Celebration's Family (Celebrations, Inc Series Book 5)

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  She was bound and determined to not disappoint him, and to prove to the board that she was promoted because of her abilities and not just because of her blood tie to the founder of the organization. That was why she’d been working so hard over the past year—and it was one of the reasons she’d had so very little time to date and was so woefully out of practice.

  “Thanks, Rob. I appreciate your confidence in me. I know you’re busy. So I’ll let you go. I have another lead to follow up on with this mystery donation.”

  “Good luck,” he said. “Let me know what you find out.”

  * * *

  On Monday morning when Liam exited the elevator to start his hospital rounds, the staff at the nurses’ station broke into a round of applause.

  He was surprised when he saw Quinn Vogler leading the jubilant reception.

  “Well, if it isn’t the Ten-Thousand-Dollar Man,” said Vogler, who offered a handshake and a good-natured slap on the back. “Well done, my man. Well done.”

  “Why do you all act like this is such a big surprise?” asked Anna Adams, a registered nurse who worked in pediatrics. “Of course Dr. Thayer would be the one to bring in the most money for the new surgical wing. He’s the head of this department.”

  Liam stiffened, waiting for Quinn to bust him and regale everyone with the story of how Liam had balked at the auction idea in the staff meeting.

  But Quinn didn’t bite. Instead, he asked, “How long have you and Kate Macintyre been seeing each other? I think that’s the biggest surprise of all. She obviously thought you were worth the money.”

  All gazes were focused on Liam.

  “I don’t kiss and tell, and I think we all need to get back to work.”

  “But you’re admitting there has been a kiss?” Anna asked.

  “For ten thousand dollars, I should hope so,” said a female orderly. Everyone laughed. Someone whistled a catcall.

  “Where are you taking her on this date?” Vogler asked.

  “That’s classified information,” Liam said.

  Vogler narrowed his eyes. “Everything surrounding your participation in the auction and going on the date has been so clandestine. You weren’t listed in the program. So we all thought you’d managed to beg off. Now the date’s a big secret. What gives with all the mystery?”

  Liam frowned and shook his head. He should’ve been prepared for a grilling. “And as I said before, don’t you have patients to see, Dr. Vogler?” Liam quipped. “Way to set the example for the rest of the staff.”

  At least Quinn had the decency to laugh good-naturedly and make his way toward the general hallway that hosted the patients’ rooms. Seizing the opportunity to get away, Liam grabbed his clipboard and did the same.

  The first patient on his morning rounds was Billy Barret, a five-year-old boy who had been admitted on Friday with dehydration and flu symptoms. Liam was hopeful that he’d be able to discharge the boy today after evaluating him one more time to ensure that the little guy was still doing as well as he had been yesterday when Liam had popped into the hospital to check on him.

  Liam gave three quick raps on the door before pushing it open and stepping inside.

  Billy was sitting up in his bed with his legs bent and his feet tucked under them, coloring in a coloring book, making vigorous, broad sweeps with a fat blue crayon. His mother, a single parent, was sitting in a chair across from the boy’s bed, looking exhausted, but more relaxed than she had been when he’d spoken to her yesterday afternoon.

  “Good morning.” Liam nodded to the mother, then crouched down beside the bed so that he was eye to eye with the boy. “How are you feeling today, buddy?”

  “Great!” Billy said with all the enthusiasm a five-year-old should possess. He bounced on his knees on the bed. “Can I go home now? Pleeease?”

  “That’s what I’m hoping,” Liam said as he flipped open the boy’s hospital chart. “I just need to check out a couple things to make sure you’re as strong as I think you are.”

  “I’m strong.” Billy flexed his biceps. “Feel my muscles, Dr. Thayer.”

  Liam reached out and did exactly that. “Yes, sir. I think you’ve gotten even stronger than you were when you arrived. It must have been all the good food that’s made you grow.”

  Billy scrunched up his face. “Eww! No! I don’t like the food here. That’s why I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home.” The boy chanted the words and pounded his fists on the mattress.

  “Billy, settle down,” his mother insisted. The woman had gotten up from her chair and was standing beside the bed with her hands on her hips. “Be still so Dr. Thayer can do his job.”

  The boy’s eyes widened, then he stuck out a quivering bottom lip. His face transformed into a dark cloud that was ready to burst.

  “Hey, Billy is my man,” said Liam. “I know he’s going to cooperate. Aren’t you, buddy?”

  Caught somewhere between a pout and the verge of tears, the little boy looked back and forth between his mother and Liam. Then he finally nodded and said, “I’ll cooperate. I promise.”

  Liam held up his hand. The boy hesitated for a moment, but then high-fived it.

  “I never had any doubt.” Liam smiled at Billy and then at the mom. He wanted to tell her he understood how difficult it could be raising a child solo. Working hard to put dinner on the table; worrying about who would watch the kids while the parent was earning a living; dealing with a sick kid without a support system.

  “Billy, do you have any brothers or sisters?” Liam asked as he checked the child’s eyes with a penlight.

  “I have a baby sister,” said the boy.

  “She’s at home,” the mother volunteered. Her voice sounded a little shaky. “My neighbor has been watching her.”

  “Did she manage to escape this flu?” Liam asked.

  “So far, I think she has,” the mother confirmed.

  “That’s good.” Liam checked Billy’s ears. “How about you? Are you feeling okay?”

  The mother blinked as if she wasn’t sure what to say. But then she let out a breath and seemed to deflate a little. She shrugged. “I feel lousy.”

  “How long have you had the symptoms?”

  “I started feeling bad last night, but it might just be that I’m tired.”

  “Let me finish with Billy, and I’ll take your temperature.”

  “Thank you, but that’s not necessary.”

  Liam slid the earpieces of his stethoscope onto his ears, but before listening to Billy’s breathing, he said, “If you’re coming down with this virus, I can give you some antiviral medication that will significantly lessen the severity of your illness.”

  “But, Doctor, I don’t have the money to pay for a prescription like that. My insurance is just a bare-bones plan. It doesn’t cover medicines like that. I’m sure it has to be expensive.”

  Liam shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get you a free sample packet. You need to take care of yourself so that you can keep your kids healthy. We have resources here at the hospital that can help you when you need it.”

  Liam looked away and put the stethoscope to Billy’s back. “Take in a slow deep breath for me, kiddo.”

  The boy did, and his lungs sounded clear as a bell.

  “The good news is you are ready to go home, but I need you to help me with something.” Liam was squatting next to the boy again, looking into his eyes. The boy’s face turned serious, and he was already nodding, even before Liam could tell him how he needed his help.

  “Pal, it looks like your mommy isn’t feeling well. She might be coming down with something similar to what you had, and you remember how bad you felt, right?”

  The boy furrowed his brow and slid down off the bed to go to his mom. “Are you sick, Mommy?”

  “I’m going to be okay, sweetie. Don’t you worry.”

  “But you worried about me,” Billy said. “Why can’t I worry about you?”

  Smart kid, Lia
m thought as he crossed the room with an ear thermometer in hand. He inserted it in the woman’s ear and took her temperature.

  “I need you to be in charge of making sure both you and your mommy drink plenty of water over the next few days. What do you say? Will you help me with that?”

  Nodding, the little boy stood up a little straighter.

  The thermometer beeped, and he checked the reading. Sure enough, she had a fever of nearly 102 degrees.

  “I’m going to give you a packet of the antiviral medication, and I want you to start taking it before you and Billy leave to go home. Please get plenty of rest. You might want to see if your daughter can stay at the neighbor’s house until your fever is gone. Your son had already promised to make sure both of you stay hydrated. We don’t want you to end up here in the hospital.”

  The woman sighed audibly as if the weight of everything had been lifted off her. “Thank you, Dr. Thayer. We are so blessed to have you looking after us.”

  “If you get to the point where you feel like you need help with the kids, please call this number.” Liam wrote the help-line direct dial number on the bottom of the discharge papers.

  “I completely understand how vulnerable raising children alone renders a parent. Please don’t be afraid to reach out for help.”

  * * *

  Kate hadn’t meant to eavesdrop. Although she had been looking for Liam.

  When she’d arrived at the hospital, she’d stopped by the nurses’ station looking for him, eager to get confirmation that he was indeed the one who had sent in the ten-thousand-dollar check. The nurse in charge had told her that Dr. Thayer was doing his rounds, and Kate had hoped to catch him as he exited one of the patients’ rooms.

  She’d been walking by and paused outside of room 307 after she’d heard Liam’s voice. The door had been open just enough for her to see inside and witness how wonderfully tender he was to the little boy and his mother. It was a side of Liam she’d never witnessed before, and it formed a snapshot frozen in her mind’s eye of him completely in control, but completely without ego.

  She knew she shouldn’t have lingered and listened, but she couldn’t help herself. So many doctors wouldn’t have noticed the mother’s condition. They might have written it off to worry or exhaustion. So often in their busy workday, when doctors were behind schedule and trying to move as many patients through the hospital as they could—all in the name of improving the bottom line—they didn’t have time to notice the subtleties: a sick mother who wasn’t well enough to care for a recovering child, and a child who might very well relapse if not given the proper care. But not Liam.

  “I’ll send in a nurse with the discharge instructions and that medication.”

  Seeing a softer side of this unpredictable man stirred a wave of tenderness inside Kate that crashed over her before she could realize that the conversation in the room had stopped and that Liam was walking toward the door.

  He said goodbye to the mother and son, and Kate barely had time to step back so that it appeared she was just approaching the door as he exited.

  “Kate?” he said, looking just as surprised to see her as she was to be face-to-face with him after watching him with his patient and nearly being discovered. The ensuing adrenaline rush made it difficult for her to breathe.

  She forced out a greeting. “Hi! Good morning, Liam. Just the man I was looking for.” The words tumbled out, and she stumbled over them in the process.

  But one look at Liam’s smile and she was breathing easier. He seemed genuinely glad to see her.

  “Good morning,” he said. “To what do I owe this nice surprise?”

  “Is this a good time?” she asked. “I know you’re doing rounds right now. I can come back later if it would work better?”

  “No, this is the perfect time,” he said. “I just need to ask the nurse to give this family some meds before they leave. Walk with me, and then we can go get some coffee.”

  It only took him a moment to relay the request to the nurse who would deliver the patient’s discharge orders, and then they made their way to the hospital cafeteria.

  He was in such a good mood that it seemed like almost a given that he was the one who sent the check. In fact she held off asking him, believing he might bring it up himself. But by the time the elevator had carried them to the first floor, they had seated themselves in the cafeteria at a table with their coffee, he had talked about his daughters and the weather and the postauction reception his coworkers had given him this morning—calling him the Ten-Thousand-Dollar Man—he still hadn’t mentioned sending a check to the office that morning.

  “So what brings you to the hospital today?” he asked. “Are you following up on the auction?”

  Kate sipped her coffee. “You might say that. I’m following up in a very specific way. This morning I received a large donation for the hospital project. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

  “Should I?”

  “I’ve been thinking you might. That’s why I’m here. Listen, Liam. I told you I’d pay my half. You only need to contribute the amount you pledged. It was my fault that the bid went up so high. I got carried away.”

  “You did, didn’t you?” There was something in the way he was looking at her, smiling at her—a knowing smile—that nearly made her come undone. “So, what was it that sparked that competitive edge? Why didn’t you let Kimela cast the winning bid?”

  “I guess that doesn’t really matter now, does it?” she said. “What’s done is done. The reason I came to see you this morning is to give you back your check.”

  She pulled an envelope out of her bag and put it on the table between them, pushing it toward Liam.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  “The ten-thousand-dollar check.”

  “Why are you giving it to me?”

  “I’m giving it back to you. You already gave me a check for your portion of the bid. I’m picking up the other five thousand.”

  His brows knit as he picked up the envelope and opened it, pulling out the check. After a moment, he returned the check to its envelope and pushed it back across the table toward her.

  “This isn’t mine. I didn’t send this check.”

  She stared at the white envelope for a confused moment, then looked back at Liam. “If you didn’t, who did?”

  “And how would I know the answer to that if you don’t?” he asked. “Was there a note with it?”

  “There was, but it wasn’t signed. It only stated that the funds were to cover the bid for our date.”

  Actually, it read, Because you and Dr. Thayer make the perfect couple, this check is to cover the amount of your bidding fees. Congratulations and enjoy your date.

  Liam wouldn’t write an anonymous note in the third-person, past-tense point of view. What had once made so much sense that it had motivated her to come all the way over here, now made her feel foolish.

  “This is crazy,” she said. “If not you, who would have the kind of money to do something like this? You don’t suppose it was your friend, Kimela, do you?”

  Liam laughed. Really it was more of a humorless snort. “Are you kidding? If she did, it would be completely out of character.”

  They sat in silence for a moment.

  “Since our date is paid in full, I guess I’ll write you a check to refund your five thousand dollars.”

  Liam shook his head. “You don’t have to do that. That check is part of my planned charitable giving.”

  “So, all along you planned to buy your freedom from this auction?” She was being facetious, but he obviously didn’t get the joke.

  “I hadn’t exactly planned for the money to go toward the auction, since I only found out about it a little over a week ago. But I rearranged some things to benefit the auction.”

  “You mean to buy your freedom?”

  He sipped his coffee, his gaze on her the entire time. “I made the donation to ensure a date with you.”

 
She wondered if she’d heard him right. There was a lot of background noise in the cafeteria. It wasn’t exactly loud, but the chatter combined with the rattle of dishes and utensils in use, plus the sound of probably big industrial-sized dishwashers being loaded or unloaded had mixed with his words. She wondered if perhaps she’d misheard him.

  Rather than ask him to repeat himself, she simply laughed it off. “You do know the main problem with this, right?”

  “Problem?” he asked.

  “Yes, there’s a huge problem.”

  He looked truly perplexed. “What kind of problem?”

  “If we accept your check and the one from the anonymous donor, you won’t be able to call yourself the Ten-Thousand-Dollar Man anymore. Think of how disappointed all your coworkers will be. Although I suppose we could alert them that you’re changing your name to the Fifteen-Thousand-Dollar Man?”

  “My worth keeps going up. I think I like this.” He said the words without moving his gaze from hers. “As I said, I’d already moved things around so that I could donate that money to the pediatric wing. So, my donation will have to stand over and above whatever this anonymous donor provided. I don’t want any hint of credit for the extra ten grand. Even as much as I love the thought of the more expensive new name. In reality the hospital will benefit all the more because of it.”

  “That’s so nice of you, Liam,” she said. “It really is. That should be reason enough that you should not feel obligated to go through with the date.”

  “Are you telling me you don’t want to go out with me?”

  Nerves were pulling at her insides again. “Well, no. Not exactly. I’m saying I don’t want you to feel obligated. I heard you when you said you’d taken yourself off the market until after your girls go to college. I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

  “I guess the truth is I wouldn’t be entirely happy if I didn’t get to see you again. So, Kate Macintyre, will you do me the honor of letting me take you out this weekend?”

  There. He’d said it. And this time she’d heard him loud and clear. The words seemed to flow pretty naturally. She had no idea where this thing between them was going, but she did know that she’d regret it if she didn’t at least give it a try.