9781631052347OnCallKenyan

by M. O. Kenyan

  Katherine never thought she could ever feel this empty. Her hand hovered above her belly. Forty-eight hours ago she had a life inside it, but now it was empty. As empty as her heart and soul were without AJ. He hadn’t called her. She had checked her phone a hundred times, but nothing. Maybe he hadn’t forgiven her just yet. She would wait for as long as it took. She looked around the house. This is temporary, she told herself. Soon she would be back home with AJ, where she belonged.

  * * * *

  AJ sat at the bar of De Alma restaurant, nursing his drink. He hadn’t heard from Katherine. He had called her cell, but her mother had answered the first time, telling him Katherine didn’t want anything to do with him. He deserved that he guessed—he did turn her away when she needed him. AJ raised his glass to his lips, but a man bumping into him sent his glass flying. In a blind rage, AJ turned around fist first, sending the unsuspecting stranger to the ground. AJ stood over the drunken fool, his friends instantly surrounding him.

  “Take it easy Ali, I didn’t mean any harm,” he said as he got on his feet. His first attempt failed and his friend and girlfriend had to help.

  “You need to get out,” the manager roared at them.

  “Hell no, you know what.” The drunk poked his finger into the physically inferior manager. “I’m going to buy this whole damn restaurant.”

  “Hold up Richy Rich.” AJ didn’t know why he did it, but he held the man back. “We don’t want him to call the cops.”

  “We definitely don’t. But I’m buying this shit hole and firing you.” He grinned sheepishly. “But first, I have to go to Vegas and marry this beautiful lass. That’s how my father calls women—lass. I hate him and his Irish tongue.”

  “Okay.” AJ paid his tab and helped him out of the restaurant since his friends didn’t seem bothered about defusing the situation.

  “You should come with me.”

  “Where?” he asked, an amused grin on his lips.

  “To Vegas to get married. For me, not to me, of course.”

  “I know, to the lass.” Adrian thought he should decline. He didn’t know this man or his friends. But a night out in Vegas did sound promising.

  He was leaving for Djibouti in twenty-four hours. The opportunity had come out of the blue. He had been prepared to leave later in the year, and possibly cancel his commitment all together. He had made that obligation when he and Katherine weren’t working. They had seemed on track until she’d dropped that bomb on him. Now she wasn’t talking to him. Probably the distance would be good for them.

  Vegas sounded like an adventure he would like to dive into. All he needed to do was make sure he was back in time for the farewell lunch his mother had organized for him. When he got back he would make his last attempt at contacting Katherine. But now nothing was stopping him from going to Vegas.

  “Yeah! My best-man is coming.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  The second Katherine walked into the hospital she knew something was up. Her week off for recovery was over. It felt odd walking into the hospital, hoping to bump into AJ. She assumed he had made his decision. Probably, a break was what would be best for them. When she heard her name paged on the overhead speakers it was as if she was home again. She was summoned to the Chief of Surgery’s office. He probably wanted to make sure she was in top condition to get back to work.

  “Henry.” Katherine groaned at the sound of Lyle’s voice. “I’m glad you are back.”

  “Me too,” she said as her shoulders rose to a noncommittal shrug.

  “Maybe we could talk.”

  “Not right now.” She pointed at the speakers above her head. “I have to go see the chief.”

  Katherine scurried away before he could find some other excuse to keep her around. She turned her head from side to side as gazes followed her. What the hell? At first she thought she had been fired, and everyone else in the hospital knew except her. But then it dawned on her. Everyone was grabbing a front row seat at what would be her disastrous first meeting with AJ. She made it to the chief’s office without bumping into AJ. A huge part of her was relieved, but her heart craved him. She needed to see him, talk to him and if God willed it, be in his arms again.

  Katherine knocked on the partially opened door. “Chief, I heard you wanted to see me.”

  “You can’t really miss that. I call it the god’s call. Because it’s from up above.” The old man chuckled.

  Katherine smiled, not sure how to respond to that. “I get what you mean.” No I don’t.

  “I called you here to welcome you back. I tried calling you but your number seems to be cancelled—”

  “Excuse me?”

  “AJ said I wouldn’t be able to get through.” He reached into his drawer and pulled out a pager. “Take this and keep it on you. Your other one didn’t survive the crash, probably your cell phone too. Leave your new number with human resources, just in case of emergencies.”

  Katherine still hadn’t moved from the moment he’d said her number may have been cancelled, and AJ was the one who told him. That meant AJ had been trying to reach her. She made a sharp turn around. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter if she had to run through this whole hospital to find him.

  “Doctor Henry.” Katherine turned to face the old man, a blush of embarrassment creeping into her cheeks. She probably shouldn’t have started leaving until she was sure he was done. “Doctor Ross isn’t here anymore.”

  “What?” Katherine felt her strength leave her body. She tried to compose herself, to show she didn’t care. AJ had actually moved hospitals just to get away from her? It was unbelievable. “Where…where did he go?”

  “Djibouti.” Katherine noted the confused look in his eyes. Apparently he had expected her to know. “I had asked him to represent the hospital in a Doctors Without Borders mission a few weeks ago.”

  “How many weeks ago?”

  “Two maybe,” he said. “It was supposed to be for later in the year. But one doctor dropped out and AJ clinched the opportunity. It should do wonders for his career.”

  “Of course.”

  Katherine left the office in a daze. She could feel the tears prick her eyes, and no matter how much she told herself she wouldn’t cry, the tears escaped her. She needed to get out of there. She had missed a week’s worth of work already, what was another day?

  Katherine got into her car and pulled out of the hospital parking lot. At first she was angry AJ hadn’t had the courtesy of telling her he was leaving. But then again, her number had supposedly changed. There was only one person who could do that. Katherine drove to her parents’ town house, the rage simmering beneath her skin. The house echoed with pretentious laughter from the society housewives. She bet none of them knew an honest day of work even if it came in a Botox syringe. She was about to burst into the tea room when her nana stopped her.

  “I need to talk to my mother.”

  “Come with me, first.” The older lady had always held a soft spot in Katherine’s heart. She had raised them all. She doubted her mother had ever seen a dirty diaper with Nana around. Katherine followed her to the kitchen and watched as she reached under the kitchen sink and pulled out the most beautiful bouquet of lilies and roses she had ever seen.

  “Are these…are they for me?” Katherine carefully approached them. She didn’t want a single stem out of place.

  “Your mother tossed out the other ones. But I wanted you to have at least one, good thing too because it was the last one.”

  “There were more?” Katherine gently stroked the soft petal of the Lily with her pinkie. “How many more?”

  “Just two. He also tried calling the house.”

  “What?” All the wind had been knocked out of her. Her shock only allowed her a whisper.

  “Your mother said he was no good for you.”

  “How would she know! She married the first man grandfather shoved in her face,” she said in bitterness she never thought she could ever possess. “Is there a card?” />
  Nana reached into her apron pocket and pulled out a tiny red envelope. Katherine had to steady her shaky hands before she took it. She wouldn’t rip it. It was probably the last thing she would ever get from AJ again. She carefully removed the small card and ran her fingers over his handwriting, already feeling closer to him.

  I guess you want your space.

  Your mother said you didn’t want anything to do with me

  and I’m starting to believe her.

  I’m leaving tonight. I have to.

  As you said, your career is your first priority.

  I probably should make it my first priority too.

  Take care of yourself.

  I hate leaving without seeing you.

  I love you.

  AJ

  “She ruined my happily ever after.” Katherine felt a hot, thick tear run down her cheeks. She could feel her body tremble with rage as she marched into the tearoom.

  “You told him I didn’t want to see him?” She wailed her accusation.

  She saw the shocked eyes stare disapprovingly at her. Apparently this wasn’t how a high society daughter was supposed to act. Okay, she’d show them crazy. She had seen it first hand with Lisette. Taking off her leather jacket and tossing it to the floor, she grabbed the first vase that came into sight. “Is this mine?” She took three giant steps across the room and grabbed the other. “This too?”

  “No!” her mother said with a curt tone.

  “Well then, I don’t mind doing this.” She dropped both vases to the ground. She watched as they shattered into hundreds of pieces, the water seeping into her mother’s Persian carpet as the flowers lay sprawled on the ground. “I want my flowers, mother, or I’ll break every fucking vase in this house.”

  She savagely turned in the directions of the curse. “Yes, I swear. Fuck! I said it again and that still makes me a better person than you busy-body fish wives. Fuck! There it is again, and I can still buy all your houses with my trust fund. I can be rich—and snotty too. You haven’t got the corner market for bitchiness you know.”

  She stormed out of the tea room in a huff, shoving every vase in her path to the ground. Listening to the fragile glass shatter and her mother’s gasps stoked her anger and satisfaction.

  “Katherine, stop this instant!”

  “Or…what?”

  Katherine never thought she would ever raise her voice to her mother, but here she was, doing exactly that. She would never forget this moment. In a flash she had lost all the respect she had for her mother. She loved her, but in this heart beat she didn’t like her at all. “He left thinking I hated him. I love him, Mother, and there is no way I can reach him now.”

  “Excuse us.” Katherine craned her neck in time to see the society women snake their way out of their house. The last one gave her a lasting glare and Katherine lunged for her with a growl.

  “Katherine, stop it, you are not an animal.” Victoria’s disapproving shrill echoed through the house.

  “Why did you do it?” she asked in a controlled voice.

  “He wasn’t good enough for you.” She shrugged as if she didn’t care. “Besides, his father and your father don’t get along.”

  “They weren’t the ones going to get married. They weren’t the ones who were going to have a baby.”

  The shock on Victoria’s face was almost worth divulging her secret. Katherine was confident it wouldn’t leave this room. Her mother wasn’t about to peddle a story which would have the other high society wives turn their noses down at her. She wouldn’t be surprised if Victoria told them she was still virginal, more innocent than the Virgin Mary.

  “You’re pregnant!”

  “I was!” Katherine let out the cry that had been trapped in her heart for over a week. She needed to cry it out, to have someone hold her as she wept. “If you were a mother you would have known something wasn’t right. Instead you were worried if my face would bruise or if my hair would cover my scar. A scar not even a centimeter long! I might have been terrified about being a mother, but I’ve just realized, I would have been better at it than you ever will be.”

  “I gave everything for you children.” Victoria began to unravel. Seeing her mother coming apart intrigued Katherine. Her whole life, she had never seen a hair out of place on Victoria’s head. “I gave your father everything.”

  “That’s the truth. Maybe if you’d paid attention to your true self and your children, you would be a better person. You should try and be adventurous.”

  “I wasn’t raised that way.”

  “Well, I was raised to be a prim and proper princess, but I have decided I am going to be myself. I’m leaving this house, Mother, and I’m never coming back.”

  Katherine was just about to make her grand exit when her father walked in, his head hanging. Broken was an odd look for her father to wear. It didn’t suit the bitter, tough exterior he had every day.

  “Harold, what’s wrong?”

  “Ethan Senior just died.”

  * * * *

  Katherine waited for Ethan Senior’s funeral to be over before she moved out. She couldn’t believe her father wouldn’t give Ethan five minutes to mourn before putting his father in the ground. She bet old man McCrery ordered it that way so that he could spite his son. And having her father control Ethan’s fortune was just another way for the old man to get back at him. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for Ethan. He looked so lost and out of place without his designer clothes. She had heard a rumor he was married, but apparently that didn’t last.

  Now, she walked into the empty apartment that she shared with AJ. She made a beeline to his bedroom and lay in his bed. It still smelled like him. She went into his wardrobe and almost let out a shout of joy when she found some of his shirts. She shed her own clothes and slipped his on and slid between his covers. Cuddling his pillow, she allowed the darkness to come over her and sleep to consume her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  One and a half years later…

  “Are you sure you don’t want to go to dinner with me?” Lyle asked once more, hope filling his eyes.

  Hope is a crippling emotion, she wanted to say. But instead Katherine said. “I just want to get out of these scrubs, go home and crawl into bed.” With AJ’s T-shirt on.

  “If you are sure…”

  “I’m sure.”

  Lyle started walking away then turned back. “I hope you didn’t leave my service because of that Ross guy. You were good at Cardiology and he’s gone.”

  How was she supposed to say that losing her baby and her mother made her yearn for motherhood? That, to her, translated into caring for pregnant women and women who wanted to get pregnant. And as for her baby, she found hanging around a nursery, staring at almost exploding bellies and watching life grow in someone else’s body filled the gaping hole her miscarriage had left. AJ? Well, she was still waiting for him to call the apartment.

  “No, I like what I’m doing. And I still do some cardio on the side.”

  “So ObGyn is your wife and Cardio is your mistress.”

  She chuckled, only Lyle would put it that way. “I guess so—”

  “Katherine!”

  “Katherine!”

  The bellow of a man yelling her name followed by a combination of two terrified female shrieks made her jump nearly out of her skin. She whipped her head around toward the emergency room doors and there Reno stood, Lisette and an inconsolable Rosalinda at his side. So who was in Reno’s arms? She took a step closer and saw Catalella’s paling skin. AJ would definitely never forgive her if she let his little sister die.

  “Who are those people?” Lyle demanded.

  “AJ’s mother, sisters and best friend.” She ran toward Reno and could hear Lyle’s thudding feet behind her. “I need a gurney. Now!” She pulled away the blankets they had wrapped around Catalella and felt the pulse point of her neck. She couldn’t get anything there. Her own heart beat frantically against her chest. Katherine schooled her facial expressio
n to be professional. But it was difficult with Rosalinda mumbling in Spanish and Lisette intently studying her. She fished around for her hand and felt the pulse point there. She sighed when she found a faint beat, at least it was something.

  Katherine had never felt so relieved when a gurney arrived and Reno lay Catalella’s still body on it. “What happened?”

  “I found this in the bathroom.” Lisette held out an empty pill bottle.

  “Sleeping pills?” Katherine grabbed it and handed it to the nurse beside her. “Why did you do it, sweetheart?”

  “Katherine, start chest compressions.” Lyle barked out an order. “Climb on, we need to get moving. Get me a stomach pump and an IV. Is she taking any other medications?”

  “She had four weeks of Radiology and is now on her last week of her six week chemotherapy.” Katherine had been keeping tabs on the Ross family. Her heart had sunk when she discovered Catalella’s leukemia was back. She made it her business to know everything that was going on with her. “Page Doctor Caplain, he’s her oncologist.”

  “Katherine?”

  She looked up and met Lisette’s beseeching gaze. That was when she made what could have been the worst mistake of her career. With a look she promised to save Catalella’s life. Katherine pumped Catalella’s chest with all the strength she had. Bruised ribs would be a small price to pay for life. She straddled her as the gurney sped down the halls. She wasn’t going to give up. She was going to do at least one thing right by AJ.

  * * * *

  “I should throttle you,” Katherine said as Catalella slowly came out of her unconscious state. “You’d better be fully awake before I go brief your family.”