Road to Redemption (8 page)

Cori dramatically placed her hands on her hips. Her little legs pumping the petals faster. “Now I’ve got one and a half weeks left for that kiss.  And I
know
him. He’s going to hide from me some more.  And there’s not even a full seven days left, because the office is closed next Wednesday for Christmas. I’ve got to come up with a new game plan.”

***

It had been a long day.  After he escaped the supply closet incident he had been paged for emergency surgery for a construction site accident. Two victims, lots of broken bones and both in stable condition now.  They would be out of commission for a while, resting and getting their strength back.  While Jack, having moved from one patient to the next, never taking a break, was completely exhausted.

He still had several hours of files to update before he could go home.  He tried to decide if he wanted to take a quick shower first or go get some food. Then he realized as he looked down at himself, the shower would have to come first.  His scrubs were a mess, his hair was standing on end from when he pulled the cap off and he probably stunk on top of it. 

When he started to undress he heard a rattling noise in his pocket, reached in and pulled out the half eaten bag of M&M’s.  With a chuckle he opened them up, poured the rest in his mouth, finished undressing and stepped into the shower.

On Tuesday afternoon, Christmas Eve, after the last patient had left for the day, Jack wished everyone a Merry Christmas and sent them on their way.  He knew most of them had parties and families to get to.  He was on-call all night and tomorrow, too.  No need for anyone else to hang around with him. 

Walking into his office, he noticed something on his desk.  The closer he got, he realized what it was and found himself starting to smile.

Sitting down in his chair he looked at the bag of M&M’s, a mini bag of gummy bears and one Kit Kat bar neatly lined up next to each other.  Behind them was a cup of coffee, still warm, with what looked to be a handmade card standing up behind it.  He pulled it forward and noticed a stick figure drawn on the front with scrubs on. Scrubs with a Santa face on the front, no less.  Inside the card were a few simple words:
In case you’re hungry later. Three square meals
, written in bold loopy lettering that seemed to match Cori’s personality.

Today she had on Christmas-themed scrubs. He shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was.  The top was a bright red with a big Santa face on the front, similar to what she had drawn on his card. The bottoms were bright green, which didn’t match the top in the least other than to be considered Christmas colors. But the best part was her headband, antler ears pointing up on each side of her head. 

Everyone that saw her today smiled. How could you not smile when you saw her bouncing down the hall dressed like that?  He had to admit, she really did make people happy without even trying. She pulled people in.

Setting the card aside, he took a drink of the coffee and realized it was exactly how he took it, no sugar with a little bit of cream. She obviously remembered from that one time she talked to him in line at the coffee shop. 

He picked up the M&M’s, breakfast, or her morning snack.  Then the gummy bears, which had been her lunch of choice the last few days. And of course the Kit Kat bar, an afternoon snack.  She liked her candy, no question about it.

Last Friday he had come out of his office and had seen her standing off to the corner. By now he knew she was sneaking candy without anyone trying to take it from her.  As always, she smiled up at him.

For the life of him he didn’t know what possessed him, but he couldn’t help it. He reached down and took the remaining two Kit Kat sticks out of her hand, said thanks and kept walking. 

“Hey,” she had called to him when he was a few feet away, foot tapping, and hands on her hips.

“It’s polite to share,” he had called back, a serious look on his face.

Moving her hands away from her hips and crossing them in front of her chest, she gave her best scowl, which didn’t really come off as angry at all. “It’s also polite to ask.”

“Guess I’m not polite then,” he said with a twitch of his lips and finished off the last bite of chocolate.

He knew he shouldn’t be encouraging her.  But he couldn’t help it. She was slowly pulling him in without even trying.

Like this little surprise she left on his desk. He would bet anything there was nothing more than kindness behind her gift. It touched him more than he cared to admit.  It had been a long time since anyone did anything nice like this for him. Or touched him emotionally.

***

There was one day guaranteed to make Cori jump out of bed prior to any alarm. Christmas.

Ever since she was a little kid, Christmas morning was her favorite time of the year. She didn’t even mind that she normally woke up after only a few hours of sleep, mainly due to being too excited to fall asleep the night before. 

She would lie in bed and dream of all the exciting toys and gifts that would be waiting for her under the tree. Even after she had long outgrown Santa, she still couldn’t get over the sleepless nights or excited mornings.

Her parents had always made Christmas fun. Milk and Nana’s homemade sugar cookies shaped like little reindeer were always left out for hardworking Santa.  Later on in life she realized those cookies were always left because they were her father’s favorite.  And she couldn’t blame him, because they were hers, too.  She could eat an entire plate of Nana’s sugar cookies and still go back for more.

Living on her own hadn’t dampened her excitement.  At 6:00 a.m. Cori bounced out of bed and quickly discarded her new Christmas pajamas, a gift from her parents to wear on Christmas Eve, another long-standing tradition in the Summers household.

She ran into the bathroom, turned the water on hot to warm up the little room, ran back out, grabbed a pair of jeans and bright green sweater, and ran back to the shower. 

Forty-five minutes later she was walking through the front door of her parents’ brightly decorated house.  “Cori you’re later than I expected this morning,” her mom stated, leaning in for a big hug and kiss. “Merry Christmas, darling.”

Bouncing up and down in her mother’s short arms, she returned the hug and kiss. “Merry Christmas. Where’s Dad?” Cori asked, looking around the room.

“In the kitchen. Where else?” Barbara Summers answered with a smile.

“Dad, are you making cinnamon buns?” Cori yelled and dashed through the house into the kitchen. She didn’t need to run. She knew the answer by the smell in the air.

“Merry Christmas, sunshine,” Sam Summers said, returning Cori’s enthusiastic hug, then turned to take the first pan out of the oven. “You’re late. But just in time for the first batch.  Too bad I licked the batter myself from the bowl. Next time maybe you will get here a little earlier.” He tapped a finger to her nose like he did when she was a child.

“Nana,” Cori asked her grandmother several hours later while she ate her second reindeer cookie. “Did you make me a plate to take home later?”

“You know I did, Cortland.”

Cori rolled her eyes and stuck out a bright red tongue that was covered with food coloring from Rudolf’s nose at her grandmother. “Guess what, Nana? I met a man.”

“Did you now?” Rose Summers asked with interest. “When do we get to meet him?”

“Soon. I hope. Maybe. I’m not sure,” she ended with a frown.

“Well, which is it?”

“Soon,” Cori replied definitively. “Better to stay positive, right, Nana?” She licked the rest of the frosting off her fingers.

“So tell me about your man,” Nana coaxed, finishing off her own cookie. “You know we aren’t going to have any room for dinner if we eat all of these now.”

“There is always room for dinner. Mom is baking a ham with pineapples on top. Yum, my favorite. I love it when it’s extra sweet like that. Anyway.” She waved her hand and bounced on the couch a bit. “About Jack. He’s the man.  He’s a doctor. And talk about yummy.  Nana, I gave him my M&M’s the other day.  Willingly, well sort of.”

“You gave up candy to someone?” Rose said with a grin. “Must be someone special. But a doctor? Weren’t you the one who swore off dating any doctors? Said they were all too cocky and full of themselves.”

“Well, yeah,” she said sheepishly. “But Jack is different. He’s sad,” she said with a pout.

Rose frowned. “So you think you can save him? Is that what this is about?”

“Yes. No. Well, maybe.” Cori threw her hands up and dropped them back down into her lap. “I don’t know.  He pulls at me.  When I see him, my heart slams into my chest.  I’ve never had that happen before.  And he’s hot,” she said with a wink. “I mean really hot in this awkward-dorky-quiet-shy kind of way. But it’s more than that.  I make him nervous. And that’s fun. You know how much I like to have fun, Nana,” she said with a laugh.

“So now you’re making sad men nervous? I’m not sure I want to know how.  So tell me, why is this hot awkward nervous man so sad?”

“I think he’s lonely.” She leaned in close and clasped her grandmother’s hand. “Nana, his wife died a few years ago.  Isn’t that sad? And he moved here and only knows a few people. He spends all his time alone. And he works all the time. I don’t think he even wants to make any friends. He thinks he’s happy being alone, but no one is happy being alone. Right?” She paused after her lengthy explanation. “But he told me he doesn’t want a relationship.  He doesn’t know what he wants. I think he’s afraid, right? Don’t you think he’s afraid?”

Rose patted Cori’s hand reassuringly. “He may be afraid, dear. Or maybe he really likes to be alone.  Don’t push too hard.  I know you, and you have no patience. But for once in your life, take it slow.  Let him come to you.  It will be better in the end.”

When Cori frowned, Rose added, “Trust me on this. If he doesn’t, then it’s his loss.”

***

Jack let himself in his front door early Christmas morning.  It had been a longer night than he had planned.  Everyone rushing home or to their holiday parties resulted in several accidents.  By time he was done reading X-rays, repairing broken bones and checking on his patients, it was hours past midnight. 

Too exhausted to drive the short twenty minutes home, he found an empty bed in the doctor’s lounge and lay down to rest, never imagining he would sleep so long.

Ironically, all that candy that Cori had left for him had come in handy. 

He hadn’t even had enough time to break for dinner or a snack. So in between patients and emergencies he found himself scarfing down one of the treats she had left him.  He would never admit it to her, but it actually kept him going. 

That might also explain why he finally crashed into exhaustion when he normally would be able to drive home wide-awake—the aftereffect of too much sugar.

He sincerely hoped Roxy had behaved, as he was in no mood to start his day cleaning up whatever mischief she might have gotten into. 

He had no worries that she would have needed to go to the bathroom. The main reason he bought this house was the dog door attached to the mudroom that led to a fenced-in backyard.  He always left her food and water in case he got stuck at work later.  Her biggest problem was she tended to grow bored and would occasionally find something to entertain herself.  Entertainment to her was a disaster for him.

As luck would have it, she greeted him at the front door with her little tail wagging. “Hey girl,” he said, reaching down to give her neck and back a brisk rub. When she started to dance around his feet in excitement, bumping into his legs in her attempt to get him to move, he finally got the hint. “Want a biscuit, do you? Always hungry, aren’t you, girl?” 

At the sound of the magic word, she took off running toward the kitchen and planted her butt next to the counter where the treats were kept in a glass jar.  “It’s Christmas, so you can have two.” He handed one over, then the other.  “And because you were such a good girl, you can have a third.” He tossed the last one in the air.

Giving her fresh water and refilling her bowl with food, Jack glanced at the clock and figured his parents would be awake by now.

Ten minutes later he disconnected the call. His parents were enjoying a big breakfast, their normal Christmas tradition, and then were going to spend the day watching old Christmas classics. Another Reynolds tradition. 

Holidays were always quiet and somewhat boring in his house growing up.  Having been an only child of parents of only children, there were never any loud exciting holidays in his family. 

Tracy’s family had been different. She was the youngest of three children and there were plenty of cousins and aunts and uncles to go around. Holidays had been spent at her grandmother’s house, kids running everywhere, loud Christmas carols playing and lots of laughter. 

There were plenty of times he’d wished they could have left early and relaxed at home by themselves. He wasn’t much of a social person, but she had loved being around people, loved being with her family and he’d always wanted to make her happy. 

Now he looked around his big empty kitchen, in his big empty house and wished he had some of those loud Christmases again.