Sassy Cinderella

He nodded and bolted out of the room to do her bidding.

Sherry gently palpated Kristin’s stomach and abdomen, and almost immediately found the source of the pain. The child had a hot appendix, Sherry would stake her life on it. She’d seen dozens of similar cases when she’d worked in emergency medicine.

“Hate to tell you, punkin’, but you’re going to the hospital.”

Kristin started crying in earnest. “I hate the hospital. All they do is stick you with needles.”

“I know, sweetie, but they only do it so you can get well.” Pushed by adrenaline, Sherry lifted Kristin into her arms and carried her to the living room.

Jonathan, thank God, grasped the urgency of the situation immediately. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Her appendix. I’m taking her to the hospital. Where’s the closest one?”

“Tyler. Out Highway 60, north. When you reach Tyler, turn left at the first light. Hospital’s about half a mile on the right.”

Sherry listened as she grabbed her purse and her keys, somehow juggling everything and Kristin, too. “Got it. Call ahead and let them know I’m coming. Tell them it’s urgent.”

“Okay. Jeff or my dad will meet you there.”

“Right. Sam, you stay here and take care of your dad.”

Sam, whose face had gone white, nodded.

Less than a minute later, Sherry strapped Kristin into the passenger seat of the Firebird, hit the gas and zoomed down the driveway. She could have called an ambulance, but she’d been afraid that out in the country medical help would take too long to arrive. She, on the other hand, had a fast car and the nerve to give it the gas.

“You’ve been to the hospital before?” Sherry asked Kristin, hoping to distract her from the pain.

She nodded miserably. “Cut my head—had to have an operation.”

“Oh, that doesn’t sound like much fun. How did it happen?”

“I was jumping on the bed…fell off.”

Sherry had seen her share of those types of accidents. In fact, she’d been one of them. The infamous bike accident. Except she hadn’t been riding a bike. Her father had broken a chair over her head when as a teenager she’d told him she was pregnant. But now wasn’t the time to dwell on her past mistakes or the child she’d given up. She had a child in the here and now who needed her full attention.

Sherry had no trouble finding the hospital. When she pulled into emergency, two orderlies and a gurney were there to meet them. The orderlies took Kristin from the car, strapped her onto the gurney and whisked her inside just as Jeff’s Porsche pulled up.

He jumped out, leaving the engine running and ran up to Sherry. “What happened?”

“Stomachache, nausea, high fever, extreme sensitivity in the lower right abdomen.”

“Could be a lot of—”

“It’s her appendix.”

“No offense, Sherry, but you’re not a—”

“I’m a nurse practitioner and I’m qualified to make a diagnosis. It’s her appendix.” She turned and headed back to her car.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“Back to Dallas. Your brick-headed brother fired me, and by law that means I have to leave.”

Though she wanted to stay until Kristin was out of danger, she couldn’t. She had no right. She’d gotten Kristin into competent medical hands, and that meant her role in the Hardison family was over. She climbed back into her car and took off, before Jeff could see she was crying…again.

SAM HAD LONG AGO stopped wanting to be cuddled, but this night he crawled into Jonathan’s recliner with him, somehow managing to avoid jostling the broken leg.

“Is Kristy gonna be all right?”

“We’ll know more soon,” Jonathan said.

“How come she’s always going to the hospital? I never went, not once.”

Jonathan shook his head ruefully. “Seems there’s one in every family. When we were kids, it was your uncle Wade who was always getting into trouble—falling off horses, mostly, but sometimes other things. He fell in a bed of fire ants once and had such a bad reaction he had to go to the emergency room.” Now Jonathan knew what their parents had gone through. At least when Kristin had been injured last year, Jonathan had been able to go to the hospital and be with her. Now he was relegated to waiting at home for the phone to ring.

“Dad? Was Sherry leaving?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Why? Didn’t she like us? I ‘pologized for putting the frog on her.”

“No, she liked us. It’s my fault. I fired her.”

Sam’s clear eyes clouded with confusion. “Why would you do that?”

“I thought we didn’t need her.”

“But, Dad, if she hadn’t been here—”

“I know, I know.” He sighed. “She probably saved Kristin’s life.”

“Then she can stay?”

“I’m not sure she’ll want to stay now,” Jonathan admitted. “I think I hurt her feelings.”

“Then just ’pologize. That’s what you’re always telling me to do when I do something wrong. Besides, she’ll stay if she knows we need her.”

Jonathan was amazed his eight-year-old was so perceptive. In a very short time, he’d figured out what drove Sherry. She needed to be needed.

Hell, if she wanted need, he’d give her need, and he’d give her a damn apology, too.

Two hours after Sherry had left with Kristin, the phone rang, and Jeff was on the other end of the line. “Kristin’s fine,” he said without preamble. “Sherry was right, it was her appendix. They rushed her to surgery and took it out, probably minutes before it would have ruptured. But she came through the surgery just fine. They’ll want to keep her here a couple of days.”

Jonathan’s stomach roiled with a mixture of relief and guilt. “My God,” he muttered, “and I wanted to give her Pepto-Bismol.”

“It’s a good thing Sherry was there. Yeah, she’s a gem, all right.”

Jonathan recognized the goading tone in Jeff’s voice. “I suppose she told you I fired her.”

“What did you go and do that for?”

Jonathan covered the mouthpiece. “Sam, take Sherry’s luggage and put it back in her room.”

“Yay! She’s staying!” Sam clambered off the recliner and started hauling suitcases toward the back of the house.

“Jonathan?” Jeff said. “You there?”

“I was either going to fire her or take her to bed,” Jonathan admitted in a hoarse whisper, truthful with himself for the first time. “I didn’t think the latter was a viable option.”

Jeff just laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I were.”

“So take her to bed. What’s the big deal?”

“Even if she were so inclined—which she’s not, now that I’ve alienated her—I would not be sleeping with the nurse while the children are around.”

“I’ll treat them to a movie,” Jeff said, laughing. “Maybe a double feature.”

“You’re not taking this very seriously. It’s far too complicated. I can’t sleep with Sherry. I’m not like you, like you used to be. I can’t just sleep with a woman and then discard her.”

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