Chapter Eleven

Kate rushed into the emergency-room entrance of the squat brick hospital. Guilt threatened to choke her like a hand around her throat.

Why hadn’t she gone to the gym with Paul? Bad enough to be running so late in the first place, but not to be there when he was injured? Unthinkable.

The dark-haired secretary at the desk looked up and gave her a compassionate smile. “May I help you?”

“Paul Hanlon. They brought him in by ambulance just a little while ago. May I see him?”

“And you are...?”

“His wife.”

The secretary summoned a nurse who smiled and gestured toward the large double doors. “Come on back. I’ll take you to him.”

Kate followed her down a short corridor that ended in a series of cubicles. The nurse stopped at the last one and pushed back the curtain.

The sight of Paul lying on the narrow bed, his face nearly as pale as the crisp white sheets, proved to be her undoing. Kate rushed to his side and took his hand, trying to fight back her tears.

This was no time to fall apart, she admonished herself. He needed support, not a weepy wife.

“Hi, honey. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.” The words came out calmly enough, but remorse wrenched at her heart.

I wasn’t there. The phrase echoed through her mind. He had supported her at every turn, and she wasn’t there when he needed her.

Paul gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. “I learned something tonight. I’m not Superman.”

Kate smiled at his attempt to make light of the situation, but she could see the pain that shadowed his eyes.

“Have they given you any medication?”

He shook his head. “Not until they find out whether I’ll need surgery.”

Kate brushed his hair away from his eyes, smoothing the salt-and-pepper strands back over his forehead. A blue plastic chair sat in the corner of the cubicle, and Kate pulled it closer to the bed. She settled into it, prepared for a long wait.

To her surprise, a woman in pale blue scrubs stepped into the cubicle almost immediately.

“Mr. Hanlon?” She consulted the chart in her hand. “Sorry. Reverend Hanlon. They’re ready for you in X-ray.” She unlocked the brake on the wheels of the bed and rolled it into the corridor.

Kate dropped a kiss on his forehead and turned to the nurse. “I’ll be out in the waiting room.”

Giving Paul’s hand another squeeze, she fled to the sanctuary of the waiting room, glad she didn’t have to spend one more minute confined in that cramped space.

A sea of concerned faces greeted her as she burst through the double doors into the waiting room. A dozen voices spoke at once.

“How’s Pastor Paul?”

“Is his ankle broken?”

“Is he going to be all right?”

Kate skidded to a halt and took in the sight before her. The waiting room was packed with people, many of them wearing jackets over basketball jerseys, and all of them looking her way.

Pastor Bobby Evans from First Baptist walked up and took her by the hand. “We decided to postpone the game. It just didn’t seem right to go on playing, knowing Paul’s hurt. When I announced it and said I’d be coming over here, both teams wanted to come too.”

He glanced around at the crowd and grinned. “Looks like most of the fans came along as well.”

Kate looked at the faces, some from Faith Briar, others she recognized from First Baptist, Copper Mill Presbyterian, and St. Lucy’s Episcopal, all of them showing genuine concern. Tears stung her eyes, and her vision misted.

“Thank you all for coming,” she managed to say before her voice broke. How could she have felt alone when so many compassionate hearts existed in Copper Mill?

Danny Jenner stepped forward and ran his fingers through his dark, curly hair. “We want Paul to know we’ll be here for him. And you,” he added with a warm smile.

“Would you like us to stay and keep you company?” Pastor Bobby asked. “Not all of us, though.” He surveyed the group and chuckled. “I get the feeling the secretary would be much happier if the waiting-room crowd thinned out a bit.”

Kate swallowed hard before she could speak. “I’ll be fine, but thank you.”

She raised her voice so the whole gathering could hear. “Thank you so much for coming. I know it will mean as much to Paul as it does to me. They just took him back to X-ray, but we’ll keep you posted when we know what’s going on. In the meantime, please keep Paul in your prayers.”

“Why don’t we do that right now?” Pastor Bobby signaled the group to join hands and form a circle, then he led them in a prayer for Paul’s quick recovery and strength for Kate during this time.

After the “Amen,” Kate watched the well-wishers disperse, for once grateful for the speed and efficiency of the small-town grapevine.

When the last visitor had straggled out to the parking lot, Kate turned back to the waiting room. She wiggled her fingers at the secretary, who looked relieved at the mass departure.

A security guard walked in and took up a post along the wall nearest the door. Kate smiled at him, glad the secretary hadn’t felt it necessary to call upon him to help their visitors on their way.

None of the padded chairs around the room looked particularly inviting. She settled on one that faced the double doors, wanting to know the moment the nurse emerged, bearing news of Paul.

The wind brushed icy fingers over the back of her neck when the outer door opened. Kate turned up the collar of her coat and reached for a magazine. Her hand froze when a cloud of Estée Lauder’s Youth-Dew settled over her.

“Yoo-hoo! I was afraid you’d be sitting here all by yourself. I’ve come to keep you company.”

The magazine slipped from Kate’s fingers, and she summoned a weak smile. “Hello, Renee.”

Renee Lambert swept around the row of chairs and seated herself next to Kate like a queen bestowing a favor on a subject. She propped her oversized Gucci bag on the empty chair beside her with care.

“I got a phone call from the prayer chain to tell me about Paul, and I rushed right over.” Her fingers closed around Kate’s arm, and she lowered her voice to a husky whisper. “It’s his heart, isn’t it?”

“What? Goodness, no. He hurt his ankle playing basketball. Didn’t the prayer chain get that straight?”

Renee examined the polish on her freshly manicured nails. “Stories have a way of changing once they start making the rounds. Sometimes it’s hard to know just what the truth really is.”

She unbuttoned her leopard-print coat and fanned herself. “You must admit it would be reasonable to assume it was his heart. After all, when men of a certain age go cavorting on a basketball court, trying to keep up with men many years their junior—”

“It’s his ankle, Renee. Only his ankle.” Kate put all the firmness she could into the statement.

Renee nodded, unperturbed. “Even in a minor crisis, it isn’t good to be alone. Others may abandon you, but I know how to do my duty.”

“I haven’t exactly been abandoned. The whole team—both teams, actually—came down to check on him earlier, along with a lot of the fans. I told them I would be perfectly fine here alone.”

She cast a sidelong glance at the older woman, hoping she would take the hint.

True to form, Renee chose not to notice. She looked around as if hoping for more drama—or at least a bigger audience.

Apparently giving up on the dramatic possibilities, she turned back to Kate. “What a week we’ve had! It’s as though the whole community has been cursed with a string of bad luck.”

“There’s no such thing as luck,” Kate reminded her.

Renee waved away the remark. “You have to admit it seems that Copper Mill has endured more than its share of unfortunate happenings lately. Poor Loretta, having to deal with all that mess. And now this.”

She heaved a sigh in true drama-queen fashion. Scarlett O’Hara would have approved, Kate thought.

“And it can’t have been an easy week for you, trying to explain what your wallet was doing in that car.”

Kate clamped her lips together. No way was she going to be drawn into a discussion on that subject when her attention was focused on Paul.

“It seems so odd about the driver going missing,” Renee went on. “Doesn’t it seem strange to you that he—or she—would be able to just walk away like that? I wouldn’t think it possible, considering the amount of damage that was done.”

She sighed again. “But I guess there’s only one person who knows what the real story is.” She leaned over and purred, “You wouldn’t know more about it than you’ve let on, would you?”

Kate sputtered. “Really, Renee! That is utterly ridiculous.”

Renee settled back in her seat with a smug smile, as though her suspicions had just been confirmed.

Kate opened her mouth to add more when she saw Renee’s Gucci bag move.

“Renee...”

“Yes?” The older woman moved slightly to her right and draped one arm around the bag, then looked at Kate with guileless eyes. The effect was spoiled when a whimper emanated from within the bag.

Kate bit her lip and tried not to laugh. “You brought Kisses in here, didn’t you?”

Renee’s eyes took on a stony glint. “And why shouldn’t I? You don’t think I’d leave my Little Umpkins out in the car on a cold night like this, do you?”

She opened the top of the bag just enough to slip her fingers inside. “There, now, Little Snuggle Umpkins. Mama’s right here.”

The whimpers increased in volume, then grew into a series of yips. The security guard detached himself from his post in the corner and strolled their way.

“Evenin’ ladies.” He nodded at Kate, then turned an implacable gaze on Renee.

“Miz Lambert, you know the rules. We don’t allow dogs in the hospital.”

“What dog?” Renee batted her improbably long eyelashes and assumed an air of innocence.

“The one in that bag.” The guard hooked his thumbs in his belt and showed no signs of backing down.

“This bag?” Renee must have known she was waging a losing battle, but she wasn’t about to admit it. The fighting spirit of the South lived on.

Unfortunately, Kisses chose that moment to bark at the top of his tiny voice. The guard rocked back on his heels. “No dogs allowed,” he repeated.

Renee got to her feet and pulled the bag into her arms. “It’s a sad day when a person can’t come here to comfort a friend.”

Her high heels clacked across the floor as she swept out of the emergency room.

Kate cast a grateful look at the security guard and picked up her magazine again. Surely it wouldn’t be too much longer before she had some news.

Just then the double doors swung open, and Kate leaped to her feet. The nurse looked past her and motioned to a young woman holding a whimpering toddler. Kate sighed, then eased back into her seat again and resumed reading.