Page 6 of Hush

“How’s my tough little soldier?” Garrett replied, setting him down. Taking hold of Jaden’s good hand, he leveled his gaze on Elise. She stood her ground, not willing to let him make her feel small. It was the only upside to the brief therapy sessions she’d indulged in after the divorce. The rest of it had been lost on her—all that digging-into-her past nonsense. She’d had a happy childhood. If the therapist had wanted to find some kind of smoking gun for the demise of her marriage there, she would be disappointed. So, Elise had quit attending. She had better things to do with her time.

“I have a meeting at nine thirty,” Garrett said. “Any chance we can get this over with before then?”

Elise tried to keep her energy in neutral. “It’s up to the doctor,” she said, not mentioning she had a class to teach at ten o’clock and a 201-quiz section directly after. Elise had a fellow professor lined up as a substitute if needed.

The three walked into the waiting area. Elise checked in, then returned to the seats to wait.

“Have you been practicing your soccer moves?” Garrett asked Jaden.

Jaden’s face tightened. “Mama let me take apart a radio,” he said instead.

Garrett eyed Elise. “Is that right? Wow, what did you find inside?” he asked.

Elise let her attention drift as Jaden and Garrett’s conversation continued to the subject of school and friends. Because the custody sharing was weighted heavily in her favor, Garrett hadn’t seen Jaden in over a week. The next weekend was Garrett’s. Then, over the holidays, Garrett would have Jaden for an entire week. The thought made her cringe. After long visits, Jaden was always sullen and moody. Garrett had kept the house because it was part of the winery and tasting room, which was Garrett’s livelihood. So when Jaden was with Garrett, he got to be in his old room, eat in the familiar kitchen, and play in the playroom stocked with toys and games. With Elise, the house still didn’t feel like a home, though she had tried.

A nurse stepped through the door in front of them, then called Jaden’s name. The three rose, silently following her back to the exam rooms. The energy in the clinic felt quieter than the E.R. Elise followed the nurse past a desk in the center of the space where two women in scrubs sipped coffee from paper Starbuck’s cups. One stood filling out paperwork, and the other seemed to be telling a story. A laugh came from somewhere down the hallway, and Elise turned sharply to see Dr. Parker paused at the door of an exam room, both hands braced against the frame as he leaned in to give parting words to whomever was inside. Quickly, Elise swiveled away before he could catch her watching.

The nurse turned into a room, then motioned for them to be seated. While the nurse went through the motions of taking Jaden’s vital signs, then ushering them to the X-Ray room for another set of images of Jaden’s wrist, Elise tried to calm the disturbing tingle inside her core. She blamed Caitlin for putting images in her head—Dr. Parker was her son’s physician, not something to ogle over, no matter how handsome or kind, no matter what his rich laugh sounded like in her ears.

“Hi there, I’m Doctor Parker,” the doctor said when he entered the room and noticed Garrett, scrolling through his phone. The doctor extended his hand to Garrett, who was quick to return the shake. Dr. Parker then shook Elise’s hand, the brief warmth of his touch sending a little pulse through her palm.

Then he turned his attention to Jaden, who had settled into Elise’s lap.

“How’s the wrist feeling, Jaden?” he asked, his eyes knitting with compassion.

Jaden swung his legs.

“He’s not complaining about it as much,” Elise said. “But I notice he doesn’t use it, either.”

“Let Jaden talk, Elise,” Garrett interrupted.

Elise clenched her lips, inhaled. “Jaden, do you want to tell Dr. Parker?” she asked, rubbing his back. She did not look at Garrett.

Jaden shrugged.

“Does the brace help?” Dr. Parker asked, seemingly unfazed by the exchange.

Jaden nodded.

“Good,” Dr. Parker answered. He looked at Elise, then at Garrett. “Have you used Tylenol or anything for the discomfort?”

“Not since the first night,” Elise replied, straightening. “He’s been sleeping okay.”

Dr. Parker nodded. He stood, stepped to a computer monitor stand in the corner of the room, tapped a few keys, and waited for a series of images to appear. He positioned the monitor to face them better, using the pen in his dress shirt pocket to point out the fractured bone. Zooming in, he showed the space between the bones—called growth plates—that needed special attention. “So he can grow up to be a firefighter, a dancer, or an engineer,” Dr. Parker said with a smile.

“That’s quite the range,” Garrett said with a snort.

Jaden glanced up shyly. “Firefighter,” he said.

Dr. Parker winked. “That’s what I wanted to be, too,” he told him. Then he glanced up at Elise and Garrett. He pointed at the break on the film with his pen tip. “So, the surgery is pretty straightforward. It’ll actually speed his recovery. We’ll repair that shattered piece here,” he said, circling the area, “to make sure there are no fragments, and that’s it.”

“How many of these surgeries have you done, Doctor?” Garrett asked.

Elise gritted her teeth.

“Let’s see, this’ll be my thirtieth? Thirty-fifth? It’s a pretty common injury in children.”

“Do you think you’re the best man for the job? Isn’t there someone here with more experience?”

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