Nathan went right up to the door and entered without knocking. Zoe paused for a deep breath on the porch before she followed him in.
The moment she stepped through the door, Zoe’s chest clenched so tightly that she could barely breathe. Her knees weakened and her head spun. It took all her willpower not to turn and run back into the fresh June air.
It wasn’t about the house. No, the house was just as bright and cheerful inside as it was outside, with early evening sunlight spilling through tall windows, and fresh flowers on the living-room table. But even the bright, floral scent wasn’t enough to drown out the burning smell of antiseptic and illness.
The doorway led right onto the living room, with a dining room to the left. The living room furniture had been arranged to one side to make room for a hospital bed where a woman lay. She looked older, perhaps only in her sixties, but she was so bony and thin that it was hard to tell. Her head was covered by a pale-yellow scarf, but Zoe knew that beneath it, she was bald. A cat slept on her legs.
Zoe rubbed her chest, trying as hard as she could to draw in air. For a split second, she wasn’t standing in a cheerful house in rural Vermont with a handsome doctor, but in a cramped apartment in Brooklyn with another woman in a hospital bed.
Zoe slammed back into the present as Nathan crossed the living room to the woman.
“Hi, Elizabeth. How are you feeling?”
Zoe forced herself to step the rest of the way into the house and close the door behind her. Then she leaned against the wall. Staying out of the way wasn’t going to be a problem. Staying on her feet and breathing might be.
CHAPTER 11
NATHAN
“And how are you tolerating food at the moment?” Nathan asked as he checked the heart-rate monitor and IV set up around Elizabeth Reynolds’s bed. The older woman smiled at him.
“It’s not bad, Doc,” she said. “My daughter has been making me all kinds of blended soups. She says I need to keep my strength up.”
“Perfect.” Nathan smiled down at her, even though his heart ached. He had a few patients like Elizabeth on his roster — patients with serious illnesses who were on end-of-life care. It meant a lot to them, and their families, that they could stay at home for the last days or weeks of their lives instead of being moved to a hospice in a nearby town. Elizabeth, for instance, got to spend time with her two young grandchildren, her daughter and son-in-law, her younger sister and her brother-in-law. She slept in her living room in the house she’d lived in all her life instead of in a sterile, clinical room.
This was why Nathan offered end-of-life care, even though it was difficult for him. He hated not being able to help people.A doctor’s job is to make everyone better, and when he saw patients like Elizabeth, who would never get better, it broke his heart. That was why he hadn’t wanted Zoe to come. He knew she’d want to film this, since it was emotional and relatively dramatic, and he couldn’t let anything make the end of Elizabeth’s life harder than it needed to be.
Sooner or later, Zoe would try to interfere, and Nathan would have to deal with that. For now, though, she was standing quietly by one of the walls, her face a little paler than usual.
“Who did you bring with you?” Elizabeth asked. With some effort, she raised her head to look at Zoe then lowered her voice. “Is this someone special?”
“No.” Nathan almost laughed at the ridiculousness of the suggestion that he and Zoe were together. Even though she was charming, beautiful, and intelligent, they were more or less working against each other. Or at least it felt that way. “This is Zoe Devine. She’s my PR manager.”
“Hello there,” Elizabeth called. Zoe pushed off the wall and came over, arranging her face into a warm smile.
“It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Zoe.”
“I’m Elizabeth. I’d shake your hand, but…” Elizabeth smiled, but Nathan knew she was covering for the fact that she was so weak that any movement was a struggle. Zoe seemed to understand, too, because she rested one hand on Elizabeth’s for a moment. “I haven’t seen you around before.”
“I’m only here for a week or two,” Zoe explained. Her face was still pale. “I’m so sorry, Elizabeth, but I need to excuse myself. I need to make a quick call.”
“Of course.” Elizabeth nodded, causing her scarf to slip back and reveal part of her bare scalp. “It was nice to meet you.”
Zoe nodded and turned to leave. As she passed him, Nathan caught a glimpse of her face, and he froze. Her brown eyes were shining with unshed tears, and her posture was slumped. She hadn’t shown any of her feelings to Elizabeth, but she was clearly struggling.
Nathan took a breath to steady himself. He wanted to make sure Zoe was okay — he knew how difficult being around dying people could be. As always, though, his patient came first, so he turned back to Elizabeth.
“She’s pretty,” Elizabeth said. “If a little overdressed.” Zoe’s pencil skirt and neutral-colored blouse were a little at odds with the cozy home.
“Hmm.” Nathan took Elizabeth’s wrist to feel her pulse.
“You don’t think she’s pretty, Doc?”
He smiled. “Of course she is, but we work together.” At least for now they did. Later, he was going to have a tough discussion with her about the end of their collaboration — but not until he’d made sure she was okay.
“You know, my Barry and I met at work,” Elizabeth said. She stifled a yawn. “We were both teachers, working together. And we spent forty wonderful years side by side.”
“I know.” Nathan squeezed her hand. “All your vitals look okay. How’s your pain? Do you need a higher dose of your medicine?”
