Crossroads

Chapter Sixteen

After signing over her last two patients to the night shift—a teen rule-out-appendicitis who needed a white blood cell count and surgical consult, and an octogenarian with right-sided weakness waiting for a bed on the medical floor, Honor slipped into Linda’s cubicle. The lights had been turned down low and Linda appeared to be sleeping. Robin still sat on the stool beside the stretcher, holding Linda’s hand and reading on her iPhone. She glanced up and smiled wanly. She looked tired, unusual for her. She was always on the go, always organizing some event or rallying a team, always full of energy. Honor reflexively scanned the monitors. No change from the last time she’d checked. Everything was stable. The tangle of uneasiness in her chest relaxed a fraction.

“She’s doing great,” Honor whispered. “Need anything?”

“No,” Robin said softly. “I’m fine.”

Linda’s eyes flickered open. “What time is it?”

“A little after four,” Honor said.

Linda frowned at her. “Why are you still here?”

“Because you are.” Honor moved up beside the bed and rested her fingertips on Linda’s shoulder. “How are you feeling?”

“Thirsty. Otherwise good.”

“Here.” Honor held the big Styrofoam container with the straw extending through the plastic cover close to Linda’s face. “Drink.”

“Thanks.” Linda took a few sips and gestured toward Robin. “You could at least make her go home.”

“Not likely. I think she might be waiting for a courtesy dinner tray. You know how good the food is here.”

Linda made a face. “Please. Send her home before we have another patient.”

Laughing, Honor squeezed Linda’s arm. “Don’t worry. I expect Hollis will be by anytime now to give you the green light.”

“You think this is just a little bump in the road, then, nothing serious?”

“We’ll have to leave that to the experts, but you know these things aren’t all that uncommon.” She glanced at Robin, then at Linda. “You know your flying days are done until this little item makes an appearance for good.”

Linda nodded. “I know. I knew that was coming anyhow. It’s fine. I was starting to get a little nervous going up, and that’s no way to start out a flight.” She sat up slowly. “But what about my spot down here?”

“You know you have one.” Honor caught the flash of alarm, quickly hidden, on Robin’s face. She remembered Quinn’s worry when she went back to work soon after Jack’s birth. Sometimes being the one to wait and watch was the hardest role. “But that’s going to have to be Hollis’s call too.”

“And Annie’s,” Linda added.

“What are your plans there?” Honor asked, keeping her tone light. Now wasn’t the time to pressure Linda, and she really didn’t want to. Taking care of friends was tricky—she risked unconsciously using her position to influence Linda into thinking her way, and that wasn’t fair. If she’d been in Hollis’s shoes and had to make the OB call, she’d have had to step aside.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you still planning on the home birth?”

Linda glanced at Robin.

“Up to you, babe,” Robin said. “Whatever you want, as long as it’s safe.”

“I still want to go through with it as planned, but I guess we’ll have to see what the next few months are like.” Linda traced her thumb over the top of Robin’s hand. “Is that okay with you, baby?”

“It’s a plan I can live with.” Robin lifted Linda’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “I’m sure Annie will keep a close watch on things.”

“Knock, knock,” Annie said and parted the curtain. “I think I heard my name.”

Linda smiled widely. “Hi. It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you looking better.” Annie glanced at Honor. “Things have been quiet, I take it?”

“Yes. No further contractions. She’s only had the one dose of mag sulfate and everything looks good.”

Annie patted Linda’s knee beneath the sheet. “That’s terrific news. Hollis will probably let you go home after she sees you.”

“Praise Jesus,” Robin muttered and everyone laughed.

“Bed rest tonight and tomorrow,” Annie said. “No exceptions, okay?”

“Can you handle everything, sweetie?” Linda looked at Robin. “You’ve got work and the kids, and if I’m in bed…”

“Not if you’re in bed,” Annie said, pointing a finger at Linda. “We can have an aide come by for a few days to give you a hand.”

“We should be okay,” Robin said. “I can rearrange some phone conferences I had scheduled so I can look after the kids. As long as they’re squared away, everything else is flexible.”

“We can get you some help with that too, Robin,” Annie said.

“I appreciate it. If I get jammed, I’ll call.”

Annie nodded. “Okay, then. I’ll be by tomorrow morning to see how you’re doing. If anything changes during the night you should call me.”

Honor leaned over and kissed Linda’s cheek. “You’re in good hands. I’ll be at home—I can be over in five minutes. If you need anything at all, you call me.”

“I will, don’t worry,” Linda said.

Just as Honor rolled the curtain back to step into the hall, Hollis came in, a chart tucked under her arm. A storm of butterflies took up camp in Annie’s midsection again. Hollis looked great. She’d changed out of scrubs into black trousers and a soft brushed-cotton dove-gray shirt. Her dark hair framed her face in careless waves that highlighted her angular jaw and arched cheekbones. Annie’s throat went dry. “Hi.”

Hollis grinned, her gaze fixed on Annie’s for a long moment, before she turned to Linda and Robin. “How’s everyone doing?”

“A whole lot better,” Linda said.

“Good. Let me take a look at you and we’ll decide what’s next.” Hollis did a quick exam and a bedside ultrasound. “All nice and normal.” She glanced at Annie. “Talk to you outside?”

“Of course.”

Annie followed Hollis out into the hall.

“What do you think?” Hollis asked.

“There’s been nothing abnormal since she’s been here. She ought to be all right to go home on bed rest.”

“I agree.” Hollis took Annie’s arm and drew her to one side of the hall as a tech pushed a portable X-ray machine down the hall. She continued to hold Annie’s arm lightly as she leaned casually against the wall. “She’s in a high-risk pool now. She’s not a great candidate for a home birth.”

Annie wasn’t surprised that this had come up already. She’d expected Hollis or Honor to question the safety of home birth, and she had given her answer some thought. “I agree she’s high-risk, or at least at risk for something further to develop. But until it does, there’s no reason not to continue with the care plan we’ve outlined. I’ll be monitoring her, and if she has another round of significant premature contractions, she’ll be more likely to deliver prematurely. In that case, I’d recommend in-hospital delivery too.”

“So you’re suggesting a wait-and-watch approach right now?”

“I don’t see why not. She’ll have closer monitoring with us than she’d get with standard OB visits.”

“I see all my high-risk patients as often as needed,” Hollis said abruptly.

“Sorry, I’m sure you do. I just meant—”

Hollis rubbed her face. “No, I know what you meant. It’s no problem. Where will you see her?”

“At least initially, home visits.”

“Whoa.” Hollis shook her head. “Okay, maybe that is a little more attention than we’d give her. Is that standard?”

Annie smiled. “What’s the matter, Doctor? Not in the habit of making house calls?”

Hollis grinned and the tightness around her eyes relaxed. “Sorry. Before my time.”

Annie laughed. “Mine too, at least in the old-fashioned way. But we see more than half of our prenatal patients at home. It’s actually quite efficient and helps prepare everyone involved, not just the mother, for the birth.”

Hollis ran a hand through her hair, ruffling it even more. She looked tired. “Right. Okay. I guess we’ve got a plan, then.”

“I guess we do.” Annie covered Hollis’s hand with hers. “Listen, if you want to take a rain check on dinner—”

Hollis straightened. “No way. Why?”

“You were up late last night. You must be exhausted.”

“I’m okay. And I’ve been looking forward to this all afternoon. Don’t back out on me.”

Ridiculously pleased that Hollis had thought about her earlier, Annie nodded. “All right. I can pick up Callie and meet you—”

Hollis grasped her hand. Her fingers were cool and strong. “That’s not how this works. I’ll pick you both up at home. Let me finish here and I’ll be over. Say thirty minutes?”

“Yes, fine,” Annie said, just the tiniest bit flustered. She was still holding Hollis’s hand and she’d somehow agreed to a dinner date. No, no. Not a date. She was not going out on a date with Hollis Monroe. Annie kept that thought firmly in her mind all the way home.

*

Annie assessed her appearance in the walnut-framed mirror hanging just inside her front door. Realizing that was the third time she’d checked, she turned away, grateful Callie was the only witness to her foolishness. She couldn’t believe she was this anxious about a simple dinner, one to which she was bringing along her four-year-old. Hardly a romantic outing. Obviously Hollis wasn’t thinking of the evening as anything more than a friendly gesture, a collegial outing to break the ice. After all, they would be working together frequently, and getting to know each other was smart. Hollis was smart. Hollis should be there any minute. Annie plucked at the collar of her emerald-green silk shirt and smoothed the front down over her breasts, turning sideways to make sure it didn’t balloon out above the waistband of her sable-brown pants. Her heels were just high enough not to be work shoes, but not so high as to be too dressy. Hollis had looked great in the tailored shirt and pants she’d been wearing at the hospital. The cut of the shirt showed off her shoulders nicely, and the drape of the pants over her butt—

Annie jerked her attention away from the mirror and her mind away from Hollis’s butt. Really, her mind was wandering into places that were completely unlike her. This was hardly her first date…non-date…dinner with a woman. She’d had a date every few months or so and found them all pleasant. She wasn’t antisocial, she’d just never felt the urge to get seriously involved with anyone. She hadn’t met anyone who interested her beyond friendship, and why complicate matters?

Hollis felt complicated already.

Snippets of their conversations, the memory of Hollis’s quick grin, her dark piercing gaze, ambushed her at the most inopportune moments, breaking her concentration, distracting her in the most—all right, she’d admit it—pleasant ways. The thrill that rippled through her when she thought of Hollis was exciting. And dangerous. She didn’t want to be out of control. She didn’t want to have feelings that might take her places she’d regret. As much as she wanted to forget Jeff, she remembered all too well the exhilaration his attention brought into her life, the anticipation with which she’d waited for him to call, the often dreamlike wonder she’d experienced when she was with him—as if she had wandered into someone else’s life, a fairy tale in which the world sparkled and she was beautiful. God, how shallow could she get. And here she was obsessing over whether her blouse brought out the green in her eyes. History was not about to repeat itself—she wouldn’t let it.

Resolutely, she turned her back to the mirror, twitched aside the lace curtain covering the leaded-glass window in the foyer door, and checked the street in front of the house. Again. She dropped her hand as if the curtain were on fire.

“Let’s go outside, honey.” Maybe if she moved around she could work off some of her nervousness.

“Wait,” Callie cried. “I forgot Buttercup.”

“All right. Go find her.”

While she waited, Annie checked her bag to make sure she had her beeper, money in her wallet, her cell phone, and the pale pink lip gloss she’d tried for the first time. Just in case she needed a touch-up. Stop. God, just stop!

Callie came running down the hall with a small yellow bunny clutched in her left hand. She had declared the bunny to be named Buttercup and had taken to carrying it around everywhere in the last few days. Annie grabbed the extra car seat she kept by the door. “All set?”

“Uh-huh. We’re ready for dinner.”

“Good. Let’s go, then.” Laughing, Annie pulled open the door and stepped directly into Hollis’s arms. The car seat clattered to the floor. “Oh!”

“Hey!” Hollis grasped her around the waist, and they ended up in a loose embrace. “Hi. Am I late?”

“What? No. I don’t know. Are you?” Annie nearly rolled her eyes. Apparently her IQ had just plunged fifty points. Hollis’s body was firm and warm and her mouth was very, very close. Annie took a deep breath and her breasts brushed Hollis’s. Her nipples hardened. Oh. Bad. Very bad. “Sorry. Wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“That seems to be going around these days,” Hollis murmured. She didn’t let go. “I was afraid you were going somewhere without me.”

“Oh. No. We were just going to wait outside.” Annie slipped her arm around Callie’s shoulders and pulled away from Hollis. She wished her shirt was looser. She wished her brain would start working again.

“Well, I hope you’re both hungry.” Hollis squatted and held out a small box of crayons and a coloring book with the main character from the movie Brave on the cover. “I thought you might like something to do while we’re waiting for dinner.”

Callie looked up at her mother. “Can I?”

“Yes.” Annie’s throat tightened. No flowers or wine for her. Hollis had brought Callie a present instead. Oh, Hollis was a lot more than charming. “Dr. Monroe is a friend.”

Hollis looked up, her blue eyes swirling with midnight stars. “Thanks.”

Annie barely resisted the urge to run her fingers through Hollis’s hair. She couldn’t remember ever wanting to touch anyone so badly. She backed up a step. “That was really nice of you, thank you.”

“No problem.” Hollis silently congratulated herself. She hadn’t been sure what a four-year-old might be interested in, but she’d made a quick call to her sister-in-law, who informed her that every boy and girl over two had seen the movie. Fortunately, the Rite Aid half a block from the hospital had everything in the kids’ section. Callie was already paging through it, chattering excitedly about which picture she wanted to color. Her delight made Hollis’s heart lift. She probably should spend more time with Bruce’s and David’s kids, but sometimes being around them made her heart hurt, even though she loved them. She glanced at Annie. “Guess it’s a hit.”

“Good call.”

Annie’s voice was husky and her eyes had gone from summer green to the shadowy secret depths of the forest. Her full lower lip gleamed a delicate pink, moist and tantalizing. Annie looked as if she was struggling not to touch her, and Hollis tightened everywhere. She was pretty flexible in bed, but more often than not made the first move. Right at that moment, she would’ve been content to let Annie do whatever she wanted. Anything, just to keep that look in Annie’s eyes. She straightened and cleared her throat. “I’m glad she likes it.”

Annie was an inch away and her gaze seemed locked on Hollis’s mouth. “She does. Very much.”

Hollis’s hands trembled. Her insides burned. She wet her lips. “I just took a chance. You never know until you try, right?”

“No, you never do.”

Annie’s voice was soft and sensuous and every inch of Hollis’s skin hummed with pleasure. The sounds of children playing ball in the street faded and the still night closed in around them. “Annie, you look beautiful. I want—”

Annie’s pupils flickered and the hazy desire in her eyes disappeared. Her gaze sharpened. “We should go.”

Hollis caught herself a second before she would have put her hands on her. She hadn’t been thinking, and she was always thinking. She wasn’t impulsive—decisive, yes, but she always knew what she was doing and why. She’d asked Annie to dinner to get to know her and to find a way through the defensive shields Annie used to keep her at arm’s length. She wanted in—inside Annie’s walls, where the warmth of Annie’s smile waited. She didn’t know why, but she’d figure that out. Chemistry, probably. Something as simple as that. Trying to kiss her before they even had a single date wasn’t very smart.

“Right. We should go.” Hollis forced herself to move, even though she wanted to stay exactly where she was until Annie looked at her the way she had just a minute before. Carpe diem—too late for that now. She sucked in a breath and grinned down at Callie. “Hey. Do you like Mexican?”

Callie looked at Annie. “Is that a movie?”

“No, baby, it’s food. Come on.” Annie swung Callie’s hand. “You’re going to like it.”

Hollis picked up the car seat, hurried down the steps, and opened the rear door of her FJ Cruiser just as Annie reached the sidewalk. “I’ll have this secured in a second.”

“Thanks.” Annie stepped back as Hollis moved aside, careful that they didn’t touch. “Come on, Callie, climb in.”

Annie buckled Callie in and handed her the bunny and her new coloring book and crayons. She closed the door and settled into the passenger seat, grateful for the bucket seats. At least there was no possibility that her body would accidentally brush Hollis’s. If Hollis got any sweeter before the evening was over, she was going to have a hard time remembering they were colleagues. After Callie was born, she’d shaped a safe, stable life, with no room for uncertainty. Hollis was a cipher whose very presence made her world tilt.

Hollis reached between the seats and squeezed her hand. “Everything okay?”

“Yes,” Annie said evenly, gently easing her hand away. “Absolutely fine.”