Nursing in Northlake (At the Altar Book 9)

by Kirsten Osbourne

  Missing you. Should be home on time tonight. I’ll cook.

  Heidi grinned, wondering how she’d gotten so lucky as to end up married to the only kind doctor she’d ever met. She quickly texted him back. Sounds good. I’m touring the assisted living with Miss Molly. She’s already made a friend! And I miss you too, but don’t let it go to your head.

  She tucked her phone back into her pocket as the two ladies came back. Miss Molly grinned. “Is that sweet husband of yours messaging you?”

  “He is. Are you ready to see the empty place that would be yours?”

  Miss Molly nodded. “I don’t think I need to see it. I’m ready to sign papers to move in here.”

  Heidi smiled. “Good. Let’s look anyway so we’re one-hundred percent sure, but I’m so glad you like it.”

  “I like it, but I like Opal best. This is going to be a great place for me to make friends. And she told me there are Olympics every year with motorized cart racing. I’m going to win that. Does your Slade know anything about engines?”

  Heidi shrugged. “It wouldn’t surprise me, but not to my knowledge.”

  “I’m going to need to find someone who can soup up an engine on my cart, so I can be a real competitor.”

  “No, you don’t. You can follow the rules like everyone else.”

  “What’s the fun of that?”

  Heidi sighed, seeing Miss Molly was going to be a bad influence on the other residents. “I’m going to have to assign six people to make sure you’re not causing trouble here, aren’t I, Miss Molly?”

  “You wouldn’t have it any other way!”

  *****

  When Heidi got home that evening, she found Slade in the kitchen making a stir-fry. She walked up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “How did I get so lucky as to marry you?”

  He laughed. “I have no idea. You must have done something good at some point in your life.”

  She shook her head. “You really are something else.”

  He leaned down and kissed her sweetly. “How’d Miss Molly like the assisted living?”

  “She met another resident as soon as she got there, and they became fast friends. She signed all the paperwork, and she’s moving in next weekend. I’m going to need to help her.”

  “We’ll help her together. She’s such a sweet old lady. I’m glad she liked it.”

  “I think the big draw was the idea of there being people for her to hang out with. She’s been lonely for as long as I’ve known her. She could handle it before as long as she knew I’d try to stop in every day, or at least every other day. With me moving away, it made it a lot harder on her.”

  “Do you think she’ll be happy there, though?”

  Heidi nodded emphatically. “Oh, yeah. They have Olympics there every year. Which reminds me, she wants to know if you know anything about engines.”

  “Engines? Yeah, sure. I worked on my own cars when I was in college.” Slade frowned, wondering why Miss Molly would want to know that.

  “Please keep that information to yourself. She wants you to soup up the engine on a motorized cart so she can win the races.”

  He laughed. “Of course she does. And you don’t want this to happen?”

  Heidi shook her head. “Not at all! I never told you the whole story about the pickles, did I?”

  “No, you didn’t. What happened with the pickles?”

  “I took her grocery shopping, and her legs weren’t quite feeling up to walking. She’s got arthritis in both knees, and she gets sore.”

  “Of course.”

  “So she rode one of the motorized carts. She asked me to pick out a couple of watermelons, and while I was doing that, she challenged this old man in another cart to a race. The next thing I knew, they had crashed into a pickle display and there were more than seventy-five jars of pickles broken. The place stunk to high heaven. The manager asked the two of us to never return to his store.”

  Slade bit his lip, obviously fighting back his laugh. “That’s terrible.”

  “Oh, go ahead and laugh. It was funny, but not at the time. I couldn’t believe it. She really does need someone to keep an eye on her, and I’ve tried for the past six years.”

  “Doesn’t she have any children?”

  “She does. She has a daughter who lives in Denton. She hires people to check up on Miss Molly, but she never makes sure they’re doing their job. So they work for a few months, and then they stop showing up. And then I start watching out for her full-time again until her daughter can find someone else. I have to call her every few months to tell her to take care of her mother.” Heidi shook her head. “If I ever neglect my mother that way, feel free to yell all you want. The woman gave her daughter life, and she deserves respect for that.”

  “She does.” He sighed. “I wish I had an answer for her, but it sounds like the assisted living will be perfect for her.”

  “It will. There are daily activities for her to be involved in, and she already made a friend. They were checking out the butts of the men we walked past.”

  He laughed. “I can see that. She pinched my butt, if you’ll recall. I think she may have bruised it.”

  Heidi shook her head. “I’m not going to kiss it better, so don’t even go there.”

  “I wasn’t about to! Although, she is your friend.”

  “She is, but I’m not responsible for her actions. I’m barely responsible for my own actions.” She leaned against him. “Thanks for cooking supper. I wasn’t looking forward to figuring out what to make when I got home.”

  “We both work full time. It’s not your job to feed me.”

  “Tell me something, Dr. Henderson.”

  “What’s that?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.

  “How did you stay single for so long?” Heidi asked, only half-serious.

  “I have no idea. You’d think women would have taken one look at me and known what a catch I was, but they just didn’t. They couldn’t get past the fact that I look at women's girly bits all day, I guess.”

  “That doesn’t bother me a bit. Does it bother you that I start catheters in men and change their diapers?”

  “Not at all.”

  She smiled. “That’s why we’re a good team.”

  “We are. I’m glad you’re getting over the fact that I’m a doctor.”

  “I can live with it, I guess!”

  *****

  Heidi and Slade spent Saturday getting Miss Molly ready to move. She had twenty years of clutter in her apartment, and Heidi tried to get her to let go of some of her possessions.

  “Miss Molly, what are you going to do with this collection of bottle caps? You have forty-five that are identical.”

  “They’ll be worth something someday.”

  “No they won’t. I want to throw them away.”

  “I like them.”

  “They take up space, and your new apartment is going to be half this size.”

  Heidi won that round, but lost the next. On and on they went all morning. The movers arrived at one, and they took the furniture away, leaving Miss Molly’s chair for last. As soon as that was loaded into the truck, Heidi looked at Slade. “You stay here and help finish this. I’m going to take Miss Molly to her new apartment, so she can get to know her friends there.”

  As they drove, Heidi talked a little about the routine. “They serve dinner every night at five. You can eat there or eat in your room. The choice is always yours.”

  “Do they feed us old people stuff, like tapioca pudding and Jell-O?”

  “I’m sure they do sometimes, but not all the time. You’ll be expected to cook for yourself for breakfast and lunch, so it might be nice to put up with old people foods once a day to avoid cooking.”

  “Oh, I like old people food! I hope they serve it. Those little Jell-O cubes they always give you are perfect for putting on a spoon and launching across the room. Good way to meet men.”

  Heidi shook her head. “Miss Molly, please don’t get yoursel
f kicked out. I can’t keep an eye on you as well anywhere else.”

  “Oh, I won’t get kicked out. They’ll never know it’s me. Have you seen my innocent look? I perfected it in the fifties, and no one has ever been able to see through it.”

  “I’m starting to worry about whether or not the assisted living is a good idea for you. Promise me you won’t do anything destructive!”

  Miss Molly just laughed, saying nothing else.

  Heidi pulled under the awning at the entrance to the assisted living and helped Miss Molly into a chair in the lobby before parking again. When she got back inside, Miss Molly was sitting with an elderly gentleman, Mr. Richard, and the two of them were looking soulfully into each others eyes. Heidi wanted to tell him to run, but she knew Mr. Richard, and if anyone could keep up with Miss Molly it was him. Miss Molly had buried two husbands already, but Heidi loved the idea of her finding happiness one more time.

  She walked to the front desk to talk to the woman on duty. “Miss Molly is moving in today. She’ll be in apartment twenty-seven. Do you have her key?”

  The girl nodded. “Here you go. She signed all her paperwork on Monday.”

  Heidi smiled. “I know. I helped her with it.”

  “Is she your mother?”

  Heidi shook her head. “No, she was my neighbor for a long time, and we’ve become close. I’m Heidi Hart—Henderson now. Sorry, just married.”

  “Oh! I knew I recognized you. You’re the ADON.”

  “Right.” The two facilities were pretty separate, even though they were the same company. Heidi had some influence there, but she wasn’t as well-known there as she was in the actual nursing home side of things.

  “We’ll take good care of Miss Molly.”

  Heidi chuckled. “I know you will. I’ll be checking on her regularly. I’m sure she’s going to love it here, though. She needs to have friends her age, something she hasn’t had in years. Her daughter is her next of kin, but she won’t check on her often, so I will.”

  “Good. She seems like a sweet lady. I’m glad you’ll be looking after her.”

  Heidi leaned forward. “Do you know yet who’s been assigned to her?”

  The girl tapped a few keys on her computer. “Looks like Jaclyn.”

  “Oh good. She’ll work well with her. We’re going to have to watch out for my Miss Molly. She can be a troublemaker at times, and she’s always wanting to stir things up.”

  “We know her type.”

  “She and Miss Opal are already fast friends.”

  “Uh oh. That doesn’t sound good.”

  “I know. And it looks like she’s about to jump Mr. Richard’s bones.”

  The girl, whose name tag read Abigail, laughed. “We can’t stop them from enjoying each other if that’s what they want to do.”

  “I know. I worry about her.”

  She walked back to the couple, noticing the two were smiling and holding hands. “I see you made another new friend, Miss Molly.”

  “This is Richard. We’re going to have supper together tonight.”

  “That’ll be nice. I’m sure you’ll have a good time.” Heidi didn’t ask if the supper would be public or private. She didn’t want to know. “I have your key, and I think the movers will be here any minute.”

  “You take care of that for me. I’m going to stay here with Richard.”

  “You don’t want to decide where your furniture goes? Once it’s in place, there’s no one to help you move it.”

  “Heidi, I know you’re perfectly capable of figuring out where my furniture should go. I’m going to enjoy my new friend while you take care of that.”

  Heidi rolled her eyes. “If there’s anything you don’t like, I’m going to remind you that you said that.”

  She walked down the hall to the apartment to wait for Slade and the movers, realizing she was cramping Miss Molly’s style with her new man. Slade and the movers were there a few minutes later, and the work resumed in earnest.

  “Where’s Miss Molly?” Slade asked.

  “She’s falling in love with Mr. Richard in the lobby. Or they may have moved to his apartment by now. Things seemed to be moving rather quickly between them.”

  Slade shook his head. “I thought she had feelings for me after that pinch, but I guess not. I’ll have to tell her she broke my heart the next time I see her.”

  “You do that.” Heidi took the box marked dishes and started to unpack it, stopping only to tell the movers where she wanted certain things to go.

  It took more than two hours, but when they were done, the apartment was unpacked and ready to be lived in. Heidi looked at Slade. “I’m exhausted.”

  “Me too!” Slade shook his head, thankful the movers were out of their way. “Are we going to spend every weekend moving?”

  “I sure hope not.” She walked to him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Let’s go find Miss Molly and tell her we’re done. Then we can find some food. I’m starving.”

  “Sounds good to me. And tomorrow we’re still having dinner with your parents, right?”

  Heidi nodded. “I wish we could get out of it and just rest, but my parents aren’t going to feel better about our marriage until they get to know you at least a little. It won’t kill us.”

  “No, it won’t. It makes for a long weekend, but it won’t kill us.” He put his arm around her shoulders as they locked the door and left the apartment. “Are you on call again next weekend?”

  She nodded. “Every other weekend.” She walked toward the cafeteria, knowing that’s where they’d probably find Miss Molly and Mr. Richard. When they got there, her eyes scanned all the tables, and she finally found them at a table off to the side of the room with Miss Opal.

  She walked to them, pulling the key from her pocket. “Everything is ready for you, Miss Molly. I even unpacked for you.”

  Miss Molly took the key with a smile. “Thank you, Heidi. Now go away and enjoy your new husband. I’ve got friends here to check on me.”

  “Are you telling me to leave you alone?”

  Miss Molly nodded. “You can check on me, but I won’t need you every day like I did before. Once a week would be nice. I’ll miss you.”

  Heidi laughed. “Did you call your daughter and tell her about this?”

  “No, was I supposed to?”

  “Yes, she probably needs to know that you’ve moved.”

  “So call her and tell her. You two get along better than she and I do anyway.”

  Heidi sighed. “I’ll call her tomorrow. I’m too tired today.”

  “Moving is hard work.”

  Heidi leaned down and kissed Miss Molly’s cheek. “Enjoy your new friends. I’ll check in on you Monday and make sure you’re being treated all right.”

  “No one would dare mistreat me with you watching over me like you do. They all know you here.”

  Heidi smiled. “Have fun.”

  Slade walked toward the parking lot with her. “I rode over in the moving truck. Give me your keys.”

  “I want to drive.”

  “I can’t stand not driving. I know I told you that.”

  “Don’t be difficult.”

  He stopped walking and held his hand out for her keys. Heidi finally acquiesced. “You’re going to have to ride with me eventually.”

  “I don’t see why I would. I’ve avoided it so far.”

  Chapter Nine

  Heidi slept in the next day, not waking up until after ten. She stretched and yawned, turning over to find Slade propped up on an elbow watching her sleep. “Whatcha doin’?” she asked softly.

  “Thinking about how glad I am we got married.” He reached out and ran his hand down her arm. “I can’t imagine being this happy with anyone else.”

  She smiled, moving closer to him. “I could listen to you say more nice stuff if you want.”

  He laughed. “And that’s one of the things that I like so much about you. You’re not afraid to ask for what you need!”

  “
Nope. I’m not. I like to call it delegating, and today you are in charge of telling Heidi she’s fabulous.”

  “How about if I show her?” Slade kissed her, pulling her closer to him. “I think that’s the best way we could start the day!”

  “Sounds good to me!”

  *****

  Heidi walked out of the bathroom an hour later, toweling her hair dry. “We need to be at my parents’ house at five.”

  “Then we need to figure out something to eat before then.” Slade frowned at her. “What are you hungry for?”

  “Tacos.”

  “You’re always hungry for tacos.”

  “See? I’m easy to please. Send me flowers once a month and bring me tacos daily. I like shoes too, but tacos are the main thing I need in this world.”

  “Would you settle for barbecue? Because that sounds good to me.”

  She shrugged. “I can live with barbecue if tacos aren’t an option.”

  “So we’re going to go get some barbecue, and then we have to be at your parents’ house at five. What do we want to do in between those things?”

  “I think there’s a new superhero movie out. I could go for that!”

  Slade grinned. “I figured you’d like chick flicks.”

  “I do. But I’m not going to force you to go to chick flicks. I’ll go with my girlfriends when I need a good cry.”

  “Does that happen often?”

  “Does what happen often?” Heidi asked, confused.

  “That you need a good cry?”

  “Not too often, but it happens. Superhero movie?”

  “I would love to take you to the new superhero movie. Wanna sit in the back row and make out?” he asked.

  She turned away from him, getting her purse and walking toward the door. “I don’t know yet. I’ll let you know when we get there.”

  Slade grinned as he watched her walk toward the door. A sweet and sassy nurse was just what the doctor ordered.

  The movie was good, and they both enjoyed it. Afterward, there was no time to go home. “Let’s just go to Mom and Dad’s a little early. That way we can get the interrogation over with.” Heidi climbed into the passenger seat of his car.

  “There’s going to be an interrogation?”

  She shook her head at him. “What did you think dinner tonight was about? Eating?”