She took the piece of paper and tucked it into her purse. “Thank you. I’m not crazy about being poked with a needle, but at least I’ll get some answers, one way or another.”
“You will, but like I said, it’s probably a benign cyst. I don’t want you to worry.”
“Too late for that,” she said with a wan smile, “but I appreciate your concern. Tracy said you were a terrific doctor, and now I see she was right.”
“You mean Tracy Novak?”
“Yes, we’ve been friends since we were kids. She and I and Julia Stewart. We’re very close. Tracy mentioned you’ve been seeing Julia.” Her eyes twinkled.
“No, not exactly seeing her. We’ve had a couple of beers after games, that’s all.” He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
“Julia’s a very special person. She deserves someone very special in her life.” She took a deep breath and got to her feet. “So how long till I get the results of the mammogram and the fine-needle biopsy?”
“A few days after you have the procedures done. I’ll have Susan call you when the results are in. If you need further testing, I’ll get her to set up another appointment for you to see me again.”
“You mean if the biopsy finds cancer.”
There was no sugar-coating it. “Yes.”
She took another deep breath, her face turning pale. Mention of the C-word tended to do that to people.
“In that case, I hope to never see you again, Dr. Campbell.”
He laughed. “Me too. Unless it’s on the ball diamond.”
“Absolutely.”
****
On Saturday morning, Chloe Sykes arrived to keep Ava amused while Julia worked on her proposed sex education unit of the health curriculum. Even though her proposal had been rejected, she wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. She’d keep fighting for it, and if someone wanted to know what such a curriculum would look like, she’d be prepared to show them. Since there was no such curriculum in place in the area, she was going to adapt one already approved by the Maine Department of Education and used in other parts of the state.
A few weeks ago, she would have asked her parents to watch Ava. But her days of relying on them for child care were over. She simply couldn’t take the chance of Ava getting hurt again.
Chloe took Ava to the playground for an hour, and after that they played quietly in the house and in the yard. At noon, Julia looked up from her laptop to glance out the window of the second floor spare bedroom she’d set up as an office. The girls were building a castle in the sandbox. Chloe looked as if she was having as much fun as Ava. She was sixteen, with a woman’s body but the heart of a child.
Julia called them inside and made grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup for the three of them. After lunch she paid Chloe and made a date for her to babysit again the following Saturday morning. With a smile and a hug for Ava, she left for home.
“So, what do you say we clean up the lunch dishes and then go see how Grandma and Grandpa Dawson are today?”
“Okay,” Ava said. “But you’re not going to leave me there, are you?”
“No, sweetheart. We’re just going to visit for a little while and then come home. Together. Okay?”
Ava appeared mollified. “Okay.”
Ever since her accident, Ava had been reluctant to visit her grandparents. In fact, the night she’d taken her father to the hospital with chest pains, Ava had begged to go to the hospital with her instead of being left with her grandmother. Julia was ashamed now when she remembered her daughter’s tear-streaked face.
At the time she’d been concerned about her father’s health and thought her daughter was being unreasonable. She’d believed she would be fine with her mother. Of course that was before her father’s reaction to leaving them alone together, and the “sleep-walking” incident at Alex’s house. Even though there had been no further incidents, she hadn’t left Ava alone with them since.
The social worker, Helen Murray, had visited with her parents, and her father had agreed to take her mother to Dr. Willson for testing. But he was dragging his feet, coming up with excuses to avoid making an appointment.
They walked the two blocks to her parents’ house. Julia noticed that Alex’s car was gone. He was likely at the hospital, or possibly at the free clinic. She couldn’t seem to stop thinking about him, wondering what he was doing. Seeing him at softball practices had become the highlight of her week.
Stop it! Maybe Ava wasn’t the only one who was becoming too attached to the temporary doctor.
She pushed open the door of her parents’ house and stepped inside.
“Hello? Anybody home?” she called.
Her father appeared around the corner. “My two favorite girls. How are you?”
Julia gave her father a hug. “We’re great. How are you and Mom?”
“We’re fine. Come on in. Can I make you some tea?”
“Sure. Where’s Mom?”
“She’s in the bathroom, I think.” He put the kettle on the stove to boil. “I’ll let her know you’re here.”
Julia poured Ava a glass of milk, then pulled her mother’s favorite teapot from the cupboard along with a container of teabags. She could hear her parents’ hushed voices, but they hadn’t re-emerged from upstairs. Was something wrong? If they hadn’t come downstairs by the time the kettle boiled, she was going up after them.
Ava pointed to the window in the oven door. “Mommy, what’s in the oven?”
“In the oven?” She crouched to take a look. There was definitely something in there, though the stove was cool to the touch. “I don’t know, sweetheart. Let’s take a look.”
She opened the door and found the oven packed from top to bottom with canned goods of all kinds—soups, vegetables, fruit, meat. What the hell? The racks had been removed to allow the maximum number of cans to be stuffed in. Cans were sitting directly on the element. If someone turned on the oven, the labels could catch fire, or the cans explode. What was going on?
Her mother and father entered the kitchen at that moment. Dora smiled at Julia, her face lighting up when she saw her. She put her arms around her in a warm embrace.
“Julia! There’s my girl! I haven’t seen you in so long.”
Julia hugged her back, surprised by her comment and the show of emotion since she’d been by the previous day to see her.
“Nice to see you too, Mom.” She pulled herself from her mother’s arms, and turned to face the open oven door. “Why is the oven full of canned goods? It could be dangerous if someone turns on the oven. Did you put them in there?”
Dora stared blankly at the oven. Paul put an arm around her shoulders.
“I put them in there.”
“Why on earth would you do that?” Julia asked, incredulous.
“You know we don’t have a lot of storage space in this kitchen. We used to keep extra supplies in the basement, but I got tired of going up and down those steep stairs. We hardly use the oven anymore, so I figured why not utilize the space.”
It sounded plausible. Yet…
“How are you going to make sure no one turns on the oven by accident?”
“I’ll take out the element. Then you won’t have to worry about it.”
Julia wondered why he hadn’t done that before stuffing in all the cans. “Yes, that would be a good idea.” She made herself smile, not wanting to upset them. “I could use a cup of tea. How about you?”
They sat at the kitchen table, the adults drinking tea and Ava having a glass of milk with her cookies. Julia’s father played a card game with Ava.
“I planted red geraniums in the garden, didn’t I, Paul?”
“You certainly did.”
Dora toyed with her cup. “They’re so pretty. Did I plant those geraniums?”
“Yes, you planted them, Dora,” Julia’s father said.
She drank some of her tea. “Did I plant those geraniums?”
Julia couldn’t stand it any longer.
“D
ad, when are you going to take Mom to see a doctor?”
Both parents stared at her, Dora in confusion and Paul in irritation. He pushed away from the table.
“Can’t you get it through your head that we’re fine?”
“Dad—”
“I think you should go, Julia. Your mother is tired. It’s time for her nap.”
“Come on, Dad. Can’t we talk about this?”
He lifted his chin, his expression icy. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
“There’s everything to talk about!”
“No!” His face turned red with anger. “It’s bad enough you sent over a social worker to spy on us, as if we need a babysitter. I can look after us just fine! I’ve been doing it for years, and I intend to keep on doing it.”
Julia looked from her mother’s bewildered face to her daughter’s frightened one, and then to her father’s angry and hurt expression. She hadn’t meant to upset all three of them like this, but it was obvious to her now that her mother wasn’t well. Why was he fighting so hard to deny there was a problem?
It was pointless to continue arguing. It would only upset her father more and possibly make him ill.
“Okay Dad, I’m leaving.”
She put her arm around his neck and hugged, and to her relief he hugged her back. “I love you, Dad.”
“I love you too, baby.”
After kissing her mother goodbye, she and Ava walked home. Ava was quiet and held her hand tightly, as if she was afraid to let go.
Her mother’s health problems had a profound effect on all of them. She wished her father could see that.
****
As soon as the cast technician turned on the saw, Ava snatched her arm away, her eyes growing wide with fear.
“No!” she shouted.
The technician turned off the offending machine. “I promise it won’t hurt you. It only cuts the cast so we can take it off your arm. It won’t touch your skin.”
Ava was having none of it. As tears rolled down her cheeks, she cradled her cast with her good arm and turned her body away. Julia put her arm around her small shoulders.
“It’s okay, honey. It really isn’t going to hurt. You know I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you.”
“I want Dr. Alex,” Ava managed through her tears.
“Honey, Dr. Alex is busy. We don’t want to bother him. You’ll be fine, I promise.”
“Nooo! I want Dr. Alex.” Her cries took on a high-pitched edge that bordered on hysteria. Her body shook uncontrollably.
Julia rubbed her back, trying to think what to do. This was more than a temper tantrum. Ava was genuinely terrified. “Easy, honey, easy.”
“I can call down to the ER and see if Dr. Campbell is in today,” the technician offered with a kind smile. “If not, we’ll reschedule for another time.”
Julia hesitated. She didn’t want to bother Alex at work. More importantly, she didn’t want to acknowledge to him or anyone else how important he was to Ava.
But what choice did she have, with Ava making herself sick with fear?
She nodded at the technician, and the young woman picked up the phone and pushed a few buttons. After speaking to someone on the other end, she said, “Dr. Campbell will be up in a few minutes.”
Julia swallowed. She didn’t know whether to be relieved, embarrassed, grateful, or just plain worried. Alex was dropping everything to ease her daughter’s distress. Word that he’d come to their rescue like a knight in shining armor was bound to spread through the hospital like a virus. Soon everyone from Lobster Cove to Bar Harbor would be talking about her. She could practically hear the rumors:
They’re sleeping together.
Why shouldn’t Dr. Campbell get a little action while he’s in town?
She’s using her kid to reel him in.
It won’t last any longer than her marriage did.
Julia took a long, shaking breath. She couldn’t bear to be the object of gossip. Not again. When her marriage ended so suddenly, people had talked. She’d found it humiliating to be gossiped about. And it hurt. A lot.
Alex swept into the cast room, his eyes meeting hers as soon as he walked in. He quickly shifted his attention to Ava, who huddled against Julia’s side, her body still trembling with hiccupping sobs. Alex gently lifted her cast-covered hand and squeezed her fingers.
“What’s this I hear about you not liking the cast saw?”
“It’s scary,” Ava whimpered.
“Why is it so scary?”
“It’s gonna hurt like when I broke my arm.”
“No, it’s not,” he said patiently. “I promise it won’t hurt. How ’bout if I hold you on my lap while Amanda is taking off the cast? I’ll make sure she doesn’t hurt you.” This was said with an apologetic smile to the cast technician.
Ava took a shuddering intake of breath. “Promise you’ll stay?”
“I promise, Sweet Pea.”
“Okay,” she said in a small voice.
“Good.” He rapped her cast with his knuckles. “Let’s get rid of this thing.”
He scooped her into his arms and sat beside Julia on the examining table with Ava on his lap. Julia was very aware of him, of the solid strength of his thigh next to hers, of his clean, masculine scent, and the warmth of his body. A sudden desire assailed her. She wanted to bury her face into his chest just as Ava was doing, to let him hold her and look after her. But that wasn’t possible.
Instead, she eased off the table and put a little distance between them.
Amanda started the vibrating saw once more. Alex held Ava securely, bending over to whisper in her ear. Julia couldn’t hear what he said, but whatever reassurances he offered seemed to work. Ava held her arm still as Amanda made two lengthwise cuts to either side of the fiberglass surface of the cast, then used spreaders to pry it open. After cutting open the inside netting and cotton padding with scissors, she removed the cast from Ava’s arm. The whole procedure took no more than five minutes.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it, Sweet Pea?” Alex said.
“Not so bad,” Ava conceded.
“Good.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’ve got to get back to work.”
Setting her on the table, he hopped down and headed for the door. As he turned the doorknob, Julia finally found her voice.
“Thank you.”
He looked up, and their gazes collided. She saw a flash of longing in his eyes, and she wondered if a similar emotion shone in her own eyes. With a curt nod, he opened the door and left the room.
Amanda washed the cast residue from Ava’s arm and dried it with a towel. Finally it was over. Julia thanked her for her kindness, took Ava’s hand, and hurried from the hospital.
Her stomach was tied up in knots as they drove home. She wondered if the cast technician would gossip about how Dr. Campbell held her daughter in his arms while she removed the cast. Even if she didn’t, others in the hospital likely would. It didn’t matter to the gossips that they hadn’t slept together. There would still be talk.
And, once more, all her private fears and hopes would be exposed for public display.
****
Melissa Maloney’s face was taut with worry when Alex stepped into the examining room. She wore a bright red knitted hat over her head, which struck him as strange since it was at least seventy-five degrees outside. According to the chart, she was here to see him for another urinary tract infection. She looked like she was in serious discomfort.
“No offense, but I was hoping you wouldn’t darken my examining room door with another UTI. It’s pretty bad, isn’t it?”
She nodded, and her lower lip quivered. “I thought I had it under control. I was drinking the cranberry juice like you said, and it seemed to work for a time, and then bam, it started again.”
He looked over her chart. Was there something he was missing here?
“We’ll try another antibiotic and see if works any better.”
“Okay.” She shifted uncomfortably.
“Is forgetfulness a symptom of a urinary tract infection? I feel so foggy sometimes I can barely function. Yesterday at work I went down to the storeroom to get some supplies, but by the time I got there, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember why I was there.”
“Has this happened to you before?”
She nodded and looked away. “I’m so tired all the time. I thought it was just life, you know. Like you said, Busy Mom Syndrome. But some days I can barely get out of bed. I know I’m not giving my all at work, but I end up running out of gas before I run out of day. My boss has started to notice. I’m scared I’m going to lose my job.” A tear trickled down her cheek.
“If you need me to write you a note for work, I can do that. Maybe it’ll keep your boss off your back.”
She nodded again. He composed a quick note on the clinic stationery, signed it, and handed it to her. Then he took her blood pressure and temperature. Like the last time, they were both in the high normal range. He wrote another script for antibiotics and handed it to her.
“We’re going to figure this thing out. I don’t think we have any choice but to do some more investigation, do you?”
Reluctantly, she nodded. “I guess you’re right.”
“Good.” He began writing an order for the lab. “We’re going to do a more thorough urine and blood workup, to start, and see what it shows us.”
“Okay.” Her lip quivered once more. “Do you know the worst of it?”
“What?”
Her face was full of anguish. “This.”
She pulled off the knitted hat. Patches of hair had fallen out, leaving bald spots all over her scalp. Tears streamed down her face.
“I used to have such beautiful hair. My crowning glory, my mother called it. Now look at me!”
What the hell was going on?
He squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll find out what’s going on, Melissa. I promise.”
She nodded, and wiped her eyes with her fingers, taking a deep breath to try to get herself under control. Alex handed her a tissue. She blew her nose, then pushed her arms into the sleeves of her sweater.
“That’s a heavy sweater to be wearing on a warm day like today,” he said. “Are you cold?”
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