Uncovering Secrets: The Third Novel in the Rosemont Series (21 page)

Chapter 49

Maggie slid into the booth next to John Allen. “Stuart’s
Steakhouse is pretty fancy for a Monday night, isn’t it?”

“I’m
considering this a long-overdue date night. We haven’t had a moment alone since
before the kids came to visit.”

Maggie
leaned into him and sighed. “You’re such a romantic. I’m a lucky gal.”

John
kissed the top of her head. “I’m assuming they all got home safe and sound. No
delayed planes or missed connections?”

Maggie
nodded. “Mike texted when they landed, thanking me and telling me what a good
time they had. They’re excited for the wedding.” She turned to him. “Did you
know that the girls made fast friends with another little girl at the carnival?
They’re planning a sleepover at Rosemont when they’re back in June.”

“Won’t
you be too busy with the wedding?”

“It’ll
be fine,” Maggie relaxed into his arm resting along the back of the booth. “By
that time, everything that needs to get done had better
be
done.”

The
waiter approached their table. “I don’t want to interrupt. Do you need a few
minutes?” They shook their heads and placed their usual orders.

“So
where do we stand on the wedding?” John asked. “I know you girls worked on it
like mad last week.”

“It’s
all done—as long as the dresses and invitations come in on time. You’ve
got your tux, right?”

“Altered
and hanging in my closet. Do you want to see it?”

Maggie
shook her head. “If you can’t see my dress before the wedding, I shouldn’t see
your tux.”

The
waiter placed their entrees on the table, and they began to eat in
companionable silence. When Maggie was almost done with her filet, she cut the
remaining chunk in half and motioned to the waiter. “May I get a doggie bag for
these, please?” she asked.

John
looked at her askance. “I hope I’m the doggie that you’re thinking of. That’s
at least ten dollars’ worth of steak.”

“You
know that these are for Eve and Roman. They’re such good doggies. They deserve
a treat.”

“You
know that people food isn’t good for them. And that I’m the local veterinarian?
It won’t be good for business if my own dogs get sick from poor nutrition,” he
admonished.

Maggie
rolled her eyes.

“And
where would my sweetheart like to go for our honeymoon? Can you still get away
for two weeks, like we talked about?”

“I’m
taking two weeks, come hell or high water,” Maggie replied firmly. “As for
where—I haven’t given it any thought.”

“The
beach? The mountains? City or country? Domestic or abroad?”

Maggie
began to rub her temples with her fingertips. “Ahhhhh … I don’t think I can
cope with planning one more thing; this wedding is already bigger than what I
wanted. All I know is that I want to be with you and I want us to do something
relaxing—something very different from our daily lives here. I need to immerse
myself in a new environment.”

John
searched the face of the woman he cherished. “Why don’t I plan the whole thing?
I’ll tell you what I’ve got in mind and you can approve or veto, but I’ll do
all the work. Seems only fair since you’ve taken on the wedding.”

Maggie
turned to him, her eyes bright. “I’d love that. But don’t tell me a thing about
it. Let it be a wonderful surprise—like our first date at The Mill.
Remember how well that turned out?”

A
smile spread across John’s face. “If you really mean it, I’d love to. I’ve got
something in mind already.”

“Don’t
give me any hints. No matter how much I beg.”

John
laughed. “You’ve got it. My lips are sealed. But what about your wardrobe? I’ll
have to tell you what to pack.”

Maggie
shook her head. “Nope. Not even that. Susan will be here the week before the
wedding. You can tell her, and she can pack for me.”

“I
hope I don’t disappoint you,” John said seriously.

“You
never could,” Maggie assured him.

“Let’s
get the check and head back to Rosemont,” John replied huskily.

***

The month of May was filled with fittings,
consultations, and endless emails and phone calls. If Maggie were honest, she
spent at least half of her workday attending to the details of her wedding.
Despite the fact that the first batch of invitations arrived with a typo, Judy
Young was able to expedite the corrected order and Maggie deposited them in the
mail only a few days later than planned. Everyone on the guest list already had
the date circled on their calendars, anyway. The RSVPs were streaming in, and
the latest count showed that they could expect two hundred and eighty guests.

***

Frank Haynes had received his invitation at his home
address, the address he called home because someone (almost certainly Paul
Martin) had destroyed the evidence that would have assured that he—Frank
Haynes—inherited Rosemont. He’d be damned if he’d attend and celebrate
Maggie’s good fortune at his expense.

Haynes
was tossing the invitation in the trash when an idea occurred to him. He smiled
broadly.
What a delicious idea.

He
returned the invitation to its envelope and placed it carefully inside his
briefcase. He’d speak to Loretta in the morning.

***

Loretta Nash looked up as Frank Haynes approached her
desk. She relaxed. He was smiling. Maybe she wasn’t in trouble.

“When
you were interviewing for this job, you mentioned that you knew about
Rosemont.”

Loretta
eyed him warily and nodded.

“As
you may have heard, Mayor Martin and John Allen are getting married there in
June. I received my invitation this morning,” he said, pulling the invitation
from its envelope, “and was wondering if you’d like to join me.”

Loretta
stared at him.

“Not
as a date, mind you. Nothing of the sort. We still have a professional
relationship to maintain.” He searched her face as he said the next words.
“Since your friend Paul owned Rosemont, I thought you’d be curious about it.
This is your chance to see it up close.”

Loretta’s
head was spinning. What in the hell was Frank Haynes doing? Had he figured out
about her and Paul, or was he really trying to be nice? One thing was sure, she
wasn’t going anywhere near Maggie Martin’s Rosemont wedding.

“I
can’t take time away from my kids on a Saturday. Sean’s in softball, and we
have a game,” she lied. “Thank you for asking me, but I won’t be able to make
it.”

Haynes
stood the open invitation on her desk. “I’ve already RSVP’d for two, so if you
change your mind, let me know. It’ll be something that people around here will
talk about for the rest of their lives. You’d be sorry you missed it.”

Chapter 50

Loretta tried to ignore the invitation that had been
sitting on her desk for weeks, but found herself picking it up and reading the
engraving over and over again—the wedding was a week from Saturday. If
things had turned out differently, maybe she and Paul Martin would have gotten
married at Rosemont. She was daydreaming about her own Rosemont wedding when
the shrill ring of the phone on her desk brought her back to reality.

“Loretta,”
came the school nurse’s brisk voice. “Nicole’s real bad again. I’m so sorry,
honey, but I think she needs to go back to the hospital. Now.”

Loretta
was already picking up her purse. “I’m on my way. I’ll call the doctor from my
car.”

Loretta
threw Frank Haynes’ office door open. “The school just called. I have to get
Nicole to the hospital.” She turned on her heel and ran to the door. She never
heard Frank Haynes tell her to take whatever time she needed and to let him
know if he could help.

***

Loretta and Nicole walked through the doors of the
emergency room of Mercy Hospital and were admitted directly to a room.
One
of the advantages of being well known to the hospital staff,
Loretta
thought sadly. A nurse took Nicole’s vital signs and drew three vials of blood.
Her doctor entered the room less than thirty minutes later, accompanied by a
team of pediatricians and nephrologists that he said would be performing a thorough
review of Nicole’s condition. Loretta nodded, as fear settled its vice-like
grip on her heart. Why couldn’t they figure out how to help her daughter?

After
the team left, Loretta stood over the hospital bed looking at her daughter’s
small, swollen face reposed in sleep. The new medicine wasn’t working. She
fished her cell phone from her purse, called her babysitter to make
arrangements for Marissa and Sean, and then collapsed into the familiar bedside
chair, waiting for the doctors to return.

Almost
an hour later, a nurse motioned to Loretta to join her in the hallway. “They’re
ready to see you,” she said. Loretta turned eyes wide with fear to the woman.
“It’ll be okay,” she said. “You’ve got the best team in the state looking after
your little girl. They’ll know what to do.” The nurse put her arm around
Loretta’s shoulders and walked her into the consultation room where the doctors
were assembled.

The
doctor held out a chair for her, and she sank into it before her knees buckled
under her.

“The
medications we’ve used so far haven’t performed as expected,” he said. “There
are others we can try, but her condition is getting worse. We’re all in
agreement,” he motioned to the doctors seated at the table. “We should start
Nicole on dialysis as soon as possible.”

Loretta
clutched the edge of the table with white knuckles. Tears formed in the corner
of her eyes. “Will she ever get better? Will she need dialysis for the rest of
her life?”

“We
still believe we’ll be able to control this with medication,” he stated, and
the other doctors nodded in agreement. “And that she will grow out of this
condition. But for right now, she needs dialysis.”

“Okay,”
Loretta croaked. “When will you do it? And where?”

“We’ve
scheduled it for six o’clock tomorrow morning. Right here at the hospital.”

Loretta
nodded.

“There
are other places she can go in the future, but for now, we’d like to monitor
her. Would that be all right with you, Ms. Nash?”

Loretta
found her voice. “Of course. If that’s what she needs,” she said, searching the
faces around the table and seeing agreement in each one.

“She’ll
rest comfortably here tonight. Go home and get some sleep. You can be with her
during the procedure. Be back at five thirty.”

***

Loretta stopped at the babysitter’s home to pick up Sean
and Marissa. The kindly woman took one look at Loretta and insisted that they
spend the night with her. “They’ve already had dinner and are hard at work on
their homework. Go home, eat something, and go to bed. The last thing your
family needs is for you to get sick.”

“Thank
you, I’ll take you up on that—but let me put them to bed and kiss them
goodnight,” she said, turning grateful eyes to the woman.

“Don’t
worry about paying me, either. I know how expensive hospital care is. I’ll help
by keeping your big kids whenever you need. They’re no trouble at all.”

***

Loretta turned on the television to distract herself
from the dark fears that intruded the quiet apartment. She warmed up a can of
soup, kicked off her shoes, and sank into the sofa to eat her meager dinner,
forcing spoonfuls into her mouth until she was certain she’d be sick if she
took another bite. The remainder went down the disposal. She wrapped herself in
an afghan and lay down, willing herself to get some sleep.

Loretta
opened her eyes to the flickering light of the television and checked her cell
phone—almost four thirty. Somehow she’d managed to get a few hours’ sleep
and felt slightly better. She showered, put on a clean pair of jeans and shirt,
gathered her long hair into a ponytail, and skipped putting on makeup. If she
went to work today, this would have to do.

When
she arrived at the hospital, Loretta found Nicole awake and staring miserably
at the ceiling of her room. “Not feel good,” her daughter mumbled as Loretta
rushed to her side, taking her hand and holding it to her cheek.

“I
know, sweetie. The doctors have a plan to help you. They’re going to clean your
blood with a very special machine. And then you’ll feel better.”

Nicole
blinked. “It’ll be real soon now,” she continued, “and Mommy will be with you
the whole time.” Loretta turned as a young man pushing a wheelchair tapped
softly on the door.

“I
hear a very pretty little girl named Nicole Nash needs a ride downstairs. Is
that you?” he asked, looking at Nicole. She attempted a smile. The man checked
the chart at the foot of her bed and made notes on his clipboard.

“How
about your mother and I help you sit up and get in this wheelchair?” he asked
as Loretta lifted Nicole’s shoulders and he swung her feet off the bed. Nicole
offered no resistance, and they guided her into the seat. Loretta held her
daughter’s hand tightly in her own as they proceeded to the elevator and down
two floors to the large room labeled Dialysis Center.

“This’ll
make you feel better real soon,” one of the nurses reassured softly as she
positioned Nicole in an oversized reclining chair that all but enveloped the
little girl. Nicole turned her face into her mother’s arm while the nurse
hooked Nicole up to the life-saving equipment. Nicole never uttered a sound,
but Loretta felt her child’s body tense with each poke and prod.
If only I
could spare her this—all of this,
Loretta thought.

“You’re
all set now, honey,” the nurse said, brushing a strand of hair from Nicole’s
damp forehead. “You’re tired, aren’t you? Why don’t you take a nap while the
machine does its work? Would you like that?”

Nicole
nodded and soon she was asleep. Loretta attempted to read a magazine she pulled
from a rack by the door.

The
nurse checked on Nicole shortly after seven and turned to Loretta. “This takes
quite a while. Why don’t you go downstairs and get some breakfast? She won’t
know you’re gone,” she said, looking at the sleeping child.

Loretta
nodded, realizing that she was famished. She stretched and headed to the
cafeteria. The line wound out the door. She finally got her food and found a
seat in the crowded room. She’d been gone longer than she’d anticipated and ate
her eggs and toast quickly. She groaned when she saw the swarm of people
waiting by the elevator and took the stairs instead. Whether propelled by
paranoia or mother’s instinct, she didn’t know. She just knew that she needed
to get back to Nicole.

***

Loretta pushed through the doors of the Dialysis Center
and headed toward the spot where she’d left Nicole not more than forty-five
minutes earlier. Nicole’s nurse intercepted her halfway across the room.

“Nicole’s
been moved down the hall,” she said. “We needed to discontinue the procedure
early.”

“Why?”
Loretta’s voice sounded shrill even to her own ears.

The
nurse took her arm and led her to the room where Nicole lay, pale and still,
swaddled in blankets.

Loretta
put her hand to her mouth to stifle a sob. “What happened?”

“We’re
not sure. This happens sometimes,” the nurse said. “People can be sensitive to
some of the things we use.”

“So
what do you do about that?”

“We
can make adjustments. We have lots of options. This’ll get worked out just
fine,” she said reassuringly.

“And
if it doesn’t ‘get worked out,’” Loretta choked out the words. “What then? She
can’t live with this disease.”

“There’s
a lot of ground to cover before you get to that point. Don’t worry about that
now.”

Loretta
reached under the blankets and took Nicole’s hand. “Mommy’s here now, sweetie.
I won’t leave you ever again. You’re gonna feel better soon, and we’ll go
home.”

The
nurse nodded from the doorway. “Yes, you will,” she said. “We’re going to
figure this out.”