April Joke, Permanent Scar novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Shift Change

My lawyer got a judge to freeze the sale proceeds by Thursday noon, and I did not feel like celebrating.

I felt like cooking.

That evening I stood in Beth's kitchen at five o'clock and made a pot roast with her carrots and the last of my grandmother's thyme.

Beth watched me from the doorway with a dish towel over her shoulder.

"Who is that for?" she asked.

"The ER."

"Uh huh."

"He works twelve hours on vending machine crackers," I said. "That's all."

"Sure," Beth said. "That's all."

I packed the roast into a container and drove to the hospital with it on the passenger seat.

The ambulance bay was at the side of the building, under a flat white light, and shift change was in full swing.

Nurses in scrubs and coats were crossing the pavement, calling goodnight to each other.

Seth came out of the sliding doors in the middle of them, with his badge still clipped to his pocket.

He saw me and stopped walking.

"Hannah?"

"I made you dinner," I said, and held out the container. "It's the pot roast. You ate it at three Thanksgivings."

He took it in both hands and looked at it.

"You don't have to do this," he said.

"I know what I don't have to do." I stepped closer. "That's why I'm saying this now. You don't owe me, Seth. Not for the door, not for the truck, not for any of the dare nights."

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