LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER NINE

      “I DON’T WANT to go to the hospital.”

      The woman lying in the bed in her hotel room was in obvious respiratory distress, her words coming out in a disjointed series of wheezes that reminded him of his encounter with Maddy in the lobby of this very hotel.

      Last week had thrown him for a loop, and he realized what a huge mistake he had made by staying at her place. It was why he never stayed at a woman’s house. The less he knew, the easier it was to walk away when the night was over.

      Instead, he’d wandered around Maddy’s living room, looking at intimate glimpses of her life. He’d even met her mother, for goodness’ sake. Something that never would have happened if he’d stuck to his internal rule book. He could have brought her back to his own place and made love to her without a care in the world. But no. He had to go and act as if he could do whatever he wanted without it costing one red cent.

      How wrong he’d been.

      Chloe saying that her head hurt had sent a shaft of pain through him that had cut him to the core. He’d heard that same phrase almost word for word from his own daughter. “Daddy, my head hurts.”

      A few weeks later, she’d been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.

      Forcing his attention back to his patient, he put the stethoscope in his ears and asked her to sit up for a minute. “When I tell you to, can you breathe deeply for me?”

      “I’ll try.”

      He pressed the chest piece of the instrument to her back. “Okay, breathe.”

      Where Kaleb should have heard deep clear chest sounds, there was an ominous crackling instead, that originated in the lower lobe of Gloria Lowell’s right lung. He moved it a little higher. “Again.”

      The crackling sound diminished dramatically the higher he got. He moved to the other side and had his patient take another deep breath. There it was again. Bi-basal crackling. Could be pneumonia. Could be something interstitial. But whatever it was, it wasn’t going away without treatment.

      Her husband, who was standing nearby, must have seen something in his face. “What is it?”

      “She needs to go to the hospital.” It was his second attempt to convince Gloria to head across the street. He addressed her directly. “I need to do a chest X-ray. You could have pneumonia.”

      “Are you sure?” She gave a labored cough that left her gasping for breath all over again.

      “That you have pneumonia? No. But I am hearing some sounds in your lungs that are cause for concern. Your husband can stay with you every step of the way.”

      Mrs. Lowell had to be pushing seventy-five or maybe eighty. Lung infections at that age were worrisome. The couple was in Seattle on a whirlwind vacation. He could understand why she didn’t want to wind up in a hospital so far away from home.

      As his daughter had?

      They too had been on vacation when Grace had got her first headache. They’d gone to an emergency room, and had left with antibiotics. But things had got better, so they chalked it up to a sinus infection. In the end, they’d waited until they got home to follow up with their regular doctor, not knowing it was already too late. If he’d just taken her symptoms more seriously, would things have ended differently?

      “It’s right across the street. We won’t even need to call an ambulance.” He crossed his fingers mentally, hoping this would work and that Gloria wouldn’t board her scheduled flight later on today. “I have a friend who can bring a wheelchair over from the hospital. We’ll just take you across, and if nothing’s wrong we’ll bring you right back. You still have several hours before you need to be at the airport.”

      He prayed what he was thinking would work.

      “Clyde? You’ll stay with me?”

      He took ahold of her hand. “Always, baby.”

      The obvious love between the husband and wife made his gut tighten. If Grace had lived, would he and Janice have made it until “death do us part”? Although if their relationship had been strong enough, it should have survived even Grace’s illness and death. But it hadn’t.

      Gloria took a deep breath and then immediately went into another coughing fit. Once she stopped, she nodded. “Okay. But no ambulances. My daddy died after going to the hospital in one of those.”

      “No ambulance.” He paused. “Let me just make a quick call.”

      Pulling out his cell phone, he hoped he wasn’t making a terrible mistake. It had been less than a week since he’d spent the night with Maddy. She could very well hang up on him. He knew he’d acted like a jerk on his way out of her house, but Chloe’s headache...

      Damn.

      He pressed the numbers for the hospital and then asked the operator to connect him with Maddy. He waited as the line started ringing. He could only hope she wasn’t with a patient and picked up rather than letting the phone go straight to voice mail. Although once she realized who it was, she might very well not answer it.

      The ringer sounded for the third time when he heard a familiar click. “Dr. Grimes.”

      “Maddy? It’s Kaleb.”

      “Hi.”

      “Sorry to bother you, but I have a patient over here at the Consortium. Breathing problems—”

      “Asthma?” The tone of her voice immediately shifted, moving into the realm of a professional in a single breath.

      “Bilateral crackles.”

      “Can you bring the patient in?”

      He hesitated, then forged ahead. “She doesn’t want an ambulance. I told her that I would try to arrange a wheelchair transport.”

      “A wheelchair what?”

      “Are you busy with patients right now?”

      “Not right this second. Do you want me to come over and take a look?”

      Well, at least she didn’t sound irritated. “Would you? It’s the only way I can get her to agree to get checked out.”

      “I’ll be right there.” She paused. “And I’ll bring that wheelchair with me, just in case.”

      * * *

      Maddy arrived at the hotel ten minutes later. When she went into the lobby, the concierge was expecting her. He came right over. “She’s on the tenth floor, room 1021. Do you want me to go up with you?”

      “No, I’ll be fine.”

      Would she? She no longer knew.

      She walked over to the bank of elevators, pushing the wheelchair. It only took a minute until she was headed up to the patient’s floor. She had no idea how she was going to feel when she saw Kaleb’s face. She’d been actively trying to avoid him ever since he’d left her place. Her mom coming to spend the week with her had not only put a crimp

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