Read Online Nursing The Doctor by Bobby Hutchinson - Free Book Online Page B

could have a few moments alone with her brother.
    “You want this cowboy movie, Gram?”
    “Kaleb and that nice young woman hit it off, didn’t they, dear?”
    Hannah stacked a pile of children’s books and placed them on the coffee table, and Lily realized that for the moment at least, the disease had disappeared and Gram was her old self again. These windows were precious and becoming rare. Lily sat down beside Hannah, needing to cherish the moment.
    “It would be good if he met someone and got married again. A man like Kaleb needs a good wife,” Hannah said in a conversational tone. “Not that I think marriage is for everyone,” she declared with a vehement shake of her head. “I would have been better off staying single myself, but there was the farm, and of course I had Michael. He was only three, and I thought he needed a father. Getting married was the only thing to do back then.”
    Lily knew from things Hannah had said that her grandfather Frank Sullivan had been a difficult, stern man. He’d been Gram’s second husband. Her first, Michael’s father, had been killed in a farm accident.
    “You’re smart to stay single, Lily.”
    Lily stared at her grandmother in surprise. Gram had never said anything like that before. “Women nowadays are much better off than in my day,” Hannah went on. “You have a good job, your own money. You don’t have to get married.”
    “But what about love, Gram?”
    Hannah smiled her old, sweet smile. “Love is about taking care of people.”
    “Oh, Gram.” Hannah had devoted so many years to caring for her and Kaleb. But surely there was more to it than that. “Didn’t you ever fall in love with anyone, Gram?”
    But Gram’s eyes had taken on a faraway look and she didn’t respond. The cloud had come down once more, Lily realized. She waited a moment to see if it would fade again, but Hannah was staring blankly at the television screen,
oblivious to Lily’s presence.
    With a sigh, she got up and went in search of Kaleb. He was in the kitchen absently scrubbing the bottom of an already clean pot. Lily boosted herself up on the counter beside the sink and smiled at him, needing to lighten her mood.
    “Mousy looking, isn’t she?”
    Kaleb knew she was talking about Frannie.
    “I oughta tan your hide, baby sister. You’ve known her all this time and never bothered to introduce me. How could you do a stingy thing like that?”
    “I just never thought you might be interested.”
    “You’re mentally challenged, you poor kid. And you’ve got a mean streak to boot. Now, tell me everything you know about her, brat. And this time I want accuracy, honesty and detail.”
    “Let’s see...” Lily tried to sort out what she could tell him without betraying any of her friend’s confidences.
    “Frannie’s twenty-eight, excellent at her job, never been married, no serious romance in her life at the moment. She has one sister, Heather, Taylor’s mom. They grew up here in Vancouver. Their mom died when Frannie was fourteen.”
    She didn’t add that the mother had been alcoholic and that Frannie had spent her childhood taking care of her sister.
    “Her dad’s still alive.” And like their own father, Frannie’s dad had never been around when he was needed.
    “Her sister’s an artist who’s beginning to attract a lot of attention for her drawings.” She’d also been hospitalized several times, and Frannie had taken on the full care of her nephew. Lily was very conscious that what she was leaving out was more significant than what she was revealing, but Frannie would have to decide herself how much to tell him.
    “She does a lot of volunteer work with teens, particularly street kids. She’s started a group for young teenage mothers that’s very successful. She’s a special lady, Kaleb.”
    “I figured that out in the first five minutes.”
    “So, did you ask her out?”
    “Yup.” Kaleb nodded. “For dinner and a movie next Thursday night. It’s the