Coming Undone by Staci Stallings Read Free Book Online Page B

cup on the table. Reaching in his pocket, he pulled out her card. Kathryn Walker, St. Anthony’s Hospice, Social Worker.
    Who signed up for a job like that? He would run for the hills. Slowly he turned the card over and over in his fingers. What to do? She didn’t make it sound as horrible as he had envisioned, and yet a good salesman could sell anything. True, she didn’t seem like a pushy salesperson. But it was her job to make her facility seem as user-friendly as possible. He thought it through again and took another drink.
    It wouldn’t hurt to check the place out. At least then he could give Dr. Vitter a logical reason why he wasn’t going to take that option. Downing the last of the coffee, he grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket. With a hard blink, he forced himself to dial the number correctly. As it rang, he realized she probably wasn’t even back yet.
    “ St. Anthony’s Hospice, this is Kathryn.”
    His heart snagged on the softness of her voice. He spun the phone’s speaker down to his mouth. “Uh, yeah. Kathryn? This is Ben Warren. I just talked to you?”
    “ Oh, yes. Ben. Did you need something else?”
    “ Um, well, yeah. Kind of. Um, I was wondering if maybe I could come over and see the… facility.” There were certain words he just couldn’t utter.
    “ Oh, well, sure. Of course. Do you want to come now?”
    Now? Now was a little soon. His spirit recoiled at the thought. He’d long before given up the nursing home route on his sales trek through the city. There were just some things he did not want to subject himself to. “Uh, well, I don’t want to bother you. I’ve already taken up so much of your time…”
    “ Oh, it’s not a problem. Tell you what, I’ll meet you by the elevators on the neurology floor. Will that work?”
    “ Uh. Yeah. Sure.”
    “ I’ll be there in five.”
    “ Okay.”
    And she was gone. Only then did reality occur to him. What was he thinking? He wasn’t anywhere near the elevators on the neurology floor. He jumped up, nearly knocking the chair to the ground. Two doctors from the table near him glanced his direction. He quickly resettled the chair, ditched the cup, and headed out.
     
     
    Kathryn strode from the elevators over to the partition leading to the waiting area. Glancing in, she frowned with concern. How could she have missed such a simple thing as where they would meet? Or maybe he had reconsidered the meeting? Or worse, he was worse off than she thought and connecting A to B was becoming an issue.
    The elevator dinged, pulling her attention that direction. Air re-introduced itself to her lungs when he stepped off, running his hand over his hair, his gaze down. When he looked up, his smile was sheepish.
    “ Sorry. I was down in the cafeteria getting some coffee.”
    “ That’s okay,” she said, feeling really silly for all the doomsday scenarios she’d been running in her head.
    They stood like that, five feet apart, not saying anything for a long moment.
    Finally, glancing up at the elevators, she let out a breath slowly. “You ready?”
    His gaze yanked up with hers. “Oh, uh. Yeah. Sure.”
    Together they stepped to the elevator, and he pushed the button. Standing there next to him, she could feel the trepidation in his stance and his demeanor. He would hardly look at her, not that he was really focusing on much of anything. That bothered her. The truth was, in the last hour, she had come to see him as her patient as much as his father. Caring. It was always her downfall.
    The elevator dinged, and he let her board first. There were already three people on, so she didn’t want to broach any heavy-duty subject, but she didn’t want to make him more uncomfortable than he obviously already was either.
    “ I guess all of this is wreaking havoc with your work schedule,” she said, hoping that was a safe topic.
    His laugh was soft. “You can say that again. But I’m on commission, so… it’s mostly my wallet that’s taking the