“Why?What else?”
He shook his head.“You’ve heard enough from me tonight.”
“I don’t actually think we have.Especially when you put it like that.”
“Fine.You remember that Shakespeare story about Romeo and Juliet?”
“‘A plague be on both your houses’,” Mitch quoted, to a barrage of catcalls.
“Seriously, Mitch?”Doug asked.“How do you of all people know that line?”
Mitch shrugged.“Britta and I watched that movie last month.Pretty epic, but still pretty sad.”
“Well, that about sums it up.My parents hate Gen and I’m pretty sure her mom hates me, so we’d really need a miracle for this to ever fly.”
“Good thing we have a God who does miracles, huh?”Mike said.
His throat thickened and he nodded, unable to speak.
The guys took turns praying for Kyle, for Gen, for their parents, then for JT’s widow, and various other things, and Kyle soon felt a sense of peace nudge his soul.
Things might look impossible right now, but he believed in a God who knew what would happen in the future.Nothing took God by surprise.And just as God was here in what felt like a holy moment, so God would be with him every step of each day that lay ahead.
He exhaled.Opened his palms, stretched out his fingers.
Lord, I don’t know why You’ve brought us back into each other’s lives if it’s not to somehow see the past reconciled.If it is, then help me to be patient, and bless her and help her find faith in You.If it’s not, then bless her and help her find faith in You.
He swallowed.And help me to let her go.
* * *
Saturday passed with rounds,then the usual parade of arrivals in emergency, with everything from chainsaw accidents to strep throat to general aches and pains.The chainsaw incident was the most serious, carelessness resulting in the accidental amputation of a grandfather’s little finger, which had somehow been salvaged from the dog’s mouth by the grandson, and now needed to be reattached.
Gen had internally shuddered, and the man had been packed off immediately to the OR where skilled surgeons would do their best to reattach the finger.
The incident drew stories from the staff of other things they’d seen over the years.One about a pianist whose woodchopping incident had gone awry, who had needed two fingers to be surgically reattached.The middle finger of her left hand was a little shorter, but she had returned to playing piano six months later.
Another story involved a man who thought he would save himself from buying a hedge trimmer by using the lawnmower to mow the hedge instead.Of course this had not ended well, and he’d presented at emergency with a missing digit or two, which hadn’t been able to be saved.Then, in a bizarre move, a man who turned out to be his neighbor, had also presented at emergency with similar injuries.
“Turned out he’d seen his neighbor cutting his hedge with a mower and thought that was a genius idea,” Marcie had said.
Gen had shaken her head.People could be so optimistically stupid about things.
Like she had.
Expecting to see Kyle again.Being disappointed when yet another week went past, and she didn’t catch sight of him.She’d expected—okay, maybe hoped—that he’d call by for a checkup, but no.Nada.
The answer was there.She could reach out.But just like someone should only use a mower for mowing the lawn and not trimming a hedge, so she knew there were certain things that should not occur because they could be—would be—dangerous.So in this case, it was a lot easier and definitely wiser to not stir the pot.Everything was calm on the Bella and home front.She didn’t need to introduce a distraction that would only lead to chaos and drama.
Even if at night she couldn’t stop dreaming about Kyle, about their kisses, about him holding her.Which she knew made her as pathetic as any of those dumb Disney princesses who seemed to sit around waiting for a man to rescue her, but she couldn’t help it.It was like at night her thoughts escaped from the cage-like control she used during the day.It was just as well no one could see her dreams.Her mom would likely banish her forever to the roof’s crawlspace, seeing they had neither basement nor attic.
And honestly, Gen couldn’t really blame her, because itwascrazy to think that she and Kyle could have a second chance.
For a second she imagined what life could look like: she and Kyle and Bella, all happy together in a nice home.A proper home.One that didn’t leak during rain or make them shiver in winter.With more than an ancient poky kitchen, and a non-mold-infested bathroom, and room for trees in the backyard and flowerbeds in the front, and a dog.With Mom living somewhere nice nearby, happy for them to be together at last, and even his parents—
Nope.She couldn’t imaginethat.
The ED phone buzzed, Nancy listened, then turned to them.“Doctors Singh, Rivas, Visek, we’ve got a three vehicle pileup with multiple casualties.”
