Page 38 of Finding Home

When he told them Mabel had sent him, Noah sighed.

Julie had learned that Mabel was the center of town gossip. And in the kindest way possible, she’d make sure everyone knew Cole was in the hospital.

Cassie, Noah’s wife, came through the outer door ten minutes later, slightly windblown and still carrying her keys. She sat beside Noah and said spoke quietly to Julie, Beth, and Pastor John.

The room held them. Four people in plastic chairs, in the middle of an afternoon that had started somewhere else entirely. Outside, the light on the parking lot was thinning toward evening. Inside, the double doors stayed closed, and the monitor on the muted television tracked weather systems moving east over the mountains.

Julie thought about the first morning Cole had knocked on her cottage door. The way he’d stood on the narrow veranda with his hands in his pockets, uncomfortable in a way that had nothing to do with the cold.

She’d told herself his job offer was a professional arrangement. She’d been telling herself versions of that for weeks, through dinner at the Lakeside Grill and the evening Cole had said she was the first person who’d made him want something that wasn’t on a blueprint.

Tears stung her eyes. It wasn’t the most romantic thing anyone had ever told her, but it came from his heart, and that was all that mattered.

After too many years of being alone, she was done with keeping her distance from the people she loved.

If today had taught her anything, it was that life was too precious to waste on things that weren’t important.

Chapter 24

The nurse came to the waiting room at just after five o’clock. Pastor John and Beth had left an hour ago, and Cassie had gone home to pick her children up from a friend.

Cole was in recovery, awake, and asking to see Julie.

Noah smiled. “It’s nice to know he hasn’t forgotten his priorities.”

“I won’t be long,” she told Noah as she picked up her jacket and followed the nurse out of the waiting area.

As they walked down the corridor, Julie heard the ordinary sounds of the hospital around her. There were shoes on the linoleum, a low exchange of voices, and the beeps of equipment keeping patients alive.

The nurse stopped at a curtain near the end of the row. “He’s tired,” she said. “Don’t let him talk too much.”

Julie nodded and stepped inside.

Cole was propped up at a slight angle. There was a line in his arm and a monitor to his left, its peaks small, even and relentless. He looked more vulnerable than Julie had ever seen him.

His eyes found hers when she came through the curtain. Julie pulled a chair close to the bed and sat down. She didn’t trust herself to stand any longer.

“You stayed,” Cole said. His voice was rough from the sedation.

“I did. Noah’s still in the waiting room, too.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “You told them you were family.”

Julie hadn’t known whether Cole had heard her before they’d whisked him away. She’d said it without thinking, and she hadn’t regretted it once. “I did.”

Cole was quiet. Outside the curtain, someone walked past without pausing. “I was going to reschedule my appointment with my cardiologist.”

“I know.”

He exhaled slowly. “I’ve been doing that for a while.”

“I know that too,” Julie said.

Cole’s hand was resting on the blanket. He turned it palm up and moved it toward Julie. She put her hand over his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“You’ve given everyone a fright,” she told him quietly. “Beth has promised to cook you homemade meals until you’re tired of eating them, and Pastor John spent most of the afternoon taking calls from people who knew he was waiting with us. Everyone wants you to get well.”

Something in Cole’s expression changed. It was as if he understood for the first time, just how many people were worried about him.