“That sounds like an excellent plan,” she said as she took the pony’s lead in one hand and his son’s hand in the other and started down the road that led to the house.
That night Sarah was unable to sleep, struggling with the knowledge that she hadn’t taken her chance to tell David about her suspicions. That Davey had been given her son’s donated heart the night she had seen him in the waiting room. She’d had the perfect moment when they had been alone on the horses, but then David had brought up the subject of his ex-wife and she couldn’t deny that she was curious about what had happened between the two of them. Once again, he had shared more of himself than she had. It only made the guilt of keeping everything from him worse.
When Jack had invited the two back to the house for dinner, she had felt herself being drawn in even more by the charming little boy. And then there had been the question that always ate at her when she was around the little boy.
Does some part of my Cody still live on in you?
She found herself wanting to hug the little boy to her and to rest her head on his chest just to listen to the beating of his heart.
She knew she should have come clean with David the first time she had met him and realized who he was.
But she hadn’t been ready to deal with the possibility herself. Only now that she had waited till she was ready, she was afraid that David would be angry with her for not sharing this earlier.
She’d finally fallen asleep after she had come to the decision to share what she knew with David as soon as possible and let him decide if he wanted to learn the truth. Only when she awoke the old doubts were back. What if David didn’t want to know his son’s donor family? There was a reason why Organ Procurement didn’t allow them to communicate unless both parties were in agreement. And what if he decided not to bring Davey to the ranch anymore? She hadn’t seen Jack enjoy himself as much as he did with Davey after his son and grandson had been killed, and Jack didn’t even know yet about the circumstances of Davey’s heart transplant.
Arriving at the hospital early, she wanted to spend some time with Lindsey before she started her regular rounds. She’d gotten a message from the cardiopulmonary perfusionist that they had decreased the sedation that morning and that Lindsey was responsive. Entering the room, she was overwhelmed by the amount of machinery that was keeping such a little girl alive. A cacophony of beeps, clicks and occasionally a high-pitched alarm greeted her. In among all the machines she was surprised to see Hannah sitting in a small chair at the side of the bed asleep with her head resting next to her daughter. Trying not to wake her, Sarah spoke quietly to one of the nurses that was assigned to keep all the machines working properly as another nurse continually monitored Lindsey.
“How is she?” she asked Jose, who sat the farthest away from the sleeping mom.
“She’s holding on. She got too anxious when she saw her mom so we had to increase the sedation again,” he said.
Sarah left the room and headed for the doctors’ workroom where hopefully someone had started a large pot of coffee. She’d need the caffeine. Sleepless nights were not something that she could afford to have when she was dealing with critically ill patients and their families. The doctors she worked with depended on her to keep her eyes and ears open for anything that could go wrong with their patients and right then her eyes were not cooperating.
She’d finished her second cup and had reviewed several of her patients’ new lab work by the time David and Dr. Benton showed up.
“We just left Lindsey,” David said as he poured himself a cup.
“I just checked this morning’s X-rays and there is some improvement,” she said as she pulled them up on her computer. David bent over her as they both reviewed the newest film that showed a small amount of improvement in her lungs. As he reached around her to point at a whited-out part on her right lung, Sarah found herself tensing as the warm heat of his body surrounded her.
At once she was overcome with a desire to curl up inside the arms that encased her. The need to be held and loved filled her body making it difficult to breathe, to think. Surprised by the deep longing that almost had her turning into David’s arms, she pushed away from the desk forcing him to step back away from her.
What was wrong with her? It wasn’t like the man had been making a pass at her. Thankfully he hadn’t seemed to notice her reaction to his closeness. It had to be the guilt of holding back the information about her son that was making her feel so uncomfortable around him. That was it. All she had to do was have a conversation with him and all these uncomfortable feelings would go away.
“David, if you have a minute—” she looked over to where Dr. Benton was working on his own computer “—I need to talk to you.”
“We’ve got a few minutes before we head back to surgery,” he said as he took the seat beside her. “What’s wrong? Is there something else about Lindsey?”
“No, it doesn’t have anything to do with work. It’s something else I need to tell you,” she looked back over at Dr. Benton hoping that he would take the hint that she didn’t want to talk in front of the other MD. David’s eyes followed hers and then he seemed to understand.
“If it’s about Davey and the pony, you don’t need to worry about it. You know how children are, he’ll
