“You’ve got your doctor’s appointment,” he reminded her.
Maddy shrugged. “I’ll call Nadine. I’m sure Dr. Kooperman can fit me in another time. I want to help, Max.”
He looked at Charlotte, saw she was battling to pull herself together, swallowing her tears and straightening her shoulders. She would cope, because she had so many times in the past. But he wanted to be there for her if he could.
“If you don’t mind, that would be a help,” he told Maddy. “I’ll set you up before we go. Charlotte brought Eloise’s favorite DVD. She’ll watch it as many times as you play it.”
Charlotte blew her nose into a tissue and looked set to wade into the discussion.
“This way I can stay with you,” he said, forestalling her.
Charlotte opened her mouth, then closed it again. She nodded.
“That would be nice, I think,” she said in a strangled voice.
It took him a couple of minutes to get Milo and Otis playing and prop Eloise in front of it.
“If she gets hungry, peanut butter sandwiches are her favorite,” he said as he led Charlotte toward the door. “I keep a jar in the kitchen.”
Maddy nodded with each instruction. Charlotte dug her heels in on the doorstep and turned to add her own instructions.
“She hates loud music, or any loud noises for that matter. There are spare diapers in the bag. And make sure that you do up all her buttons on her pajamas if we’re not home until late. She gets upset if her buttons aren’t all done up.”
“Okay.”
“We’ll call from the hospital,” Max said as he eased his sister from the house.
Maddy nodded an acknowledgment. She looked small but determined as he shut the door.
He knew exactly how much seeing Dr. Kooperman meant to her, yet she’d given up the opportunity without the bat of an eyelid.
If he hadn’t loved her already, that one act of generosity alone would have made him a goner.
If Maddy were his, the life they could build together…
But she wasn’t.
Grim, dragging his mind back to Marcel and the task at hand, Max started the car and pulled out into traffic.
AS MAX AND CHARLOTTE disappeared out the door, Maddy turned to study Eloise, bundled on the couch and staring at the television.
Despite what Maddy had said to Max, she was nervous. She knew nothing about children. Nada. Zilch. Zero. As for children with special needs…If something went wrong, she’d be absolutely clueless as to how to respond.
Before her imagination could get carried away drafting potential disasters, she took herself firmly in hand. Eloise was perfectly happy. She was watching her DVD, completely absorbed in the adventures of Milo and Otis. And Max was taking his sister to the hospital, offering Charlotte the support she needed.
Maddy’s thoughts shifted to Marcel. He was only six, and he’d fallen down stairs. She felt sick just thinking about it.
One eye on Eloise, she picked up her cell and phoned Nadine. Her friend sounded put out when Maddy told her she wouldn’t be able to accept her generous offer of her appointment. Nadine explained that she had already called Dr. Kooperman to ask his permission for the exchange and he had agreed to do so—but not before giving Nadine a hard time. Guilt assailing her from all sides, Maddy outlined the situation as best she could but when she hung up she had the distinct feeling she’d lost her chance at an early appointment with one of France’s best dance medicine specialists.
It had been a week since her fateful meeting with Andrew. The longest she’d gone without rehearsing in her life. She felt adrift, totally at sea without the familiar anchors of classes, rehearsals, gym sessions, costume fittings, meetings with choreographers and fellow dancers. She felt like an exile. And she hated it. She wanted her life back.
The familiar panicky dizziness hit her, and she forced herself to take big, deep belly breaths.
Eloise shifted on the couch, pulling at the blanket Max had wrapped around her. Maddy watched her, taking in her smooth brown hair and intent, serious round face. If Max had children one day, they would look like this, she realized. Dark, with his olive skin.
She shook her head, the moment of panic over. Eloise needed her. Max needed her. And she still had Dr. Rambeau lined up for next week. She would get at least one second opinion, even if it wouldn’t carry quite the same ring of authority that Dr. Kooperman’s would.
She straightened her shoulders and crossed to the couch to sit beside Eloise. The little girl didn’t acknowledge her in any way, not even with the flicker of an eyelid. Maddy sat back to watch the movie.
Milo and Otis were escaping from yet another near-death experience when the doorbell rang half an hour later. It was Yvette. Max had forgotten to call her and cancel their session. Maddy apologized on Max’s behalf and arranged for Max to call her to reschedule. To her credit, Yvette was all concern and asked Maddy to pass on her best wishes.
Maddy checked her watch as she crossed back to the couch. Why hadn’t Max called? Surely if it was good news, he would have rung by now?
She’d just reset the DVD to play for a second time when her cell phone rang.
“How is Marcel?” she asked.
“He has a bad concussion, and a broken arm. They need to operate to set it, so we’re going to be a while,” Max said.
“Nothing else?” she asked. She remembered a dancer who had tumbled from the stage a few years ago and fractured his skull. “No pressure or anything from the head injury?”
“They’ve scanned him, and it all looks normal. He’s got one hell of a bruise, though. He was damn lucky.”
She sagged with relief. “How is Charlotte?”
“Hanging in there. How are you and Eloise doing?”
“Milo and Otis still reign supreme, so I guess we’re hanging in there, too.”
There was a short pause and she could hear Max take a breath.
“I really appreciate you doing this,” he said. “You didn’t have to.”
“You don’t need to thank me, Max,” she said. “It was the least I could do.”
“But you’ve lost your chance to see Dr. Kooperman,” he said.
“I think your niece and nephew are a little more important than my ability to do a pirouette on stage,” she said.
There was a profound silence from Max’s end of the line for a few beats.
“Well, both Charlotte and I appreciate it,” he said. “We’ll have to work out some way to make it up to you.”
There was a low, warm note in his voice and her hand tightened around the receiver as a half dozen illicit, wrong, hot ideas for how he could do that flitted across her mind.
“I’d better get back to Milo and Otis,” she said.
“I’ll call later, give you a progress report.”
She ended the call and returned to her position on the couch next to Eloise. Once again the little girl didn’t acknowledge her presence in any way.
Maddy stared blindly at the television. Her heart was banging against her rib cage as though she’d just danced a solo. Because Max called? Because he’d said nice things to her and made her think about things it was best she never thought about again?
A grinding, clicking noise drew her attention back to the television. The picture was flashing