Over the next few minutes I told her about my feelings for Kathleen, and how I stay with her whenever I’m in New York. I told her about Addie Dawes, and about Kathleen’s adoption efforts. When I finished there was a brief silence on the line.
“You okay?” I said.
“Are you aware this is the first time in my life you’ve treated me like a grownup?”
“How could I not? You’re a junior in high school.”
“Try to remember that, next time you start worrying about me and Charlie.”
“Ugh,” I said. “Speaking of Charlie, how much do you know about this kid?”
Kimberly said something about him being twenty-one, but I was distracted by the curtain being pulled aside as Dr. Hedgepeth entered my cubicle. I motioned for him to give me a second. He frowned at my use of a cell phone in the emergency room, but waited respectfully.
“I’m sorry, Kitten. What did you just say?”
“I said, ‘Don’t even go there, Dad.’ Don’t go all crazy and run a credit check or background report on Charlie. He’s a good kid. His father’s a big-time attorney.”
“Attorney? I’d rather have you date Charlie Manson than an attorney.”
She sighed. “He’s not an attorney, his father is. Look, just promise you won’t run his records.”
“I promise.”
“Good,” she said. “Now go spend some quality time with Addie. She sounds adorable. And, Dad?”
“Yes?”
“I’m happy for you. And I love you.”
“I love you too, Kitten.”
I clicked the phone off and Dr. Hedgepeth said, “As I suspected, you’ve got the heart of a lion.”
I nodded.
“Any pain since the test?”
“None.”
“Any stomach discomfort?”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
“Food poisoning can take up to forty-eight hours to hit,” he said.
“What’s the average?”
“Six to eight.”
“So it could still be that,” I said.
“Yes, but we pushed you pretty hard on the treadmill. And you aced it. Even in the early stages of food poisoning I would have expected some abdominal cramping. Makes me think it’s not food poisoning.”
He handed me a piece of paper with a name and phone number.
“A shrink?” I said.
“In case you want to see someone here, instead of your home town.”
I pocketed the slip of paper and shook his hand. “You’re young, but you’re good.”
