Love On Call

“Thank you. I’m going to need to work, especially with Glenn out. But if you wouldn’t mind me dropping by…” Mari sighed. “I know she’s going to be all right, in my head at least, but—”

“The heart needs something different.” Ida gave her a squeeze. “Breakfast starts at six, dinner at five. We always have leftovers. So you just come around when you’re free. Glenn will want you there.”

“Thank you,” Mari whispered.

Ida glanced into the room at Glenn. “No need to thank me for taking care of my children.”

Mari returned to Glenn’s side and kissed her softly on the cheek. “I love you.”

Chapter Twenty-nine

Mari knew she wouldn’t sleep, but Ida’s voice in her head kept telling her she needed to try, and she woke up twelve hours later. A spurt of adrenaline jolted her out of bed and she speed-dialed the page operator and asked for Glenn’s floor.

“Oh, hi, Mari, this is Kimberly. I was just going off shift.”

“How’s Glenn?”

Kimberly laughed. “Harper was by around six this morning, signed Glenn’s discharge, and personally wheeled her out just as I was coming on.”

Mari sighed. Of course Glenn had left the instant she could. “Thanks.”

Mari rang off, hesitated a moment, and called the page operator back.

“This is Mari Mateo, a PA in the ER. Can you connect me to Dr. Edward Rivers’s home number?”

“Sure can. Hold on.”

Ida answered on the third ring. “Hello. Rivers.”

“Mrs. Rivers, it’s Mari. I’m so sorry to disturb you, but—”

“She’s here,” Ida said. “Sleeping still, I’d wager. Harper was by a little while ago and said everything looks just fine.”

Mari’s breath whooshed out. “Thank you.”

“What about you? Have you eaten?”

Mari laughed. “I just this minute opened my eyes. I slept almost all day. I’m fine.”

“You have time to come by for something to eat?”

“I wish I did, but I need to get to work. You’ll let me know if there’s any change, though, won’t you?”

“You can stop worrying about that. She’s sleeping and when she’s not, she’s eating, and under orders to do nothing else. Come to breakfast in the morning.”

“If you’re sure…”

“Course I am. You take care of yourself now.”

“I will. Tell her I called, please.”

“Done. Now I’ll see you in the morning.”

A shower, a cup of coffee that she drank on her way up the hill to the hospital, and a fresh sliced deli sandwich seemed to put her back on track. That and knowing Glenn was being cared for and healing.

Abby pursed her lips when Mari walked in and gave her a thorough study. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m good.”

“I’ve been working on the schedule, switching things around to cover for Glenn. I can get someone in here for you tonight too.”

“No. I want to work.”

“Good, because I need you.”

“I need to be here too.” Mari shrugged. “I want to be here. Mrs. Rivers—Ida—is looking after Glenn.”

Abby nodded. “I know. Flann told me. Everyone is getting updates and passing them along, otherwise the place out there would be overrun.” Abby smiled. “Glenn is very popular.”

“I don’t think she has any idea just how much.”

“Of course she doesn’t. That’s the sweetest thing about Glenn.”

Mari’s face heated. There were many sweet things about Glenn. “I’m going out there in the morning.”

Abby chuckled. “If it’s quiet, you can finish up a little early. And if you need to, you can take my car. I’ll catch a ride with Flann.”

“Thank you. Thanks for everything. Coming here is the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.” Mari didn’t say what Abby must already know—the staff in the ER, the friends she’d made, Carrie and the Riverses—they were her family now. This was her home. And she had Glenn, a woman she loved.

“I’m very glad you’re here.”

Her shift passed quickly. A steady line of patients, noncritical thankfully, kept her busy until six in the morning. The board was finally empty except for several patients who’d already been seen and were awaiting rooms upstairs.

“I’ll keep an eye on the rest of them,” Baker, Mari’s PA trainee, said.

“Thanks. Let me just clear it with Abby. Good job tonight.”

Baker smiled, her eyes sparkling at the praise. She was growing in confidence from a serious student to an intuitive clinician. Not everyone made that leap, but she had. “No problem. Tell Glenn we all said hi and to get well soon.”

Mari’s throat tightened. “Yes, I will.”

*

The sunrise was a brilliant wash of orange and red flames dancing over the mountaintops. Mari drove with the windows open, exulting in the cool morning air that would be gone in just a few hours, fleeing before the sultry summer heat. God, it was beautiful. She laughed aloud. She’d forgotten what happiness felt like, and the excitement that a new day brought when anything was possible.