The Best of Us (Sullivan's Crossing #4)(82)

She sat at his kitchen table. While he turned a couple of eggs over in the pan, she told him the whole story.

He laughed. “Before Maggie met Cal, before my heart attack, she decided to take a leave from her practice and thought she’d come here to hide out. She had a mess going on—she’d broken it off with that useless guy she was seeing, she was being sued—and she ran home. I was thrilled, but I couldn’t let on. If I told her that, she’d never leave. And I knew she had to face the difficult reality, stare her problems in the face or they’d never go away. I wished she could stay forever but then all that medical training would be wasted. Turned out to be a good thing she was here. She was on hand for my heart attack.”

“I’m not here for one of those,” Helen said. “Sully, does Maggie know we’re an item?”

“She does. And I made her promise to keep watch that you don’t end up playing nurse to some sick old man.”

“Oh, Sully! I have a feeling you’re going to outlive us all. I’m just happy to have some fun right now.”

“Would you like a morning walk?”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I think what I need is a morning nap. I’m exhausted. Trying to wiggle out of being the babysitter for the next generation has me worn out.”

“Don’t you have murdering to do this morning?”

“It’ll just have to wait.”

“Is Leigh angry?” Sully asked.

“Uh-huh. She called me a crazy old woman. That’s going to come back and bite her in the ass.”

“Why’d you do it, Helen?” he asked.

“I love Leigh more than life itself, but when I realized she was planning on me being her main support when the baby comes, I knew I’d been too much at her beck and call. She relies too heavily on me, even when we’re apart. It’s really not my job anymore. So I pulled the rug out from under her, just like you said. We’ll see if she falls or flies. It might take a while. She’s disgruntled. And blaming me.”

“Are you going to be happy here?” he asked.

“It’s what I’ve been wanting to do,” she said. “I was just waiting for my niece to get her life together. Just so you know, I’ve never been tempted to live with a man before.”

He reached for her hand. “My life has changed so much in just a few months,” he said. “I never saw myself with a woman. And such a quality woman. I hope Maggie tells her mother. Phoebe will just shit.”

“Underneath it all, you’re vindictive.”

“Just with Phoebe,” he said. “Did you bring those polka dot pajamas?”

“I did.”

“I can’t wait till bedtime,” he said.

Leigh had an unhappy morning. She worked her way through a couple of chest colds, an allergic reaction, false labor and an asthma attack, staying focused on her patients. Connie Boyle brought his little son in with a barking cough. “That doesn’t sound good,” she said. She listened to his chest, wrote a prescription, ordered a chest X-ray at the hospital in either Aurora or Breckenridge and suggested using steam to help loosen his congestion. “How are Sierra and the baby?” she asked.

“They’re doing great, except that Sam likes to get up in the night with the baby, and since I’m back at work, she’s sleep deprived. We’re both sleep deprived. You know you’re running on fumes when I get more rest at night at the firehouse. But this won’t last forever.”

It wasn’t long after Connie left that Cal came in with Elizabeth. “Fever,” he said. “I consulted the doctor, who is in Denver, and she said I should ask you to check her ears.”

“Bingo,” Leigh said. “Ear infection.” And she wrote out another script.

And next, Rafe Vadas and all three of his kids came in, three runny noses and one croupy cough. “I guess it’s Father’s Day at the clinic,” she said. “All the fathers are bringing in the kids and all the kids spend time together. I wonder where it started?”

“Our house, I bet. And Lisa is working today. These kids are like little petri dishes, just breeding germs. And sharing them! I bet Lisa and I will have it by the end of the week.”

“Extra vitamin C for you,” she said.

Between patients she sat in her office, door closed, to think. Eleanor knocked on the door, poked her head in and asked if she was feeling all right. “I’m fine, thanks for asking. Sorry I’m a little cranky. I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Maybe we can get you out of here a little early so you can have a nap.”

“If possible, that works for me.”

She was thinking about Helen and forcing herself to have a more pure memory. She remembered going out on a date—with Johnny, of course—and coming home at midnight to a dimly lit house with the glow of the computer screen and the sound of clicking keys. Sometimes that computer was active past midnight and again when Leigh got out of bed in the morning. Did Helen love her writing? Certainly! Was she scrambling to make money because she wanted Leigh to go to college without depending on too many student loans? Absolutely.

She remembered Helen nodding off on the sofa with a book in her lap and thinking, Well, at her age... At her age? She worked two jobs until Leigh was twenty-eight and had finished her residency. All those years of Leigh’s growing up, Helen worked all the time. Then three things happened—Leigh finished school and began working, at a handsome salary in a Chicago ER. Helen’s books became popular—most of them bestsellers. And Helen could retire with a pension. Yet she kept writing three to four books a year.