Saving Forever - Part 4 (5 page)

Malcolm pointed to the pictures. “They are all done by local artists who donated the pictures.”

“It looks amazing!” It was hard to believe that this same space three floors down held doctor’s offices. “There’s so much space.”

He smiled proudly. “There are no offices on this floor. Only patient observation rooms, scanning and diagnostics. The floor’s set up for day patients or long term.” He pointed down the right hall that had been repainted as well. “Patient rooms are still down there. Each room has also been redone and someone donated money to purchase new beds for each room.” He grinned and winked at her. “Bet you didn’t count that in our budget.”

She hadn’t. She had helped raise the money to pay for the equipment and floor construction, but had nothing to do with the remodelling. “You did all this on budget?”

“Under budget,” he corrected her and laughed. “I don’t know where you found that guy to do the consulting but he had contacts in the area that offered to do some of the work as charity. It saved us a ton. A building inspector came through this morning and couldn’t believe how sound everything looked. He gave the all clear.”

Three guys in construction hats stepped off the elevator and headed down the left hall.

Charity couldn’t believe how much had been done in the time she’d been gone. It made her excited… proud to be part of rebuilding this hospital. “It’s fantastic.”

Malcolm took her through the diagnostic rooms and around the rest of the floor. “It’s all ready for tomorrow. I contacted all the media outlets you suggested and everything else on the list you sent.”

They stood back by the elevator as a florist arrived and began to set flowers up and distribute them throughout the rooms.

“When do you plan on bringing patients up here?” Charity asked. The place looked great but the lack of life moving about the space made it feel too empty, too quiet.

Malcolm checked his watch. “I believe in a couple of hours. I think the staff decided on letting the evening shift take care of the transfers. The day staff set everything up this morning and finished mid-afternoon. You arrived in the eye of the storm you could say. Just before the rush.”

As if on cue, the elevator door opened again with two nurses and a patient laying in her bed.

“I planned that,” Malcolm joked after the trio headed down the hall, chattering to the patient and checking the file with the names on the doors. Charity and Malcolm stepped on before the elevator door closed. “I’m going to head home now. You should as well. I have a feeling it’s been a long day for you.”

She smiled, appreciating his sincerity. “I will soon. Just want to go through a few things in the office. I’ll see you tomorrow at eleven upstairs.” She stepped off on their floor and headed to her office, waving as the door slid closed again.

Inside her office she sat behind her desk and started sorting through the mail. She grabbed her cell and noticed she’d missed a call from Elijah. She set the phone to speaker and called him back.

“Hello, gorgeous.” He sounded cheery and she loved his sexy accent even more when he directed it at her.

“Hi, handsome.” Did couples really talk back and forth like this normally?

“How are you feeling? How’s your side?”

“I’m good. Side’s good, too.” She touched it just to make sure. “Are you still at the hospital?”

“Yeppers. I scheduled another surgery.”

“You staying there all night?” She tossed a few things in the recycling bin and set a number of check donations aside.

“I probably will. Nothing really to go home to if you aren’t there.”

She smiled. “Nice try. You can’t blame it on me. You’ve been dying to smother yourself in hospital goo. Play superman to the little helpless patients and save them all.” She giggled. “I’m not stopping you. Just for the record.”

“Hospital goo? Is that a proper medical term?”

“Probably. I’m pretty sure I learned it back in my med school days.”

“Really? I never heard the term before. Let me just flip my laptop open and google it.”

Charity heard clicking, which probably was Elijah typing on his computer.

“Aha! I found it. Right beside sickbay slop. Which is the military definition of hospital goo out on the battlefield.”

She burst out laughing. “Has anyone ever told you that you are truly demented?”

“I believe my mother has.” His husky chuckle echoed through the phone. “Speaking of my mother, I called her earlier today.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Why uh-oh?”

She waved her hand forgetting he couldn’t see her. “Nothing.” She set the mail aside and opened her iPad for the calendar app that was connected to her phone. “Was she upset we are planning a small wedding?”

“I don’t think so.”

Only a guy wouldn’t figure out his mother’s frustration. Elijah was her only son and after his father’s funeral, Charity couldn’t imagine her willing to go small for the wedding. “What did she say?”

“She asked if you were pregnant.”

“What!?”

Elijah chuckled. “Her exact words were: Elijah, did you knock that girl up?”

“Wow, now I know where you get your kind words from.”

“You should have heard what she said after I told her you got shot at your father’s birthday party.”

“Seriously?” Charity’s hand pressed against her forehead and eyes. “Your mother probably thinks I’m part of some gang.”

“You do have a bit of gangsta’ in you.”

“How much caffeine have you had today?”

“Probably not enough.” Elijah laughed. “If it helps, my mother gave me proper heck for being the reason you got hurt. She told me I had to apologize to you. She also gave me some sound advice.”

“And what was that?”

“To do whatever you wanted for the wedding. To give you anything and everything you dream of.” His voice softened. “I’ll do whatever you want. If you want to plan something bigger, I’m fine with that. Or if you want to wait, I can do that too.”

“I don’t want to wait and I don’t want a big wedding.”
I just want you
.

“I love you.”

“Love you, too.” She was glad no one could see her smiling like a dork. “I should call Julie tonight. Have you said anything to Simon?”

There was a long pause.

“Elijah? You still there?”

“I’m here… I, uh, kinda told Simon today who went and told Julie, like, thirty seconds after I asked him.”

Charity laughed. “What did Julie say?”

“She screamed in the cafeteria and scared a nurse who dropped her tray of food. Julie ran over to help the woman and then slipped on the spilled soup.”

“Is she okay?”

Elijah laughed. “She’s totally fine. Her pride might not be, but her body was. Julie’s pumped. She was going to call you but I made her swear to wait till you called her. She’s supposed to pretend she doesn’t know yet.” He hesitated, then added in an obvious fake-worried voice, “You’re not mad, are you?”

“Furious. You are in such big trouble when I get back”

“Really?” His voice perked up. “I’ve been a bad boy.”

“Are you looking for some kind of punishment?”

“Of the sexual kind?”

“I’m on speaker phone in my office.”

A shuffling and scraping came across the phone. “Is anyone in the room with you?”

She enjoyed the worry in his voice for a moment. “No. I’m all by myself. I’m about to head back to my place.” She yawned suddenly, not realizing she did feel tired. “Been quite the day.”

“That it has. Hey, can you hold on a sec?”

She heard muffled talking.

Elijah picked his phone up again. “I’ve got to go. Time to wrap myself into some hospital goo.”

“Go be superman. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She sat a few minutes going through some more mail before finally calling it a night. She put the donation checks into the small safe under her desk and grabbed her phone. As she gathered her stuff, she dialed Julie’s number.

She expected to get Julie’s voice mail and was surprised when Julie picked up. “Hey girlllll... How’s Atlanta?”

“It’s good. I—”

“Elijah told me,” Julie gushed. “I’ve been shopping online and saw this gorgeous blue dress. Strike that, it’s
sapphire
blue. It’ll be perfect.”

Charity smiled. “I’m sure it will be.”

“I’m sending you an email with a pic of it. Tell me what you think.”

“I’m on my way home now, I’ll check it when I get to my place.”

“When do you want to go dress shopping for you?”

“I hope to come back next weekend. I—”

“Next weekend? Elijah said the wedding’s in three weeks. Girl, we need to shop now! I’ve booked Simon, me, Elijah and your Dad off. I hear Elijah’s mom is taking care of everything down at the massive house.”

“What else did Elijah tell you? Or didn’t tell you.” She laughed. “I don’t need anything fancy. It’s going to simple so as long as the dress is white or creamy white or something close to white, I’ll be good to go.”

“Are you pregnant?”

“What? No! Is everyone going to think that?”

Julie giggled. “Probably, but who cares? Start looking at stuff online and fly home Friday night. You and I are going dress shopping in New York City Saturday. We’ll take the train into town and hit a few of those off the rack shops. You can buy it there, they’ll do whatever simple fitting it needs and voila! We take it home.”

“Sounds too easy. Have these dresses been worn before?” She knew it was silly, but she didn’t want to wear some wedding dress from a broken marriage. She wanted her own, only to be worn once, dress.

“Dresses are brand new. I’ll get it all settled. Just pretty-please be here so we can leave early Saturday morning.”

“I’ll try. If I plan on taking another two weeks off after—”

“Nope. Not good enough. Say: I’ll be there. I promise.”

“Stop cutting me off!” Charity laughed. “Has anyone ever told you how frustrating it is to talk to you on the phone?”

“Simon says it all the time. I’ll keep doing it till you promise.”

“Fine! I promise!”

“Perfect. See you Saturday at seven am.” She hung up before Charity could even respond.

Chapter 6

Charity came back to her office an hour before the ribbon cutting. She had woken early and after dusting her place and grabbing a few groceries she was out of things to do. She decided to head in early and go through and log the donations that had come in while she had been in New York. It had been nearly four weeks, and while Amanda had opened letters she knew were donations for the hospital fund and recorded everything appropriately, there was still a small pile Charity needed to do.

She opened the safe and recorded what had been donated, and made notes for sending thank you cards and plaques to display requests. She opened a last letter that she had stuffed in the pile while talking to Elijah.

Inside was a typed letter. She knew right away it was from a lawyer. She saw the corner of a check behind it and scanned the letter.

Forever Hope Hospital

Attention: Charity Thompson

The Estate of Mrs. Nancy Gordon has been left to Forever Hope Hospital. Through the years, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon have spent several occasions here. From the birth of their son, who was killed while fighting for our country, to the cancer treatments of Mr. Gordon and then Mrs. Gordon, Forever Hope has always treated them with respect and the best care they could possible give.

Mrs. Gordon requested half of their estate be given to the hospital. Enclosed is a copy of the check for three million dollars. We hope your campaign will put this money to good use in the hospital. Please contact our law office to pick up the original.

Charity leaned back against her chair, dumbfounded. She had no idea who Mrs. Gordon was but that was about to change. The whole hospital was going to know. Somewhere a massive plaque – a shrine on a wall – would be built in honor of this family. She realized she was grinning, big time. She couldn’t stop. Talk about a surprise for today’s media-covered ribbon cutting.

She glanced at the clock on the wall and jumped up. She needed to be upstairs. She grabbed her folder with the short speech she had written and stuffed the letter inside.

Taking the stairs two at a time, she raced up and then had to knock on the door as it was locked from the stairwell. Thankfully someone was leaning against it and opened it up for her.

“Thanks,” she gushed as she squeezed through and made her way to where Malcolm and several other doctors, political people and an athlete she recognized from the news were standing. Malcolm had done a terrific job rounding up the right people for the ribbon cutting.

A beautiful gold-embroidered ribbon hung on two makeshift pillars. That had been the only thing Charity had organized for the event. She had used the pillars before and ordered the ribbon online from a client she had used before. The woman did excellent work and the ribbon was actually a tapestry that could be hung on the walls or framed after the ceremony.

Malcolm waved when he saw her. She squeezed her way through the crowd and moved close to him. “You are not going to believe this,” she whispered.

He must not have heard her. “Charity, I don’t believe you’ve met Davina.”

“Hi,” she said, automatically holding out her hand. “I’m Charity Thompson.”

“Nice to meet you,” Davina replied, her beautiful brown eyes glanced at Malcolm as she smiled. “Malcolm’s told me lots about you.”

“All good I hope.” Charity liked how she glanced adoringly at Malcolm. Davina was very pretty with her chestnut brown hair, brown eyes and petite build. They made a striking couple.

“Mostly.” She winked at Charity. “He forgot to mention how beautiful you are. I’m teasing, it’s really nice to meet you.”

“You, as well.” Charity glanced at Malcolm. “Do you have a minute?”

Malcolm checked his watch. “Can it wait till after the ribbon cutting?”

Charity smiled. “Sure.”

Malcolm walked to the podium and introduced himself. He then talked about the hospital, the floor and asked the mayor to come up and say a few words. After the mayor spoke, the state senator made a speech. Malcolm introduced Terence Smith, the well-loved basketball player in Atlanta. Cameras flashed as Terence spoke about the hospital and how he couldn’t wait to see the children’s wing, the next step in the plan, for the hospital’s reconstruction. He timed his speech perfectly. When Malcolm introduced Charity and asked her to say a few words, she almost ran to the podium.

Malcolm laughed, “A little excited Ms. Thompson?”

“I am.” She leaned into the mike and tried to make eye contact with as many faces as she could. “Today is a great day… and it just got a little better.” She opened her file. “I received a letter this week from a lawyer looking after the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon.” She glanced at Terence Smith. “You’re going to love this, Terence. The estate is donating a very generous three million dollars to Forever Hope Hospital. I believe that wing you can’t wait to visit is going to be here sooner than you think!”

For a second silence filled the air before the room erupted into applause. When Charity stepped away from the microphone, she had to nudge Malcolm to step back up to the podium to say something. Camera’s flashed as he stood mouth open staring at her. Charity nodded at the crowd and laughed.

“Oh yeah. Yes!” He shouted, grinning at the crowd. “Ms. Charity Thompson is part magician. I don’t know how she pulls these things out of her sleeves!” He clapped his hands. “Let’s get these fine gentlemen to cut the ribbon so we can have cake and tour the floor. There are patients down the one wing that would love some company!”

The rest of the ceremony and afternoon flew. Charity talked to reporters and newspapers, promising to share what details she could once she spoke with the lawyers of the Gordon estate. The news was very fresh, only learned moments before the ceremony and the media gobbled it up like starving animals. The day couldn’t have gone better.

That evening she spoke with Elijah and told him all about it. She spent the rest of the week talking to the lawyers and learning about the Gordon family. By Friday afternoon she had a plaque designed for the soon-to-be renovated new floor, a press release for the papers and her office semi-organized and sorted.

She headed to the airport just after four and sent Elijah a text:
On my way now. I’ll meet you at the hospital around seven if everything’s on time.

The flight arrived early and because she only had a carry on, she grabbed the first shuttle available. The shuttle service dropped her off at the hospital around six thirty. She paid the driver and headed inside.

She stopped in the bathroom by the elevator and straightened her hair. She wondered if she’d get sick of living out of a suitcase and flying back and forth to New York. Eventually she wanted to settle back here. She stared in surprise at her reflection in the mirror.

It seemed a long time ago she swore she would never come back here and now she couldn’t imagine anything else.

She loved her job but she loved Elijah more. She wanted to be with him so she knew she couldn’t keep living in Atlanta or whatever city needed her next. Maybe it was time to start thinking about going back to med school. She could see herself going back. Otherwise what else would she do?

Maybe not stand in the bathroom for ten minutes staring at herself. If anyone was outside waiting… she’d die of embarrassment. She grabbed her stuff and slipped out, thankfully no one was there.

She rode the elevator in silence, deep in thought. As she walked down the hallway to Elijah’s office, she heard laughter, followed by Julie’s voice. She followed the voices to her father’s office and lightly rapped against the open door before stepping in.

Julie, Simon, Elijah and her father stood in his office. All of them were holding a glass of champagne.

“Charity!” her father boomed. “Perfect timing. We were just about to toast this wedding of yours.”

“You were?” She glanced at Elijah who winked and handed her his glass. “Without me?”

Her father waved his hand. “We’d have done it again when you got here. Julie took care of all our shifts and Elijah just booked the flights. It’s all set.” He held his glass up. “Two weeks to go! Cheers.”

She clinked her glass with his and the others in the room. “Is it okay if I set my suitcase down before I drink it?” she teased.

Elijah jumped over the red leather chair to help. “Let me throw this stuff in my office.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Hi, honey,” he whispered in her ear. “Missed you.”

His warm breath sent a delicious shiver down her back. He disappeared out of the room, only to reappear a moment later with a juice glass. “It’s all I could find, but it works for me.”

Simon poured champagne into his glass and clinked the bottle to Elijah’s cup. Then he drank straight from the bottle.

“Simon!” Julie shook her head. “Can we please just leave him here?”

“Fat chance!” he wrapped his arm over Elijah’s shoulder. “I go wherever he goes. Like golfing tomorrow and pub tonight.”

Charity’s head felt like she was watching a tennis match. She looked at Julie, then Simon, then her father as he responded to the suggestion of golf, then back at Elijah. What had these guys been up to all week?

She processed Simon’s last comment. “Pub tonight?”

Simon nodded. “Yup. Boys only. We need to talk shop.”

Elijah gave her a guilty smile. “Maybe we can do the pub crawl tomorrow. Charity’s just got in.”

“She’s wedding dress shopping with me tomorrow.” Julie stepped between the boys and put her arms around both of them. “I can hang with her tonight.”

“No, you can’t.” Dr. Thompson chuckled. “You’ve got a surgery with me scheduled in about twenty minutes. We need to go scrub in.”

“And you’re drinking?” Charity blurted.

“I’m not!” Her father held up his glass. “I took one sip, that’s it.”

“Simon drank mine.” Julie ruffled her husband’s hair.

Charity laughed. “You people are crazy.” She smiled at Elijah. “Is your car here?”

He nodded.

“I’m good with driving home and chilling. You and Simon go. I have a feeling you barely left the hospital this week.” She looked for her suitcase. “Let me just grab my stuff from your office.”

She chuckled as she handed Simon her glass. Crazy boys. They were like kids sometimes. She crossed the hallway to Elijah’s office and went to grab her things. A bath in his Jacuzzi tub sounded pretty good. Maybe a glass or two of wine.

The door to the office closed quietly. Her back to the door, she knew Elijah had come in. She turned and looked at him, then turned back to gathering her things.

“I want you so bad right now.”

She smiled, but didn’t let him see. She kept her voice neutral. “Your place. Two hours.”

“Hell, yes.”

“You’ve been a bad boy.” She glanced at him from her peripheral vision as she turned slightly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. He wanted her. A week apart and just a moment alone wasn’t nearly enough.

Elijah checked the door and groaned. “Don’t talk to me like that right now. Come here.” He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around, kissing her hungrily on the mouth. His tongue forced her lips apart.

Simon pounded on the glass of the door. “You coming, Elijah?”

They quickly pulled apart.

“Go,” she told him.

“Two hours.”

“Not a moment longer.” She shook her head, grinning as he slipped out the door.