Chapter 6 #2
He was all business, but her skin prickled with the idea of seeing him more than just today.
God had only said to find him to live out the rest of her life.
In true overachiever form, she’d not only found him, she was going to hang out with him for the week.
That would definitely solidify God’s contract, and she could go back to her regular life, take her accounts back from Scott, and put all of this behind her.
“All right,” Lucas said, bringing her back to the present.
He opened her paper file and pulled out an X-ray, then clipped it on the lightboard behind him.
He flipped the switch, illuminating the image.
“I just want to do a quick exam of your scalp and skull before we begin, to be sure there’s no swelling.
” Lucas walked over to her. “Mind if I fiddle with your hair for a second?”
“That’s fine.”
He leaned in and lifted the strands with his finger, his scent of soap and cotton tickling her senses.
Gently, he moved around the trauma area, inspecting it, his fingertips lightly caressing and tapping, his chest at her arm.
She held in a shallow breath in an attempt to stay still.
He moved her hair behind her shoulder, and she tried, unsuccessfully, to steady the involuntary pattering of her heart.
The only reason Ava could think of as to why she was reacting this way was that she hadn’t been this close to a man since her ex-husband, eight years ago.
Had it been eight years? Good grief. And while a doctor checking her wouldn’t normally mean anything, this was Lucas—her first ever love.
It didn’t hurt that he was even more handsome as an adult than he was back then .
She dug her nails into her thigh to remind herself that he had a fiancée and she’d better get her emotions in check.
“You’re healing nicely,” he said, coming around to the front of her. “Everything looks great.”
“That’s good.” She swallowed.
“All right. Let’s go over to the testing room and get going with the assessments.”
She followed him across the hall to an office with a table in the center of the room and windows to the outside that let in sunlight that filled the space, giving it a cheerful feel.
“Have a seat.” Lucas pulled out a padded chair and then gathered a few bins from a nearby shelf full of puzzles, blocks, and flashcards.
She sat across from him, the usual pain dulled by the distraction of his presence.
He grabbed a pencil, opened a file folder, and wrote her name at the top of a Scantron-style sheet with rows of bubbled numbers. Then he flipped a tablet around on its stand. The screen was white with a blue dot in the center.
“Keep your eyes on the central point. Different objects will appear in various locations, but don’t take your eyes off the dot. We’re testing your peripheral vision. Just tell me what you see, if you can make it out.”
Objects began to pop up on the screen.
“Dog.”
“Good.” He bubbled in a five.
“Key.”
“Yep.” He circled another five.
“Leaf.”
“You got it.”
They carried on with the test, moving along to a few others where she had to identify objects that had been broken into various pieces and scattered around the screen.
Following that, she had to match various figures and recall geometric designs in order.
Ava got every single one, though the whole time she’d been preoccupied with his movements, his gestures, the looks he gave her.
One time, he’d done a little tap on the table with his thumb, something she remembered him doing regularly in biology when they were lab partners.
When they finished the last test, he looked down at the score sheet. “Your visual perceptual functioning is perfect. Let’s try some executive functioning now.”
“I’m surprised you’re the one testing me,” she said, wishing she knew the man instead of just the boy. “Weren’t you a surgeon in New York?”
There was an indecipherable flash behind his eyes. “I was, yes. But not here.” His answer sounded final, as if something had changed.
Maybe he’d lost his job back in New York or had a falling out of some sort. She hadn’t meant to upset him.
He opened the next file, moving right along.
“On this test, I’m going to show you a series of geometric designs that begin as simple but get more complex. Your job is to see if you can copy them.” He handed her a piece of paper and a pencil. He tapped a few times on the tablet until a shape appeared. “Here’s your first one.”
“Sorry I asked a personal question,” she said while reproducing the hexagon shape in front of her. “Now’s not the time. But it would be nice to catch up at some point. I tried to find you on Facebook.”
“I don’t have any social media.”
She finished drawing.
“Great. Here’s the next one.”
“You could’ve emailed me. You don’t still have my email?” She offered a playful grin.
“No, sorry. I don’t,” he said gently but firmly.
Ava immediately pulled back, worried he’d think she was flirting. She hadn’t meant to. She’d just slipped back into their easy banter from when they were kids. She reminded herself she didn’t know the man in front of her—she had to keep herself in check.
He showed her the next shape—a series of various polygons, all interwoven with crooked lines.
Ava kept to the tests for the rest of their time together. When they’d finished, Lucas gathered up his paperwork and slipped it into the file folder. Then, on his laptop, he checked his schedule for the week.
“I actually have you down tomorrow at ten, so I’ll see you then.”
“Great. See you tomorrow at ten.”
He stood and walked her into the hallway. “The exit is just down there and to the right. You’ll see the sign.”
“Okay.”
He gazed at her, and when he did, she could almost swear he had the same sadness that she’d seen that day in the tree before he moved.
“It’s good to see you,” he said, something lingering behind his words that she couldn’t decipher.
“You too.”
“Catch you tomorrow.”
She turned around and walked down the hallway, every nerve in her body on alert. While Ava knew they’d both built their own lives and were two very different people as adults, something strange came over her that she wasn’t able to define. She couldn’t wait to see her old friend again tomorrow.
She went to the desk to be sure she didn’t need to do anything to check out and then greeted her mom in the corner, who was stitching a couple of quilt squares.
“I’m up for coffee today. Want to get some?” Ava asked her.
Martha threaded the needle through the fabric, folded it, and slipped it into her bag. “Of course. I’d love to. ”
“I’ve got a lot to tell you.”
Over coffee at The Pink Mug, Ava told her mother about her testing with Lucas and how well she’d scored.
“So I’m fine so far, cognitively—above average.”
“That’s wonderful.” Her mother lifted her latte to her lips, but her questions about Lucas were evident in her loaded look.
“If there’s nothing wrong with me, then we can assume I actually heard the voice that told me to find Lucas.”
Her mom frowned, three lines of confusion showing between her brows.
“It’s quite a coincidence he’s here, but you said yourself that he might have come back to visit family.
After all, you did the same thing. Anything more than that just seems so far-fetched.
You can understand my view of it, can’t you? ”
“Absolutely. But isn’t it far-fetched for him to treat me as my doctor in New York after I had a voice tell me to find him, and then when we get to Nashville, he’s the one doing my testing?”
“It is, indeed, some coincidence—as I said.”
“It’s even crazier than hearing a voice, that’s for sure.” Disappointment over her mother’s lack of belief in her experience slipped out in Ava’s tone.
“What are you trying to say?”
Ava sipped her maple pumpkin chai latte, disturbing the heart the barista had drawn in the top. “I know you requested these tests because you think I’m having some sort of breakdown, but I’m not. I’m telling you, something happened while I was unconscious.”
Her mother’s cheeks reddened.
“I’m not trying to be obstinate, but I also trust that my experience was real.” Ava waved a hand through the air. “Maybe this isn’t all there is. Maybe I was meant to find Lucas.”
“Well, now you’ve found him, so you can relax.” Her mother smiled cautiously.
Ava had considered that herself, and she was glad. But the thought of having only one more day with her childhood best friend bothered her. Surely there must have been a reason she needed to find him?
Ava wasn’t sure if it had been the adrenaline from seeing Lucas, but she felt incredibly well when she got home. She’d logged in to her work system and checked the status of the Coleman Media account. Sure enough, it had all been signed off by Scott.
Wait a minute.
He’d also posted four more status updates and all four were for her accounts. Had Scott been designated as her sole replacement for all her reports while she was away? No one else had posted any updates. He’d devoured her list like a praying mantis.
Just great .
He was the hero, swooping in, taking care of his accounts and hers. All to show Robert Clive how much Scott could juggle, probably. He was ruthless, taking advantage of her while she was down.
What did she expect? She was the first to say how cutthroat the industry was. Especially at McGregor, where they always had another group of perfect candidates for her job at any given time. She had to get back to work, and soon.
She tipped her head up to the log ceiling and sent a prayer. I did my part. I found Lucas. Can you make me better really quickly so I can live the rest of my life? That’s your end of the bargain, right?
She didn’t feel quite as confident with her questions to God this time. After seeing Lucas, something pulled at her—an opposing tug, making her question whether she wanted to go back to her life in New York just yet.