Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
Jane drove forty-five minutes south to a Walmart in Pennsylvania to pick up her supplies. The last thing she needed was one of the local busybodies shopping at Ford’s to interrogate her about why she was buying brown hair dye and dark sunglasses in the middle of winter.
When Jane returned home, she parked her car and stepped out onto Mom’s driveway. Immediately, a high-pitched wail carried out from inside the house.
Scarlett. Jane’s heart slammed in her chest. Oh my God, was it—? Could Matteo have ? —?
Jane didn’t stop to think, she just took off running up the porch steps and flung open the front door. In the hallway, she found Mom frantically throwing on her shoes while Scarlett sat on the steps clutching one arm with her opposite hand, a bleeding gash across her forehead, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Jane rushed toward her daughter, crouching down to look her over. Scarlett pulled her arm closer to her body and wailed louder.
“What happened?” Jane searched for an angry six-foot man, but— thank God —there was no sign of him. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and pressed it to Scarlett’s forehead.
“I fell,” Scarlett gasped, the hitching in her chest turning the two syllables into five. “I bumped my head and my arm hurts.”
“We were cleaning up the lunch dishes.” Mom’s voice shook. “I went upstairs for just a moment, and then I heard a crash. I ran back down and found that Scarlett had pulled a dining chair up to the kitchen counter and had climbed up to reach the chocolate chips.”
“I’m sorry,” Scarlett wailed.
“She slipped in her socks and fell off.” Mom yanked her coat on. “We’re going to the emergency room. I planned to call you on the drive.” Mom’s shoulders slumped. “I’m so sorry, I should have been watching.”
Jane reached for Scarlett’s boots and gently helped her daughter slide her feet inside. “It’s not your fault. Scarlett has always been a chocolate monster. Right, baby?” She kept her voice upbeat, forcing a smile for her daughter so she wouldn’t know how Jane’s heart was pounding. “It’s going to be fine.”
“I’ll drive, you can sit in the back with Scarlett,” Mom said, swinging open the front door as Jane helped Scarlett to her feet.
Once Jane had Scarlett strapped in and they were on their way to the hospital, her heartbeat finally returned to normal. The gash on her daughter’s forehead had looked worse than it was once Mom had handed her a box of tissues from the front seat and she was able to gently wipe away the blood. And Scarlett’s wails had tapered to whimpers by the time they reached the hospital.
As Mom pulled the car door open and Jane helped Scarlett climb out, Jane couldn’t help but think about how relieved she was to have a little bit of help. Though she’d been living with Matteo for a decade now, she was largely on her own when it came to parenting. Matteo tended to be the fun dad when the mood struck him, and then checked out when there was actual work to be done. If this had happened at home, Matteo would have blamed Jane for not keeping a better eye on Scarlett and complained about all the noise from the crying.
Mom steered Scarlett to a vinyl chair in the hospital waiting room while Jane checked her in at the front desk. The woman there typed some things into the computer in front of her, handed Jane a medical form to fill out, and then asked for Scarlett’s insurance card. Jane hesitated. They had insurance through Matteo’s job at the club. But what if it got back to Matteo that Scarlett had to be rushed to the ER? You never knew how he might react to something like that. He might blame Jane and demand they come home right away.
The front desk woman was looking at Jane expectantly, so she handed over the card. The insurance company usually sent a statement in the mail, but that would probably take weeks. With any luck, they’d be long gone by then. Still, when Jane sat down to fill out the forms, she scribbled the wrong building number and zip code in the address fields. Maybe that would slow down the paperwork. And then she spelled Scarlett’s name with one T and fudged the line for her birthdate, too.
Jane had some experience with long waits at emergency rooms, so she was surprised when the nurse called Scarlett back to an exam room after only about five minutes. Just another way Linden Falls was an entire world away from LA.
“The exam rooms are small, so I’ll wait here,” Mom said, and Jane remembered that Mom had some experience with emergency rooms, too.
Jane and Scarlett followed the nurse through a sliding door and back to an exam room. The nurse got Scarlett situated on an exam table and directed Jane to sit on a chair on the opposite wall while he took Scarlett’s vitals. Then he folded up a gauze square and handed it to Jane in case Scarlett’s head started to bleed again. “The doctor will be in shortly.”
Jane watched him leave. Though he was about her age, Jane didn’t recognize him from high school. Maybe he’d moved here for the job. The hospital appeared to be more modern, the equipment more state-of-the-art, than it had been a decade ago. Back then everything had seemed a little rundown and dingy. So, maybe the hospital was a draw for health professionals now.
And with that thought, Jane nearly jumped out of her chair. Because it was the moment she remembered that?—
“Hello,” came a voice from the doorway. It was extra buoyant in that way that doctors speak to make children feel comfortable. And it was familiar. “You must be Scarlett.”
Jane spun toward the doorway just as Nik’s tall frame filled the room.
“I’m Dr. Andino, but you can call me…” His voice trailed off as his eyes swung from Scarlett to focus on Jane. “Nik.” He finally finished. “You can call me Nik.” He took an audible breath. “And you must be…” His gaze darted to Scarlett and back to Jane. He blinked, rubbing his forehead as if he’d been the one to hit his head. “You must be Scarlett’s mother.”