Unchained Memories (21 page)

“And you go in, even if it’s your day off?”

“Yes.”

“So the fact it’s your youngest sister’s last year of law school and you won’t have to pay toward any other tuitions has nothing to do with the hours you put in at the hospital.” Guilt niggled at her for assuming his obsessive work ethic would change once his financial obligations ended.

“That won’t change anything. I’m trying to make Nassau General’s ER one of the best in the state, to intervene for others who need emergency care so they don’t end up like my father. There’s also the clinic for those who can’t afford medical care. I work there when I have a few hours. There are so many people without adequate health insurance, it’s frightening.”

His passion for his career was limitless. Maybe to the exclusion of all else. While her heart expanded over his dedication and empathy for others, her doubts over the success of any real relationship between them grew exponentially. That, and the fact she sued doctors for a living garnered two strikes against them.

They walked in silence for a while, thinking their solitary thoughts, perhaps waiting for the other to break the imposed quietude.

But Charlotte could wait no longer. “Am I interfering with your good intentions?” The burden lay heavy on her shoulders.

“No. Of course not.” He turned to look at her, surprise apparent in his eyes. “Although I’d be lying if I said your career choice doesn’t bother me.”

His words sat between them for a while before he spoke. “Why did you get into medical malpractice?”

A simple question. One that should have been answered easily. But any time this issue came up, there were no easy answers. Not even potential words.

She swallowed the bile that had risen in her throat. “My mother,” she rasped.

He must have sensed the importance of her admission, because he led her to a bench in the shade of a stately elm tree. It was good. She needed to sit. She needed to share her secret. She needed to explain it to Clay. Maybe he’d understand her better.

“Tell me.”

Those two simple words, said with such compassion and caring, unlatched the iron door that had held it all back.

“One of the lawyers at my parents’ firm, where I work now, came to talk to me a few months after my parents died. He was the attorney of their estates, and he wanted me, as executrix, to initiate a lawsuit against the hospital. He told me my mother shouldn’t have died, that when she arrived at the hospital, she was alert and talking. A CT scan wasn’t performed and a few hours later she lapsed into a coma due to an undiagnosed head injury. She died during surgery.”

Charlotte shook her head, trying to release the words she had sealed away in her brain. “I refused to believe him. Dr. Collins and you and Matt had become my surrogate family. There was no way I was going to have him file a lawsuit against the hospital.”

Tears blurred her eyes and she blinked to try to get rid of them. “Unfortunately, I was never able to forget his accusation. While I couldn’t help my mother, I decided to help others in similar situations.” She laughed without humor. “Of course, I was working in California, far removed from Nassau General.” She bit her lip. “How did fate propel me here to do now what I couldn’t do ten years ago?”

Her words fell between them, and she felt as if she had dug a hole so wide and so deep that they’d never be able to bridge the ravine.

“It’s not the same.” His words embraced her, pulling her around the divide she’d created, easing some of her angst. “You’ll never be made whole for the loss of your mother. Don’t you see even if you had sued—and won—it wouldn’t have brought your mother back?”

He wasn’t understanding her. He looked at lawsuits as punitive to the doctor. Whereas, she saw the benefit to the client. Would he ever see the difference? “I’m helping others who have survived. Who need the money to make their lives easier.” Frustration clogged her voice, and she dared to look him in the eye, knowing her intensity was fierce.

He shook his head. Was it resignation? “Unfortunately, the past drives the present. You do what you do because of a devastating event in your life. I’m doing the same thing.”

She frowned.

He reached out and smoothed her forehead with his thumb. That intimate touch made her yearn to push this conversation aside and go back to their room. Forget about the baggage making them who they were. Let them just be.

She tried for a smile. “If we keep this up, we’ll drive a stake through whatever it is we have going here.”

And she refused to ruin it so quickly. Yes, they were on opposite sides of the medical malpractice issue, but she’d finally gotten the man she used to dream about and she couldn’t let him go just because of a philosophical clash. “Why don’t we put our differences aside? At least for now.” A bittersweet aura surrounded her. “I’m having too good a day to let it fall apart over our career choices. Besides, now that we know what drove us to where we are, maybe we can give each other some latitude.” She pleaded with her eyes, hoping to carry him along.

“You always did manage to push through difficult situations.” He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her toward him, kissing the side of her head.

It all felt so right. Like the caress of a soft, warm blanket chasing away the chill.

They sat on the bench for a while, quiet, allowing the warm breeze to blow away the last remnants of their discussion. Charlotte leaned into Clay’s embrace, wanting to capture the intimacy of the moment and lock it away in her treasure chest of memories.

For she knew the delicate truce they had called could be upset at any moment.

****

“Let’s check out this little shop.” Clay pulled Charlotte through the open doorway into an eclectic mix of jewelry, books, pottery and stationery.

He’d never been much of a shopper, but he had to admit, this was fun. He picked a birthday card from the display rack and chuckled at its risqué message. Looking up to show Charlotte, he saw her talking to the woman behind the jewelry counter.

“Can never keep women away from gold,” he teased, slipping his arm around her waist.

She fit perfectly in the crook of his elbow, and he pulled her in a little tighter. He was definitely having difficulty keeping his hands to himself today.

“Look at this.” She pointed to a bracelet with two entwined circles.

He shrugged. “It’s nice. Do you want to buy it?”

“I already have one.” She faced him, a hard to read look on her face. “You gave me one just like it. You said it was a belated birthday present.”

“I did?” He couldn’t remember what he’d given his sister for her birthday a few weeks ago. How could he ever have remembered what he’d given Charlotte ten years earlier?

But zeroing in on the design jogged his memory. They weren’t circles, but sideways ovals, similar to an infinity sign. “Now, I remember. I bought you this to remind you of the hours we spent on math.”

She laughed. “I never got the connection. I still have it.”

His eye moved to the necklace beside it in the counter. “Can I see that?” he asked the saleswoman.

She handed it to him and he held it up.

“Well then, I think you should have the matching necklace.”

“No, you don’t have to do that.” Her face reddened. “I didn’t mean to imply—”

“You didn’t imply anything. I’d like to get it for you. To remember our day in New Hope.”

He paid the sales woman and turned back to Charlotte. Her smile could have lit up a room. It certainly lit up his heart. He fastened the necklace around her neck and the two gold ovals hovered right above the vee of her blouse, drawing his attention to her breasts. He swallowed and moved his eyes up to hers, their crystal blue depths connecting with his on a level he’d never experienced.

“Thank you,” she said as she touched the ovals right above her heart. “It’s beautiful.”

He brought his fingers to her cheek and stroked it. “So are you.”

So this is what it felt like to fall in love. The thought swirled around his brain as he struggled to fathom it. But even though it didn’t seem possible, he knew it to be true. For this miraculous feeling sped through his blood, through his heart and soul.

Nagging thoughts it would never work were unceremoniously whisked away. There was no room for negativity, for doom.

“Why are you grinning?” she asked, herself the twin of the Cheshire cat.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

It was true. He couldn’t wipe it off his face.

“Let’s go.”

He took her hand and led her out of the store and into the sunshine and thickening crowds.

“Where to?” She looked left then right, then back to him.

“Our room,” they said in unison.

Chapter Twenty

“I’m so nervous.” Charlotte glanced at Clay as he drove up a quiet, tree-lined road. Tension ached in her jaw, and she massaged her hands to warm them, even though it was eighty degrees outside.

“Don’t be. My parents will love you. So will my brothers and sisters.” Clay grabbed her hand and squeezed it, transferring much needed heat and strength from his body to hers.

“How do you know? And there’s so many of them. Plus all their significant others.”

“I just know.” A smile played around the sides of his mouth, and all she wanted to do was kiss him. Perhaps she could convince him to turn around and head back to her place for their own celebration between the sheets.

Within seconds, Clay veered into a gravel driveway, the stones crunching under the weight of his tires. Too late.

Instead of focusing on her bunched stomach, Charlotte took in her surroundings. A center hall colonial with red brick front and beige siding stood back from the road amongst a street of similar houses. An old oak partially shaded the front yard, covered in lush, green grass impeccably maintained. Several flower beds of colorful impatiens stamped the property as owned by prideful inhabitants. The house itself was not large, not small. Well, maybe a little small for a family of seven. But now it was just Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery, with the five children making their own way.

“I can’t remember the last time I had to meet the parents,” Charlotte mused. “Maybe high school. Perhaps we should do this another time. I can meet your family, one or two at a time. It will be easier for all of us that way.” Why didn’t she think of that sooner?

Clay chuckled as he parked the car behind a navy blue mini-van. “You’re not getting out of this now. You agreed to come to our annual summer picnic. Everyone’s expecting you. Besides, since when did you become insecure? You get up in front of judges and juries all the time, arguing your cases with confidence. How can you be intimidated by a few harmless Montgomerys?”

She wasn’t insecure. She was anxious, worried, uneasy. Not her usual self. She wanted to make a good impression on the family of the man she was falling hard for, a close knit family who had relied on Clay since he was fifteen, and who probably didn’t want his attention diverted by an outsider, since he rarely had time to see them.

Charlotte sat glued to the front seat of the car, and it wasn’t until Clay opened her door and pulled her out that she begrudgingly accepted her fate for today. She wiped her palm against her navy blue shorts, and gave Clay a weak smile.

He kissed her cheek and whispered, “This isn’t a jury. They’re my family.”

She eased into the safety and calmness of his words as they made their way toward the backyard where raised voices were talking and laughing, a human buzz signifying a happy gathering.

As they entered the yard, the buzz stopped, or at least paused for a five second delay, as eyes took in the new arrivals.

“Hey, guys,” said Clay to the group as a whole, “this is Charlotte Taylor.”

Burning heat flushed Charlotte’s face as she took in the crowd. Four men and two women were playing volleyball, an older man, Clay’s father, was tending the gas grill, a young woman and an older woman—Clay’s mother?—were each holding a baby, and another young woman was coming out of the house with a bowl of tortilla chips and salsa.

Clay’s mom broke the silence quickly. “Charlotte,” she said as she placed the baby in a carrier and moved effortlessly over to her, hand outstretched. “I’m Clay’s mother, Nancy. It’s so nice to meet you.” She gave Clay a peck on the cheek. “It’s good to see you too, darling. It’s so rare that you show up for a family function.”

Charlotte shook her hand, allowing Nancy’s friendly attitude to chase some of her angst away. “It’s nice to meet you as well.”

Clay barely acknowledged his mother’s dig before escorting Charlotte around the yard, first introducing her to his father, then his brothers, John and Jim, and sisters, Julie and Colleen and their mates. Last came the twins, two beautiful, chubby, and very active babies who smiled and gurgled at her in welcome. Thank God she had gone over all the names with Clay during the car ride over. It was much easier now that she had a face to accompany them.

No sooner had she met everyone, when Jim called over, “Clay, Charlotte, we can use two more players. Why don’t you each take a side?”

Charlotte was just ready to beg off when Clay said, “You’re on.” He turned to Charlotte. “Let’s help them out.”

She looked down at her feet, which bore platform sandals, not exactly the appropriate shoe-wear for volleyball. But then she noticed most of the players were barefoot. That excuse wouldn’t work. “I haven’t played in years. Not since high school.”

“Doesn’t matter. This is a friendly game. I’ll go on Jim’s team, you go on John’s.” And with that, Clay had taken up his position.

Now, she had no choice, since the teams couldn’t be lopsided. Kicking off her sandals, she moved into the opening on John’s side of the court, feeling a little out of place, but up for the challenge. She was just getting the hang of it when another guest arrived and took everyone’s attention away from the game.

“Becky!” Clay left his position on the other side of the net, strolling effortlessly toward her, arms outstretched so Dr. Rebecca Goodwin, goddess of the ER at Nassau General, could enter his embrace. Which she did. “I didn’t know you were coming.” His words were just as embracing as his arms and Charlotte felt a pang of jealousy zig-zag treacherously close to her heart.