by Carol Cox
None of the padded chairs around the room looked particularly inviting. She settled on one that faced the double doors, wanting to know the moment the nurse emerged, bearing news of Paul.
The wind brushed icy fingers over the back of her neck when the outer door opened. Kate turned up the collar of her coat and reached for a magazine. Her hand froze when a cloud of Estée Lauder’s Youth-Dew settled over her.
“Yoo-hoo! I was afraid you’d be sitting here all by yourself. I’ve come to keep you company.”
The magazine slipped from Kate’s fingers, and she summoned a weak smile. “Hello, Renee.”
Renee Lambert swept around the row of chairs and seated herself next to Kate like a queen bestowing a favor on a subject. She propped her oversized Gucci bag on the empty chair beside her with care.
“I got a phone call from the prayer chain to tell me about Paul, and I rushed right over.” Her fingers closed around Kate’s arm, and she lowered her voice to a husky whisper. “It’s his heart, isn’t it?”
“What? Goodness, no. He hurt his ankle playing basketball. Didn’t the prayer chain get that straight?”
Renee examined the polish on her freshly manicured nails. “Stories have a way of changing once they start making the rounds. Sometimes it’s hard to know just what the truth really is.”
She unbuttoned her leopard-print coat and fanned herself. “You must admit it would be reasonable to assume it was his heart. After all, when men of a certain age go cavorting on a basketball court, trying to keep up with men many years their junior—”
“It’s his ankle, Renee. Only his ankle.” Kate put all the firmness she could into the statement.
Renee nodded, unperturbed. “Even in a minor crisis, it isn’t good to be alone. Others may abandon you, but I know how to do my duty.”
“I haven’t exactly been abandoned. The whole team—both teams, actually—came down to check on him earlier, along with a lot of the fans. I told them I would be perfectly fine here alone.”
She cast a sidelong glance at the older woman, hoping she would take the hint.
True to form, Renee chose not to notice. She looked around as if hoping for more drama—or at least a bigger audience.
Apparently giving up on the dramatic possibilities, she turned back to Kate. “What a week we’ve had! It’s as though the whole community has been cursed with a string of bad luck.”
“There’s no such thing as luck,” Kate reminded her.
Renee waved away the remark. “You have to admit it seems that Copper Mill has endured more than its share of unfortunate happenings lately. Poor Loretta, having to deal with all that mess. And now this.”
She heaved a sigh in true drama-queen fashion. Scarlett O’Hara would have approved, Kate thought.
“And it can’t have been an easy week for you, trying to explain what your wallet was doing in that car.”
Kate clamped her lips together. No way was she going to be drawn into a discussion on that subject when her attention was focused on Paul.
“It seems so odd about the driver going missing,” Renee went on. “Doesn’t it seem strange to you that he—or she—would be able to just walk away like that? I wouldn’t think it possible, considering the amount of damage that was done.”
She sighed again. “But I guess there’s only one person who knows what the real story is.” She leaned over and purred, “You wouldn’t know more about it than you’ve let on, would you?”
Kate sputtered. “Really, Renee! That is utterly ridiculous.”
Renee settled back in her seat with a smug smile, as though her suspicions had just been confirmed.
Kate opened her mouth to add more when she saw Renee’s Gucci bag move.
“Renee...”
“Yes?” The older woman moved slightly to her right and draped one arm around the bag, then looked at Kate with guileless eyes. The effect was spoiled when a whimper emanated from within the bag.
Kate bit her lip and tried not to laugh. “You brought Kisses in here, didn’t you?”
Renee’s eyes took on a stony glint. “And why shouldn’t I? You don’t think I’d leave my Little Umpkins out in the car on a cold night like this, do you?”
She opened the top of the bag just enough to slip her fingers inside. “There, now, Little Snuggle Umpkins. Mama’s right here.”
The whimpers increased in volume, then grew into a series of yips. The security guard detached himself from his post in the corner and strolled their way.
“Evenin’ ladies.” He nodded at Kate, then turned an implacable gaze on Renee.
“Miz Lambert, you know the rules. We don’t allow dogs in the hospital.”
“What dog?” Renee batted her improbably long eyelashes and assumed an air of innocence.
“The one in that bag.” The guard hooked his thumbs in his belt and showed no signs of backing down.
“This bag?” Renee must have known she was waging a losing battle, but she wasn’t about to admit it. The fighting spirit of the South lived on.
Unfortunately, Kisses chose that moment to bark at the top of his tiny voice. The guard rocked back on his heels. “No dogs allowed,” he repeated.
Renee got to her feet and pulled the bag into her arms. “It’s a sad day when a person can’t come here to comfort a friend.”
Her high heels clacked across the floor as she swept out of the emergency room.
Kate cast a grateful look at the security guard and picked up her magazine again. Surely it wouldn’t be too much longer before she had some news.
Just then the double doors swung open, and Kate leaped to her feet. The nurse looked past her and motioned to a young woman holding a whimpering toddler. Kate sighed, then eased back into her seat again and resumed reading.
Chapter Twelve
Kate had finished all the women’s magazines she could find and was halfway through an article on marine ecology in the Caribbean when Dr. McLaughlin came out to talk to her. Kate rose and walked over to meet him.
“It’s a fracture, all right.” The lanky ER doctor pushed a thatch of dark hair back from his forehead. “The good news is that it won’t require surgery. We’re going to get him fixed up and send him home.”
“How much longer?” The question slipped out before she could stop herself.
She could have bitten her tongue when she saw the exhaustion on the doctor’s face. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be impatient. It’s just that...”
Dr. McLaughlin managed a smile despite his obvious weariness. “I know it’s hard to sit out here and not be able to do anything but wait. Have you perused our fascinating reading material?” he joked. Kate laughed and gestured at the pile of magazines by her chair.
“We need to set the bone and get it stabilized. Barring any other emergencies, I should be finished with him in an hour or so.” The doctor patted her arm and left to tend to Paul.
Kate took her seat again and glanced at her watch. If all went well, they might be getting into bed by ten thirty or so. She picked up the magazine she’d been reading and prepared to learn more about the fragile ecosystem of the coral reefs.
The scream of a siren split the night, and an ambulance backed up to the emergency entrance. The secretary called for an orderly, who hurried out into the cold night and helped a pair of EMTs bring in a man on a gurney.
A woman about Renee’s age followed, weeping. She started to follow the procession into the back, but the secretary put a hand on her shoulder.
“Why don’t you wait out here? Someone will be out to talk to you as soon as we know something.”
The woman stared around the room as if unsure of what she was supposed to do. She let out a sob, then crumpled into the nearest chair and buried her face in her hands.
The woman’s despair tore at Kate’s heart. Laying her magazine aside, Kate crossed the room and knelt beside the sobbing woman.
“My name is Kate Hanlon, and my husband is a pastor in Copper Mill. Is there anything I can do t
o help?”
The woman’s shoulders heaved several times before she raised her head. “I’m Eppie Barlow. They just brought my husband here in an ambulance.”
Kate nodded. “I saw.”
“We were playing canasta when Alvin turned pale and grabbed his left arm.” Mrs. Barlow shuddered. “They think he may be having a heart attack.”
“I’m so sorry.” Kate took the other woman’s hands in hers. “Would you like me to pray with you?”
Mrs. Barlow nodded. But before they could bow their heads, the double doors to the exam rooms burst open, and both women sprang to their feet.
A nurse scanned the room and beckoned to the older woman. “You can come back now. The doctor would like to speak with you.”
Mrs. Barlow hurried to join the nurse. Just before she reached the door, she turned back to Kate. “I need to be with Alvin now, but would you please pray anyway?”
“Of course.” Kate sat down again and lifted the Barlows up to her heavenly Father, adding a prayer of thanks for her own situation while she was at it.
There were far worse things to deal with than a broken ankle.
AN HOUR LATER, Kate felt like she must have read the print off all the magazines in the waiting room.
How much longer?
Since Mr. Barlow had been brought in, two other emergency patients had arrived, each taking precedence over Paul’s injury. She drummed her fingers on the arm of the padded chair. Maybe she could start counting the acoustic tiles in the ceiling.
She stretched her arms over her head and rolled her neck from side to side. Who would have thought just sitting could be so exhausting? Even Renee’s company would be welcome now.
Maybe.
Did Kate really want to listen to more veiled comments about the identity of the Mustang’s driver? She thumbed through a worn copy of a gardening magazine, wondering if she could find anything else of interest.
One of Renee’s comments teased at the back of her mind, vying for her attention as she skimmed through an article on building worm beds.
Kate closed the magazine, her interest in friendly earthworms forgotten. What was it Renee said? She shut her eyes, the better to concentrate.
There had been the questions about Paul’s heart and the pointed remarks about his age. Then the shift to Kate’s least favorite subject of the moment, the diner-destroying Mustang. After that...
Kate pressed her fingers against her eyelids. What happened then?
After that, Kisses made his presence known, followed by Renee’s grand exit. But there had been something else, she just knew it. Something about the Mustang...No, not the Mustang, but its driver.
Kate’s eyelids flew open. Of course! Renee’s oh-so-casual comment about the driver being able to walk away from the accident.
More than one person had expressed surprise that the driver had escaped the scene without injury. But had he really been unhurt?
Kate crossed the tile floor and stood at the desk. The new secretary—there had been a shift change at 10:00 PM—looked up inquiringly.
“I was wondering, could you tell me whether someone came in here last week on Wednesday night?”
The woman’s face registered disbelief. “This is an emergency room. People come in here all the time.”
Kate pressed her lips together. That hadn’t come out right at all. “It would have been quite late.”
The secretary thawed a bit. “I’m on the late shift most Wednesdays, but there are always a lot of patients.”
“Or it might have been very early Thursday morning. In the middle of the night, anyway. Not with an illness but an injury. Something that might have come from an auto accident.” Kate held her breath and hoped for the best.
“That’s interesting.” The other woman leaned on her elbows and looked directly at Kate. “The sheriff came in here last week and asked the same question.”
“Oh?” She should have known this was a bad idea. “What a coincidence.”
The secretary drew herself up. “You realize, of course, that the Patient Privacy Act prohibits me from divulging information of that kind.”
Kate felt her face flame. “Of course. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“Except...”—the secretary leaned toward Kate and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper—“that only applies if there was a patient. I guess it’s okay to tell you there wasn’t anyone who fit that description.”
She grinned and settled herself back in her chair. “As a matter of fact, that shift was unusually slow. We only had a couple of patients all night.”
“Oh well, thank you. I guess that answers my question.”
“Happy to help.” The phone rang, and the woman turned to answer it.
Kate slunk back to her seat, hoping news of her attempt to extract information didn’t get back to Sheriff Roberts. So much for her bright idea of looking for a person with a mysterious limp.
After what seemed like an eternity, the doors to the exam rooms swung open again, and Paul appeared, seated in a wheelchair pushed by a husky male nurse.
Kate hurried over to him, taking in his drawn appearance and the large black contraption on his right leg. A pair of crutches lay across the arms of the wheelchair.
“It’s called a moon boot,” he told her. “Quite the fashion accessory, isn’t it? They gave me a choice between black and gray. I thought black would look more dignified for Sundays.” He attempted a smile in spite of the strain that showed on his face.
Following his lead, Kate swallowed back a sympathetic comment and kept her tone light. “So you’re ready to leave?”
“He’s all set,” the nurse said. “If you’ll pull your car up to the door, I’ll wheel him out.”
Bringing the car around was one thing; loading Paul into it was quite another. First, the crutches went into the backseat, then Kate had to push the passenger seat back as far as it would go to accommodate his outstretched leg.
The muscular nurse helped Paul stand, pivot, and finally maneuver himself inside the car.
“Nice job,” the nurse said, pulling the wheelchair away from the car. He handed a small bottle and a slip of paper to Kate. “These are his pain pills. The directions are on the label. It’s just a sample, though. You’ll have to have the prescription filled at your local pharmacy if he needs more.”
Kate thanked the nurse, tucked the pills and the prescription inside her purse, and went around to the driver’s side. “That was quite a performance.”
Paul let his head rest against the back of the seat and closed his eyes. “Wait until you see my next number. That’s the real showstopper.”
Kate turned the key in the ignition, doing her best to keep up a cheerful front, all the while wondering how on earth she was going to get him inside the house on her own once they got home.
Chapter Thirteen
A shaft of sunshine found its way through a crack in the bedroom curtains and hit Kate square in the face. She scrunched her eyes closed and rolled over, pulling the blanket partway over her head.
Paul moaned softly, and Kate came fully awake. Turning her head with care so as not to wake him, she saw that his eyes were closed. She lay still for a moment, watching his chest rise and fall in a gentle rhythm.
Easing the covers back, she slipped out of bed as quietly as she could, then put on her robe and slippers and tiptoed out to the living room.
She went through the motions of grinding fresh coffee beans, then leaned against the counter while the coffee machine did its work. After being up late the night before and sleeping longer than usual that morning, she felt more than ready for her first sip by the time the coffee was finished brewing.
When the last drop had dripped through the filter, she filled a blue flowered mug, then wandered out to the living room, where she curled up in her favorite rocking chair with her Bible on her lap.
The fragrant steam wafted up from her mug, its rich aroma tantalizing her taste buds. She took a long sip of the da
rk brew and felt the caffeine begin to jolt her awake. Maybe she could make it through the day after all.
Kate brushed her fingers across the cover of her Bible. Of course she could make it through the day, and it had nothing to do with a caffeine surge.
Kate opened her Bible to the place where she had ended her reading the day before, in the ninth chapter of Mark. She started chapter ten, sipping from her mug and letting her mind absorb the message.
The story of Jesus inviting the little children to come to him always brought joy to her heart. She continued through the passage about the rich young man and then moved on to James and John’s request for special honor.
“If only they had known what they were asking,” she murmured as she turned the page.
The words at the top of the column riveted her attention. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
She cradled the Bible in her lap and leaned her head back against the rocker, letting her eyelids drift closed.
What a reminder! When she helped Paul in from the car the night before, their awkward progress across the garage and through the house made her keenly aware of how dependent on her he would be, for the time being at least.
How was she going to cope? Already she was wondering if she had bitten off more than she could chew with that special order from the gift shop. She would need to spend every moment she could in her studio if she hoped to finish the fanlight in the time she had indicated.
On top of that, she needed to find out who was responsible for the theft of the Mustang and why Roland Myers wasn’t all that concerned about getting it back. This disruption in her life couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Her eyes flew open. What was she thinking, complaining about her own inconvenience when Paul was the one who was injured and in pain?
Lord, forgive me for my self-centeredness. You have blessed me in so many wonderful ways, yet all I seem to be able to do lately is focus on the negative. Give me a spirit of servanthood and a willingness to put others before myself.
Easier said than done. It was simple enough to talk about serving others, but now that she had the opportunity to put it into practice... But she would do it, with God’s help. And she would do it with a joyful attitude.
