Page 33 of Between Our Hearts

His father’s beat-up yet reliable Volvo was parked at the top of the driveway when Clark pulled into the garage. A second after he hopped down from his truck bed, his mom wrapped him in a bone crushing hug. Any other mother probably would have waited until their adult son wasn’t sweaty and covered in grass, but Pam Benson had never been fussy about things like that.

“Hey, Mom.” The familiar eucalyptus scent of her lotion was comforting as it simultaneously caused his throat to tighten.

“Gigi! Gigi!” Lottie bounced with excitement in her car seat until his father opened the rear cab door to free her. “Papa!” Her little arms gripped her grandfather’s neck when he leaned down to kiss her.

“Hey, ladybug. I missed you too.” His muffled voice held a smile, his face pressed into the car seat.

When his mom finally released him, Clark was prepared with the usual post-travel chitchat. How was the drive? Did you have much traffic? But then her intuitive hazel eyes snagged on his, silently reading him. A soldering iron poked in between his ribs. He should have known his observant mother would notice how unhappy he’d been.

His mom’s face twisted with gentle concern as she laid both of her hands on his cheeks, just like she used to when he was a boy. “Oh, honey.” She let out a long even breath. “What can you do about it?”

It was a phrase that she’d often used when he was growing up. Not in a dismissive way, like one would assume with an accompanying shoulder shrug or roll of the eye. The question was meant to jostle the brain into recognizing what was within your locus of control and what wasn’t.

A thought rushed to the front of his mind. “Do you mind watching Lottie for a little while?”

?Chapter 17?

“This is Dr. Carmichael. I was paged,” Sadie said in response to the greeting of the OR desk assistant’s voice through her cell phone.

“Doctor, your husband’s here looking for you. Would you like me to ask him to wait in the surgical waiting room?”

Sadie’s next step down the ICU hallway faltered. Clark had never visited her at the hospital before. An icy sensation pulsed down her arms.

“Is Lottie okay?”

The assistant relayed the message, and in the background she heard her husband’s quick denial followed by his breathy laugh as he explained something about surprising her with lunch.

A sagging exhale left her as she continued to the main hallway and began descending the stairs. Her daughter was okay. The momentary reprieve brought by that thought was instantaneously replaced by trepidation at Clark’s presence here, at the hospital.

She forced herself to answer the assistant, “Tell him I’ll meet him in the main lobby.”

“Yes, Dr. Carmichael,” sounded before she disconnected the call.

Sadie’s gaze was unfocused while her long strides cut through the lobby.

“Hey, love.”

As she spun, she had to control the funhouse mirror feeling that was squeezing all her extremities. Clark looked so out of place here amid all the scrub-clad workers and patients being pushed in wheelchairs with IV bags hanging aloft. The fabric of an unfamiliar white polo strained across his chest as one of his hands tucked into the pocket of his nicest jeans. For half a second, she got lost in the veins streaking down his arm before she collected herself enough to respond.

“Hi.” Since her answer was more of a breathy exhale than a word, she swallowed and tried again. “I’m surprised to see you. Where’s Lottie?”

A fragment of the light in his eyes dimmed.

“My parents arrived this morning, remember?”

An additional weight pushed down Sadie’s spine. That’s right. Now in addition to hiding her desolation at work, she’d have to play happy family for the weekend while Mike and Pam were visiting.

“Lottie was happy with them,” Clark continued, “so I thought I’d come have lunch with you.” His smile dropped even farther. “I called Maggie, and she said you had a gap between surgeries right now. I figured you would need to eat.” His other hand raised the yellow striped bag from their favorite sandwich shop.

Chilled saline felt like it was being pumped through her bloodstream at the thought of Clark calling Maggie. The efficient woman managed the orthopedic surgery department’s day-to-day schedule. At any point, Clark could call and find out that she wasn’t in the OR as often as she claimed she was.

Though her body continued to war against her husband’s presence here, her mind finally organized itself enough to answer. “That sounds nice. Let’s eat in the courtyard.”

Clark’s grin found its footing again and before her chest could squeeze further, she turned and led him down the hall that opened to the large outdoor green space. Weaving through the stone pathways, past the sweeping willows, she found an unoccupied metal picnic table in the center of the courtyard. The space was crowded with other medical staff eating their lunches at the collection of tables, and patients and family members sat on the many benches tucked between hydrangea bushes and patches of yellow Carolina lupines.

She focused on even breaths as she unwrapped the waxed paper surrounding her sandwich. “Did your parents make it in okay?”

Her husband’s laugh softened the nervousness singeing her skin. “You know my dad. He’s got to be on the road by five a.m. to beat traffic. Plus, they were excited to play with Lottie.” His tone became solemn. “They’re looking forward to seeing you too.”

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