Page 19 of The Girls of Pearl Harbor
‘Ohhhh, she likes him! Look at her face!’ Poppy teased.
April refused to crack a smile until Grace planted her hands on her hips and glared at her, and then it was impossible to keep a straight face.
‘April Bellamy, you’ve fallen for a doctor and kept it from me!’ she exclaimed. ‘We’re supposed to tell each other everything!’
Why had she even told them about her day? She should have known better.
‘Look, he was a very capable surgeon,’ she said. ‘That’s all.’
‘A very capable surgeon with lovely dark eyes?’ Grace asked, before trading grins with Poppy.
‘You two do know I can see you, right?’ she huffed, collecting her purse from the bed and hooking it over her arm. ‘And for the last time, there isnothinggoing on between me and the doctor!’
‘Nothingyet,’ Grace teased.
‘Grace!’
Poppy leaped up and took her arm, tucked in tight as if they were coconspirators while Grace finished getting ready.
‘Come on—you can tell me. Is he just gorgeous? I want to know if the rumors are true.’
April bit her bottom lip, trying not to giggle. ‘He’s divine looking, if you must know. His hair is as dark as his eyes, his skin is all golden, and he’s incredible with his hands. So steady in the operating theater.’
As she opened her mouth again, Poppy burst out laughing, screeching to Grace across the room.
‘He has the steadiest hands around, Grace! It must be love,’ she teased.
April didn’t even dignify Poppy’s comment with a response. Instead she walked straight from the room, her head held high, not about to let their girlish teasing get under her skin. What was it with those two sometimes? Sometimes they were great company, and other times they were absolute harebrains, like two lovesick, silly schoolgirls.
She smiled to herself as she walked, though, thinking about Dr. Grey. Hewashandsome, and she did like him, but that had nothing to do with anything. What was important was learning from him and being the best assistant she could be during surgery. If he happened to mentor herandask her out on a date, then so be it.
The other two came galloping as loudly as a pair of horses behind her, and she gave them her best withering look.
‘Sorry, April,’ Poppy said. ‘We only tease you because you’re so easy to ruffle.’
She supposed she was, but it wasn’t exactly the best excuse, and she was ready to change the subject. ‘So who’s all going tonight?’
Grace gave her a look that she thought might be her saying she was sorry, but she couldn’t tell. Even after all these years, her sister wasn’t the easiest to read. They were close, and she loved her, but sometimes she was sick and tired of being the older one, the one with the weight of the world on her shoulders. It would be nice for Grace to look after her once in a while, to cook for her or care for her if she was unwell, to worry about their father instead of leaving it all up to her. Or to stick up for her instead of teasing. But when her little sister reached for her hand and squeezed it, she couldn’t help but wrap her fingers around Grace’s. It didn’t matter what she wished for; they were blood, and she’d simply drawn the short straw by being born first.
‘Teddy can’t come, but it doesn’t matter. It’ll be nice to just be with you girls, and half the nurses at our hospital are coming.’
April glanced at Grace, wondering if she was pleased or disappointed that Teddy wasn’t with them.
‘Could you ever have imagined us going out without having to tell anyone where we’re off to?’ Grace asked as they walked out of the building and crossed the grass. It was slightly crunchy underfoot, not as soft as her yard at home, and peppered with palm trees around the perimeter. ‘It’s so strange, just being like this, as if we’re adults with no one to answer to.’
‘Grace, weareadults.’ April had thought about it often, how different they were treated here, the freedom they had. Although for her, it wasn’t as significant, because she’d been the one doing the watching, always careful to know where Grace was and how late she’d be, who was with her, and what was happening. Their father was a lovely, kind man, but he had no idea about raising daughters and how to pick up all the parenting things their mother had done.
‘I suppose you’re right. Plenty of our friends are already married, aren’t they?’
‘Yes, but they’ve gone from their daddies’ homes to their husbands’,’ Poppy said. ‘We’re as free as a bird here.’
‘Teddy might think otherwise.’ April smirked.
‘Teddy can keep his thoughts to himself,’ Poppy said defiantly. ‘I love the man, but I’m also loving this. Thank God he didn’t ask me to marry him before we left! Imagine if I’d been left behind, with a ring on my finger and nothing to do, while you two were gallivanting over here!’
They all laughed, but April could see that Grace was only going through the motions.
‘Have you talked about marriage?’ Grace asked. ‘With Teddy. I mean, do you think you’ll get engaged soon?’
