Chapter 15 #2
“We were on Christmas break during our junior year, and we went to a party on Dixon Street. To get to the place, you had to go up a flight of outdoor stairs. When we were leaving, I ran back in to go to the bathroom and left her talking to some people on the landing.”
Georgie held on tight to his hand, her stomach knotting with anxiety.
“I was only gone for like two minutes, but when I came back she was crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, and the other people were gone.”
Georgie gasped.
“She was on life support for a month before her parents made the decision to let her go. I took that semester off from school and became totally obsessed with finding out what happened to her. Was she pushed? Or did she slip on some ice after the others went back inside?”
“Did you ever find out?”
He shook his head. “I was only gone for two minutes—the only two minutes of my life I’d give anything to have back.
It just felt so random, you know? If I hadn’t gone back in, she would still be alive.
We’d probably be married, with kids. That life can just do that to you.
” After a long pause, he said, “I still find it hard to believe sometimes.”
“I’m sorry,” Georgie said as it became clear to her that he was the last guy in the world she should be dating. He had already lost one woman he loved. How could she ask him to risk losing another? “It sounds so inadequate, but I’m truly sorry.”
He raised their joined hands to his lips.
“This is why you became a police officer, isn’t it?”
Nodding, he said, “The not knowing how it happened was the worst part for me, her parents and all the people who loved her. I figured if I could keep that from happening to even one other family, then maybe Ellen wouldn’t have died in vain.”
Georgie clutched his hand.
“I worked really hard and became the youngest detective in the department’s history. I’ve refused to sit for promotion tests that would move me off the streets and into a desk job. I’m right where I want to be, and I know I’m making a difference.”
“You still think about what happened to Ellen, though.”
“All the time.” His face shifted into a wry grin, but his eyes were sad. “By now that particular failure is hard-wired into my DNA. I learned a lot from it, though. Life is short, love is sweet, regrets can either make you or break you, nothing lasts forever.”
Life could be so unfair, so exquisitely unfair. “Awfully big lessons for a twenty-year-old.”
“Yes, they were. I had a lot of issues after it happened. I was mad at the world for years.”
“I can understand why.”
“I let the anger really eat away at me. Took a long time to get past that.” He glanced out the window and then back at her. “That day at the Dumpster?”
Georgie nodded.
“I haven’t lost it like that in a really long time.”
“Now that I know you better, I can see why you got so mad.”
“Still… I was out of line.”
“And you apologized rather nicely with lovely flowers.” She leaned over to kiss him. “Thanks for telling me about Ellen.”
“Thanks for listening.” He held her gaze for a long moment. “There hasn’t been anyone since then who’s really mattered to me. Until now.”
“Nathan—”
“I know what you’re going to say, but I can’t help how I feel.” Reaching out to caress her face, he added, “There’s just something about you, Georgie Quinn.”
Georgie’s stomach ached as Cat’s warning echoed through her mind. If only he would stop doing and saying things to make loving him so damned easy!
They found the group from the senior center gathered in the waiting room of the intensive care unit. Georgie and Nathan were introduced to Gus’s daughter.
“My father thought the world of your mother and has nothing but good things to say about you,” Dawn said as she shook hands with Georgie.
“That’s nice to hear,” Georgie said. “Is there any change?”
Dawn shook her head. “He’s still in critical condition, but he’s holding his own.”
“You know anything more about the investigation?” Bad Gus asked Nathan.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone yet today, but I’ll make a few calls and see what I can find out.”
“We’d appreciate that,” Walter said. “Roxy’s working a detail, so she hasn’t heard, either.”
Nathan leaned in to speak privately with Georgie. “I’m going out to the hallway where I can use my phone. Will you be all right?”
“I hope so.”
“If you want to wait, I’ll go in with you.”
“I’ll be okay.”
He kissed her forehead and left the room.
“You two seem awfully cozy,” Annette said with a sly smile. “He’s just as cute as a button.”
“We’re friends,” Georgie said.
“Friends with benefits,” Bad Gus muttered, and the others snickered.
Georgie’s face heated with embarrassment. While she was glad to see them laughing again, she wished it wasn’t at her expense.
“Do you want me to walk you in, honey?” Bill asked.
“I’d appreciate that.”
He looped an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go, then.”
Steeling herself for what she would see, she let Bill lead her around the nurse’s station to one of the glass-walled rooms where the beeping of monitors and Gus’s labored breathing were the only sounds.
Georgie had to fight the immediate urge to turn and run.
She had done that last night. Today she would stay and deal, no matter what it cost her, because that’s what her mother would have done.
“Oh,” she gasped when she finally glanced at Gus’s face. What had been black and blue the night before was now angry purple and hugely swollen.
Bill squeezed her shoulder. “Looks awful, doesn’t it?” he asked in a hushed voice.
Georgie couldn’t speak over the lump in her throat, so she nodded.
“They say there’re no broken bones, which is a miracle.”
“So then why doesn’t he wake up?” Georgie asked.
“There was some bleeding in his brain. They’re hoping they can operate if he stabilizes a little more, but by then . . .”
“It might be too late.”
“Yes, but they said we should talk to him, that familiar voices might stimulate him.”
Georgie took a step toward the bed.
“I’ll leave you alone,” Bill said. “Talk to him. I know he’ll hear you.”
She heard the door swish shut behind him and tried to find a place on Gus’s battered body where she could touch him without hurting him.
Reaching for the hand that was attached to a finger monitor, she tried to think of something to say.
“Hi, Gus, it’s me, Georgie, and I’m so sorry you got hurt.
How could anyone do this to you?” A sob lodged in her throat, and she fought it back.
He didn’t need to hear that. Clearing her throat, she forced a cheerful tone.
“I know you’d be teasing me if you could because I showed up here today with Nathan Caldwell, and I danced with him at the social last night.
You remember how he made me cry at the Dumpster, right?
Well, he came over that same night with flowers to apologize.
He took me out to dinner, and well, some other stuff happened that you certainly don’t want to hear about.
“Anyway, the thing is, I like him even though I don’t want to like him. That’s messed up, isn’t it? Cat, my roommate, thinks he could be my ‘one.’ How funny is that? I mean, we just met a few days ago. Granted, a lot’s happened since then, but still, the one? Crazy, huh?”
She watched Gus’s chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm.
“But you know, if I was looking for ‘the one,’” Georgie continued, “he’d make for a very attractive candidate.
He’s so cute, isn’t he? Well, you probably don’t think so, but I do.
Cat and Tess say so, too. Oh, and get this, they’re dating his brothers!
We’re turning the house into a regular bordello.
I wonder what my mother would have to say about that!
“I miss her,” she said with a sigh. “In all the chaos of dealing with the house and the center and her estate, sometimes it’s easy to forget she’s really gone.
I find myself reaching for the phone because I want to tell her something.
I used to tell her everything. We talked on the phone every day.
Did you know that? I don’t tell too many people that because, you know, it’s kind of weird to still talk to your mom every day when you’re almost thirty.
But that’s just how it was between us. We were always close.
My friends used to fight like she-cats with their mothers, but I never did.
The other day I even dialed her cell number . . .”