Death Benefits

After the jet took off and the seat belt light went off, Graham came down the aisle and slid into the empty seat across from Ray.

“That went over well, I think,” Graham said drily.

“Could’ve been worse,” Ray agreed.

Graham chuckled. “I consider it an achievement that she didn’t grab the girls and leave.”

“Definitely encouraging. Tell me something, Graham. Did you ask me to be your best man for the sole purpose of helping me work out the knots between your sister and myself?”

“I asked you to be my best man years ago, remember? After my divorce, when I was staying with you. I told you if I ever got married again, you would be my best man, and you said I would be yours. So now you need to give me a chance to return the favor.”

Ray gave him a look. “That’s what I thought.”

“Ginger’s frustrated, Ray. I’ve tried to keep her busy at my clinic, and she’s been working some hours at the Hideaway Hospital when the girls are in school. But I know Ginger. She’s restless. She’s never come to terms with what happened last year. I’d like to see her do that.”

“I thought you had her working with you at your free clinic.”

Graham sighed and sat back, shaking his head at the flight attendant with the beverage cart. “That isn’t the kind of challenge she needs. It isn’t as satisfying as we had first hoped. There are so many who aren’t willing to pay their own way, when they are perfectly capable of doing so. Ginger’s spent more time screening patients for genuine need than she’s spent in the treatment room.”

“I would imagine she’s good at it. She’s always had a knack for reading a person’s thoughts. Uncanny.” Uncomfortable, too.

“Last week she had to inform a businesswoman who makes more than a hundred fifty thou a year that she wasn’t eligible for a free elective surgery,” Graham said.

“Hasn’t the woman ever heard of insurance?”

“Her complaint was it costs too much. Ginger’s tired of it. Her most fulfilling task lately has been caring for Lucy and Brittany, and this trip represents the end of that role. Willow’s ecstatic about the adoption. Ginger, on the other hand, has been despondent for days.”

“What about you?” Ray asked, studying Graham’s pensive expression. “You’re not adopting the girls just to please Willow, are you?”

“No. I honestly can’t imagine life without those two little girls in it now. Their primary residence has been with Ginger and me, and I find myself resenting the time I have to spend at work because I can’t spend it with the people I love, both Willow and the children.”

Ray smiled at his friend. “I couldn’t be happier for you, Graham. It’s been a long time coming.”

Graham nodded. “The time was right, as it never had been before.”

Ray and Graham had met fourteen years ago, when Graham was in surgical residency. Even then, Ray had sought opportunities to help recruit the brightest and best for GlobeMed. To his disappointment, Graham was snatched by one of the most sought-after surgical practice groups in Springfield, Missouri, as soon as he was out of residency.

Because of their continued friendship, however, Ray knew Graham’s most cherished desire was to have a family. His first wife had chosen not to have children. When she divorced him, it had hit him hard, and he had given up on his dream.

Willow Traynor was an answer to Ray’s prayers for his friend. The widow of a murdered cop, she had lost their baby when her husband’s murderer ran her down with a car nearly three years ago. Last year, that vicious murderer had hunted her down in Branson and tried, again, to destroy her life, and the lives of those around her.

Some might say Lucy and Brittany’s mother had been collateral damage, because she had interfered with Willow’s stalker—had even tried to warn Willow about the danger while in a drugged stupor. That drugged stupor had cost the poor woman her life.

Since last April, Willow had blossomed with the friendship of Graham and Ginger, and the adoration of those two little girls. From what Ray had heard about the children, their lives were far better now than when they were with their confused and drug-addicted mother. But try telling that to Lucy and Brittany. Graham had told Ray last week that Lucy still had nightmares about her mother’s death.

“After this week,” Graham said, “Ginger will be lost without the girls.”

“That’s a bad place for Ginger to be.” Ray had never known anyone with such a need to care for someone.

He’d never known someone who drew him so.

“I’m not really trying to matchmake,” Graham said. “Though I’m sure that’s what Ginger thinks I’m doing.”

Ray shot a wicked grin at Graham. “Ginger knows her brother pretty well, I think.”

Graham chuckled. “Honestly, matchmaking’s Willow’s territory.”

“And you think she might have something like that in mind?”

“It’s possible.”

Ray shook his head. “You’ve never been a good liar. You’re in this up to your eyeballs, I can tell.”

“I don’t like to see my sister so miserable.”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, she appears to be pretty miserable now that I’ve boarded.”

“A good heart-to-heart could unravel a few tangles, I think,” Graham said.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to try to convince me to send her back to Minsk.”

“Not at all,” Graham said quickly. “I want her stateside. That heart trouble she had last year spooked me, even though it turned out to be a harmless arrhythmia. What I want is to see her forgive you.”

“I’d like that, too.” Ray sighed, frowning at the puzzle that had confused him since his conflict with Ginger last March. “I’ve never known her to hold a grudge. She’s changed her guiding principle at this stage in her life—and the grudge is with me. It isn’t a comfortable place to be.”

“She’s been hurt deeply. I’d like to see you two work out whatever complications have developed between you.”

Ray nodded. Ginger Carpenter would be a definite complication on this trip. “I’ll see what I can do, but don’t get your hopes up.”

Ginger glanced over her shoulder and saw Ray and Graham with their heads together. As she continued to watch suspiciously, Ray glanced up and caught her gaze.

She held it. He needed to understand that she wasn’t going to just forget the past as if it hadn’t happened. She’d love to be able to do just that, but it would be dishonest. She’d tried to forgive, just as the Bible said to do. She’d even heard the reminder in church yesterday—forgive your enemy.

Forgive. The minister had said nothing about forgetting, and that was good, because she thought that was a stupid idea. If someone stabs you in the back, are you smart to forget, and give them the chance to do it again?

She wasn’t that kind of fool. She’d done a lot of stupid things in her life, but she’d learned from her mistakes, especially the one she’d made with Ray Clyde.

Ray’s expression told her that he and her brother were discussing her blatant, rude response to Ray’s presence. Fine. Let ’em talk.

The plane landed, they de-boarded, and Ginger took Brittany’s hand to keep her close. The child had a tendency to wander away.

Lucy suddenly gasped and dragged Ginger to a stop.

“It’s him, Aunt Ginger. It looks just like him!” Pointing at a slender, dark-haired man in the concourse, Lucy shook with fear.

SIX

Ginger had grown so attuned to Lucy and Brittany that she had known before Lucy even stopped her that she was suddenly in a panic. Her eyes, glistening with fear, were so wide, her expression so vulnerable that it broke Ginger’s heart.