The Good Father

Ella pulled away. She didn’t glance back.

He couldn’t tell if she was crying.

“Let’s go get drunk.” Jeff had made the suggestion before. In another lifetime. They’d been kids then.

“Can you stay over at my place?”

“Yeah.”

So Sunday was taken care of, then.

Monday he would go back to being a man.

* * *

A WEEK PASSED with no word from Jeff. As promised.

And no word from Brett, either. He hadn’t come right out and said he was serious about them sleeping together on anything more than a one-time basis. But Ella knew he was.

She’d certainly known what she was doing.

And like a masochist, she’d hurt herself again.

At least this time, she knew she’d survive. She hadn’t lost her heart to Brett all over again.

How could she have? He’d never given it back the first time.

By Saturday, she was able to smile again without feeling as if she was going to cry. She’d finally accepted a dinner date with Jason Everly, the pediatric pulmonary specialist on her ward. Chloe wasn’t thrilled about the idea, but Ella figured it might help take her mind off Brett.

Turned out that Jason was the type of guy who wasn’t opposed to going to bed on the first date.

He tried his damnedest to get Ella to go home with him. And she was tempted. Just to get Brett out of her system.

But in the end, she turned him down.

Maybe the next time.

Jason asked her out again for the following weekend, accepting a chaste kiss good-night, so she figured there really would be a next time.

No word from Jeff meant there was no need to be in touch with Brett. There’d been a case brought forward to the High Risk team earlier that week, but it hadn’t involved Ella. She’d read the report. Assumed Brett had, too. Wondered what he thought about the date rape, death threat and ultimate arrest of the victim’s boyfriend.

And then tried not to think about him at all.

The task was made a little more difficult by the fact that Chloe was at the Stand six days a week now. In counseling. And setting up a permanent menu and kitchen-duty schedule. Ella could see that Chloe was getting stronger every day.

Enough that Ella believed her when she said she wasn’t in contact with Jeff at all. On Friday night, two weeks after their weekend getaway, they went to Uncle Bob’s for dinner with Cody.

Chloe looked over at Ella with her burger poised halfway to her mouth. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Dink!” Cody squealed and kicked his legs, reaching forward, and Ella reached for his sippy cup without breaking focus.

“For bringing me here. I’ll never forget everything you’ve done for me.”

Ella shrugged. “You and Jeff, you’re my life. I couldn’t sit by and watch as Jeff slowly unraveled.”

“He still might, you know.” Chloe’s eyes took on a sheen of tears. “We have no way of knowing if he’s getting help. He could just be sitting there, waiting for me to call and say I’m coming home.”