Drawing Close: The Fourth Novel in the Rosemont Series (23 page)

Chapter 51

Frank Haynes knocked softly on the
partially open door of Nicole Nash’s hospital room, concealing something large
and lumpy under his raincoat. Loretta looked up from a stack of papers she was
studying and blinded him with her dazzling smile.

“Look who’s here,” she said to Nicole.

Nicole tore her eyes from
Sesame Street
on
the television and stretched out her arms to him. Frank Haynes strode to her
bedside and awkwardly leaned in to her as she circled his neck with her arms
and hugged him.

“You look like you’re feeling much better, young
lady,” he said. “What do you think I have here?” he asked, patting his
raincoat.

Nicole’s eyes widened and a smile crept across her
lips. “For me?”

Haynes nodded as he opened his coat and pulled out
a large stuffed dog with soft, curly fur and floppy ears. “They told me at the
toy store that she needs someone very special to take care of her. I said I
knew just the girl.”

Nicole unwound her arms from Frank’s neck and
pounced on the dog, scooping it and her doll to her chest. She nodded
vigorously.

“Your mother told me you’ve been wanting a dog.”

“Real dog,” Nicole said, turning to her mother.

“Maybe when you’re all better,” Loretta answered.

“When you’re ready, you can come to Forever
Friends to pick out any dog you like. Until then, you can have this one. Would
that be all right with you?”

Nicole nodded again.

Loretta folded the paperwork and placed it
carefully in her purse. “These are Nicole’s discharge instructions. We’re ready
to go.”

“Excellent,” Haynes replied, rubbing his hands
together. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll bring the car around.”

***

Thirty minutes later, they were
cruising along the interstate, Nicole asleep in the backseat with her doll and
new stuffed dog at her side.

“This is awfully nice of you to pick us up,
Frank,” Loretta said, shifting in her seat to look at him. “Especially since
it’ll be twelve hours of driving for you today.”

Frank Haynes shrugged. “I don’t mind. I’ve always
enjoyed driving. Sometimes I just get in and drive with no destination in mind.
Whenever I need to clear my head or think.”

Loretta nodded. “I wondered what you were doing
all those afternoons when you’d leave the office without a word to me. I’ll bet
you were driving.”

“Could be.”

“Well—even though you love to drive—if
you want me to take over for any part of the trip home, just say so.”

“We’ll see.”

“So what’s the news from Westbury? Has Susan gone
home to California yet? I left her a couple of voice mails about Nicole, but I
never heard back. Nicole and I would like to see her if she’s still there. I
want to thank her, again.”

Haynes glanced at her. “She’s still there.” He put
on his turn signal and got off the highway at the next exit. He pulled the car
onto the shoulder of the road, put it in park, and turned to Loretta. “Susan is
in the hospital.”

“What?” Loretta gasped. “She was doing so well.
They both were,” she said, looking over the backseat at her sleeping child.
“What happened?”

“Apparently her incision got infected, and she had
a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotic they gave her.”

“She’s going to be okay, isn’t she? She’s getting
better?”

“She’s holding her own. The infection is one of
these new superbugs, and they’ve had her on intravenous antibiotics to fight
it. But it’s a hard bug to treat.” He laid his hand over hers. “They put her
into a medically induced coma and hooked her up to a breathing machine. They
did that to fight the allergic reaction.”

“Is she still in a coma?” Loretta whispered in
disbelief.

“The last I heard, yes. Maggie hasn’t been at Town
Hall, and I haven’t talked to her. I found out through David Wheeler, because
he was at the hospital with Dodger when he ran into John Allen.”

“This is horrible,” Loretta cried. “She’s got to
get better, Frank. God can’t take one sibling to save the other.”

“I’m not on the best terms with God,” Frank said,
“but I called my friend Glenn Vaughn to ask him to pray for Susan and Nicole.
He said that they’d put them on the prayer chain at their church.”

Frank Haynes never ceased to amaze her. “Thank
you, Frank. How’s Maggie doing?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Haynes said.

“I’d be out of my mind with fear. And I’d be
furious that I’d let my child get into this situation in the first place. If I
were Maggie, I’d hate Loretta and Nicole Nash.”

Frank searched her face. “I don’t think you would,
Loretta. There’s too much kindness in you, and there’s too much kindness in
Maggie.” He shifted in his seat and started the car. “I wanted you to hear
about this from me. I knew you’d be upset.”

Loretta nodded.

“There’s nothing you can do about it. Take care of
Nicole so that she gets better, and let God and the doctors take care of
Susan.”

Chapter 52

Maggie lunged for her cell phone
when it rang at four o’clock in the morning on the fifth day after Susan had
been put into a coma. Mike had arrived three days earlier, and they’d spent
long hours at the hospital. In the clumsiness of her half-awake state, she
knocked her purse to the floor. She was dislodging Buttercup from her usual
place in the curve of her knee when John threw back the covers and dashed around
the side of the bed to retrieve the phone. Maggie answered it just before it
would have gone to voice mail.

Her hand trembled as she waited for what she
assumed would be bad news.

“Maggie,” came Aaron’s familiar voice. “She’s
coming out of it. Waking up. Her vital signs took a turn for the better in the
middle of the night, and they’ve started to bring her out of her coma.”

“We’ll be right there,” she said as she tossed the
phone onto the bed and began throwing herself into the clothes that she kept on
a nearby chair in case she needed to get to the hospital quickly.

“She’s better,” she called to John who was doing
the same. “They’re bringing her out of her coma. She’s going to be all right.”

Maggie grabbed her purse. “I’ll go wake Mike.
He’ll want to come, too. What about the dogs?” she asked.

“They’ll be fine,” John replied. “Let’s get to the
hospital. I’ll come back to feed them.”

***

Maggie, John, and Mike pushed
through the doors of Mercy Hospital twenty minutes later and took the stairs to
the ICU. Susan’s room was a hub of activity, with nurses going in and out and a
team of doctors surrounding her bed. Aaron was holding Susan’s hand. Maggie
pushed herself into place at the foot of Susan’s bed. Mike and John edged along
the wall inside the doorway. A doctor was giving direction to a nurse, and they
were both focused on one of the monitors flashing in the corner. Maggie stared
at her daughter. They’d taken the breathing tube out, and she looked peaceful
and natural. Maggie held her breath and prayed.

Susan’s eyelids fluttered, then remained open. She
stared at Maggie with the expression of someone trying to place a person they
know they’ve seen before. A smile suddenly released the tension from her
daughter’s face. Susan mouthed the word “Mom.”

Aaron squeezed her hand and brought it to his
lips.

The doctor intervened and began talking to Susan,
asking her questions, telling her to nod for yes and shake her head for no.
Maggie ignored everything in the room except for her gorgeous, alert daughter.
Praise
you, God,
she repeated over and over in her mind.

The doctor pulled a pen from his pocket and placed
it on his clipboard. “You’ve been in a coma for the past five days,” he told
her. “You’ve had a breathing tube, and your throat may be sore from it. If there’s
anything you want, you can write us a note,” he said, handing the clipboard to
Susan. “Do you understand?”

Susan nodded and began to scribble. When she was
done, she held the clipboard out to Aaron and smiled.

“We’re supposed to be getting married day after
tomorrow,” Aaron told the group assembled in the room. “She wants to know if
she missed the wedding.” He turned to Susan. “You didn’t miss it, but I think
we’ll have to postpone it.”

The doctor quickly agreed. “You won’t be walking
down any aisles this week, I’m afraid. You’re getting better and you’re going
to be fine, but these things take time. You won’t be able to leave the hospital
for at least another four or five days.”

“Or we can get married here, if you want,” Aaron
said. “We could use the hospital chapel, couldn’t we?”

The doctor paused and the nurse broke in. “I’m
sure we could arrange it. We’ve had other weddings there. Mostly staff.”

“Why the rush?” Maggie asked.

Susan tried to speak but couldn’t make herself
heard. She took the clipboard and wrote, “Life is short. Tired of waiting.”

Susan looked at Aaron, who nodded his agreement.
“Susan Martin, it will be my honor to marry you day after tomorrow in the Mercy
Hospital Chapel.”

***

“Aaron said you wanted to see me,”
Mike said, stepping into the hospital room the next morning. “I wasn’t sure you
even knew I was here.”

Susan smiled and motioned him closer. “Still hard
to speak,” she whispered as he bent toward her. She pulled his cheek to her and
gave him a kiss. “I saw you yesterday, over there”—she pointed to the
wall—“with John. But I knew you were here with Mom before that.”

Mike took her hand. “You gave us quite a scare,”
he said. “I wasn’t ready to lose you.”

“It was pretty serious, wasn’t it? Did you come
for the wedding—before I got so sick? Are Amy and the girls back at
Rosemont?”

Mike shook his head. “They couldn’t make it. I
came out when John called to tell me you were in a coma. I thought …” he began,
and his voice broke.

Susan squeezed his hand. “Good thing you’re here
now. Will you walk me down the aisle tomorrow?”

“Nothing I’d like better. We all thought this day
might never come. Do you know how close you came to not making it?”

“I’m getting the picture. I had a sense of being
away from you all, in my own peaceful place. But Aaron was always with me. He
read to me and talked to me about the life we would lead. I kept trying to get
back to him. That’s why I wanted to keep our wedding date. No more delays or
interruptions. And now you’re here. I want you at my wedding.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

“When do you go back?”

“I’ll take the red-eye tomorrow night.”

“Perfect. The wedding will be a simple affair, and
you’ll be done in plenty of time to get to the airport.”

Mike ran his eyes over his sister. “You’re my
hero, you know. That was a very kind and brave thing you did—giving
Nicole your kidney. I’ll always admire you for doing that.”

Susan flushed. “Okay, you. Go back home and let a
girl get her beauty rest. I’ll see you tomorrow, on my wedding day.”

***

Glenn Vaughn hung up the receiver
and turned to Gloria, his wife of a little over a year. They’d been the talk of
Fairview Terraces when, at their advanced ages, they’d gotten married in a
surprise wedding at the conclusion of the town’s annual Thanksgiving Prayer
Breakfast. “Looks like another unusual wedding is in the works,” he told her.
She raised an eyebrow at him over the top of the morning paper.

“That was David Wheeler. He and Dodger were at
Mercy Hospital, and he heard that Maggie’s daughter is out of her coma and is
getting married in the chapel there tomorrow.”

Gloria dropped the newspaper and clapped her
hands. “Praise God,” she said.

“Indeed.”

“But why the rushed wedding? Isn’t she expected to
recover?”

“David thinks she’s going to be fine. We didn’t
talk about why she’s getting married so soon.”

“Men,” Gloria shook her head. “I’m going to call Debra.”

Glenn raised his eyebrows. “Debra?”

“The gal that works at the hospital thrift shop.
She knows everything that goes on around the hospital. I wonder if Maggie needs
any help with anything.”

“I don’t think they’ll want any of us meddling …”
he started to say, but she was already past him, on her way to get dressed and
spring into action.

Chapter 53

Maggie arrived at the hospital on
the day of her daughter’s wedding with the cream-colored cocktail dress in its
zippered garment bag. She didn’t know if the doctors would allow Susan to be
unhooked from her monitors and IVs long enough to get married in it, but they
were going to try. When she rounded the corner of the hallway, the door to
Susan’s room was shut and there were three rolling suitcases and two large
medical carts in the hallway outside the room. She quickened her pace.
Please,
God—let there be nothing wrong today.

Maggie knocked and pushed the door open without
waiting for an answer. She took two steps into the room and stopped short.
Susan was sitting on the edge of her hospital bed as Anita Archer made the
final adjustments to a full length silk and organza wedding gown. Susan’s
makeup was done and flowers were woven through her long blond hair. She turned
to her mother, and her smile could have lit the entire Eastern Seaboard.

“What in the world?” Maggie began.

Anita Archer looked up and removed the pins she
was holding in her teeth. “The Martin women always get married in attire from
Archer’s,” she said, winking at Susan. “Good thing Joan Torres called me. I
don’t know what you were thinking.”

“This is the dress I saw last year that I told you
about, Mom. The one I was going to order for my wedding next year. And now I
get to wear it, anyway.”

Maggie stood, dumbstruck. “You look remarkable”
was all she could manage.

“Anita got a lady from the salon to come put my
hair up. The nurse washed it last night. Everyone’s being so kind.”

“How did Joan know about the wedding?” Maggie
managed to ask.

“Gloria Vaughn told her,” Anita Archer chimed in.

Maggie threw up her hands. “I give up.”

“There’s one more thing,” Susan said, eyeing
Maggie’s sensible navy blue suit. “You look like you’re going to a council
meeting in that thing. Slip into that dress you brought with you.”

Maggie laughed. “I knew I needed this dress for a
very special occasion. I can’t think of anything more special than this.”

***

Gloria Vaughn had, indeed, gotten
the scoop from Debra and called Judy Young and Joan Torres. This might be a
last-minute hospital wedding, but they’d make it an elegant, gracious affair or
die trying. Word travels fast in a small town. Judy called Anita, who contacted
the stylist. Gloria arranged for the flowers, and Joan spoke to Laura at the
bakery. Laura began work on the wedding cake at the crack of dawn.

By the time Maggie was escorted to her pew by best
man Alex Scanlon, everything was in place. The altar was adorned with a spray
of white calla lilies. A two-tiered cake waited in the hospital boardroom,
where the reception was to be held. Pete’s Bistro was supplying the luncheon.

Maggie looked at the small group gathered in the
chapel, and her breath caught in her chest. These people were always there for
each other, without question and without exception. The Torreses and the
Knudsens, Tonya and George Holmes, Anita Archer, Judy Young and her husband,
Glenn and Gloria Vaughn, and Pete and Laura Fitzpatrick. She turned and rose as
Marc Benson struck out the wedding march on the chapel piano. And here was her
precious daughter, glowing and beautiful, coming down the aisle on the arm of
her brother. Nothing about this moment could be more perfect. Absolutely nothing.

***

Susan walked slowly down the aisle,
leaning heavily on her brother’s arm but looking every bit the traditional
bride. When she reached the altar, Aaron took her elbow and steered her into a
chair that Sam Torres had procured from a nearby office. He knelt at her side.
The hospital chaplain’s sonorous voice led them through the familiar vows, each
couple in attendance joining hands and reliving their own commitment. When he
pronounced them husband and wife, Aaron leaned in to kiss his bride. Maggie
dabbed at her eyes and noted that Alex was blinking rapidly. The other women in
the pews were reaching into their purses for tissues.

Susan rose and, supported by her new husband,
retreated down the aisle. When they got to the back of the chapel, Aaron insisted
that Susan reclaim her seat in the wheelchair and turned to the small group of
guests. “I promised to bring her back to her room as soon as we were done. When
everything checks out, we’ll join you in the boardroom at the end of the hall
to cut the wedding cake.”

The group made their way down the hall and
accepted champagne from Pete, who was busily filling glasses and unwrapping
trays of finger sandwiches. The doors opened, and Aaron ushered Susan into the
room in her wheelchair. Everyone clapped.

Mike stepped forward. “I’d like to propose a toast
to my sister and brother-in-law.” He beamed in their direction.
“Aaron—welcome to our family. I always liked and respected you, but my
admiration and affection have deepened as I’ve watched you care for my sister.
I know you are devoted to her and will be the kind, loving husband she
deserves. And now, three pieces of advice for you as you embark on a lifetime
with Susan: Buy the luggage with the sturdiest wheels—my sister does not
know how to travel light; increase your gym membership because my sister is an
incredible cook; and always be thankful that you’ve married the kindest, most
generous person I’ve ever known.” Mike raised his glass. “To Susan and Aaron.”

“Hear, hear!” cried the group as they toasted the
couple.

Susan cut the cake and continued to hop in and out
of the wheelchair, visiting with the guests and nibbling her slice of cake,
until she finally surrendered, exhausted.

“We need to toss the bouquet and get you back to
bed,” Aaron said.

Susan began to protest, but Alex chimed in.
“Aaron’s right. You don’t want to set yourself back. You’ve been here far too
long as it is,” he said firmly.

Susan sighed, then agreed. “There’re no single
ladies to throw my bouquet to,” she said, looking around the boardroom.

“Let me take care of that,” Joan Torres
interjected, signaling to Judy Young to join her as she exited the room. They
returned almost immediately with a host of nurses in their wake. “These ladies
would all love to catch your bouquet,” Joan said.

They propped the double doors to the boardroom
open, and Aaron wheeled Susan into position. He helped her to her feet, and she
swung her arm over her head, releasing the bouquet in an arc that sent it
sailing into the waiting arms of a divorced mother of three. The woman shrieked
and everyone clapped. She hugged Susan. “Thank you, honey. I hope I find a guy
as nice as this one,” she said, winking at Aaron.

“I hope you do, too,” Susan whispered in her ear
before releasing her.

“Okay, my dear,” Aaron said. “The party’s over for
you. I’m taking you back to your room. Doctor’s orders.”

***

Loretta Nash pushed Nicole’s
wheelchair toward the elevator on the second floor of Mercy Hospital. Nicole’s
first checkup since returning to Westbury had gone well, and Loretta was flush
with happiness, oblivious to her surroundings.

Nicole pointed to a raucous group of people at the
end of the hall. “Susan!” she cried, wriggling to get out of her wheelchair.

Loretta put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder.
“You’ve got to stay put,” she said as she turned to look where Nicole was
pointing.

There, at the end of the long hallway, was Susan
Martin—resplendent in a bridal gown. The groom was helping her to her
feet, and they were surrounded by a jovial group of women in hospital scrubs.

Loretta was about to wheel Nicole toward Susan
when a shadowy figure crossed their path along an intersecting hallway fifty
feet in front of them. Loretta hunched over, trying to make herself and Nicole
invisible. She would recognize that portly frame and greasy pate anywhere. What
in the world was Chuck Delgado doing at Mercy Hospital?

“What’s wrong, Mommy?” Nicole asked.

Loretta put her finger to her lips and kept her
gaze riveted on Delgado. He appeared to be in a hurry to go somewhere, carrying
a sheaf of papers in his hand. He glanced quickly in the direction of the
nurses, who were jostling for position to catch the bouquet. What she saw next
chilled her like an arctic blast. Delgado stood, observing Susan Martin as she
swung her arm over her head and threw her bouquet. He raised his right arm,
holding it straight and parallel to the ground. He pointed his index finger at
Susan, then brought his thumb down to meet his finger. He held his position,
then threw back his head and laughed before continuing on his way.

Loretta shook her head. Had she really seen what
she thought she had? She knew what that gesture meant; Delgado had taken aim
with an imaginary gun and fired at Susan.

Delgado was rumored to be furious with Maggie Martin
and anyone that had anything to do with his arrest. Would he seek revenge by
harming Maggie or her family? Loretta knew firsthand what a vicious monster he
could be. If Frank Haynes hadn’t interrupted him, Delgado would have raped her last
New Year’s Eve.

She straightened her shoulders and began pushing
Nicole’s wheelchair down the hall toward the conference room. She’d let Nicole
say hello to her sister on her wedding day and then take her right home. She
needed to tell Frank Haynes what she’d seen, and the sooner the better. Frank
would know what to do.