“I’d tell you if I knew,” he said, his voice more sad now than angry. “I’m sorry about your dad, Lizzie. He deserved better. Anyway, my head is spinning and all I want to do is sleep. But I think I’ll need some help out of the chair.”
Immediately alert, Lizzie pulled a penlight from her pocket and bent over him to look into his eyes, in case there was something else going on with him other than the beginnings of a hangover.
“Look up,” she said. “Now, down…to the right…to the left.”
When she saw nothing of note, she tucked away her light, then offered Mateo a hand to help him get up. Which he did—but too fast. He wavered for a moment, then pitched forward into Lizzie’s arms.
“Care to dance now?” he asked, not even trying to push himself away.
Admittedly, he felt good. And she could smell a faint trace of aftershave, even though he typically sported a three-day-old stubble. Had he splashed on a dash of scent for their walk?
“I think you’ve already done enough of that,” she said, guiding him to the bed.
Once he was sitting, she helped him lift his legs, then removed his flip-flops when he was stretched out on the bed.
“I’ll have one of the nurses come in and help you change into your…”
There was no point in continuing. Mateo was already out. Dead to the world. Sleeping like a baby.
And she—well…time to face Janis.
This wasn’t how this part of her day was supposed to have gone. Taking a patient out for a walk…him getting drunk…
Thank heavens she had two blissful weeks of sitting on the beach, reading, and swimming coming up. She needed the rest. Needed to be away from her responsibilities. Needed to put her own life in order in so many ways.
“NO, IT’S NOT your fault,” Janis said, handing Lizzie a tiki cup filled with a Hawaiian Twist—a drink made of banana, pineapple, and coconut milk. And, yes, she’d even put a paper umbrella in it—not that Lizzie needed a tiki cup, a paper umbrella, or even a Hawaiian Twist. But Janis loved to make island favorites for anybody who came to her office, and today this was the favorite.
So Lizzie took a drink and, amazingly, it made her feel a little bit better. It didn’t ease the headache, but it gave her a mental boost.
“It’s not like I haven’t taken a patient out for a walk before.”
“Well, that’s why we built the hospital here,” Janis said, sitting down in a wicker chair across from Lizzie.
They were on the lanai outside Janis’s office, as a perfect tropical breeze swept in around them.
“I know—to take advantage of the location. And the gardens. Because we want our patients to experience paradise. And I do truly believe there are curative powers in simply sitting and enjoying the view. And, in the case of some of our patients, when the memory is gone, they can still find beauty in the moment.”
“Sometimes you’re too soft,” Janis said. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing, considering most of the patients we treat, but for Mateo I’m not sure it’s a good thing. He’s a strong man, with a strong will, and right now that will isn’t working to his advantage. I think he’s trying to find his way around it. Get a foothold somewhere. Honestly, there’s something in Mateo that just isn’t clicking.”
“Do you think he’s trying to take advantage of me? Hoping I can do something for him?”
“He could be. It’s always a consideration with some of our patients.”
“Well, he seems harmless enough to me. And it’s not like anything is going to happen between us.”
“Just be careful of Mateo. I haven’t figured him out yet.”
“Nothing’s going on,” Lizzie stated. “We’ve crossed paths for weeks, and this evening I just… It was a walk, Janis. That’s all. Except for the drinking, everything was fine.”
“Everything except you gave in to your sentimental side and he used it against you. Be careful, Lizzie. I’ve seen it happen before and it never turns out well. And you’re better than that.”
Janis was right. She was better than that. But it wasn’t showing right now. Yet she wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t take another walk with Mateo if he suggested it. Why? Because he was attractive? Because when the real man shone through she liked him? Because she was in the middle of her own crisis and Mateo was a distraction?
“Why don’t you go ahead and start your holiday early? Get away from here. Forget us, forget your patients, and most of all, forget Mateo.”
“There’s no one to cover for me.”
“The locum arrives in the morning. We’ll put him straight to work while you sleep in or sip a mimosa on your lanai. However you choose to spend your days off, Lizzie, they start tomorrow. I need you back at your best and, while I have no complaints about your work, you seem so distant lately. Take the time…get it sorted.”
Forget Mateo? Easier said than done. But with any luck, and two weeks of rest ahead of her, she’d get much more sorted than Mateo. Her dad. Her life. Putting things into perspective.
Now, that was something she was looking forward to.
In her life she worked, she slept, and every Saturday morning she went surfing, if conditions were right. That was it. All of it. And even though she owned her house she’d never really settled in, because she had been so up in the air about her dad.
Was this the place for him? Did he have the best caregiver? Did he need more? Should she enroll him in a day program a few times a week even though he wouldn’t have a clue what it was about?
She’d taken care of her dad for five years before he died, and all her energies outside work had been devoted to him.
Of course, she’d been contacted about great facilities all over the country that would have taken him in and made his last days meaningful. But what would have been “meaningful” to him? Her voice? The familiarity of his old trinkets and clothes? The chicken and rice she’d fixed him every Saturday night that he’d seemed to enjoy, when his enjoyment of other foods had gone away?
He’d had so little left, and there had been nothing any of these facilities could have done to make him better, so why deprive him of things he might remember?
Which was why she was here. He’d always wanted to retire to Hawaii and spend his days sitting on the beach, or planting flowers. That was what she’d given him when they’d moved here…the last thing she could recall that he’d ever asked for.
Now, here she still was, not sure whether to stay and live with the memories or go and start over someplace else. She really didn’t have a life here. All her time had been taken up by work or her dad. Then, after he’d died, she’d filled in the empty hours with more work. Now it was all she could see for herself, and she wasn’t sure she liked what she saw.
So maybe it was finally time to settle down, turn her house into a home, and start working on some of those plans she’d made when she’d moved here.
“I’ll call you in a few days and let you know how it’s going,” she said to Janis as she headed out the door. “And maybe I’ll have a party. A vegetarian luau.”
“With lots of rum punch, since they won’t be getting roast pig?”
Lizzie laughed. “Sounds like a plan. And if you get swamped, let me know. I’ll come back.”
“I know you will—which is why I’m