Drawing Close: The Fourth Novel in the Rosemont Series

by Barbara Hinske

  “I’m sure of it,” John said. “What do you think about their getting married next week?”

  “I’m relieved, actually. I’m afraid we won’t be living here next year when she planned to get married.”

  “You don’t know that Frank is going to outbid us. We’ve been able to sweeten our offer. Frank isn’t known for overpaying for anything. He probably figures we can’t come up with even half of the appraised value. He’ll bid the half that is the required minimum and think he’s got it in the bag.”

  Maggie bent to greet Blossom and Buttercup. “I hope you’re right, but my gut tells me Frank Haynes will do anything to get his hands on Rosemont.” She looked up at John. “I’m trying to come to terms with the idea that we’ll be leaving this house. I’d love to have Susan’s wedding here. If she gets married next week, we can be sure of it.”

  Chapter 50

  Maggie folded her reading glasses into their case and closed her laptop. It was no use. She was too tired to focus on her emails; they would have to wait until the next morning. She leaned back in her chair. Susan had rallied when the clerk arrived to get their signatures on the application for their wedding license, but she’d been increasingly listless the rest of the day. Aaron was a doctor—if he said she was doing fine, she didn’t need to worry. And she’d started her post-operative prescription of antibiotics. Maggie was doing what she always did—worrying needlessly about her children.

  She collected John from the sofa, where he’d fallen asleep in front of the television, and they went up to bed. She’d finally fallen into a deep sleep when she was awakened by a firm knock on their bedroom door. She grabbed her robe from the foot of her bed.

  Maggie opened the door to find Aaron, fully dressed, on the other side. “Susan’s spiked a fever,” he said calmly. “We need to take her to the hospital.”

  She took a step back. “Let me put some clothes on,” she started, but Aaron interrupted her.

  “No. Give me John’s keys, and I’ll take her now. I’ll call you.”

  Maggie scooped up John’s keys from their usual perch on his nightstand and handed them to Aaron. “You go and we’ll follow. How high is it?” she asked as she hurried down the hall with him to Susan’s room.

  “One hundred four,” he said.

  Maggie gasped.

  “I’ve given her ibuprofen and acetaminophen to bring it down, but I think she’ll need intravenous antibiotics. The sooner they start them, the better.”

  “The incision is infected?” Maggie asked.

  “Yes,” Aaron said as he lifted Susan out of bed.

  “Let me get John to help you take her downstairs.”

  “I’m right here,” John said from the hallway. He and Aaron carried Susan down the stairs and into John’s car.

  “Honey,” Maggie said to Susan. Her eyes fluttered open, then closed.

  “We’ll be ten minutes behind you,” John told Aaron as he started the ignition.

  Maggie turned to John. “She’s going away from us, John. I felt it all day. She was getting sicker and sicker,” her voice cracked.

  John took Maggie by the shoulder and steered her into the house. “Get dressed, and we’ll go to the hospital. Post-operative infections are not uncommon, and they know how to treat them,” he said with as much confidence as he could muster.

  “You really believe she’ll be all right?” Maggie asked in a small voice.

  “I do.”

  ***

  Maggie wrapped her arms around herself and rocked back and forth in her chair in the frigid emergency room waiting area of Mercy Hospital. John slipped his arm around her shoulders and rubbed her arm.

  “Why do they always keep these places so cold?” she muttered.

  “You’ve got a spare jacket in the car. I’ll go get it for you,” he said, starting to rise. She pulled him back into his seat.

  “I don’t want you to leave me alone,” she said. “I want you here when the doctor comes out.”

  “She’s going to be fine, sweetheart. Whatever’s going on, she’s in good hands.”

  Maggie leaned her head into his shoulder but didn’t respond, keeping her eyes trained on the door that led from the waiting area to the exam rooms. They both tensed when the door opened and a man in surgical scrubs and a clipboard called to an elderly woman who had been sitting, alone, clutching her purse on her lap. The man smiled at the woman as she approached, and said, “He’s doing just fine.” The woman’s relief, as she passed Maggie and John, was tangible.

  “We’ve been here for almost two hours,” Maggie said, “and no word. That can’t be good.”

  John had been thinking the same thing. “No news is just that, sweetheart. No news. I’m sure someone will be out shortly.” But no one came for them, and they sat, watching the door open and close three more times, as people who entered the waiting area, long after she and John had arrived, were called back to see their loved ones. Finally, it was their turn.

  The nurse ushered them into a small private consultation room. “The doctor will be right in,” he said.

  “How’s my daughter?” Maggie asked the young man.

  “The doctor will be right in” was his only reply.

  Maggie turned scared eyes to John. John put his arms around her and pulled her to him.

  There was a soft knock on the door, and Alex leaned into the room. “Aaron called me about twenty minutes ago. Do you mind if I wait with you?”

  John motioned him into the room. Maggie bowed her head and they waited in silence.

  Aaron and an older man finally entered the room. “She’s had a close call, but we think she’ll be all right,” Aaron said.

  Maggie leaned forward. “What do you mean, ‘close call’?” she asked shrilly.

  The older man stepped toward her. “I’m Dr. Jacobson,” he said, extending his hand. “Susan is stable and will be moved to a room in the ICU. Her surgical site is infected, and she’s had a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotic she was taking. Her throat was almost completely swollen shut, and she was in anaphylactic shock. We had to intubate her to allow her to breathe. We’ve put her into a medically induced coma and are giving her a different intravenous antibiotic to fight the infection.”

  Maggie shook her head, trying to take it all in.

  “How long do you plan to keep her under?” John asked.

  “Hopefully, only a day or two. It’s a very mild coma, and we’ll bring her up each day to assess her situation.”

  “Is the new antibiotic going to work?” Maggie asked, seeking reassurance.

  “We’ve had good luck with this one and have every confidence that it will,” the doctor replied.

  “Can I see her?”

  “Normally, we don’t allow visitors until the patient is moved to a room, but I think we can make an exception this time. I’ll take you back. But you can only stay a few minutes.”

  Maggie nodded.

  “One of you can be with her when she moves to the ICU,” the doctor said.

  Maggie turned to Aaron. “I hate the idea of leaving her, but since you’re a doctor, I think you should be the one to stay.”

  “Thank you, Maggie,” Aaron said. “I think so, too. I promise you, I’ll call you the minute anything happens.”

  “Will she know me?” Maggie asked.

  “We can’t be certain,” the doctor answered. “There’s no scientific proof, but I believe she will.”

  The doctor held the door for Maggie, and they headed down the corridor toward a long room with curtained partitions lining each side.

  When they had gone, John turned to Aaron. “I think it’s time to call Mike. Should I tell him that he needs to come?”

  The sadness in Aaron’s eyes was unmistakable. He nodded slowly. “Yes. I think you’d better. These superbugs are unpredictable. We don’t know if we’ll be able to stop this infection.”

  ***

  Maggie steeled herself for what she was about to see as she followed the doctor
to the last partition on the right side of the room. The doctor drew the curtain aside, and there was Susan—her Susan—caged in a hospital bed, dwarfed by monitors forming a semi-circle around her. A tube emerged from her mouth and a noisy breathing machine wheezed at her side. The doctor put his hand under Maggie’s elbow. She drew a deep breath and stepped to the side of the bed opposite the breathing apparatus.

  She took her daughter’s hand, being careful not to dislodge the electronic probe attached to her finger, and leaned over to kiss a spot on the top of her head that she could reach without disturbing any tubes. “You’re going to be fine,” she whispered in her ear. “The new medicine is doing its job, and all of this is helping you while it works. You’ll be home in no time, my love. And you’re the best daughter any mother could ever hope to have. I’m so proud of you, and I love you so much.”

  The doctor motioned toward the door.

  “Aaron will stay with you, and I’ll be back tomorrow. You just rest and get better.” Maggie couldn’t be sure, but she thought Susan squeezed her hand before she stepped away from the bed.

  Chapter 51

  Frank Haynes knocked softly on the partially open door of Nicole Nash’s hospital room, concealing something large and lumpy under his raincoat. Loretta looked up from a stack of papers she was studying and blinded him with her dazzling smile.

  “Look who’s here,” she said to Nicole.

  Nicole tore her eyes from Sesame Street on the television and stretched out her arms to him. Frank Haynes strode to her bedside and awkwardly leaned in to her as she circled his neck with her arms and hugged him.

  “You look like you’re feeling much better, young lady,” he said. “What do you think I have here?” he asked, patting his raincoat.

  Nicole’s eyes widened and a smile crept across her lips. “For me?”

  Haynes nodded as he opened his coat and pulled out a large stuffed dog with soft, curly fur and floppy ears. “They told me at the toy store that she needs someone very special to take care of her. I said I knew just the girl.”

  Nicole unwound her arms from Frank’s neck and pounced on the dog, scooping it and her doll to her chest. She nodded vigorously.

  “Your mother told me you’ve been wanting a dog.”

  “Real dog,” Nicole said, turning to her mother.

  “Maybe when you’re all better,” Loretta answered.

  “When you’re ready, you can come to Forever Friends to pick out any dog you like. Until then, you can have this one. Would that be all right with you?”

  Nicole nodded again.

  Loretta folded the paperwork and placed it carefully in her purse. “These are Nicole’s discharge instructions. We’re ready to go.”

  “Excellent,” Haynes replied, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll bring the car around.”

  ***

  Thirty minutes later, they were cruising along the interstate, Nicole asleep in the backseat with her doll and new stuffed dog at her side.

  “This is awfully nice of you to pick us up, Frank,” Loretta said, shifting in her seat to look at him. “Especially since it’ll be twelve hours of driving for you today.”

  Frank Haynes shrugged. “I don’t mind. I’ve always enjoyed driving. Sometimes I just get in and drive with no destination in mind. Whenever I need to clear my head or think.”

  Loretta nodded. “I wondered what you were doing all those afternoons when you’d leave the office without a word to me. I’ll bet you were driving.”

  “Could be.”

  “Well—even though you love to drive—if you want me to take over for any part of the trip home, just say so.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “So what’s the news from Westbury? Has Susan gone home to California yet? I left her a couple of voice mails about Nicole, but I never heard back. Nicole and I would like to see her if she’s still there. I want to thank her, again.”

  Haynes glanced at her. “She’s still there.” He put on his turn signal and got off the highway at the next exit. He pulled the car onto the shoulder of the road, put it in park, and turned to Loretta. “Susan is in the hospital.”

  “What?” Loretta gasped. “She was doing so well. They both were,” she said, looking over the backseat at her sleeping child. “What happened?”

  “Apparently her incision got infected, and she had a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotic they gave her.”

  “She’s going to be okay, isn’t she? She’s getting better?”

  “She’s holding her own. The infection is one of these new superbugs, and they’ve had her on intravenous antibiotics to fight it. But it’s a hard bug to treat.” He laid his hand over hers. “They put her into a medically induced coma and hooked her up to a breathing machine. They did that to fight the allergic reaction.”

  “Is she still in a coma?” Loretta whispered in disbelief.

  “The last I heard, yes. Maggie hasn’t been at Town Hall, and I haven’t talked to her. I found out through David Wheeler, because he was at the hospital with Dodger when he ran into John Allen.”

  “This is horrible,” Loretta cried. “She’s got to get better, Frank. God can’t take one sibling to save the other.”

  “I’m not on the best terms with God,” Frank said, “but I called my friend Glenn Vaughn to ask him to pray for Susan and Nicole. He said that they’d put them on the prayer chain at their church.”

  Frank Haynes never ceased to amaze her. “Thank you, Frank. How’s Maggie doing?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” Haynes said.

  “I’d be out of my mind with fear. And I’d be furious that I’d let my child get into this situation in the first place. If I were Maggie, I’d hate Loretta and Nicole Nash.”

  Frank searched her face. “I don’t think you would, Loretta. There’s too much kindness in you, and there’s too much kindness in Maggie.” He shifted in his seat and started the car. “I wanted you to hear about this from me. I knew you’d be upset.”

  Loretta nodded.

  “There’s nothing you can do about it. Take care of Nicole so that she gets better, and let God and the doctors take care of Susan.”

  Chapter 52

  Maggie lunged for her cell phone when it rang at four o’clock in the morning on the fifth day after Susan had been put into a coma. Mike had arrived three days earlier, and they’d spent long hours at the hospital. In the clumsiness of her half-awake state, she knocked her purse to the floor. She was dislodging Buttercup from her usual place in the curve of her knee when John threw back the covers and dashed around the side of the bed to retrieve the phone. Maggie answered it just before it would have gone to voice mail.

  Her hand trembled as she waited for what she assumed would be bad news.

  “Maggie,” came Aaron’s familiar voice. “She’s coming out of it. Waking up. Her vital signs took a turn for the better in the middle of the night, and they’ve started to bring her out of her coma.”

  “We’ll be right there,” she said as she tossed the phone onto the bed and began throwing herself into the clothes that she kept on a nearby chair in case she needed to get to the hospital quickly.

  “She’s better,” she called to John who was doing the same. “They’re bringing her out of her coma. She’s going to be all right.”

  Maggie grabbed her purse. “I’ll go wake Mike. He’ll want to come, too. What about the dogs?” she asked.

  “They’ll be fine,” John replied. “Let’s get to the hospital. I’ll come back to feed them.”

  ***

  Maggie, John, and Mike pushed through the doors of Mercy Hospital twenty minutes later and took the stairs to the ICU. Susan’s room was a hub of activity, with nurses going in and out and a team of doctors surrounding her bed. Aaron was holding Susan’s hand. Maggie pushed herself into place at the foot of Susan’s bed. Mike and John edged along the wall inside the doorway. A doctor was giving direction to a nurse, and they were both focused on one of the monitors
flashing in the corner. Maggie stared at her daughter. They’d taken the breathing tube out, and she looked peaceful and natural. Maggie held her breath and prayed.

  Susan’s eyelids fluttered, then remained open. She stared at Maggie with the expression of someone trying to place a person they know they’ve seen before. A smile suddenly released the tension from her daughter’s face. Susan mouthed the word “Mom.”

  Aaron squeezed her hand and brought it to his lips.

  The doctor intervened and began talking to Susan, asking her questions, telling her to nod for yes and shake her head for no. Maggie ignored everything in the room except for her gorgeous, alert daughter. Praise you, God, she repeated over and over in her mind.

  The doctor pulled a pen from his pocket and placed it on his clipboard. “You’ve been in a coma for the past five days,” he told her. “You’ve had a breathing tube, and your throat may be sore from it. If there’s anything you want, you can write us a note,” he said, handing the clipboard to Susan. “Do you understand?”

  Susan nodded and began to scribble. When she was done, she held the clipboard out to Aaron and smiled.

  “We’re supposed to be getting married day after tomorrow,” Aaron told the group assembled in the room. “She wants to know if she missed the wedding.” He turned to Susan. “You didn’t miss it, but I think we’ll have to postpone it.”

  The doctor quickly agreed. “You won’t be walking down any aisles this week, I’m afraid. You’re getting better and you’re going to be fine, but these things take time. You won’t be able to leave the hospital for at least another four or five days.”

  “Or we can get married here, if you want,” Aaron said. “We could use the hospital chapel, couldn’t we?”

  The doctor paused and the nurse broke in. “I’m sure we could arrange it. We’ve had other weddings there. Mostly staff.”

  “Why the rush?” Maggie asked.

  Susan tried to speak but couldn’t make herself heard. She took the clipboard and wrote, “Life is short. Tired of waiting.”