Life and love were never easy.
“I won’t be gone but about four hours or so. Maybe we can talk when I get back?”
“Yeah,” he said with a solemn face as he looked toward the picnic table where Sophie and Kayla were eating chunks of watermelon. “There are some things that definitely need to be settled.”
She didn’t like the word settled. He gave it a legalese sound that made her uneasy, but now was not the time to challenge him. “I can take Sophie over to my mother’s while I’m working this afternoon.”
“Why would you do that?” he asked, sounding wounded.
“Carson, she can be a handful.” Just like you.
Frowning, he said, “Henry and Estelle raised four kids and they have a ton of grandchildren now. I would think between the three of us, we can manage to take care of one little girl if she wants to stay.” He strode toward the picnic table without waiting for Marla.
Marla followed. She caught Kayla’s eye and shook her head.
“Sophie,” Carson said in a cordial tone. “Your mom has to go to the hospital for a while, so do you want to go to your grandmother’s house—”
“No, I want to stay here,” Sophie cut in. “Nana doesn’t have any peacocks or horses or a big house.” She tilted her head and looked as if her whole world was falling apart. She had always been a good actress. Marla thought of Olivia Blaise. Maybe it ran in the family.
“I would have a lot more fun if I got to stay here, Mommy. And Miss Estelle is making a pineapple cake and you know that’s my favorite.”
“I’d want to stay, too,” Kayla said as she got to her feet. She thanked Estelle for the lemonade and waited for Marla.
Marla bent and spoke quietly to her daughter. “You have to promise me you’re going to be good and do exactly what you’re told. You don’t do anything without asking permission first and mind your manners.”
“I will,” she promised. “I’ll be really good.”
Marla glanced up at Carson. “You have my number so you call me if she doesn’t behave herself.” Then she spoke to Sophie. “If he calls me, you’ll be in trouble.”
“I’ll be good.” Sophie stood up on the bench to exchange goodbye kisses with her mother.
“I love you, sweetie.” Marla hugged her. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Come here, Lil’ Diva.” Kayla gave Sophie a kiss on the cheek. “Aunt Kayla loves you and remember we’re going swimming next weekend.”
Marla asked Carson if he wanted her to leave the SUV so he would have a vehicle. Henry spoke up, “Doc, we’ve got plenty of cars and a couple of trucks. Even got booster seats for kids, since we haul around grandkids all the time.”
“I’ll get my luggage out,” Carson said.
“If you need me for anything, just call me,” she told Estelle, who assured her everything would be fine.
While Carson pulled his suitcases out of the rear of Marla’s SUV, Kayla whispered to her, “Things kinda icy?”
“Definitely.”
“Whenever you need to talk to my dad, let me know. We’ll go to his office.”
Marla nodded. She watched as Carson left his suitcase beside the picnic table and sat on the bench next to Sophie, who talked non-stop until Estelle came out of the house with the pineapple upside-down cake. Father and daughter both lit up with matching smiles.
“Let’s roll,” she said to Kayla. “You know when I get to be eighty years old, I want to be like Dr. Hughes. Still going.”
“Me too.” Kayla started toward her black Acura. “But I don’t know about delivering babies.” She mimicked an old lady’s voice as she got in her car. “Just push a little harder, honey.”
Marla removed the musketeer hat and got behind the wheel of her SUV. She took a final glance at Carson and Sophie, who were enjoying the pineapple upside-down cake.
She felt as if her relationship with Carson was like a shattered heirloom, broken beyond repair. She was desperate to find all the pieces and glue them back together.
But it would never be the same.
Chapter 25
Marla set a foam cup of coffee on the counter for Dr. Adam Hughes, who sat at the L-shaped nurses’ station in the emergency department. His face was a mesh of wrinkles and wisdom. “Thank you.” He smiled. “I’m very proud of you, Marla.”
She glowed. Dr. Hughes was her mentor and his praise meant everything to her.
“You’ve done such a wonderful job with the clinic,” he said. “And you did great with the funding, too. To get that kind of contribution is nothing less than amazing.”
Kayla, who stood next to Marla, agreed. “It’s kinda like she went to the Olympics and brought home the gold.”
“I wish,” Marla remarked as her smartphone vibrated. She reached into the pocket of her hospital-issue scrubs, withdrew the phone, and read a text message from Carson.
Sophie wants to paint a picture so Estelle and I are taking her to the mall to buy some art supplies.
Marla looked up at Kayla. “They’re going to the mall.”
Kayla clapped her hands together. “Little Diva’s gonna cash in. You just wait.”
“I know he can afford it, but there has to be a limit.” Marla tapped out a reply on her phone.
All she needs is some watercolors and paper. She has plenty of art supplies at home. BTW, never buy any kind of permanent markers or oil paints.
Got it.
A nurse came around the corner. “Dr. Vance, we’re ready for you in exam room two.”
Kayla went with the nurse and Marla checked on an injured skateboarder. She was awaiting X-ray results before she called in an orthopedist. She had, however, called in Dr. Aaron Kendall to see a six-month-old baby boy, who was running a low-grade fever and whose arms and legs were limp.
An hour later, she got another text from Carson.
I’m buying her some clothes. Estelle helped find the right size.
The attached photo showed Sophie standing beside a stack of shoeboxes, modeling a pair of sparkling red slippers.
Next he sent a selfie taken while he and Sophie were in front of the mall fountain.
They were so much alike in so many ways. Her heart gave a little flip.
I found Sophie a car.
The accompanying photo taken in the toy store showed Sophie behind the wheel of a child’s motorized version of a black BMW. She held a large Elsa the Snow Queen doll tucked against her chest.
Marla noticed the teenager standing by a full cart to the left of the photograph.
Who is that boy?
He’s the kid I hired to help keep up with our purchases.
“Good grief.” Her first reaction was dismay. Surely, Carson realized that unlimited spending was not good for a child. Then again, this was the first time he’d ever gotten to buy Sophie anything. She was certain he was enjoying it and she didn’t want to spoil things.
I’m glad you and Sophie are having fun.
She met up with Kayla at the nurses’ station. “Little Diva’s cashing in.” She handed Kayla her phone.
“Ohmigod! She is.” Kayla laughed as she looked at the pictures of Sophie beside the stack of shoe boxes. She gasped when she saw the motorized car. “He got her a BMW! I can’t believe it! How cool.”
“I’m really happy that he’s having a good time but I’m going to have to talk to him about spoiling her.”
“Good luck with that.” Kayla handed Marla back her phone and glanced up as the sliding glass doors of the emergency entrance slid open. A tall man with an athletic build, inky black hair, and dark eyes walked inside. “Look.” She waved her hand in his direction. “It’s the sexiest baby doctor ever.”
“Hey, Red,” Dr. Aaron Kendall said. “Up to no good as always?”
Aaron wore a white lab coat over jeans and a black shirt. A pediatric stethoscope hung around his neck and a stuffed rabbit peeped out of the pocket of his lab coat. Aaron loved his little patients, especially babies.
“Sorry to have to call you in,” Marla
said. “But we couldn’t live without you.”
“I get that a lot,” Aaron tossed back and Marla figured he probably did. He was a striking man with a handsome smile. She had always thought he and Kayla would make a gorgeous couple. A baseball player and a model. But there was no chemistry between them. Kayla had balked at the idea of hooking up with Aaron, claiming that would be like having sex with her brother.
“Let’s have a look at the baby,” Aaron said, ready to get down to business.
“His electrolytes are back and he’s not dehydrated,” she told Aaron as they headed down a short hallway to the pediatric exam room. “I’m hoping the weakness in his arms and legs is transient.”
Aaron frowned in thought. “Did the mother say anything about the baby being sick or having any vaccinations lately?”
Marla stopped and checked her notes on the computer tablet she carried. “She said his last illness was about three weeks ago. He had a runny nose and cold, but he got better. What are you thinking?”
“Weakness on both sides of the body. Could be Guillain-Barré syndrome. He had a virus a few weeks ago and now his immune system is haywire, attacking his peripheral nervous system. It’s rare but a possibility,” Aaron said. “I’ll admit him and do a complete workup.”
“I’m so glad you’re here.” As she handed him the tablet, the wail of a siren came from the ambulance bay as an ambulance pulled out. A second siren followed. “Shit,” Marla muttered.
“The sound every ER doctor dreads hearing,” Aaron said. “Go see what’s going on. I’ll take care of the baby.”
Her phone vibrated as she trotted toward the nurses’ station. She had a video from Carson. Her jaw dropped when she saw Sophie riding a brown-and-white pony. Henry held the lead rope and walked the pony around the corral at Royal Oaks while Sophie rode on a small saddle.
Carson, who was recording the video, said, “Wave to your mom.”
Sophie waved. “Look, Mommy. While we were gone, Mister Henry found a pony and brought it home for me. It’s a girl horse and I named it Buttercup. I love Buttercup. This has been the best day ever!”
The video ended on Sophie’s glowing face and Marla swallowed. Perhaps she and Carson didn’t have a future together, but they did have a child. There would have to be some bridges built. She sent him a text.
Thank you for making her day so special. You’re a good father already.
“Marla.” Kayla ran up to her. “There are three patients, one critical, incoming from an MVA. Ten minutes out.”
“So much for the quiet afternoon,” Marla said. “Oh, Sophie got a pony.”
“She did not!” Kayla’s mouth rounded. “Fantastic!”
“I am going to have to talk to him.” She and Kayla headed to the nurses’ station. “Christmas today is okay, but every day can’t be Christmas.”
“Where’s Dr. Hughes?”
“He’s taking a nap.”
“Bless his heart.” Marla stopped at the nurses’ station and spoke to the nursing supervisor. “We need surgery, lab, and X-ray all on standby. Give ICU a heads-up and if there’s staff on break or dinner, get them back to this department now.”
A pair of swinging doors marked EMPLOYEES ONLY parted and cardiologist Brett Harris, aka Hot Rod, strode into the emergency department.
“Look what the dog drug in.” Marla smiled as he gave her a welcome home hug. She’d known Brett most of her life and he was like family. “How’s it going?”
“I’ve got a new girl.” His hazel eyes that were sometimes more gold than green sparkled as he held up his phone and displayed a photo of a shiny blue 1969 Plymouth Road Runner. Brett loved vintage muscle cars. “Was it tough coming back?”
“Not really. Kauai is really beautiful but it’s not home.”
“Do you smell that?” Kayla sniffed the air and looked at Brett. “It’s like an odd sweet odor. Is that you?”
“It’s probably the interior cleanser I was using on my new girl.”
Kayla scowled. “Do you know how that sounded?”
With a straight face, he replied, “Then it probably wouldn’t help to say it was a cherry fragrance.”
“You’re a disgrace, but we love you anyway,” Marla said. “And your new girl is very pretty.”
“I’ve been waiting a long time to find Rhonda. She’s such a great ride,” he added with a wicked grin.
“Cute,” Kayla remarked. “You’ve got a patient you need to see.”
Brett fetched one of the stethoscopes that were hanging on a closet doorknob behind the counter. He clipped it around his neck. “Have you heard any more about Fletcher?”
“Nothing,” Marla said. “I figure they’ll send him straight to rehab.”
“Such a waste.” He turned to Kayla. “All right, LaLa, let’s go.”
In the distance, Marla heard the wail of the siren as the ambulance approached the hospital. Things about to get chaotic. As she slipped on a disposable gown and gloves, she saw a nurse double-checking the crash cart and she thought of Truman and Julia, who were such a lovely couple. She didn’t know if it had been destiny or a simple coincidence, but she was glad she’d been there to help Truman.
Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.
The first loss of the afternoon came when one of the MVA victims, who had suffered a closed head trauma, died within five minutes of his arrival from a massive cerebral hemorrhage.
The next loss came shortly before Marla’s shift ended.
“Forty-year-old white male,” a paramedic told her as they pushed a stretcher into trauma room one. “Shotgun blast to the upper abdominal area. Appears he dropped the gun and it discharged.”
The paramedic looked her way and shook his head.
Blood pooled on the patient, the sheet, and drops of it splattered mutely on the tile floor.
The emergency department staff worked nonstop, following Marla’s orders as she assessed the patient. Narcotics were given, lab work ordered, clamps applied to stem the loss of blood, transfusions were processed. A nurse told her surgery was on standby, and a general surgeon was on his way to see the patient.
The gaping wound in the patient’s upper abdomen was consistent with a close-range GSW. Part of the patient’s liver, stomach, and upper intestine had been shredded by the blast. It was a miracle that he’d survived this long.
“Blood pressure sixty over forty-six,” a nurse told her, “and dropping. Fast.”
The patient lifted his fingers; his desperate gaze on Marla’s face.
“James,” Marla called him by his first name. There was a plea in his eyes she couldn’t ignore. “I’m Doctor Grant. Are you in any pain?” She didn’t want her dying patient to suffer. “You don’t have to be in pain.”
He moved his lips to speak and everyone surrounding the exam table stilled. A nurse removed the oxygen mask. Marla leaned down and he whispered, “Hold my hand.”
Those were his last words. She placed her hand in his before she called the time of death.
An hour later, she pulled into the concrete driveway of her sprawling L-shaped house. Made of dark-red brick, it sported white shutters and white flower boxes beneath the windows. She had bought the house a couple of years ago. Elmwood Circle was part of an older, quiet neighborhood where she knew all of her neighbors.
The summer breeze carried the scent of freshly cut grass and roses, and the dusky blue sky dipped down to meet the gray ridges of the Tennessee foothills. Cicadas hummed and Mrs. Nelson’s cat trotted across the lawn.
She pushed open the kitchen door and stepped inside her house. What was it about home that made you feel so grateful after you’d been away? She kicked off her shoes.
She had sent Carson a text saying she was going to stop by her house for a few minutes on the way back to Royal Oaks.
She needed a shower and a moment alone.
Death was part of her job description, but it was the hardest part. The man’s family had been escorted to the prayer room by a nurse. Hi
s parents. His wife. His two little boys. A couple of sisters.
They always knew before you said anything.
The weeping had started ahead of her saying, “I’m sorry.”
She headed for her bedroom where she stripped off her scrubs and got in the shower. Hot water pulsed from the showerhead. Marla stood with her arms braced against the shower tile and let the water wash away the tears she shouldn’t shed. She had spoken to Dr. Hughes about being too emotional. Sometimes she felt she couldn’t be detached enough.
He had said, “Marla, you’re a young doctor. It’s always hardest then. With time, you become accustomed to loss. You’ll accept the cycle of life more readily than you do now.” He had taken off his glasses. “I used to hum the first stanza of ‘Amazing Grace’ to myself. It made me feel better. You have to find what makes you feel better.”
Secretly crying in the shower made her feel better.
After the shower, it was time to carry on. She did her hair, squirted eye drops in her puffy eyes and put on makeup. She had brought in her luggage and she dug around in the suitcases. She found the spa’s complimentary toiletries and the hooker cologne. She dabbed a bit of it on her wrists and sniffed her skin. To her, it still didn’t smell any better, but it did hold decadent memories.
Marla tried not to think too much about the past week in paradise as she pressed the yellow sundress she’d bought in Hawaii. She put it on and returned to the kitchen where she paused in front of the refrigerator. Her life was spread before her. Sophie’s photographs. A magnet from her hairdresser. Emergency numbers. A shopping list. A newspaper ad featuring the staff of the clinic. Mementos of a life that had changed when she had boarded that jet with Carson.
She took a second to say goodbye to it before she left for Royal Oaks.
Estelle and Henry sat in lawn chairs in front of their modest home at Royal Oaks. Citronella candles burned on the picnic table and a bushel basket of green beans sat between them. They snapped green beans as the sunset created pink and orange clouds over the piney woods surrounding the property.
Marla joined them. “Are Carson and Sophie inside?”
“Sleeping the sleep of the just,” Estelle said.
One Week in Your Arms Page 22