Page 5 of My Heart Before You

A strange sensation of warmth lingered after his hands left her body. Since moving here, she hadn’t really been held, even loosely, by anyone. She touched a lot of people every day in her job, starting IVs, doing exams, holding a patient’s hand, but not many people touchedher. The last time she’d received anything but Ash’s hip bumps was the fierce, long hug her parents gave her when she dropped them off at the airport.

His pager sounded again, and he glanced at the device as James, her patient care aide, called her name followed by, “You’re going to hose out Mr. Shaw’s chest?”

The left side of the doctor's mouth lifted slightly as he turned away from them to dial a number onto the wall phone in the nearest charting area.

After getting the shower ready, and gathering all interested parties to observe, she spoke to Mr. Shaw and his wife, explaining the process and what to expect. The Shaws remarked that a doctor had been by recently to talk to them, and she was grateful Dr. Abernan had laid the groundwork for her.

Mr. Shaw was weakened from his surgery and fighting such a bad infection, but fortunately was able to walk with assistance and sit in the shower chair. Like the rest of the staff, Emilie covered her lavender scrubs in a gown, and donned gloves and a facemask with a plastic shield over her eyes. Opening just the front of his checkered, cloth hospital gown, she gently removed the dressing as James warmed the water. A pungent scent quickly filled the small space, and her lips parted to breathe through her mouth behind her mask—a trick she’d learned in nursing school.

There was a one-centimeter gap between the two sides of his split sternum, beyond which his heart was beating. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sight to her anymore. With infections like this, the pumping muscle was frequently visible through the unhealed opening during dressing changes. The metal shower head pulsed in her hand as she brought it towards his body. Filling her lungs to the brim, she confirmed with Mr. Shaw that he was ready before pushing all the water into his chest.

When thick, brown-green water spewed out in a rush, several of the peanut gallery stepped back. Her free hand found Mr. Shaw’s shoulder as she spoke reassuringly, watching the tainted liquid continue to flow—now a cloudy yellow. After a minute, the water finally ran clear, and she applied a new dressing and put him in a clean gown before returning him to his hospital bed.

Stepping back into the noisy hallway, as doctors, nurses, and aides moved around her in a seemingly well-choreographed dance, she glanced at her watch. She wasn’t even halfway through what was starting to be a very busy shift. Another nurse might have been frustrated by this point in the day, but her chest only swelled with gratitude that after everything, she still had this. Her nurse phone rang in her front pocket, and her lips lifted at the sound.

“5SW, this is Emilie.”

?Chapter 2?

Slowing to a crawl in front of the expansive two-story brick house, Colin pulled into the driveway. The sound of leaves rustling on the large mature trees dotting the front yard met his ears as he stepped from his SUV. Walking up the chevron paver path to the front steps, he inhaled deeply the scent of cut grass and burning charcoal ready for a steak. It’d been a long time since he’d been in the suburbs.

When Kate opened the door wide, her long, loosely curled red hair blew back with the swift inward movement. “Colin!” Auburn eyebrows lifted in excitement as she pulled him into a brief hug. “So glad you’re here.”

“Thank you for having me.” He held out the bottle of Malbec he’d brought and noted her breezy, tea-length dress under her white denim jacket. “You look amazing.”

She tossed her head with a laugh. “That’s because the last time you saw me, I’d practically just given birth.”

Bitterness washed over his tongue as he remembered the reason she’d traveled so far with such a young infant. The sound of her son’s tiny cries joining those of dozens of adults as they’d stared at the white lily-covered casket replayed in his mind.

Her eyes widened. “I’m sorry.”

A sharp, painful inhale filled his chest. “It’s okay,” he said, waving his hand as Max barreled down the hallway.

“Welcome to Casa Campbell!”

Being enveloped in his best friend’s burley arms felt like grabbing onto a lifeline. Though they usually gave each other one-armed guy hugs when they met for their annual “boys only” camping trip, he found both of his arms tightly wrapping around his friend’s smooth oxford shirt.

Standing in the threshold of his best friend's house, the feeling of utter loneliness that haunted him like an unwanted shadow dampened diminutively. Behind him was the adrift sensation of having no living family, and in front of him was the warmth of a relationship they’d both nurtured since medical school.

Max patted his shoulder, encouraging him down the hall. “Let me give you the tour. Kate outdid herself with this one.”

After thoroughly exploring the house, they settled in the backyard Adirondack chairs surrounding a stone fire pit. An expanse of grass ended with a tasteful wrought iron fence, providing a boundary from the nature preserve beyond. Birdsong floated above the layered chirps of crickets.

“This is an amazing yard.”

“Thanks, man. Kate and I really wanted Owen to have the small-town childhood we both had. We loved this house for its space and when he gets older, he can have all of those woods as a playground,” he said, running his hand through his short ginger hair before relaxing his fingers on the armrest.

Colin nodded. Some of his favorite memories from his childhood in North Carolina were making forts in the trees behind his parents’ house.

“How was your first week?” Max crossed his ankle over his knee.

Seven days of surgeries, office hours, and rounds quickly flashed through his mind, but the baffled look of two soft brown eyes pulled up the corner of his mouth. “Really good, actually.”

“You are going to love working here. Surgeons, nurses, and scrub techs working symbiotically in one big collaboration makes such a big difference.” His friend’s face lit up with a grin. “Plus, we get to high-five in the halls like the good old days. What more of a reason could you want to make the move?”

Colin felt his lips lift higher. “Thank you again for arranging all this.”

“You’d have done the same thing for me had the tables been turned, and it just happened to be perfect timing because John Reddington’s planning on retiring this summer. We were about to put out headhunters anyway, so really, you saved a lot of trouble looking for a good replacement.”

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