Page 10 of Lush Curves

“Sarah too?”

“I don’t know. I imagine that your Mom will call her, right?”

“Do you know that Sarah is going to marry Jax?”

“Yes?” Sam paused, delighted atthatnews. “Really?”

“Yes. Do you know that I have a girlfriend?”

“You do?” This truly was one hell of a bombshell, so Sam gave Noah his full attention. “What’s her name?”

“Callie Winter. She’s also an artist, but not a painter. She does pottery.”

“Is that how you two met?” Sam resumed his painstaking work. “Because of your art?”

“Yes. At the Art With Heart Centre.” Noah grimaced as Sam dug out a particularly deep piece of glass, but he didn’t react beyond that. “We both work there.”

“Oh,nowI understand.”

Of courseSam had heard about Naomi Abbott’s Art With Heart program, aimed at autistic kids and adults. From what Sam knew, Naomi provided a huge space for free, for people to come and express themselves creatively. If someone showed artistic promise and marketability, she sold their work to art galleries all over the country and paid the artist a fair commission. If Noah was truly and genuinely talented, and if Naomi had spotted that, then it explained how he was earning a living off his work. If he was in demand, he might even be painting on order, which meant that he was getting personal advances on top of any commission and earnings.

“You know Naomi?” Noah asked him.

“No, I’ve never met her.”

“Do you know that she’s going to marry King?”

Sam stared at him. “King?You mean Matt Kingston? The man who was here with you and Jax and Annie three years ago?”

“Yes.”

“Good Lord. It’s a small world.”

“Not really,” Noah told him. “It’s actually quite large. Its circumference is 21,639 nautical miles, and its total surface area is about 197 million square miles. Quite large, you see.”

Sam laughed. “My mistake, Noah.”

“It’s OK.” Noah shrugged. “Mistakes happen, Doctor Sam.”

Silence descended as Sam concentrated on what he was doing. Glass shards were nasty things, and if he missed one and then stitched Noah up, he ran the risk of a serious infection. But the silence didn’t seem to bother Noah at all, and Sam recalled how quiet he had been all those years ago, sitting next to Sarah’s bed for hours on end, doing his puzzles, looking at his cards, watching TV. Back then, Noah had had the amazing ability to retreat into his own head, and he seemed happy enough to do that now.

The silence also allowed Sam some time to think about what was surely going to happen, and happen soon: Annie was going to come to the hospital, frantic about her son and looking for him.Shewas going to be here.

I’m going to see her again. Soon.

I’m going to see her today.

**

Annie burst into the E.R., feeling all kinds of horrificdéjà-vu, all over the damn place. She exploded around the corner, and skidded to a halt. She stared wildly around the room, her eyes darting from patient to doctor to paramedic, and when she saw the massive man with the dark hair sitting there wearing his usual scowl, she shot over to him.

“Jax!” she cried, in an eerie echo of three years earlier. “Jax!”

Jax got to his feet easily, held out his hands; he knewexactlywhere her mind had gone, because it was the same place that his had. “Hey, Annie… hey, it’s OK. I promise. It’s not like… like last time. Not even close.”

“Where is he?”

“He and Sarah went with the nurse to choose a bandage.”

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