“No appetite?”
I shrugged and immediately regretted it as my arm began to throb even worse. “Very little.”
“Okay,” he said, wiping his mouth with a napkin before turning to look for our server, who gave the check to Patsy. When she was gone, he looked at me. “I’m ready to go. Let’s get ya seen to.”
“Look, Good, I’m grateful for the breakfast, I really am, but I can take it from here.”
“First of all, I told ya—call me Patsy. Second, yer bloody well going to hospital. Hollywood Presbyterian isn’t far, so it is. I’ll take ya.” He had a way of glaring at me when he wanted thingsdone his way. I almost admired him for it and couldn’t help but smile at him.
“Actually, I have Kaiser. It’s left over from my last job which I had to quit when my mom got sick last year.”
“Grand. Kaiser hospital is over on Sunset across from Children’s Hospital L.A. I’ll take ya. Ya can tell me the story about ya mam and how you’ve managed to keep yer insurance.” He fished a bill out of his wallet, leaving a tip before heading to the front. I followed, feeling slightly bad about letting him pay for the meal and drive me all over town.
“Thanks, Patsy,” I said, liking the way his name rolled off my tongue. “I can’t thank you enough.”
He beamed at me. “No problem, mate. That’s what friends are for.”
I smiled, nodding at him. “That’s what friends are for.”
Chapter Three
WES
Back in the ridiculously small car, I told Patsy about my former job working for Northrup Grumman which had ended a year and a half ago when my mom was diagnosed with stage four metastatic cancer which had already spread to her lungs and liver by the time she was diagnosed. “I had to quit to take care of her because she had no one else,” I said.
“And ya insurance was left over from Northrup?”
I nodded. “The COBRA premiums were written into my contract which allowed me to keep the insurance for eighteen months, even with a voluntary severance.”
“Which will be endin’ soon, I imagine,” he said.
I nodded.
“And yer da?”
“He died ten years ago. It was just Mom and me. I don’t have any siblings, and mom’s sisters live in Chicago with husbands and children of their own. So, when she got sick, they couldn’t be counted on to take care of her.”
“So, ya had to take ya leave,” he concluded.
“Yes. Fortunately, I had a little savings which allowed me to keep us afloat for a while. It wasn’t until I gave up my apartment and moved back home with her that I learned how badly she’d messed up her finances.”
“How so?”
His questions were personal, and quite blunt in a way—straightforward I suppose—but I didn’t mind talking with him. It was easy because he didn’t seem to have any other agenda than to hear my story. I adored his melodic Irish accent as well. It made him seem down to earth. “She mortgaged the house after my father’s death.” Finding out she’d been taken in by an unscrupulous mortgage broker who’d given her a high interest loan, made me feel as angry now, as when I’d heard about it the first time. I sighed. “In any case, my mom passed away in her own bed, able to look out at her garden. I couldn’t pay the mortgage, so I lost the house a few months later.”
I glanced over at Patsy who hadn’t said anything. He stared out the windshield as he drove, but I noticed a muscle in his cheek ticking, as if he was trying his best not to grind his teeth. When he finally glanced in my direction, his face was serious.
“I’m sorry ya lost yer mam. That’s a terrible business to be dealin’ with.”
I felt my eyes burning so I looked away. “It’s worse than I could have ever imagined. Losing my job, my mom, and then the house she and my father had lived in all their married life was heartbreaking.” I paused. “Still, it’s behind me. Things are looking up now that I have a job.” I looked over at him and our eyes met a moment before he was forced to look back at the street. “I hope you understand why I was forced to leave the store last night. I just can’t lose this job opportunity.”
“Ya were afraid. I understand,” he said, “which is why I’ll be goin’ with ya to the hospital. If I explain I’m FBI, they won’t call the police.” He glanced over wearing a big grin. “This time, I have my FBI creds with me.”
I suddenly felt overwhelming warmth toward this small, genuinely nice man who’d probably saved my life last night. Itwent without saying that I would’ve stepped between him and a bullet if that was what was needed to protect him, but I’d judged his small stature as weakness, when it was anything but.
“Patsy?”
“Aye, mate.” He glanced over as we turned onto Sunset.
