Georgia On My Mind (11 page)

Georgie walked for hours. She figured if she just kept moving, she could somehow manage to avoid hearing any more bad news. It was laughable, really. Her mother died, her sister was having a double mastectomy, her own life might depend on the results of a blood test, her boyfriend dumped her, her boss fired her, Gus was attacked.

Could it get any worse?
Gus could die
.
No! He’s not going to die. He can’t. He can’t do that to me
.

She found herself at the top of
Dean Avenue
and stood there for a long time before she could make herself take the first step down the hill. Exhausted to the bone, she couldn’t go on anymore. Besides, she was only postponing the inevitable. “Please, God,” she whispered. “Don’t let him die. Please.”

As she approached the house, she came to a halt at the foot of the stairs when she found Nathan sitting on the top step waiting for her.

They both spoke at once.

“What are you doing here?”

“Where’ve you been?”

Georgie folded her arms and looked down at the sidewalk. “Did he die?”

“Not that I know of, but I’ve been looking for you for the past two hours.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I did. Are you okay, Georgie?”

She shrugged. “I don’t even know what that is anymore.”

“Why didn’t you tell me your mother died?”

Her jaw shifted from side to side as she looked up at him. “The night we spent together . . . I wanted a break from having to think about it.”

He reached out to her. “I figured she was away on vacation or something. I’d never even heard she was sick.”

Georgie took his hand and let him guide her up the stairs to sit next to him. “It happened fast, and she didn’t want people to know how bad it was, so we kept it quiet. She worried about her friends at the center more than she worried about herself.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” He cradled her hand between both of his. “And for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing an admirable thing trying to keep the center open. My grandfather all but lived there the last few years of his life.”

“Ian told me.” She paused for just a heartbeat, but it was long enough to make the decision to trust him. “For weeks I’ve been going there every day, doing what needs to be done, trying to get through the days until they could find someone to take my mother’s place. And all that time I thought the job was beneath me, like I was too good for the place or something.”

“I can see why you’d think that. You worked hard for the career you have in
Atlanta
.”

“
Had
,” Georgie reminded him. “But it wasn’t until tonight, at the hospital, that I realized
I’m
the one who’s not good enough for them. My mother would’ve gone to find Gus. She would have searched for him until she found him, and maybe she would’ve gotten to him before he spent a day lying on a hard floor fighting for his life.”

“Don’t do that to yourself, Georgie. You’re doing the best you can.”

“
But it’s not good enough!
” she cried. “Don’t you see?” In a whisper, she added, “It’s not good enough.”

He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against him as she sobbed.

She cried until her eyes hurt and her chest ached.

He surprised her when he scooped her up and carried her inside.

Georgie glanced up to find his face tight with pain. “You shouldn’t be doing this, Nathan.”

He forced a smile. “Which way to your room?”

She directed him up the stairs. Embarrassed and touched, she took a stab at levity. “Do I need to be worried about what your brothers have done with my roommates?”

“Nah. They’ll take good care of them.”

“If they’re anything like you, my friends are lucky.”

He laid her down on the bed. “Why, Georgie Quinn, was that a compliment?”

She kept her arms looped around his neck. “Stay with me for a while?”

“I can do that.” He stretched out next to her and extended his good arm to bring her close to him.

Georgie rested her head on his chest. “Does your arm hurt?”

“Like a bastard. Tess was right.”

Alarmed, she lifted her head so she could see his face. “Don’t you have pain pills?”

“In the car. I’m okay.”

“Want me to go get them for you? There’s no need for you to suffer.”

“I’ll go, but if I do, can I come back?”

She smiled weakly. “Yeah.”

He kissed her forehead. “In that case, I’ll be right back.”

Tess wiped the counter between the kitchen and common room at the senior center while keeping an eye on the rest of the cleanup committee.

Cat sidled up to whisper in her ear, “Ian asked me to go have ice cream with him and the rug rat.”

“Don’t call her that,” Tess scolded. “Her name is Rosie, and she’s adorable.”

Cat shrugged. “Everything’s pretty well cleaned up, so, um, I guess I’ll go with them, okay?”

“You can’t leave me here with him.” Tess frowned as she looked over at Ben hobbling around the center pushing chairs into tables.

“He’s harmless.”

“How do you know that?” Tess hissed. “You met him an hour ago.”

“He’s Nathan’s brother. That should be good enough to vouch for him.”

“Something about him makes me nervous.”

“Then why don’t you leave at the same time as us? You can drive Georgie’s car home.”

“Are her keys here?”

“I saw the tennis ball on her desk.”

They shared a smile. Georgie was forever losing her keys, so Cat had affixed a tennis ball to the ring to help her keep track of them.

“You’re really going out with Ian?” Tess asked with another nervous glance at Ben.

“It’s just ice cream. He’s got the kid with him, so that’s all he can do.”

“Rosie,” Tess said. “Her
name
is Rosie.”

Cat screwed up her face with distaste.

“What’ve you got against kids?”

“It would be easier to tell you what I
don’t
have against them.”

“That’s terrible!” Tess said. “I’ve never known anyone who doesn’t like kids.”

“Now you do.”

“If that’s how you feel, you shouldn’t go out with him at all.”

“Why not? We’ll get her ice cream and then hopefully she’ll leave us alone so I can get to know him better. He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?” Without waiting for Tess’s reply, Cat added, “Seems to be a
Caldwell
family trait.”

“Except for dark and stormy over there.” Tess nodded toward Ben, who used his good leg to kick the last of the chairs into place.

“He’s not exactly tough on the eyes, either. Don’t let his crankiness put you off.”

“Too late.”

“Hey, Cat,” Ian called. “Are you coming?”

Cat glanced at Rosie and then at Ian. “Sure. Count me in.”

“Be nice to her,” Tess whispered.

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I’m leaving, too,” Tess said loud enough for Ben to hear.

“Do you mind if I hitch a ride with you?” Ben asked. “Ian’s going the other way, and I can’t walk home yet.”

Tess watched as Cat disappeared out the door with Ian and Rosie. “Um, sure, I guess. Let me get the keys.” She went into Georgie’s office, grabbed the keys, and turned off the lights. At the end of the long hallway, she locked the back door and flipped the dead bolt. Her heart began to beat faster as she contemplated the long, dark corridor that led to a room where a man she didn’t know waited to get into a car with her.

“Walk, Tess,” she whispered. “One foot in front of the other. He’s Nathan’s brother. Nathan’s brother. We like Nathan. He’s cute and funny. Nathan likes Georgie. Keep walking. Almost there.”

She found Ben bent against the wall massaging his thigh.

“Ready?” Tess asked in a bright tone.

He startled, and when he stood upright, the expression of sheer agony on his face stopped her cold.

“Are you all right?”

His lips were white with pain. “Yeah,” he said through gritted teeth. “Just a muscle spasm.”

She rushed over to him. “I’m a nurse. I might be able to help.”

“Don’t,” he said sharply.

Startled, Tess pulled back her hand and straightened to find his dark blue eyes fixed on her, his complexion waxy with pain and irritation.

“It’ll pass.”

She gestured for the door. “After you, then.”

Grimacing, he hobbled out ahead of her.

Tess shut off the last of the lights, locked the door and pulled it closed behind her. “Do you suppose that’s all there is to it?”

“There’s a dead bolt above the knob.”

Using the overhead nightlight, she scrolled through the fat wad of keys on Georgie’s ring until she found one labeled DB.

“What’s with the tennis ball?” Ben asked.

“Georgie has issues with keeping track of her keys.”

“That’s some wad of keys.”

Tess turned the dead bolt. “Which is why she can’t lose them every day like she did her first few weeks here.”

When they got into the car, she tried to ignore his hulking presence while figuring out where everything was in the newfangled car. She had never driven a car this nice or this new. “Where do you suppose the headlights are?” she asked.

He leaned across her to flip them on.

“Oh,” she said, shocked by the feel of his body brushing against hers. She cleared her throat. “I was going to run by the hospital before I go home. Do you mind?”

“Are you one of those do-gooder types?”

“If going to check on an old man who was viciously assaulted makes me a do-gooder, then yeah, I guess I am.”

“Do you even know him?”

“No, but he’s a friend of Georgie’s, and I want to check on her, too.”

Ben snorted. “You’d make a good pair with Nate, the original do-gooder.”

“Nathan seems like a lovely person.”

“So why don’t you ask him out?”

“Because he likes Georgie.”

“So you
would
ask him out if there was no Georgie. I see how it is.”

“If there was no Georgie, I wouldn’t even
know
him. Besides, I have no interest in dating anyone.”

“Why?”

“Are you always this annoying and nosy?” she asked as she drove down Spring Street to Broadway.

“Pretty much. So why don’t you date?”

“No desire.”

He raised an eyebrow. “None at all? You don’t strike me as the frigid type. The exact opposite, in fact.”

“I refuse to have this conversation with you. I don’t even know you.”

“Sheesh, you are one
uptight
chick, you know that?”

Tess glared at him. “You have some nerve saying that. You don’t know me, either.”

“I know your type.”

“And what type is that?”

“Uptight and prissy.”

“Don’t talk. Do you hear me? Just sit there and be quiet. For someone who needed a ride, you’re awfully opinionated.”

“Just calling it like I see it.”

“You were going to be quiet, remember?”

He chuckled, which annoyed her even more.

“What are you laughing at?”

“I’m not allowed to talk.”

“
Ugh!
How can you be related to Nathan? You’re nothing like him.”

“Thank God for that.”

“You could learn a thing or two from him.”

“Spare me.”

Tess pulled into the parking lot at the emergency room. “Since you’re not able to be civil, why don’t you wait here?”

“Because my leg gets stiff if I sit too long.”

“What happened to your leg, anyway?” she asked, unable to resist.

“Why do you care? I thought you didn’t like me.”

“I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I’m not interested as a health care professional.”

“As a health care professional,” he mimicked.

Tess got out of the car and slammed the door behind her. She took off for the emergency room without so much as a glance over her shoulder to see if he was following her. Inside she found a group of seniors from the center converged in a corner and went over to them. Neither Georgie nor Nathan was anywhere in sight.

“Hi, I’m Tess, Georgie’s roommate. I was wondering how Gus is doing.”

“They just took him up to the ICU,” Walter replied. “We don’t know much more than that. They won’t tell us because we’re not his family.”

“I work here, so let me see what I can find out for you.”

“That’d be real nice of you, honey,” Walter said. “Thank you.”

“Is Georgie still around?”

“She got a look at Gus, and I guess it shook her up real good. That
Caldwell
boy went off after her.”

Tess smiled. “Then I’m sure she’s in good hands.” She patted Walter’s arm. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

At the nurse’s station, she found Pam and Debby, two of the more senior nurses on the ER staff.

“What are you doing here on your night off?” Pam asked.

“Checking on a friend of a friend. The older man they brought in, assaulted at home? What do you know about him?”

They exchanged glances.

“It’s not good,” Pam said. “The CT scan showed some bleeding in the brain, but they decided it was too risky to operate.”

“He’s in a coma,” Debby added. “They just took him up to ICU a few minutes ago. The people with him said they weren’t leaving until we told them something, but you know how it is with HIPPA and everything.” She referred to the federal law that protects patient privacy. “We called his daughter, and she promised to be here late tonight. She can decide what to tell them.”

Tess nodded. “I’ll tell them he’s stable, and they can visit him upstairs tomorrow.”

“We’d appreciate that,” Debby said. “They’re taking up a lot of room out there.”

“Who’s the tall, dark, and handsome drink of water who came in with you?” Pam asked.

Tess glanced over her shoulder and frowned when she found Ben watching her from the doorway. “Don’t be fooled by how he looks. He’s a jerk.”

“Then what are you doing with him?”

“Giving him a ride. That’s it.”

“Uh-huh,” Debby said with a wink for Pam. “
Sure
.”

“Thanks for the info, you guys.”

“No problem.”

Tess returned to the waiting room to tell Bill and the others as much as she could, which wasn’t enough for them.

“Patient privacy, my ass,” one of them growled.

Tess decided he had to be Bad Gus. “I know you’re upset about your friend, and I’m sorry to be quoting hospital policy. When his daughter gets here, she’ll be able to fill you in more on his condition. In the meantime, why don’t you go home and get some sleep? Visiting hours begin at eleven, but you’ll only be able to go in one or two at a time in the ICU, so try to stagger your visits.”

“Thanks, Tess,” Walter said. “We’ll do that.”

She waited until they had filed out of the emergency room door before she went over to where Ben waited for her. Once again she wished Ian had asked
her
out for ice cream with him and his gorgeous daughter.
Why did I have to get stuck with this one?

“Ready?” she asked without looking at him.

“That was smooth,” he said as he pushed himself off the wall he had been propped against.

“What was?”

“The way you handled those old people. You didn’t tell them a damned thing, but somehow you sent them away satisfied.”

She shrugged. “It doesn’t take much to be human. You might want to try it sometime.”

He hooted with laughter. “Ouch.”

“If the shoe fits.”

At the car, he stopped her with a hand to her shoulder.

Tess did her best not to flinch, reminding herself yet again that not all men are monsters.

“We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot,” he said. “How about we start over?”

Tess eyed him warily.

He extended his hand. “I’m Bennett Caldwell.”

With great reluctance, Tess took his hand and looked up at him. “Tess Daniels.”

He rendered her speechless when he raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. “Pleased to meet you, Tess Daniels.”

They drove to
Extension Street
in silence. He had unnerved her with the unexpected, romantic gesture. She was so far removed from anything romantic, she had no idea what it meant. Was he just trying to make up for being a jerk earlier? Was he genuinely interested in her? If so, how did she feel about that? It was all so confusing, and it was one of many reasons she had sworn off men forever. Still, she had to wonder if she had witnessed a hint of the man he might be underneath all the obnoxiousness.

“It happened in
Iraq
,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

“You asked about my leg.”

“Oh, right. I did.”

“I was driving a Jeep when we hit a roadside bomb outside of Fallujah fifteen months ago. The friend who was with me was killed instantly.”

Tess had no idea what to say. After a long, awkward pause, she said, “You’re lucky to be alive.” And then she winced, knowing how stupid she sounded.

“Yeah,” he said with an ironic chuckle. “Lucky.”