Xander glances down and swivels his wrist until he takes my hand. Palm to palm, his fingers slot perfectly between mine. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
17
XANDER
“I can go home?” Mrs. Wilikis stares up at me with glassy eyes, clutching a tissue in her frail hand. “Truly?”
My smile warms. “Yes. Your tests came back promising, and you’ve been keeping solid foods down for over a week. Not only was your surgery successful, but you’ve improved greatly in the weeks you’ve been here, so I’m happy to get the discharge papers for you.”
“Ma, this is amazing!” Her daughter surges up from her seat and clutches her mother’s hand. “You can be home for dinner, right, Doctor?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Oh, my…” Mrs. Wilikis gasps softly and presses her tissue to her mouth. “I didn’t even dare to hope.”
“I’ll call Darren and he’ll get a turkey, we can whip up everything really quick, and it’ll be ready by the time you’re home!” Her daughter turns to me with a wide smile. “Thank you, Doctor!”
“It’s my pleasure.” With another brief smile, I exit the room and sigh softly.
Giving Mrs. Wilikis the news that she could go home on Thanksgiving is the only good thing that’s happened today.
Jules hounds me constantly about the promotion and half the staff are acting like I’m the Chief of Surgery already when I haven’t even stepped into the temporary position yet.
As great as the move would be for my career, I’m not ready.
That amount of responsibility is supposed to be for later in life when my days of holding a scalpel are over.
“Xander!”
A sudden familiar voice yells halfway down the corridor, and my heart lurches faintly, trying to work out why I’m hearing it here in the middle of my work day.
My answer comes two seconds later when I turn and my sister, Thea, launches herself into my arms.
“Surprise!”
“Thea?” My arm encircles her in a brief hug as she tightens both hers around me like she’s trying to squeeze the life out of me. “What are you doing here?”
“Visiting you, of course! I begged andbeggedyou to come and see me for Thanksgiving and then I got tired of your excuses and decided I would come and see you instead. Soooo…” She leans back, both her hands on my shoulders, and grins. “Surprise! Happy Thanksgiving!”
It’s jarring seeing my bubbly sister in the hospital.
This place is quiet and dramatic, if not downright heartbreaking on the best of days.
Thea’s always exuding life and she burns as brightly as the sun. Mom used to say she got double the personality to make up for my lack of one.
“Happy Thanksgiving.”
“That’s it?” She pouts dramatically. “I fly all the way here to see you and all I get is a single flat Happy Thanksgiving?”
“Were you really expecting something else?”
“No,” she sighs. “I suppose not. So, when does your shift end so we can cobble together a Thanksgiving dinner? Or we could go out, but I already tried to make a couple of reservations and for a town as small as this, I didn’t expect so many people to be eating out on Thanksgiving. Oh, well.”
“Thea—”
“I could go back to your place and cook, but do you remember that Thanksgiving when I forgot to turn the oven on and we just had all the trimmings while staring at the ice cube? Or you could cook! You were always so good with your hands.”
“Thea, I can’t.”
