“I’ve been saying that for years. I guess it just had to come from your sex—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.”
“I was going to say sexy boyfriend.” She ignored me, looking around. “Where is the good doctor, anyway? I haven’t been able to give him my best friend stamp of approval yet.”
“Working. Did you get this dressed up for me?”
“Sadly, no. We are going to the Hamptons tonight. One of these days you really have to go, Gwen. It’s so beautiful living right off the beach.”
“You lived off the lake in Cypress.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, that was nice, but I’m telling you, the Hamptons have a sense of romance to them. Have your doctor boyfriend take you.”
“He’s working.”
“So you aren’t taking him to go meet your parents?” She frowned. “I heard about your dad’s heart attack. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“For me to tell you, someone was going to have to tell me.” I was still annoyed about that. “My mom and dad decided not to ‘worry me’ and apparently he is ‘fine now, sweetie.’ They have been driving up the coast. They should be home by Wednesday, and I hoped to fly in on Saturday, but…”
“But?”
I sighed. “What do you do when Nathaniel is dealing with something hard? I mean, he dealt with things on his own before you were in his life, but now that you are with him, you should do something, right? Not just let him work it out?”
She thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “It depends. When it’s family issues, I just tell him I’m there if he wants to vent, and then try to be around as much as possible, just kind of waiting. When he’s really not in the mood, I make him dinner and get him drunk. Sex usually follows, and after that, I can’t get him to shut up.”
I laughed, shaking my head at her. “Man have you changed, Stevie. Remember when you said you would never kiss a boy?”
“Remember when you said you were going to marry Mario Lopez, then Orlando Bloom?” She elbowed me. “And then who was it you wanted to marry after that… Prince Harry, you really liked Prince Harry.”
“I would have made an amazing princess, thank you. It even sounds nice: Princess Guinevere of Cambridge,” I said, slowly stretching it out for her sake.
“Safe to say, neither of us was in the right frame of mind.”
“I can agree with that.” I laughed, looking toward the curtain. “If I asked him to come with me, do you think he would?”
“Only way to find out is to ask. Now, what are you going to wear?”
She was helpful.
Eli
“He’s suing me,” I said softly, standing behind the chairs of her office.
My mother nodded. “He’s grieving, Eli. He doesn’t know who else to blame. I looked at the chart. I spoke to almost every neurosurgeon in this hospital. You did everything right.”
“Then why?” I snapped. “If you do everything right, everything by the book, why does this still have to be the ending? That man has no one else left.”
“It’s not your fault!” She stood up, placing her hand on my face. “Sweetheart, I’ve told you this before: you can’t save everyone. You aren’t God. They come in broken, and we do the best we can as humans, with everything we have to fix them, and sometimes it still isn’t enough. You didn’t kill her. You aren’t the reason his family is gone. That is not your doing.”
Sighing, I nodded. I knew she was right, but it still didn’t help.
Taking a step away from me, she grabbed her coat. “You are going to take a week off.”
“Mom—”
“You are being sued, Eli. No matter how unjustified, the lawyers will handle it. But you can’t be here like this. Look at yourself. I’m saying this as the chairwoman: you need to go and get your head on straight, Eli. Don’t stay here. Don’t see patients, because if you slip up in this state in any way, everything will be ten times worse.”
“What am I going to do for a week, Mom?”