“No. No one tricked you. You can make decisions for yourself. You could have contested, but you didn’t. You were the one who was unfaithful. You were the one who chased her away. I guarantee you I will not do that to her. She is a wonderful, talented, bright woman that anyone should be thankful to know.”
“I can’t believe this. You stole my wife.”
“I don’t think so. You’re the one that gave her chlamydia.” Josh started to wander away.
“Wait! How do you know about that?”
“She told me. In front of you, in fact.”
“That’s none of your business. You need to keep your nose out of places it doesn’t belong.”
“You forfeited your relationship with her. No, you sabotaged your relationship with her. This is on you.”
“You will regret this,” came from behind as Josh fled down the hall.
Brian stood flabbergasted. How had this event been pulled off right in front of him? Was everyone out to get him?
Chapter 19
“I always enjoy a good steak,” Jim applauded. “This was perfect. I was hungry after the stairs.” Jim was sitting between Marianna and Natalie, facing Faith and Josh at the table. “That’s predictable, Jim,” Josh jested. “You’re from Texas.”
“They don’t like steak in Oklahoma?”
“Oh yes,” Josh teased. “Angus of the pure kind, not the Texan mix breed.”
Jim sputtered. Marianna cut him off before he could respond to the joke. “Does your family get down here to see you often?” she asked.
“No,” Josh said. “They haven’t been here yet. It’s quite a long drive, and Clinton doesn’t have any commercial air service. I talk to my sister often, but she hasn’t been here either. I guess it works both ways, I haven’t visited her or my parents since I’ve been here.”
“Tell me about your sister,” Marianna said.
“Well, she’s four years older than I am. She went to law school at the University of Oklahoma in Lawton. She works in a family law firm in Santa Fe with her law school classmate who’s from there.”
“How do you manage a lawyer and a doctor in the same family?”
“Daddy,” Natalie said, “I can’t believe you asked that question.”
Josh was ready, “With lots of silly doctor-lawyer jokes.”
Jim said, “Tell me one.”
“No, Dad,” Faith said, “They’re not nice!”
Jim persisted, “I want to hear one, then.”
“No, Dad!”
“What do you do if you find fifteen lawyers in a pit up to their waists in concrete?”
“I don’t know, what?”
“Order more concrete!”
“Whew,” Faith breathed. “Thanks, Josh.”
“Tell another one,” Jim said.
“What do an honest lawyer and a UFO have in common?”
“I don’t know.”
“You often hear about them, but you never see one.”
Jim chuckled. “That is a good one. I can use that at Saturday morning coffee with my friends.”
“Oh, man,” Natalie said, “that’s a bunch of sad, old geezers.”
“Young lady, watch who you call sad.”
Josh laughed. “I love your snark, Natalie. And thanks for helping me get through to Faith. I found out you helped me out with the yellow roses. I was beginning to wonder what it was going to take.”
“Sometimes she has trouble with the big picture.”
“She’s always been like that,” Jim said. “Her kindergarten teacher said she had trouble getting the main idea. I think I have to agree.”
“I think I’ve noticed that. We know a couple who are probably moving in together at about the same time as we are, and Faith still doesn’t see the connection between them. I guess I have an advantage because the dude is my second cousin, but it should be glaring to anyone.”
“This is a couple you work with?” Marianne asked.
“Yes,” Josh said. “They are made for each other and are so much fun when they are together. They lighten things up. The woman is the gossip queen.”
“Gossip?” Natalie said. “That leaves Faith out.”
“It leaves me out, too,” said Josh. “I don’t go for that sort of thing. I would rather get to know someone directly, and not through wild stories or imagination.”
“I agree with you,” Jim said. “Lubbock is full of gossip queens. I’ll fax you a list.”
“Thanks,” Josh said. “When I first began going out with Faith, it was not general knowledge. I don’t know how she escaped Haley’s radar, but she did. The only way I could get to know her was directly. We work together, but that doesn’t mean we have much time for personal talk. It might have been why it was so hard to break her shell.”
Natalie said, “She has a shell, all right. She also can put you on ignore, making you yell at her to get her attention.”
“That I haven’t seen,” Josh said. “But sometimes you do have to have a conversation with her a second time to make it stick.”
“I’m not that bad,” Faith said. “You, of all people, talk to me better than anyone has in my life — except maybe Natalie.”
“You seem quite laid back, Josh,” Marianna said. “Is that a fair statement?”
“Probably. An introvert. Like, Faith just blurts out questions right in the middle of a discussion by one of our attendings, which I can’t bring myself to do. I wish I could, because usually, when the opportunity to ask a question finally comes up, I’ve already forgotten it.”
“That’s why I do that,” Faith said. “I’ve told each of our attendings that I’m not trying to be rude or challenge what they’re saying, I’m just trying to fill up my brain. If I don't ask, I won’t ever ask.”
“What do you guys do for fun?” Natalie asked.
“Sleep,” Josh said, looking at Natalie out of the corner of his eye. “Besides work, meals, and laundry, there isn’t much time. Meals are about the only time for talk. We did go up the Sandia Peak Tram, and we have walked around Old Town.”
“I thought life would be better after medical school,” Jim said. “When does ‘the good life’ come?”
“According to our mentors, never,” Faith said. “I am hoping that’s not quite true.”
“Marla says it’s true,” Josh said. “She says she works as hard now as she did in law school.”
Jim said, “Anything done well is hard work. No job well done is forty hours a week.”
“Brian was a little like that, Dad,” Faith said. “Forty hours a week and home on schedule. Not completely, but some. I think it has limited him.”
“That’s a heavy statement,” Josh said. “I’ve never heard you talk about him that way.”
“I would agree with that,” Natalie said. “I sometimes wondered what mattered to him in life. What would he die for?”
“Whoa, Natalie,” Jim said. “Where did you come up with that?”
“Have you ever heard him talk about anything he seemed passionate about? What did he do besides watch movies? He used to run, but not recently.”
“Movies. Yes, he did that,” Faith said. “He was on me if I didn’t get home from work on time. He always said if my shift was over, I should leave. But sometimes the best learning comes at unexpected times and I can’t tear myself away from those moments.”
“I like that part of Faith,” Josh said. “I like lots of parts of Faith, but I like that she isn’t rigid like Brian.”
Natalie was chuckling.
“What are you laughing about?” Josh quipped, anticipating whatever snark was coming.
“I was just thinking about what parts of Faith you liked most,” she said.
“Natalie, behave yourself,” Marianna said.
“I love it,” Josh said. “I’m just glad I found Faith.”