Chapter 18
Sage
Saturday came, and Sage spent the morning at Jasher’s side, but kept things totally professional. They had to figure out what was going on with Powell Barlow. He’d been admitted, and all his tests had come back negative. Not the gall bladder. Not the thyroid.
What?
Just before noon, his wife came in with one of their daughters, a cute toddler.
“Anne-Marie?” Sage asked. It was a girl who’d graduated a couple of years ahead of her. Sweet, played on the women’s golf team.
“Sage. Oh, my goodness.” She embraced Sage. “Are you Pal’s nurse?”
Sage nodded. More or less. “Are you his wife?”
“Ten years and four kids later, yes.” The toddler squirmed and Anne-Marie picked her up. “He’s been sick for weeks. I shouldn’t be glad he collapsed, but at least it made him go to the ER before it was too late.”
It might already be too late. Sage glanced beyond Anne-Marie’s shoulder to where Powell rested on the hospital bed, his face a sickly gray.
The shift nurse came in and began to discuss the patient’s charts with Mrs. Barlow. Sage left with Jasher.
They gave each other grim looks but didn’t say anything until they were farther down the hall.
“I couldn’t tell her we didn’t know what was wrong yet.” Jasher shoved his hands in the pockets of his white jacket. “I’m going to order some more blood work. And maybe a CT scan of his abdomen.”
He seemed focused. Sage wasn’t scheduled to work, so she went out to her car to think. The sedan had been sitting in the summer sun, and the heat of the car’s interior soaked into her bones. Anne-Marie had very little idea that she might be on the verge of losing everything.
Sage hiccuped. Life could be so fleeting. There were no days to waste. She’d already lost a husband. Not a good one, but he was gone from this earth.
She started the engine and drove straight up Harts Lane to her parents’ house, where she sat with them while they watched a basketball game on TV, popping them a bag of microwave popcorn and offering to dust the silk plants for Mom.
But it felt like something was missing. Someone was missing. Their little family wasn’t complete, even though Sage was their only child.
I don’t really want to admit who my heart thinks that someone might be.
Relationships were what mattered in this life.
And one was definitely forming between her and Jasher Hotchkiss.