Page 29 of The Launch

As the evening winds on, everyone relaxes. There is laughter, there are questions and answers, and there is even a short debate about music, which ends when Ed squires Eleanore overto the jukebox and they each choose a song to see which gets the most favorable response from the rest of the bar patrons. Through it all, Bill finds his eye traveling to wherever Jeanie is, gauging her comfort level, her joy, or her amusement at whatever is happening or being said. Rather than seeing this as a red flag, he lets himself be entertained by her curiosity and happiness, and when he catches her eyes dancing as she laughs at something Jay is saying, a smile spreads across his own face. In a way, he feels as though he’s simply done what Arvin North has asked him to do: he’s shown the other guys how to behave like gentlemen, and how to break down the barriers and misconceptions between the sexes. Maybe Jo would even be proud of him for this little feat of social engineering. She’s been so tetchy lately, and so defensive of womanhood, that perhaps she might find this olive branch that he’s extended towards his female coworkers to be a kindness.

But as Bill watches Jeanie sip her second beer, tossing her long hair over one shoulder and pushing her glasses up her small, cute, freckled nose, he knows that Jo will not see this in the same light as he’s attempting to cast his actions. She will not find it charming, sweet, or generous. She will find it suspect.

And as Bill’s heart does a weird fluttery thing in his chest, he understands on a visceral level that Jo would be right not to see this as entirely innocent. He has done nothing wrong, but his head and his heart are giving off flashing warning lights and whistles to let him know that he’s in uncharted territory and that a storm is approaching.

Bill finds somewhere else to look while he finishes his beer, and then he says his goodbyes and heads home, appropriately sobered by this realization.

THIRTEEN

jo

“Good morning, Mr. D,”Jo says to Douglas Dandridge as she wheels her cart into his hospital room on a rainy August afternoon.

Douglas is staring at the threatening clouds gathered outside his window. “It took me some time, Josephine,” he says without turning to look at her directly, “but I’ve come to love these summer storms in Florida. They really clear the air, don’t they?”

Jo has to agree with him: they do clear the air, leaving behind a freshness for a short while, and sometimes clearing out just in time for the bruised but hopeful evening sky to dissolve into sunset.

“How are you today?” Jo asks him, choosing two novels from her cart and setting them on his bedside table. In the time that Jo has known Douglas Dandridge, he’s worked through at least three or four Harlequin romance novels a week, and he’s showed no sign of slowing down. In fact, the hospital cart has run out of books for him, so she’s taken to asking her friends if they have any he can borrow, and she slides them onto his nightstand without letting him know that she’s had to seek them out on her own time.

Douglas finally turns to look at her, and Jo gasps at the sight of his forehead. “What happened?” she asks, rushing over to him with one hand outstretched. She stops short of gently touching the deep purple bruise over his eye.

Mr. Dandridge puts his own shaky hand to the knot that’s formed there, and Jo notices a string of stitches over his eye. “I fell,” he says simply. “It’s not unheard of for a man my age, you know.”

Jo pulls up the chair next to his bed and sits on it as she reaches for his hand and clasps it between both of her own. In the past two months, she and Mr. Dandridge have become fast friends, and seeing him like this brings a sharp pain to Jo’s heart. “How did you fall? Was the nurse here? Did you slip in the shower?”

Douglas chuckles and squeezes Jo’s hand with his long, cool fingers. “Don’t you worry for a minute, Josephine. I’m fine. I got out of bed one evening thinking I could make it to the bathroom on my own, and lo and behold, I could not.” He laughs again, but this time it’s tinged with embarrassment. “Some things about being an old man are not so wonderful,” he says with a little shrug.

Jo smiles at him sympathetically. “Promise me you’ll call for the nurse next time, will you?”

He’s about to respond when there’s a knock at the door of his room. Jo turns in her chair and sees an unfamiliar doctor in a white coat standing there. Her first instinct is to jump up and retrieve her cart, as she feels like she’s just been caught sitting down on the job, but Douglas does not let go of her hand.

“Hello, Mr. Dandridge,” the doctor says with a wide smile and a Latin accent. He turns to Jo with a puzzled smile when he sees the familiarity between her and Douglas. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know Mr. Dandridge had family visiting.”

Jo pats Douglas’s hand and stands up, smoothing down her skirt with both hands. “I’m Josephine Booker,” she says. “I’m actually a volunteer, but Mr. Dandridge is one of my favorite people here.”

The doctor’s smile widens. “He’s everybody’s favorite. I’m Dr. Chavez,” he says, extending a hand to Jo. “I’m new to Stardust General, but I’ve already become a big fan of this guy.” He tips his head at Douglas, who makes apshhhsound and waves a hand at the doctor. “He acts like he doesn’t like me much, but let me tell you: when no one else is here, we can talk baseball for hours.”

“My son is a baseball nut, too,” Jo says as she looks back and forth between the two men. “He’s dying to go to New York and see the Yankees play.”

“I can understand that,” says Dr. Chavez. “Seeing the Yankees play is truly an all-American thing to do.”

There is a brief silence in the room and Jo gathers herself, realizing that Dr. Chavez most likely wants to check up on Mr. Dandridge or ask him some personal medical questions. “I should move along,” Jo says, taking her cart by the handle and steering it toward the door. “I’ll see you Thursday, Mr. D,” she says to Douglas, turning back to him regretfully. “No more falling down, you hear?”

“I hear you, Josephine,” he says, shaking his head as though he’s put out by her words, but from the look on his face, Jo can tell that he loves having someone worry about him. “Take good care of those kids.”

With a wave at Mr. Dandridge and a nod and a smile for Dr. Chavez, Jo pushes her cart out into the hallway. She’s about to knock on the next door when she hears Douglas chastising Dr. Chavez. “You just had to butt in and scare off the only pretty girl who comes to see me, didn’t you?”

Dr. Chavez’s booming laugh echoes out into the hallway, and Jo smiles as she blushes. She enjoys Douglas’s company, too.

Jo finishes visiting the last rooms in the hallway and is making her way towards the elevator when Dr. Chavez spots her and lifts a hand for her to wait.

“Mrs. Booker,” he says, his eyes landing on her left hand ever so briefly to confirm that there’s a ring there. He looks back at her. “Thank you for taking the time to sit with Mr. Dandridge. I think it really makes a difference in his care to have someone he looks forward to seeing. As far as I know, he’s entirely without family here, and I truly think you brighten his spirits.”

Jo’s cheeks get hot again and she looks down at the neat rows of books on the top shelf of her cart. “Well, I enjoy visiting with him—and working here. Or, rather, volunteering. I know I don’tworkhere. Not for a paycheck anyway. Not like a real nurse or a doctor.” Jo can hear herself stammering nervously. To her own ears she sounds like a moronic nitwit, and she bites her bottom lip to keep any more words from tumbling out.

Dr. Chavez smiles kindly. “Make no mistake: you work here. Spending time with patients in a non-medical capacity is just as important to their overall care as a nurse coming in and taking their stats, or a doctor doing a progress check. When Mr. Dandridge—and, I presume, everyone else on the ward—sees you walk into the room, they undoubtedly experience some very positive feelings and physical responses.”

“Oh,” Jo says. She’s entirely flattered and far too flustered for her own liking. “Thank you. I just bring books and snacks.”

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