Saving Forever - Part 2 (16 page)

He expected her to drive Elijah home.

Somehow she managed to feel defeated and hopeful at the same time.

Inside she opened a bottle of wine and poured herself some zinfandel. Halfway through her glass, the front door opened.

“Charity?” her father called out.

“In the kitchen.” She did a quick fix of her hair and went into the living room. Her father took Elijah’s leather jacket and hung it up in the hallway. Her father wore his trademark suit and tie while Elijah was dressed in clothes different from his usual attire. He wore black pants and a fitted button-up shirt. The charcoal grey color of his top looked good on him.

Something about him was different. It took her a moment to realize he’d shaven. She wondered what it would feel like to kiss his lips without his scruff. She liked the feel of it but the thought made her very curious. She swallowed and then realized her father had asked her a question as she stood staring at his guest.

“Sorry, pardon?” She caught Elijah smile as she turned to her dad.

“Have you been here all afternoon?” Her dad came around and glanced at the dining room. “Those are different.”

She moved from the doorframe and tried not to roll her eyes. No compliment, only complaint. “The butcher talked me into trying them. I figured as a doctor you would prefer this over deep fried food.” She also wasn’t sure if her mother’s old fondue set had been out in the past six or seven years. She had no intention of talking about her mother with her dad. “Would you two like a drink?”

Elijah came up behind her and handed her a bottle of red wine. “I wasn’t sure what to bring.” He handed her father a bottle of whiskey. “Thanks for having me over.”

“Fantastic! Shall we crack this open now?” Her father took her bottle with his and headed into the kitchen. “Holy smokes, Charity! How many people are you planning on feeding tonight?”

“Welcome to my crazy family,” she whispered to Elijah.

She earned a sympathetic smile from him. Thank goodness they would be on the same side tonight. “Dad, relax. It’s not as much as it looks.” Her stomach rumbled loudly again. She really needed to get a doctor to check it out.

Elijah chuckled. “I feel the same way. My stomach’s just trying to be a little more polite. It doesn’t feel as at home as yours does.”

“Oh mine doesn’t feel at home here. It has no preference.”

“I do recall…”

Her father walked into the room with two glasses of red wine and Elijah let his sentence trail off. He sat down at the table and played with one of the gourmet cookers.  “These look pretty impressive.”

“Shall we try them out then? It’ll take a few minutes for the burners to warm up and I can bring all the food out. We can make our own appetizers.”

“Let me help you.” Elijah offered. His face gave away nothing and it drove Charity crazy. She wished she knew what was going on inside that handsome head of his.

“Do we just need a light to get the burners going?” her father asked.

“Yes, I already filled them with oil and there are long matches on the buffet behind you.”

Elijah followed her into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and pulled a few plates of cut meat out. She began taking the saran wrap off of them. Elijah mimicked and stood across from her at the island.

Charity gathered a tiny bit of courage and took a deep breath. “Are we okay… for tonight?” She couldn’t look up to meet his gaze. She continued quietly so her father wouldn’t hear. “I just don’t… it’s awkward being here with my father… and you.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything in front of your father.”

What did he mean by that? He planned on keeping their knowledge of each other a secret or did he mean he wouldn’t start a fight in front of her father? “Thanks,” she said instead of asking.

Three trips later the choice of food lay spread around the table and they each settled into a seat. Charity sat in the spot she’d always sat growing up
; her father did as well. Elijah settled across from Charity and her mother’s chair remained empty. She brushed the thought away. “There are small squares of phyllo pastry if you want to make an appetizer.”

Her father tossed strips of steak and cut up mushroom and onions into his pan. He added some red wine with it. The tantalizing smell instantly hit the air.

Elijah threw a number of different things in his pan and kept adding to it. “I love this! I need to get me one of these as well.”

“Keep one of these.” Charity laughed at the boyish excitement on his face. “It’s your Christmas bonus from my dad.” She covered her mouth and pretended to look shocked. “Oops, I wasn’t supposed to give that away yet, right Dad? Did you still want to wrap it and put it under the tree?” She glanced behind him. “Speaking of which, you don’t have a tree.”

Her father harrumphed. “Silly to have one when you’re on your own.”

“I agree.” Elijah added more to his almost overflowing pan. “I don’t have one either.”

“That makes three of us actually. I’m treeless as well.”

Elijah held up his glass. “A toast to saving Christopher the Christmas tree.”

They all clinked glasses.

“I watched that as a kid. That’s an American tiny little Christmas story that never made it big.” Charity scooped some rice onto her plate and added her cooked chicken.

“Funny, I have no idea where my father found it, but so did I.”

The mention of Elijah’s father reminded Charity of what had happened last week. She could feel her cheeks warm and it had nothing to do with the small glass of wine she’d drunk.

Her father appeared oblivious and asked Elijah what he thought of a new procedure the hospital would be implementing in the New Year. They kept most of the conversation going over dinner, for which Charity was thankful.

She began clearing plates away as the burners ran down and bellies were filled. She finally poured herself a second glass. Getting through tonight sober seemed next to impossible but
she had no intention of spending the night in this house. Plus she had to drive Elijah home. Funny, she had slept with the man but had no idea where he lived.

“Charity.” Her father motioned for her to sit down. “I was telling Elijah on the ride home that you were in med school.”

She glanced back and forth between the two men. She could just imagine the conversation. Probably similar to the way they dissected the new policy they had just been talking about. She pursed her lips; a loud breath escaped as she forced air through her nose. “Lovely.” The word came out curt, sounding more like a swear word instead of its actual meaning.

“You should go back and finish.” He had no intention of letting this be.

“Not interested.” She refused to look up from her empty plate.

Elijah stood. “Why don’t I grab us another bottle of wine?” He disappeared into the kitchen.

“You need to finish your degree. What if you want to go back? Finish it now. I can help get you into the program here at my hospital. You’ll probably have to do a full year and take the board exams.” He waved his hand. “Then you’d have it done.”

Charity had not expected this conversation tonight. It was bloomin’ Christmas Eve! “Who cares
if I didn’t finish it?”

He tutted. “You care. I’m right on this. You’re wrong, but you just don’t see it. You’re going to regret it if you don’t.”

“Why do you always assume you’re the only one who is right?” Charity’s voice rose in frustration. She set her glass of wine down on the table, afraid her shaking hands would spill it. “You have this stupid wall around you which you think makes you so incredibly smart! The problem is you can never see things from someone else’s perspective.”

Elijah’s head shot up from behind the counter where he was pulling a new bottle from the wine fridge. His jaw dropped and he stood frozen.

Charity had just opened a cage full of angry monkeys.

Chapter 20

“Excuse me?” Her father’s face tightened and his eyes narrowed. “I’m a damn good doctor who spends all his time looking at everyone’s view and every possible perspective.”

She snorted. “Fine. Be a good doctor, but you’re a lousy father and you were a crappy husband.” Her voice rose louder as she spoke.

Her father straightened and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked beyond pissed. “You have no idea what kind of husband I was! Don’t you dare sit there and judge me!” He jabbed a finger in her direction. “You had everything your little heart desired growing up…”

He didn’t finish what he wanted to say, but Charity knew exactly what he was thinking. She knew she had a great childhood, but that was because of her mother. Her dad had always been on call or working. Just like when her mom took sick. He was never there. “And I’m such a
disappointment
to you now.”

“You’re the one who dropped out of med school.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw Elijah come to stand and lean against the archway between the kitchen and dining room. She should care he had to hear all this but at the moment, all she saw was red. “I left school to be with mom!”

“You were the best in your class! You could… You should be an unbelievable surgeon now!” Her father threw his hands in the air and began pacing. “You have no idea what it’s like to have doctors still asking what happened to my daughter. Half a year as an intern and everyone believed you were going to fill my shoes.” He stopped moving, except for the rise and fall of his shoulders as he huffed. “You were better than I was at your age! The things you could be accomplishing now!” He shook his head. “It’s like I lost my wife and daughter at the same time.”

Charity pushed her chair back and stood. No way would she back down from him tonight.
Sorry Elijah.
“How dare you say that!” She punched her fist into her palm. “I’m RIGHT here. I’m extremely proud of what I’ve accomplished. Mom would be too.” She tapped her chest. “I made my own choices, they are not your mistakes nor do you have any right to be ashamed of them.”

“I’m not ashamed.”

“Well you sure as hell aren’t proud. All you’ve ever cared about was Dr. Scott Thompson and then, when your ego couldn’t get any bigger, they had to name a hospital after you.”

He opened his mouth to speak but she wouldn’t let him. She kept on going. “Mom got sick. She had cancer. You ran and hid in your work like a scared rabbit in his hole. She needed someone. She needed me.” Tears started sliding down her cheeks. Charity angrily swiped them away. “She called me and asked me to come. I dropped everything because she deserved it.”

“I didn’t hide—”

“Bull shit!” She blinked, surprised at her own words. “You were never around. I drove her to chemo and after carried her back into the house when she was too sick to walk. I held her hair back when she couldn’t make it to the bathroom and could only lean over the side of the bed. I rubbed her back when she had nothing left and didn’t have the energy to stop dry heaving. I cleaned her puke while she slept so she didn’t have to see me do it. I changed her needles, monitored her temp, tried to hide the hair lying on her pillow.” She bit her lip and tried to stop the tears and the memories. The image of her mother, one moment so full of life and the next beaten by the disease, wouldn’t leave her brain. “Where were you?” she whispered.

Her father’s eyes glistened and the rims turned red. It shocked her as she’d never seen him come close to crying – ever. “I was at the hospital. Trying to find a cure.”

She scoffed. Really? That was his excuse? “A cure for
cancer
?” Did the man seriously think he was some kind of super hero? Resentment boiled over inside of her. “How’d that work out for you?”

“Charity.” Elijah’s tone carried a warning in it.

She glared at him. “What? Ohhh, you’re siding with him. He’s your boss. You want to stay little chief while big chief makes you beg for scraps at the table.” She was out of line. She knew it but was too angry to care.

“Charity!” Her dad barked. “This is not his fault.”

“And it’s not yours either, so it must be mine. I’m the terrible disappointment so blame me.” She turned to grab her purse, coat and boots. Neither man tried to stop her. She whipped on her coat and then yanked her boots up. “I know how much of a letdown I am to you and I don’t care anymore. You can think anything you want, but
I don’t
regret dropping out of med school. I don’t regret the hard moments with mom because there were tender moments worth a million impossible ones. I would do it all over again if it meant I could spend those three months with her again.” She pushed a coat button through the hole so hard it popped off and went rolling across the room. She huffed and turned to go. “Arggh! I’m SO GLAD I didn’t become a doctor.”

“For someone who hates doctors why the hell did you ma
ke sure your job kept you in a hospital? Why date a doctor? You know your mother wanted you to be one. She saw your potential when you were a child and she’s the one who pushed me to take you to the hospital so you could see what it was like. She would have wanted you to finish.”

Halfway to the door she turned around and came stomping back, inches away from her father. “Don’t you dare tell me what she would have wanted!” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I have those months with her. You don’t. You have nothing except guilt. So go ahead and be disappointed I didn’t become a doctor. Let it fester inside of you so you can’t look me in the eye or stand the sight of me.”