LITMIR.BIZ

      CHAPTER TWO

      AFTER CONCLUDING THE support-group meeting with reassurances and hugs, Christie huddled beside Eli’s brick prewar apartment building on a narrow SoHo street. Streetlamps glowed to life as the purple dusk deepened, illuminating pavement shining from the evening’s drizzle. A few buildings away, a Korean deli’s green awning stretched over flower-filled buckets. She inhaled the sweet scent, desperately needing some grounding after tonight’s ordeal with John.

      Her insides still shook, but at least her hands had quit trembling. The need to save John had gone beyond professional, firing through her with a desperation stirred up by ghosts from her past. Maybe that was part of the reason she’d been unable to simply go home afterward. If she couldn’t be at the hospital, she was glad, at least, to be here, where she was guaranteed updates.

      John should have arrived at Bellevue by now, and the critical-care team would be working hard to stabilize him. Given his already-compromised health, the group faced a serious challenge. But didn’t they always? And John’s strong, larger-than-life persona would help him conquer this setback. It had to.

      She shifted her weight to her right foot and pulled her damp shirt from her shivering body. How much longer would Mary keep her outside? She had promised to watch Eli’s children so he could stay with John. And if she didn’t get inside soon, she might miss hearing the latest on John’s condition.

      “Ms. Bates?” Mary’s voice crackled through a brass speaker.

      She pressed the talk button. “Yes. I’m still here.” Emphasis on the still. She shifted to her left foot.

      “My husband ran your license number and it seems you’re all clear.”

      “Your husband?” Mary had some serious connections. Getting inside Eli’s building was tougher than gaining clearance at the Pentagon.

      “He’s a sergeant at the Sixth Precinct on West Tenth Street,” said Mary, pride ringing in every word.

      “A man in blue? He must be handsome, then.”

      “There’s nothing like a man in a uniform,” Mary gushed, the sound of the buzzer ending her sentence.

      Christie’s sneakers squelched across a white marble floor to elevators with wrought-iron gates. A bronze art-deco light fixture made of scalloped glass dangled from a fifteen-foot ceiling with crown moldings.

      This was the glamorous New York she’d envisioned back when she’d sat on her front porch swing in Kansas, dreaming of the day she’d rejoin Gran in the big city. Visiting her widowed grandmother had fueled her desire to become part of this vibrant, cosmopolitan world once more. She’d never forgotten her old neighborhood’s Irish street festivals and specialty shops, and its fine-dining and family-style restaurants.

      She pressed the elevator button and stepped back to watch an ornate dial twitch closer to the lobby. When the elevator dinged, the familiar panic about entering an enclosed space clutched at her throat. An image of her brother’s casket flashed in her mind before she could block it. Where had that memory come from? She thought she’d locked it up and thrown away the key.

      She searched her purse with trembling hands. Where was her lucky rabbit’s foot? She’d had it for ages. Wait. She’d given it to Eli. She squeezed her eyes shut and pictured John. He needed it more than she did. She pulled the crisscrossed metal gate open and forced herself inside.

      “One hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight...” she counted, a coping trick her psychologist friend and roommate, Laura, had taught her. She whispered “ninety-four” before the doors swooshed open, the lit button indicating the top floor. Impressive. Whatever Eli did for a living, he must be very good at it.

      “Christie!” Tommy yelled as he burst through the double doors of his apartment. He wore dinosaur-patterned pajamas and massive green claw slippers. His wet hair and clean scent suggested a recent bath.

      “Hey, Tommy.” She strained to keep her voice calm as she tugged at the stuck elevator gate.

      “I’ll get you out, Christie. Daddy says I’m strong.” Tommy wrapped his small fingers around the metal strips and pulled. A golden retriever bounded out and barked.

      “Scout. Tommy. Back inside.” Mary appeared, shooed the two into the apartment and turned to Christie. “My dear, are you all right?”

      Christie slowed her breathing and dropped the hand hovering over her chest. Blackness crept around the edges of her vision.

      “I can’t get the gate open,” she gasped. How much longer before she passed out? How mortifying if she did.

      “We’ve asked the condo board to replace this thing a hundred times but they claim it’s too valuable.” Mary yanked the gate upward and sideways, applied a light kick to the bottom left corner and pulled. With a grating squeal the apparatus came loose. “Looks like a piece of scrap metal to me.”

      Saved! Christie stumbled out and dragged in a deep breath.

      “Thank you.” She tried to pull it together. The ambulance call and the high emotions of the night had shaken more than just her claustrophobia.

      “We should thank you. Eli would have been crushed if he couldn’t be there for John.”

      “Has he called?”

      Mary nodded. “While you were outside. He said to tell you that John’s condition is stable but still critical. Oh. And that he’ll call you again soon.”

      She smiled in relief. John’s life had hung by a thread at the YMCA. Thank goodness for Eli’s quick-thinking aid. She might be a trained RN, but she hadn’t been on a code response team in years. She wasn’t used to the adrenaline rush that came with that kind of pressure. Having him beside her had helped keep her steady.

      “Christie, are you coming?” Tommy called. He held out a silver purse. “And you forgot this, Mary.”

      Mary took the purse and put an arm around Tommy. “I would have been sadder if I’d forgotten your good-night kiss.” Tommy tipped his bright head back, his dimples so like his father’s.

      “Goodbye,

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