The Good Father (23 page)

He’d told her he’d seen Jeff. Whom she knew to be his ex-brother-in-law.

She’d never met him and didn’t respond.

He didn’t mention Ella to her. Didn’t mention the High Risk team at all. She didn’t, either.

And then on Saturday night, two weeks after he’d spent the night with his ex-wife, he saw her. He’d stopped in at the Bistro after a game of golf, not because he knew she’d be off her shift soon, but because they had the wine he liked, and no one knew him there.

No one but Ella.

His nerves tightened when he saw her car in the parking lot, and he almost pulled back out to the road and went to the little pub on the corner by his house instead. But then he thought about Jeff and figured he could ask Ella how Chloe was doing, and then leave her alone.

Determined to decline any invitation she might extend to join her for a glass of wine, Brett waited for his gaze to adjust from the bright sun to the restaurant interior before he walked all the way into the room.

His pause had given Ella time to notice him, he observed, as he finally stepped forward. And then stopped. The look of pain on her face was unmistakable.

She was sitting not far from the door. And she wasn’t alone.

* * *

E
LLA DIALED
B
RETT’S
phone the second she was in her car.

She owed him nothing.

But that didn’t mean she wanted to hurt him.

“Brett?” Why she said his name when his voice mail picked up, she didn’t know. It wasn’t as if cell phone voice mail blasted out into the room and gave the listener a chance to pick up. “This is Ella.”

No kidding. Her hands were shaking as she sat there. Jason drove past, waving goodbye, and she waved back. Wondering if he was curious who she was on the phone with so soon after they’d parted ways.

“Listen,” she said, rubbing her head with the hand that had waved. “I... Just call me, please. I mean it, Brett. Don’t make me chase you down.”

She clicked the phone off.

Wondering why she’d ever thought Brett Ackerman was worth all the trouble he brought her.

And when, less than a minute later, her phone rang and she recognized his number, she knew.

Just knowing that he’d called when she asked him to gave her a modicum of peace.

“Why didn’t you come say hello?” she asked, getting straight to the point.

“I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“We were in public, Brett. That opens up the expectation of possible interruption.”

Were they really having this inane conversation? They’d spent such an incredible night together, she could hardly believe it wasn’t a dream, followed by two weeks of complete silence and now they were arguing about expectations surrounding privacy in a public establishment?

“So, what did you want?” she asked.

“I was just stopping in for a drink after golf.”

In the bistro so close to the hospital that it had become the unofficial after-work gathering place for hospital personnel? When Brett lived across town?

“So why not have the drink?” She knew why she was pushing him.

Because he wouldn’t have come inside if he hadn’t meant to see her. She knew him. Brett was deliberate about everything he did. If he hadn’t wanted to see her, he’d have checked the parking lot to make sure her car wasn’t there.

“I wanted to ask—casually, without putting you on the spot—how Chloe’s doing. I have no intention of pressuring you to give up confidences, Ella, and don’t want you to think, because we... Anyway, I just wondered if there’s been any change on your end.”

“Chloe’s doing well. She started daily sessions with Sara the Monday we got back.”

She started her car, but didn’t pull out of the parking lot. Her phone wasn’t charged enough to waste the battery on wireless or Bluetooth. Dusk had set, leaving a gloom over the mostly full lot.

Saturday night. There were lots of people out on the town. Going on dates.

She and Jason were going to see a movie Sunday afternoon. Because she wasn’t ready to go to bed with him.

But she liked him, and she’d told him so tonight.

Then she’d seen Brett.

And the guilt that had swamped her took her breath away.

“You still there?” she asked when enough time had passed for her to figure out that Brett wasn’t going to respond.

“Yes.”

“Where are you?”

“Pulled over at a lookout.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, El. Just had a bit of wind knocked out of me back there. Seeing you with someone.”

“I...” What could she say? She was moving on.

“Is it serious?”

“In two weeks?”

“It could have been going on before.”

“You think I would have slept with you if I was seeing someone?” For some reason that really hurt.

A lot more than it should have.

“No. But if you weren’t exclusive with him at that time, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have...”

If she was someone else, maybe. Brett knew her. She didn’t sleep around. But didn’t bother to respond.

“Anyway, I’m happy for you. It just caught me by surprise, you know?”

She’d loved him so much once. “Brett...”

“No. It’s fine. Good, really. Best for all of us. Just... Is he good to you, El?”

“Yes, very.” Insofar as it went with only two dates between them. And seeing him at work.

But he made her laugh. And right now, that was a huge plus.

Also, Jason wasn’t getting impatient with her, in spite of her not going home with him. He wasn’t giving up on her.

“Who is he?”

“A pediatric pulmonary specialist who has a couple patients on my unit.”

“Someone you met relatively recently, then?”

“Brett, why all the questions? What do you want to know?”

He waited so long she thought he was going to stand her up for an answer again. “I want to know you’re happy, El.”

She believed him. And said, “I’m on my way there—to being happy.”

Because she wasn’t going to live the rest of her life without joy.

Even if she had to live it without Brett.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

O
NE GOOD THING
came of Brett’s disastrous stop at the Bistro Saturday night. He was able to tell Jeff that progress was being made. That Chloe was in daily counseling and doing much better. He’d had to tell Jeff that, no, he hadn’t spoken to Chloe personally, and no, no one had said whether Chloe had asked about him.

They’d all agreed that Chloe would have this time to herself without contact with Jeff. And Jeff agreed that it should be left at that.

He and his college roommate had scheduled a golf game near Anaheim for the following weekend, and by the time Brett hung up Sunday evening, he was convinced that Jeff was doing better.

Work awaited him in his hotel room Sunday night. With a 6:00 a.m. flight out of LAX to New York, he didn’t have time to waste. Flipping open his laptop, he turned it on. Turned on his tablet, too.

And picked up his cell phone.

Ella might be out. He just needed to know.

So he’d quit thinking about her.

“Hello?”

“It’s me.”

“I know.”

The lights blazed brightly in his luxurious hotel room. He closed his eyes against the glare and was back on a boat, in the dark...

“I just wanted to apologize. If I made you feel awkward, I had no right...”

“You’re right, you didn’t.”

Okay, good. “So...you’re having a good weekend?”

“Yes.”

“Are you with Chloe?” It was a reasonable question. To know if, when she answered his questions, she had an audience.

“No. But I was going to call you tomorrow. Chloe would like to see Jeff, just for a visit, sometime in the next couple weeks.”

They arranged a meeting for a week from the coming Thursday—almost two weeks away. At Brett’s house. Jeff would expect Chloe to be coming in from LA. Chloe wanted the meeting to be someplace private, but also neutral.

And clearly, it couldn’t happen at Ella’s. Jeff would know instantly where Chloe was staying. He’d also know that his sister had been lying to him all this time.

So...fine. They’d had business to discuss. It was good he’d called. Now he could get to work.

“Why did you call, Brett?”

As he sat, bent over, elbows on his knees, staring at his shoes in the plush beige carpet, he measured his words. “Just to know that you’re okay.” He was sure about that.

“No, what do you really want? Clearly it bothered you to see me with Jason last night. You want to talk about it?”

The man had a name. It was
Jason.

Not a bad name.

“It just...”

“Look, it’s okay to admit that you didn’t like seeing your ex-wife with another man. You’re human for God’s sake, Brett. You’re going to feel emotion every now and then.”

“I just...”

“Just tell me one thing.”

“If I can.”

“Did it change anything for you? Where we’re concerned? Seeing me with Jason. Are you interested in exploring any kind of a relationship with me at all?”

He was interested in having sex with her again. As soon as possible. And then again after that. And maybe for the rest of his life.

“The only reason we’ve been back in touch was for Jeff and Chloe. You didn’t even know until you called that Chloe was ready to see Jeff. Which means there was no reason for your call...unless something’s changed...”

She knew him well. And was calling him out in a way she never had in the past.

“No, El.” He heard the words he knew were true. “Nothing’s changed.”

He heard the click on the other end of the line and realized he didn’t even know where she’d been talking to him from.

Or if she’d have someone there to wipe away the tears he’d heard in her voice when she’d asked him that last question.

* * *

E
LLA DIDN’T HEAR
from Brett again during her day off and told herself that she was firmly over him as she dressed in yellow scrubs with kitty cats Tuesday morning. Brett hadn’t called, but Jason had. He invited her to lunch in the hospital cafeteria on Tuesday. A big step. They were going to be seen together in a nonworking moment in front of their peers. Some had already seen them together at the Bistro. It wasn’t like there was anything to hide.

Still, Ella hadn’t really been ready to broadcast their dating status to the entire hospital. It wasn’t as if they’d agreed to be exclusive or anything.

But she accepted the invitation. It was all well and good to talk about getting on with her life, but the words meant nothing if she turned her back on opportunities to do so.

Which was why she greeted Jason with a more intimate smile than she might have otherwise when he arrived to pick her up, ten minutes later than scheduled. He leaned forward, as though he might kiss her cheek, and her pager sounded. A 911.

From the emergency room.

Which meant that someone had asked for her specifically.

Jason went with her to see what was wrong.

Ella’s heart raced the entire time she stood in the elevator. Standing beside her, Jason waited for other staff members to exit the car when it stopped on the sixth floor, and then, when they were alone, held her hand the rest of the way down.

“The page was from a nurse,” she said.

“Someone you know?”

She shook her head.

There’d been no callback number given.

Just a 911 to emergency.

“Maybe it was a mistake.”

She’d already tried Chloe. Had been sent to voice mail. So she’d sent a text, just checking in, she’d said, not wanting to alarm her sister-in-law if she wasn’t involved.

She was in a children’s hospital. She didn’t know any other children but Cody.

A nurse was waiting for her when Ella got off the elevator. “We have an adult female. We tried to get her to the hospital,” the young woman said, referring to the Santa Raquel general hospital, as the children’s hospital couldn’t treat adults except in cases of severe emergency, “but she wouldn’t budge until she saw you. Dr. Johnson has her in triage, just until we get her out of here. She just walked in off the street, and she’s got a baby...”

Chloe?

At a run now, beside the other woman, Ella made it to the examining room first. She pushed inside.

Horror immediately followed relief. It wasn’t Chloe.

The woman was Nora Burbank. One eye swollen shut. Her mouth misshapen. Her nose obviously broken. But she clutched her son to her and wouldn’t let go.

“You need to take him to The Lemonade Stand.” The words were obviously difficult for Nora to speak, but clear for all to hear. “Please. I’m asking you to babysit him for me. Just for tonight.”

“What happened, Nora?” Ella took the baby, but didn’t break eye contact with his mother.

“Who did this to you?”

She wanted it on record. With Jason and the other hospital staff present as witnesses.

“Ted did. But I saved him,” she said, looking at her baby. “I saved Henry, Ella. Ted didn’t touch him.”

The baby put his finger in Ella’s mouth. And when she grinned at him, he grinned back.

“Okay,” she said, making an instant decision. “I’ll take him home with me. I’ll babysit him. But I’m also going to call the High Risk team, and you’re going to let these people get you in an ambulance and straight to the hospital.”

Nora nodded. “I’ll go. I just need you to keep Henry. I saved him. I’m a good mom. And I want to live at The Lemonade Stand until I can get us back on our feet.”

Ella had some phone calls to make. Detective Sanchez first, to get Ted Burbank in custody. Their child protective services delegate. Lila McDaniels. But first, she put an arm around Nora, kissed the woman’s head and told her that she was, indeed, a good mother.

She waited until the ambulance arrived. Unwilling to take Henry out of his mother’s sight until she had to go. And then made one last promise.

“He’ll be waiting for you,” she said.

And knew that she’d do whatever it took to see that it happened.

So much for second chances. Ted Burbank be damned.

* * *

B
RETT WAS IN
bed in a hotel room in Wisconsin Tuesday night when he read the report. Nora Burbank had been treated and released into the care of Lynn Bishop, the nurse practitioner at The Lemonade Stand. Her son, Henry, was with her. Both were in protective custody. Meaning that until Ted Burbank was found, Santa Raquel police were stationed at the Stand, guarding Nora’s cottage. Off-duty police. Volunteering their time in four-hour shifts.