“Can you move your neck?” he asked Opal.
She batted his hands away. “Get your hands off me and put them on my niece. She’s the injured party.”
“Then let’s carefully lift you up and better assess how everyone is doing,” Decker said. “Miles, you take her other side and help me gently lift. I want to bring her to the patio chair.”
The two went to work and lifted Opal as if she weighed no more than a feather. He looked at Jack, who was too busy shooting to help. Decker put his hand in front of the camera and shoved them back. “Not this. Now someone get medical.”
“Medical to the set,” Jessika said into her walkie-talkie. “Medical to set.”
Poppy had barely pushed herself to a sitting position when the medical team came rushing out. They headed toward her, but she waved them off. “Check my aunt first. I’m fine.”
“Fine, my ass,” Decker said, kneeling beside her. With gentle and probing hands, he ran them up and down her body in a very clinical kind of way.
“Where does it hurt?” He eyed her. “And before you tell me you’re fine, I will strip you down to nothing and examine you myself.”
Poppy rolled her eyes and even that hurt. “Right here,” she said, holding her side.
His hands were immediately there. When she winced, he lifted her shirt. No warning, no asking permission, just tugged her T-shirt just under her bra line.
When his bare hands met her nude skin she shivered. “Are you cold? That could mean you’re in shock.”
He raised his hand to get the attention of a medic when she took his hand in hers. “It’s just a bruise. I promise.” Suddenly the air between them thickened like a storm before lightning hit. “Can you check on Opal?”
“She’s with the medics. I’d rather stay here with you.”
“Do we need to call a board meeting?” She meant for him tolaugh—he did not. She gave his hand a squeeze. “Really, I’m going to be okay.”
He gripped the back of his neck. “When I saw you tumble down that concrete step my heart literally stopped. I needed to know if you were okay.” The intensity in his voice was something she’d never heard before—from him or any man. And especially with regard to her. “I want you to get checked out by medical.”
“Deal. But first I need to know if my aunt is fine. She’s been having these dizzy spells and we’ve just brushed them off.” Her heart started pounding. “What if that’s what caused her to fall? What if there is an underlying condition?”
“Or she tripped. Let’s not borrow worry.”
But she was already too worried to even take in a full lung of oxygen. All the possibilities and what-ifs spiraled through her mind.
“I just need to know she’s okay.”
She could tell he didn’t want to let go of her hand, but he finally did. “Don’t move until you get checked out. Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Your ass doesn’t leave that square foot of concrete.”
She chuckled. “My ass is firmly planted.”
With a nod he walked over to the other side of the patio where the medics were kneeling in front of Opal. One was wrapping her foot with an ace bandage. It took everything she had not to move. When the urge became too much, she was about to stand when, as if he could read her mind, Decker shot her a warning raise of the brow.
Decker talked to the lead medic for a moment and then, as he promised, returned to her side. “If anything, she suffered a minor sprain. So minor the medic can’t detect anything wrong, but wants her to get checked out just to be safe.”
“I am not going to the hospital. Imagine what the tabloids would say, seeing me taken out of here by ambulance,” Opalsaid, her arms firmly crossed. “They’d say I was retiring because I’m too old. Not on my watch.”
“You are going,” Jack said. “It’s a liability. You fall; you go get checked out.”
Poppy was about to thank Jack when he looked at her. “You too, missy.”
“I was planning on going anyway,” Poppy said. And that’s when she saw the reality of the situation hit Jack.
“But it’s a closed set,” Jack said. “Maybe we can get a doctor to come here.”
