Travis frowned. “Festival of the Monster falls on the same weekend as the White Wolf Moon?”
The EMT nodded. “Yes. It’s going to be a huge event thisyear. The missus is on the organizing committee. She’ll be thrilled that Darkaway Island’s favorite son will be home for the festivities.”
Favorite son? As in, small-town boy goes out into the world and gets famous? That would explain him getting mobbed on the ferry. And all those cell phones recording him after the accident. It really irked me that I didn’t recognize who he was. I hated not knowing something that everyone else did.
I pulled out my phone and turned the screen slightly away from Travis so he wouldn’t see that I was searching his name. Bummer. I didn’t have any cell service.
When we arrived at the hospital, I stopped in the waiting area and tried to tell them I didn’t belong here, but the place was bustling with activity and no one would listen. An orderly pushed Travis in a wheelchair through the double doors of the emergency room, and I was ushered along with him.
“Is that his fiancée?” I heard someone whisper as we passed the nurses’ station.
“I didn’t know he was engaged,” said someone else.
“It’s all over the tabloids, silly.”
“I don’t read that trash,” the second person remarked.
So, I’d impulsively kissed a guy who was engaged.Great. Inwardly cringing, I sent out a sincere apology into the ether to his fiancée. I’m not the kind of girl who preys on taken men. Trust me. That’s a job for wedding singers.
Once inside the exam room, the orderly helped Travis get onto the bed.
This was getting even more awkward. Here was a man I hardly knew getting ready to be examined by a health care professional. I definitely needed to get out of here. “I should probably just?—”
The door opened, and a tall, blond man in scrubs strolled in.
“They told me you were on your way in,” he said, giving Travis a fist-bump. So, these guys were friends too. Sheesh…did everyone on the island know everyone else? “You don’t look too worse for the wear. Sorry I couldn’t be at the old man’s memorial service—I was in emergency surgery all day.”
“No problem, Carlisle. You didn’t miss much.”
“Still, I wish I could’ve been there,” the doctor said, adjusting his stethoscope. “For you, Ruby, and the rest of the family. Your father may have been a major asshat, but he was the step-asshat I never had.”
Ruby? That must be his fiancée.
The doctor held out his hand to me. Though his smile was warm, his skin was unexpectedly cold. “I’m Alexander, an old friend of Travis.”
Hadn’t Travis just called him Carlisle? Maybe that was his last name. I glanced at the hospital badge clipped to his lab coat and frowned. It said Dr. Lesauvage.
Noticing my confusion, Travis chuckled. “Have you seen the Twilight movies? They were a big hit on the island when they came out, weren’t they, Doc?”
The movies?Humph.The movies wouldn’t have existed if it hadn’t been for the books.
The doctor shrugged and washed his hands at the tiny sink in the corner. “It started as a joke. The nickname stuck.”
A joke? I scrutinized him again. Handsome, blond, and a doctor. Okay, I got it. The island sure took this monster stuff to the Nth degree. Well, I could play along too.
Smirking, I covered my neck with a hand. “I hope you’ve fed recently, Dr. Cullen.”
The doctor winked. “I’m a vegetarian, remember?”
I laughed. Good one.
He turned his attention back to his patient, and I took it as my cue to go. I didn’t want to see any needles or hear any groans of pain—much less see this guy naked. Well…at least not in a hospital and under these circumstances.
Girl, no. He’s engaged. Remember? And you’re not a skanky wedding singer.
“Guess it’s time for me to skedaddle. Let you have a little privacy. Thank you for?—”
Travis shot a hand out and grabbed mine, pulling me closer to his bedside. If I’d been wearing heels, I probably would’ve lost my balance. “Stay here, Daphne. Please.”
