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“C’mon, Jan. We used to be pals when we worked together.”
“Until you left us for upstairs.” She wagged a finger at her. “I don’t think so.”
Page admitted her colleague was right, but still, she needed to know if Ruby was okay. She walked toward the trauma area, but she didn’t find Ruby. She was able to track down April as she left a curtained area. “Your shift over already?”
Page shook off the question. “Where’s Ruby? The girl who came in earlier?”
April gave orders to a nurse, then turned back to Page. “Why are you asking?”
“Because she’s been on my mind all afternoon for some reason. I want to make sure she’s okay.”
April gave a nod. “She was sent upstairs about an hour ago. Dr. Achatz is keeping her overnight just to be safe.” She leaned in close. “I don’t think the girl has anywhere else to go, to be honest. And at least while she’s here, we can monitor her and take care of her and the baby.”
“Good.” Page should have felt relief, but the knowledge left her antsy. “I guess I’ll go home.” The way April watched her made her even more anxious. “What?”
“You should go see her. She was asking about you.”
Really? That didn’t seem possible, since the girl had made it obvious that she wasn’t interested in anything Page had to offer. “What can I do?”
“Talk to her. Maybe get some information that can help her.” April gave a shrug. “Maybe you could reach her where we couldn’t.”
“I don’t see how.”
“Try.” April turned away when another doctor called her name.
After several stops and peeks into patient rooms, she found Ruby sitting up in bed watching a reality court show in the maternity wing. “Hey, Ruby. How are you feeling?”
The girl turned and peered at her. “What are you doing here?”
“I got off work and thought I’d check in on you.” Page entered the room and took a seat, placing her purse in her lap. “So they were able to stop labor for now.”
“Yeah.” Ruby picked up the remote and started to flip through the channels.
Page would need to do more to get the girl to open up. “Are you sure there’s no one we can call for you?” When Ruby didn’t answer, Page stood and walked closer to the bed. “Where’s your mom?”
Ruby paused on a channel. “Dead.”
Oh. “And your dad?”
“Don’t know. My mom told me his name and that he was from Detroit, but I’ve never met him.”
Page watched as the girl scanned more channels, although she didn’t seem interested in any one in particular. “There’s gotta be someone who’s worried about you.”
Ruby turned her attention away from the TV screen and glared at Page. “There’s no one who looks out for me but me. Got it?”
Page sure did. She had been about Ruby’s age when she realized her parents were more concerned with themselves than they were about their only daughter. They may have been living in the same house, but neglect was neglect. She’d been ignored unless it was convenient for them to use her in their continual war against each other. She’d learned to take care of herself because no one else was going to.
“Did you run away?”
Ruby laughed, but the sound was anything but cheerful. “You gotta have a home to run from.” She returned to flipping through the channels. “Are you done with the questions?”
“Nope.” She took a step closer. “Where are you going to go when they release you from here?”
“Why do you care?”
Page gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Because maybe everyone needs someone who worries about them.”
“I don’t need you.”
“Well, it seems I’m the best you’ve got right now.”
Ruby turned off the television and placed the remote on the bedside table. “You serious?”
The strange thing was Page had never been more serious. The idea of taking care of this girl had been planted hours before, as she’d mulled over Ruby’s circumstances, and it had taken root, watered by her worry and concern. This girl claimed to have no family, and the thought of offering her a home had bloomed. Maybe it was because she wished someone had helped her when she was Ruby’s age. That an adult might have seen her circumstances and gotten her out of a bad situation. Who knows what might have happened if someone had stepped in. What pain and loss she might have avoided. “You know I’m a nurse, so who better to take care of you?”
“I told you. I take care of myself.”
Page well remembered what that was like. Making her own meals. Buying her own clothes with what little money she had. Taking care of her own needs because her parents had checked out of her life early on. She took a seat in the chair beside Ruby’s hospital bed. “How long have you been doing that?”
Ruby looked down at her hands. “Almost a year. My mom died, and they put me in this horrible foster home back in Oklahoma. I ran away as soon as I could.” She sat up straighter in the bed. “You’re not going to send me back there, are you?”
“No.” She hoped she wouldn’t have to.
She wilted back into the pillows. “I won’t go. I’ll run away before that happens.”
“What happened after you left the home?”
“I started to make my way here. My mom told me stories about when she met my dad here. It wasn’t like I had anything keeping me in Oklahoma.” She sniffed and seemed to be holding back tears. “My boyfriend took off when I told him about the baby.”
“Have you decided what you want to do about the baby?”
“I don’t know. I keep changing my mind.”
“That’s okay.”
Ruby looked her over. “What happens if I agree to live with you?”
“You take care of the baby you’re carrying, and I’ll watch over you. At least for now.”
Ruby shrugged. “Maybe that could work.”
Page patted her bald head. “You should know that I’m fighting cancer.”
Ruby glanced up at her head. “Figured that was what it is. So do you get sick a lot?”
“Sometimes. But I’m still able to take care of us. They wouldn’t let me keep working here if I couldn’t.” She moved and sat on the edge of her seat. “So what do you think?”
Ruby nodded. “I guess.”
It wasn’t a lot, but it was better than a refusal.
* * *
WITH THE FILE saved on his office computer, Mateo turned off the machine and prepared to leave. He wasn’t due in court until Wednesday, so he still had plenty of time to prepare his opening argument. His client, a twelve-year-old accused of tagging graffiti on a freeway bridge, was at least willing to work with him on his defense. The memory of Scotty made him stop and reflect, but he shook it off as he picked up his briefcase.
Outside, he pressed the button on the key fob to unlock his car door just as his phone chirped. He brought the phone up to his ear without glancing at the screen. “Mateo Lopez.”
“Do you always answer your phone so professionally?” his sister, Lulu, asked with a giggle. “Or are you always working?”
“More like the second one. What’s up?”
A pause. “I’ve got some news, and I don’t know how you’re going to take it.”
A bunch of alternatives bounced through his brain. “Your husband got a promotion, and you’re moving out of state?”
“Don’t even joke about that.” His sister sighed. “Dad’s dating somebody.”
Mateo missed the step down from the curb and almost fell onto his car. “Dad is what?”
“Dating. Some lady from church. Tia Laurie called and asked me if I knew, but I swear I didn’t. He hasn’t said a word to me. You?”
He’d had dinner with his dad last night, but he hadn’t mentioned anything like dating someone. Hadn’t said anything about forgetting his wife and Mateo’s mother. “No. Is Tia Laurie sure about this? That doesn’t sound like something Dad would do. He still loves Mom.”
“He can love Mom and still date other women. She’s been dead for thirteen years, Mateo. He’s probably lonely.”
Lulu made it sound like it was a foregone conclusion that their father would make such a ludicrous decision. “Or she’s a gold digger.”
“Then she’s looking in the wrong place, isn’t she?” Lulu took a deep breath and then let it out. “Can you call and ask him?”
Why did he have to be the one to call him? Lulu was just as capable of talking to their father, even if Mateo had a closer relationship with him. “Why don’t you do it?”
“Because you’re his son, and he tells you things that he doesn’t share with me.”
“You’re his princess and have him wrapped around your finger.”
“Please, Mateo. I think we need to know, don’t you?”
No, he didn’t need to know. Frankly, Mateo would rather stay blissfully ignorant. His phone beeped from another incoming call. “I gotta go. It’s a client.”
“Call him.”
“Maybe.” He’d mull this over for a few days, or a week, before talking to their father. “Love you.” He hung up with his sister. “Mateo Lopez.”
“Good, you answered. I need some advice.”
He frowned, trying to place the familiar voice. “I’m sorry. Who is this?”
“Oh, it’s Page. I need a lawyer. Stat.”
He smirked at the thought of her contacting him when it wasn’t too long ago that she wouldn’t give him the time of day. Or the time to apologize properly. “Are you in jail? Do you need to be bailed out?”
“It’s not for me. Uh, it is a little. I need a family lawyer.”
He opened his car and got inside. “Page, what have you gotten yourself into?”
“That’s the thing. I’m not sure what I’m about to do. All I know is that this girl needs somebody, and I want that somebody to be me.”
“You’re talking in code and I’m not following. What do you need me for exactly?”
It was several seconds before she finally answered. “I have a patient who’s a minor that I’d like released into my care, but I don’t have the first clue about how to go about it.”
Did this woman know what she was asking? Did she realize what she was about to take on? “Released into your care?”
“Yes, I want to be her foster mother. Can you help me?”
“I can. But let me ask you a question—why did you call me?”
A pause on the other end, then her voice was soft, hesitant. “Because Sherri says you’re the best lawyer, and that’s what I need. The best.”
“And the personal stuff?”
“We can keep this professional, can’t we?”
He could. But even as they made plans to meet, he couldn’t help but wonder why she’d even considered him in the first place.
CHAPTER THREE (#ua9e4af90-5d66-5641-a76d-f6b5304ca10b)
PAGE PACED HER living room, pausing every few minutes to glance out the front window for Mateo’s car. She checked her watch. He said he’d been close to her neighborhood. Was she crazy to think she could do this? To foster a pregnant teenager while she struggled with her own health issues? Would a judge even sign off on this?
A car pulled to the curb, and she sprinted to the front door and pulled it open.
Mateo strode up the walk and the two steps to her home. He gave her a nod and entered the house. “Thanks for agreeing to meet with me.”
His scent of spice tickled her nose. She took a deep breath and let it out. She had to get her awareness of him under control.
“Page, do you realize what you’re asking?”
She didn’t need to think about her answer. “Yes.”
He shook his head as if she was clueless. “You’re talking about accepting responsibility for the welfare of an adolescent that you barely know.”
“If you knew a child needed you, would you step in and do something or would you let her get lost in the system?” She stared at him hard. “Sherri’s told me about all the work you’ve done with the youth in the community, so I know what you’d say. Now I’m in the position to help this girl, so please show me how.”
He sighed and put his briefcase on the sofa next to him. “You’d be on the hook for her physical, financial and emotional well-being. Why would you put that on your shoulders when you have so much else to deal with?”
She couldn’t help but start to take this personally. “Did you ask Dez the same questions when Marcus needed a foster home? I’m just as capable.”
“I’m questioning you because a judge will be asking you these same things when we get to court.”