There had been days she had wished she had died in the car crash along with Kolton and Cody, but then she would think of that young father who’d been so desperate for a heart for his son.
Later, when she realized she wanted to do more to help families like that young man’s, it had taken only one trip through the pediatric cardiac unit for her to know this was where she was needed, where she could help the critical children that waited for a new life with their families. She’d finished her nurse practitioner program and found a place in Dr. Benton’s practice. And now the man who had influenced her life so much was here on her unit.
And what about his son, Davey? She’d always imagined that it had been her son who had saved the son of the man in the waiting room. Knowing that David’s son had received a heart transplant back then made the possibility feel only more real. Now she had been given an opportunity to find out if she had been right all along.
As the rest of the staff started to disburse back to their patients, she pulled herself into the present only to find that some of the younger nurses were giving the new doctor more than just a friendly smile. Not that she could blame them for their interest. Dr. David Wright was a very good-looking man with his dark brown hair curling around his face, those striking eyes, and a smile full of laughter as he talked to Mel.
But there was more to the man than his looks. She had immediately recognized that when she had first seen him. He had a strong, competent look to him that had quickly put the patients and their families at ease. And she remembered the way he had dealt with the news that there might be a last hope for his son. The anguish in his face had matched hers as she’d mourned the loss of hope for her own. He’d openly shed tears at the news that his son might be getting a new heart and still the man hadn’t appeared weak.
Mentally shaking herself, she forced herself to put the old memories behind her again. It was not going to be easy to keep those memories away with David here, but she had to remember that it was the here and now that was important. Her past life was over, and she had patients that relied on her now. These were the children she was responsible for now. Later, when she could be alone, she’d take the time to deal with all of this and what it could mean for her.
She watched as Dr. Benton walked down the hall toward them and then as he and David walked away together. She had so many questions that she was desperate to find a way to ask, to tell him to wait so that she could ask the one question that was circling around and around in her head. It was a question that at some point she would have to ask, but it would have to wait.
Is the heart of my little boy, my Cody, beating in your son’s chest?
CHAPTER TWO
DAVID PUT ONE of the cups of coffee he’d purchased at the trendy café across from the hospital on the desk in front of Sarah.
“What’s this for?” Sarah asked as she looked up at him, those deep brown eyes questioning. It was a look he’d seen a lot lately when she looked at him. It was as if that intelligent mind of hers was trying to solve a complex puzzle, and for some reason he had a feeling that he was that puzzle.
“It’s to say thank you. If it wasn’t for you I’d have been buried in all this paperwork. I knew there was a lot of paperwork involved with the assessments for the transplant patients, but I never imagined that there would be this much,” he said.
“Really? I guess I assumed that because you had been through this firsthand that you’d know all about the mountains of paperwork,” Sarah said. And there was that look again.
Was that what she was curious about? It wasn’t that he didn’t understand why she would be curious about what he had gone through. After working with her for the last week, he had quickly discovered that she had a very inquiring mind, and with working on one side of the transplant process it was only normal for her to want to know what it was like on the other side.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,” Sarah said, then looked back to the computer screen in front of her, her golden-tan cheeks turning a pretty pink with a blush that he found surprisingly charming. The Sarah that he had been working with didn’t seem like the type of woman that would be so easily embarrassed, but there was always more to a person that what you first saw. If anyone should know that, he should. He’d thought he had known his ex-wife until their son had been born and everything in their life had changed.
“It’s okay, Sarah. I don’t mind talking about it, most parts at least,” he said, then regretted that he had added the afterthought. He had no reason to think that any of her questions would deal with the breakup of his marriage.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“I’m sure,” David said.
He took his chair next to her and waited. It was almost as if he could see the gears in her mind turning as she seemed to struggle with her question.
“What was wrong with Davey? Why did he need the transplant?” Sarah asked.
“Davey was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome not long after he was born. It hadn’t been caught on ultrasound so it was a shock. There were a lot of surgeries before it was decided that a transplant would be necessary. There wasn’t anything else they
