Lindsey turned her blue eyes toward him and for the first time in the last week she saw the little girl’s eyes come alive.
“Oh, yes,” Lindsey said. “Sarah has lots of pretty horses. I’ve seen pictures of them all. Maple is my favorite. Sarah let me name her myself when she first got her.”
“And Maple will be waiting to see you as soon as you get better,” Sarah said as she squeezed the little girl’s hand in hers. “I’ll tell you what—when I get home I’ll take a picture of Maple for you and I’ll bring it in tomorrow.”
“I have to see this horse with a name like Maple,” David said as he gave Lindsey a smile. The little girl’s face turned pink and Sarah knew it wasn’t from a fever. It looked like Lindsey might have her first crush, which was so sweet to see that Sarah couldn’t help but smile up at the man who had made her special little girl happy when she was so sick.
She listened as Lindsey explained the therapy program Sarah ran at her father-in-law’s ranch teaching young cardiac patients from the community how to ride. Or if their medical condition wouldn’t allow them to participate in the riding lessons they could interact with the special therapy horses kept on the ranch. Sarah was proud of The Henderson Memorial horse therapy program that she had founded. Working with the children at the ranch wasn’t only good for them, it had also been good for her.
“That sounds like a lot of fun,” David said to the little girl.
“You can go too. Lots of times the doctors volunteer to help. Can he go, Sarah?” asked Lindsey.
“Of course he can come,” Sarah answered. “And as soon as you get better, I’ll take you out there to see Maple.”
“I don’t have any experience with horses, but I definitely know someone who would be interested in seeing them,” David said as he gave Sarah a questioning look.
“We’d be happy to have them. We run the program on the second Saturday of the month and all the staff is welcome,” Sarah said. A smile lit David’s face and she couldn’t help wondering who this someone was. A wife? She looked down at his left hand and saw that he wasn’t wearing a ring. Maybe a girlfriend? It wouldn’t be surprising that a man like David had someone special in his life.
As they left the room Sarah texted Hannah and asked her to call as soon as she had a minute. She didn’t want to scare the girl’s mother but she did need to get consent from Hannah and tell her that Lindsey’s condition was getting worse. Hannah needed to know.
“How long has she been waiting?” David asked as they headed back to the doctor’s workroom.
“Five years. She’s been in and out, though mostly in, of here for the last two and a half years,” Sarah said.
“Family issues?” David asked.
“Hannah’s young and a single parent. I know this had been hard on her and I worry about her. She’s been through a lot with Lindsey. She couldn’t have been more than nineteen or twenty when Lindsey was born. When Lindsey gets a heart transplant—” she refused to consider that there was the possibility that the little girl wouldn’t get a donor heart “—it’s going to be a lot more responsibility.”
“I hope for that child’s sake that her mother is up for the job, but an overabundance of toys and the lack of a parent present is a sign... Let’s just say I’ve had some experience as far as missing-in-action parents. It’s a lot harder to be the parent at the bedside than the one that sends the prettiest packages.” Again the hint of bitterness she heard in David’s voice surprised her.
“Hannah’s not like that. It will be a lot for her to handle, but she’ll do it,” Sarah asserted.
“About your ranch,” David started as they turned back toward the nursing station.
“David? David Wright? Is that you?” Melody, one of the older staff nurses said as she jumped up from her seat and came around the desk to the two of them. “It is you. How’s Davey doing? I’ve thought about him so much over the last few years.”
“Mel! I didn’t know if you still worked here or not. I meant to ask Dr. Benton, but I haven’t had a chance,” David said as he beamed down at the gray-haired nurse. “Davey’s great. I’ll have to bring him up to see you one day when I’m off.”
Sarah watched as the nurse turned around and announced to the other staff members that were looking curiously at the three of them, “David was here with his son, was it three years ago now?”
Sarah’s heart stuttered then sped up to a dangerous rate as she waited for David’s answer. Had she been wrong to dismiss that feeling of familiarity? Was this truly the man she’d seen over three years ago in the waiting room?
“Davey’s ‘new heart birthday’ was three years in January,” she heard David say.
That was all the confirmation she needed. It was him she remembered seeing.
The shock sent her spinning backward toward another time. A time when her perfect life had ended, only it hadn’t. Life hadn’t been that kind. Instead it had been heartbreaking and life shattering, made only bearable because of the man standing in front of her now.
Suddenly she was back in that waiting room, running from the terrible news the doctors had just given her and hiding from a family that would be as devastated as she was at the news that her little boy’s brain had lost the ability to function. How could she face them with this news? Then she had seen the dark-haired man hunched over in his seat appearing to bear a burden just as heavy as her own. Immediately she had felt a connection to him, a compassion that only
