Hollywood House Call

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Slowly, she turned to face him. “End result? And what is the end result, Noah? That I’ll never be able to start filming this movie? That my dream was just pulled out from under me? They won’t wait on me to heal, if I ever do heal. I’ll never be the same.”

God, he hadn’t wanted her to do the film, but he’d certainly never wished for anything bad to happen to her. And if he hadn’t insisted she model for him, she wouldn’t be in this damn bed wrapped up and broken.

Sobs tore through the room and Callie pounded the bed with her left fist. “Don’t you see, Noah? The end result is that my life and everything I’ve ever worked for were just taken away.”

Noah took her hand once more and laced his fingers with hers. “I’ll make this right, Callie. No matter what I have to do, I’ll make you whole again.”

Four

And how the hell could he ever come through with a promise like that?

He wasn’t God. He was a surgeon.

Unless scars were covered by skin grafts, they were permanent. The odds were in his favor that he could minimize the appearance, but what were the odds she’d be happy with even a minor scar? True, he’d been able to nearly rid her of the one on her chin with microdermabrasion, but it had been so minimal to begin with.

But he’d be a fool to believe that she’d be able to go after just any part. She was right in admitting her opportunities had just diminished, but he would still do everything he could to make her feel beautiful again, to make her confident enough to pursue that dream.

Right now, though, he had another obligation he needed to tend to.

Noah hated the mixed emotions flooding through him. He hated that he was now torn between his present and his past. He wanted to stay with her, but he had to get to the assisted-living facility.

He left Callie resting, as well as she could, considering, and headed out the door. If he hadn’t needed to see the afternoon nurse Thelma had been complaining about, he wouldn’t have left Callie’s side…no matter what she said.

For all he knew, the afternoon nurse was perfectly fine. After all, Thelma did have Alzheimer’s and still believed her granddaughter and he were engaged to be married. Noah had never told her any different. Why upset the poor woman when she wouldn’t remember it the next time he went to see her?

As he walked up to the front doors of the facility, he pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed Max. Of course the call went to voice mail because the man was rarely available. One of these days he was going to get really burned-out on work.

“Hey, Max,” Noah said after the beep. “I can’t make it tonight. Callie was in a pretty bad accident so I’ll be with her. Text or call when you get a chance.”

He slid the phone back into his pocket and entered the glass double doors. An elderly lady greeted him. It was the same white-haired lady who sat by the door every time he came to visit Thelma. Supposedly, the woman was waiting on her husband to come pick her up, but Noah had been told the lady’s husband had passed away over ten years ago.

Alzheimer’s was a fickle bitch and it sickened Noah that so many people were affected by it. As always, he smiled to the lady and made his way down the narrow carpeted hallway.

Thelma’s room was the last one on the left, and as usual, her door was closed. According to Malinda, she’d never been much of a social butterfly even before the disease. Since Noah never knew Thelma before she got sick, he had only Malinda’s opinion to go on.

Noah tried the knob, not surprised to find it locked. Tapping his knuckles against the wood door, he called out. “It’s Noah, Thelma.”

After a moment, he heard shuffling from inside the room before there was a soft click and the door eased open.

Her short silver hair was matted on one side and in the back—a sure sign she’d been asleep in her recliner again.

“How are you feeling today?” he asked, stepping into the room that inevitably was hotter than Satan’s personal sauna. Why did the elderly need their heat on full throttle in the middle of summer?

“A little tired today,” she told him, moving across the room to her old green chair positioned in front of the TV. “You caught me in the middle of my soaps.”

Noah laughed as he eased behind her to turn the heat down. His shirt was already sticking to his back.

“I won’t stay long,” he promised as he took a seat on the edge of the bed that faced her. “Did you have lunch?”

She stared at him, those blue eyes full of doubt and confusion. “I believe so. Can’t recall what I had. Let’s see…ham sandwich? No, that wasn’t it. Chicken soup. I think.”

Noah nodded like he always did. He knew she wouldn’t recall, but he was buying some time until the nurse was due in.

“Where’s Malinda today?” Thelma asked, her eyes widening and a smile spreading across her face. “I want to hear all about the wedding details.”

This was never an easy topic to broach. Not only because he still felt that emptiness Malinda had left in his life, but because he hated lying to this sweet woman, even if she wouldn’t remember the truth. Even with the disease robbing her memory, Thelma knew there was a void in her life.

“She couldn’t come today,” he said honestly.

“That girl works too hard,” Thelma replied as she pulled the handle on her recliner. “You tell her that her grandmother wants to see her. I have some wedding ideas I want to discuss with her.”

Noah nodded and smiled as always. Though the smiling was costing him. He hated standing there discussing a wedding that would never be, to a woman who was dead, with someone who wouldn’t remember this conversation five minutes later. But Thelma still had hope shining in her eyes and he wasn’t about to take away the one thing she held on to.

“I’ll be right back, Thelma.” He moved to the door and propped it open. “I’m just going to step outside your room to look for someone.”

She didn’t answer, but her soap opera had come back on and she had that tunnel-vision look as she smiled at the characters on TV.

Noah moved into the hall to look for the nurse. Thelma’s pills were supposed to be distributed with her breakfast and lunch and just before bedtime. But a few of her prescriptions hadn’t been refilled on time and Thelma had claimed she didn’t recall seeing the nurse at lunchtime very often. Thelma’s fading mind might be to blame, but he couldn’t take the chance that she wasn’t getting the best care.

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.