Matching Mr. Right(11)
She shook her head and stood. “I’m good now. Let’s go.”
“Okay. But just say the word and we’re gone.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. She still looked kind of wobbly.
“Thanks. But you still owe me!”
He chuckled. “I had no doubt.”
When they got to Emily’s room, Nick’s mom, who was seated by Emily’s bed, sent them a strained smile. Things must’ve not improved much since he’d left. Em’s lunch tray hadn’t been touched and the little worry line in the middle of her forehead was deeper than he’d ever seen it. She had a death grip on the doll Lori ran home to get, so where was his sister? “Hi, Mom. This is Shelby.”
His mom stood and shook Shelby’s hand. “Nice to meet you. We’re all fans of yours. Lori will be sorry she missed you.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Caldwell. It’s nice to meet you too.” Shelby smiled that cute smile at his mom that he’d only seen when Shelby looked at kids. Apparently everyone but him got that smile.
His mom turned to him. “Lori just stepped out to get us some lunch. She’ll be back in a bit.
Thank God for that. Maybe they could be in and out before Lori got back.
Shelby sat beside Emily on her bed. “How are you doing kiddo?”
Emily worked up a sad smile that poked at his heart. “I lost your book.”
“No problem. I brought you another.” Shelby pulled out a book from her ginormous purse.
“Thank you, Summer.” Emily’s eyes lit with joy.
“You’re welcome.” Shelby tossed her purse onto a nearby chair. “But you can call me Shelby. Summer Sinclair is a pen name. Sometimes people who write books have to use a different name than their own because theirs doesn’t sound as good, or someone else already writes under that name. Or, sometimes, you belong to a family who doesn’t like that you write kids’ books, so you have to change it for them.”
Emily’s brows knit. “But if you have two names, how do you remember when you should be Summer and when you should be Shelby?”
“That’s the tricky part.” Shelby reached out and wrapped one of Emily’s hands in hers. “I hear you’ve been feeling a little scared about being in the hospital. How come?”
Nick leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. Why wouldn’t Shelby’s family be proud of what she did? Shelby’s books were fantastic. His favorite to read to Em whenever he tucked her in.
Emily glanced at Nick’s mother. “People die in the hospital. I don’t want my mommy to be all alone if I died like my daddy did.”
Shelby gave Em a quick hug. “You’ve already done the hard part. You’ve had your surgery and now you’re fine. Most of the time, people get better in hospitals. I missed a whole school year when I was just a little older than you because I had to have a lot of surgeries to make the skin on my legs better after an accident.”
“Do they still hurt?” Emily reached out and rubbed Shelby’s leg.
“No.” Shelby covered Emily’s hand with hers once more. “Actually, they’re sort of numb. But I’m all better now, just like you’ll be tomorrow or the day after.”
His mother leaned down and kissed Emily’s forehead. “See? Shelby says everything’s going to be fine too, and it will. Now, why don’t you try to eat some lunch?”
Shelby poked around Emily’s untouched lunch tray that held a sandwich and some applesauce. “They usually have a secret stash of desserts for the kids who eat their lunch, you know. The nurses just don’t tell you about that unless you ask.”
“Really?” Emily perked right up at that.
“Yup. All you have to do is press the button and they come. But you have to ask really nice.” Shelby found the call switch and handed it to Emily. “Chester would love to have all the ice cream and pudding he could eat, don’t you think?”
Emily pressed the button. “Maybe you should write a Chester book about being in the hospital, Shelby.”
“That’s a great idea. Maybe you could help me. What kind of things do you think Chester would do to get into trouble?”
Emily pursed her lips, as if in deep thought. “He’d probably turn the TV up real loud, jump on the bed, and then see what kind of things he could stuff down the toilet. And he’d definitely sneak ice cream and pudding from the fridge.”
Shelby laughed. “I agree. He can be a very naughty little monkey.”
“Chester doesn’t mean to be bad.” Emily’s expression turned all serious. “He just can’t help it sometimes. Especially when he’s scared.”