the fading light. Storm clouds darkened the eastern sky.
“How is he?” Evan asked Wes.
“He’ll need a few stitches, but it’s his heart I was concerned about. I was about to leave, to follow the ambulance to the hospital.”
“Does he have heart problems?” I wondered.
“He’s had a few minor heart attacks in the past few years,” Wes said, looking uneasy.
“Did he seem upset?” Evan asked.
I found myself studying his profile and intent expression.