“I’ll see what we can do,” he assured her. “But I want to know how you’re feeling.”
Thelma shrugged. “I’m okay. Um…could you call Malinda? I’d really like to talk to her.”
That was a first. Usually he could dodge the question of bringing her in, and she’d never asked him to call her.
“She’s busy today,” he lied. “I promise she misses you, too.”
Thelma nodded and grabbed his hand between her frail ones. “She’s such a sweet girl. And to be engaged? I bet she’s so happy. I can’t wait for the wedding. I know my Malinda. She’ll be a beautiful bride.”
Noah swallowed the lump that crept up with the image. Yeah, she would’ve been a beautiful bride. A beautiful wife. Had she stayed clean.
“She always played dress-up when she was little,” Thelma went on. “She wanted to be an actress and she would dress up in different costumes and show off. Most of the time she played a bride and would come down the stairs with a pillowcase on her head as her veil.”
Noah could easily picture a young Malinda playing dress-up. Acting had been her thing for as long as he’d known her. And eventually that was what killed her.
And he was shocked to realize that for the first time since he’d been coming here alone, the memories didn’t hurt nearly as badly. He knew Callie coming into his life was easing that hurt, that guilt. Little by little, Callie was making his life better.
“Did you eat breakfast today?” he asked her, silently pleading for her to dodge the topic.
She pursed her lips and let his hand ease away from hers. “Hmm…I’m sure I did, but I can’t recall what it was. Fruit, maybe?”
Because so many patients with Alzheimer’s forgot to eat, he wanted to make sure she was getting enough calories. “How about if I get you some juice and yogurt?”
“I don’t think I have any,” she told him.
He moved to her small fridge in the kitchenette and opened it. “I brought a few things over the other day. You have yogurt or cheese and crackers. What would you like?”
“The yogurt, please.”
He put it on the small tray and set it on her lap, then went back to get her some juice. He’d wait until she ate and drank it all. He knew it wasn’t much, but it was something and he’d been asking the staff to watch her at meals to make sure at least half her plate was clean.
Even as she ate her yogurt, she kept bringing up Malinda. Noah merely nodded and smiled.
But it was so hard to picture Malinda, not because she’d been gone a little over a year, but because when he imagined anyone, it was Callie whose image appeared in his mind.
Guilt slid through him. Did that mean she was replacing Malinda? Could he truly be that heartless? Or was his mind telling him to finally move on, to let go of something, someone who would never be his?
Every time he thought of Callie, the same erotic visual flooded his mind from last night. Callie leaning over his new pool table. Callie spread out on the pool table. Callie wrapped around him on the pool table. He hadn’t wanted to let her go when she’d gone up to bed alone.
God, he honestly hadn’t meant to cross the line from doctor to man with her, but there was nothing he could’ve done to stop it. He’d seen the inevitable coming and had warned her, and himself, what to expect, but he’d never expected their uniting to be so powerful, so…memorable. So, yeah, apparently he was replacing Malinda, but not in his heart. He didn’t even know if there would ever be room for another woman to fill that gaping hole.
But Callie’s warmth and sweet spirit, which was slowly easing back, made him think things he probably shouldn’t. And he’d gotten so used to her being in his home, always there when he thought of her. He could admit to himself how much he enjoyed her company on a personal level…sex aside.
Thelma laughed and brought his attention back.
“What?” he asked.
“You have the most peaceful smile on your face,” she told him. “I’ve seen that look. You’re in love.”
Noah started to deny it, but Thelma assumed he’d been thi
nking about Malinda—the woman he had been completely in love with.
He just laughed instead of commenting. What could he say that wouldn’t be a bald-faced lie?
“I remember when I fell in love with my William.” She took a sip of her juice and grinned. “He was the most handsome man ever. Almost as handsome as you.”
“Thanks.”