Reassured, their mother allowed herself to be persuaded to sit for a few minutes with her beverage. Meagan and Madison exchanged looks of concern as Meagan led their mother toward the small sitting area, which was, fortunately, unoccupied at the moment.
Madison rejoined them a few minutes later. “They have her settled comfortably,” she reported, motioning her mother to remain seated when she started to rise. “Finish your coffee, Mom, Meemaw’s sleeping. She wouldn’t even know you were in the room. And don’t worry, she’ll be fine for a few minutes alone. If she needed constant watching, she’d be in ICU.”
Only somewhat reassured, their mom settled back into the chair, though Meagan thought she looked prepared to leap to her feet at a moment’s notice.
Madison looked at Meagan with raised eyebrows. Guessing her sister was asking silently if Meagan had talked to her mother about their grandmother’s prognosis, Meagan shook her head. She figured they could wait to have that talk after the most recent lab results came back, and after they’d talked to their grandmother’s physician.
Getting the message, Madison nodded and spoke brightly to lighten the heavy mood among them. “How’s it going with you and Seth?” she asked Meagan.
Meagan answered vaguely, “I haven’t seen him this week. I’ve been busy back at work, and I’m sure he and Alice have been busy, as well.”
“You’ve talked to him, though, haven’t you?”
“Not in the last few days. Like I said, I’ve been busy.”
And Seth had made no effort to contact her, she thought, biting the inside of her lip.
Madison was the one wearing a frown now. “Surely you can make time for a phone call. Or to have dinner with the guy. You’re not going to run this one off with inattentiveness like you did Gary, are you?”
Gary was a man Meagan had dated a few times more than two years ago, back when she was still a busy resident. She had liked him, but not enough to completely rearrange her schedules for him. And because he was a man who needed someone to be available pretty much all the time for him, he’d rather quickly acknowledged that perhaps a surgeon wasn’t the best choice of companion for him. Meagan had hardly given him a thought since, proving that her feelings for him had been fleeting and rather shallow. Madison, on the other hand, had been disappointed by the breakup—probably because she was the one who’d introduced them. Gary had been the instructor in a yoga class Madison had briefly taken for stress relief during med school.
“I didn’t run Gary off,” she muttered, looking around to make sure there were no eavesdroppers on this personal conversation. “He was looking for someone who was ready for a permanent commitment, and I wasn’t interested in that then.”
Nor would Gary have been the right one if she had been looking, she added silently.
“Then,” Madison repeated quickly. “What about now? You’re not getting any younger you know, sis.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“You should call Seth. Let him know you’re interested, even if you’re busy. And you really should see about cutting back on your work schedule a little. You’re not a resident anymore, you know. You’ve got a good start in your career. You can make time for a life outside the hospital, and you should. Am I right, Mom?”
Still looking distracted, their mother nodded. “I hope all my children find loving partners eventually, who’ll make you as happy as I was with your father. And I would like to have grandchildren eventually,” she added with a faint smile. “Maybe I shouldn’t have raised you girls to be quite so independent and career minded.”
Meagan reached out to gently squeeze her mother’s arm. “You raised us just fine, Mom.”
“Thank you, sweetie. Let’s go check on your grandmother now.”
Knowing there would be no delaying her further, Meagan agreed. At least her mom had some color in her face again. The coffee break had served its purpose.
Walking with them, Madison met Meagan’s eyes behind their mother’s back. “Call Seth,” she mouthed.
With a sigh, Meagan looked away, lamely pretending she hadn’t received the message.
It was past eight when Meagan got home Sunday evening. As she’d expected, her mother had insisted on staying at the hospital. Meagan knew her mom would be comfortable enough in the foldout bed the hospital provided in each private room for family members. Not that anyone slept particularly well in a hospital room, but it would have been a waste of breath to try to send her mom home that night. Maybe tomorrow night she’d agree to go home for awhile, if Meemaw was doing better.
As was her habit, Meagan laid out her clothes for the next day and then brewed a mug of hot tea to help her relax for the remainder of the evening until bedtime. There wasn’t much on TV to interest her and she couldn’t concentrate on reading, so she caught up on some busywork on her computer for an hour or so. At just before ten she found herself at a front window in her living room, gazing at the house just down the street. Lights burned in windows both upstairs and downstairs, so it looked as though the occupants hadn’t yet turned in.
Call Seth. She could still clearly picture her sister’s face as she had mouthed the command.
Should she? Was she being rude by not calling? Maybe he’d been waiting for her to make the next move, since he’d done all the calling before. Maybe it had been so long since she’d been active in the dating scene that she had forgotten some of the “rules.”
She glanced at her watch. Still ten minutes before ten. That wasn’t too late for a quick call, was it?
Her hand was actually a little unsteady when she picked up her phone. How silly of her. She was a skilled surgeon whose hands could slice neatly through skin and muscle and reattach tiny blood vessels and nerve endings. Why on earth would a simple phone call unnerve her?
Seth had checked his caller ID when he answered. “Hi, Meagan.”
“Hi. I hope it’s not too late to call.”