by Maren Cooper
A sudden squealing from the nursery caused Claire to release Jess and lead them to her son, but not before Jess grinned and pronounced the weekend “very enjoyable” while silently thanking PJ for having let her off the hook for saying any more.
PJ was delighted to see his mom. Melody departed for her puppet theater, and the three friends headed to the porch.
“It’s so nice to be able to enjoy spring out here, but we’ll appreciate a wrap soon. There’s still a bit of a nip in the air in the evenings.” Diane grabbed a shawl from the pile in the basket by the door and threw one at Jess.
They made goo-goo eyes at PJ and took turns holding him, sipping their wine, and catching up on Claire’s transition back to work. “If you’re exhausted, Claire, you don’t look it. Motherhood becomes you. How are you feeling?” Jess asked.
“Pretty good, actually. Physically, I’m fine. One of the best decisions I made was to hire Melody and keep her happy keeping PJ happy. That, and scheduling my own gym time. If I didn’t stay in shape, I’m not sure I could do all this. It also helps to have money to be able to pay for all this cushioning for myself. How moms do this alone otherwise, I don’t know.” She shook her head.
“And how about work? Have you been able to keep that contained a bit?” Diane asked.
“Well . . .” Claire paused. “That’s the hardest part. Ratcheting down is hard for me. I’ve always been on the fast track, so all I can see is what I’m not doing. It’s weird—it’s like I’m outside myself, looking at me not doing what I used to do. But so far, I can handle it. We’ll see how it goes.” She shrugged.
“Ah, balance—the elusive goal for women now and forever. I wonder, will it always be so?” Jess raised her glass to toast the question just as the doorbell rang.
Diane brought the food in on a tray and prepared a plate for Claire. “Here, you eat, and then I’ll eat when you’re nursing him. Too hard to enjoy the food otherwise.” She took PJ from Claire.
“OK, your turn, Diane. What’s going on with you? Is the building progressing?” Jess asked as she grabbed a plate for herself.
Diane beamed. “It’s so exciting to finally be building! Can you believe after three years we’re in the second phase of construction? Fortunately, my work on it is mostly done. The pledges are still coming, and we’re so fortunate that we remain a healthy nonprofit with a wonderful board to see this through.”
“You should be so proud of yourself, Diane—to have navigated through all of the local and state jurisdictions on this and to have successfully raised the money. They’re lucky to have you running the show. And, knowing you, I bet you have something new on the horizon. What’s next?” Jess said before she took a big bite of pad Thai. She looked beyond PJ on her lap to Diane, who was blushing and hiding her eyes.
Diane repositioned PJ so he could see his mom, and squirmed a bit. “Well, I do have some news,” she said very slowly. “George and I are getting married.”
Both Claire and Jess jumped up at the same time, screaming and high-fiving each other and Diane and hugging PJ, who by now was seriously fussing.
“You sly old thing. Tell us everything,” Jess said as Claire took PJ and a shawl and got comfy in the wicker rocker to nurse. “George is such a wonderful guy. I’m so happy for you both. You belong together. I wasn’t sure you were going to marry, but I’m so happy for you.” Jess thought about how skillfully Diane had deflected questions about her relationship during these past months, so that finally her friends had all just put them together as a couple and accepted that as a final deal. Now Jess wondered if Diane’s reticence had been designed to save Jess’s feelings.
She put on her bravest face, knowing that Diane could read her like a book and had been doing so since they were five, but she saw Diane register the pain behind her facade. Diane took a long look at her and said, “Jess, I’m sorry this is so soon after your divorce . . .”
“Hey, life happens, right? Please don’t let my situation deter you in any way. I’m fine and couldn’t be happier for you.” Jess lifted her glass and toasted her friend and was thankful that Diane didn’t press the issue.
Claire and Jess played twenty questions until they were satisfied that they had the scoop.
“We’re having a short ceremony in Goodrich, at the family church. My parents will be so delighted. They’ve waited so long.” Diane smiled. “I want to do that for them. But then we’ll have a reception here in St. Louis for our friends—hopefully on-site at the new building. We may be wearing hard hats, but the foyer area and outdoor patio should be finished by late summer, so we’re thinking fall. George is so excited about that part, not only because it’s such a special site but also because we met over the design table.”
“Diane, I’ve never seen you happier. I couldn’t be more thrilled.” Jess reached over to take her hand. “Please put me to work in any way you wish. It would be a joy to help you with this. Anything you need.”
Jess looked up at Claire, who was rocking her cherub and smiling like a Madonna. “How lucky we are to have such good things to look forward to!”
At least, I hope we do, she couldn’t help adding to herself.
Chapter 37
“So, how long has it been?” Steve asked as he slid into the booth opposite Jess at the Louisiana Grill in the Central West End. “Was the office building for Henderson the last project we worked on together?” The Louisiana was a favorite meeting place for up-and-comers, and she saw Steve take a moment to search the room for anyone he should greet while there.
“I think so, Steve, and that was almost three years ago. I’ve been reading about you in the ‘People Under Forty to Watch’ mentions in the Biz News. Memorial must appreciate you. What are you now, chief administrative officer?”
“Yes, have been for a little over a year.” He smiled with understated confidence. He straightened his tie, smoothed his perfect hair, and looked at her full-on.
Jess knew the type: man on the move. She could almost hear the hard drive in his head calculating how much value a continued link with her might be. Right now, she knew he was considering her reputation in health care in greater St. Louis and the fact that she probably knew all the local power players.
No doubt he was also aware that she and Arthur were no longer together. He would buy into the least charitable version of the stories about her failed marriage: that her star researcher of a husband turned out to be an opportunist, ditched the university just as merger papers were being signed, took his research money to Portland, and shacked up with his sweetheart out there. Health care in this city was a small world.
“How’s life been treating you?” he asked, just before the waiter approached to take their order.
He had been on a steep learning curve on the Henderson project, and she was counting on his remembering that he’d learned a thing or two from her during that intense month of negotiations.
They ordered, and the waiter left. “I’m great, actually.” She smiled brightly, wanting to allay any worries he had that she might want to share chapter and verse of her marital woes. “I’m leaving town for a trip with my kids later this week, and I still find good work to do with Dan at his firm. So all is going well.”
That seemed to satisfy his quota for polite conversation. “So, why did you want to meet, Jess? You said something about clearing up an issue for a practice group you’re assessing. What can I do for you?”
“That’s right. It’s just a loose end I’m trying to tie up and thought you might know something about it. You know the Goodmoor Family Medicine group?”
“Is that the group whose manager died in a car accident awhile back?” Steve waved to someone across the room and checked his watch again.
“Yes, Floyd Ramsey. Very sad. Unfortunately, there isn’t much bench strength there, so we’re trying to get a picture of the health of the practice, which is hard.”
Steve leaned back as their food arrived, and carefully placed his refilled coffee cup back on the saucer.<
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“Anyway, something we found leads us to a contractual relationship that Memorial had with a Dr. Deitz. Do you remember him or anything about that?”
Steve stopped chewing, shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and looked warily around the restaurant. “I’m not sure how much I can tell you, or should tell you. But, since you work for a law firm, you should check with them on the particulars.”
Jess was afraid he was going to clam up; she had assumed he would enjoy dishing the dirt. She took a bite of her scrambled eggs and waited.
“There was a very messy situation, very awkward to dismantle. Floyd was a real operator—I can tell you that much. Sometime before I came to Memorial, he negotiated an arrangement for this doctor to be the medical director of a program that never got off the ground. But the payments continued for years, until we caught it in a routine audit.”
“Wow, that must have been ugly,” Jess encouraged. “What did Memorial do?”
“We discontinued the payments, but not before a very sticky situation developed with Floyd. He threatened to stop all referrals to Memorial from the group and to badmouth us around town. It got to the point where we were close to making a call we didn’t want to make. Regulators get ahold of that . . .” Steve raised his eyebrows. “It was a tough time.”
Jess was reminded how crazy it was that one man could wield so much power over a hospital. But the real threat of revenues lost from cutting admissions to a hospital and spreading the word that a practice had been treated badly could wreak havoc with other referrals. Hospitals didn’t admit patients—physicians did. “I can imagine. How did you finally get him to back down?”
“Hmm, there was a lead physician at Goodmoor. What was his name? Kinda funny name. Peoples, um, something like that.” Steve was enjoying his egg-white omelet and spread a heaping spoonful of raspberry jam on a piece of unbuttered toast.
“Dr. Personne?”
“Yes, that’s it. Anyway, we had Dr. Ogilve, our chief medical officer, have a chat with Personne, and that seemed to end it. Evidently, Personne was pretty hot about it as well; he backed Floyd up initially, until Ogilve gave him a lecture or two about the legality of the situation. It scared him, I think.”
“So, Personne was aware of the arrangement and that there was no work being done on that contract?” Jess needed this information.
“Oh, yes. What a shady piece of business. Boy, I haven’t had to think about that for a while.” Steve finished his breakfast and pushed his plate to the side, then asked, “Why is this relevant for you, again?”
“The group is trying to sort out its future, and it’s hard to advise them unless we know whether there are any skeletons in the closet. I’m just looking for them.”
Steve chuckled. “Well, I think you’ve found one!”
Chapter 38
“I know you’re busy getting ready, but I wanted to get a couple of things on your calendar. Can I pick you up at the airport Sunday night? I want you to meet my friends and come to the Symphony Ball with me and visit the lake the weekend after your trip. I’m so excited to share summer—”
“Jim. Jim!” She had to raise her voice to interrupt him on the phone. “Hold on, please. I can’t process all of this right now—not yet.”
In the ensuing silence, they both took a breath. Then Jess continued, “You’re a wonderful guy, and we did have a great weekend—a really great weekend. But I can’t think as far ahead as you on all of this yet.” She continued to pack her bag.
“What does that mean?” He sounded hurt.
“It means exactly that. I have to process this a bit and not move too fast. And right now it means I have to get off the phone, pack, and get ready for my flight in the morning. And enjoy my trip to Italy. And, yes, I’d love for you to pick me up at the airport Sunday night. That would be delightful. Please?”
Jim exhaled loudly. “I’m sorry, Jess. I’m acting foolish,” he said. “Of course you need to enjoy this trip and take some time. I’m embarrassed to be acting like a lovesick teenager. It’s just that it’s so good to feel alive again.” His voice dropped. “I was overeager, and I apologize. Forgive me?”
“Nothing to forgive, Jim. Thanks for understanding. I look forward to seeing you Sunday. I’ll text you my flight info. Good night.”
Nothing to forgive, she thought as she finished packing, called to stop newspaper deliveries, and set up the automatic light. But something to note.
“Yes, Dan. Cindy will be rolling up the financial analysis. And now that I’ve found out what happened at Memorial, the last thing we’ve got to do is research the out-of-town trips sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, and then . . .”
Jess was rolling her bag through the airport as Dan finished her thought on the phone with her: “Finish the research, and then sit with Dr. Personne to hear him out. This deal may be derailed before any work is done on the Midwest Health side, but better to find that out now than to bring both sides to the table.”
They were in agreement. She was just signing off when she spied her beautiful daughter waiting curbside at the American Airlines door of the Newark airport.
“We made it. It worked!” Jess managed between hugs. “You look wonderful. Let me see you. Love those earrings!” Regardless of how long they might be apart, it always took only three seconds to regain their easy intimacy. Jess hoped that would never go away.
They took the shuttle to the international terminal and met Tom at the gate. They chattered about their impending adventure, seeing Vincente and Liliana, and the chance to see a beautiful part of Italy. The Three Musketeers, heading out.
“How is my philosopher chemist?” Jess grabbed Tom for a big hug and check-in as they waited for their flight to be called.
“You look very pleased with yourself. Are you still happy with your coursework?” She beamed.
“Oh, Mom, you know me. I’m pretty happy most of the time. This should be a fun week. I’m most looking forward to the food. Vincente promised he would have some information about a culinary course he knows about.”
“And when exactly will you have time to do that?” Jess was curious.
“Well, I was going to wait and talk to you about this when it was more fleshed out. But maybe this summer? Vincente says there’s a course offered near his house. It’s a restaurant, really, but they provide meals in return for work, and Vincente says I can stay with them.” He stopped. “Mom, would it be OK with you? I know you expected me home for the summer.” He looked up at her hopefully.
Jess’s heart dropped at the idea of Tom being gone, but she was determined to support her kids through their life choices, as she always had, regardless of her own needs. “I think it sounds marvelous, Tom, as long as you promise to cook for me when you do get home.” Jess gave him another hug. “You’ve been busy planning, haven’t you? Beth knows?”
He nodded, then reached for his phone to read a text, and his expression took a dark turn. He looked away and inhaled deeply, then announced in a wobbly voice, “Dad has schedule issues. He’s not coming.”
Jess watched her daughter take a quick look at her crestfallen brother. Beth didn’t miss a beat—“Well, we’ll just have to send him pictures of us hiking those hills he told us about”—but the look she gave Tom was 90 percent bravado and 10 percent little girl on the brink of tears. “Mom, will you join us?” she asked as she grabbed her own beeping phone, no doubt containing the same message her brother had just gotten, from her backpack.
Jess silently cursed Arthur for disappointing his kids but put on a bright face of her own and said, “I’m sorry your dad isn’t going to make it, but we can’t let that ruin our trip.” She drew them both close. “I did bring my new hiking boots, just in case. I’d love to join you. Gosh, we haven’t hiked together in a while. I hope I can keep up with you two.”
Jess saw clearly that her children were taking care of each other, and while it broke her heart that they had to, she realized that the resilience they were building was what s
he had needed as well. It was a legacy she had not planned for them, but she was proud of them.
They traveled to Perugia, a lovely hill town in central Italy, for the wedding. Jess enjoyed several days and many hikes with the kids. Liliana was radiant in her mother’s lace bridal gown, and Tom took pictures of the wedding feast, eight courses of gastronomical delight, for his burgeoning culinary album.
On their last night, Jess and Vincente shared a drink in the hotel bar while Beth and Tom joined Liliana for a fun picnic. It was their first opportunity to chat alone.
“Liliana was so sweet to save some time just for the kids,” Jess said. “They were over the moon to have this chance with her. You’ve raised a beautiful person, and the new son-in-law seems like a great addition to your family. I can only hope mine grow up to be so wonderful.”
“Your Beth and Tom are wonderful now. And they think the world of you. You know that, right?” He smiled. “I know how hard this past year has been for you. To see you with Beth and Tom, and the loving relationship you three have, it is impressive. When I think of how tough it must have been for you to stay positive for them . . .”
Jess shifted in her seat to avoid the late-day sunlight and the attention. Vincente jumped out of his chair and asked her to trade places with him. She protested, but he insisted. “This way, I can see you better, and you are more beautiful than ever. Italy agrees with you.”
“Vincente, you are such an Italian charmer. I’m not used to this.” She blushed. “Truly, this trip has been an elixir I didn’t know I needed. It’s so good to spend time with the kids and realize that they’ll be whole and that our family can move forward.”
Vincente toyed with the small vase of yellow flowers on the table. “I’m not sure if it makes a difference to you now, but Arthur doesn’t seem happy. He seems to have relationship issues.” He peeked up at her.