Page 7 of A Doctor for Daisy

In the two years she’d been here, she had more of a family than she ever had before.

The thought of losing the woman that had become like a sister to her was too much for her to bear.

She sat there on her phone, texting her bosses and other coworkers updates on Heather. Everyone was concerned.

A nurse came in and said Jill and Max could visit Heather and she remained in her seat. She looked up when she realized the nurse was still there.

“Are you going in too?” the nurse asked. “You can.”

“I’ll let Heather’s parents go first. Ummm, when are visiting hours ending? I’m not sure if Heather’s parents are going to let me see her. I mean they might stay until the end.”

The nurse smiled at her. “I’ll get you in even if the hours end. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you,” she said, finding herself sniffling some.

Daisy got up and went to get a coffee and a donut or muffin or something else easy.

She was starving now that she knew Heather was going to be okay.

She’d been sitting in the waiting room for what seemed like another hour when Jill and Max walked by on their way out. They didn’t even stop in to see her or say a word.

She got up and left the waiting room and went to the desk where the nurses were. “I was hoping you were still here. Your friend is actually asking for you.”

Daisy laughed. “I’m sure she is.”

She walked into the room and saw her best friend sigh in relief. “Why would you leave me alone with my parents that long?” Heather asked. “I thought you had my back.”

She rushed closer and gave a light hug to Heather. “I’m so glad you’re okay. And I know your parents. There is no telling your mother anything. They have a right to see you first.”

“Yeah, but then they wouldn’t leave.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I got in an accident and had surgery on my leg. How about you?”

“Like my roommate was pulled out of a burning car by the sexy trooper she has her eyes on and he’s not looking back at her the way she wants.”

“My parents told me Luke rescued me. Really? That’s when I see him again. Or he sees me like this?”

“He was worried,” she said. “He looked as gutted as me. He came back to check in on you too.”

“So I heard. Which is sweet. After my mother told me how horrible I looked, somehow they brought up that the trooper who got me out of the car knew me. I don’t know a lot of troopers so it was an easy guess even through my muddled brain.”

“Your brain could never be muddled. You’re too smart,” she said.

Unlike her roommate, Daisy had never thought she was that smart. She got by because anyone could get through school if they did their work, showed up and tried a little.

She did those things so she could make her mother proud of her as the first to get anything more than a high school education.

But she never saw herself doing much with that two-year business degree.

She’d been making jewelry and accessories most of her life because, if she wanted those things, it was cheaper to make it than buy it.

Having side gigs was how her mother got by in life. From making jams and jellies and selling them at craft fairs in the summers to cleaning houses at night and on the weekends.

One job was never enough for her mother who worked as a customer service rep and in manufacturing on assembly lines.

Her mother went where the money and the hours were the best.

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