Our Last Chance (Heart of Hope 1)

“Eli stopped by my place last night. Nick happened to be there.”

My dad’s graying brow arched. “You and Nick are spending time together?”

“It’s not like that,” I said blowing on my coffee. “He had concerns about the fallout over Ms. Mason’s death.”

“Is he going to be sued?”

“Not that I’m aware of, but I think he’s getting angry calls.”

My father shook his head. “The boy takes a lot of grief where it’s not warranted.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Are you talking about Eli? He seems to blame Nick for mom’s death.”

“He needs someone to blame and Nick is convenient.” My father wiped his mouth with his napkin.

“Why is he still so …” I was going to say crazed, but then didn’t want my dad to think I was picking on Eli. “Angry?”

“He thinks Nick took advantage of you. Then losing your mom. And like I said, Nick has the life Eli wanted but didn’t pursue.”

“Dad you don’t think Nick took advantage of me, do you? I promise you that it wasn’t like that. I actually had to pursue him. He was always good to me and at one time, we loved each other.” The more I spent with Nick, I had to wonder if my feelings were still there. At least stronger than I’d thought.

“I know you’re your own woman, and that if Nick treated you badly, you’d have dealt with it. I like Nick. Personally, I think you could do a lot worse than him, regardless of what Eli says.”

I sat back surprised by my father’s words. “You sound like you know Nick.”

“I’ve known Nick since he was barely able to walk. I watched him grow up. I’ve seen him grow into a pillar of the community. I don’t see him through the same lens as your brother.”

“What about Eli’s insistence that Nick could have saved Mom?”

“I don’t believe it. Think how much worse it would be for Nick and all of us if he did treat your mom and she died. I’m sure that’s why there is the rule about not working on family. The guilt and blame would be crushing.”

“But Mom wasn’t his family.”

He pursed his lips and gave me a disapproving look. “You and Eli seem to think you have some sort of exclusive rights to Nick. We’ve known him since he was a child. We looked out for him when his folks moved away, and he looks out for me. I suspect at your mother’s request, although I’ve never asked.” My father rose from his chair slowly but with intent, clearly perturbed at me and Eli. “Sometimes you and Eli are self-centered.”

The remark hit me right in the heart.

“I’m sorry, Dad. I’m just trying to understand what’s going on with Eli.”

“Why don’t you ask him then instead of the two of you bickering all the time?” He carried his plate in a shaky hand to the sink. “Don’t you need to get to work?”

I looked at my watch. I’d be late if I didn’t leave now, but I hated going with my Dad upset at me. “Yes.” I stood and went to him. “I’m sorry, Dad.” I gave him a hug.

“Have a good day, pumpkin.”

When I arrived at work, I pulled my mother’s medical record to get a better sense of what happened after her accident. Initially, I’d decided I wouldn’t read it, as I didn’t want to know the details. But now with Eli’s insistence that Nick could have saved her or that something hadn’t been right, I wanted to see what happened.

I read through the report. My heart broke for my mother, seeing how battered and injured she was. This was why I hadn’t pulled the report sooner. I didn’t want to know just how much pain she’d had, or how scared she might have been. Nick had told me she knew things were bad. I sniffed as tears formed, thinking about how that must have been for her.

I was a lawyer by training, but I’d been in the medical field of law for long enough to know that the injuries she had were life threatening. By the time the rescue people had gotten her out of her car, the internal bleeding was too severe to save her. Still, they did all they could to keep her calm and pain-free. They arranged for surgery to do all they could. At least she was under anesthesia when she passed, so hopefully she didn’t feel any pain.

When I finally closed the report, I knew that no doctor, not even Nick, would have been able to save her. The only chance she had would have been to have gotten to the hospital sooner, but she’d been off the road, down a wooded embankment that took rescue workers a long time to reach and evacuate her. It took longer than she had time for.

“At least Nick was there for you,” I said as I wiped away my tears.

Pulling myself together, I read my email, curious as to whether or not there was messages from the hospital board or administration on Ms. Mason’s death and Nick. It wasn’t surprising that he’d gotten a few phone calls from residents. In a small town, everyone felt they knew you and had a right to let you know what they thought. But chances were that everything would die down when they learned the circumstances of her death. Like my mother, Ms. Mason got to the hospital a bit too late.

I wondered if I should venture down to the emergency room to check on Nick. It