Prognosis: Romance
Page 20
It seemed that the key had been hidden all this time in his heart.
Epilogue
Graduation was held the second weekend in May in an arena at the local fairgrounds, one of the few places in the area big enough to seat all the graduates and their families and guests. Physicians, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, researchers and other graduates in the medical sciences sat in folding chairs on the arena floor dressed in black caps and gowns with hoods and tassels color-coded to match their individual disciplines.
Medical students wore green velvet hoods hanging down the back of their gowns. They’d received those hoods at the honors convocation the night before. Sitting in the bleachers with her family on her right and James’s parents and aunt Beverly on her left, Shannon kept an eye on James as he sat in his folding chair waiting for his name to be called.
“I’ve lost James again,” her mother, who sat at Shannon’s right side, complained. “They all look just alike sitting out there in those caps and gowns. Which one is he again?”
While Stu pointed out James to their mother, Shannon turned her attention to James’s mother, who sat at her left. Melissa fanned her face with a thick program. “It’s warm in here. Bruce and I should have skipped this event. The hooding ceremony last night was the more important program. And it isn’t as if we haven’t watched James receive three other diplomas before this one.”
The crowd milled and talked in the bleachers, making it hard at times to hear the names being droned from the stage. After several speakers and more than a hundred names that had already been called for various degree presentations, the audience was growing restless.
Last night’s hooding ceremony for the M.D. graduates had been solemn and formal, but it turned out that medical-school graduations were as cheerfully disorganized as any high-school ceremony Shannon had ever attended. Hoots and cheers and the occasional blast of an air horn from various family groups in attendance caused James’s father to scowl and mutter about “rowdy yokels.”
“I think he would have been disappointed if you weren’t here,” Shannon confided quietly to Melissa. “He has said many times that he credits you and his father for setting such a good academic example for him to follow.”
Melissa preened just a little. During the past few months, Shannon had discovered that both Melissa and Bruce were highly susceptible to flattery. If that was what it would take to have an amicable relationship with James’s family, then Shannon was prepared to spend quite a bit of time in her future stroking their egos.
She applauded enthusiastically for Anne and Ron and Haley and Connor when their names were called. One by one they crossed the stage, their heads held high beneath the flat-topped caps, the pride of accomplishment in their posture. After quite a few more names were called in alphabetical order, it was finally time for James to be recognized.
“Dr. James Stillman,” a sonorous voice intoned over the speakers and James stepped onto the stage.
“Wooohooo, James!” Stu yelled, pumping the air with his fist. J.P. hooted in unison. The rest of the Gambill family cheered and applauded energetically.
Their own restrained applause overshadowed by Shannon’s family, James’s parents looked startled. Bruce appeared about to fade into his seat in response to the amused attention the Gambills had drawn to them. Shannon smothered a smile as she wondered how he felt about his son’s second family being filled with “rowdy yokels.”
Was she mistaken or was Melissa a little amused by the Gambill family’s vocal support of James? Shannon thought she might have seen the faintest hint of a smile curve the older woman’s lips for only a moment. On the stage, James accepted his rolled diploma, shook hands with the faculty and administrators lined up along the way, then paused at the top of the steps to look in their direction and give a thumbs-up, earning another cheer from Stu and J.P.
“Undignified,” Bruce grumbled, while Melissa fanned her face a bit more furiously, her lips twitching again.
Pandemonium reigned on the fairgrounds surrounding the arena when the ceremonies concluded. People rushed to cars, milled on the sidewalks, hugged, chattered and snapped pictures. Before turning in their caps and gowns, the study group gathered on a grassy rise behind the arena to pose together. The five of them stood proudly, arms interlocked, diplomas on display while their spouses and family members memorialized this milestone in numerous digital photos.
They looked happy, Shannon mused, studying the five friends with a lump in her throat while she snapped her own pictures. Excited. Eager. And just a little melancholy, as each acknowledged this was the end of an era for them.
Their friendship wasn’t ending, but it would be different beginning next week. Now that Match Day was behind them, they knew exactly where they would be spending the next three-to-five years, depending on their specialties. Anne, who wanted to specialize in women’s gynecological surgeries, would be moving to Baltimore with Liam, who could be based anywhere and still pursue his cable TV and writing careers. Ron and Haley had been accepted into programs in Lexington, Kentucky—Ron in pediatrics, to be followed by a hematology and oncology fellowship, Haley in a triple board program in psychiatry, child psychiatry and pediatrics. Connor was staying in Little Rock to train for family medicine.
As for James—
She smiled mistily up at him when he moved beside her and slipped an arm around her. “Hi, Dr./Dr. James Stillman,” she teased him, referring to his two postgraduate degrees.
He chuckled and dropped a kiss on her nose. “Hello, Shannon Gambill-Stillman, CEO of Kid Capers, Inc.,” he joked in return.
Despite her insistence in January that they not rush into anything, Shannon and James had been married for almost a week now. It had taken all her organizational skills to put together a wedding in just over a month, but she had managed. James had proposed on Match Day, after the raucous party at a local pub where all the class members’ matches had been announced. Conceding that she didn’t need any more time to be sure she wanted to spend the rest of her life with James, she had accepted.
They’d married in the church her parents had belonged to for many years, followed by a country-club reception attended by many family members and friends. They could have waited to be married after the graduation ceremony, but they’d decided to leave for their honeymoon the following day, giving themselves time to savor being together before James had to dive into his residency.
She thought she would enjoy living in Seattle, establishing a branch of Kid Capers there while Devin took over the business here. James would be busy with his residency and she would be equally busy with her own pursuits. They would be each other’s most fervent supporters, their safe haven from the madness. She was both nervous and extremely excited about the adventures awaiting them.
It would be a while before her business would be solvent there, she admitted realistically, but like her husband, she had always enjoyed a challenge.
“I love you, James,” she murmured, gazing happily up at him.
He looked down at her with that faint little smile that would always make her pulse race. “I love you, too.”
It was becoming easier for him to say all the time. And she believed him implicitly. It was written all over his face.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-6594-7
PROGNOSIS: ROMANCE
Copyright © 2010 by Gina Wilkins
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