Right On Time

by Robin Brande

  Right On Time

  Robin Brande

  Ryer Publishing

  RIGHT ON TIME

  By Robin Brande

  Published by Ryer Publishing

  www.ryerpublishing.com

  Copyright 2018 by Robin Brande

  www.robinbrande.com

  All rights reserved.

  HEART OF ICE

  By Robin Brande

  Published by Ryer Publishing

  www.ryerpublishing.com

  Copyright 2012 by Robin Brande

  www.robinbrande.com

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  Right On Time

  Right On Time

  Janie wove her way through the New Year’s Eve party guests, her eyes on the red hair she could see in the corner of the living room. Two redheads: her cousin Sarah and the new baby. The chubby-cheeked, ginger-haired three-month-old she had only seen in the slews of pictures she kept begging Sarah to send more often.

  Sarah hadn’t noticed her yet. She was laughing with a few of her guests, jiggling the baby on her hip.

  At last Janie was in range.

  She reached out her arms and said the most loving thing she could:

  “Oh my gosh, that is the ugliest baby! She’s a monster!”

  Sarah’s face lit up. “Janie!” She angled the baby safely to her side and hugged her cousin hard. Then she cheerfully handed the baby over.

  “Look at you, you little troll,” Janie cooed, stroking a finger down little Ella’s plump rosy cheek. “You’re so skinny, no one would ever want you.” She closed her eyes and breathed in the clean powdery baby scent. “And you smell disgusting.”

  Sarah let out a laugh. Janie opened her eyes again, prepared to laugh along with her cousin. They had both grown up with the same family superstition, so they both knew exactly why Janie said the things she did.

  But instead of meeting Sarah’s gaze, Janie looked straight into the disapproving face of the handsome man standing at Sarah’s side. He looked vaguely familiar.

  Sarah must have caught the man’s expression, too. “Nate, this is my cousin Janie. Janie, Joe’s brother Nate. And Ella’s very protective uncle.”

  Of course, Janie thought. Now she saw the resemblance: Joe’s musician brother. She still hadn’t met Sarah’s husband, Joe, in person, but she had seen him in plenty of pictures. Nate looked a year or two older, with a few strands of gray in his thick brown hair. Both he and his brother had the same warm brown eyes and solid, athletic look.

  In fact, Janie thought, she liked his particular look overall: the simple jeans, a plain white T-shirt under a plain gray sweater, sturdy light-hikers on his feet. Wire-rimmed glasses that made him look bookish. And no longer frowning, but now gazing at her with amused curiosity. And the hint of what looked like a nice smile…

  Nope, Janie reminded herself. Just thirteen weeks. Family time is precious.

  “You weren’t at the wedding,” Nate said. He definitely would have remembered: Janie’s long brown hair, caught up in a ponytail right now, the minimal makeup, her lively face so ready with a smile. She was darker than her cousin, with an outdoorsy-looking tan. She looked hardy. Healthy. He wondered if she was a runner.

  “I couldn’t get away,” Janie said. “This was my first chance.”

  “She would have been my maid of honor,” said Sarah.

  It had been exactly two years since Sarah and Joe’s wedding. Just a small, low-key gathering of mostly family at Sarah’s parents’ house on New Year’s Eve. The invitation had been a surprise to all of them, including Janie. Last she heard, Sarah still hated Joe for breaking her heart in law school.

  Once Sarah told her the whole story of how they found each other again, Janie would have given anything to share in the celebration. But with just one week’s notice before the impromptu wedding, she simply couldn’t reschedule her shifts.

  “I still wish I could have been there,” Janie said.

  “It’s all right,” her cousin answered. “Now I have a much better job for you. Joe and I would like you to be Ella’s godmother.”

  “Really?” Janie said. “I would love that! What do you think, Ella?”

  Janie leaned over and touched her nose against the baby’s. Ella looked back at her with wide blue eyes and seemed to gurgle with approval.

  New life, Janie thought. It never got old for her. Particularly after a hard shift when she couldn’t save all the patients in her care. She often went to the hospital nursery afterward just to remind herself of the other side of the cycle.

  Sarah watched the two of them fondly. Then she clasped her brother-in-law’s arm. “Nate’s the godfather. So it’s good you’re finally meeting. The two of you can work out all the details of how you’re going to spoil my child.”

  “Oh, believe me,” said Janie, kissing Ella’s soft ginger hair, “I’m already way ahead of you on that.”

  She had made up her mind months ago that she wasn’t going to miss this time with Sarah and her baby. As soon as Sarah told her she was pregnant, Janie began looking for hospital postings in Los Angeles.

  Travel nurses were always in high demand. Janie usually had her choice of placements. Each job lasted a minimum of thirteen weeks. She and the hospital could extend that time if she wanted, but by the end Janie was always excited to move on.

  It was a lifestyle she loved. Growing up, her family could rarely afford a vacation. Now her whole life revolved around travel and fresh experiences. She’d show up in a new place, meet new people, spend her shifts doing challenging, interesting work, then use her days off to explore the area and try whatever sports the place inspired. She learned kayaking and hockey, stand-up paddleboarding, single-track mountain biking, snowboarding and kite skating.

  Her days off felt like a perpetual vacation. She tried as many new things as she could. Then at the end of thirteen weeks she’d accept a new posting somewhere else she wanted to explore and she’d start all over again. Now thirty-two, the same age as Sarah, she had already lived in twenty-six different states.

  She was finishing up a job in North Carolina when she finally saw two postings for Los Angeles on the same day. She called the hospital nearest Sarah and accepted right away. She also agreed to work mostly night shifts so she could have more days off to help Sarah with the baby. The ER was always busy, whether it was night or day. Staff nurses appreciated any travel nurse who was willing to take over some of their nights.

  Sarah peered over Janie’s arm. “She’s sleeping,” Sarah whispered. “Can I leave her with you for a bit? I need to run to the restroom.”

  “Try to take her back,” said Janie, cradling the baby even closer. She loved the feeling of the Ella’s weight in her arms and the warmth of the baby’s head against her chest. And despite what she’d said before, Ella smelled wonderful. Like baby shampoo or baby bath or just plain baby.

  “Good,” said Sarah. “And while I’m gone, you might want to explain to Nate why you said all those horrible things about niece.” Sarah’s eyes glinted with mischief. Then she took off at a trot across the room.

  Janie turned to Nate and laughed. “Yeah, that…”

  Nate liked her laugh. It was a low, throaty sort of chuckle. He liked how unself-conscious she was: about herself, and about how much she obviously loved her cousin and now little Ella. Some women seemed almost embarrassed about enjoying their lives. Janie seemed very comfortable with herself. It made Nate feel comfortab
le to be around her.

  Normally he wasn’t one for parties. The noise, the crowd, the superficial talk. He’d played at enough of them over the years—at resorts, clubs, homes of the rich and famous—that now they still felt like work, even though he hadn’t been a hired performer for a while.

  He had finally shut down that part of his musical life to concentrate on what he loved most: composing. Spending hours in his home-based studio creating songs and instrumentals, then recording all the parts himself, like a one-man band.

  The technology was so good these days, any musician really could do it all by him- or herself. The learning curve was high—so many different software programs and knowing which equipment he needed to give him exactly the sound he wanted—but he had put in the time for two years to study it all before finally giving up his steady work.

  Now he spent his days and nights creating all his own music. He had started out as a drummer in his hard-rock teenage years, then gradually moved over to guitar and bass, and finally piano. He laid down tracks of him playing all his own instruments, then filled in around them with the other sounds he could get just from reprogramming his electronic keyboard. If he needed an orchestra behind him or a flute solo or a choir singing “Ahhh…” he could bring all of them in with just a few adjustments on the computer.

  He never had to attend another party again.

  It had been hard to coax him out of the studio for this one, especially since he really wanted to finish his new song in time. But Sarah reminded him he hadn’t seen Ella since Christmas, and Nate agreed that was too long.

  He was surprised by how attached he was to his little red-haired niece. He never used to think babies were his thing. But why fight it? he realized. Ella had him wrapped around her chubby, dimpled little finger. Every time she treated him to one of her irresistible toothless smiles, Nate could imagine himself standing in front of her in full armor, sword drawn, defending her from anything that might dare try to make her unhappy.

  So he had agreed to come to the party, but planned on putting in only a brief appearance. He wanted to get back to his studio by eight. If he worked steadily for another few hours, he might be able to finish the song by midnight. Then he could send it to his brother and Sarah as an anniversary gift.

  But now that he met Janie…

  Joe and Sarah didn’t even know about his song. Would waiting another day before he sent it to them really make a difference?

  Nate smiled inwardly to himself. He knew an excuse when he heard one.

  But he also knew a good idea when he heard it, too. And why should he resist? It was how he came up with his best compositions. A few bits of lyric or a fragment of melody would pop into his head, and he couldn’t wait to write the rest of the song. He had learned to follow his instincts.

  Janie gently rocked Ella side to side. The baby peacefully slept. Nate picked up the edge of the green knitted blanket that was hanging loose and tucked it back around her shoulder. His eyes met Janie’s. For a moment the two of them just looked at each other over the top of Ella’s slumbering head.

  “So tell me,” Nate said. Janie looked blank. “The things you said—”

  “Oh! Right.” Janie snapped back to attention. She’d been distracted by the business with the blanket. Even if Sarah hadn’t said a thing about him before, Janie would have known Nate doted on his niece simply because of that one tender action.

  It was something she enjoyed about her hospital life: seeing people take care of other people. It always made her feel hopeful about the human race.

  “Sarah and I had the same granny,” Janie began. “We adored her. She made the best cookies. And she always told us the scariest stories. When we were little she taught us there are witches everywhere, always watching, always listening, just waiting to steal anything nice we might have.”

  Nate laughed. “That won’t scar you.”

  “Exactly!” said Janie. “But our granny was smart. She taught us how to trick them. You never tell someone, That’s a pretty dress, or What a nice car, or That’s a handsome boyfriend. Next thing you know—” Janie momentarily lifted a hand away from the baby and snapped her fingers. “Gone. Stolen by the witches.”

  “Explains a lot,” Nate said.

  “We thought so. But here’s the trick: If you really, really love something, then you have to say it’s no good. It’s the worst. Then the witches will leave you alone. So obviously Ella…”

  “Is a very ugly baby,” Nate said.

  “You get it. Well done. Granny would be proud.”

  The two of them shared a smile. Then Nate reached out his hands. “Mind if I have a turn?”

  “No. Of course not.” Janie passed the sleeping child to his arms.

  She was curious to watch how he did it. She had seen plenty of new fathers walking the hallways of the hospital with their infants, some of the men looking very natural, others looking incredibly awkward. They didn’t seem to know what to do with their hands. They weren’t sure if they should hold the baby out in front of them like a platter of food, or up over their shoulder, where sometimes the babies spit up. Then the new fathers looked around for any sort of help, and tried to enlist the first person in scrubs that they saw. Janie had returned her share of infants to the nursery or back to their tired mothers with the fathers trailing nervously behind.

  But Nate gathered little Ella in like it was the most natural thing in the world. Ella stirred for a moment, eyelids heavy, before nestling onto his chest and instantly falling back to sleep. Nate cupped his hand behind Ella’s head and neck and gently swayed with her side to side.

  For a moment it seemed as if he had forgotten Janie was there. She could hear him humming to the baby. A few words from the song quietly broke through. “Right on time…” Then Nate closed his eyes and returned to humming.

  The sound of it was so relaxing, Janie felt tempted to close her own eyes and just listen for a while. But she didn’t want to lose her chance to observe him as long as she could.

  She had a habit of looking at faces. Working in so many hospitals, she had seen thousands of people over time, all experiencing emotions of one kind or another: hope, love, anxiety, elation when the patient pulled through, despair when their loved one couldn’t be saved.

  Janie always savored the love. Love between couples, between parents and children and siblings, love even when it was breaking someone’s heart.

  These next thirteen weeks were for love. It had been too long since Janie had indulged in it herself. She had missed so many holidays with her family, it felt good to be at a New Year’s Eve party of her cousin’s. To start a new year fresh. To stop always being the stranger, and for a while to feel like she was home again.

  Janie could see Sarah heading back toward them now. Joe was with her, too. She hoped they would take their time. Nate was still humming his song.

  When he finished he opened his eyes. Janie met him with a smile. “That was beautiful. Did you write it?”

  “Work in progress,” he said.

  “I’d love to hear it—”

  “Finally,” Sarah interrupted. “Janie, meet Joe.” Joe held out his hand to shake, but Janie bypassed it and went in straight for the hug. She felt like she already knew him.

  “Sorry about your hideous baby,” she said.

  “We don’t even have a baby,” Joe answered. “I told Sarah you two have been playing this thing all wrong.”

  Janie and Joe grinned at each other. So far Janie approved.

  Sarah unceremoniously checked the state of her daughter’s diaper. “Just wet,” she said. “Here, I’ll take her.”

  “Not in front of company,” Joe said, transferring Ella from his brother’s arms into his own. “Let Janie think I do this all the time.”

  “I’ll be here too long for your party manners,” Janie answered. “Might as well be real.”

  Sarah nudged Nate. “I thought you said you weren’t staying.”

  Janie thought she caught another b
rief flash of mischief on her cousin’s face.

  “Just a little longer,” Nate said, trying to suppress Sarah with a look. He loved his sister-in-law dearly, but sometimes she liked to stir things up. She knew he hadn’t dated anyone since Carla broke up with him back in June. He’d been relieved he could work as much as he wanted to after that without Carla complaining about being ignored.

  This conversation with Janie was the longest one he had had with a woman in half a year. Sarah probably guessed that.

  But if she guessed instead that he had written a new song in honor of her and Joe’s anniversary, and that they could hear it by the end of the night if Nate just left right now to go home and finish his last few adjustments—

  He had no doubt Sarah would immediately escort him to the door no matter how much he enjoyed talking to her cousin.

  Joe took Ella away to change her diaper, and Sarah left to replenish some of the food on the table.

  Janie and Nate stood alone, no baby between them to help direct the conversation.

  But Janie didn’t hesitate a moment. “I’m starving. What do they have to eat?”

  At the food table Nate watched in admiration as Janie unashamedly piled her plate high. She made herself a croissant sandwich with turkey and cheese, and filled the rest of the space with Sarah’s homemade cookies and a brownie and a few mini-cheesecakes.

  “I’m a professional,” she said when she saw him looking. “Sugar is good for you.”

  Nate realized he was hungry, too. He loaded a plate of his own, and the two of them moved off to the side of the table and ate where they were standing.

  “You’re only here for a while, I understand,” said Nate.

  Janie nodded and politely covered her mouth while she still chewed. “Three months. Thirteen weeks.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then I see where else sounds interesting.”

  “You don’t mind always moving?” Nate asked.