The Thunderbolt - Lori Wilde Page 0,5
she decided this was a dumb idea, her great-grandmother came back on the line.
“Now, drahy, we are all here. Tell us all about the thunderbolt.”
“Hang on, Gramma.” Lacy heard her mother’s voice in the background. “Let me put her on speakerphone.”
“These newfangled gadgets,” Great-Gramma muttered.
“I can’t talk long,” Lacy reminded them. “I’ve got to get back to work.”
“Sweetheart, this is your mama.”
“And your Nony,” Lacy’s grandmother chimed in.
“Hi, everyone. I had to tell you I’ve been struck by the thunderbolt.”
All the women on the other end of the phone rejoiced, laughing and telling her, “Congratulations!” Even long distance they were overwhelming.
As quickly as she could, Lacy filled them in on the details.
“So what’s the problem, drahy?” Great-Gramma asked. “You got hit by the thunderbolt. That’s all you need to know.”
“I don’t know how to approach him. You know how I get when I’m around men that I like. And this is ten times worse. I say stupid things. I fall down. I drop stuff. What can I do not to look like a fool?”
“You do nothing,” Great-Gramma advised.
“He will come to you,” Her grandmother Nony promised.
“Listen to your grandmothers. It will all work out,” Lacy’s mother said.
“But how can you be so sure?”
“Trust in the power of the thunderbolt!” all three chimed in unison. “It will never lead you astray.”
“Okeydokey. Thanks so much. I love you guys.”
“We love you, too,” Grandmother Nony said.
“Bring your thunderbolt to see us soon,” Great-Gramma said. “We want to meet him.”
“Enjoy being in love,” her mother said. “You deserve it, darling.”
“Goodbye.” Lacy severed the connection and leaned back in the locker, her heart pounding.
Love.
Was she really, truly in love at first sight? Maybe she was reading more into this feeling than she should. Maybe it was just sexual chemistry and not the thunderbolt at all.
That thought gave her serious pause.
She heard the locker room outer door close, and she figured Pam had left. Time to get back to work. Lacy pushed against the locker door.
It didn’t open.
She fumbled in the darkness, her fingers grazing over the cool metal. No handle on this side of the door.
This was just ducky. She was going to be late for the next surgery. Pam would have her hide. Not to mention that she’d placed herself in a very embarrassing situation.
“Help,” she said in a small voice. “Is there anybody out there?”
Silence.
She tried the door again without success. She would never live this down. She’d be the laughingstock of the OR.
The outer door creaked on its hinges. She heard footsteps.
“Hello?” she tried again.
“Hello?” A deep male voice rumbled. “Am I having a conversation with a talking locker?”
“Uh, could you open the door for me? I sorta got locked in.”
“Lacy?”
“Yes.” Then, to her utter chagrin, she recognized the voice.
The door swung open, and she looked into Bennett’s laughing eyes. He diplomatically hid his smirk behind a palm.
She wriggled her fingers at him. “Hi.”
“Should I ask what you’re doing in there? Or is it better if I don’t know?”
“Just making a phone call.” She stepped from the locker and held her head high as if it were perfectly normal to sequester yourself inside your locker.
“I’ve got a news flash for you, Supergirl,” he teased. “That’s not a phone booth.”
She held up her cell phone as proof that she had indeed utilized the locker as a phone booth, but not before wishing the floor would crack open and swallow her up whole.
“Thanks for letting me out.”
“Anytime.”
“Well,” she said, slipping her phone into the pocket of her lab coat and kicking her locker door closed with her foot. “I better get back to work.”
“Ditto.” He was still grinning.
Lacy inched toward the door.
“See you,” she said.
“We’re doing the same operation. I’m right behind you.”
“Oh.”
Feeling like a hundred shades of fool, Lacy turned tail and bolted down the hallway before she did something really stupid, like trip over her own shoelaces and go down in a heap at his feet.
3
“It’s hopeless,” Lacy moaned to her closest friends, CeeCee Adams and Janet Hunter.
“Hopeless?” CeeCee asked. “How?”
“Bennett’s been at Saint Madeleine’s for five weeks, and I haven’t worked up enough courage to speak to him outside the operating suites. Not only that, but I’m sure he thinks I’m a complete idiot. And I could swear he’s purposely been avoiding me.”
It was late Friday afternoon, and the women were in Lacy’s living room at the River Run apartment complex. CeeCee lived across the courtyard and Janet’s apartment was directly above Lacy’s.
River Run was a moderately priced development only three