Never Stopped Loving You, page 5
“Babies, where are you?” a frail voice called from the entry way.
“Mom!” both girls cried in unison as they dropped everything and rushed to embrace their mother, shocked to see her there.
“It’s good to be home with my girls,” Diane said, fighting off tears.
“What are you doing here? Nathan said he wouldn’t be able to sign your discharge papers until after 6.” Elizabeth reached out to grab her mother’s hand and reassure herself that she really was there with them.
“I decided that was too long for her to wait so we staged a jailbreak.” William leaned against the door frame with a mischievous grin on his face.
“Isn’t my William sweet?” Diane beamed with joy.
“That was very thoughtful of you.” Elizabeth gave him a big hug, so thankful for his presence in their lives.
“I figured it was the least I could do.” All he wanted was for the three women to be together. When they separated, something was off with the whole world.
“It means a lot. She has been itching to get out of that hospital.” Kate gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
“You’re the best, Bill.” Elizabeth smiled up at him like he had just given her a winning lottery ticket. Traveling as often as she did, it was easy to forget the simple joy of having a supportive friend by your side.
“It was just two hours early.” He shrugged off the gratitude.
“Well, you have to stay for dinner now,” Elizabeth offered.
“Please, say you’ll stay.” Kate clapped her hands eagerly.
“You have to.” Diane’s maternal tone was too hard to deny.
“How could I turn down an invitation from the three loveliest women I know?” He wrapped his arms playfully around them all in a bear hug.
“It’s settled then,” Elizabeth said, relief washing over her at the thought that her mother was finally home with them. The simple exchange of convincing William to stay for dinner already felt like things were getting back to normal. “I need to go check the sauce.” She darted toward the kitchen.
“Good girls.” Their mother nodded contently. She preferred to be the one who took care of everything, but the thought that her little girls had grown into two strong and caring young women filled her heart with pride and joy.
“It all smells delicious,” William commented, taking off his coat.
“Would you expect any less from a meal in this house?” Kate asked with mock indignation.
“Never!” He held up his hands in surrender and grinned.
“Kate, why don’t you show Bill and mom the room we have set up for her,” Elizabeth suggested as she came back into the room. She thought that if William gave it his approval, their mother might fight them a bit less on staying there.
“Good idea.” William gestured for the ladies to go first.
“Yes, show me the work you’ve done, my dear.”
“Okay, follow me.” Kate smiled conspiratorially at her sister as she walked toward the room.
Elizabeth was not alone for more than a minute before another knock came at the door.
“Who’s knocking now?” she wondered as she threw open the door. To her shock, there stood Nathan and it was clear from his expression that he was agitated.
“Nathan!” she exclaimed, unsure what else to say.
“Is your mom okay? I went to start her discharge and the nurse told me she was already gone.” He barged past her without waiting for an invitation to come in.
“Yes, she’s here,” Elizabeth said, confusion evident in her expression. “Thanks for following up.”
“I just wanted to be sure she got home safely.” He was informed that William had discharged Mrs. Watson but, after the tense conversation in his office, he didn’t want to bring up his name again. “And I wanted to apologize to you,” he spoke through gritted teeth as though the words pained him.
“There’s no need.” She knew that they needed to face what was between them so that she could finally move on, but she wasn’t ready for such an emotional moment right after the joy of welcoming her mother back home.
“I was out of line. I know I have no right to interfere in your life.”
“It’s all right.” She hoped that he would leave now that he had said what he came to stay. Digging further into all the pain between them was best saved for another day.
“It’s so strange to be around you again. I don’t know what to do or say.” He ran his fingers through his black hair in frustration.
“I know the feeling.” Her head was pounding with the effort to keep her emotional defenses intact.
“I hate how awkward things are between us,” he continued, undeterred by the hesitation in her eyes.
“Me too. We were so close once, even before we started to date,” she blurted out, immediately regretting her sentimental tone. But it was the truth. That was the hardest part of it all for her. In losing their love, she had also lost one of the most important friendships she had ever known. It was like losing him twice.
“We really were good friends first, weren’t we?” His own eyes echoed her sadness.
“The best of friends.”
“Do you think we could go back to that someday?” he asked her suddenly, as though he had only just realized that it might be possible.
“I’d like that very much.” Elizabeth liked the idea of being friends again although she didn’t say aloud how impossible she thought it was. There was too much pain there. He had to know it too, but just the fact that he asked did warm her heart. She was so lost in the intensity of their exchange that she didn’t hear William and her sister come back into the room.
“Liz, you did a wonderful job with the room. You and Baby Bird outdid yourselves,” William stated before he noticed Nathan standing there.
“Thanks, Bill.” Elizabeth was relieved to no longer be alone with Nathan.
Nathan’s expression quickly changed.
“William, I heard that you discharged my patient, but I didn’t expect to see you here.”
“He gave her a ride home too. Wasn’t that sweet of him?” Elizabeth smiled at her old friend, missing the jealousy flaring in her ex’s eyes.
“Yup. Sweet.” Nathan worked hard to keep his emotions in check. He had never wanted to punch another man so much, let alone his best friend.
“Nathan, are you okay?” William eyed him intently.
“I’m fine.”
“Do you want to stay for dinner?” Elizabeth wasn’t sure that inviting Nathan to stay was a good idea, but she was grateful for everything he was doing for her mother and it seemed like the right thing to do in this situation.
“We understand if you’re too busy. Everyone knows your career comes first.” Kate smirked, venom in her voice.
“Thank you for the invitation but I can’t stay. I’d like to see your mother before I leave, though, since I wasn’t able to give her a final examination before she was discharged. I’ll only be a minute.”
“Sure. We have her set up in the old guest room so she won’t have to go up or down the stairs until her strength is fully restored.”
“An excellent idea. You don’t have to show me the way. I remember the house very well.” His eyes darted to William before leaving the room.
“What’s with him?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know. He was fine a minute ago.” Elizabeth shrugged, chewing on her lip.
“He’s been on edge lately.” William’s eyes followed the path his friend had taken out of the room. He was quite sure that this was not the last he would hear from Nathan about discharging his patient.
“I need to get to making the rest of dinner. Make yourself comfortable,” Elizabeth told William.
“You got it.”
William and Kate headed to the living room and settled into the couch. After a short while, Nathan was back.
“She’s a bit worn out but her vitals are good.”
“I know. I checked them before we left the hospital,” William answered calmly, aware that this was Nathan’s passive aggressive way of chastising him.
“I don’t appreciate you discharging my patient.”
“She wanted to get home. Besides, I wanted to drive her home to save the girls a trip.”
“I bet you did,” Nathan snapped.
“Are you sure you can’t stay for dinner?” Elizabeth came from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.
“I’m sure. Thanks a lot, Liz.”
“What are friends for?” She did her best to give him a genuine smile and be the friend she wished they would be to each other.
“Right. Friends,” he replied as though he had to remind himself that she was in fact his friend. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” she called after him.
“What happened to him?” Elizabeth asked as soon as he closed the door behind him.
“I, for one, don’t care,” Kate said, her tone cold. In her mind, Nathan had no business trying to be a part of their happy family reunion. “Say what you want about me, but I’m always honest.”
“Whatever. I have to get back to the kitchen.” Elizabeth tried to put the strange exchange out of her mind and focus on her mother’s homecoming.
“We’ll give you a hand,” Kate offered as she and William stood up and followed her sister.
Chapter 9
The next day, William wasn’t at all surprised when his secretary told him that Nathan wanted to meet with him the moment that he arrived at the hospital. He knew his friend and there was little doubt in his mind that this was going to be an uncomfortable conversation. The tension between them had been building since Elizabeth’s return and it was clearly about to escalate.
“You requested my presence,” William said as he walked through the door, refusing to give Nathan the first or last word.
“We need to talk,” Nathan snapped, looking up from the file he was brooding over.
“Is this a conversation as friends or as coworkers?”
“Don’t ever discharge one of my patients again without consulting me.”
“That’s what you have your boxers in a twist about,” William mocked, knowing just how to push Nathan’s buttons. He respected his friend, but he refused to be scolded like a child for doing what he deemed best.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” Nathan growled, slamming the file down on his desk.
“This isn’t about me discharging your patient.” William stormed across the room, his own temper boiling.
“Then what is it about?”
“It’s about Elizabeth.”
“Elizabeth’s got nothing to do with this. She’s not my patient.”
“No, but you wanted her to see you discharging her mom. What did you think? Did you think she would fall back in love with you because you sprung her mom from the hospital?”
“You sound ridiculous.” Nathan jumped up from his seat and rounded the desk so that he stood eye to eye with William.
“You are the one being ridiculous. You know Diane is miles away from being cured. What happens if you can’t do it?”
“Don’t talk about my patient.”
“She’s rallying now but she has a lot of very aggressive treatment to go through. We could lose her and you know it.” They both knew that Diane’s prognosis was not good, but they had never openly discussed any outcome but a positive one. The thought of her passing away was too painful for them both.
“Of course I know it,” Nathan admitted, his face a study in frustration.
“And where does that leave Liz and Kate?”
“What do you mean?” Nathan frowned.
“I mean that you want me to stay away from them, right?”
“Yes.”
“But you aren’t exactly stepping up for them, are you?”
“I’m doing everything I can for their mother,” Nathan cried, unwilling to accept that he could fail in curing the woman who had done so much for him. He also hated to admit that he might not be able to spare Elizabeth from the pain of losing her mother.
“I know you are. But if they lose her, they’ll need emotional support. You are not exactly someone they would turn to for that, are you?”
“I was once,” Nathan said, his voice full of sadness as the realization washed over him.
“But you aren’t now.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nathan held tightly to his anger to keep the pain at bay.
“I do. I’ve tried to get you to talk about Liz and I’ve tried to get her to talk about you. You’re both too stubborn to face what you feel for each other.”
The thought that William had tried to discuss their relationship with Elizabeth had Nathan seeing red. It was none of William’s business. It was nobody’s business but his and hers.
“There’s no reason for me to talk about that with you,” Nathan snapped, wishing he had never called William to his office in the first place.
“What I’m saying is that she’s too stubborn to turn to you if she has to grieve and you’re too proud to just go to her even if you think she might need you.”
“I would never put my pride before her.” Nathan couldn’t fathom that his friend really thought so poorly of him as to imagine that he would stay away from Elizabeth when she needed him, just to keep his own feelings from being wounded.
“You already have.” William looked as though he would very much like to shake some sense into his friend.
“Tread very carefully,” Nathan warned.
“You were too proud to take time away from your shining future to join Doctors Without Borders with her. You were afraid of going to some third world country and being just another doctor. You needed the glory of being the best. You thought you needed that more than you needed her.”
William’s expression said it all. He couldn’t believe his friend had been so reckless with something so precious as Elizabeth’s heart.
Both men stood in silence for a moment, Nathan literally trembling with rage. He never lost control of his temper, but being accused of abandoning Elizabeth was too much to bear. The worst part was that he knew William spoke the truth. He had been too afraid to take the leap with her. Nathan might have told himself it was because he wanted to best serve his patients, but a part of it had to do with his career and the recognition. It was how a doctor of his caliber got ahead and he knew it.
Part of him had been sure that she would wait for him. He thought she would tell him that she understood and that they would get married years down the line, when he had achieved all that he had planned. When she turned her back on him and walked away, it shook him to his core.
“It was complicated,” Nathan finally said, not ready to speak the truth aloud.
“No, it really wasn’t.” William crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes locked with his friend’s.
“You know nothing about relationships,” Nathan countered, hinting at the fact that William had never been one to take matters of the heart seriously.
“Maybe not, but I do know Elizabeth. That woman is one in a million. She was your bright future. You threw it away. You can become the youngest chief of staff this hospital has ever seen, and you probably will, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’ll always be a failure.”
“Failure?” Nathan fumed, unable to believe William would dare call him that.
“You did it to yourself the second you walked away from her. She was the best part of you.”
“I thought you were my friend.”
“I am. You need to hear this, even if you don’t want to.”
“I am the best oncologist in this state, maybe the country,” Nathan crowed, his pride rearing back up as a defense mechanism.
“Good for you,” William sneered sarcastically.
“I’m not a failure,” Nathan said, practically yelling.
“Who do you go home to? Who will you grow old with?” William demanded, determined not to let Nathan hide from the truth any longer.
“There’s still time for all that,” Nathan answered, though the look in his eyes told William that he had struck a nerve.
“Maybe you really didn’t deserve her.” William shook his head.
“Do you love Elizabeth? Have you always loved her?” Nathan asked, the sudden realization catching him off guard.
“What man wouldn’t?” William replied, making no attempt to hide it.
“You traitor!”
“I never once made a move on her, then or now. What she needs is a friend.”
“I can’t believe you have been in love with my fiancé all these years!”
“That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? She hasn’t been your fiancé for a long time.”
With that, William turned and stormed out of the office, leaving Nathan to face the fact that he had no claim on Elizabeth, no matter how much his heart told him that she was his to love and cherish.
Chapter 10
Elizabeth was caught off guard by the sound of someone knocking on her front door. It was rare for anyone to show up unannounced. She ran from the laundry room and stubbed her toe on a basket in her hurry. All she could think was that someone had come to tell her something had happened to her mother.
She threw open the door, out of breath from hurrying, and was shocked to see Nathan standing there, his hand raised in mid-knock. He looked anxious, his face torn and his eyes worried.
“What’s wrong?” Elizabeth demanded, without even saying hello.
“What? No, it’s nothing like that.” Nathan shook his head, understanding Elizabeth’s concern about her mother’s health. But he was saddened by the fact that, after so much time spent in this house, his arrival was now associated only with his role as Diane’s doctor.
“Were we expecting you? Was something wrong with mom’s blood work?”
“No. No. It isn’t that. Aren’t she and Kate here?” He looked over her shoulder.
“No, they went for a little walk. Mom was feeling a little stir crazy trapped in the house.”
“Really?”
“Is everything okay? You look worried,” she noted as she took a step closer to him.
