Sandra Steffen - Life Happens

The staff lounge was deserted. Decorated in shades of purple and gray, the room was aesthetically pleasing enough, if one liked hospitals. They happened to terrify Mya.

Perhaps she should have waited for Jeffrey at his condo. Conveniently located a few blocks from the hospital, his place had high ceilings and tall windows that made the most of their southern exposure. For all the building’s wonderful character, the furnishings were early bachelor pad. She’d told him that nobody had a water bed anymore. With a shrug, he’d given her free rein to change the decor as soon as she moved in. Mya wanted them to live in her house after the wedding.

One hurdle at a time.

Claire was right. People who were engaged needed to be honest with each other. She had to tell Jeff about Elle.

She paced, leafed through a magazine, then paced again. Her mind wandered, and she found herself wondering where the labor and delivery rooms were in this hospital. They’d been on the second floor in the hospital up in Brunswick, where she’d—

The sound of laughter drew Mya around. The young nurse entering the lounge stopped laughing when she saw Mya.

“Tammy,” Jeffrey said behind her, “Would you mind using the other lounge?”

Although Tammy left, it was apparent to Mya that she did mind.

Jeffrey paused just inside the door, right after he smiled. And Mya wondered what he saw in her. He obviously had plenty of opportunities. Why her?

“Still trying to figure me out?” he asked. “I told you. Men are simple. Sex and supper pretty much covers our needs.”

“So you say. Do you realize I’ve never seen you angry?”

“Why would I be angry? You’re here. Life just got better.”

“You’re very smooth, Doctor.” When he grinned, she was reminded of the first time she’d seen him in this very hospital. The man looked good in scrubs, no doubt about that. She wished she melted at the sight of him.

Where had that come from? What was wrong with her? She was afraid she knew the answer.

“You want to see smooth?” he asked. “Come here.”

She remained where she was. “I have something to tell you.”

He went to her and kissed her. “It must be important to bring you here.”

“It is.”

“If you don’t want to keep my cats at your house, I can move them back to my place.”

“And here I was getting used to all the cat hair.”

“God, you’re gorgeous.”

“You always call me gorgeous when you’re trying to get me out of my blouse.”

“I like the way you think.”

She grasped his wrist when he reached for her top button.

“I’m teasing, Mya. What is it?”

“Perhaps we should sit down.”

He studied her in a manner that caused her to understand why he was so well liked and respected and appreciated in E.R. “In my experience,” he said, “there are three things a woman might say when she looks at a man the way you’re looking at me. One, she’s married. Two, she’s gay. And C, she was once a man.”

Mya couldn’t help smiling a little. “Prepare to add one more possibility.”

She’d suggested they be seated, yet he was the one who drew her to a vinyl sofa on the other side of the room. “Okay,” he said when he’d taken the adjacent chair. “What is it?”

She’d practiced her speech during the drive over. Unfortunately, there was no way to soften the bluntness of what she had to say. Forcing her gaze on his, she said, “I had a baby.”

His eyes widened, but he didn’t flinch.

“When I was seventeen. I held her once, and then handed her to the social worker.” She kept her voice even, her memories locked up. “I never heard from her again.”

He continued to watch her closely.

“Until last night.”

“She called?” he asked.

“No. She came by.”

“So she looked you up. That’s common, isn’t it?” Jeffrey said. “They’re curious. Justifiably so.”

Mya fought an unholy desire to stomp on his foot. “Elle doesn’t strike me as the curious type.”

“Elle?”

“Eleanor. There’s more.” Mya tucked her short hair behind her ears. She missed her long hair, missed the weight of it and the warmth of it. More stable now, she said, “She has a ten-month-old baby girl named Kaylie. I know this must come as a shock.”

For what seemed like forever, the only sound in the room was the ticking of the clock on the wall behind her. Finally, Jeff spoke. “What’s shocking is that all these months I’ve been sleeping with a grandmother.”

Now, she did nudge him.

“Honey, the sounds you make when we’re making love give the word new meaning.”

She jumped to her feet. And as he had dozens of times before, he went to her and put his arms around her. “This doesn’t change the way I feel about you, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He slid his hands down her back, drawing her against him. “You’re beautiful. You’re smart. You’re sexy as hell. Something that happened to you when you were a kid doesn’t change any of that.”

“It wasn’t something that happened to me. I wasn’t run over by an 18-wheeler or struck by lightning. It was something I did, a portion of my life I lived.”

“Potato, po-tah-to.”

“Now you sound like Claire.”

“That hurts. My parents want to meet you.”

She blinked. “They do?”

“I think you’d better find out what Eleanor’s after. She probably just wants to know her medical history, now that she has a kid of her own. No sense getting bent out of shape until we know what we’re dealing with, right?”

Bent out of shape?

For some reason, Mya couldn’t get comfortable in his arms. She couldn’t find that safe place, that warm sense of being home. He kissed a path along her neck. Normally, she responded to the sensation. Tonight, she wondered what he would look like bent out of shape and thoroughly ticked off. She reminded herself of the anger-management classes she’d taken, and the self-help books she’d read. Jeffrey was sane and rational, and this was how sane and rational people dealt with life’s issues. Sanely and rationally.

“Jeff.” She stepped out of his arms. “Someone could come in.”

He released a long sigh, but he followed her toward the door. “What are you going to do?”

Until that moment, she hadn’t a clue. Bending down for her purse and jacket, she said, “I’m going to pick up a pizza.” The statement was delivered in a tone of voice that encouraged him to go ahead and make something of it.

He didn’t, of course.

As she left the building, Mya wondered what Dr. Phil would say about the fact that she was disappointed. In the pit of her stomach she knew it wasn’t sane or rational.

Maybe she hadn’t come so far after all.

E lle entered Brynn’s through the front door the following morning. Mya was busy with a customer who kept commenting on her hair. Elle didn’t know what that was all about, but she hiked Kaylie higher on her hip and waited. Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait long. Mya rang up the sale, placed the purchases in a lime-green bag, then followed the customer to the front of the store. The fact that the woman looked wealthy didn’t keep her from staring openly at Elle.

The moment the door closed, Elle said, “The rumors will be flying now.”

Mya’s eyebrows rose a fraction, but her voice was level as she said, “I can handle rumors. How was the pizza?”

“I’m not a charity case. Is everyone who comes in here full of herself?”

Mya’s gaze was direct, her pause palpable. “Evidently.”

The woman didn’t take much crap. To Elle’s annoyance, she respected that. She didn’t know why she was dishing it out in the first place. She’d been surprised when she’d heard the knock on her door last night. “Pizza delivery for Elle Fletcher.”