Last Chance Hero (19 page)

Jess walked to the door and opened it.
Oh, I think we've said enough
on the subject.
“Wait.” She stopped Andy as he crossed the threshold. “About homecoming? I'm afraid you'd probably better count me out. I don't think I'd be very good company, now that I think about it.”

He just looked at her for a long moment before he nodded. “Right.”

Turning away, he crossed her porch and broke into a slow run as he moved down her walk. Jess closed the door before he reached the street.

Leaning against the door, Jess took deep breaths, trying to calm herself. How dare Andy challenge her like that? She didn't just arbitrarily snatch people off the street and start rearranging their lives. Gabe was a special kid. He had so much going for him, and if she could help him reach some goals, what was wrong with that? She was supposed to feel bad because she was encouraging Gabe to use his brain instead of getting it beat out—Andy's own words—on the football field? Not hardly!

Blowing out a long breath, Jess crossed the room and picked up the mugs to carry to the kitchen. Maybe she shouldn't have tried so hard to calm down, because now that she wasn't quite so mad, Andy's question floated in her mind demanding an answer: What difference, really, would three weeks make in the grand scheme of things?

K
aitlyn?” Jess stretched her legs out under her desk and kicked off her shoes. Her confidence had felt a bit wobbly since her confrontation with Andy last week, but this conversation with Kaitlyn Reed was one she had been looking forward to. “It's Jess MacLeod. I just got the results from your tests, and they all came back clear. I thought you'd like to know as soon as possible.”

A beat or two of silence, and then Kaitlyn's voice came almost as a whisper. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. You sound surprised.”

“No, no, not really surprised, but very thankful. My life before I came to Last Chance was pretty wild. I took all kinds of chances without even thinking about it.”

“Well, it looks like you were lucky. Everything is fine.”

“Oh, thank you. I can't tell you how grateful I am.” Kaitlyn paused for a moment. “Do you know Elizabeth Cooley?”

“I love Elizabeth Cooley. Everyone does. She's a walking buddy of mine. Why?”

“She just came to mind when you said I was lucky.” Kaitlyn gave a little laugh. “She doesn't believe in it. She always says, ‘Luck doesn't have anything to do with it, and you know that as well as I do.' It's to the point where every time I hear the word, or even think it, I can hear her voice in my ear.”

“I guess I don't really believe in luck either, not in the sense that you either have it or you don't. I just use it as shorthand to describe a random series of events with a determined outcome. Lucky if you have the outcome you're looking for, unlucky if you don't. That's all. What does Elizabeth think it is, if not luck?”

“Elizabeth doesn't think, she
knows
, that it's God.”

“Okay then.”
What do you do with a comment like that?
“Well, I just wanted to get these results to you and put your mind at ease. I know you were concerned.”

“Thank you
so
much.” The relief in Kaitlyn's voice was so profound that Jess wanted to reach through the phone and hug her.

“Talk to you soon.” Jess was about to hang up when she hesitated. “Kaitlyn, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Do you think your results came back the way they did because God likes you better than he might like someone else, maybe because you go to church more or something?”

“No, of course not. I have no idea why I got the results I did. It certainly wasn't because I deserved it. It was just part of the plan God has for my life. And if the results had come back the way I was afraid they might, well, that would have been part of God's plan for my life too. Not as punishment, or judgment, but as a natural consequence of my actions. And he would have had a plan for my life that included that too. And you know what? It would have been a good plan.”

Jess didn't say anything for a moment.

“Well, Kaitlyn, I hear the things you're saying, but I just don't get it.”

“I don't get it either. I just know it's true. But talk to Elizabeth. She believes it
and
she gets it. And she'll be real happy to explain it to you. All you have to do is say something like, ‘Boy, it's lucky I ran into you today.'”

Jess laughed. “That would be an interesting conversation, and I might just do that. I've been meaning to get by to see her, anyway.”

After hanging up, Jess leaned back in her chair and thought about her conversation with Kaitlyn. It wasn't that she didn't believe in God; she did. She had just always thought of him as being too busy running the universe to get involved in the results of a blood test. And she supposed that if you were braced for bad news, like Kaitlyn was, and got good news instead, you might think God had done that, as a reward, maybe, for being a good person. But Jess knew that good people got sick sometimes, just like bad people stayed well, and how that all added up to being part of God's plan was the thing that didn't make sense.

A tap on her office door interrupted her musing, and she felt for her shoes with her toes and slipped them on. “Come in.”

Gabe Quintana, with a backpack slung over one shoulder, opened the door. “Hi, Dr. MacLeod. I came. Is it still okay?”

“Of course. I was expecting you. Why don't you get set up at that table? I've got a patient coming in in a few minutes, but I think I've got time to see what you're doing and where you are.”

“Oh, here. My mom wanted me to give you this.” He handed her a manila envelope on his way to the table.

“Thanks.” She took a peek inside before tossing it on her desk. “Perfect. Just what I was looking for.”

“Everything okay?” Gabe gestured toward the envelope with his chin as he sat down and pulled books and notebooks from his backpack.

“Everything's fine. Didn't I tell you that everything isn't about you?” Jess grinned as she pulled a chair over next to him. “Now, show me what you've got here.”

Fifteen minutes later, Eva stuck her head in to tell her that her next patient was ready for her, and Jess got to her feet. “Okay, I
think you're good to go with this. I'll pop in to see how you're doing from time to time, but other than that, you're on your own. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, sure. Thanks.” He positioned his book in front of him and flipped open his notebook, and by the time Jess reached the door and looked back, he was already scribbling in his notebook. He was going to be fine. She had no doubt of it.

Not till the last patient and Eva left almost simultaneously did Jess get back to her office, and she found Gabe pretty much where she had left him, except there were a few wadded-up sheets of paper around, and a couple other notebooks were open on the table.

“Hey there, how's it going?”

“Good.” He didn't look up.

“Any questions so far?”

“Nope.”

“Want something to drink? Some water?”

“I'm good, thanks.”

Jess smiled and shook her head. Whatever might keep Gabe from achieving his dreams, it would not be inability to focus, that she could see.

Sitting at her desk and slipping off her shoes, she opened the manila envelope and pulled out Marta's résumé. The more she read, the more delighted she became. If she had written Marta's résumé to her own specifications, it couldn't have been more perfect. Marta had even taken a course or two in billing and office management.

“Gabe, what time does your mom get up? Gabe? Gabe!”

He finally looked up, almost as if he wondered where he was. “What?”

“What time does your mom leave for work?”

“Around 4:30. Why?”

Jess looked at her watch. “Shoot, it's nearly 5:30. She's long gone.”

“5:30?” Gabe started slamming his notebooks closed and shoving everything into his backpack. “Man. I've got to go get the kids from the neighbor's and make them their dinner.”

“Okay.” Jess was glad she wasn't between him and the door. It seemed like a good way to get run down. “It looks like you're doing just fine. When's your next test?”

“I've got a chemistry test Wednesday, and we have a calculus quiz every Friday.” Gabe slipped one arm through a backpack strap.

“Remember, you have to get A's on both, so let me know if there's anything in either that you don't understand.”

“Got it. Thanks.” He was already out the door.

By the time Jess got to the front door to lock it, Gabe was backing his old truck around so he could exit the parking lot. Checking each room as she went, Jess headed back to her office. She still had perhaps an hour of work before she could leave. Marta Quintana's résumé, still in the center of her desk, caught her eye, causing her to break into a wide smile. Tomorrow she'd give Marta a call, and tomorrow she'd tell Eva that her days of exile might be coming to an end. And if everything went well, within a couple weeks, she'd have Marta working right here with her.

“Your mom called.”

Andy hung his jacket and his hat on the hook by the front door. This really wasn't the first thing he wanted to hear when he walked in the front door, but that's what he got for forgetting his phone this morning. “Did you talk to her?”

“Not for long, I didn't. I said, ‘Hello.' She said, ‘Who's this?' I
said, ‘This is Tim Ryan, who's this?' She said, ‘Tim?' And the next thing you know there's this ruckus on the other end and that sister of hers comes on and says, ‘How dare you try to talk to her? Don't you ever call this number again.' Then she slams the phone down. The thing is, o' course, is that I never did call her. She called me.”

“I'll call her and make sure she's okay.” Andy walked down the hall to his room with his phone pressed to his ear. His call went to voice mail. “Hi Mom. Sorry about the call. I went off and left my phone on the charger this morning. But if you want to call back, I'm home now.”

Within a minute, his phone rang, and the screen said “Mom.” He hit Accept.

“Hi Mom.”

“Would you tell me what in this world that man is doing with your phone?”

So much for preliminary pleasantries.

“I told you. I left my phone on the charger this morning, so when you called, he just answered it.”

“I think you know I'm not interested in whether your phone is all charged up or not. Hang on. Aunt Barb wants to talk to you.”

Andy rolled his head in a circle. The knot between his shoulders felt like it was the size of his fist.

“Andrew Ryan, is that you?”

“Hi Aunt Barb.”

“Andy, would you please tell me why you opened the door to that man after all he's done to your mother? And to you, for that matter.”

“Well, I didn't open the door to him. He opened it before I got home. He just needs someplace to stay awhile.”

There was a moment of silence. Aunt Barb was probably reloading.

“Well, let me tell you this, young man. Your mother has been
planning for your Christmas visit since the day you told her you were coming. Just last Sunday in church when they said they needed folks to sign up for the Christmas program, the first words out of her mouth were, ‘Oh, I hope Andy's here for that.' But I'm telling you right now, if that man comes with you, I'll leave you both standing on the front porch, and don't think I won't. Even if it does break your mother's heart.”

“Aunt Barb, it's only October. We'll get this worked out. I will be there for Christmas, and I'll come by myself.”

“Okay, then. Well, you take care, honey. Here's your mom. Love you.”

By the time Andy was able to get off the phone and head back to the kitchen, his head throbbed. He had forgotten to ask why his mother had called in the first place, and she hadn't mentioned it herself, but the fact that his dad was not invited for Christmas had been made abundantly clear.

“Everything okay?” Tim was standing in front of the stove. “I found some pork chops in your freezer. Thought I'd fry 'em up, if that sounds good.”