“I would love it.”
Mary nodded. “I think I’d like that. A lot.”
She performed all kinds of vitals checking, then listened to Isabel’s lungs. “How do you feel?”
“Tired, but strangely, really, really happy.”
“Cheating death has a way of making people feel that way. You were damn lucky Arthur just happened to be driving by and saw you take the header.”
“Lucky, yes.”
“Or maybe, just maybe, it was something else,” Mary speculated. “Arthur has been having these premonitions for a couple of months now. Well, he called them dreams, but . . . who knows?”
“How’s our patient?” Arthur asked, climbing in and sitting on the bench.
“Lungs surprisingly clear, heart rate slightly elevated, but you tend to have that effect on damsels in distress.” She opened a cabinet above her head and pulled out a blanket, tossing it to him. “She definitely needs to be checked out at the hospital, but I would bet she’ll be released within an hour.”
She climbed down from the back of the ambulance. “Not exactly protocol, but I see no reason not to ride up front with James. I think she’s in good hands.”
“Thanks, Mary,” Arthur said.
Mary winked and slammed the doors.
Arthur waited a second, then smiled down at Isabel, that heartpoundingly handsome smile that she had fallen for so long ago.
He took her hand. “Seriously, how do you feel?”
“Surprisingly wonderful.”
“You look surprisingly wonderful.”
“I’m sure I look like a drowned rat.” She glanced away, then back. “Thank you, Arthur, for saving my life.”
“Thank you for surviving.” He shook his head, but his gaze never wavered from hers. “Have you ever just looked at someone and you knew, somehow, you just knew?”
She didn’t even need to ask, “Knew what?” She nodded. “Yes, I have. Once, a very long time ago. And then again today, when I opened my eyes on the banks of Grand Lake.”
“I know it sounds crazy, Isabel, but my son was not exaggerating. I have had so many dreams about you, every day I would search for you in the crowds, in restaurants, just everywhere I went. I couldn’t believe it when I pulled you out of the lake and got a good look at you. And then fear, like nothing I’ve felt in my entire career, took over. I was so scared that I would lose you, just when finally, finally I found you.”
“Well, guess what, Arthur. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere. Not this time.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. “I am determined to hold you to that, Isabel. I have this overwhelming desire to make you vow to it.”
“I vow.”
“I’m seriously guessing it’s too early to ask you to marry me.”
“Not really. As long as you promise me I won’t ever have to eat pickled eel.”
“I swear.”
“Then to thee I vow.”
AND within weeks they exchanged those vows, Mary and James stood at their sides.