When Noah saw the nurse in question come out of a room down the hall, he hurried to catch up with her.
“Excuse me, Lori.”
She turned and smiled. “Yes, Mr. Foster?”
“I was wondering if I could speak to you about Thelma.”
The nurse nodded as her eyes darted down the hall toward Thelma’s room. “Of course. Is something wrong?”
“Has she had her pills today?” he asked.
“She’s had all of the medication she gets on my shift. Why?”
He hated to think this nurse wasn’t doing her job, but he would keep a closer eye on the meds and make sure Thelma was getting her daily doses.
“No reason. Just making sure,” he said with a smile. “She forgets and tells me she hasn’t had any.”
Lori nodded and patted his arm. “It’s the disease. Robs their minds. I assure you she’s being taken care of.”
“Thanks. That’s good to hear.”
She dropped her hand. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to see to another resident.”
As she scurried off, Noah had that gut feeling that always settled deep within him whenever Malinda would lie to him about where she’d been. He wanted to believe Lori, but he wasn’t naive. He would keep his eye on her and make more appearances in the afternoon during lunch breaks. No matter the cost, he couldn’t let his late fiancée’s grandmother down. He was all she had left.
More than likely Lori was clean, but that cynicism ran deep and he had major issues taking someone’s word at face value.
As he went back to
spend a few more minutes with Thelma, he checked his watch. He didn’t want to be gone from Callie very long. No matter how stubborn she was going to be during this process, he could be more so.
No matter what it took, he’d see Callie through her recovery, and if he had to lock her inside his house to do it, then so be it.
One woman was not only hurt on his watch, she’d died. He’d damn well never let that happen again. No matter how he had to rearrange his life.
And beyond the guilt lay an attraction that he couldn’t fight. But what scared him the most was that he didn’t know if he even wanted to.
* * *
Waves of emotions flooded through Callie as she settled into Noah’s luxury SUV. Her body ached all over from the accident yesterday, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional pain of having her dream of becoming an actress destroyed. She’d never act or model for Noah and she’d never get that money to send home.
She’d never be able to play her role in the Anthony Price movie, which would start filming next month. Her face was all bandaged up, but she’d seen the damage beneath. She knew the ugliness that waited for her on the other side of the white gauze. The role of a royal beauty couldn’t be played by a woman who looked like an Egyptian mummy.
All those thoughts whirled around in her mind, bumping into each other and exacerbating her nausea, brought on by meds.
“Whatever is going through your head, get it out.” Noah brought the engine to life and pulled from the curb of her apartment complex, where they’d stopped to pick up her things on the way to his place. “As a doctor I know the impact positive thinking can have on recuperation. You have to stay focused on the good here, Callie.”
She turned her head to look out the window. “Just drive.”
“You can talk to me, you know.”
Callie fought back tears. The man was relentless. He’d come back to her room yesterday and stayed overnight with her as if she was some invalid or small child who couldn’t look after herself. He kept trying to get her to open up, to talk to him as if he was some shrink. All she wanted was to be left alone. She didn’t want to talk about her problems. Would that put her face back to the way it was? Would opening up make it so she would be able to film the movie she’d worked so hard to get? Granted, she hadn’t been in L.A. for long, but she’d used connections and fought for what she wanted.
Added to that, would talking get her fifty thousand to help support her family?
No. So she wasn’t going to waste her time pouring her heart out. Yes, she was bitter, and yes, she was going to lash out at whoever tried to pry inside her heart right now. She just didn’t have that chipper energy she was known for. She feared she might never be that happy girl again. Even the spark of attraction they’d had before was out of her reach. And there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.
“Have you called your family?” he asked as he maneuvered through the traffic.