Wish Upon a Star (17 page)

I
knew
that Teel was going to leave me behind as soon as I made my fourth and final wish. I was absolutely certain that we couldn’t have anything permanent.

Our strange relationship made him
safe
. A whole lot safer than any human man I might find myself attracted to. A little fling with Teel could fortify me to get through the remaining months of the Master Plan. My genie could sort of be like methadone, a treatment for the dangerous heroin addiction of my disastrous love life, while I perfected the Master Plan of leaving my habit behind forever.

Sighing, I climbed out of the bed. I remonstrated with myself when I started to pick up the pillow that Teel had used. There was no reason to hold it close. No reason to breathe deeply, to see if I could catch a hint of his scent on the cotton. What would it prove if I could? What did it matter? Neither Teel nor I was serious about a relationship.

I tugged the sheets up to the top of the mattress and plumped both pillows. I didn’t know what the proper drill was—did doctors change the linens when they left the on-call room? I shrugged. I’d only used the bed for a few hours. No one was going to die if they came in contact with my sheets.

No one was going to die….

The casual phrase flung my thoughts toward Justin, toward his brush with disaster. Barely taking time to make sure the hallway was clear before I ducked outside, I hurried downstairs to the hospital’s main visitor desk. In short order, I was directed to a room on the pediatric floor.

I heard Amy laughing before I walked through the door. I could tell that she was forcing herself into Mommy mode, pushing herself to set the limits that she believed were proper. “Justin, that is enough playing around. I want to see you eat every bite of those pancakes—I got that extra syrup just for you. You can tell Dr. Teel more about Soldierman after you finish eating.”

Dr. Teel. My heart started pounding so hard that I was grateful I was in a hospital. They could revive me if I collapsed on the floor, couldn’t they?

But that was absurd. Teel didn’t mean anything to me. I wasn’t emotionally wrapped up in him.

I pasted a beauty-pageant smile across my lips and sailed over the threshold. “Justin!” I cried, leaning in for a sticky maple kiss.

“Aunt Erin!” My nephew seemed none the worse for his hospital wear. The arm that had been broken twelve hours before was busy pushing pancakes around on a plate, avoiding raising a forkful to his lips. His once-sprained ankle peeked out from beneath a skimpy hospital gown, pink and slender and unbruised. Justin beamed at me as if he sat on top of an island, surrounded by an ocean of playthings—plastic toys, an entire box of crayons, a snowbank of papers covered with drawings.

Teel had been as good as his word.

My genie was leaning against the railing on the far side of Justin’s bed. He looked as suavely handsome as he had the night before—ravishing blue eyes, impossibly long lashes, wiry salt-and-pepper hair. A smile crooked his lips, as if he were daring me to say something, but I couldn’t quite figure out which words to string together, here, in front of my eagle-eyed older sister. Not when I wasn’t sure if I wanted to throttle him or throw myself at him. Not when I was furious at how he’d tried to seduce me, and at the same time grateful that he’d saved Justin. Not when I was still working out the details of how the Master Plan applied to Teel. Or didn’t, as the case very well might be.

Amy said, “Erin, where have you been? I was getting worried!”

Relieved to be spared an immediate comment to the stunning doctor across from me, I made a face at my sister. “You worry too much. I fell asleep in the waiting room.” I saw skepticism blossom on Amy’s face, so I added, “Outside the Dermatology wing. They’ve got a couple of couches there, and the room was totally deserted last night.”

I was a little surprised—and grateful—to find how easily the lie came to my lips. Even if I had told Amy that Teel had found me a quiet room, I was sure she would hear something in my voice, some trace of the internal balancing I’d been working on since I’d woken up alone that morning. Now wasn’t the time to fight about the Master Plan, about who was—and wasn’t—included in it. Not here, with Justin bouncing in his eagerness to be freed from his hospital bed, with Teel looking on in bemusement.

Amy reached out a hand to smooth my nephew’s cowlick. “Sit still,” she admonished her son. “No jumping in bed.” And then she said to me, “Dr. Teel stopped by to see how Justin was doing.”

My genie spared an easy smile for all of us. “Actually,” he said, “just Teel is fine.”

“Teel,” I said, nodding as if I were processing that information for the first time. Keeping up the charade, I asked him, “How is Justin this morning?”

“Fine,” my genie said, raising his own hand to ruffle Justin’s hair, undoing any maternal grooming that Amy might have accomplished. “His energy level is obviously quite high. His vitals are all strong.”

My sister beamed. “And when can we get out of here?”

Teel shook his head with a professional frown. “We want to keep Justin under observation for a little while longer. Of course, we’re pleased any time a patient turns around as rapidly as this young man has done, but the neurologists will want another scan this afternoon. Just to make sure everything is going as well as it obviously seems to be.”

A frustrated frown darkened Amy’s face, painting circles beneath her eyes. I realized that she was exhausted. I might have stolen a few hours of sleep curled up next to an exploitative medical-genius Adonis, but my sister had spent the entire night beside her son’s bed, riding a wave of exhilaration at his recovery, even as her adrenaline chewed up more and more of her already-stretched reserves. “Amy,” I said. “He’s fine. It’s just a precaution.”

Her lips trembled a little as she sparked a smile for Justin’s benefit. “Of course,” she managed.

Teel gave us both a searching glance. “Why don’t you two get something to eat? The hospital cafeteria doesn’t have the best food, but you look like you could use something.”

Amy answered with a mother’s immediate concern. “Oh, no, I couldn’t leave Justin.”

Teel smiled easily. “I’ll stay here. Justin and I can talk to each other. You know. Man talk. And he can finish his breakfast.” Justin had perked up at the notion of private time with Dr. Teel, but he ended up frowning at his syrupy plate.

Amy glanced at me, as if she were asking my opinion. I was still a little upset with my genie for attempting to manipulate me into making my fourth wish, but my concerns didn’t have anything to do with Justin. My nephew would be perfectly safe with Teel. And my genie just might get him to eat a few bites of pancakes. Besides, Amy looked like she might crumple into a pile of sweaty clothes at my feet if she didn’t get some sustenance into herself soon. “Come on, Ame. They’ll be fine.”

She made one last attempt to divert Teel. “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be? Rounds or something?”

Again, he graced us with that all-encompassing smile. “No one’s going to come looking for me,” Teel said.

Well, that was for sure. No one official even knew that Teel existed. I waited for Amy to fret another minute, and then she admonished Justin to be good before we finally headed toward the cafeteria.

I hadn’t realized how much my sister needed to talk. She needed to tell someone about how frightened she had been. She needed to say how much she hated hospitals—had, ever since our parents died. How she couldn’t stand being solely responsible for Justin’s welfare. How she despised Derek’s hitch in the army, even if it meant so much to him, even if he was a hero. How she couldn’t wait for her husband to get home, so that Justin wouldn’t feel the need to test quite so much, to explore quite as much as he did. How she couldn’t believe that Justin had survived his fall—from the roof of the house!—without even a scratch. How she’d been so frightened…

I smiled and nodded and agreed with every single circular word that she said. I didn’t even try to keep her from loading up her cafeteria tray with enough food to feed Derek’s entire platoon. If she thought that she wanted milk and coffee and juice and cereal and oatmeal and a banana and yogurt and a granola bar, well, that was fine. I’d help with some of it.

“I should have known that he’d try that flying thing. I should have prethought the situation.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I chided, and I wasn’t only commenting on her jargon. “How were you supposed to read the future?” She stared at her coffee, her eyes welling up with tears. “Ame? What’s going on? How were you supposed to know?”

“Erin, he told me he was going to jump!”

“What? When? Before you went to answer the phone?” I stared at my sister in shock. I’d been listening to her self-condemnation for hours; it had never occurred to me that she might have a real reason to take responsibility for Justin’s youthful exuberance.

“No, not yesterday. But a dozen times before. He says that Derek flies all the time, and he always says he’s going to do it, too.”

“Derek flies in
planes!
”

“That’s what I tell him. And he always nods. And he always agrees. But I should have realized that he was just waiting. Just testing me.”

There was something about the way she said it, something about the way her voice broke on the last word that finally clued me in to the fact that something else was going on here, something major. “Amy? How else has Justin been testing you?”

She wouldn’t meet my eyes when she said, “He was kicked out of the public pool last week.”

I was shocked. “Why?”

“For dunking a little girl.” She became fascinated with her spoon. “After three warnings.”

“Amy!”

Now the floodgates were open. “And he purposely spills his milk every night at dinner. He took the picture of Derek and me, the one above the fireplace, and he scribbled through Derek’s face. And he’s wetting his bed every night.”

Cold fingers clutched around my heart. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this? Amy, why didn’t you say anything?”

“What was I supposed to say? That I can’t be a good mother to my son? That I can’t be the parent he needs me to be?”

“Amy, that’s not true! You can’t be the
father
he needs you to be. Justin is angry, and he’s scared. He’s acting out. You aren’t supposed to handle all of this on your own. You have to ask for help!”

Her lips trembled. “I’d have help, if I had just agreed to go with Derek. I’d have help if I let us live on base. As it is, I’m just drawing lines in the sand, working toward a degree that I may not even get.”

I heard the self-condemnation, miles deep beneath her words. All I could do was reach out to pat her hand, to shake my head in violent disagreement. “You
will
get your degree. And you can get help here, now. You’ll join up with Derek as soon as you finish school. It’s just one more year.”

She shook her head. “I’m being selfish.”

“You’re being
foolish,
” I contradicted. “When you get home, I want you to call the base. Ask them to recommend some programs, a counselor or something. Get some help, for both of you.”

“Okay.”

“Promise!”

“Erin—”

“You made me agree to your stupid Master Plan! Making a phone call for the health of yourself and your son is the least you can do in return.” She looked ashamed, which only made me press my advantage. “Okay? Amy?”

She sighed. “Okay. I promise.” She reached for the granola bar, breaking it into four pieces and shoving two of them in front of me. “Speaking of the Master Plan…” she said, the note in her voice clearly informing me that the earlier topic of conversation was closed. “What’s going on with you and Dr. Teel?”

I choked on honey and oats. “What?”

“I guess you decided to throw out the entire Master Plan.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you’ve obviously decided to skip over plant, fish and cat, and go directly to man. I saw Dr. Teel’s hands on you last night, and the look you gave him. You were batting your eyelashes like Scarlett O’Hara.”

I felt my cheeks turn the color of Amy’s tomato juice. “I wasn’t batting my eyelashes!”

She didn’t say anything, just looked at me with that big-sister certainty that I hated. “Okay!” I finally exclaimed, as if she’d placed me on the rack and was about to take out the red-hot pokers.

“Okay, what?” she asked, primly peeling the banana.

“Okay, so I was flirting with him. Just a little. But there isn’t anything there, really. He isn’t a threat to the Plan.” I couldn’t actually explain why, though. I couldn’t tell her about Teel’s genie identity, about the single ungranted wish that was keeping us together for the short-term. I couldn’t let her know that Teel didn’t count, that he was never going to be true boyfriend material, that he was—at most—a harmless substitute for the real thing.

I scrambled for something I could say, anything to wipe off the knowing smirk on Amy’s face. “Really. It’s no big deal. We just slept together.”

“What?”
People at all the tables around us turned to gawk, apparently unable to believe that a human being could actually produce a squawk at the volume Amy had just broadcast.

“Hush!” I grabbed her glass of ice water and pressed the plastic cup against the burning pulse points in my wrists. “Not
slept
together, slept together. We just fell asleep. Don’t look at me like that! Nothing happened!”

“I
knew
you didn’t find some stupid couch in Dermatology!” Foolish me. I thought I’d tricked my sister. Amy nodded shrewdly. “You’re a fast worker.”

“I wasn’t working!” I protested. Then, because that made me sound like a hooker, I grimaced and tried to change the subject. “Will you get me a cup of coffee? A large?” I shoved my wallet into Amy’s hands, intent on making her do something,
anything,
so that she’d stop staring at me in that infuriating, know-it-all way.

Obviously amused, she unfastened the clasp and fished out a couple of crumpled dollar bills. When she pulled them out, a bright white rectangle drifted onto the table. With a gasp of foreboding, I reached for it, but Amy got there first.

“What’s this?”