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“I’ll meet you at the Italian Bakery at ten,” she said. “My sister owns the other place in town, and I don’t like her to know too much of my business.”
“Perfect. I’ll eat pastry for breakfast,” Zach said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Coffee with me or pastry?” Lisa asked, grinning.
“Seeing you,” he answered.
The other EMTs had Daniela on the stretcher and were ready to leave. Lisa and Zach walked out to the ambulance together.
“Miss, I’m so sorry,” Daniela said, weeping.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about. The captain doesn’t think your leg is broken. I’ll follow you to the hospital, okay?”
After saying goodbye to the neighbors who had congregated, Lisa went back inside to let Nancy know she’d go to stay with Daniela if Nancy was okay with it.
“Go, go. Thank you so much for caring for her.”
That night, Lisa stayed by Daniela’s side. Just as Zach had predicted, her leg was not broken, she just had a severe sprain of her hip flexor tendon. Ouch.
In the morning, Daniela was discharged, but Lisa was taking her to the cottage.
“Are you okay coming home with me?” Lisa asked. “There’s no way in hell you’ll survive an hour-long car ride home.My house isn’t exactly accessible, but we’ll fix you up in the sunroom.”
“Yes, I want to go home with you,” Daniela said resolutely. “There’s no resting at my house.”
Lisa phoned ahead, asking for any able-bodied men in the hood to meet at the cottage. It would take Andy and Tony to get Daniela inside and situated on the daybed in the sunroom.
“This is like a resort with that view,” she said, trying to keep upbeat.
“A snowy resort,” Tony said.
Andy had to get back home, but Tony stayed.
After fixing coffee, Lisa set mugs and cream and sugar out on a tray. Then she added a plate of Dominican pastries Daniela had baked the day before.
Carrying the tray out to the sunroom, she chuckled. “I remind myself of my mother. You’ll never have coffee at Pam’s without some kind of pastry. I’ve never left her house without powdered sugar on my clothes.”
“You found the bunuelos,” Daniela said, snickering.
“Yes, after I told you to stop baking before my ass got twice as big.”
“You’re a tiny little thing,” Tony said, frowning. Then he put his hands up in defense. “Tacky of me to say, but that’s me, foot in mouth.”
“We’re happy to have you and Kassandra here,” Lisa said. “Finally, someone young and happy living up there.”
“We’re not exactly young,” he said. “I’m”—he put his hand over his mouth and mumbled something unintelligible—“and Kassie’s thirty-nine.”
“Is that her nickname?”
“It is. She doesn’t have a lot of friends in New York that aren’t professional acquaintances, and no one there calls her Kassie.”
“Would she mind if I called her that?”
“No. She’ll love it. Her goal is to get pregnant and play on the beach with all of you.”
“How nice! We’ll include her when that happens. In the winter, we hibernate. The wind off the ocean makes the beach hostile to children. But as soon as the weather breaks, and any nice day in between, we’re out there.”
“Maybe Daniela can hook us up with a nanny when the time comes.”
