by Megan McCoy
“I leave early, by seven,” he said. No wonder she rarely saw him. In the summer, she slept in a bit longer than during the school year when she often had to be at work by seven. It was lovely. He looked at her, slowly and said decisively, as if he’d made a decision. “I’ll give you a key.”
“Okay,” she said. He must trust his teenaged looking, window breaking, next door neighbor after all. He wasn’t the friendliest of guys, but at least he had been calm throughout the exchange and she appreciated that. Maybe she’d bring him a pie or something tomorrow, to express her chagrin and say sorry. Why not? Sometimes she got tired of cooking just for herself, or for herself and Ryan. He was a good kid and she adored him, but his idea of a good meal was chicken nuggets and fries.
“Can I have your number?” she asked, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. “In case I need to ask you anything while they’re here?”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her while she gave him hers, and they both programmed their numbers in. Why had she talked all her life? Apparently, you rarely needed to. Solemnly she handed him his phone back and stuck hers in her pocket. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “Not the best way to meet a new neighbor.”
“Not a problem. It will get fixed and life will go on.” He looked at her and she got the distinct impression he wanted her to leave.
“Good way to look at it.” She smiled at him, and shifted her ball cap, willing him to smile back.
He didn’t. “Any chance your homeowner’s insurance will pay for it?”
“Actions have consequences,” he manipulated his keys and took one off, and handed her his house key.
“I’ll text you when it's fixed tomorrow,” she said, heading to the door. Well, so much for that.
“Thank you,” he said.
She shook her head as she left the house. Cold fish. That’s what he was, although it didn’t matter. What mattered was she did the right thing.
Her phone rang as she was walking in the door and she fished it from her pocket, weirdly hoping it was Sebastian Jones. It wasn’t of course. If he didn’t talk in person, he wasn’t going to call her. “Hey, Ben,” she said.
“Thanks for watching Ryan today,” he said. “He’s going camping with the scouts tomorrow, so won’t be back for a few days.”
“You’re welcome. You going on the trip too?”
“No, I have patients, but he’s going to hang out with Karl and his kid, so he’ll be watched over,” Ben explained.
“Well, that’s good, I guess. You aren’t much of a camper anyway,” she teased.
“Yeah. But I hope he has a good time,” Ben said.
“Me too. Did he tell you he hit a homerun today?” she asked.
“I’m not home, so haven’t talked to him. Cambry told me he hit a ball into a window, though. What happened?”
“He connected, twice in a row,” Maggie said proudly. “After missing over ten. He just kept swinging, trying and listening to my suggestions. I was so proud.”
“Window breaking shouldn’t be the goal,” Ben said.
“Seriously? Get off your high horse. It was an accident, and we handled it.” She was annoyed. Everything was so black and white with Ben. Probably made him a good surgeon but he could be an asshole brother and was often an impatient father. Good thing Cambry put up with him. Who else would?
“My high horse is offering to pay for the window,” he said dryly. “Let me know how much.”
With that he hung up before she could answer. Would he take it out of Ryan’s allowance? If so, she’d just pay for it, unless it was really a lot. Even then, she guessed. She didn’t want her nephew punished for his first home run in any way, shape or form.
Looking at the clock, she knew it was too late for her to call the glass people tonight, but she got on the computer to look up some numbers. She felt the warm key in her short’s pocket. Tomorrow, she would right the wrong and then go back to waving over the fence if she saw the hot guy next door.
Dang, he was cute though, in a cold, barely speaking way. She put him out of her head and looked at the clock. She didn’t have practice today, so there was nothing going on tonight. She’d make that pie, because she felt like baking, and then watch some TV, unless Keith wanted to go out somewhere. She’d been casually dating him for a few months now, but she felt as if he were backing away and that sort of sucked. There had been no men in her life since college a few years back, and he was the first one she had tolerated after more than a few dates. No, she wasn’t that excited about him and no, he wasn’t the one, but he was fun to go shoot pool with or see a movie with.
Texting him, and leaving her phone on the counter to see when he texted back, she got out her flour and shortening to make the pie crust. Was she going to be heartbroken when he broke up with her, as she suspected he was going to do? Unless he just did a fade away, guys did that, she knew. No, she probably wouldn’t be. Annoyed, yes, and irritated because it was handy to have a guy to do stuff with and go places with, but she wasn’t going to sob into her pillow, she knew. That wasn’t a good thing. When was the last time she’d cried over a guy? Thirteen? Who knew? Not her. A few came and went, but no one seriously, and her mom was starting to worry. Her brother had been married at her age, she’d told her repeatedly on her last birthday. Well, she wasn’t Perfect Doctor Ben and never had been. It had been hard growing up in the shadow of her brilliant brother. Her parents and the teachers all expected the same thing from her. She did well in high school, but not Ben well, and as she knew, that was all that mattered! Now, there were still some of the same teachers who expected the same thing from Ryan, and it hadn’t been fair to either one of them. Perfect Ben also got married at the proper time, to a surgical nurse who was just as smart as he was, and then they produced, as her mom pointed out often, her only grandson. Poor Ryan. High expectations all around, and now he had to play ball too.
Her text went off as she popped open the jar of apple pie filling she and her mom had put up last summer. The last one, but apples would be ready in a few weeks or so. She looked over at it. Not Keith but her friend, Corrine.
“Hey, want to go out tonight? Bunch of us, at the Oasis?”
“Not tonight, thanks, had Ryan all day, am beat. Have fun!” She texted back, wondering if she was staying home on the chance Keith would call. No, she was actually not excited about hanging out in a bar tonight. She’d rather stay home and chill out with the smell of pie and her TV on to a silly reality show.
“Will miss you. If you get a second wind, come on down.”
“Will do.” Maggie finished her pie crust and stood back and admired it. Perfect. Brushing it with egg whites, she popped it in the preheated oven, set the timer, and started cleaning up her bowls and utensils.
Nothing from Keith still. Fine, if he wanted to be that way, he just could be. She didn’t care. Idly she wondered if she should get on one of those dating apps they were always showing on TV. She had several friends who had either married or met a special someone that way. With her full and busy life, would she have time for all that? Sure. You made time for things you want to do. Looking up at the clock, she saw it was almost time for her favorite show, where twenty pretty, skinny girls competed for one guy. It was so realistic. Like any of them ever had any trouble finding men. You could tell by looking at them, that wasn’t the case. But it was good escapist TV, she shoved a bag of popcorn in her microwave and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator.
Settling in, a few minutes later, she flipped the TV on and found her channel. Yeah, there they were.
As soon as the first tears happened, however, the doorbell rang. Tempted to ignore it, she sighed, got up and peeked out the peephole. She saw chest. Male chest. Tall, lean male chest. Okay. Neighbor. What did he want? Only one way to find out.
Opening the door, she said, “Hi, Sebastian.” See how friendly she was? Would he speak to her and let her know what he wanted or pantomime in some kind of sign language? Ha.
She knew ASL so that would get him nowhere in stumping her by silence.
“Hello, Maggie,” he said, and she wondered why she felt surprised because he remembered her name. Who wouldn’t remember the woman who put a ball through his window? “I was wondering if you had a screwdriver I could borrow? My tool box hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Phillips or regular, electric or manual? What size?” she asked, opening the door and motioning him in. “Wait, I have a set,” she said. “What are you putting together?”
“Furniture,” he said.
Well, what did she expect? That he’d speak to her and explain?
“Come on in,” she walked to the kitchen, and under the sink was the electric screwdriver with the couple dozen bits her dad had given her a few years ago. It came in its own cute case, and should fix any furniture he was putting together. She’d used it dozens of times. “Battery is fully charged.” She handed it to him, ignoring the tingle as their hands brushed.
“Smells good in here,” he said.
Yes, it did, the pie wasn’t near done, but it was filling the kitchen with the smell of cinnamon and spices. “I’ll save you some when it's done,” she said, smiling at him and willing him to smile back. Come on, boy, smile. She zapped him as hard as she could with happy thoughts, but it didn’t work.
“Thank you,” he said, and she didn’t know if he meant for the screwdriver loan or the promise of pie later on.
Her phone buzzed just then. Her dad she saw, glancing at it. He never called. What was going on? “Sorry,” she mumbled, and snatched it up. “Dad? What’s wrong?”
“Your mom fell off the ladder,” he said, obviously panicked which panicked her. “I called the ambulance. Meet us at the hospital!”
“Dad? Did she hit her head? What happened?”
“Ambulance here,” he said and hung up.
“Dad!” she yelled into the phone, staring at him. What happened to her mom?
“I have to get to the hospital, my mom’s hurt,” she told Sebastian, staring at him, horrified.
“Go put some clothes on. I’ll drive.” he said.
Maggie looked at him as if he were crazy. “Clothes?”
“Sweatpants, jeans, and grab a jacket. Hospitals are cold,” he said calmly. “We’ll take my car.”
His car? Her ears were ringing and all she could do was stand and stare at him. He reached over to her, turned her around and smacked her bottom hard enough to make her yell. “Go.”
That seemed to break her trance, she rushed to the bedroom to do as she was told. Not even bothering to shut the door, dropping her shorts on the floor while pulling her favorite pair of soft jeans on, and then slipping back into her sneakers. Her oversized blue hoodie was on the doorknob and she grabbed it. He was driving her? He didn’t even know her. Simon had followed her to the bedroom, and as she shut the door behind her, she said, “I’ll be back, night, buddy.”
Hurrying out to the kitchen she saw him at the stove and blurted out, “I can drive.”
“No, you can’t.” He handed her the phone she’d dropped, and grabbed her by the elbow. “Let’s go.”
She let him lead her to the car, feeling numb. Her mom fell off a ladder? Why was she on a ladder? Her mom wasn’t prone to clumsiness like Cambry and Ryan. She was as athletic as Ben, and she still ran 5Ks, had a huge garden and worked part time at the hospital as a nurse in a family practice office. Accidents happened she knew, but her mom didn’t have accidents.
He led her to some kind of dark car, opened the door and put her in. She stared out the window, her mind racing. Her dad was scared. She’d never known her dad to be scared. Sebastian spoke, “Name of the hospital?”
“Memorial on Maine Street,” she answered.
He repeated it to the car, which apparently understood words because the map with directions popped up on a small screen. Her car was only six years old but didn’t do that.
He reached over and patted her knee. “It will be okay.”
Yeah, easy for him to say. “Your brother called while you were changing. Do you want to call him back?”
“He’s already at the hospital,” she said. “He works there. Probably just making sure I knew.”
They pulled into the ER parking lot and went inside, she rushed to the desk saying, “My mom came here by ambulance her name is Ellen Carpenter.”
The woman flipped her computer screen and said, “Someone will be with you in just a minute. You can take a seat over there.”
“Maggie!” She turned and saw Cambry and Ryan coming in the door. “What’s going on? Ben just called and said your mom was hurt.”
“That’s all I know, too. Someone said that the nurse will be out in a minute. Oh, this is Sebastian,” Maggie said.
“I’ll be right back, watch Ryan,” Cambry said and disappeared through a side door.
“It pays to have pull,” Maggie said, and pulled Ryan close to her. “Cambry works here,” she explained to Sebastian.
“Is Grammy going to be okay?” Ryan asked.
“We hope so,” she said. Sebastian just stood there, as if he belonged. Which was just fine with her, for some reason it gave her comfort. Maggie shot him a half smile, and he simply looked at her. No speaking, no smile. They sat down on the uncomfortable chairs next to the door Cambry had gone through. She opened her mouth to say something when she saw Cambry come back out through the door, followed by her father. She rushed over to hug him.
“What happened?”
“Your mom decided to clean the gutters, and the ladder slipped. She hit her head and landed on her wrist,” he said. “I was in my workshop and have no idea how long she was there before I came out.”
Maggie stepped back as Cambry touched her shoulder.
“She’s down having a CAT scan, right now,” Cambry said. “But she’s conscious, and coherent. We’ll see what it says, but she’s doing okay.”
Maggie sagged in relief, and weirdly felt Sebastian at her arm, giving her support. He led her back to the chair and turned to her dad. “Mr. Carpenter, I presume? I’m Sebastian Jones. I drove Maggie here, I live next door.”
“Thank you for that,” her dad said, as Maggie looked on. Huh. He did say words. Maybe he just couldn’t talk to women?
“Why did you let Mom up on the ladder?” she asked when they all sat back down to wait.
“When have I ever stopped your mom from doing whatever she wanted?” he replied. “She thinks for herself.”
Maggie shook her head as Ryan sat next to his mom and clutched her hand, his eyes wide under his thick glasses.
Just then another person burst through the ER doors shouting for help, they all watched as the staff leapt into action and a few minutes later a heavily pregnant and panting woman was wheeled through the door and whisked away. “New baby, soon,” Maggie said softly.
“Is this where I was born?” Ryan asked.
“The very same place,” his mom said. “And where Daddy, me and Aunt Maggie were born too. This is a place where good things often happen.”
“I hope a good thing happens, today,” he said. “I want Grammy to be okay.”
“We have the best doctors and nurses here,” Maggie told him. “Including your mom and dad.”
He nodded solemnly and pulled out some electronic thing he’d told her the name of six times, but she kept forgetting and focused on it. They all sat in silence while her mind raced. Weirdly enough she liked the feel of Sebastian’s leg touching hers. It felt intimate and strong. She leaned her shoulder against his too, and tried to think of life without her mom. It just couldn’t be. She would be fine. She just bumped her head, hurt her wrist. She’d be fine. How many times did she have to say that to herself before it was so?
Half an hour later, Ben came out the door Cambry had come out of earlier. “She’s fine,” he said, and Maggie burst into tears as he continued, “a concussion and a broken wrist they will splint in the morning. We’re going to keep her overnight, as soon as she gets settled in a r
oom, you can go see her. Dad, you can spend the night if you want. Someone will come let you know where she is.” He walked back out of the room. That was his doctor persona, Maggie reminded herself, futilely fighting back relieved tears.
Sebastian’s hand snaked over to hers and held it as Maggie tried to stop crying. She clutched his hard, warm hand tightly.
“I’m here,” he said softly. She squeezed his hand in appreciation, but couldn’t say anything.
“Hi, Sierra,” Cambry said a few minutes later. “Can we go up now?” Maggie looked up through tear filled eyes as a nurse made her way to them.
“Yup. She’s in 412. I’ll walk up with you. The surgeon for her hand won’t be in until morning, but we’re going to get your mom settled in a room until then.”
Maggie liked that her family was known here and had friends. That would mean her mom would get the best of care. She deserved it. Trying to stop the tears was harder. She just wanted to break down and sob. Her mom was amazing, and this shook her to her core. She’d never thought about her mom being mortal.
She clutched Sebastian’s hand as they walked down the hall. It never even occurred to her to leave him behind. Strange. She’d just met him a few hours earlier.
They rode up the elevator in silence. Cambry holding Ryan’s hand. She was holding Sebastian’s and her dad’s. As they arrived on four, Sierra said cheerfully, “Cambry, Laine is the nurse in charge, she’ll meet you in the room in a few minutes.”
“Thanks,” Cambry said and tripped over the elevator door. Sebastian caught her with his other hand, and she threw him a grateful look. “We like this one, Maggie,” she said as she led the way to the room.
“This one?” he said softly, but she didn’t bother to answer. Cambry had met Keith. Odd, she hadn’t even thought to call him. He simply wasn’t worth it. Her mom was all she cared about. There she was. Still sniffling, she let go of Sebastian’s and her dad’s hand and rushed to her.