Over Before She Loved Me novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Go Catch Your Plane

At the hospital the doctor won't say anything, Joelle sends him away and lets Barrett hold her hand, and Dolores orders her out of the house in 48 hours.

Dustin took the hospital stairs two at a time.

The emergency department smelled of floor cleaner and burnt coffee.

A nurse at the desk checked a screen and pointed him to a curtained bay at the end of the hall.

A doctor in green scrubs was coming out of it.

"I'm Dustin Rayburn. I'm here for Joelle Hartigan."

The doctor looked at his chart, then at him.

"You're listed as her emergency contact, Mr. Rayburn. You're not listed as family. She's asked me not to share anything with you."

"I'm not asking for a report. I'm asking if she's all right."

"She's awake and talking. That's what I can say."

"What happened?"

"I can't say, sir. I'm sorry."

The doctor walked away.

Dustin stood outside the curtain with his hand on the fabric.

Three years in the same house, and he was waiting for permission to see her face.

He pulled the curtain back.

Joelle sat propped against the pillows with an IV in her arm.

Her auburn hair was tied up crooked, and she was the color of the sheets.

She saw him and shut her eyes.

"I told them not to call you."

"They called anyway."

"They shouldn't have. I'm fine. It was low blood sugar. I skipped breakfast."

"You skipped breakfast all week."

Her eyes opened.

"You noticed that."

"I noticed everything, Joelle."

It came out rougher than he meant.

She looked down at the blanket.

"Go catch your plane, Dustin. You don't have to be here."

"My flight is Friday."

"Then go pack."

"What did the doctor tell you?"

"That I need to eat and drink water." She pulled the blanket higher. "That's all. I'm fine. Please go."

He had asked a hundred questions across three years, and every time she had answered with the same level voice.

He heard it now.

He also heard something under it, a thin place where her voice almost broke.

He didn't know what it was.

"Let me stay until they discharge you."

"No."

"Joelle."

"You're not my husband anymore. You said it yourself. Nobody owes anybody anything."

The curtain rattled on its rings.

"Jo? Oh, thank God."

Barrett came in with a bouquet of white roses and his tie pulled loose.

He had followed him, Dustin realized.

He must have run all the way from the café.

Barrett put the flowers on the table and took Joelle's free hand in both of his.

"You scared me to death. How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Joelle said.

She did not take her hand back.

Dustin watched her fingers stay in Barrett's palm.

It was a small thing.

In three years she had never once let him hold her hand without a reason.

"I'll sit with her, Dustin," Barrett said without turning around. "You've got a lot to do before Friday. Go."

"I'll stay."

"You've already done more than anyone would."

"Barrett."

"I mean it. Let me handle this."

Dustin opened his mouth.

A sharp click of heels sounded in the corridor.

It was a sound he'd known since he was four years old.

His mother pushed the curtain aside and stepped in.

Dolores Rayburn was fifty-eight, silver-haired, in a camel coat and pearls, and she did not look at the bed.

She looked at Dustin.

"I came as soon as Barrett called me."

Dustin turned to Barrett.

Barrett lifted his hands. "She's your mother. She'd want to know."

"Mother, this is a hospital."

"I can see that." Dolores finally looked at Joelle. "Well. You've had your three years, and now you're in a bed, and my son has an airplane to catch."

"Mrs. Rayburn," Joelle said.

"Don't. You are not Mrs. Rayburn. You were a line in a contract." Dolores took her gloves off one finger at a time. "The townhouse is a Rayburn property. I want you out of it in forty-eight hours."

"Mother."

"The decree says what it says. The house was a courtesy during the marriage."

"The house is mine," Dustin said.

"It's the family's."

"I bought it. It's in my name. And Joelle keeps it as long as she wants it."

The silence in the bay was total.

Joelle spoke without looking at either of them.

"I don't want your house."

Dustin turned.

She was staring straight ahead at the wall, her hand still lying in Barrett's.

"Joelle, it's not about that."

"I'll be gone by Friday," she said. "The same day you are."

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