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“I’ll be waiting.”
****
Brody whistled while he dressed. He had never felt as content as he did at this moment. He was home. He was with his family. He was with Lou. He had missed this. He had let his anger and his drive to succeed at all costs keep him from the people he loved the most. He barely made it home before his mother’s death but that just made him more determined not to miss one single moment from here on out.
He skipped down the stairs and stopped briefly in the office. He picked up the phone and dialed. He reached the night secretary for his boss, the chief of surgery. “Surgical suite. How can I help you?”
A smile lit his face. “Hi, Beautiful! Do you miss me yet?”
He could hear the smile on her weathered old face. She was sixty-five if she was a day old. “Is that you, Brody?” she chuckled.
“Oh, shucks. How’d you know it was me?”
“Nobody else tries to sweet talk me the way you do. What can I do for you?”
“Is the chief around?” Brody asked.
“Nope. He’s in surgery. We just happen to be short one hand around here, you know,” she said candidly. “When are you coming home?”
“Well, that’s what I want to talk to the chief about. I spoke to him last week about maybe transferring to the local hospital here. Do you know if he looked into it for me?”
“Leaving us, are you? What’s her name?” the old woman asked. He could hear her fake fingernails tapping on her desk.
“What makes you think there’s a ‘her’?” Brody asked.
“Because only a woman could make you want to stay away,” she replied.
The chief’s secretary was known for spreading rumors so he said, “There’s no woman, Rita. Just a lot of obligations that are going to take up my time for a while.”
He heard a noise in the doorway and looked up to find Lou staring at him blankly. He turned his back to her and said quietly into the phone, “Can you get with the chief and have him call me about that matter as soon as you see him?”
“Sure thing, Hun. I’ll take care of it for you.”
“Talk at you later, Rita.”
“Bye, Brody.”
****
She knew it, knew it, knew it, knew it. There was no “woman back home.” At least not one that would make him want to stay. He just had some obligations. She slammed a frying pan on the counter. She guessed he needed to stay long enough to tie up the estate and the farm and was asking for an extended leave. Too bad she hadn’t heard the whole conversation.
“There’s no woman,” Lou mocked under her breath just as Brody walked up behind her.
“What’d you say?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she snapped.
“What can I help with?”
“Nothing,” she snapped, again.
“You can’t do this all by yourself, Lou. Just tell me what to do,” he requested.
“If I have to tell you what to do, it’s really not a very big help,” she replied.
His eyebrows drew together. “Something bothering you?”
“Why would something be bothering me?”
