Healing Hearts

Antonio let out a loud “Yes!” He jumped off the bed and pulled her into a hug that nearly crushed her. “Thanks, Doc.”

Then he and Antonio knocked knuckles in an elaborate handshake that Antonio made him learn the moment after the kid signed the contract to work with him. “We really dodged a bullet on this one, Zach.”

Antonio turned back to the doctor. “So I can go?” he asked. When she nodded, he walked out with hands raised high in triumph.

Dr. Sprader handed him some business cards. “He needs to follow up with a cardiologist, and I get the impression you’re going to have to be the one to convince him. This isn’t a dire condition, but he needs regular checkups so that things like collapsing on the field won’t happen again.”

“Understood.” Zach shrugged back into his suit coat and put the cards in his inside pocket.

As he walked by her, she reached out and touched his coat sleeve. “About what happened with Harley earlier.”

He turned to face her. He’d been waiting for this. “There’s no need to thank me.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I was going to tell you that it wasn’t necessary. That I had things under control before you jumped in.”

He pointed to her neck where the knife had cut her. “I can see that.”

“Harley is harmless. He wouldn’t have actually cut my throat.” She glared at him. “I don’t need a hero.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that, Dr. Sprader?”

“Perfectly.” She continued to stare at him and then exhaled. “You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

He extended his hand. “Zach Harrison.”

She put her hand in his and gave it a quick shake. “Make sure Antonio sees one of the cardiologists, Mr. Harrison. Otherwise, his career won’t save him from another episode.”

Zach’s phone started buzzing. He gave a brisk nod, then left her, his phone already at his ear. She may be interesting, but he had other priorities right now.

* * *

APRIL PULLED UP in front of the house that belonged to her friends Sherri and Dez Jackson. While she would have liked an evening out, Sherri had been under the weather. April retracted the phrase. What Sherri felt...it was as if her body had been scorched to get the cancer out. April remembered the sensation and gave a shiver that had nothing to do with the snowflakes drifting down from the sky. Her days battling cancer were long over, thank goodness. Now she had to put her life back together, hopefully better than it was before. She needed balance between work and personal life. Correction. She needed to get a personal life.

She grabbed her purse and journal from the front seat and exited the car. Page pulled in behind her, so she waited for her to park. They walked up to the front door, unsure of how they’d find Sherri. April knocked and soon Agent Hottie answered the door. “She’s in the family room,” Dez told them after the perfunctory hugs and kisses. “And I don’t need to tell you two to take it easy on her. Don’t wear her out.”

“We know how she’s feeling better than you do.” Page shoved a pizza box into his hands. “For you and Marcus to share. Us girls have our own.”

They walked through the living room and kitchen and down one step where they found Sherri on the sofa with her legs up on the coffee table, wrapped in a fleece blanket. She looked up at them and gave a watery smile. “Thanks for bringing the girls’ night to me.”

She had dark shadows under her eyes and looked as if she could fall asleep at any moment. April put a hand on her shoulder. “If you’re not up for company...”

“Don’t you dare leave me.” She pointed to two recliners adjacent to the sofa. “Now, sit and tell me something good.”

“April got a knife pulled on her in the ER today,” Page said, opening their box of pizza.

Sherri gasped. “And that was good?”

“Because of it, she met a hot guy who saved her by kicking the knife out of the junkie’s hand.” Page offered a slice of pizza to Sherri, who waved it away. She then handed the slice to April.

Sherri gave a soft smile. “And who was this hot guy?”

“An annoying jerk who wanted me to tell him his client was fine without running any tests.” April took a bite of her pizza and chewed, thinking about Zach Harrison. “If he hadn’t been so irritating, I might have found him attractive.” Page and Sherri exchanged glances. April pointed between them. “What does that look mean?”

Page cocked her head to the side. “It means he’s your soul mate, obviously.”

What? That was the most ludicrous idea she’d ever heard. She was about to tell them so when they burst out laughing.

Still chuckling, Sherri said, “She’s joking. It means we’re happy that you finally have started to notice men.”

“I notice them.” April paused when she saw Page roll her eyes. “I just choose not to do anything about it.”

“And when is that going to change? I thought getting back in the dating scene was on your list.” Page gestured at the journal that April had placed next to her chair. “Isn’t that what you were talking about earlier? That it’s time to begin living your life again? To start dating and falling in love.”

“Yes, it’s time.” She opened the journal and found the page where she had written a second-chance list of things to do when she was healthy again. She’d pored over the list as she’d sat in the chair during chemotherapy. Written and rewritten it until she’d found the top twenty things she most wanted to do. Number four was to start dating. “So how do I do it?”

Page gestured at Sherri, who shook her head. “Don’t look at me. Dez and I didn’t really date before we got married. I mean, we’d been friends for years, but we didn’t date.”

“And I haven’t exactly been single for that long.” Page rubbed her left ring finger. The wedding band was removed a few weeks ago when the divorce became final. “There are plenty of online sites to help you find dates.”

April made a face. “I’m not sure about that. Don’t you two know anyone you can set me up with?”

Sherri snapped her fingers. “What about my cousin Mateo? He’s single, and I guess he’s good-looking.”

She remembered meeting him last summer at a party celebrating Sherri’s last chemo appointment. “He’s not my type.”

Page held up one hand like a stop sign. “Hot and available is not your type?”

Sherri turned to Page. “You think Mateo is hot?”

“So does every other woman in Detroit. Come on. The man is seriously good-looking.” Page fanned herself. “And you want to pass that up, April?”

April gave a shrug. “All right. If he agrees, I guess I could go out with him.”

Dez joined them and handed Sherri a cup of steaming tea that brought the scent of ginger with it. “You ladies all right out here?”

Sherri kissed his hand before taking the mug. “Dez, do you know any available guys for April?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. What’s your type, April?”

“It’s been so long, single is her type.” Page snapped her fingers. “There’s that one doctor who asked you out a while ago, but you took no notice of him.”

“Because I’d just been diagnosed with cancer. I wasn’t worrying about dating at the time.” She remembered how he’d stammered out an invitation to a concert. She could only think that she might be dying, and going to see a symphony was the least important thing she could do at the time. Figuring out how to survive had been her focus.

“Well, things have changed. What was his name again?”

“Dr. Sperry, and he got married this past summer.” He’d even invited her to the wedding along with half of her staff. She’d declined but sent a gift.

“Oh.”