Page 61 of A Twist of Faith
She proceeded to the stairwell without looking at him.
“Hey, wait just a minute.” Reese caught up with her as she started up the stairs; his low tones reverberated off the walls. “What’s the story? You’re not skeered, are you?”
“Scared,” she corrected, continuing up the steps.
“Youarescared?”
She stopped and turned to peer down at him two steps below her. “I don’t take elevators, okay?” Her voice broke. “I can’t.”
He moved to the step below her, putting them at eye level. “It’s something serious. More things that keep you up at night, I’d wager?” His gentleness coaxed her to answer. “What is it?”
She pinched her lips together. The mention of awagerdidn’t help. What did Reese care if her past lay in tattered pieces she didn’t even understand? And how did she share those dark and shattered stories with someone? What man wanted a woman withhermessed uppast and confusing present?
“I can’t.”
She turned on her heels and almost ran the rest of the flights to the fourth floor.
Reese didn’t push it. He dropped off the books for her at the nursing department’s office and followed her down the stairs to the main floor.
“I’ll see you later, alright,” he said as they reached the waiting area where the hallway split toward clinic and faculty offices.
She touched his arm as he turned to go. “Reese, thank you.”
He nodded a reply, gaze a riddle of questions.
“Maybe … maybe we can talk about it later. When we’re alone?”
He slid his hands into his jean’s pockets, a soft grin emerging. “I look forward to it, Doc.”
“Adelina?” A voice from her memories broke into their quiet conversation. “Adelina!”
Dee turned and gripped Reese’s arm for support. A chill scattered down her spine as she turned to face her mother.
Dee’s facegrew paler than snowfall, even her lips lost color. Her nail nipped into the skin of his arm and she shifted her weight against him as if she’d fall over. What on earth happened? A woman, face careworn and leathery, rushed forward, hands worrying her purse strap with the same energy as her steps.
Reese drew Dee closer to his side out of a sheer protective instinct.
“Do you realize how long it took me to find you, girl?”
The woman ignored Reese completely, narrowing the distance but keeping her near-scream volume. Half the building stood on alert.
“Six months.” Her bony finger needled a point toward Dee’s chest. “You won’t return my calls. You even gone and changed your phone number without letting me know about it.”
Dee stood straight, but kept her hold on Reese. “Can we discuss this in a more private place?”
The woman’s face crinkled even more and tears formed in her eyes. “I know you’re ashamed of me. I know you’ve always been ashamed of me, but it was your daddy that turned you against me. He turned everyone against me.”
The woman dropped her purse and buried her face into her hands. Loud sobs echoed off the sterile white walls and drew further attention from the clerical staff behind the counter. A mop of auburn hair frayed with gray curled on the woman’s head, and the full content of her words slammed Reese’s breath right out of him. Dee’s mother.
“This is neither the place nor time to discuss our history, Mother.”
Reese stared from Dee to the weeping woman, looking for some hint of resemblance without much luck.Thiswas the mother who hurt her so much? This weeping, broken woman?
“When is the right place and time, then? Huh? You tell me, girl.” The woman’s voice grew to a new volume. “Tomorrow? Next month? When?”
“I’m at work right now.” Dee’s voice trembled ever so slightly, which was all Reese needed to hear.
“Hidee, ma’am.” Reese lowered his free hand in welcome. “I’m Reese Mitchell.”
