Aretha explained how she attached his leash to his collar because he wasn’t wearing his harness. When he saw the Lab, he wiggled himself right out of the collar. “We were already on the sidewalk, so he didn’t have far to go to get to the street. So, I’m calling him, and he stops. When I got closer, he took off.” She paused, her shoulders slumped. “I didn’t see the car coming, but the driver had to know he hit Manny.”
“What do you mean, ‘had to know’?”
“He stopped for a minute, and he looked at me, so I know he saw me screaming. Then, he took off.”
Nina waved her hand in front of Aretha. “Wait. Wait. Wait. He did what?”
“He left. But,” she pulled her cell phone out of her pants pocket, “not before Mr. Pete got a picture of his license plate.” She scrolled through her pictures. “And he sent it to me, and I sent it to Luke.” She showed it to Nina. “And whoever this is, will be getting a visit, I hope real soon, from one not-so-happy detective.”
Nina finished filling out the papers and handed the board back to the receptionist.
“Thank you,” she looked at the top page, “Miss O’Malley. My name is Tessa. Dr. Hernandez will be out to talk to you as soon as he can. There’s a little kitchen area down the hall,” she said and pointed to a door on her left, “if you want something to drink, and there’s a machine with snacks.” She smiled and added, “Some of them are even healthy.”
“Do you know how much longer he’ll be?”
“No, I don’t. But, since you’re the only ones here right now, I can go back and check for you.”
Nina sat next to Aretha who already had a little pile of crumpled used tissues in her lap. “I’m so glad Elise gave you these. I’ve been wiping my face and my nose on my T-shirt.”
Nina looked at her herringbone cropped jacket and trousers, her black silk shell. “Manny’s worth a dry cleaning bill, right? Not like he hasn’t cost either one of us that before.”
“Miss O’Malley,” Tessa held a door open off the waiting room, “Dr. Hernandez said you can see Manny now.”
Nina and Aretha walked into the treatment area where Greg and a young man in scrubs hovered over Manny.
Nina felt her heart pinch. “He’s okay, right? I mean, he’s so still . . .”
“We gave him something to tranquilize him,” said Greg as he waved them closer to the table and moved aside so Nina could stand near Manny.
As if testing the temperature for one of Manny’s baths, Nina reached out until her hand rested on Manny’s soft, warm fur.
Greg told Nina. “You have a few options, though I’m sure you won’t take the first one, which is if you’d like to go home, I can call you when the surgery’s over and let you know how he did.”
“Even if she wanted that to be an option, which I know she doesn’t, neither of us has a car here,” Aretha said. “Luke offered earlier to pick us up, but he won’t be able to get here for at least another hour. Unless you want to call Brady.”
Greg saw the answer on Nina’s face as soon as Aretha said Brady’s name. But before Nina could even respond, Aretha said, “You know, maybe you should call him. After all, he went with you to get Manny, and he did help you name him.”
Had the two women been sitting at a dinner table, Greg thought Nina might have stretched out a leg and side-kicked her friend. This was one of those times he attempted to be invisible. The name did sound familiar to him and, if Nina knew him, most likely he worked at the magazine.
“No. He’s not someone I need or want to call. I’m fine waiting for Luke.” She turned to Greg. “What are the other options?”
“Well, the second one is like the first, except that instead of going home, you could go grab a coffee or something to eat, and we could call you when the surgery’s over. But, since there’s a car issue, looks like the third one is it. You can just hang out here.”
“Then we’ll take door number three. In the meantime, I’ll call Luke and find out for sure when he can get here. Maybe he can bring us something to eat,” Aretha said. “I’ll go call him now.” She bent down and whispered something to Manny, then kissed him on top of his head.
Nina stroked Manny behind his ears. “Elise told me this was your day off. I’m sure you weren’t expecting a call from me . . .”
Greg checked the IV drip in Manny’s paw and glanced at Nina out of the corner of his eye. No, not expecting. But if we hadn’t had a rough second start, I wouldn’t have minded if you did. “That would have been a surprise.”
“I appreciate your taking time away from your family . . .” she said, adjusting the warming blanket around Manny. “I’ve never bothered to ask you if you have a family, beyond Elise, I mean. The last time we saw each other, I said some awful things to you.”
He nodded. That was a truth they both knew couldn’t be diminished.
“I shouldn’t have been so mean, and I’m sorry for that. That you’re here helping Manny, after the way I’ve treated you, is humbling. I owe you, I really do.”
“Well, you can pay me back by taking me out to dinner one night. Just as a way of clearing things up between us, that’s all. And beyond that, you’ll just owe the emergency hospital,” he said.
Tessa opened the door. “Dr. Cadoree is here.”
“Great. That’s the orthopedic doctor I called, so we’re ready to start.”
He saw that cloak of fear and love wrap itself around her when it was her turn to whisper in Manny’s ear and kiss the top of his head.
Greg prayed, as she walked out, that he would not disappoint her again.
24
Luke arrived with food from Le Madeleine and the information on the person who hit Manny.
“Driver was a seventeen-year-old who was supposed to be in school, but he decided not going would be much more fun.” Luke explained as they sat in the employee break room while he handed out the containers of spinach salads and croissants stuffed with chicken salad. “He was on his way to his girlfriend’s house. He thought he might have missed the dog, but when he heard Aretha scream, he knew he didn’t. In typical kid fashion, he got scared and left. And go figure. He went to school and checked in late.”
“How could he think he missed Manny? He didn’t feel the tire hit something?” Nina pushed every word out with commando force.
Luke shook his head. “I don’t know. He probably doesn’t want to think about it, especially now that we found him. So, now he’s dealing with an Animal Cruelty Law and his parents.”
“Nina and I want him to crawl on his hands and knees over small rocks for at least five miles, but I don’t think Texas has that law. What happens to him?” Aretha stabbed the strawberries in her salad and transferred them to Luke’s.
“Could get up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. It’s his first offense, probably probation, community service, maybe even require him to have some psychological counseling,” said Luke.
Nina drummed her fingers on the table and stared into space while she thought. “Can he work in an animal shelter as community service? That’s what he needs to do, and he should have to pay for Manny’s surgery.”
“That, I’m not sure of. Not bad ideas though.” Luke answered Nina, but he watched Aretha as she picked through her spinach salad.
“Not so crazy about bacon, either,” she said and continued her hunt.
“I’ll remember for next time,” he said.
She patted his hand and smiled. “I’d rather a next time with strawberries and bacon, than no next time without it.”
When they walked back into the reception area, they were greeted by a little girl wearing a bright purple T-shirt decorated with fuchsia butterflies that tucked into a sequined layered purple tutu.
“Hi. Do you like to dance? I have music,” she said, her eyes as shiny as her sequins. She pressed the button on the CD player she carried and twirled several times along the row of chairs.
“We’re too old to twirl,” Aretha told her. “But you’re a cutie pie. Why don’
t you dance, and we’ll sit and watch?”
She abandoned twirling in favor of moves that matched the reggae music she listened to and lip-synced the lyrics.
Nina didn’t see any other adults except for Tessa who wasn’t watching the performance. She leaned over to Aretha and whispered, “The kid looks perfectly content, but I don’t think she drove here alone.”
Aretha spoke as softly and pointed, “I think her mom’s walking in now.”
The young woman who opened the door exuded calmness. Nina felt it ripple through the room as soon as she entered. Dressed in knife-pleated jeans and a white peasant blouse, she still managed to appear almost regal. “I found your book,” she said and handed the little girl a book with a green-bodied, red-headed caterpillar inching across the cover. But before she let it go, she asked, “Now, what do you say when someone has done something nice for you?”
“We say, tank you, and . . . you say . . .” The child hugged her book and leaned toward the woman.
“You are welcome.” Nina smiled as the little girl placed the book and the CD player in the empty chair next to where Aretha sat. “I’m going to Miss Tessa.”
Aretha said to the child, “You are beautiful just like your mommy.”
The little girl tilted her head and looked wide-eyed at Aretha. “You know my mommy?”
“Well, I don’t know her yet. But when she comes back, I can meet her.”
She shook her head from side-to-side, her expression, serious. “No, you can’t.” She opened the book, then looked at Aretha. “She not here.”
Aretha attempted a quick recovery and pointed to the young woman speaking to Tessa. “Oh. I thought she was your mommy.”
Nina tapped Aretha on the shoulder and murmured, “Maybe you should just stop there. Otherwise—”
“Miss O’Malley, Dr. Hernandez is on his way out to talk to you,” Tessa said.
Nina started to put on the shoes she’d kicked off when Greg walked out into the reception area.
“Daddy!” The little girl closed the cover of her book and, with her tutu bouncing, skipped across the room to Greg.
Nina almost dropped the shoe she held as she watched Greg.
“How’s my princess?” He lifted her, kissed her forehead, and lowered her to the floor. “Daddy’s almost finished, okay?”
Aretha looked at Nina. “Well, who knew?”
Nina would have preferred sprawling out in the back of Luke’s SUV for the ride home. Instead, she sat in the second seat and tried to use the middle armrest and cup holder as a pillow. “I’m just too tall to make this happen.” She groaned in defeat, closed her eyes, and settled for the headrest.
Thanks to Greg, she’d be able to sleep tonight. Manny’s fractured left leg, not his pelvis, was all that required surgery. When he told them, Aretha rubbed Manny’s head and said, “No problem. He uses his right hand anyway.” But Greg also said there might be nerve damage to the leg, but that would have to be a wait-and-see situation.
Nina didn’t want to leave until Manny opened his eyes. When he did, the thread of fear inside her unraveled and fell out of every muscle it seemed to have taken residence in. She knew she’d never see Greg the same way now that his unselfish heart and capable hands saved her pet. She didn’t tell him that, of course. Besides, she realized as she relaxed against the headrest, she forgot to ask for a number where she could contact him.
“I’m very confused with this Greg and child situation. Nina, are you awake?” Aretha stretched her arm over the front seat and tapped Nina’s knee.
She answered without opening her eyes. “Am now.”
“If that lovely woman isn’t that child’s mother, then who is?”
“You were there, too. Why didn’t you ask him?” Nina wished Aretha had asked because she wondered the same thing. If he was in a relationship with that woman, then Nina needed to stop feeling gooey inside when he shook her hand or accidentally brushed past her. Even in her anger the night of the benefit, she realized how incredibly handsome he looked. And his being unaware of his own good fortune in the way his features ended up so well-placed on his face made him even more attractive.
“For the same reason you didn’t. How would that have gone? ‘Thanks Dr. Hernandez for saving our pet’s life. Now, where did this child come from and how is that beautiful woman related to her?’ Why wouldn’t we think that was her mother? Two white people do not have a black child. Maybe there’s an anomaly somewhere, but . . .”
Luke cleared his throat. “May I interrupt? Why do the two of you care so much about Dr. Hernandez’s marital status?”
Aretha and Nina exchanged glances.
“That’s a good question,” said Nina and leaned back against the headrest, closed her eyes, and waited for Aretha to announce they were home.
Greg called Elise and updated her on Manny’s status as he, Paloma, and Jazarah were on their way to Marble Slab for ice cream. “Nina is meeting me at the hospital before she goes to the office tomorrow morning. While I’m checking her dog, at least she can spend some time with him.”
“That was a nice thing you did, making yourself available.”
“That’s my job. Animal repair and maintenance,” he said. “I’m just grateful he’s going to make it because if he didn’t, she’d be convinced for life that I’m the enemy.”
“I don’t even pretend to understand why she would think that about you. But, I suppose that’s part of what you’re going to explain to me later, right? Now, go have ice cream and enjoy yourself.”
The next morning, Greg arrived at the hospital to find both Nina and Aretha in the waiting room. Nina looked rested, the puffy-eyed redness of yesterday replaced by clear, deep brown eyes. Her face softened by layers of curls that rested just below her cheekbones. She smiled when she saw him, an unexpected reaction that warmed him like his first cup of coffee on a cold morning.
“Good to see both of you more relaxed today,” he said as he shook hands with Nina and Aretha. He was as glad to see Nina as she was to see him. Not so fast, buddy. Maybe she’s just happy because she’ll be able to visit her dog now that you’re here. “Manny’s a popular guy this morning,” Greg said as he moved his stethoscope from his lab pocket to around his neck.
“I didn’t remember until we were home that I left my car at the office. Fortunately, Aretha has time to drop me off, but she has to get to class, so I won’t be able to stay long,” Nina explained.
“No problem. A quick visit is probably best anyway. An ER for the four-legged is just as unpredictable as one for the two-legged,” said Greg. “Manny’s over here,” he walked behind the reception area and opened the door marked “Visitor Room.”
“He looks so small in there,” said Nina, her voice as soft as the blankets on which Manny had been placed.
Manny’s tail thumped as soon as he heard Nina’s voice. His face looked like it had just bloomed out of a clear plastic cone edged in felt.
Nina bent down to stroke his nose. “Does he really need this? It seems so uncomfortable.”
“Those Elizabethan collars—”
“Wait,” Aretha halted Greg’s explanation with a wave of her hand. “As in Queen Elizabeth? What’s she doing in a veterinary hospital?”
“And that’s why we refer to them as E-Collars . . . less explaining. But, you’re right. It’s named after all those high-collared ruffles women wore then. But, for pets, it’s not fashion. Those collars prevent them from scratching, biting, or in Manny’s case, trying to get to his IV line,” said Greg.
“Well, guess that’s better than finding a use for those corsets. Right, Manny?” said Aretha, bending down to pet him.
“Can I take a picture of him?” Nina reached in her purse and took out her cell phone.
“Let’s not make this a magazine photo spread. I hate to rush you, sister, but we need to get going or else the traffic is going to strangle me,” said Aretha, keys jangling in her hand.
“Pictures are fine,” Greg told Nina. �
�And, if you want to stay a little longer, I can drop you off at the office on my way to work. There’s something I need to give Elise anyway.” He had no idea what that thing was, but he’d find something.
“That okay with you, Nina?” Aretha looked at her watch.
Nina looked at Greg. “It wouldn’t be out of your way?”
He wasn’t certain if she wanted it to be or not. “Isn’t at all. Really.”
Aretha stopped fidgeting with her keys. “Great, then I’m off.”
A round of good-byes, and she scurried out, leaving a cavern between him and Nina. The kind of space that, with friends, would fill with conversation. Between two people who emotionally circled one another as if in a wrestling match, it echoed.
They fumbled chatting through the few photos Nina snapped with her cell phone, while Greg made notes on Manny’s chart. He gave some instructions to the veterinary technician, then excused himself to return a text and a call he’d received earlier.
“By the time you finish, Manny will probably be ready for me to go anyway,” she said.
He didn’t recognize the telephone number that showed on his phone, but the text originated from the same place. They were both from Dr. Percy Maxwell, who owned two hospitals, one in Houston and one in Galveston. The doctor Greg worked for at the Cypress clinic referred him to Dr. Maxwell as he’d been searching for a full-time veterinarian to join his staff. While Greg appreciated the flexibility of a relief practice, it also meant working more weekends and the strong possibility of working holidays because that’s when other doctors wanted vacation time. Knowing he could be at the same clinic every day, with a schedule that would be better for spending time with Jazarah, was appealing. Not being his own boss . . . that would be the challenge. But he trusted God would lead him down the path he needed to follow, and if it meant someone else walked ahead and cleared it, well, so be it.
Greg discovered both of them graduated within four years of one another from L.S.U.’s School of Veterinary Medicine, which, Dr. Maxwell, joked would make football season less contentious. They arranged to meet Sunday afternoon, so Percy would have more time to show him the clinic and answer questions without the interruptions of the staff and clients.
Threads of Hope: Quilts of Love Series Page 13