Reach for Tomorrow (2 page)

“Maybe you’re right,” she said, taking back the letter. “Maybe I should go. I’m just not crazy about going someplace where I don’t know a soul.”

“You’ll make friends,” her father said. “And as a
counselor, you’ll meet others your age. I’m sure they’re only asking the brightest and best to act as counselors. And that’s my girl: the brightest and the best.”

“Oh, Dad. You’re saying that because you’re my father.”

“Not true. How many college freshmen can say they aced all their courses in their first year at Columbia? Not many!” he answered his own question. “You’ll be a terrific doctor one day.”

Never in a million years would Meg have thought she’d be interested in medicine after growing up with a father who was always on call, busier with his patients and their concerns than those of his own family. But her feelings had changed once she’d met Donovan. “I’ll think about camp.” She leaned down and kissed her father’s cheek. “Now, how about taking me to dinner? Mom’s got one of her committee meetings, so we’re on our own tonight.”

Later Meg called her friend Alana and told her about the job offer. “I don’t suppose you got a letter too,” she said hopefully.

“I couldn’t have gone even if I’d wanted to,” Alana told her. “Remember? I’m headed to Europe with my church choir at the end of June.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right.” Meg felt disappointed. Ever since they’d been candy stripers together, she
and Alana had been friends, and even though she’d been away at Columbia and Alana was attending a two-year college near Washington, D.C., they both had the same dreams—to practice medicine one day.

“But I still think you should go,” Alana said. “It sounds like a great opportunity to be around sick kids. And isn’t that always the best way to find out if you’re serious about pediatrics as a specialty?”

“Of course.” Meg let out a sigh. “I know you’re right. But so long, summer by the pool with a stack of brain-candy books for entertainment.”

“You can read in your spare time, and most of these camps have lakes and water sports.”

“And let the world see me in a bathing suit? Are you crazy?”

“You’re too hard on yourself.”

“You’ve heard of the freshman fifteen, haven’t you? Well, I got my fifteen extra pounds and somebody else’s too.”

“You look fine.”

“I know the truth, Alana.” Meg’s friend was tall and slim. How could she know what it was like to always feel overweight? “One good thing,” Meg added. “There will be nobody at camp but kids, so they won’t care if I’m fat.”

“Male counselors,” Alana said with authority. “Don’t forget about them.”

Meg sighed. She hadn’t had a real date the entire school year, and most guys wanted to be her “friend” anyway. “Maybe they’ll all be ugly.”

“And maybe, just maybe, there will be a prince among the frogs.”

“He won’t notice me,” Meg said quietly. She knew she wasn’t beautiful. And she was too smart and too heavy for guys to notice. No guy except Donovan had ever shown any interest in her. And he was gone forever.

She hung up, knowing she would take the job. It would beat sitting around feeling sorry for herself all summer. And if there were cute guys at the camp she’d simply ignore them. No use wishing for something she couldn’t have.

T
his is one dumb idea!
Morgan Lancaster told himself as he surveyed the stable in the North Carolina woods. Why had he ever agreed to take this summer job at a camp full of sick kids in the first place?

Because of Anne Wingate
, his inner voice answered before he even had time to get to the first stall. When the letter had arrived offering him the job as riding instructor and stable hand for the summer, he’d thought it seemed like a good idea. Normally he spent summers on the rodeo circuit or working on his aunt’s ranch taking in tourists, although he hadn’t done that since the summer he’d met Anne there. When Anne had arrived at the ranch she’d seemed like all the other wealthy tourists. But he’d soon realized that she was not like anyone else he had ever known. Anne was HIV-positive. After
she’d left the ranch, Morgan had followed her back to her home in New York and stayed with her until she died. They were the most special and memorable days of his life, and they had changed him forever. Now here he was, twenty years old, volunteering for the summer, and feeling directionless.

A roan mare stuck her head out of the upper half of the stall door, and Morgan rubbed her muzzle. “How you doing, girl? Ready for a summer full of twelve-year-olds?”

The mare snorted and nuzzled his hand. Morgan could tell by the white hair around her nose and mouth that she was old. But she was also calm and seemed to have a sweet disposition. Perfect for kids and a far cry from the wild broncos he was used to working with.

In all, there were seven horses in the stable, each of them docile and good-natured. Taking care of them would be a piece of cake—if he didn’t die of boredom. The first staff meeting was the following night. All day, counselors, nurses, physical therapists, and workers had been arriving. He’d seen some cute girls, but only from a distance. He wasn’t interested in anyone. Nor had he been, ever since he’d lost Anne. Smart, pretty Anne. She’d been one in a million.

And she’d left him the money for the medical test. The test he still hadn’t taken three years later. The test that would tell him once and for all whether he would get the debilitating disease Huntington’s chorea. “Anne would kill me,” he told the horse ruefully. “She’d say, ‘Honestly, Morgan, how can a guy like you ride wild horses, almost getting his brains knocked out, and be afraid of a little test?’ ”

He
was
afraid. As long as he didn’t know the truth, he didn’t have to spend his life waiting for his genetic fate to take over his body … as it had his father’s.

“You always talk to horses?”

Morgan spun to see another guy staring at him. The kid was taller than Morgan. “Easier than talking to people,” Morgan admitted.

The other boy laughed. “I’m Eric Lawrence. Cook, groundskeeper, any old thing they need me to be.”

“You get a letter too?”

“No. My sister, Christy, is a respiratory therapist. She’s working here for the summer and dragged me along so I’d stay out of trouble.” He grinned. “How about you?”

Morgan explained his job briefly, then asked,
“You okay about being around a bunch of sick kids?”

“It turns me off, but I had a couple of friends once—they had cystic fibrosis.”

“Had?”

“Yeah. Kara died about three years ago. My buddy Vince died last winter. CF is a lung disease, you know. He died from pneumonia.”

“My friend died from pneumonia too,” Morgan said. He didn’t add that Anne had also been a victim of AIDS.

“Tough way to go,” Eric said. “Not being able to breathe and all. Anyway, because of the two of them, I said I’d come and help out. Do whatever needs doing … keep the kids away from the construction site. You been down there yet? It’s going to be some place once they finish it.”

They were to walk down to the site the next night after the get-acquainted meeting. The kids weren’t arriving for two more days, but there was plenty to do before they got there. “Are you a good cook?” Morgan asked.

“Will it make a difference?”

Morgan laughed. “I’ve eaten some pretty bad camp grub, so I reckon not.”

“Well, don’t worry. There’s a full-time dietician
on staff. I’m just a helper.” Then Eric changed the subject. “Seen any of the girls yet? A few of them are babes.”

“Haven’t had time.” Morgan hedged his reply.

“Make time. Then maybe we can really make this summer count.”

Morgan wasn’t quite sure just how to take Eric.
Young and cocky
, he thought. From down the line, a horse whinnied. “I’d better pitch out the stalls,” Morgan said, remembering that he had work to do.

“I got stuff to do too. Catch you later.”

Morgan watched Eric walk away. For the hundredth time in the past two years, he wished he could talk to Anne. She understood people. Morgan never had much patience with them. He preferred horses. But Anne was gone, and a dark cloud hung over his life.
No time for girls
, he told himself. And besides, caring for someone again before he had the test performed wasn’t really very fair, now, was it?

“Where is everybody, and where’s the marching band to greet me?”

“Lacey!” Katie jumped up from where she’d been sitting on the cabin floor, cutting out name tags, and ran to the screen door.

Chelsea James followed on her heels. The three girls hugged and squealed, all talking at once.

“Come in and meet Megan—Meg—she’s a counselor too. This is the infamous Lacey Duval,” Katie said, “the one we’ve been telling you about.”

Lacey sized up the girl in front of her. “Not another blonde,” she cried. “And a pretty one too. Didn’t anybody tell her the rules? No blondes but me!

Taken aback, Meg smiled. Could the tall, cool, beautiful Lacey she’d heard so much about all afternoon possibly think she, Meg, was pretty? Or was Lacey being nice?

“Lacey means what she says,” Katie told Meg. “And she says
exactly
what she means.”

Lacey sniffed haughtily and threw her suitcase to one side. “Are we all here?”

“Even Dullas,” Chelsea said. “Kimbra brought her. We sent her off to pester somebody else.”

“Who are Kimbra and Dullas?” Meg asked.

“Kimbra is one of the administrators on staff here. She was actually a friend of Jenny Crawford’s. As for Dullas, well, you’ll meet her later.”

Katie peered through the screen door. “Did Jeff bring you?” she asked Lacey.

“Jeff is Lacey’s boyfriend,” Chelsea informed Meg. “They were both counselors at Jenny House last year.”

“He couldn’t bring me,” Lacey said. “He got a
job working at an architectural firm. And since that’s his major, he thought it was a good place to spend the summer. I drove myself.”

“You drove all the way from Miami by yourself?” Chelsea asked.

Katie knew Chelsea was notorious for being fearful, but when you had been sick and in need of a heart transplant for as long as Chelsea had before getting one, it was easy to forgive her anxiety.

“It’s only a two-day drive. I spent the night with my aunt in Jacksonville.”

The group flopped onto the floor and Lacey asked, “So, Chelsea, what do you hear from DJ?”

Chelsea’s face went sad. “He’ll never care about me. He can’t get over what happened to his sister.”

Katie explained briefly to Meg how Chelsea and Jillian had both needed the same organ transplant, and that Chelsea had gotten it, while Jillian had died waiting for it.

Instantly Meg felt sorry for Chelsea. “The same thing happened to a friend of mine,” she said. “He died waiting for a liver transplant.”

There was a moment of heavy silence. “This conversation has gotten far too serious,” Lacey said briskly. “Well, I’m sure there’ll be other guys, Chelsea. It’s DJ’s loss.” She turned to Katie. “I saw Josh
when I pulled in. Did you know he was here, Katie?”

Katie’s stomach did a flip-flop. “No.”

“You mean you didn’t see him while you were at home? You haven’t talked to him since you got back from college?”

“I—uh—I’ve been busy.”

“Too busy to see Josh?” Lacey looked incredulous.

“No way,” Chelsea added.

“I’m not his keeper, you know,” Katie said.

Lacey turned to Meg. “He’s the nicest guy in the whole world. And they’re perfect for each other. And someday our little Katie is going to wake up and realize it. We all just hope it won’t be too late.”

Katie jumped up. “Give it a rest.” She went for the door. “See you all later. I’m going for a run.”

“You can run, but you can’t hide,” Lacey called after her as she bolted through the doorway.

Furious at her friends’ meddling, Katie jogged down one of the trails. Why couldn’t they understand how mixed up she was inside about Josh? They were right, however. She hadn’t called him while she’d been at home. And she’d left without ever letting him know she’d been there.

She picked up speed, realizing how much better
she always felt when she ran. For a while after she had learned about the virus in her heart, she had thought she might not survive, let alone run again. But the heart transplant had given her back the world she had been in danger of losing. She was grateful every day to the One Last Wish Foundation, which had made it all possible.

She rounded a bend at full speed and ran smack into a male chest.

“Whoa!” she heard the owner of the chest say. He caught her arms to keep her from falling.

Katie looked up to see Josh’s beautiful blue eyes looking straight into hers.