Chapter Six
Loran was stunned when he showed up at the hospice the next night and found Bella there talking to an elderly man with terminal cancer in the common room.
“What is she doing here?” he muttered under his breath when the administrator came up behind him, slapping him on the back.
“She said she was a friend of yours.” He gave him a side-long look. “That not true?”
“It is.”
Loran tried to ignore the way her whole face lit up when she laughed and touched the man’s hand as he told her a story. He gave her a weak smile in response. Probably his first smile in weeks.
“We did a brief interview and she filled out the paperwork for a background check, but I didn’t see any harm in letting her get to know a few of our residents.”
The administrator rocked back on the heels of his dress shoes as he admired Bella. “She seems to have a way with people, doesn’t she?”
Loran wasn’t deaf or blind. He could tell the attractive forty-something administrator was interested in Bella. “Listen Mark, I should probably set you straight about something.”
“What’s that?” he asked, looking concerned.
“Bella and I are more than friends.” After last night he wasn’t sure he even had the right to claim that anymore, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to stand by and watch a man he’d considered a friend make a play for the woman he was in love with.
“Oh.” His cheeks turned a ruddy shade as he dipped his head. “I see. I didn’t realize that. She didn’t mention it.”
“Probably didn’t think it was relevant.”
He replayed their conversation, just as he’d done a hundred times since it happened. If he’d been smart he would have kept his mouth shut and gone inside with her. Instead he gave her an ultimatum that could have cost him the relationship he was so desperately trying to build with her.
Bella stood and patted the old man on the back before spotting Loran. She blushed and bit her lip, but made her way towards him.
“Hey,” she said, softly.
“Hey,” Loran responded, trying to resist the urge to beg her forgiveness. He knew he hadn’t been wrong to stand his ground with her last night, but being right had never felt worse.
“Well, I’ll leave you two alone,” Mark said, after an awkward pause.
Bella watched him walk away before she said, “I hope it’s okay that I still came.”
“You had to know I’d be here.” He told her he’d intended to work at the hospice tonight.
“I did.” Her gaze dropped before she said, “I was serious about helping out here, but I wanted to see you too. I didn’t feel good about the way we left things last night.”
“This probably isn’t the time or place to talk about it.” He didn’t know what she wanted him to say, but the only words on the tip of his tongue were the three she didn’t want to hear.
“Can we get a coffee a little later then?” she asked, looking nervous. “I’ll understand if you say no, but please don’t.”
He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to say no to her. “Yeah, we can do that. I usually spend about an hour here, if that works for you?”
“Of course.” She looked around the open room, her gaze drifting from one resident to another. “Mark didn’t have a lot of time to introduce me. Maybe you could do the honours?”
“Sure.” He led her towards one of his favorite patients, a seventy-six year-old woman with stage four lung cancer. “Let me introduce you to Stella.”
She followed him until he reached the slight form in the wheelchair sitting by the window. Her frail form was wrapped in a blue crocheted shawl and she appeared to be working on another one as her thin fingers manipulated the needles in her hands.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said, bending to kiss her wrinkled cheek. “What are you working on?”
“Another lap blanket for the nursing home,” she said, smiling up at him. “I hope I get it finished in time.”
His heart broke every time she talked about the end of her life. He’d been coming to visit her every other day for two months and they’d built a friendship. She told him he reminded her of her grandson, who lived on the other side of the country. Apparently she hadn’t seen him in years, but she remembered going to his Little League games when they lived in the same town. She said it was always the highlight of the week for her.
