Dear Mystery Guy (Magnolia Sisters Book 1) (14 page)

Luca gave her a perfunctory kiss on her forehead.

Josephine looked up at him. "Luca, my past isn't scaring you, is it?"

"No," Luca said. "Not at all. Well, maybe a little."

But when he stepped through the front door he knew he was lying. He had already heard about one husband; two was making him see that he needed to slow down with Jose. Slow down, really slow, and get to know her properly before there were any unpleasant surprises after they got married.

Chapter Eighteen

Luca stepped into Sunrise Medical Associates at two o'clock. The day was overcast and already he could feel a spattering of rain on his forearm. There were two other cars in the parking lot. He pressed the buzzer at the front of the building and was let in by one of the nurses at the front desk.

"Doctor Lawson," Nurse Griffith greeted him.

He smiled at her and nodded. "Why does it always rain on a Good Friday?"

"I thought I was the only one to notice." Nurse Griffith grinned. "I think I made the same comment last year and the year before that. By the way, Dr. Faulkner is here."

"Faulkner? Here? Why?" He asked the questions rapidly, while flipping through the nurse's activity log for Della.

"He said he was checking out the surgery area. He has that patient on Tuesday."

"I know he has the surgery," Luca said easily, "but today is a holiday. Can't the man relax? Let me go and say hi."

"Can I be rostered to be in the surgery on Tuesday?" Nurse Griffith asked eagerly.

"I don't see why not," Luca said putting down the chart. "How is my patient?"

"Her fingers were twitching but it stopped, I thought it was going to be the harbinger of things to come, like her waking up, but it wasn't. Nurse Cameron and I are keeping her comfortable. And she has contacts in her phone under family but nobody is answering."

"Keep trying." Luca nodded and headed to the surgery area on the second floor. He wanted to see what Will was up to. He had flown out to Jamaica to do a surgery on one of his patients who had lost an ear in an accident. Luca had reattached the ear but she could not hear. Will was supposed to look at that for him.

He spotted Will walking around in the surgery.

"This is state of the art," Will said excitedly when he saw Luca at the door. "I can't believe what you guys have accomplished. So you got a new building and you are offering varying specialties. I love it."

"Hello to you too." Luca grinned. "If you love it so much, come back home. Perform your miracles here."

"I just might do that." Will grinned and held out his hand for a handshake. "Why is it that you look so rested and fit? I should have gone into plastic surgery. You guys have it easy."

"Ha," Luca laughed. "The last case we worked on you said you hated micro surgery and didn't envy me one bit."

"Yes, yes." Will nodded. "At the time I was in awe. It has since worn off."

Will spun around and was practically skipping around the place. "You guys have large screens."

"Yes, it makes it much easier for viewing." Luca looked at his short, stocky friend, who still looked like the stereotypical nerd.

A compliment from Will was indeed a compliment. He did not dish those out on a whim. For him to be impressed, it showed that they had accomplished what they had set out to do when they had come together to form Sunrise Medical Associates.

"Good. Great," Will bobbed his head. "And I kind of envy the private practice you guys have going on here."

Luca nodded. "We bought the building too. The third floor will be renovated into private rooms. So it will be like a private hospital. At the moment we only cater for short term visits. I am actually here to check on a patient."

"The gorgeous one in Room 4? Don't blame you."

"Not because she is gorgeous but my brother hit her with his car yesterday."

"Yes, I heard." Will looked at him quizzically. "I also heard that you are going to tie the knot again."

"Yeees," Luca hissed. And he was supposed to be at home, getting to know his fiancée better. Not here at Sunrise checking on a patient he was attracted to.

"Well, congrats on the marriage," Will said, patting him on the back. "I remember your first wedding; it was fun, the best wedding I have ever attended…better than my two."

"It was fun because Tessa was fun," Luca said fondly. "And we always knew that it was not going to last long with her heart condition."

"I know." Will followed him out of the surgery area and downstairs to the outpatient rooms.

"Her patient sheet is sparse," Will said, looking at the sheet and then at Della.

"Well, her contacts are not answering their phones." Luca walked fully into the room and then looked down at her. "I hoped she would wake up today."

"Her vital signs are fine," Will said. "Anyway, I am going to push off. See you Tuesday?"

"Yes, Tuesday." Luca sat down in the chair across from the bed and placed the book on his lap, unopened.

He was thinking of Josephine. It was time to reexamine his feelings for her. He needed to do it now, before the wedding. It was a big step and he wasn't sure about what to do anymore, especially after learning that he was going to be a third husband. That information had come out of left field.

He flung his foot over one of the legs of the chair and found a comfortable spot and looked up into the ceiling.

The room was bland and spotless, but in his mind's eye he was seeing the first time he met Josephine, and remembering the instant attraction he felt toward her.

She had a soft lilting voice that made you want to listen more. He had suddenly gotten lonely last year. He hadn't been missing Tessa; unusual for him, he was just missing companionship. His dog had died. He didn't have anybody to be happy when he got home.

Between internship and specialty training and joining a practice with eleven other doctors, he had kept himself busy over the ensuing years after Tessa died. And then out of the blue he had met Josephine, and she made him happy.

She had her own money, she wasn't impressed that his father was Senator Wayne Lawson of the law firm Lawson, Dudd and Gore, nor was she particularly impressed that he was a plastic surgeon.

She was three years older than he was and mature in her outlook, and they had chemistry. Their first kiss had been pleasant. She also loved children and he wanted some, maybe two or three. He had always wanted to be a family man with a loving wife by his side. He had always wanted what his parents had. They made a good example of a happy marriage. Both he and Othneil had grown up with deep family values.

So why was he still dithering in his head? He was not the type of guy to get cold feet.

He was fed up with himself. He picked up the book and opened it with slight trepidation. He didn't know which kook had sent him the thing. He would just read a page or two and then he would linger some more with Della and then go home. A few pages in, he was intrigued enough to continue.

Brick Place supermarket? There was a cashier there that had a crush on me?
He knitted his brow, trying to remember the cashiers there. To his shame he couldn't really remember any of them.

Yes, there had been a conversation about his eyes with one of the girls but she hadn’t done it in a creepy kind of way.

He had only started going to Brick Place almost the same time that his dog Keko had died. The supermarket he had gone to before had carried the brand of dog food for Keko.

When Keko died there was no need to go there anymore. He went to Brick Place because it was closer to where he lived and it had been easier to shop there on a Thursday evening after work than any other day.

He read through the pages and realized that the girl writing was literally pouring out her inner thoughts to him.

She was mute. She grew up in a children's home called Magnolia House. She had a scar, which she felt self-conscious about. She had a guy in her life, which she was not sure about, and she had dreams and headaches. It was fascinating and yet he felt a little bit like a voyeur, like he shouldn't be consuming this unabridged account of her life and the lives of her friends and her sisters.

When Patricia Benedict's name was mentioned he sat up straighter in his chair. He knew Patricia; she had been Tessa's favorite aunty. Patricia had taken Tessa's death badly. He now wished that he had kept in touch with the Benedicts. They had been a good, supportive family to be a part of.

He could find out who his admirer was right now. There were so many clues that all it would take would be a phone call to Patricia.

Dear Mystery Guy,

When you are alone in a loud world the silence in you can seem so deafening...

"Doctor Lawson," Nurse Griffith pushed her head through the door. "I got a message for her, on her cell phone."

"Who?" Luca looked up, a bit disoriented. He had been reading an account of a dream and water.

"The girl, Della," Nurse Griffith said hopefully.

"What does it say?" Luca asked. He wanted to go back to the book; it was getting interesting. She was practically accusing him of causing her headaches.

"It is from a PatB and the person asked:
How is the holiday going? I miss you
."

"Text back and tell the person that she is in the private clinic in a coma."

"I did. No response yet."

"Okay." Luca went back to reading the journal and then his heart picked up speed like a moving train without brakes.

Dear Luca,

I still can't believe we actually met. You approached me. I can't believe it. It is beyond my wildest dreams and believe me, I have had some wild ones. One week later and I am still pinching myself.

He read the rest of the entry and then got up and looked over at Della. It was her. He frowned.

The girl on the bed and the journal writer were one and the same. How on earth did this happen?

He moved the hospital gown covering her neck, and there was the scar. He sighed and sat down on the chair. He remembered he had gone to the express line. He couldn't remember who had cashed his groceries. He couldn't believe that he would miss seeing Della, though. She had quite an effect on him.

He opened up the journal again and went over the entry, this time reading it slowly.

Also, I can't ignore that you are with Josephine. I heard you call her Josephine. That's a pretty name. And I am saying this reluctantly. I mean, she is obviously your girlfriend and the thought of the two of you is genuinely giving me a headache. Besides that, she is constantly in my dreams. At the poolside every time I come out of the water. My subconscious keeps churning her out, dream after dream.

He sat and read through the whole diary, to the very last page. It was getting late. He opened the blinds and looked outside.

He couldn't ignore the fact that there was something afoot. The sequence of events leading up to now was too coincidental not to mean something.

He wondered why Della had sent him her journal. On some pages she repeatedly said she didn't want him to have it.

He walked out to the reception area, still mulling all of the information around in his head.

"Nurse Griffith, you are not going to believe this but I just found out who the girl on the bed really is."

Nurse Griffith inclined her head. "Really?"

"Yes," Luca said. He needed to finish reading the journal but from what he had read so far he knew all the players in Della's life.

"PatB is Patricia Benedict; she is a mentor/mother figure for Della. Her sisters, Hazel and Brigid, are not around; that's why you haven't gotten them on the phone. Keep on trying for Caitlin."

Nurse Griffith lifted the phone. "You really know their names. That's interesting."

Luca went back to the room and sat down, contemplating Della, a myriad of thoughts running through his head.

"Hey Mystery Girl," he whispered in the stillness of the room. "You do know that you are the mysterious one here, don't you?

"But I make you a promise, if you wake up soon enough. I can get Will Faulkner to look at your throat. He is here all week. And of course that scar that you are so self-conscious about is an easy fix for me."

He reached for her hand and gripped her fingers. "You are right. There is a reason why we are here right now, and no, I don't believe in randomness. Not when there is a God out there who says that he will direct our paths if we trust him."