by Zoe York
“The flight details are in the email Susan sent,” he started, deliberately sticking to the mundane. “You should double check you’ve got her number programmed into your phone.”
She giggled, and he couldn’t help but join her in finding that funny. Better than crying, he supposed. And maybe it would be good for them to be able to connect directly. Susan hadn’t hesitated to help. She didn’t even question why Paul was asking on Karen’s behalf.
In the rear-view mirror, he caught Audrey watching him, eyes squinted in a deductive fashion. Instead of worry, relief crawled down the back of his neck and eased some of the tension that had taken up residence in his shoulders. While she was in St. Louis, Paul was going to have to talk to Megan about Karen. It was time for his daughter to know that he was dating again. Even if Karen didn’t know it yet. He wasn’t going to give up on them this time, no matter what barriers she threw in his path.
For Karen, the next three hours were a blur of waiting and rushing, impatience and frustrated self-censorship because no inconvenience or annoying airline procedure came close to what her brother was enduring. Getting to the hospital, blessedly without running into any paparazzi, and finally—finally—stumbling into the waiting room, it was like passing through a filter and everything else faded away. Their parents looked tired, and Audrey tugged on Karen’s arm. As if she needed any encouragement to sprint across the room and wrap them in tight, never-let-go hugs.
“He’s moved into the recovery unit.” Karen brushed hair from her mother’s face, a tender role-reversal moment that didn’t go unnoticed by either of them before her mom continued, waving at the digital display high on one wall. “He’s the third patient down on that list. The nurse warned us that the surgeons might not be able to immediately come and see us, but it should be soon.”
“That gentleman over there—” Their father waved at a tall white haired man who returned the sentiment with a polite nod. “His wife is having her fourth operation in this hospital. He said no news is good news.”
“Do you need anything? Want us to do a coffee run?” Audrey’s voice was small but strong.
“No need, sweetie. That vending machine over there makes the most delicious cappuccinos.”
Karen snorted, and from the look on Audrey’s face she didn’t quite believe it either. Their father chuckled under his breath—thank goodness for small miracles—and Karen made a silent vow to swallow whatever brown swill came out of that machine if it amused her parents.
From the doorway, the sound of someone clearing their throat made both young women jump, but their mother smoothly stepped between them and nodded at the two men in suits. “Welcome back, Oscar. We haven’t heard from the surgeon yet, but he’s been moved to recovery.”
Oscar. One of them was her brother’s agent. The other must be from the team.
“Thank you, Grace. You holding up?”
“Now that my daughters are here, absolutely.”
“I just spoke with Davis, he’s in Houston.” Oscar flicked his wrist, revealing an extra-shiny watch. “Maybe taxiing out of Houston, his layover was only 40 minutes. He should be here in a couple hours.”
Karen turned her face toward her mother and lowered her voice. “I saw a sign about visiting hours ending at 8:00 p.m., will that apply to Davis?”
Her mother nodded, her brows pinched together. “Not that he’ll let that stop him, but I think so.”
“Maybe we should get some hotel rooms?” If there are any left. Maybe they’d all have to cram into the RV.
“If it’s not too forward, Ms. Miller, we’ve booked two suites at a hotel not far from here.” The other man finally spoke. At Karen’s raised eyebrow, he hastily added, “Sorry. I’m Mitchell. Mitchell Wagner. Director of Communications for the Coyotes.”
She nodded and turned back to her mother and her father, who had joined them, forming a tight pack of Millers. Her dad passed her a surprisingly yummy smelling paper cup and she rolled her eyes at his smug expression before returning to the subject at hand. “That okay with you?”
“We’re fine in the trailer,” her mother murmured, but Audrey cut her off with a quick thanks to the men in suits.
“There’s more to discuss in the coming days, of course—”
“And that can wait for those coming days.” Oscar cut off the younger man, but before Karen could figure out where that had been heading, another young man, this one wearing scrubs and a matching hat and backwards gown, stepped into the waiting room and drifted his gaze toward her parents. Karen suddenly felt old, surrounded by professionals who looked a decade younger than her.
“Excuse me, are you the Miller family?” Her father stepped forward and nodded. “Follow me.” He held up his hand as they stepped as one large group toward the door. “Family only, I’m sorry.”
“My wife and daughters can all come?”
A quick nod and a swirl of blue fabric. Karen was glad to follow him across the main corridor and through a restricted access doorway. The more to discuss could happen after they’d processed whatever they were about to be told. On their timetable. On Chase’s timetable. Not the team’s, or his agent’s, no matter how many hotel suites they booked.
He led them to a small, pleasantly appointed family meeting room. Once they were all inside, he gestured to the couch and chairs. “Please, have a seat. I’m Kevin, one of the OR nurses. The surgeons will be in to speak to you soon. I can tell you that the surgery went well, and as you know, Chad is in the recovery unit right now. Once you are done here, one of you can go and sit with him.”
Karen reached out and squeezed her mom’s hand. Grace Miller was vibrating with impatience. Thankfully, they didn’t need to wait long. As promised, two more scrub-clad bodies soon whirled into the room and introduced themselves as two of the surgeons who had worked on Chase all afternoon.
The older doctor, tall and distinguished, introduced himself as the Chief of Orthopedic Surgery, and explained about the plates and screws that were holding together Chase’s pelvis and one of his ankles, and how they repaired fractures in both legs. “He was lucky to avoid any damage to his internal organs. He doesn’t need to spend any time in the ICU, but we will be monitoring him closely over the next forty-eight hours. After that, if all goes well, we’ll start to discuss the next steps.”
He stood, shook hands with Grace and Hank, then excused himself after reassuring them that he’d stay in close contact with the public affairs department and the hockey team, so the family wouldn’t need to provide any medical details to the press.
After he left, the younger doctor explained she was a senior resident, the primary surgeon on Chase’s ankle repair, and offered to answer any further questions they had about the surgeries and what was in his near future. Hank had the most questions, but Dr. Razvi answered them clearly and in language they all understood. It wasn’t long before another knock on the door told them that Chase had moved from recovery to a private room in a step-down unit nearby.
After the surgeon left the room, they all let out a collective sigh. It could be so much worse, but would Chase feel the same way? As if she had the same thought, Karen’s mother rose to leave, but Hank stood with her and pulled her into a fierce hug first. One of his hands squeezed the back of his wife’s neck, the other stroked the small of her back, and, mouth to her ear, he whispered something private that visibly eased Grace’s weariness. She nodded, and pulled away enough to stroke her husband’s brow before setting her face into implacable mom mode.
Watching her parents comfort each other in small but familiar ways now carried more significance for Karen. If things were different, that could have been her and Paul in thirty years.
That was a depressing train of thought, and she was too darn tired to deal with it. If she entertained that resentment, she’d crawl inside herself and give up. They might not be able to have a forever love affair like her parents, but they had something, and she wasn’t going to let go of that just because it wasn’t everything
she might want it to be.
Hearing his voice would help. Her gaze drifted to the large picture on the wall, a cell phone trapped behind a red crossed out circle, and puffed her cheeks out with a heavy sigh. Right. That wasn’t going to happen.
“Come on, girls, let’s head back to the waiting room, I’m sure they need this room for other families.” Her dad held the door for them, and once they were across the hall again he turned all business. Hank Miller was back, and in charge. A weight lifted from Karen’s shoulders, and she let herself be taken care of for a few minutes.
After dispensing Mitchell and Oscar on tasks, Hank opened his laptop and announced that Davis’s flight would be landing on time, and they’d need a plan to sneak him into the hospital later. Audrey protested, and Karen smiled to herself. They’d both always been rule followers, Grace’s good girls, both of them. But Davis and Chase were close, to each other and their father, who knew his hellions better than anyone. There was no point pretending their brother would wait until morning.
“He’ll have no trouble getting past the nurses; or he will, but he’ll get a few numbers and get a note to Chase either way.” She rolled her eyes at her father’s proud grin. “Seriously, Dad? Good lord. That’s where they both get their false sense of invincibility. Jeez.”
Hank ignored her verbal jab and lifted the computer instead. “Do either of you want to check your email?”
Audrey waved him off, but Karen gratefully accepted the offer. They’d never emailed before, but maybe Paul would have magically sourced her address the way he had her phone number earlier in their relationship.
Their relationship.
She stilled her fingers on the keyboard, hating the painful thump of hope in her chest at those two little words. Their weak-ass, limited-by-too-many-constraints, secret relationship. Nothing to get excited about.
But she did. Couldn’t help it. For all of his protests, he was the best man she’d ever met, ever been with, and she’d dropped all of her defenses.
Now her expectations were sky-high. Crappity crap.
Even as she mentally scrambled to not care what she found, or didn’t find, in her inbox, disappointment unfurled in her gut.
Stop it, she told herself, but it was no good. The page loaded, revealing a bunch of bookseller promotional messages and a single personalized note—from Carrie.
“Kar? Everything okay?”
She glanced up, blinking twice to focus on Audrey’s furrowed brow and bright eyes. “Yeah.” She closed the browser window. “Yep, everything is okay.”
“Nothing from—”
“No.” Karen shot her sister a sharp look. Not in front of Dad. Not at all, if she had her choice, but Audrey was a dog with a bone when she was curious. All she could do was postpone the inquisition.
Audrey shrugged her shoulders, like she didn’t get why it was a big deal.
But Paul was a big deal. Maybe the only chance she’d ever have for a passionate affair. The thought of dating anyone else just made her sad. Sad that she hadn’t finished her schooling a decade earlier, that she couldn’t be the easy, always-present, flexible-life girlfriend that Paul needed right now. And deep down, sad that he couldn’t be what she needed, either. It wasn’t fair, when in every other way they seemed perfect for each other.
She felt like she was back in high school, riddled with hormones. Frustration bubbled hot and desperate inside her, her personal drama twisting around her fear and worry for her brother. When her mother reappeared in the waiting room door, this time with a tired but happy smile warming her face, some of Karen’s anxiety faded, and she pushed the rest of her concerns away. First, she had a little brother to pick on for being a terrible driver. Then she could start to fix her own mess.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Chase looked terrible, so she held off on teasing him. In the end, she didn’t say much of anything, just squeezed his hand sixty thousand times and pretended to be brave. Audrey, who had cried all of her tears earlier, actually was brave, and managed to get their brother to crack a few smiles before sleep overtook him and they slipped out of his room.
The night nurse, a hockey fan with grown children of her own, pish-poshed when Grace tried to say goodnight, and promised to find a lie-flat recliner instead. The girls hovered in the hallway for a minute, in case their dad needed a ride, but he waved them on. “Davis will pick up a rental car—I’ll wait here until he shows up and then head to hotel with him. It’ll be a good excuse to get him up here.”
At the hotel, Mitchell was waiting in the lobby. He straightened as they stepped through the revolving doors and offered a hesitant wave. He had a nerdy vulnerability now, out of Oscar’s shadow, and Karen felt the sharp edge of her resistance to him soften. For a communications suit, he wasn’t all that polished. And he looked genuinely relieved to see them.
“Mitchell, you didn’t have to meet us here. I thought you’d still be waiting at the hospital.” Karen offered a small smile. “Not that there’s anything that any of us can do right now, I suppose.”
“Oscar’s going to wait there overnight. I need to make some phone calls and that’s easier from here. Did you have any difficulty getting away?”
Audrey shook her head. “No. The ward clerk went ahead of us and scouted a clear exit. She said there’s only a couple of reporters in the lobby, and a hospital spokesperson is keeping them entertained.”
He nodded. “I have a staff person liaising with the hospital. They’re going to do a press conference tomorrow. With the series going to game seven, this is a minor story.” He winced. “For the media, not for your family, of course.”
Before Karen could assure him no offense had been taken, Audrey reached out, pressed a hand to his forearm and murmured the same thing. Mitchell swallowed hard and shifted ever so slightly. Interesting.
In the elevator, Karen snuck side glances at her not-so-little sister. Should she say something? Was it any of her business? Probably not, but maybe if it was a tit-for-tat exchange…
“So. Want to talk about guys?”
Audrey’s gaze snapped up from her studious exploration of the geometrical pattern on the carpet. “Like that Paul guy?”
She laughed. “Sure. And maybe I’ll play the big sister card and warn you about the dangers of flirting with nerdy older guys.”
“I wasn’t flirting! And he’s not nerdy!” Audrey’s eyes flashed wide and bright for a second, but narrowed as she mulled over the last bit. “He is older, though. And he probably wouldn’t want to have a fling with Chase’s little sister.”
Ache pulsed in Karen’s chest. When did her baby sister, who had been in grade one when Karen left home for university, grow up? But that wasn’t her sole cause for concern. What had she been thinking, trying to play it fast and loose with Paul? He’d held her off for good reason. And after one night and an emotionally needy morning, she’d immediately leapt to a plan that disrespected his carefully constructed boundaries.
A fling was a terrible idea.
“Maybe for you.”
Karen jerked her spine straight. “Did I say that out loud?”
The elevator doors opened and Audrey held her hand over the gap, waving her off first. “Mitchell looks at me like he’d be happy to see me naked and make it worth my time. He’s fling material. Paul looks at you…”
Karen’s pulse picked up. “How does he look at me?”
“Like you’re the most precious thing in the world, and he doesn’t quite know what to do about that.” Audrey wrinkled her nose. “I mean that last bit in a good way. Like he can’t believe he’s the guy who gets to be with you.”
If only. “Up until yesterday, he wasn’t. And even today, I’m not sure where we stand.”
“What happened?”
“It’s a long story.” Their suite was at the end of the hall. Karen slid her card into the reader and pushed the door open.
They fumbled for lights, unpacked, used the bathroom and flopped on the matching double beds before Audrey
cleared her throat.
“What?”
“I’m waiting for the long story. The tale of woe that will warn me off an ill-advised fling with Nerdy Mitchell.”
“How is that guy the Director of Communications for an NHL team?” Karen laughed gently. “I guess he has a certain disarming charm.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s more nerdy around me than other people.”
“Wow, that’s…confident.”
“Today wasn’t the first time we’ve met. I’ve seen him a few times at games. He looks at me, a lot.” Audrey grinned. “Now that we know Chase is going to be okay, I feel like this could be an opportunity.”
“No.” Karen shook her head from side to side, but both her words and her action lacked conviction. Who was she to give advice, on flings, or relationships…or anything, really? “I don’t know. It seems like a bad idea.”
“It’s a terrible idea. I’m thinking about it anyway.”
“Seriously, when did you turn into a woman?”
“A while ago.”
“Hmmm.”
“When did you fall in love with Paul?”
“A while ago.” With a groan, Karen pressed the heels of her hands into her eye sockets. Maybe if she pressed hard enough, she’d pass out, and wake up back in Wardham. Maybe this whole sad, mixed-up day was a nightmare.
“So what’s the problem?”
“He has a ten-year-old daughter, and between work and trying to be an active part in her life, he can’t have a long-distance relationship for the next year.”
“And you’re definitely leaving.”
“Yeah.” Oh, the irony. “And that’s because of him, you know? He pushed me to admit I wanted more out of life. One of the first times we ever talked, I spilled my guts about coming home that Christmas and never going back. Told him about the store, and Mom and Dad, and finally admitted I wanted the grand adventure I’d missed out on in my twenties.”