Orchard Valley Grooms Read Free Page A

feel, like a child whose world’s been turned upside down. I’m scared, Val, really scared. We almost lost him—we still could.”
    Valerie nodded, hugging her briefly. Norah had suffered through the worst of the nightmare alone, not knowing from one minute to the next if their father was going to live or die.
    “Valerie’s right,” Dr. Winston added. “There’s nothing you can do here. Go home and rest. I promise I’ll call you if there’s any change.”
    “Okay.” Norah rubbed her eyes. “I’ll take a shower and try to sleep for a couple of hours. That’s all I need. Two, maybe three hours.”
    Valerie wondered if Norah was too tired to drive; Dr. Winston must have had the same concern.
    “We’ll phone for a cab from the nurses’ station. I don’t want you driving like this.” He placed his arm around Norah’s shoulders, apparently intending to walk her to the elevator. As they left, he turned to Valerie. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
    While he was away, Valerie poured herself a cup of coffee. The pot had obviously been sitting there for hours; the coffee was black and thick and strong, just the way she needed it.
    The urge for a cigarette was nearly overwhelming, so when Dr. Winston returned to the room she looked up at him and automatically asked, “Do you have any hard candy?”
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Mints, anything like that.” She was pacing the room, holding her coffee cup in both hands.
    “I’m afraid not. Would you like me to see if I could get you some?”
    Valerie dismissed his offer with a shake of her head. He was polite to a fault. The first thing she’d done had been to insult him, question his competence, and he’d taken it all in stride.
    “Please, tell me about my father.”
    They sat, and for the next fifteen minutes, Dr. Winston explained what had happened to her father’s heart. He did his best to describe it in layman’s terms, but much of what he said was beyond Valerie’s comprehension. She’d never been comfortable with medical matters. Her mother and Norah had always dealt with those. For her part, Valerie hated anything to do with hospitals or doctors. She detested being sick herself, and knew her father felt the same way.
    “There’s one underlying problem that needs to be dealt with, however.”
    “Yes?” Valerie asked, hating the way her voice betrayed her fear. Any show of weakness distressed her. If she’d ever needed to be strong, it was now, for everyone’s sake, including her own. She was the oldest, and the others would rely on her.
    “Your father’s lost his will to live.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” she said, battling the urge to argue with him. “My father’s life is brimming over, it’s so full. Why, he’s—”
    “Lost without your mother,” Dr. Winston finished simply.
    Valerie bolted to her feet and resumed pacing. What Dr. Winston said was absolutely true; she had to admit it. Her father had been crushed under the load of grief, and while Valerie and her two sisters struggled to regain their own balance, their father had been slowly destroyed by his loss.
    “What can we do?” she asked, trying to swallow her fears and her guilt.
    “Support him, give him your love. The only thing keeping him alive now is his desire to see all three of his daughters before he dies.”
    “But… Okay, then don’t let him know I’m here.” It was the obvious solution. And if that was what it took to keep him alive, she was willing to play a little game of hide-and-seek. Norah could make up a series of excuses. No, forget Norah, Valerie mused bleakly. Her youngest sister couldn’t tell a lie without blushing.
    “How well do you lie?” she asked, thinking fast.
    Dr. Winston blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
    “We can’t let my father know I’ve arrived. And that means lying to him.”
    “Miss Bloomfield—”
    “Ms.”
    “Whatever,” he said, sounding impatient with her for the first time. “We aren’t going to be able to