Conflicts of the Heart (35 page)

Regaining her composure, Teal leaned back. “You asses work like a bunch of crooks. It's obvious only you knew about this new contract offer. You didn't even have the courtesy to tell your administrator, or your chief negotiator. Looks to me like someone else around here should have charges filed against them,” she said in an accusatory tone, firm and filled with venom.

Sorenson leaned back and looked at Morton next to him. “Get her out of here.”

“You'll have to drag me.” Teal’s eyes were ablaze. “Dana, you work for a bunch of fools.”

Gil took Teal by the arm. “Come on. This meeting's over.”

“Dana,” Teal said with desperation in her voice. “Are you going to just sit there and let him do this to me?”

Dana didn’t move. She lowered her head while Gil escorted Teal from the room. When the door closed and Teal was out of earshot, Dana said, “I guess there's more going on here than I know about.”

Morton said, “More than any of us know about. Would you excuse us for a few minutes?”

She left the room. Gil's secretary told her to go into his office where he and Teal were meeting.

Inside, Teal wept hysterically in front of Gil, who sat behind his desk, arms folded across his chest, surely distraught after what happened.

“Dana, come in.” He must need rescuing from this raving woman. “Nothing was settled except the contract. Did you know about
this?”

“I didn’t. If Sorenson did make some kind of deal behind our backs, we've got a real problem on our hands.”

Teal stopped crying, wiped her eyes. “Sorry, Dana. Guess I blew it for you.”

“You did. If I were you, I'd just leave quietly and get on with your life.”

“Are you filing charges against me?”

“Yes. You didn't tell the truth. You used the meeting for yourself. I owe you nothing.”

“Oh, yes you do. I told you about Joel. You promised.”

“I have no more to say. If I were you, I'd leave unless you'd like to see me go into action.”

Teal leapt from her seat. “You bitch. You deserve whatever happens to you. I hope you lose your job.” She turned and left the office in a huff.

* * *

In the auditorium, Patrick sat on the edge of the stage facing a room filled to capacity. Three hundred nurses all anxious to hear his message.

Looking over the crowd, he felt the pang of loss. Loss for the woman he loved, for a young boy he loved and for the employees he’d worked so hard for over the past two and a half years. Now he was forced to sell them a crappy contract because his boss and a board member made some shoddy deal behind closed doors to end the stalemate. Dana might lose her job, and if Patrick didn't follow through, he'd be given his walking papers. Everything he’d worked for hung in the balance.

Dana and Michael’s future looked bleaker by the moment. She was in debt, fighting a no-good ex-husband, who seemed one-step ahead of her through the entire process. Dana didn't think much more of Patrick either, there were just too many broken promises in her life to allow her to trust anyone. Who could blame her?

If he ever did anything right in his life, it would be today. What good was a career if every move he made hurt someone? That wouldn’t make Dad proud. No, today he’d do something right for a change.

“Good afternoon, everyone.”

“Hi, Patrick,” the crowd shouted in unison. Their trust in him was obvious by the joyful tone in their voices.

“I have a package for your consideration.” He pulled a piece of paper from his shirt pocket, opened it then began reading a litany of offers not much better than Dana had presented at their last mediation. When he finished reading, he glanced up. The room was silent.

Andrea Lerner, in her starched white uniform, stood up. “Are you telling us to take this insult of an offer?”

“Those are the orders I received.”

“Then you tell us to accept, Patrick,” a male nurse from the back of the auditorium challenged.

Patrick rose from his sitting position and stood tall in the center of the stage. Now was his moment. To hell with his future. He'd go back to New York, get his daughter, and then decide what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

“Don't take it.”

“Yeaaaaaaaaa,” the crowd roared.

“Strike, if that's what it takes to get what you want,” he shouted back. “You deserve everything we've asked for, and they can afford it. They're ripping you off.”

The nurses were in near hysteria, standing in the aisles, standing on their chairs, hugging each other. The commotion sounded like a New Year's Eve celebration.

Patrick stamped his foot hard against the wooden floor to get their attention. The crowd quieted, returned to their seats.

“I'm leaving the area after today.”

Several employees moaned their disappointment.

“I have business away from here.” He paused for a moment. “This is an unusual request, but I want to ask it anyway.” He mumbled, “probably illegal” to a few in the front seats, Andrea being one of them.

She smiled.

“Listen to Dana Claiborne. She has your best interests at heart. She won't let you down.” He turned and walked across the stage, taking a back exit out of the auditorium to the parking lot. The last thing he wanted was to hang around and talk about the past…or the future, for that matter.

* * *

Andrea exploded into Dana's office, out of breath, her face red from either exertion or frustration. “Dana,” she stopped in front of her desk. “Sorry to come in without an appointment, but I couldn't believe Patrick down in the auditorium. He told the nurses not to sign the contract, that we should all listen to you, and then he turned and, without another word, left by the back exit. I ran after him, but it was too late. His car was out of the parking lot before I could reach him.”

Shock immobilized Dana. Patrick had given up everything he’d worked for, for her. He did love her. A stab of guilt lay buried in her breast for all her accusations. “Have a seat.” Dana composed herself. She came around her desk and pulled a chair up next to the nurse. “He's probably at home.”

“I think he'll pull up stakes. He said he had business elsewhere.”

She lowered her gaze to her lap. “God, Dana, I can't believe this is happening. We've never been in such a mess at this place before.”

“I had a perfectly good offer for PNA the day my son disappeared. Why this new offer was made is beyond me.” Dana pulled a folder from her desk and showed Andrea the last proposal the board had approved.

Andrea checked the document carefully. “We'd have signed that.” She rose from her chair. “Let me take that to the membership. If they buy into it, I'll pay a visit to PNA and tell them we want to ratify.”

“You'd do that?”

“Patrick told us to follow your lead. That's what I'm doing.”

Dana sprang up. “Let's go down to Mr. Hargrove's office and tell him our plan.”

Gil's secretary ushered Dana and Andrea into his office. He stood by the window, appearing deep in thought, visibly shaken from the afternoon's events.
“Andrea, nice to see you. Hello, Dana. What's going on?”

Andrea recounted the events in the auditorium. Flabbergasted, Gil went to his desk and sank down in his chair. “I'll be damned. I can't believe Patrick would throw his whole future away over a contract.”

“You obviously didn't know him very well.”

“May I give Andrea our last proposal?”

“By all means. If you have any problems with PNA, let me know.” Andrea took the proposal from Dana. “I can assure you there won't be any problems.” She shook Gil's hand, then Dana's. “I'll call you as soon as I have anything firm.”

Dana jotted her cell number on a piece of paper from Gil's desk. “Call me any time.”

“What a turn of events,” Gil said after Andrea left. “The board is still in session. The last I heard they were calling for Sorenson's resignation.”

“You're kidding?”

“I'm not. They want him to step down. When I left, it was unanimous. When you didn't present our last offer, he decided to take matters into his own hands, lower the offer to save money, and cut a deal with Ed Foreman. Teal came back after you left. She went in and told the board you never gave her permission for anything. She told the board if we didn't file charges against her, she'd resign from Local two eighty-one and never work for another union in this area.” He reached into his top desk drawer. “She even signed an agreement. It's up to you.”

Dana went to Gil. He stood up. She wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you for believing in me. I'm so sorry I didn't confide in you about my relationship with Patrick. I haven't been the same since coming back to Ashton. I've felt like a fish out of water.”

He patted her back and tilted her chin up. Their eyes met. “You must learn to trust yourself.”

“What do you mean?” Astonished, she pulled away and crossed the room to the couch. “I trust myself.”

“Go back and think about all that's happened. When you took on Patrick Mitchell and made a secret of your relationship, you became paranoid. When you can't trust yourself, how can you trust anyone else? When people cheat, they think everyone else is cheating.” He paused. “If you'd have come to me, which you should have done--”

“I know.” His words awakened something in her she had known most of her life. She had just forgotten them in all the confusion.

“I would have told you to go out and tell everyone you and Patrick were involved. The rumors would have stopped immediately. One of these days I'll tell you a little story about Brenda and me.” He winked. “If you'd been honest, you could have dealt with me and the board effectively.”

“That's easy for you to say.” She glanced up at him. “We were attracted to each other from the beginning. I convinced myself Patrick was solely in my life for Michael, but then when he helped Michael so much, I fell in love with him. I was trapped.”

“You created your own trap.”

“Why did I trust Teal?”

“You didn't trust her. You chose to ignore what she was doing. Maybe it goes back to your youth and all you two went through together.” He paused. “You lost your confidence. You just didn't know how to handle the mess you were creating, so you just got yourself in a corner. You let Teal use you. In fact, at the beach, you knew exactly what she was doing, but you played into her hands.”

Dana slammed a fist against her palm. “Stop it. You're laying all the blame on me.”

“I'm not blaming you for anything. It doesn't matter what I think, only what you think. And Patrick. Your lack of trust in him was a subconscious way of breaking it off with him, trying to find something tangible you could use to get him out of your life. He's a good guy. He proved that today. He was looking out for your interests and trying to hang on to his own.”

Gil eased his way behind her, placed his hands on her shoulders. “Be honest with yourself, and for God's sake, take charge. You don't
have to negotiate with anyone. Do what's good for you. The rest of the world will fall into place, just the way you want it.”

In a swift motion, she turned into his open arms. “You're more like a dad to me than my own father ever was.” She saw love in his gray eyes. “Thank you. I'm going to wrap up my business, then go home and think all this over.”

“I want you to work hard and prepare to take over this job. With Sorenson gone, you'll have a board of directors who’ll be very supportive.” He hesitated and then released her. “Don't you think you should go find that man of yours?”

Gil returned to his desk, picked up some papers, and shuffled them. “Don't ever put your job in front of your personal life. We're not around long enough to waste a precious moment.”

She laughed. “You need to take a little of your own advice.”

He laughed. “You're right. I plan to.” He paused. “Oh, and if you do decide to marry again and move out of the area, I take back my requirement about your staying in Ashton. You do what’s going to make you and Michael happy.” He grinned. “There must be someone out there who’d want this job.”

“I do. And I’ll make it work. I keep my promises.”

Dana waited until she got home that evening to contact Patrick, in hopes he might come by so they could talk.

His phone rang several times before she replaced the receiver. Her disappointment was an understatement. Where could he be?

After an hour of sitting in her darkened living room, Michael asleep in his bed, she called Ken.

“How've you been, stranger?” She hadn't seen or talked to him for over a month.

“Not bad, how about you?”

“I've had better days. You haven't heard from Patrick today, have you?”

“Yeah.
I took him to the airport. He's gone to New York. Left about an hour ago.”

“Can we get together and talk?”

Twenty Six