Hummingbird Lake Page 0,101

He was surprised to see Rachel’s surgeon sitting on a pew in the middle of the chapel, his head bowed.

Colt sat in a pew across the aisle from the physician. A moment later, the man finished his prayer and looked at Colt who hesitantly asked, “Everything okay, Doc? Something you’re not telling us?”

The doctor gave a tired, crooked grin. “I’m a religious man. I saw something today that reaffirms those beliefs.”

“What’s that?”

“This is no promise, Mr. Rafferty, and time may very well prove me wrong. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, patients with the sort of injury Rachel suffered are paralyzed. In this case, I am convinced that God wrapped his hands around her spinal cord while those bones went flying everywhere. I think she’ll walk again. I may be wrong. Like I said, this is no promise, but I feel very positive about her chances.”

“Thanks, Doc. I’m beginning to feel that same way, too. She has lots of people praying for her.” An image of Celeste surrounded by her collection of angel figurines in a room at Angel’s Rest flashed through his mind, and he silently repeated the words he’d spoken before leaving Eternity Springs: From your mouth to God’s ear. “I think our prayers are being heard.”

Forty-eight hours later, with her mother, father, grandparents, and uncle Colt at her bedside, Rachel Rafferty wiggled her toes. Overcome by emotion, Colt turned away to collect himself and gazed out of the room’s window which overlooked the hospital’s front entrance.

Sage stood facing the front doors. He blinked, looked again, and decided that yes, she was there. He wasn’t seeing things. She wore a yellow sundress, and she had that waterfall of auburn hair piled atop her head. She held her sunglasses by the earpiece and twirled them in a slow circle as she stared at the hospital entrance.

“I’ll be right back,” he said to his family, although no one noticed, their complete focus on the miracle child in the bed.

He had to wait an agonizingly long time for the elevator, and when he finally reached the ground floor, he dashed for the front door, burst outside, and gazed about frantically.

Sage wasn’t there.

He hurried back into the hospital and stopped at the visitors’ desk. “Did a woman just ask for a room number for my niece, Rachel Rafferty? A beautiful, red-haired woman? She’s wearing a yellow dress. It would have been in the past few minutes.”

“No, sir,” a pleasant older lady responded with a smile. “No one has entered the hospital in the past few minutes. My shift is over and my husband is on his way to pick me up. I’ve been watching the doors.”

“Thanks.” Colt hurried back outside. He studied the entrance area, walked the parking lot, even tried calling her cellphone, but the call went straight to voice mail. Sage was gone.

“But she tried,” he murmured, a smile playing on his lips. “She tried.”

TWENTY

At her cottage beside Hummingbird Lake, Sage’s phone rang. She picked it up and heard Sarah Reese say, “He’s back. I was coming out of the post office and I saw him drive by. He smiled and waved. Looked like he was headed for the Creekside Cabins.”

“Okay, then.” Sage exhaled a heavy breath. “He’ll find my note. I have to call Rose. Thanks for the heads-up.”

“Good luck, girlfriend.”

Sage placed the call, and her sister answered on the first ring. Two minutes later the arrangements were completed, and Sage ducked into the bathroom, freshened her makeup and brushed her hair, then checked on Snowdrop, who lay snoozing on her bed in the laundry room beside the spinning dryer, one of her favorite places in the house. Then she exited the cottage and headed for her own favorite place, the private fishing pier on Hummingbird Lake at the tip of Reflection Point.

A quarter of an hour later she heard the car. Since she trusted Rose to have briefed Colt on her intentions, she kept focused on the effort at hand. When she heard footsteps on the pier behind her, she braced herself and darted a quick look.

Rose’s eyes appeared anxious, her smile encouraging. For almost the first time since she’d known him, Colt’s expression remained unreadable. Well, at least he came.

Sage turned, focused on the water, blew out a breath, and began. “First, I need to tell you, Colt, that I’m so happy to hear that your niece will recover from her injuries. Celeste passed along the good news.

“Now, I’m going to talk about Africa, and I’m asking