Cowboy Wilde (Cooper's Hawke Landing Book 2)

by Rhonda Lee Carver

  “Yes. I will, but where’s the doctor? Shouldn’t there be a doctor here?” Ms. Hampton looked like she was a thread away from collapsing. Who could blame her? “How could you do this, Missy? Wait until I get my hands wrapped around that boy’s neck.”

  Patting the mother’s shoulder, Charlotte gave her an encouraging smile. “It’ll be okay. We won’t let anything happen to your daughter or your grandchild. I know this is all a blow, but you can take care of the details of how this happened later.”

  Ms. Hampton gave a shaky nod. “I love you.” She laid her hand on her daughter’s trembling fingers. “I’m here for you. Now listen to what the nurse tells you.”

  Charlotte dropped her used gloves in the trash on her way into the hall where she said, “We need a doctor now!”

  “They’re still with the victims of the five-car pileup. We’re trying to pull a doctor from somewhere. I’ll call labor and delivery again to see why they haven’t come and got her,” Bristol said from the nurse’s station.

  That was how things tended to happen in the ER. Emergencies came in numbers.

  “Nurse! Nurse!” Ms. Hampton yelled, “Come fast!”

  Grabbing a pair of gloves from the box on her way into the room, Charlotte dragged them on as she stepped up to the table. Missy’s white-knuckled grasp on the pillow and her glazed over eyes told Charlotte the baby was coming, doctor or not.

  “I’m going to give you a quick exam to see how dilated you are, Missy.” Charlotte’s adrenaline spiked once she felt the baby’s head. “Bristol! I need you in here now!”

  “What’s happening?” Ms. Hampton wrung her hands.

  “We’re preparing you daughter for delivery. The baby is coming. Bristol, we’ll have to do this. Listen, Missy, I need you to turn onto your back and place your feet into the stirrups. This is Nurse Bristol, and we’re going to help you through this. Just listen to everything we tell you.”

  Feet in place and her bottom scooted to the edge of the bed, Missy was panting and whimpering. Charlotte paused a second to work through her mind what to do in an emergency delivery. She’d never performed one alone, but she’d assisted in several deliveries in nursing school.

  “I’m here! What’s the status?” Dr. Noah swept in, tugging on gloves and covering his face with a mask.

  “Patient’s name is Missy. She’s been in labor for approximately four hours. Baby’s head is in the canal. She’s ready to push.” Charlotte stepped aside so the doctor could take his place at the bottom of the exam table.

  “Hi, I’m Dr. Noah. Missy, Nurse Charlotte is going to help you push.”

  After twenty minutes of pushing, Missy delivered a boy who entered the world crying. They rushed him and Missy to labor and delivery where they would make sure mom and baby were okay.

  “That was amazing, wasn’t it?” Charlotte said to Bristol hours later when they met at the vending machines.

  “Amazing? Could you imagine finding out your teen is pregnant twenty minutes before she delivers? Whoa…I don’t think I’m cut out for parenthood. Do you believe she didn’t know that she was pregnant?” Bristol stabbed a button and a Coke bottle dropped.

  Charlotte shrugged. “Who knows. Kids today get so caught up in sports, and life, they sometimes don’t pay attention to the monthly call.”

  “I guess, but I think she had to suspect something wasn’t right. Anyway, how are mom and baby?”

  “I called upstairs earlier and they’re doing great. Fortunately, baby is healthy.” Charlotte dug the needed amount of change from her pocket and dumped them into the coin slot for a candy bar and coffee.

  “Who doesn’t know that they’re kid is pregnant? I thought Missy’s mom was going to flip out.”

  “I’m glad they’re both okay. This could have been a worse situation if she hadn’t done the right thing by telling her mom that she needed help.”

  “You certainly were amazing,” Bristol said as they walked outside to the employee break area. They took a table close to the water fountain.

  “I did my job. I felt so sorry for both moms. I don’t know how I’d handle the same situation if I were in their shoes.” She bit into the chocolate and chewed thoughtfully.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  Charlotte looked up at her friend. “About?”

  “Moving? Leaving the hospital.”

  “Very sure.” She swallowed her candy with a sip of the terrible coffee. That was something she wouldn’t miss.

  “I’m going to be lonely.” Bristol puckered her bottom lip. They’d been roommates and best friends since they met in nursing school five years ago.

  “I’ll miss you. Promise me that you won’t eat ice cream for breakfast every morning. Eat something with real substance at least once a day.”

  “Maybe once a day.” Bristol crossed her legs on the chair. “Things won’t be the same around here without you. I’m going to have to deal with Hatchet Agatha myself. That’s so unfair.” She referred to their supervisor who ran the emergency department like a naval ship.

  “You’re going to be fine. Personally and professionally. You have Frank who seems to be keeping you busy these days.” Charlotte picked a piece of caramel from her candy bar. “You two are growing closer, unless my ears deceive me.” She wiggled her brows.

  “You heard, huh? I’m sorry. I’ve become one of those pesky roommates. I didn’t realize the apartment walls were so thin.”

  “It’s okay. I put in my Raycons and fell right to sleep. I just pray Betty Sue turns out to like sleep more than she enjoys midnight booty calls,” Charlotte teased.

  “On a serious note, how do you know you’ll even like Betty Sue?”

  Charlotte popped the last bit of candy into her mouth and downed the rest of the coffee. “She’s my cousin and she asked me to come. We haven’t seen each other in a long time, but as kids we were close. Anyway, I need a change of scenery. I want to have more bedside time with my patients.”

  “But do you think you’ll like working in a doctor’s office? It’s definitely a change of pace from working here.”

  “It’s actually a clinic and from what I hear they keep pretty busy because the closest hospital is almost an hour away.”

  “So Texas, huh? You don’t even own a pair of cowboy boots. You won’t fit in. Stay here.” Bristol put her hands into a prayer position and puffed out her bottom lip.

  “Please understand. I need to get away from Ohio. I want you to come and visit soon. It’ll give you an excuse to buy a new pair of jeans and boots.”

  “Don’t you mean you need to get away from Lucy? She’d finally driven you away.”

  “That too.” She couldn’t deny that going to Tarnation had a lot to do with her aunt.

  “That I can understand. It’s time you put a stop to her taking advantage of you.”

  “I think it’s the only way she knows how to show affection, by being abrasive.”

  Bristol popped a nut into her mouth. “That woman has never been affectionate. It’s not in her DNA. So what does she say about you leaving?” When Charlotte didn’t answer, Bristol’s eyes widened. “You didn’t tell her?”

  “Not yet. I plan on stopping on my way to the airport in the morning.”

  “Well, since I can’t convince you to stay, I might as well give you this.” She reached into her purse and brought out a small box.

  “You got me a going away present?”

  Bristol shoved the box toward Charlotte who took it and popped off the lid. Inside she found a heart necklace. “Bristol! You shouldn’t have. You can’t afford this.”

  “Anything for the greatest friend alive. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have made it through nursing school. You kicked my butt when I needed it.” Her eyes filled with moisture.

  “Don’t cry.” Charlotte pulled her friend in for a tight hug.

  “I’m not crying. You’re crying.” Bristol sniffed and pulled back, subtly wiping away the wetness. “Go and find yourself in Texas. If
you don’t, come back because you always have a place here.”

  They gave each other another quick hug and Bristol stood. “I’ve got to get back to work. Don’t leave without saying bye to me.” She rushed off.

  Charlotte stayed a few minutes longer, taking in the beauty of the courtyard. She was both scared and excited to be leaving. Getting up, she threw away her trash and for the last time took the bridgeway into the emergency department. She was greeted by several co-workers and as she turned down a corridor, she helped an elderly patient who had dropped her purse.

  She stepped behind the nurse’s station and reached for the chart, opening it. She felt someone over her shoulder and looked up to find Agatha standing there, hovering. “I’m sorry that I’m a few minutes late. I’m going to check on my patient now.” She hurried to be on her way.

  “I wanted to stop and wish you well on your new journey.”

  Blinking, Charlotte couldn’t remember in the three years that she’d worked at the hospital having Agatha say one pleasant word. “Thank you!”

  The older woman started to step away, but she stopped, giving Charlotte a smile. “You’re a very skilled nurse. If you decide you’d like to come back, I’m sure we can find a place for you here in the ER.”

  Charlotte had to mentally shake herself.

  Although she’d miss her work family, she hoped she’d meet new friends.

  And she remembered this the next morning when she took the cab to the apartment building where she’d grown up.

  A familiar feeling of butterflies erupted inside her stomach as she was time machined back to the child who’d been awakened by a caseworker in the middle of the night and asked to pack her belongings in a trash bag because she was being taken away from home. The next events of that night and why she had been whisked away were all a blur, but she recalled how they’d driven for what seemed like hours until they pulled up in front of the apartment building where she’d call home for the next eleven years.

  The caseworker, a pretty brunette with glasses, had come around to the passenger seat and told Charlotte not to be scared. She would be staying with her aunt Lucy. Clinging to her stuffed toy, a brown bear with a missing eye and rip in the belly, Charlotte had walked up the sidewalk in her dirty, untied tennis shoes to meet a relative she’d never met before.

  Twenty years had passed, but the memories remained.

  Asking the driver to wait, she slipped him a twenty, then climbed out from the backseat and made her way up that same long sidewalk and in through the double glass doors that had spider cracks from corner to corner.

  The lobby smelled like mildew and musk, a smell that Charlotte didn’t think she’d ever escape. Every time she smelled it, she jetted back to her childhood when she feared her own shadow. She’d been wary of everyone, unsure of who to trust or who to care for. Her patients had taken the place for the things she lacked in her personal life.

  Up the stairs, she stepped over old man Hagley who was passed out. She took the empty bottle from his hand, set it aside, then continued up to the fifth floor and to the door at the end of the hall. Two seventeen. The seven had been turned upside down since Charlotte came that first day.

  Inside, she looked around the cluttered apartment with a sigh of despair. Her aunt had a hoarding issue, as well a few other flaws. Magazines stacked as high as Charlotte was tall and filled trash bags piled into a mound cluttered the small space. A permanent odor hung in the air that came from many sources. The smoke-saturated curtains hung haphazardly from bent rods. The coffee stained blue and white linoleum floor had more holes than swiss cheese. The faux leather chair had peeled down to the netting. Charlotte smiled at the memory of how she and Lucy had dragged the secondhand chair from the dumpster, up the five flights of stairs and stuck it in their apartment. When Charlotte had complained, Lucy had given her the go-to lecture, “Stop being so selfish. Until you have a job of your own and pay the bills then you’ll come off that hoity-toity attitude and do what’s best. Remember I was the one who took you in when your mom didn’t want you.” As if she needed reminding…

  Charlotte would never forget the humiliation on that Christmas morning, the ridicule of the neighbors watching as she and Lucy hauled the chair away as if it was a prized possession. How the kids had laughed at and bullied Charlotte when she returned to school, calling her “Trashy Charlotte”. Months had passed, but felt like years, before they found someone else to pick on.

  Even dumpster diving wasn’t as humiliating as being responsible for going down to the corner bar for two a.m. pickups. It never failed that Lucy would drink herself under the bar and the bartender would call for someone to come get her. Charlotte would get scared walking the dark streets in the middle of the night so at fifteen she switched things up and started driving the beat up silver two door that had spongy brakes the few blocks to get her drunk aunt.

  If only Charlotte could count the number of men that had come and gone over the years—all the “uncles” she’d met. Those memories had been tattooed into every brain cell as a constant reminder that one day she’d be better. She’d be a better mother when she had kids of her own.

  Charlotte could only wonder how horrible her mother was that family court thought living with Lucy would be a healthier environment.

  In Lucy’s defense, she’d never been abusive and kept a roof over their heads and meals on the table, at least most of the time.

  Movement caught her eye.

  She picked up a magazine off the top of a stack and rolled it, smashing the cockroach against the wall. She tossed it into the trash and started to put the magazine back when she gave it a toss too.

  Glancing around the clutter, she gave her head a little shake. She wouldn’t miss this place. The day she’d moved out, working two jobs to help pay for nursing school and a small one room apartment close to campus, had been a liberating moment. Several curve balls had been thrown her way in adulthood, delaying her graduation by a few years, but she’d finally managed to graduate with honors. Learning to work through the past, it got sloppy at times, but she did day by day.

  Charlotte had given up on trying to convince Lucy to move from the apartment where there were more bugs than people, but she refused. Stubborn ways kept her there. Just like keeping the old chair that had smelled like butt when they lugged it into the apartment.

  She stepped through the narrow doorway into the room off the kitchen, a laundry-room-turned-Charlotte’s-bedroom. The room wasn’t much bigger than a closet, but she’d never had many things outside of a twin bed, small three-drawer dresser, and a lamp. It surprised her that Lucy hadn’t done something with the space since Charlotte moved, not even using it to fill with useless clutter. Maybe she was hoping that one day Charlotte would come back.

  Leaving the room, she closed the door behind her and breathed in deeply. Although she couldn’t say that her every dream was about to come true, she did know she’d be in control of her own decisions.

  In the living room, she picked up the empty beer bottles and overflowing ashtray and dumped them. Her aunt would be hung over this morning and Charlotte would come to the rescue as she’d done many times.

  Taking bread from the cabinet, she checked the expiration date then placed a slice into the toaster. Thankfully, she found eggs and bacon in the fridge, leftover from the groceries she bought last week. And a moldy TV dinner that she tossed.

  Once breakfast was prepared, she placed it on a tray and grabbed the coffee on her way out of the kitchen. The closer she got to her aunt’s bedroom the stronger the scent of stale cigarette smoke and cheap floral perfume became.

  Standing on the outside of the closed door, she breathed in for bravery. She could do this. She was an adult. Inhaling the putrid odor, she sneezed. Making her way into the room, she set the tray down on the nightstand.

  Her aunt’s snoring echoed off the bare walls.

  Charlotte pulled the curtain back on the window and opened it a few inches. The sounds of children p
laying in the courtyard wafted in. She’d always liked the sounds of joy.

  Turning on the heels of her Converses, she stared through the heavy smog at the sleeping figure laying under the piles of blankets.

  A part of her wanted to let Lucy stay asleep, but she couldn’t leave without saying goodbye. As much as she feared telling her aunt about the move, she needed to do the right thing.

  Giving Lucy a gentle shake, it took several more attempts until she finally moaned, cursed, and farted. “What the hell?” she mumbled in a ragged voice.

  “I made you breakfast.”

  Charlotte went to the dresser and stared at her reflection in the spotted mirror. Her long, dark curls were pulled into a messy bun, her usual look these days. She wore no makeup and couldn’t remember the last time she’d applied foundation or mascara, and this morning she could have used a bit of concealer to hide the inky circles under her eyes. She’d tossed and turned most of the night and finally at the crack of dawn she gave up on sleep.

  Today was a big day. She had to tell her aunt that she was leaving, and Charlotte wasn’t sure what response she’d get. One could never know how Lucy would react when something bothered her. Making breakfast on a paper plate and the coffee in Styrofoam was one way to make sure so there was no china within reach to throw.

  Her aunt finally crawled out from the wrinkled blankets, grabbed her dry vape from the nightstand and took a long drag before she glanced across the short distance with a blood shot glare. The redness of her eyes matched her rosy complexion. She’d stopped dying her hair black six months ago and her silver roots had grown out to ear length. “Why are you waking me up so early?”

  “It’s ten o’clock. Not so early and I needed to speak to you.” Charlotte took the plate of food and set it on Lucy’s lap which eased the crinkles around her eyes—some.

  “You look…different,” she said around a mouthful of egg.

  “I’m wearing a new shirt.” Plucking at the gauzy material, Charlotte sat on the end of the bed. Buying new clothes happened rarely for her, but she’d decided that a few new things couldn’t hurt, like the pretty shirt and new jeans. And cowgirl boots. A woman heading to Texas needed to fit in. “Bristol said hello,” she tossed in casually.