New Beginnings (15 page)

James remained transfixed by the swinging door that the doctor backed through to enter the OR.

Who was that man in the fur parka, and where had he come from?

It seemed now as though God had placed him there to help James. When he completed the task, he’d vanished.

Shaking his head, James scrubbed his hand over his face and rubbed his tired eyes. He’d leave it to others to determine the facts.

As far as James was concerned, for now he’d call it a miracle.

S
OME TIME AFTER THE SUCCESSFUL LIVER
transplant surgery was completed, the weather cleared enough that nurses who hadn’t been able to get to the hospital during the storm reported for work. Anabelle finally had a chance to go home.

“I can’t wait to take a long, hot shower and sleep in my own bed,” she said, climbing out of Cam’s truck. He’d insisted on picking her up. When the weather improved, he’d take her to the hospital to retrieve her car.

“I’m just glad to have you home again, lass. It’s been lonely without you.”

As she stepped inside, Sarge raced to her, leaping and dancing, his tail a speedy metronome of action.

“Hello, boy. Did you miss me too?” Kneeling, she ruffled his fur and let him nuzzle her cheek. “Yes, I know. I love you too.” The dog gave her face a lick of happiness.

Rising, her knees cracking, she shrugged out of her heavy coat. She sniffed the air in the kitchen.

“Minestrone?” She smiled at Cam.

“I thought hot soup would be just the thing after your long stay at the hospital. It’s in the slow cooker, so whenever you’re ready.”

She stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “You are my hero, Cameron Scott. That sounds absolutely perfect. But first—”

A quick knock on the back door preceded Evan’s appearance. “Hey, Mother. Pop. The weather’s finally improved, and I thought I’d drop by to see how you’re doing.”

Surprised but pleased to see her son, Anabelle hugged Evan. They settled down at the kitchen table while Anabelle brought Evan up to date with the hospital’s difficulties during the storm.

Sarge parked himself right next to Anabelle, his eyes on her as if he was afraid she was going to leave again. Idly, she petted his head.

“Sounds like everything went pretty well, all things considered.” Evan hadn’t taken his jacket off yet, and his hand kept gripping something in his pocket. “I can’t stay long. I’m going over to see Maureen. But there’s something I wanted to show you. Both of you.”

A flutter of anticipation skittered through Anabelle. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Evan look so fidgety and excited, except maybe in sixth grade when he was going to play a trumpet solo. His eyes were bright and his gaze kept jumping around the room like he expected someone or something to pop out of the woodwork.

“What is it, honey?” Anabelle asked, reaching across the table to him.

As though he couldn’t wait, he pulled a velvet-covered box out of his pocket and placed it in the center of the table. “I got this for Maureen. We’ve already talked some about, you know, marriage. I’m going to make it official tonight.”

Anabelle drew in a quick, joyous breath as he carefully opened the box. Inside, an oval-shaped blue opal ring mounted on silver caught the reflection of the overhead light.

“Maureen didn’t want a diamond. Said she couldn’t wear it at work anyway. But I thought she should have something special, and this reminded me of her.”

Tears formed in Anabelle’s eyes. “Evan, it’s absolutely stunning! She’ll…May I?”

“Sure. She just wanted a plain band for the wedding. In silver, I guess. But I got this anyway.”

With Evan’s approval Anabelle placed it on the ring finger of her right hand. “Isn’t it beautiful, Cam?” She sighed. Delicate yet a brilliant statement of love.

“You did good, Son. Guess you’re going to get married and settle down, huh?”

He grinned. “High time, right, Pop?”

On the verge of blubbering, Anabelle said, “This is so perfect. I already love Maureen. And her children. Oh, I’m so glad.” A sob and a laugh escaped at the same time. “I’ve been so hoping you two would—”

“I know, Mother. It just took me a while to convince her that she wouldn’t be making a mistake if she married me.”

“Well, I should hope not! She’ll be lucky to have you.” Anabelle raised her chin in a defensive gesture. Of course Maureen would be happy to marry her son. She took off the ring and gave it back to him.

“I’m the lucky one,” Evan insisted. “Two great kids and a wife I love. Hard to beat that combination.”

Both Anabelle and Cam agreed. As Evan left to see his bride-to-be, Anabelle realized she hadn’t even asked when the wedding might be. Not that it mattered.

Whatever the date, she’d be more than pleased to be mother of the groom…and new grandmother to two adorable children.

The Friday following the big storm, Leila Hargrave called a 7:00
AM
meeting for all the supervising nurses, both day and night shift.

Anabelle assumed Leila would express the hospital’s appreciation for their dedication during what was being called the Storm of the Century and wish them all a happy New Year.

Chatting amiably, the senior nurses filed into the CEO’s conference room with its large walnut table and walls covered with photographs of Hope Haven then and now. Anabelle sat between Marge Matthews from ICU and Lorraine Wilder, who supervised Med/Surg.

Wearing her typical dark suit, Leila stood like a soldier at attention at the head of the table. Unlike during the crisis when everyone, including Leila, had worked double shifts or more, every strand of her gray hair was neatly tucked into the bun at her nape. The dark circles of fatigue beneath her eyes had faded and there was an unusual glow of color on her cheeks.

Leila cleared her throat. “Ladies, I have an announcement to make. Late last evening I met with Mr. Varner, our CEO, and submitted my resignation, effective immediately.”

A collective gasp escaped from the gathered nurses, and Anabelle did a mental double take. Leila had been a fixture at Hope Haven for as long as she could remember, first working in surgery and then as supervisory nurse in the ER before her promotion to nursing administrator. It was hard to imagine Hope Haven without Leila’s steady, if sometimes overly firm, hand as the head of nursing.

“During this past week I received a call informing me that my sister Laura, who lives in Tampa, Florida, is quite ill. I will be leaving tomorrow morning to be with her and care for her. And frankly, ladies, I hope I never, ever see a blizzard again.”

Shocked glances were exchanged around the table. Mouths hung slightly open; foreheads furrowed. But no one spoke.

Taking a deep breath, Anabelle pushed back her chair and stood. “I’m sure I speak for all of us, Leila. We appreciate all that you’ve done for the nursing staff over your years of service to Hope Haven. You will be sorely missed, and we wish you nothing but the best in this new…phase of your life.”

The nurses all began to speak at once.

“Oh yes. We’ll miss you.”

“This is so sudden.”

“I wish we had known. We would have arranged a—”

Leila held up her hand for silence. “You can be sure I will not miss winter one iota, and under any circumstances I would not have wanted a fuss made over my retirement. I intend to go gently into the sunshine before old age and the grim reaper catch up with me, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas’s poem.” She nodded briskly. “Thank for you coming and good luck. I’m confident Mr. Varner will find a competent replacement for me. You may feel free to share this news with those in your respective nursing units.”

With that, she made her way past the table and out the door, leaving behind a roomful of stunned nurses.

“Well!” Marge Matthews, a robust woman with a low, sweet voice that belied her full figure, stood. “I guess that’s it. We’re dismissed.”

“I don’t understand,” Riley said. “Leila acted as if she’d hated being here at Hope Haven all these years. Why did she stay as long as she did if it made her miserable?”

“I don’t think she was miserable here,” Anabelle interjected. “I think her abruptness this morning was more defensive than anything else. I think she was afraid she’d be embarrassed, or get sentimental about leaving, if she didn’t get said what she had to say in a hurry and then leave.”

Riley Hohmann smiled, saying, “Anabelle, you’re amazing. You always think the best of others and absolutely refuse to say anything negative about someone else.”

“That’s not quite true,” Anabelle confessed, her cheeks flushing. “But the truth is, most people deserve to be thought well of when they try to do their best. You have to give credit to Leila for always having the best interests of the hospital and the staff at heart.”

The others murmured their agreement as they stood and exited the room.

No doubt they were also wondering, as Anabelle was, who would become the next nursing administrator and if that person would perform as well as Leila had. Despite her lack of personal warmth, hers would be big shoes to fill.

Word of Leila’s sudden retirement had already reached the second floor by the time Anabelle arrived at the nurses’ station. Gossip spread faster around Hope Haven than the most virulent virus.

Elena popped out of ICU. “Is it true? Leila’s retiring?”

“How did you hear the news so quickly?” Anabelle sat down at the computer, put her reading glasses on, and brought up the CCU census.

“Somebody in the staff lounge mentioned that payroll had cut her a check for her last pay period plus vacation time she’d accrued.” Elena’s scrubs added a spark of holiday excitement with the colorful balloons and Happy New Year printed on the light blue fabric.

“It wasn’t Quintessa, was it?” Anabelle couldn’t imagine Quintessa, a lovely young woman who served as executive assistant to the Chief Financial Officer, would ever reveal private information about an employee.

“She wasn’t in the lounge when Leila’s retirement was mentioned.”

“Oh well, it doesn’t matter now.” Anabelle skimmed the patient list. “It’s true that Leila is retiring, effective today.”

“Not a lot of notice, is it?”

“Apparently there’s some urgency about Leila moving to Florida to be with her sister.”

“Florida.” Elena sighed. “After the weather we’ve had lately, that does sound tempting.”

Anabelle did not disagree. She removed her glasses and dropped them into the breast pocket of her white lab coat. “Speaking of warm weather, have you and Cesar rescheduled your trip to Spain yet?”

“I think Cesar has been talking to our travel agent, but nothing’s been decided yet.”

James came striding down the hallway. “I heard the news about Leila. Are you going to get the promotion, Anabelle?”

“Me?” Her pulse spiked along with her voice. “Why, I’ve never considered…Mr. Varner just heard the news last night. There are several nurses here at Hope Haven who would be qualified.”

“But you’re the most senior,” James pointed out.

“You’d do a terrific job,” Elena added. “You’re going to apply for the position, aren’t you?”

Myriad thoughts swirled through her head. She was qualified. She’d been doing patient care for a long time. Maybe it was time to move up a notch and not have to be on her feet so much. But is that what she really wanted? A full-time paper-pushing job supervising more than a hundred nurses?

“I’d have to think about it,” she finally concluded.

“I’ll tell you one thing.” James leaned back against the counter and crossed his ankles. “If you get the promotion, I’ll be the first in line to apply for your job as nurse supervisor.”

Smiling, Elena bounced up on her toes. “You’d be wonderful as a nurse supervisor, James. You can even spell all those Latin-based medical terms that stump the rest of us.”

He chuckled at her reference to his long-ago study of Latin and Greek as well as his fanaticism about watching the national spelling bee contest on TV.

Anabelle smiled too, but she was thinking about what it would entail if she were promoted to nursing administrator and what it might mean in terms of an opportunity for James. With his two boys fast approaching college age, she’d love to see him move up a salary grade or two.

Closing the file she’d been checking on the computer, Anabelle stood. “I don’t know about you two, but I have patients I need to look in on.”

“You are at least going to think about applying, aren’t you?” Elena insisted.

“Yes, I will think about it.” She also wanted to talk with Cam. He was very good about helping her to evaluate the pros and cons of a situation, clarifying her thoughts for her. He’d always been supportive of her career as well.

She wondered what he’d say about her taking on an even more responsible position than the one she held now.

After Anabelle left the nurses’ station, James stepped into the supply room to order the antirejection meds for Mrs. Witten. As he waited for the pharmacy to respond, he hummed the refrain of “Gladly We Will Go”: “Wherever Jesus calls us we’ll gladly, gladly go.”

The Lord had called him to many places: to service in the Persian Gulf War, to create a family with Fern, to bring back a liver for a dying patient. And now, he wondered, if he’d be called to serve as a nursing supervisor at Hope Haven Hospital, a place that was as much his home as the house where he and Fern lived with their sons.

“It’s in Your hands, Lord,” he murmured as he removed the medication that had arrived from the pharmacy downstairs. He carefully checked the label before he rushed down the hall to Mrs. Witten’s room.

Tammy Witten was sitting in the chair next to her mother. “Mom’s looking better every day, isn’t she?” The young woman looked up at him, her coffee-brown eyes pleading for good news.

“Her condition is definitely improving. There’s no fever and no sign of rejection.” He attached the bag of medication to the IV pole and started a drip. “I’m sure Dr. Drew told you and your father that she’ll stay here with us for a week or more so we can monitor her condition.”

Mrs. Witten had been dozing. Now she opened her eyes. “You two are talking about me again, aren’t you?”