Accidental Meeting Read Free Page A

fell.”
    Doris
chuckled.
    “What’s
so funny?” Why was this woman laughing? She couldn’t have been there to see the
whole fiasco. Although, when Abbey thought about it—it did seem a little funny
now that it was over. Somehow, she doubted Limpy would agree.
    “That
sounds like Bruce,” Doris said, still chuckling to herself.
    “Bruce?”
Maybe she should ask Doris why she was here.
    “Yes,
Bruce Harrington. He wouldn’t happen to be the man you ‘rear-ended’ today,
would he?” Doris asked.
    “It
might be.”
    Doris’s
face sobered.
    “Well,
the officer said his name was Harrington. I didn’t know what his first name
was,” Abbey admitted, shrugging. “Do you know him?”
    “Oh,
yes. I work for Bruce.”
    “You
do?” Abbey squeaked, feeling her face grow warm.
    “He’s
a sweet boy, takes a bit to warm up to though. Been a bit too serious since his
father died.”
    “His
father died?” Abbey blinked away tears that threatened to come. Having lost her
own father to cancer, she could understand what pain it must have caused Bruce.
Every year at Father’s Day, Abbey found herself tearing up at the mention of
dad or father, even if it wasn’t a reference to hers.
    “It’s
been awhile, dear. Nearly eight years ago.” Doris shrugged. “Bruce seemed to
change after that—not as happy-go-lucky as he used to be. It’s a shame. He was
such a happy boy.”
    “Sounds
like you’ve known him for some time.”
    “Yes,
I used to work for his parents and stayed on with his mother after his father
died. Then she remarried and moved to Illinois. Now I clean on Tuesdays and
Thursdays for Bruce and fix him dinner. He’s not home long enough to make a
mess. It doesn’t give me much to do.”
    A
woman in low-cut, faded jeans and a T-shirt came into the room, waltzed over to
a tall slim man with a beard and shoved him. “What the heck do you think you
were doing—throwing Jerry out of the window?”
    “Hey,
we were drunk. It was an accident,” the man countered in defense, waved his
hand in dismissal and said, “Aw, forget it.” Then strode out of the waiting
room.
    Abbey
tried to ignore their conversation. Even if it was a private conversation, they
were voicing it loud enough for everyone to hear—whether or not they wanted to.
     “Looks
like they were partying kind of early,” Abbey commented to Doris.
    “No,
I believe it carried over from last night. It broke out into a friendly fight
this morning. From what I understand, they’ve been waiting for their friend to
get out of surgery.”
    “I hope
he’s okay.” Abbey said a silent prayer that he would be and added on one for
his salvation. In case he wasn’t a Christian, it never hurt to pray.
    “There’s
Bruce,” Doris announced cheerfully and stood, walking over to greet him. He was
in a wheelchair.
    Abbey
gulped and followed behind Doris—as far behind her as she could.
    “There’s
someone here to see you.” Doris turned to look for her.
    Bruce's
expression quickly changed from a faint smile to an outright glare. “You! What in
tar nation are you doing here?”
    “Figures,”
one of the men with the group in the corner proclaimed in a loud voice, “she’s
married.”
    It
distracted Abbey only a moment, she turned back around to see the backside of
the nurse wheeling Bruce out of the waiting area and into the open foyer. She
hurried to catch up with them. Doris was already alongside him, chattering in a
low voice while giving him a stern look. If one didn’t know better, they would
have thought she was his mother.
    When
Abbey approached them, Bruce looked up and glared at her. “You were going to
tell me what you were doing here?”
    “I
was? Oh, yeah, I was,” Abbey stammered. “I came to apologize for what happened.
It’s been a really horrible day.”
    “You
can say that again,” he muttered.
    Abbey
ignored his snide comment. “I didn’t mean to run into you.”
    “With
your car?”
    “No.
Yes. I mean, you’ve got