Paul was getting Davey a snack from the vending machine when Mary and Hannah arrived. They all hugged, and Mary kept an arm around Hannah. “Tell us what happened, and then I’m sure Hannah can go back to see her mom.”
Mary was smart, trying to put off Hannah’s visit to her mom’s hospital room as long as possible. If there were something serious going on, it would be just as well if Hannah wasn’t there to witness the worst of it. Legally, she was an adult, but she was only eighteen. She looked awfully young as she stood, eyes wet, biting her lips.
“We were talking to Davey’s grandparents,” Paul explained. “Just standing in the driveway of their country house. All of a sudden, Amber sat down on the ground and then she passed out.”
“She fell over on her side, like this!” Davey sat down and toppled over to the side just as Amber had done.
“That’s what happened? Did she hit her head?” Hannah stopped fidgeting. She even pulled out her phone and checked it before looking back at Paul.
“No, she didn’t hit her head,” Paul said.
“Daddy ran over and caught her, like this!” Davey ran halfway down the row of chairs and then slid on his knees the rest of the way. Which, indeed, was how Paul had caught Amber. He had the torn patches on the knees of his jeans to prove it.
“It’s probably just the fainting thing from her accident,” Hannah said. She wiped a smear of mascara from underneath her eye, using her phone’s camera as a mirror.
“It’s happened before?” Paul remembered now, that Amber had mentioned a horse-riding accident. Maybe she’d even said something about fainting spells.
Hannah nodded. “A couple of times, and it scares me to death every time. You always worry that it’s related to her cancer, but it isn’t.”
Relief coursed over Paul. “Maybe I overreacted.” Nothing would make him happier. The sight of Amber unconscious on the ground had aged him ten years.
“You were right to bring her here,” Mary said. “Hannah, why don’t you go try to see your mom. I bet they’ll let you in if you just ask them in your sweet way. Paul and I will take Davey to the playroom.” She gestured toward the other side of the lobby, where Paul now saw there was a glassed-in play area for kids.
“Good idea, since he’s wide-awake now.” It was way past Davey’s bedtime, and he’d sleep for hours once he’d settled, but right now he was overexcited. Some physical play would do him good.
They took some water out to Sarge, who was sleeping in the back seat of Paul’s car, and then came back in and headed for the children’s area, and Paul grabbed antiseptic wipes from the dispenser by the door. He started wiping down the toys he thought would be the most appealing to Davey. But it was a losing battle because Davey moved from toy to toy at lightning speed. The poor kid was exhausted and upset, and Paul couldn’t blame him. Paul was exhausted and upset, too. He tossed the handful of wipes into the trash.
Mary sat down on a bench that ran along the wall and smiled at him. “Try as you will, you can’t control germs, any more than you can control life. You’ve had quite the day, haven’t you?”
Mary didn’t know the half of it. After the fireworks episode last night, and waking up with a woman he barely knew sleeping in his house, he had gone to the PTSD workshop. He had come home to find his child missing, had had a major confrontation with his in-laws and now this scare with Amber.
He watched Davey run a truck across the room and back, making engine noises. Of course, it was a truck he hadn’t wiped down. “It’s true, I can’t control much. But I still have to do my best to protect my son.”
Something that looked like pain flashed across Mary’s face and then was gone. “You absolutely do have to protect your son. That’s your biggest priority.”
He sat beside her. “The trouble is,” he said, keeping his voice low enough that Davey couldn’t hear them, “protecting my son means keeping him from getting attached to someone who’s got health problems that could take her away from him.”
“Amber.”
He nodded. “When she passed out today, and I had to rush her here, he was upset. He already cares for her, a lot.”
“Yes, well, emotions are tough to tamp down,” Mary said. They sat and watched Davey play for a few minutes more. He was climbing up a slide and sliding down it, but he was moving slower each time. He kept rubbing his eyes.
“Want a distraction?” Mary asked, her eyes twinkling.
“Sure. I could use one.”
Mary pulled out her phone. “Look at my new family member,” she said, and showed him a picture of a cute brown-and-white puppy with a drooping head and sad eyes.
Just looking at it made him smile, and he remembered how often he’d heard, in counseling sessions and workshops, about the healing power of animals. He nodded as Mary showed him another picture, this one of the puppy lying on its back. “Cute, but, man, you’re going to be busy.”
Mary nodded, rolling her eyes. “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”
“You probably need to get home to your dog.” He felt bad that he hadn’t considered that Mary might have other things going on in her life.
“I’ll go home soon,” she said. “But I blame Kirk James for talking me into it, and so it only seems right that he’s got puppy duty now.”
“Definitely seems fair. Hey, Davey, come see Miss Mary’s new puppy,” he called, and Davey ran over to them.
Mary showed him the picture.
Davey smiled. “Maybe he can come play
