“I’ll get it,” Sherri volunteered.
No one could know about this, not only for reasons of patient confidentiality, but also because she didn’t want Sherri to worry until there was good reason. It was the least she could do for her friend. Besides, there was no need to alarm anyone until Anna had her appointment with Dr. Ningh.
“No. I’ll get it.” Gayle ducked down quickly and scooped up the paper, greeted by a quizzical glance from Sherri. “I was just about to file this, but it can wait,” she said, tucking the paper into the pile on her desk.
Sherri took her usual spot on the other side of the raised counter. “You haven’t told me how your first visit with Nate went.”
“Fine. He and Adam seemed to hit it off, although Adam left before Nate did.”
“Oh, really?” Sherri said, a hint of smugness to her tone.
“It wasn’t like that. Adam had a skateboarding date with his friends, and the interview went a little longer than I expected. Nate left shortly after.”
“Nate tells me that he enjoyed meeting you. How about you?”
“Nate is your cousin, and I hope one day that he and I will be friends,” she said, thankful that there were no questions about the report on her desk. Fending off Sherri’s curiosity about Nate and her was easy. Nate hadn’t shown any real interest in her. As for herself, she remembered the frisson of excitement she’d felt when he’d come to the door, and wished that she dared to talk about her reaction. But it was out of the question, especially when she would never act on her feelings. “Other than that, there’s nothing to report.”
“Did Adam like him?” Sherri said, her tone gentle now.
Gayle glanced up at her friend, noted the concern in her eyes and was once again so thankful that someone like Sherri cared so much about her and Adam. “We talked a little when he returned from his skateboarding, and in Adam’s words, he’s ‘cool.’ Nate asked him a lot about his job.”
“Nate mowed lawns until he went to work in grade nine at Peterson’s Pharmacy stocking shelves,” Sherri said. “The girls used to go into the store just to catch a glimpse of him, but he only had eyes for Natasha Burnham.”
“Did he go with her very long?” Gayle asked, unable to stop herself from wanting to know more about Nate.
“He did. When he joined the police academy and moved to Boston, she went with him. They had planned to be married the summer he was injured, a big wedding here in Eden Harbor. Then one morning Natasha told him she wanted out. That she couldn’t imagine being married to a man who would always walk with a cane.”
“What a cruel thing to do! Why did she accept his proposal? She couldn’t have loved him very much,” Gayle said, at once angry at this woman she’d never met and sad for Nate and what he must have faced in the weeks and months after Natasha left him.
“She grew up spoiled, always got what she wanted. And she’d wanted Nate from the time they were in high school. Only not the Nate he became after the shooting.”
“What do you mean?” Gayle asked, becoming more aware of how much damage Nate’s shooter had done aside from the physical injuries.
“Nate had to focus all his efforts on getting well. Gone were the days of partying and staying up half the night, along with skiing or dancing or playing tennis. It was all gone. At the time we had no idea why they’d split up. Nate wasn’t talking and Natasha moved to New Orleans.”
“That must have been really hard on him,” Gayle said. “No one deserves to be dumped in such a heartless way.”
“No kidding! He managed to get to his treatments and appointments in Boston on his own, even though the whole family wanted to help. He fended off all offers, claiming that he had a circle of friends who were there for him, and he needed to devote his time to getting healthy again.”
“Maybe he just couldn’t face everyone’s sympathy over what Natasha had done to him. It must have been really painful to realize that the woman you loved didn’t love you.”
“Natasha expected that Nate would always be there for her, trying to please her, but the accident meant that she had a new role to play helping him. Obviously she couldn’t or wouldn’t do that. It’s too bad Nate had to learn something that heartbreaking the hard way.”
Gayle felt a connection to this man that went well beyond their meeting the other day. He’d had his share of suffering and pain at the hands of someone he’d loved, just as she had. “Natasha’s abandonment had to have changed him.”
“It did. Nate was a different man when he returned to Eden Harbor. He hasn’t hooked up with any of his old gang from school, and the women he dates are all much younger. He only introduced me to a couple of them and they seemed...frivolous. Not the kind of women I would have imagined him being interested in. Maybe he’s just a poor judge of women.”
“Or keeps meeting the wrong kind.”
“Could be. He doesn’t bring any of them home, or so his mother says. She wishes he’d find someone, but...” She shrugged. “Nate won’t talk about it.”
Gayle wanted to know more about Nate. He’d survived injury and rejection and still managed to keep going. To have survived what had happened to him took courage and determination, both admirable qualities in her mind.
“Are you sure there’s nothing going on between you two?” Sherri asked.
“No. Nothing. What made you say that?”
“This whole conversation has been about Nate, so don’t tell me you’re not interested in him.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to share with her friend how she’d felt the other day when Nate was at the house? How being near him made her feel...better about life. But hearing Sherri’s description of the type of women he dated, she began to wonder if maybe Sherri believed her cousin needed a different kind of woman. One that would offer him stability and support.
If Sherri was trying to get her and Nate together to solve what she saw as her cousin’s problem with women, Gayle wasn’t interested. She had enough issues to work out in her own life. “Sorry to disappoint, but there’s nothing to report on the romance front.”
Sherri’s face was one big smile as Neill entered the clinic space. “We’ll talk about Nate later,” she said as she crossed the reception area to greet her fiancé.
* * *
NATE STOOD OUTSIDE Coach Cassidy’s office while he waited for him to get off the phone. Nate had had several appointments with teachers of some of the teenagers he was working with and had decided to drop by and see the coach before he finished his day. In Nate’s experience Coach Cassidy was a very perceptive man, a quality somewhat at odds with his size and his aggressive coaching skills. “A man’s man” was how the principal of the school described him.
Yet many times Bill Cassidy had known almost instinctively which teenagers were in trouble and how that trouble was affecting them. After watching Adam interact with his mother and detecting his poorly disguised hostility at feeling invisible, Nate suspected that the boy was very lonely and it was affecting his relationships with fellow students and teachers. That was to be expected under the circumstances, but also something to cause concern, should it continue or get worse. Feelings of loneliness could easily lead to feelings of alienation, and he didn’t want to see that happen to Adam. He hoped the coach could explain a little bit about Adam and how he behaved around his peer group off and on the basketball court, but more important, why he hadn’t made the team.
“Well, hello,” Bill Cassidy said as he opened the door to his office and beckoned Nate in. “What can I do for you? Or is this a social call? I’m nearly done for the day. Want to go for a beer?”
“Yeah, that would be great,” Nate said, watching the other man grab his jacket,