Page 29 of Stone Vows

“Then it’s okay if I tell them they can stop by?” I ask with a hopeful grin.

She nods hesitantly. “I’m just not sure what they expect to get out of it.”

“How about a new friend?” I ask.

“Friend,” she muses mostly to herself as if it’s a foreign concept.

I push the down button for the elevator. “Elizabeth, I’m glad to hear you have a place, even if you think it’s nothing special. But I have to ask—you’ll be here for a long time, how are you going to make the rent?”

“Luckily, I paid it the day before I was admitted. That was on the second so it will get me through to the end of August.”

“What about after that?” I ask. “You aren’t working now. What’ll you do when you get discharged?” I crouch down beside her and keep my voice low. “I’d like to help. You know, just until you get back on your—”

“Kyle, stop,” she says, disapprovingly. “I’m not about to take any handouts. Besides, you’re a resident. I’ve seenGrey’s Anatomy. I know you probably don’t make much more than what covers your own rent. Thank you, but no. I’ll be fine. I’ll figure it out.”

I nod, not wanting to push her on the subject. “Okay, but the offer stands. If you get home and you realize—”

She stops my words with her venomous stare. “What about me not taking handouts do you not understand, Dr. Stone?”

Shit.

“Sorry,” I say, putting my hands up in surrender. “Not another word. I have no doubt you’ll figure it all out. You’re a strong woman, Elizabeth.”

The elevator arrives and I push her in, pressing the button for the ground floor.

“Why would you say that? That I’m strong,” she asks. “You don’t even know me.”

“Yeah, but I knowpeople,” I tell her. “A lot of people come through the doors of this hospital. As doctors, part of our job is to read the signs, learn what they can and can’t handle. My instinct tells me that you’ve probably already handled a lot. Becoming a single parent can’t be easy, yet I’ve never heard you complain about it.”

She rubs a hand across her belly. “Not much I can do about it now,” she says. “This is happening whether I had planned on it or not. Might as well make the best of it.”

I roll her through two sets of double doors to the courtyard in the center of the hospital. All the wings of the hospital are built around the large arboretum that is lined with trees, benches and decorative sidewalks.

They can’t build hospitals like this in the city anymore. But this one was one of the original hospitals in New York, built over a hundred years ago. It’s considered a historic building, in fact, so it can’t be torn down to maximize space.

Being in the courtyard is nothing like walking around the city. It’s quiet. Peaceful. Serene. I remember spending hours upon hours out here studying for my intern exams last spring.

“Oh, wow,” Elizabeth says, as I push her down the path towards a seating area. “The flowers are amazing.”

“Would you believe the hospital employs its own gardener?”

“I believe it,” she says. “Normally these types of flowers wouldn’t grow without full sunlight.” She looks up at the eight-story building that surrounds the courtyard. “A good bit of light is blocked by the building. He must work very hard.”

“You garden?” I ask.

“Oh, yes,” she says. Then her smile falls. “Well, I used to.”

I stop pushing her when we reach my favorite bench. “This okay?” I ask.

“Perfect,” she says. “I would have picked this bench, too.”

I tilt my head at her. “Why?”

“See those flowers? They’re lavender, a calming flower. Their scent is supposed to help with stress. A lot of people spray it in their bedrooms at night to help them sleep.”

“Ahh, well, that explains it then.”

“Explains what?” she asks.

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