Robert, page 10
Going to dinner at the hotel seemed the best way to get them all together. There wasn’t much they didn’t try on the menu, and they shared everything they ordered. When dessert was brought to them, Elizabeth was surprised to see that neither Avery nor Penny ate any of the sweet things. She didn’t ask because it wasn’t any of her business. But how could anyone turn down Bananas foster? Made right at the table.
Elizabeth and Katie went with Avery to pick up some things they could use at the hotel. She was serious about not going back to the house and asked if they could find someone to donate all the furniture as well as linens and such.
“I don’t want anything there. A few pictures, of course, and some things that are in the trunk in the attic that were my daughters but the rest of it could burn to the ground for all I care about it.” Elizabeth told her that she was sorry for that. “I’m not. We had a good run at the house. It’s only a rental, but it was ours. Now it’s not. Getting a fresh start will be wonderful for us both. We’re looking forward to getting everything set up for us to be a family.”
Elizabeth did wonder if she was going to be a part of their family by falling in love with one of the others. But she didn’t care. They got along well, as she was sure the rest of the family would as well. It was going to be a good thing to have new people around again.
Chapter 6
Robert had just finished up his day and was sitting on the deck out back. The trees were just beginning to get their fall colors. One tree, in particular, was bright with yellows and oranges, while green still was the predominant color. When it swayed in the light breeze, the beautiful leaves would decorate his lawn. Watching the squirrels run around playing some kind of tag in them made him laugh every time he saw them. Robert decided right then and there that he was never raking again.
It had been a month now since the death of his sister, and Lance had been staying with him and Elizabeth. However, just last night, he told them that he was thinking of finding himself someplace on his own. He was still taking it hard that his twin was gone. But after a few weeks now, he was beginning to talk to people that would come over. When he sat down with him on the deck, the two of them watched the animals playing around before Lance turned to him.
“I’m going to go away for a while. I’ve been thinking about Lannie and my last conversation, and I want to do something for her. She always wanted to see the world. I’m going to take her ashes with me and see the world with her. Leaving a little of her behind each place I take her. What do you think of that?” Robert told him that he loved the idea. “Yeah, me too. I think that she’d love it too. Seeing me get out and about. I’ve been hurting long enough, she’d tell me to get my ass in gear.”
“You’re going to come back, right?” Robert watched the other man when he turned to the back of the property again. “Lance? You are going to return to us, aren’t you?”
“It was my plan to not return. I’ll be honest with you and tell you that my plan was to do this for my sister and end my own life. It’s been difficult since I lost her. I was telling myself, convincing myself that I could have saved her had I not eaten the pudding. But Avery came to see me last night. Well, yesterday afternoon. We spent an hour just talking, and then she asked me what my plans were for my sister’s shop and her things left there.”
“And? I’m assuming that the two of you came to a decision.” He nodded, not taking his eyes off the leaves flying up in the air each time one of the squirrels were chased through them. “Lance, you’re starting to scare me a bit. You know that your sister is gonna be pissed off if you show up wherever she is dead, don’t you?”
“Yes. Avery, who didn’t know her at all, told me the same thing.” Lance turned to look at him with a smile on his face. “She was a bit more…forceful, I guess you could say. But yes, she told me that Lannie would be pissed off. I’ve given her the things in the shop. The building is owned by me now, and I’m going to try renting it out. William is going to help me out with that. Avery is going to have the shop packed up and brought here. I guess she has a building in mind here that she wants to work in.”
“Will she take over what your sister was doing?” Lance told him what Avery had said to him. “I can see that. There is always a need for someone to tailor a pair of pants or jacket. Also, her being able to alter dresses, even wedding dresses, will keep her busy, I’m thinking.”
“She said that she was going to see about putting some of the dresses that Lannie made out for sale too. There are a great many of them, I believe. I would think that there are about fifty of them that she made and never sold.” Robert asked him if he had wanted any of them. “No. I thought about it. Keeping them, but again, that isn’t anything that she’d want me to do. Even though she did keep a lot of dresses back for some reason.”
They talked about his sister more. It surprised him how much he talked about her flaws as well as her supposed perfection at things. When he laughed at a couple of things that she’d done in her life, Robert enjoyed that as well. When Lance settled back in his chair, quiet for a bit, Robert thought that the man was more on the mend than he’d first thought.
“I’ll be back. I don’t know when but I will return.” Robert thanked him for that. “Coming here is just what I needed. No one has pressured me into getting over her death. There hasn’t been a time when someone has walked away from me when I began to sob all over myself about missing her. It’s been what I think my sister and I missed growing up. A family. We had our parents, but they weren’t anything like the people you have here. I certainly hope that—what am I saying. I know you tell each other you love them every day. It’s what’s helped me heal and come to terms with my sister’s death. The amount of love that you’ve all shared with me too.”
“Thank you for that. I’m glad we were able to help you, but you telling me this, it’s made me feel better too.” They sat there in silence again. The squirrels had stopped playing, and now there was a family of deer in the yard. They were enjoying the evening as well, it appeared to him. “Bingo is coming over later to tell me that he’s moving out. Not completely, but he needs his own space.”
“How do you know what he’s going to talk to you about?” Robert told him that he’d spoken to his mom and that his mom wanted to prepare him for it. “He is a nice man. I can see where you’d miss having him around. He sure is energetic. More so than I think most of the men that work with the two of you.”
“You got that right. He’s showing me a great deal about owning and running a construction company. Right now, I’m doing the jobs that he assigns me so that I can get a feel for them. So far, hanging drywall is my favorite. It wasn’t at first, but the symmetry of it is what makes me feel good about hanging it. The way that it makes a room be a room. I love the way that it just hangs there, waiting for someone to come along and paint. I don’t know. I think it’s relaxing now. I don’t care for painting. To me, that sort of shows that the room is nearly finished up and that the color was all it was waiting for.”
“You really do love your job, don’t you?” Robert, slightly embarrassed, told him that he did, actually. “It shows. I used to feel that way about being a cop. Then as I got promoted, the more I was removed from being a cop to someone that would only get to hear about the things that were going on outside my office when I went out to get something for myself. I was talking to the officers here, and they told me that their chief, who is retiring soon, doesn’t have an office. And he goes out on calls like they do. I think, if I were to take that job, that is just the way I’d do things. Be a part of it and not be the man who makes out the schedule and assigns jobs.”
“That is the very reason that my brothers and I have decided to not be attorneys. I did enjoy it for a while. Being the person who would win a settlement for the underdog. Or win what seemed an unwinnable case. But it became old. My clients were getting stupider. The crimes were worse than any I’d ever thought of. Then you’ve got the child abusers, sexual deviants and so on. I love it that I can come home from working hard all day, using not just my brain but my muscles as well and sit out here and have a nice conversation with someone that comes out to see me. Elizabeth and I will be out here after dark some nights just enjoying the quiet of the day.” He asked him what he’d be doing if he was an attorney. “Working on a case. Looking things up in law books that are older than I am to win. Taking phone calls from people that have gotten too drunk to drive and did it anyway, hit a tree or another car and need me to get them off. It became too much to deal with every day. I need this right here to live longer.”
When Elizabeth joined them, Lance got up to leave. After begging him to stay, he said that he had some things that he needed to see to before he left. After he moved into the house, Robert explained to her what Lance had told him.
“Do you think he’ll really return?” Robert told her that he did, but it wasn’t up to him. But he didn’t think that he’d not just not return. He’d have a reason. “I still worry about him. I mean, he is better than he was when we first met him, but he still grieves for Lannie. I wish we could have known her like he did.”
“I think that us not knowing her like he did is what helped him. He might not have been able to talk to us about her had we known all the stories that he told us about them as children through adults. I think too that we know her as well as we would have had we been friends because of him.” Elizabeth looked at him like she might be upset. “Or I could be wrong.”
“You’re not. I think you’re absolutely brilliant. We might well have known her better, but not like he did. With all her flaws and good humor. Yes, you’re right.” She got up from the seat that she’d been on and sat on his lap, facing him. “How did I get so lucky as to find you just when I needed you?”
“I’m the lucky one. I have no idea what my life might have been without you in it. I would have been an attorney, for sure. I wouldn’t have a job that I do love. Also, a grandda that I adore in Bingo.” She kissed him, a lingering kiss that had him wanting so much more. When she lifted her head, he pulled her back for another heated kiss. “While I thoroughly enjoyed that. What was that for?”
“You and I are going to have a baby.” He laughed with her, thinking he supposed that since she laughed, it was a joke. “I talked to a colleague of mine, and she did the test and checked me out. We’ll have a baby about the end of May to the first part of June. She can’t tell right now because, well, the baby is quite large. I’m assuming—”
Robert kissed her again, this time not stopping when she asked him what it was for. Standing her up, he picked her up and swung her around the deck. Then, fearful that he’d hurt them both, he sat her down and got on his knees before her.
“Did I hurt you?” She shook her head and kissed him. “I’ve never been a father before. What if I screw up?”
“Then your mom will come over here, beat us both to death and take the baby to raise.” He asked her if she was joking. “Not really. But I do think that if we were to screw up, there are any number of people around to tell us what we’re doing wrong.”
“We need to get some books on having a baby.” She told him that they’d already made a baby. “No, I mean raising one. I think there are a few of them we can get.”
“I’m sure there are millions of them we could get, but we’re not going to. As I said, we have a lot of people around that will help us. Avery, even if she never becomes a part of the family, has a child. Your brother Del has, how many, ten?” Robert told her. “Okay, he has three and one on the way. But there are times when it seems like there are more. But I love them. Every one of them. Even Penny, though she is scary smart, don’t you think?”
“She is. We were talking about jet fuel this morning, and she blew my mind. But she did save me some money at the new job site. Who knew that someone that is so perfusion in math could tell me, right down to the screw, how much drywall and mud I’d need to finish the room we were working in and be correct.” They both laughed, and he kissed her gentler this time. “I love you, Elizabeth Archer. So very much. And I’m so happy that you’re going to have our child that I could about bust with happiness.”
“And I love you. Very much.” They talked about the baby after he picked her up and put her on his lap. This was the perfect ending to his day, and he hoped that it was for her as well. When it was time for them to go to dinner, having been eating late for the last week or two, and he was enjoying that as well. Robert supposed it was because they both worked so late. Him until nearly seven and her getting off at seven-thirty. Life to him was just about perfect today.
~*~
Elizabeth didn’t want any lunch today. She was still full from the dinner they’d had last night. Breakfast with all the trimmings was a wonderful thing to have. However, it was one of those meals that seemed to stick with you for days instead of hours. Now all she wanted was a nap. All the carbs, she figured.
They’d made love last night too. Robert had been so tender with her. Kissing her belly several times before he moved up to her breast. He’d also nibbled on her ear lobes, her nipples and her thighs. After massaging every inch of her legs, he nipped at her skin until he was at her pussy. Christ, the man could win awards by the way he deliciously ate at her.
With his tongue and his fingers, he could and would make her come five or six times straight. Just when she thought she’d just about had enough, he’d move to another part of her body, her breasts or even her hands, to make love to her there until she wanted to bash him over the head to let her come again. Who knew that someone’s hands could be such an erotic zone. Apparently, Robert did.
Then when he finally entered her, she came so many times that she lost count. And all he’d done was slide his cock into her heat, and that was all it took. The man was an artist. She bet that he’d even make a—
“Elizabeth? I’ve been calling your name for five minutes.” She smiled up at the woman. There was no way she could have remembered her name with all the lust that was running through her mind right now. “It’s Carole from Admitting. You admitted Mr. Carson. I think that if you’d look at his chart, you’d see that he’s not to be admitted unless it’s just to keep him from dying.”
“Why is that?” She told her that he owes the hospital a great deal of money from when his wife passed, and if he dies, the hospital will be eating all the money he still owes us. “You do know that you can’t not treat a person for billing, right? It’s a federal statute that states that.”
“Yes, I’m aware of that. But we don’t admit him. Ever. We only have to treat him in the emergency room, and that’s the limit to the law.” Elizabeth asked her what she was supposed to do with him if he needed more care. “I don’t care. I only care that you can’t admit him. I’ll have to have you go and discharge him as soon as you can. Today before four so that he doesn’t rack up another day of billing. He’s taking up room that we don’t need him to do. Not to mention time and money that another patient, a paying one, can use from us.”
“I was having a really good day until you came to me. How much does he owe the hospital? I’m sure you have an exact amount right there on your chart.” She told her. “Let me get this straight. You’re not going to allow a man that is in his late seventies, who lost his wife a month ago, to sully your rooms up for ten grand? Christ woman, I have more than that in debt, well, I don’t, but most people do. What do you expect him to do? Take out a bank loan that he won’t be able to pay either so that he gets the treatment that he needs?”
“As I said before, I don’t care.” Elizabeth reached for her backpack, her usual mode of a purse and pulled out her credit card. “What are you doing? I hope you’re not thinking of doing what I think you are.”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” She told her what she thought. “Bing. Bing. Bing. You win the prize. Yes, I’m paying off his bill. Take this and pay it off, and then he might live another few years after the infection that is—where the hell are you going? You didn’t take my card.”
“I’m not going to either. I want you to discharge him this minute. Christ woman. What do you think will happen when everyone hears that if they’re down on their luck, just call Doctor Elizabeth Archer, and she’ll make your hospital bills—”
“What the hell is going on over here?” Not only did Darrel sit down, but Katie did as well. Elizbeth didn’t think that Carole knew who Katie was. If she did, she didn’t seem to care. Darrel looked around as he continued talking to Carole. “Keep your voice down. Do you want the hospital to think that there is trouble here?”
“There is.” She huffed and sat down. “Your sister-in-law here just admitted Mr. Carson. I was just telling her that she has to discharge him because we don’t have the money to be treating patients that are behind in their payments. Not to mention, he’s going to die soon, and who will pick up the tab then? No one will. And we’ll be out thousands of dollars that pays the dollars that go to your paychecks. Now she wants to pay it off. Like that’s going to do a lot of good when he’ll owe more when he’s out of here or dead. Dead would be better. That way, we can claim it on our—”
“Shut your fucking mouth right now before I shut it for you.” Elizabeth and Darrel looked at Katie. She was about as angry as she’d ever seen her. “You’re fired.”
“You can’t fire me. I’m on the board of directors, and I’m the one that makes it so that we can keep the power on when no one else can.” Katie looked at Darrel before standing up and pulling out her phone. Carole seemed to be on a high or something because she didn’t stop. “The nerve of some people. Don’t they have any idea how hard it is to keep money in the coffers for bonuses at the end of the year? I don’t know who she thinks that she is, but she’ll be wanting us to take care of her sometime soon—” she looked at Katie before speaking again. “I’m thinking not too long from now, and we’ll have to turn her away because some degenerate will be taking up the last bed that had no more intentions of paying than I’m sure that she has.”
