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Authors: Candace Calvert
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And I want you to know that I think you’re doing the right thing. With the divorce. It’s hard on Nick right now; he’s confused. But that won’t last forever. It never does.”
Leigh bit into her lower lip, grateful for the wail of a siren in the distance.
“Looks like you’ve got more work to do,” Sam said, her voice completely matter-of-fact. As if their entire conversation had been that way. “So do I.” She patted her briefcase. “I have all the information I need on Kristi Johnson; anything else I’ll get from her admitting physician. I’ll be visiting regularly during the baby’s hospitalization.” The frosty eyes captured Leigh’s. “And I’m sure we’ll see each other again.” She turned and walked away.
How Leigh made it back into the ER—punched the lock code, put one foot in front of the other along the length of the corridor to the nurses’ station—she had no clue. When she got there, Riley glanced up with questions in her eyes but said nothing. Leigh caught the charge nurse’s attention. “What’s the ambulance?”
The nurse glanced at the ward clerk’s computer screen. “Transfer from a nursing home. Needs a catheter change.”
Leigh scanned the dry-erase assignment board. “Anything I need to do urgently in the next few minutes?”
“No, we’re fine, and your relief doc’s here early.”
“Good.” Leigh hugged her white coat around her and faked a smile. She met Riley’s eyes for a risky instant. “I’m going to run to the physicians’ library for a minute, and then I’ll be back.”
She made it there on the same autopilot that got her away from the bench in the parking lot. The same way she’d navigated so many days this past year. She crossed the thickly carpeted and dimly lit room, grateful that it was unoccupied. Leigh breathed in the smell of leather and newsprint, trying to dispel the scent of cinnamon gum and the knifing jab of Sam’s words. And mostly trying to stop the childhood memory that had played and replayed for as long as she could remember. But it came anyway.
She’d been barely twelve, and school let out early. She walked home, let herself in with the key she’d daubed with bright pink nail polish. Tried to think which of her favorite shows would be on TV— The Cosby Show , Growing Pains ? She’d get her homework done early and still have time to look at her latest horse magazine, then surprise her father with his favorite snack, peanut butter and salami on Ritz crackers with a cold Dr Pepper. She’d have it all ready, meet him at the door with a bear hug and the silly joke she’d been practicing all day. It would be hours before her mother got home from her new job. Leigh would help her dad forget how her mother picked on him, ran him down about being “only a plumber.” Leigh would make him laugh again.
She took the stairs two at a time humming that new hit song “Somewhere Out There.” She loved how romantic it was, two people wishing on the same star, love seeing them through; she secretly loved everything to do with romance. It made her hope that someday she’d have that too: a handsome husband and her very own happily ever after.
She bounded down the hallway past her parents’ open bedroom door and heard a deep, unfamiliar male voice, followed by her mother’s tinkling laughter. She backed up, peered through the doorway. And almost threw up.
“Pull yourself together, Leigh!” her mother had hissed after sending the man—her new employer, Alton Evers—to the bathroom and wrapping herself in a flowered bedsheet. With her lipstick smeared and eyes narrowed, she’d grabbed hold of her daughter’s trembling chin, insisting that she stop crying, stop wailing about her father. Things were over between them. Leigh was smart enough to know that.
“You’re twelve years old now,” her mother said, breath bitter with alcohol, “and it’s high time you stopped believing in fairy tales. Nothing . . . nothing lasts
Leigh bit into her lower lip, grateful for the wail of a siren in the distance.
“Looks like you’ve got more work to do,” Sam said, her voice completely matter-of-fact. As if their entire conversation had been that way. “So do I.” She patted her briefcase. “I have all the information I need on Kristi Johnson; anything else I’ll get from her admitting physician. I’ll be visiting regularly during the baby’s hospitalization.” The frosty eyes captured Leigh’s. “And I’m sure we’ll see each other again.” She turned and walked away.
How Leigh made it back into the ER—punched the lock code, put one foot in front of the other along the length of the corridor to the nurses’ station—she had no clue. When she got there, Riley glanced up with questions in her eyes but said nothing. Leigh caught the charge nurse’s attention. “What’s the ambulance?”
The nurse glanced at the ward clerk’s computer screen. “Transfer from a nursing home. Needs a catheter change.”
Leigh scanned the dry-erase assignment board. “Anything I need to do urgently in the next few minutes?”
“No, we’re fine, and your relief doc’s here early.”
“Good.” Leigh hugged her white coat around her and faked a smile. She met Riley’s eyes for a risky instant. “I’m going to run to the physicians’ library for a minute, and then I’ll be back.”
She made it there on the same autopilot that got her away from the bench in the parking lot. The same way she’d navigated so many days this past year. She crossed the thickly carpeted and dimly lit room, grateful that it was unoccupied. Leigh breathed in the smell of leather and newsprint, trying to dispel the scent of cinnamon gum and the knifing jab of Sam’s words. And mostly trying to stop the childhood memory that had played and replayed for as long as she could remember. But it came anyway.
She’d been barely twelve, and school let out early. She walked home, let herself in with the key she’d daubed with bright pink nail polish. Tried to think which of her favorite shows would be on TV— The Cosby Show , Growing Pains ? She’d get her homework done early and still have time to look at her latest horse magazine, then surprise her father with his favorite snack, peanut butter and salami on Ritz crackers with a cold Dr Pepper. She’d have it all ready, meet him at the door with a bear hug and the silly joke she’d been practicing all day. It would be hours before her mother got home from her new job. Leigh would help her dad forget how her mother picked on him, ran him down about being “only a plumber.” Leigh would make him laugh again.
She took the stairs two at a time humming that new hit song “Somewhere Out There.” She loved how romantic it was, two people wishing on the same star, love seeing them through; she secretly loved everything to do with romance. It made her hope that someday she’d have that too: a handsome husband and her very own happily ever after.
She bounded down the hallway past her parents’ open bedroom door and heard a deep, unfamiliar male voice, followed by her mother’s tinkling laughter. She backed up, peered through the doorway. And almost threw up.
“Pull yourself together, Leigh!” her mother had hissed after sending the man—her new employer, Alton Evers—to the bathroom and wrapping herself in a flowered bedsheet. With her lipstick smeared and eyes narrowed, she’d grabbed hold of her daughter’s trembling chin, insisting that she stop crying, stop wailing about her father. Things were over between them. Leigh was smart enough to know that.
“You’re twelve years old now,” her mother said, breath bitter with alcohol, “and it’s high time you stopped believing in fairy tales. Nothing . . . nothing lasts
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