Part of Your World(72)

“I love it. Thank you.”

This gentle, thoughtful, sweet boy.

I reached up and hugged him, and he folded around me like he always did. Only there was something almost rooted about his arms this time, like he was trying to keep me from drifting off.

Or sinking.

I was always going to keep this gift. Even if I married someone else. I would keep it until the day I died.

I had an eerie premonition of relatives going through my belongings after my funeral, just like we’d done a few weeks ago for Aunt Lil. They’d find this rock and wonder why it was in the single shoebox I’d taken with me to the retirement home.

I wondered how many of the little trinkets I’d found in Aunt Lil’s box were like this. The remnants of small moments in her life that stayed with her forever. Proof of a thumbprint on her soul.

It’s amazing how someone can touch you, even if you only know them for a moment in time. How they can change you, alter you indelibly.

Daniel had altered me. I was already better for knowing him. Which made leaving him all the more bitter.

I pulled away and wiped at my eyes, and Daniel looked at me gently before taking my hand again.

When we got to the VFW, there was a sign out front that said CLOSED FOR PRIVATE PARTY. Daniel stopped me at the door. “Okay, so I need to warn you about something.”

“What?”

“I wasn’t totally honest getting you here. They wanted me to keep it a secret. There’s a little thing in there for you.”

I pulled my face back. “What thing?”

He didn’t answer me. He just opened the door and led me inside.

The place was packed. It looked like standing room only. And when they saw me come in, everyone started to cheer and clap.

A big sign hung over the bar: THANK YOU, DR. ALEXIS.

I blinked at the room with my hands over my mouth. “Daniel, what is this?”

Liz, Doreen, Doug, Pops—everyone was here.

Then Emelia and Hannah cut through the crowd. Hannah had the baby in her arms, and I knew instantly what this was about.

Daniel leaned down and whispered in my ear. “Something about the cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck? Emelia had a nurse on a video call through the delivery. She said you saved Lily.”

I started to tear up.

I got thanked often in my line of work. But never by an entire town.

Hannah smiled at me as she approached, and hands were slapping me on the back and people were grinning at me and clapping.

It filled me up. It was like all the things my dad and Neil drained out of me, these people tried to put back. They dropped love and appreciation and acknowledgment into my empty well, one smile and thank-you at a time.

“We just wanted to say thank you,” Hannah said, smiling. “Lily might not be here if you didn’t come.”

I wiped under my eyes. “It was my pleasure to be here.”

“Do you want to hold her?” Emelia asked.

I sniffed and nodded. “Can I?”

Hannah leaned in and put the baby in my arms. I pulled the blanket down and looked her over. She was perfect.

I rubbed a knuckle on her little pink cheek. She was almost two weeks old now. She’d probably be getting her first shots soon, and her belly button scab was getting ready to fall off. She was bigger.

This was the one negative side of working in emergency services. Most patients—with the exception of repeat offenders like Nunchuck Guy—were in and out and I never saw them again. I never knew how they did, if they got better, if they got worse. My job was to get them stable and process them to the doctor they needed to see to get well.

Sometimes I did wish I got to see my patients again and again. To see them grow up, stay with them through their lives and witness the changes.

“Are you nursing?” I asked Hannah, talking to her but smiling at the baby. “I brought you some formula if you need it.”

“I am nursing,” Hannah said. Then she lowered her voice. “Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you about that. My boob really hurts and it’s kinda warm?” She tugged at her bra strap uncomfortably.

I smiled. “I can have a look at it.”

Hannah looked relieved. “Thanks.”

I handed Lily back to her mommies, and Daniel took me to a table with Doug at it. The music started playing, and the party got started. It was a buffet spaghetti dinner, and Doreen had made a huge chocolate sheet cake with Thank You, Dr. Alexis on it. Daniel sat next to me and held my hand on the seat between us.

I felt so…loved.

By all of them.

I’d had dinner with my own parents last night and I didn’t feel this loved. They made me feel like crap, actually.

Someone brought me a heaping serving of spaghetti and a salad. Daniel got me a glass of wine and kissed me on the side of the head when he sat back down. The room was alive with laughing and forks clinking on plates, friendly faces looking my way and beaming.

Jake was in the bar. He was wearing his uniform and laughing a little too loud with someone over by the pool table. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Doug leaned in while I was watching Jake. “Can I ask you a question?”

I wiped my mouth with a napkin. “Sure.”

“What happened with the delivery?” he asked. “They said the cord was wrapped around her neck and you delivered her right. How did you do it?”