Page 34 of Stone Promises

“You’re awfully quiet,” Dad says.

I nod. “Sorry.”

“Did Mom ever tell you the story of how she and I got together?” he asks.

“You were a resident and she was a new nurse, right?”

“That’s right,” he says. “Residency is just this side of being in hell. Your life does not belong to you, it belongs to the hospital. You have no time to date. No time to do anything but learn. Your fellow residents become your family. They are who you spend all your time with. It’s no joke what you see on TV about residents sleeping together in on-call rooms. It happens. It happens because there’s just no time to do it anywhere else.”

“Then how did you have time for Mom?” I ask.

“I didn’t, that was the problem.” He gets up to put his plate in the sink, coming back with a bottle of beer for each of us.

I smile when he puts mine on the table in front of me. When I was younger, he’d set out milk and cookies when he wanted to have a talk. How times have changed.

“I was a new resident and your mom had recently started her nursing career. Neither of us knew what we were doing and both of us were trying to impress our supervisors. But as doctors, we’re supposed to know more than nurses. Especially new nurses.”

He settles into his seat and takes a sip of beer. “One day, a man was brought to the hospital for a supposed panic attack and none of the residents could figure out what was going on with him. Your mom was standing in the corner of the room and made a comment under her breath. Our attending physician heard her and made her repeat what she said. Her face turned red. Her hands were shaking. But she stepped forward and told us that maybe we should check his thyroid levels because based on his symptoms it sounded like he could be in hyperthyroid crisis.” He laughs, shaking his head at the memory. “Turns out she was right. This young, wet-behind-the-ears nurse put four residents to shame by diagnosing our patient. And she taught us all a lesson, one that our attending never failed to keep reminding us of—to think outside the box. Men rarely present with thyroid disorders. Especially younger men as that one was.”

I smile, proud of the mother I only got to know for seventeen years. “Is that why you started dating her?”

“Oh, no. I think we all hated her for embarrassing us in front of our boss. But she did earn my respect. And I can tell you, from that day on, I looked at nurses differently. It wasn’t until a year later that I’d really noticed her. I was leaning towards orthopedics as my specialty and she happened to have transferred to that department so we kept crossing paths. My schedule was still hectic. I knew I wouldn’t get to see her much if we dated, but I took a chance and asked her out anyway. She turned me down for months.”

I look up at him, surprised. “She did?”

“Yes. She knew my schedule. She knew how second-years were tied to the hospital. She also knew I’d had a reputation for hanging out in the on-call rooms.”

“Dad, really?” I ask, my mouth hanging open.

He nods bashfully. “Sorry, did I just ruin my chances for Father of the Year?”

I laugh. “Of course not, that was before you dated her.”Oh, God, at least I hope so. “Itwasbefore you dated her, right?”

He pats my hand reassuringly. “From the moment I asked her out, I never even looked at another woman.”

I smile, thinking of how Kendra said the same thing about Chad. “So how did you get her to go out with you?”

“It wasn’t easy,” he says. “I basically stalked her at the hospital. I’d show up in the cafeteria when she was eating lunch. I made friends with the nurse manager who would put your mom on some of my cases. I’d leave funny notes in patient charts knowing she’d see them.”

“So you finally wore her down,” I say, amused to be hearing the story of my parents’ courtship. Especially since we rarely talk about my mom. It causes him too much pain.

“I did, but it didn’t come without challenges. She had a lot to overcome. My schedule. The demands of my job. My past indiscretions.” He finishes his beer and takes my plate over to the sink.

“So why do you think she did it?” I ask. “Why did she put up with all of that?”

He turns around and leans against the sink. He looks me square in the eye. “I guess she thought I was worth it.”

My eyes become misty for the second time tonight. “You were listening?”

He pulls on his earlobe. “Ears of a dog,” he says.

I get up from the table and walk over to hug him. How does he always manage to do that—give me advice without it being so obvious? As I hug him, I smile. I smile because I realize he’s just had the most wonderful conversation with me about my mother and it didn’t make him sad. In fact, from the look on his face, he enjoyed those memories. Maybe he’s finally healing. “Thank you, Daddy. I love you.”

He hugs me tightly, kissing the top of my head. “I love you too, pumpkin.”

Chapter Eleven

Chad

---