A Mother's Special Care

by Jessica Matthews

Lori reviewed the PACU record and noted that everything Blythe had mentioned was already documented and her orders for pain relief were already spelled out. This nurse-anesthetist was thorough, which made Lori’s job much easier.

  “I’ll check on you both later,” Blythe finished.

  “OK. By the way,” Lori said as she began to take the first round of vital signs, “have you seen Dr Grant yet this morning?”

  “Sorry. If I do, I’ll tell him that you’re looking for him.”

  Afraid the other woman would read the personal interest in her eyes, Lori focused her attention on the red display of oxygen saturation numbers. “Don’t bother,” she said offhandedly. “It’s nothing that can’t wait. I’m sure he’ll pop in before long. I’ll talk to him then.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  Lori readjusted the blood pressure cuff and began going through her checklist of vital signs. As the cuff automatically inflated amid a whir and Alice’s eyes flew open at the unexpected noise, she explained what she was doing. “I’ll be finished in a few minutes and then you can rest.”

  Alice closed her eyes. “I thought I’d sleep until I went back to my room.”

  Lori smiled. “We want you to wake up as soon as possible. The anesthetic you received wears off quickly.”

  “I expected to be sick, too.”

  “The medications we use today don’t usually cause the nausea and vomiting like they did in the past, but some people do get ill.” As Alice’s eyelids closed, Lori doubted if she would remember her explanation. Neither would Alice care that propofol was used more often than other agents for the reasons she’d indicated.

  She finished her tasks and gave Alice’s abdomen a quick peek before she left her in peace for a few minutes.

  Without anything to occupy her mind, Lori’s attention drifted to the clock. It was nearly nine-thirty—past time for Mac to have returned from Ronnie’s school. Although she hadn’t asked him, she’d hoped that he’d stop in and tell her how their morning had gone, but either he didn’t think it important enough or he’d gotten sidetracked.

  Surely he’d know that she’d be waiting for news, she thought a trifle waspishly as she straightened the contents of the supply cabinet.

  “Are we getting inspected today?” Talia asked from behind.

  “Not that I know of.”

  “No famous person is coming through with a white glove?”

  “No. Why do you ask?”

  “Because I haven’t seen you rearrange the shelves before. Something has obviously gotten you all aflutter.” She gave a sly wink. “Or, should I say, someone has turned you into what my great-aunt would call a flibbertigibbet?”

  Lori closed the cabinet door. “Today was Ronnie’s breakfast at school.”

  Talia nodded. “I thought so. Didn’t it go well?”

  “That’s just it. I don’t know. I haven’t seen Mac—Dr Grant,” she corrected herself, “to ask.”

  “No news is good news.”

  The familiar saying didn’t quell Lori’s misgivings. “I know, but if it didn’t turn out the way Ronnie wanted, I’m going to have one unhappy little girl this evening. She set her alarm extra early so I could French-braid her hair before I left. Ronnie had to have everything just right. You’d have thought she was going on a date.”

  Talia grinned. “To her, it probably was.”

  Actually, it was as much a special occasion for Lori as it was for Ronnie. The hours spent choosing the right outfit and fixing her daughter’s hair had all been geared to impress the man who was coming. The excitement of waiting for his arrival and the thrill of seeing Mac in her living room, looking quite handsome in a tweed jacket, tan shirt and dark brown trousers, sent a shaft of envy through her.

  She wanted to be the one going out with Mac.

  It was just as well that her schedule hadn’t allowed her to watch the two of them leave the house. Why put herself through that turmoil? Instead, she’d consoled herself by picturing Ronnie tripping beside him toward his car, wearing her fancy purple shirt and black stretch pants and acting like her dream had come true.

  “I just don’t want her to be disappointed. Reality doesn’t always meet one’s expectations.”

  “I’m sure she had a wonderful time. Just relax. What could have happened, anyway?”

  Let me count the ways. Ronnie chattered like a magpie and, after being around his quiet son, Mac could easily have wanted to stuff a sock in her mouth. On occasion, she herself certainly did.

  And then there was Ronnie’s propensity to ask questions that shouldn’t be asked. He’d probably be able to answer those like “Why is the sky blue?” or “Where do rabbits go in the winter?”, but those weren’t the ones that Lori feared.

  The question of why Corey had lived with his aunt for two years instead of with his father worried Lori the most. Although she’d speculated on his reasons, she wouldn’t put it past her curious daughter to quiz Mac about it. At least they would only have been together for an hour, and most of those sixty minutes would have been spent with other parents and children.

  Lori drew a deep breath. “You’re right. I’m making more of this than I should.” She forced herself to relax, but Mac’s arrival brought a fresh wave of tension. He’d replaced his street clothes with another cotton V-neck shirt and drawstring pants from his inexhaustible green wardrobe. It was as if the man she’d seen earlier had disappeared.

  “Good morning,” he addressed them politely. “I see Ratna got an early start.”

  Dr Ratna, an Indian gynecologist with a last name that no one tried to pronounce for fear of offending her, always started her schedule early. “I expect we’ll get her next patient shortly,” Lori said, signaling Talia with her eyes to give them a few minutes alone.

  She liked working with Talia because the other nurse didn’t need to have things spelled out in detail. Her wink and broad smile before she wiped the traces from her face indicated that she’d caught the hint. “Then I’d better get ready, hadn’t I?” she said, moving to the opposite side of the room without waiting for a reply.

  Surely Mac would take advantage of the moment to say something, anything, about the morning, but he didn’t act interested in the subject that had weighed on her for the last hour and a half. She hated to mix personal and professional business, but she couldn’t possibly wait for a commentary until she talked to Ronnie this afternoon. She’d explode with curiosity well before then.

  “How did things go at school this morning?” she asked.

  “Fine.” He looked up from the chart in his hand. “How did you expect them to go?”

  “Fine.” She winced at repeating such a generic answer. “I was just wondering.”

  “Well,” he said, lifting one powerful shoulder in a unconcerned shrug, “it was like you said. We went to school, ate donuts, drank juice and coffee, walked around the school and left.”

  Getting him to share information was like pulling a stubborn tooth. “That’s it? Surely you did more than that.”

  The blank look in his eyes turned to amused understanding. “Ah-h, I see. You want a play-by-play account.”

  Yes, she wanted to shout. She’d been fretting over this big event in her daughter’s life, an event that had tied her in knots and forced her to beg a total stranger to act as Ronnie’s father, and he didn’t consider the particulars important enough to mention. The way in which he’d phrased it made her feel like an over-protective—and nosy—mother.

  Her face warmed. “Maybe not an instant replay,” she conceded, “but I’d appreciate a few details. So I know what to expect with Corey,” she tacked on as an afterthought.

  His slate-colored eyes sparkled as if he recognized her feeble excuse for what it was. “Of course. I didn’t realize. Let’s see. We walked to the car and I told her how pretty she looked.”

  She imagined Ronnie preening under his compliment and was glad that she’d taken the extra time to arrange Ronnie’s hair.

  “We also chatted ab
out how she wants a puppy.”

  “We can’t afford a dog,” Lori said defensively. “Vaccinations, dog food, flea collars and haircuts—”

  Mac held up one hand. “You don’t have to convince me. Corey wants one, too. If Martha still lived with us, I’d consider owning a pet, but right now I don’t think I could handle the extra worry. Anyway, where were we?”

  “You were on your way to school.”

  “Ah, yes. We went to the gymnasium and stood in line with several other fathers and daughters. I’d tell you who we talked to, but I didn’t know them. We did discuss the weather, though. It’s been rather dry for this time of year.”

  His innocence seemed overdone. “You don’t have to make fun,” she said stiffly.

  “I’m not,” he protested. “I just hadn’t realized how easy you were to tease.”

  And Lori hadn’t realized that Mac knew how.

  “Seriously, though, we visited like polite gentlemen and little ladies. After we finished, we went to the classroom, raved over everyone’s perfect papers, neat handwriting and colorful artwork, and I left shortly after the first bell rang.”

  “Oh.” Lori hesitated. “I’m glad everything turned out so well.”

  His expression softened. “Were you worried?”

  “Not worried. Concerned. She’d built this up as a major event in her life and I didn’t want her to be disappointed.”

  “I’m not sure what she thought would happen, but I certainly enjoyed myself.” He grinned. “If she needs help deciding on a career, though, I have an idea.”

  “You do?”

  “A talk-show host,” he answered promptly.

  Lori’s tension disappeared in a flash under the brilliance of his wide smile, and she giggled. “She’s good at holding up her end of a conversation.”

  “And then some. Seriously, though, she’s a delight. You’ve done an excellent job of raising her.”

  Lori was certain that her face matched the scarlet hue of her uniform. “Thank you.”

  “If you don’t have any other questions, I believe I have a colon resection waiting for me.”

  “Sure.” She waved her hand. “Sorry for the delay.”

  “For you, I don’t mind,” he replied before he disappeared through the swinging doors that lead to the surgical corridor.

  Surprised by his jovial attitude, Lori watched him leave, too shocked to uproot her feet.

  Talia joined her a minute later. “I couldn’t help but overhear. It sounded as if they both had a good time this morning.”

  “I’d say so.”

  “And you were worried. I will say this, though. If you play your cards right, you won’t have to borrow a father for Ronnie. You can give her one of her very own.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Her objection sounded halfhearted even to her own ears. She hadn’t realized until then how badly she’d wanted Mac to like her daughter as much as she liked his son. Logically, it didn’t matter because their lives would only overlap for a few weeks, but if, by chance, things lasted longer…she wouldn’t object.

  “I’m not. I’ve never seen him act so friendly, much less unbend enough to crack a smile and make jokes. You’re onto something, girl, so don’t screw it up.”

  “I’m not on to anything,” Lori protested as her cautious nature quickly asserted itself. She’d seen the flash of masculine interest in his eyes, but Mac didn’t seem ready for a relationship. It seemed futile to raise her hopes and see them crushed at a later date.

  “We have—had—a mutual interest in our children’s classroom activities,” she continued. “In another week, we’ll both be back to business as usual.”

  “Uh-uh.” Talia shook her head. “I saw the gleam in his eye and heard his for-you-I-don’t-mind comment. Dr Grant isn’t as disinterested as you think. I’d bet my half-carat engagement ring on it.”

  “I hope you’re prepared to lose it,” Lori advised her.

  Talia shook her head. “I won’t. Wait and see.”

  Wait and see. Hardly, Lori thought as she returned to Alice’s bedside to take another set of quarter-hourly vital signs. Even if she disregarded the shadows in Mac’s eyes, the shadows that dared her to dispel them, she didn’t need days to learn that they were like a pair of unmatched socks. It didn’t matter that a mere smile and kind word could double her heart rate, or that his scent could make her imagine scenes that she had no business imagining.

  No matter how much she might wish it otherwise, in two evenings she’d seen how they were two totally different people with two totally different sets of values and lifestyles. He hired housekeepers and drove a Lexus; she scrubbed her own bathroom and prayed for her Pontiac to last several more years. He was caviar and prime rib; she was tuna casserole and ground beef.

  And that was that. Lori would force her feminine needs back into pre-Mac dormancy and rest in the knowledge of how happy she’d made her daughter.

  And speaking of happy, she was about to have one unhappy patient.

  “All right, Alice,” she said. “I know you don’t want to, but it’s time for you to change positions. We can’t have you settling like a rock in a rut.”

  “I don’t mind,” Alice mumbled.

  “You’ll get sore if you lie in the same position. Let’s give it a try.”

  As she helped Alice shift her weight, she realized that her advice also applied to herself. Ronnie’s request had shaken her out of her rut, and it would be interesting to see where the rock symbolizing her life landed when the dust finally settled.

  The following Thursday, Veronica sat on the cement patio in the back yard and giggled as a black and red fuzzy caterpillar inched its way around a tuft of grass growing through the cracks. “Look at this, Corey,” she said as she reached down to take the worm on her finger.

  “Sweet,” he pronounced, pushing up his glasses for a closer look. “You have a wooly bear tiger moth.”

  “I thought it was a caterpillar.”

  “It is. They’re just called wooly bears because of their hair.”

  That was one thing she’d learned about Corey. He knew about a lot of stuff and, what was even better, he didn’t make her feel dumb because she didn’t know the same things he did. “Is this one going to be a butterfly?”

  “He’ll be a tiger moth,” Corey corrected.

  “When?”

  “Next spring. Of course, that’s if he lives through the winter. He’s looking for a place to hibernate and then when it warms up again he’ll eat for a while before he spins his cocoon. A few weeks later he’ll be a moth.”

  “Wow. How did you know that?”

  Corey held out his finger for the caterpillar to crawl on. “I read it in a book at the library.”

  “Did your dad take you?”

  “Martha did. Dad was too busy.” Corey glanced at Ronnie. “Your mom always has time for you.”

  “Yeah, I guess so. But your dad has a real important job, so maybe that’s the difference.”

  “Maybe. He sure has to go to the hospital more.” He paused. “I really like your mom.”

  “She’s OK,” Ronnie admitted, still smarting from the scolding she’d gotten for the dirty dishes she’d hidden under her bed. “Your dad is nice, too.” Uncle Tim and her mother had told her many times how pretty she looked, but they didn’t count.

  “Does your mom tuck you in at night?”

  “Sure. Doesn’t your dad?”

  “Martha usually did.”

  “Does he read you a bedtime story?”

  “No.”

  “Gosh. I don’t think I could go to sleep at night if my mom didn’t do that.”

  “I listen to music,” Corey offered.

  Somehow, Ronnie didn’t think it was quite the same, but she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. “Maybe your dad doesn’t know he’s supposed to do that kind of stuff with you.”

  “Could be.” Corey held his hand close to a stalk of dried grass so the caterpillar could go free. “We’re interv
iewing more housekeepers this weekend. I don’t want one.”

  “Why not?”

  “’Cause I won’t get to see Dad as often and I won’t get to come here after school. I wish we could hire your mom. Do you think she’d want to work at my house instead of the hospital?”

  Ronnie shook her head. “Don’t think so. She likes taking care of sick people.”

  “I could be sick,” he offered helpfully. “Once in a while.”

  “It wouldn’t be the same.”

  “I know,” he mourned. “She told me how hard she worked to become a nurse because she’d always wanted to be one. I don’t think she’d give it up for me.”

  Ronnie was sad to see the caterpillar go. It reminded her of how she’d had to say goodbye to her friends when they’d moved here. If Corey got a housekeeper, she’d have to say goodbye to him, too. Sure, she’d see him at school, but it wouldn’t be the same. She didn’t like goodbyes.

  “Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to borrow parents? They’d both be ours. Then you wouldn’t need a housekeeper.”

  “Yeah, but what can we do?”

  “Well,” Ronnie said as she thought of a plan, “I asked your dad if he had a girlfriend and he said no. My mom doesn’t have a boyfriend either, so there’s no reason why we can’t all live together.”

  “They’re not going to listen to us,” Corey warned.

  “Of course they won’t. We’re going to have to make them think it’s their idea.”

  “And how are we going to do that?”

  Ronnie smiled. “It’s simple, really. I know they’d be happy together.” Ronnie had seen a special smile on her mom’s face when Dr Grant was there, when her mom thought no one was looking.

  “How can you tell?”

  Honestly! Boys could be so dense at times. “Other parents don’t usually hang around and visit with Mom when they pick up my friends. I think your dad is lonely.”

  “He has me,” Corey said, almost indignantly.

  “He’s lonely for a grown-up,” Ronnie instructed him importantly. “Someone who can stay up to watch the ten o’clock news and warm her feet at night.” She’d heard her Aunt Molly tell her mom that the last time they visited, so it had to be right. Her mom always had cold feet whenever Ronnie crawled into her bed.