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“He’s not in there now.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you didn’t come, he checked himself out and went home.”
“What?” With difficulty, she got up from the chair. “But that doesn’t make sense.”
“I guess it does to him.”
She bit her lip. “I—I’ll phone him as soon as I get home.”
A somber expression darkened his features as he rose to his feet and walked her to the door. “Please, Ashley,” he whispered against her forehead where he gave her a kiss. “Don’t do anything unless you mean it.”
Don’t do anything unless you mean it?
Those words went ’round and ’round in her head all the way back to the apartment.
As soon as she’d put away groceries and prepared Mrs. Bromwell’s lunch, she left her propped up with pillows listening to the radio, then shut the door and reached for the phone. But fear of becoming vulnerable again prevented her from actually punching in the numbers.
Another hour went by while she debated what to do, all the while growing more and more frantic. Finally, when she couldn’t stand it any longer, she picked up the receiver and phoned Cord’s extension at the office. Most of the time Sheila answered it for him.
Prepared to hear the satisfied sound in her husky voice, Ashley was taken aback when a terse, “Yes—” came over the wire to meet her ear. He had to be in a vile mood.
“Cord?”
For once the deafening quiet coming from his end told her she’d caught him off guard.
“Ashley? Dear God—it is you.”
The raw emotion in his voice revealed that she still had the power to affect him in some small degree. Summoning her courage she said, “I went to see Greg today. He said you’d left the hospital. Why?”
“Does it matter?” he asked grimly. “Last night you said you didn’t want to hear anything I had to say.”
She was afraid it would be like this. “Cord—do you want me to go on, or shall we just hang up?”
“No. Don’t do that! I’ve been in a foul mood and didn’t mean to take it out on you.”
If she didn’t know better, she would say he was nervous, which was odd because Cord wasn’t the nervous type. Anything but. At least she could say that about the Cord she thought she knew. Right now she didn’t know anything anymore.
“If you need to be in the hospital, then I don’t understand why you went back home. What’s wrong with you?”
“It’s my worry, Ashley. I’ll deal with it.”
She frowned. Something was missing in Cord, some elemental spark which had always been there before. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the fact that he didn’t seem like himself bothered her terribly. Especially when he was going to be a father soon.
“I’ve made a decision, Cord. Please check yourself back in and I’ll come over.”
“Because of problems at the office, I couldn’t go in before Monday. But in any case, it’s asking too much of you.”
Greg had intimated Cord was deeply depressed. She was starting to realize what he’d meant.
“Not according to Greg,” she interjected. “He seems to believe you’re in real trouble.”
“He’s exaggerating.”
“I don’t think so. Let me know when you’re back in City Creek Hospital and I’ll be there.”
“No, thanks. Your sacrifice isn’t required, certainly not this close to the divorce. I should never have called you. I’ll work on my problem in my own way.”
