Page 114 of Corkscrew You
ChapterThirty-Seven
SHELBY
Idon’t like hospitals. But I’d forgotten how much, until I stepped inside this one.
Nate’s holding my hand, and so he notices when I slow down.
Turning in enquiry, he sees my face, and because he’s amazing, realizes immediately what’s up.
“Sorry, Shel, I should have thought,” he says, and pulls me to him. “It’s fine. You don’t have to stay.”
I drove us here in the Dodge, because he was half dead on his feet and we’d had enough drama for one day without ending up in a ditch.
“Go to a movie,” he suggests, and kisses me. “I’ll call you when Dad’s out of the operating room.”
“Are you sure? I don’t like to leave you on your own.”
“You may have noticed that I have a million siblings,” he says. “I can count the times I’ve been on my own on one finger.”
The smell of the place is getting to me. The sight of people in scrubs and white coats. My chest is tightening. It’s hard to breathe.
“Go,” Nate orders gently.
Don’t need to be told twice. I hurry out, and gulp down air that doesn’t carry a tang of disinfectant and boiled meat.
There’s a little garden here, with neat strips of lawn and flowerbeds, and wooden benches, for those who don’t need to be wheeled around on a gurney. I sit down and turn my face up to the sun.
And then I realize I’m being a total coward. For goodness’ sake, Shelby, you just abandoned the man you love to two hours’ nervous waiting, while his father has a device implanted in his chest. Would he abandonyou? Of course, he wouldn’t. He’d doanythingfor you, and you know it.
I bend and inhale the sweet fragrance of the roses next to me, then walk reluctantly back through the main doors.
Oh, boy. Breathe, Shelby. It’s only a hospital, and not eventhehospital. That was a big one, with a cancer ward. This is only a small one, where people get warts burned off, and broken arms put in plaster.
The foyer is empty of Nate, and I don’t know what ward his dad’s in. I ask the receptionist.
She looks me over. “Are you a relative?”
“I’m his daughter-in-law,” I lie.
Mightbe true. One day.
“OK, you want the family lounge in ward five.”
She points me in the right direction, which is, of course, farther into the bowels of the hospital. I spy a water cooler, and zip across to fill a paper cup. Not for drinking. For splashing on my face if I feel faint.
I’ll try not to pass out. Nate’s family are probably over people collapsing around them.
Nate and I didn’t talk much on the way here. Didn’t have to. Did a lot of smiling at each other, though, and occasionally held hands, because we were too wrung out emotionally for any sexy fondling.
Wedidsay “I love you,” when we got out of the Dodge at the hospital. I love him so much, I feel like I’m being pulled toward him right now. When I enter the family lounge, even if it’s packed, he’ll be the only one I see.
Or not.
“Shelby!”
A chorus of Durants, who rise from their seats en masse to greet me. All the Durants are here. Except the guy in surgery. And Nate.
“We thought you were meeting us later.” Izzy takes my arm, and leads me to a chair between her and Max.
