The Promise - By Danielle Steel Page 0,26
he saw her eyelids grow heavy.
“You're going to have to stay awake now, and keep talking to me. You can get drowsy but you can't go to sleep.” Otherwise she might choke on her own blood, but she didn't need to know that. Instead he kept her amused with stories and jokes, asked her questions, made her think of things, dig up answers, remember the names of all the nuns she knew when she was a child. “And you're sure you don't still want to be Sister Agnes Marie?”
“Uh uh. I promised.” They teased back and forth during the whole three hours that the procedure took, and his hands never stopped moving. For Nancy it was like watching a ballet.
“And just think, in another couple of weeks we'll get you your own apartment, maybe something with a view, and then … Hey, sleepyhead, what do you think of the view? Do you want to see the bay from the bedroom?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Just 'sure’? You know, I think you're getting spoiled by the view from your room here at the hospital, Nancy.”
“That's not true. I love it.”
“Okay, then we'll go out together and find you something even better. Deal?”
“Deal.” Even with the sleepy voice, she sounded pleased. “Can't I go to sleep yet?”
“You know what, Princess, you just about can. Just a few more minutes and we'll whisk you back to your room and you can sleep all you want.”
“Good.”
“Have I been boring you then!” She giggled at his mock hurt. “There, love … all … set.” He looked up at his assistant with a nod, stood back for a moment, and a nurse gave Nancy a quick shot in the thigh. Then Peter stepped back to her side and smiled down at the eyes he already knew so well. He didn't even see the rest. Not yet. But he saw the eyes. And knew them intimately. Just as she knew his. “Did you know that today is a special day?”
“Yes.”
“You did? How did you know?”
Because it was Michael's birthday, but she didn't want to tell him that He was going to be twenty-five years old today. She wondered what he was doing.
“I just knew, that's all.”
“Well, it's special to me because this is the beginning. Our first surgery together, our first step on a wonderful road toward a new you. How about that?” He smiled at her then, and she quietly closed her eyes and fell asleep. The shot had taken effect.
“Happy birthday, boss.”
“Don't call me that, you jerk. Christ, you look lousy, Ben.”
“Thanks a lot.” Ben looked over at his friend as he hobbled into the office with crutches and the assistance of a secretary. She eased him into a chair and withdrew from Michael's overstuffed and much paneled office. “This is some place they fixed up for you. Is mine gonna look like this?”
“If not, you can have this one. I hate it.”
“That's nice. So what's new?” The talk between them was still strained. They had seen each other twice since Ben arrived from Boston, but the effort of staying off the subject of Nancy was almost too much for them. It was all either of them could think of. “The doctor says I can start work next week.”
Michael laughed and shook his head. “You're stark staring crazy, Ben.”
“And you're not?”
A cloud passed over Mike's eyes. “I didn't break anything.” Nothing you could see anyway. “I told you, you've got a month. Two if you need it. Why don't you go to Europe with your sister?”
“And do what? Sit in a wheelchair and dream about bikinis? I want to come to work. How about two weeks?”
“We'll see.” There was a long silence and then suddenly Mike looked at his friend with an expression of bitterness Ben had never seen before. “And then what?”
“What do you mean, Mike, ‘and then what?’”
“Just that. We work our asses off for the next fifty years, screw as many people as we can, make as much money as we can, and so what? So Goddamn what?”
“You're in a wonderful mood. What happened? Slam your finger in your desk this morning?”
“Oh for Chrissake, be serious for a change, will you? I mean it. Don't you ever think of that? What the hell does it all mean?” Ben knew what he meant, and there was no avoiding the questions now.
“I don't know, Mike. The accident made me think of that, too. It made me ask myself what's important in my life, what I believe in.”
“And