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KIM BALDWIN. “Erin? Erin was here?” Her pulse quickened
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“Erin? Erin was here?” Her pulse quickened. Only then did Gable realize she was hooked to a monitor that was beeping out her heartbeats.
Carl had heard the change too. He glanced at the digital read-out on the monitor. It read 79. 80. 81. An odd smile came over his face.
He studied Gable intently for a moment, then said, “Erin is still here. I made her go and get coffee. I think she bribed the nurses to let her stay overnight since they kicked me out at ten.”
He was smiling at her like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, and Gable didn’t like it one bit. “Well, you can both go home. I’m F ne,” she said. She could feel her embarrassment beginning to color her cheeks. She looked over at the monitor. Beepbeepbeepbeep. 83.
84. 85.
“Oh, I doubt you can get her to leave.” Carl smirked.
“There’s no reason either of you need to stay.”
There was a long silence.
“She doesn’t know, does she?” he asked gently.
Gable froze. “Doesn’t know what?” She tried to inject innocent conviction into her tone, but he wasn’t fooled. They both knew he had it F gured out.
“You can talk to me, you know,” he said. “I understand better than you think I do.”
She looked at him then.
“My niece Ruthie is a lesbian. She’s twenty-one and goes to Juilliard. Brilliant girl. Gifted. She’s educated me, you might say.”
“I see,” was all Gable could manage.
“Ruthie didn’t tell anybody in the family until she turned eighteen, though she knew long before that. She said she was worried about how everyone would react, but at the same time, she hated keeping it from all of us. Felt like she was living a lie—not telling the people closest to her.” He paused, a trace of hurt evident in his eyes. “She said it was like they couldn’t really know who she was.”
“Carl, I’m kind of a private person,” Gable said. “I don’t feel the need to share that information with a lot of people.”
“I understand that. But I think there’s a difference between telling the squad you’re gay and telling your best friend, who seems to be open-minded enough to understand.”
“You don’t know that about her.”
• 122 •
FORCE OF NATURE
He shrugged. “Maybe not. It’s just a feeling. We chatted last night a good long while, and I got to know her. She obviously thinks the world of you. She talked about you practically nonstop.”
“We’re close.”
“But you’d like to be closer.”
Gable sighed. “She’s straight, Carl.”
“Yeah, I know. So maybe you can’t have the kind of relationship you’d like to have with her. But I think you’d be happier if you at least told her you were gay.”
Gable shook her head. “I don’t think so. I don’t know.”
“Will you at least think about it?”
“Yeah. I can do that. Would you do me a favor?”
“Sure.”
“Ask a nurse for some aspirin, will you?”
“You bet.”
“And get them to take me off this heart monitor before Erin comes back!” she hollered after him.
v
Erin stuck her head around the door a few minutes later as the doctor was F nishing up his visit. Politely, she hovered a few feet into the corridor as he removed the oxygen tube from Gable’s nose.
“Okay, I’ll sign you out,” he said. “I want you to take a couple days off work and rest. Take the antibiotics and call me if there are any complications.”
“I will, Doc. Thanks.”
“You have someone to drive you home?”
“Yes, she does.” Erin stepped into the room.
“Good.” He scribbled on his prescription pad and gave the paper to Gable. “Get that F lled at the hospital pharmacy before you leave.
Lots of f uids, lots of rest. Bland food for a while. Nothing spicy.”
“All right.”
The doctor departed and Erin hurried to the bed, smiling at Gable, wearing the same clothes she’d had on for two nights running with the exception of a brand-new navy sweatshirt that had Michigan embroidered on it in gold. Her hair was slightly mussed. Gable thought she looked adorable.
• 123 •
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