Liam was thirty minutes late meeting his family at the hospital, but no one took notice. It was the last step before they all admitted the defeat to cancer that the matriarch of the family had come to terms with long ago. His mother looked so small, swallowed up in the white bed with tubes connected to her that he double-checked the medicinal doses of. Whenever his family had questions, they directed them at Liam, not the nurses. The bliss of the morning became inundated with technical jargon that separated him from the grief he wished he could be alone to feel. His mother was dying. There would be no stopping that.
Molly. He felt awful for thinking about her at a time like this. It was not the awe-inspiring kisses they partook of just a few hours prior, but her quiet presence he missed. He swallowed hard, but his throat had gone dry. He did not just miss her; he needed her to get through the questions and the tubes and the medication he would not have prescribed himself. The hospital room was so small, shared with one other person who passed away the day prior. The walls felt too close together, and they were white… too white. The sterile smell burned the inside of his nose, and the hard plastic chairs made sure no one would relax, not that they could’ve anyway. Liam sat in his chair and focused on his knee so he did not have to feel the claustrophobia or see the flowers he sent his mother too many years too late. He didn’t even know what kind of flowers she liked. Not that it mattered; she wasn’t lucid enough to see them.
“Call her,” Nate said, breaking Liam out of his downward spiral. “You know you want to.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Liam grumbled, not able to tear his eyes away from his mother.
“It’s written all over your face. Call her.”
“Call who?” Mr. DiNatali asked, looking from Nate to Liam.
“I can’t. She just dropped us off. There’s no real reason. I don’t want to make her drive back for me.”
Nate scoffed and pulled out his phone, dialing Molly before Liam could miss yet more time in his life that he could be truly happy. “Hey, Little Luco. Could you come back? Liam wants you to meet our mom. Yeah. Room 207.” He turned to Liam upon ending the call. “You’re welcome, chicken shit.”
“I don’t remember thanking you.” Liam wanted to dig in his heels and be stubborn, but he knew it would be a bad acting job at this point. He was pretty well at the end of his nerves. “But thanks.”
Despite the gravity of the situation, Mr. DiNatali fired off question after question about Molly, astonished that his son was expressing any kind of need or want for a woman who might ever stick around beyond one night.
Liam ran his hands through his short brown hair. “Alright, alright. It’s nothing. It’s casual. She’s… You know who Molly Luco is, Dad. I’ll be back in a minute. I need some coffee or something.” He turned back to glare at the mixture of shock and glee on the faces of his family. “Don’t say anything to scare her. It’s casual. Do you understand?” When they did not respond with anything other than the same levels of shock and glee, he rolled his eyes and exited the room.
Liam did need a little coffee, but he could not bring himself to buy a cup from the pitiful looking machine. Instead he found one of the doctors on the floor, introduced himself and asked if he could take a look at his mother’s file.
“I’m sorry. I can’t. Hospital policy,” the doctor said with an apologetic smile. “Did you need me to look in on her?”
“No. I just wanted to get a better view of the meds she’s on for the pain. It’s fine. Thanks anyway.” Liam abandoned hope of figuring out a better cocktail for his mother and went back to the coffee machine, willing it to smell fresher than it did. He didn’t realize he had his eyes closed and his forehead pressed against it when he heard the voice that made his out-of-sync heart feel immediately at peace.
“Liam? Are you alright?”
Not only was she the perfect blend of alluring and adorable, but she was holding a carryout tray of coffee from a specialty shop in town he’d frequented in his teen years. The fist of tension in his chest unclenched, releasing his body from the rigid state of worry it was in. “You came.” His sigh of relief was audible and visible as his shoulders deflated at the sight of her.
“Of course I came. It’s your mother.” She handed him a tall cup and gave him a warm smile. “Though, I’ve met your mother, just for the record. A couple years ago, Kyle hit her mailbox and drove over some of her flowers. I came over the next day to help her replant new ones and pay for the mailbox damages.”
He wrapped an arm around her back and drew her closer, pressing a kiss into her forehead. “Oh, I hate your brother.”
“So long as you like me, I think that’s okay.” She pulled out of his embrace and donned a serious expression. “But you can’t kiss me in there. I don’t want them thinking we’re doing… things.”
Liam snorted. “Well, Nate’s in there, so I’m pretty sure they already have a fair guess at what we’ve been up to.” When he saw her concern, he smiled. “Don’t worry about it. They’re happy as anything that I’m acting like a human about a woman.”
“Instead of a cyborg?”
“Exactly.” When Liam took a step toward the room, Molly did not follow. “You coming?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Do you really want me in there? It’s your family, Liam. I’ve never met parents before in this kind of context. I don’t want to do anything stupid to embarrass you.”
He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the mouth. “Just be with me. This is hard, and I want you next to me.”
Molly nodded, gulping as she followed him into the room that was suddenly on its best behavior. Wide, excited eyes took in her shy demeanor. “Hey, Molly,” Nate greeted her, a giant grin widening his face.
She raised an eyebrow at him. He rarely used her first name. “Hello, Nathanial.”
“Did you bring us coffee? What a nice thing to do.”
Nate was laying it on thick, but she did not smell a trap, so she nodded. “Here. Take one.” She handed one to each member, who stared at her like she was an alien or Santa Claus come to give Christmas spirit to Liam and the rest of the cyborgs of the world. “Um, the coffee machine is disgusting on this floor, so I thought you might need some decent fuel for the day.”
Mr. DiNatali straightened his shirt as he thanked Molly for the coffee. “That was thoughtful of you. Molly Luco, right? You’re Joe and Donna’s girl?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, thank you for taking in the boys. Our house is a little full right now, what with all these out of towners. I appreciate it.”
“It’s not a problem, sir. Happy to help.”
Molly thought that Jess and Nate looked like twin dolls with perma-grins painted on their faces. They examined her with such anticipation and excitement, it made Molly want to hide behind Liam.
Small talk finally broke out, and attention was diverted, thanks to Nate. Liam fingered one of the IV bags attached to the many tubes and frowned. His mother’s skin was paper-thin and devoid of color, sounding a gong announcing she was too near the end. He sat down next to where Molly stood against the window, his mind deep in thought.
“What’s wrong?” she asked quietly, placing her hand on his shoulder.
Jess saw the small gesture and muffled her squeal of delight into her hand. Molly instinctually retracted from Liam, her cheeks darkening.
Liam reached over and laced his fingers through hers, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He kissed the back of her hand, claiming her in front of his entire family. He didn’t look up at them, but kept his eyes on his mother. “I’m not sure. I want to look at Mom’s charts, but it’s against hospital policy to show them to the family. I get it, but I’m just not thrilled with the meds they have her on. I’m wondering if there isn’t a better combination that would make her more lucid. I’m probably wrong. I just wish I could see that for myself.”
“Hold on. I’ll see what I can do.” Molly smiled privately when Liam hesitated to let go of her hand. She went to the nurse’s station and put in a page for Dr. Hamilton, who called back immediately, stating he would be down at first opportunity.
“Hey, Lorraine,” Molly greeted the head nurse who was sorting through patient files at the nurse’s station. There were two other nurses who glanced up and gave Molly an obligatory grunt of a welcome. Molly knew those grunts. They were shorthanded.
“Hey, Molly,” Lorraine replied. “You working on my floor today? I didn’t think I had you scheduled.”
“Nope. Just wondering if I can hop in on the computer and print out my schedule. Is that alright?”
Her curly, frizzy hair had three pencils stuck in it to keep her bun from giving up hope of holding her thick hair up altogether. “I can print that out, sweetie. Give me a minute.”
Molly waved off the help. “No, no. You’re swamped. Plus, I need to print out my schedule going back two months. Paycheck discrepancy.” Molly gave Lorraine an exasperated eye roll. “Ugh.”
“Sure, hun. If you can get the computer on the end to print that out, you’ll be my angel of mercy. It’s been giving me sass all day long.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Molly walked around the long crescent-shaped desk, ducking down at the end of the station to sit at the computer that had been abandoned as hopeless. She was no computer whiz, but she was patient, clearing out a few programs she knew were too big for such an old computer to handle. The other nurses paid her no mind, but Molly’s hands were still quick across the keyboard as she tried to pull up Liam’s mother’s file without being seen. She didn’t know what she was supposed to be looking for, so she printed out the top three pages, hoping that would be enough. She bit her lower lip guiltily at breaking hospital policy and quickly switched to the main portal, signing in and printing out the current week of her schedule, which she didn’t actually need. Molly hopped to the computer and swept the pages off the printer, folding them once and signing out. “I fixed it for now. You can’t put anymore new programs on this computer, though. It’s too old to take the beating.”
Lorraine clapped her hands three times in gratitude. “Are you kidding me? I about took that machine out to the garbage this morning. I was so mad! It shut down on me four times! Four! You’re my angel, Molly.”
Molly gave Lorraine a weak smile, trying not to let her guilt shine through. “No problem. And room 207’s a friend of mine. Could I put in an order for some sandwiches for the family?”
“Anything, girl. Sorry about your friend.”
“Thanks. And when Doctor Hamilton comes down, could you send him into 207? The family’s got a few questions.”
“Of course you call the hot doctor down when my hair’s a mess,” Lorraine complained.
Once the nurses knew Mrs. DiNatali belonged to Molly, she knew new pillows would be sent in, sandwiches would be sent up from the cafeteria, the nurses would make a point to check on her more frequently, and ice chips would magically appear when needed.
Molly slipped into Mrs. DiNatali’s room, waving Liam over after shutting the door behind her. She pulled out the pages and handed them over sheepishly. “I don’t know if these are what you need, but it’s the best I could do without getting caught.”
Liam opened the folded papers and frowned. “Your schedule? Did you mean to give this to me?”
She took back the top sheet. “No, no. It’s the first three pages of your mother’s file. It’s all I could do.”
Liam’s eyes bulged. “You seriously ganked my mom’s file for me?” His eyes glossed over the pages, catching onto a few key details that made his mind race. “This is great, Moll. You have no idea. Thank you!” He kept his eyes on the pages, but wrapped his free arm around Molly, pulling her to his side while his family gathered around to see the espionage in action.
“It’s really not that big a deal. But I paged one of the doctors I work with most, and he’ll be coming down to talk with you in a minute, so if you have a plan, now’s the time for it.”
When Doctor Hamilton arrived, he wore his friendly smile that matched his white doctor’s coat. “Molly, I didn’t realize you had friends here. Lorraine said you needed me?”
Liam stood and shook the doctor’s hand. “Can I speak with you in private, doctor?”
“Of course. My office is on the other side, but there’s an empty room we can duck into.”
Molly expected Liam to go off with Dr. Hamilton, but he grasped her hand and brought her with him. When they reached an empty room and shut the door on the outside world, Liam introduced himself along with his credentials, and the two immediately took the conversation light-years above Molly’s head with medical jargon and hypotheses. The room was a duplicate of Mrs. DiNatali’s, but without the dying woman in the bed, the atmosphere was far less grim.
Molly watched in admiration as the man who had been wrapped around her earlier asked educated and strategic questions. He and Dr. Hamilton discussed at length different the pros and cons of changing her regimen. In the end, it was decided one of the medications could be tweaked so there might be a handful of hours in the day Mrs. DiNatali could be awake, semi-lucid, and relatively pain-free. It wouldn’t prolong her life, but it might give her back a few hours of it.
After they stood and shook hands, Dr. Hamilton turned to Molly. “I was going to call you to see if you could come in tonight to translate for Lisa Beechum after her guests go home, but I’ll call the backup. How long do you need to be off the rotation to stay with Doctor DiNatali’s family?”
“The week should do it,” Molly answered.
“Sorry we worked you so hard yesterday. You survive okay?” Doctor Hamilton turned to Liam. “She had to translate through a cesarean delivery. Did she tell you that? Total pro the whole time, except for the terror in her eyes.” He grinned at Molly. “I honestly thought you were going to faint when you saw the baby come out.” He sniggered at her, taking her stink eye with a grin.
“You and me both,” Molly agreed. She shook the doctor’s hand, thanked him, said goodbye and smiled up at Liam. “Better?” she asked once it was just the two of them in the empty room.
“Much. Except for that doctor. He’s got the glad eye for you. No wonder he’s so willing to help out.”
“Huh? Dr. Hamilton? No. He’s just a nice guy.”
“I guess it plays in my favor that you’re oblivious.”
Molly scoffed. “He’s like, a decade older than me!”
Liam glowered. “Hello! I’m six years older than you.”
“That, I can live with.” Molly took a sip of her coffee and grinned maliciously. “Although, I do have all this newfound sensual deviance. What to do. What to do.”
Liam’s face went stony, and the pliable fingers that had been tangled through hers grew rigid.
Molly faced him and touched his side when he did not further the banter. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” When she did not accept the blow-off, he sighed. “I have no right to… I just can’t stomach the thought of you with someone else.”
He made to move forward, but Molly was stalled in her tracks, her brow furrowed. “But Liam, you’re leaving at the end of the week.”
He turned and locked eyes with her. “What if I didn’t?”
Breath caught in her throat, Molly stared back at him like a deer in headlights. “What are you talking about?”
“What if I stayed? What if we saw where this was going?”
Molly finally snapped to and shook her head. “Liam, don’t say things you don’t mean. You’re not going to leave your job to move back here.” Her heart was so loud, she could feel the pulsing in her ears. “Don’t say things just to make me happy. You’ll change your mind, and I’ll be devastated. Don’t jerk me around like that.”
Liam’s gaze was hard as he took in her response. “It would make you happy if I stayed?”
She harrumphed. “It’s like you’re purposefully not hearing the other stuff I said. Don’t jerk me around. That’s the moral of the story.”
Liam’s mouth was on hers before another word could come out. His heart shifted and clicked into a position of serenity when she confirmed what he hoped. The rest was semantics, details he could work out later. “I won’t. Just hearing you say that is enough.” His hand went under the hem of her shirt to stroke her warm back.
Molly pulled away once his tongue entered her mouth. She put her hand to her forehead. “You’re scrambling my brain, Liam.”
“Don’t worry about it right now. Just stay close to me. We’ll figure it out.” He pulled her forward toward the doorway.
“Hold on! Give me a second.” She straightened her hair and resituated her shirt. “I don’t want your father to think we were doing dirty things in here.”
“Who cares? Trust me. They’re all thrilled about you.”
“Who cares?” she echoed, her frustration showing in her flustered face. “I do! We went to the same high school, Liam. Took the same freshman English class. The Scarlet Letter! It’s a thing, and I don’t want it!”
Liam belted out a laugh at her concern. “Wow. Good thing Nate’s not here. He’d have a field day with that.”
In sheer aggravation at being laughed at, Molly stomped her foot to the ground without thinking through the consequences. Pain shot up her leg, which she tried to hold a stern face throughout.
Liam took her beverage from her and sipped it, smiling casually at her plight. “Isn’t that your bad ankle?”
“I’m fine!”
“Did that feel good? I mean, if I had a sprained ankle, I’d be sure to slam it into the ground as often as possible. Eastern medicine route’s worth a shot every now and then.”
“Would you just shut up?” She flung her hair over her shoulder and tried to stalk past him, but her limp could not be concealed. This only added to his laughter, which did not stop until they reached his mother’s hospital room.
Mr. DiNatali was taking a phone call down the hall, leaving Nate and Jess to greet the happy couple. Nate looked up at Liam’s failed attempt at covering over his laugh. “What’s so funny?”
“Oh, nothing.” Liam sniggered as he sat on the windowsill next to Molly. “Molly’s just afraid of The Scarlet Letter.”
Molly gasped and lightly slapped his arm. “Liam DiNatali! You be quiet!”
“What?” Liam said, shielding himself from another girlish blow. “It nearly put me to sleep in high school. I’d be afraid of it, too. I mean, just reading it practically makes you a harlot!” He brayed when Molly voiced her indignation. She slapped his chest, and he gasped in feign horror. “You’re trying to cop a feel, you loose woman!” His laughter filled the room with its deep cadence and obvious joy. “Careful! I’d like to leave with my virtue intact.”
Molly responded by reaching over to his perfect smile and flicking his front two teeth with her hard nail.
“Ow! That stings!” He rubbed the enamel that resounded in his mouth like an unwelcome gong.
She grinned as he held his face and complained about the harsh retaliation. “Serves you right!”
“Is that so?” He responded by flicking her teeth and hopping backward so she could not reach him. It was an impossible game to win. Dinging the other person made you smile, which left you vulnerable for a takedown. They each got in two dings before Liam wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug, pinning her arms to her hips. He pulled her over to his mother’s bedside, still grinning. “Mom, this is my girlfriend, Molly.”
“I am not your –” But her protest was cut short by Liam’s hand over her mouth.
His voice went low and sinister. “Now she’s my prisoner. You’ll be happy I decided to forsake the medical field and take up the call of the pirate, Mom. I know it’s what you always wanted for me. Helping put me through school all those years was perfect training for a life at sea.”
Molly responded by licking his palm, which did not faze Liam. He rubbed her own spit on her face, bellowing with amusement at her irritation when he let her go to catch his breath.
Molly straightened her hair, but her blush could not be tamed. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, DiNatali! We are in public!”
His laughter trailed off as his eyes danced with merriment for only her. “You. You got into me.” He reached out and laced his fingers through hers, drawing her to his side.
“Oh, you’re a giant monkey.” Molly tucked her face into his shirt to avoid the blatant gawking from Nate and Jess.