Owen

OWEN

Owen was full of nervous energy and anxious to see Pearl. He quickly made his way across the parking lot, then waited at the hospital entrance for Edmund, who was grabbing his backpack out of the car before joining him at the automatic doors.

“Did you lock the car?” Edmund asked.

“Crap.” Lifting the key fob, Owen pressed the lock button. The car’s headlights flashed. “Sorry, I’m just nervous.”

“Completely understandable. Shall we?”

Owen led the way to the information desk, and after a short conversation with the volunteer stationed there, they were directed to a room on the third floor. It wasn’t until he tapped on the door and heard Aunt Pearl’s response that he was able to take a breath.

“Come in,” Pearl called out.

After taking another deep breath and trying to prepare himself, Owen pushed open the door to Pearl’s room. She was so tiny and fragile looking in the hospital bed he had the urge to cry, but her precious face lit up at the sight of him.

“Owen! What are you doing here? You are supposed to be at work!” She struggled to sit up. Owen rushed forward to put his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“Auntie Pearl, how could I not come? I needed to see with my own eyes that you are really okay.”

“Sweetling, I’m just fine. They’re going to spring me soon. I’ll be right as rain.” Her gaze went to Edmund. “Who is this? Did you bring a young man to meet me? Introduce us immediately.”

Seeing Pearl had made Owen momentarily forget Edmund was right behind him. He froze at the sound of Edmund’s voice, whatever words he needed to say not leaving his mouth—or appearing in his brain.

“Hello, you must be Pearl. Owen talks about you all the time. Edmund Lake, very pleased to finally meet you.” Edmund’s English accent rolled through the room, exotic and comforting at the same time. Owen shivered.

“Come closer.” Pearl patted the side of the bed. “Owen’s never brought anyone to meet me before; this must be serious.” She was whispering now, as if Owen couldn’t hear her from five feet away. He shook his head, even though neither of them was watching him.

Edmund obeyed Pearl’s command, sliding past Owen and approaching Pearl’s diminutive form. She raised her thin arms up, inviting Edmund in for a hug. Dutifully, Edmund bent down and let Pearl wrap her arms around as much of him as she could before sinking back against the pillows.

“Well, aren’t you a lovely young man. You must be very special for Owen to let me meet you—he’s very private. Where did you meet?”

“I’m a consultant at Canopus, where Owen works.”

Pearl gushed, “Oh, a workplace romance, how wonderful.”

Oh. My. God. Owen finally managed to find his voice. “Aunt Pearl.” He needed to derail her from the topic of boyfriends and the workplace and anything else embarrassing she might bring up. Oh, lord, now he was going to have to apologize to Edmund for Pearl’s assumption about their relationship. This was far and above helping Owen get from Skagit to Wenatchee. “What has the doctor said?” He looked around on the bed for the call button and pushed it. “I want to talk to the nurses and hear what’s really going on.”

Pearl frowned. “I told you, they’re letting me go in a few days. I’m just a little bruised, no fracture like they first thought.”

“That’s great news. I still want to talk to a nurse.”

“Fine,” she retorted haughtily. “You can talk to a nurse while I get to know your young man.”

Owen groaned silently; this was not going how he wanted. It was easy to forget how good Pearl was at getting her own way. There was a tap on the door, and a woman about his age poked her head into the room.

“Did you need something?”

“Stacy, this is my great-nephew Owen. He wants to know how I’m recovering. Take him out in the hallway so I don’t have to hear everything all over again.”

The nurse stepped back, and Owen followed her out into the hallway. Stacy smiled at him. “Your aunt is quite popular. Everyone wants to be assigned to her room.”

He rolled his eyes. Yes, Pearl had the medical staff eating out of her hand, and she hadn’t been here even twenty-four hours.

“What’s the deal?” he asked.

“Dr. Garcia will be doing rounds in the morning, if you want the most up-to-date information.”

“I have to leave tonight.” Owen knew without a doubt that if he didn’t show back up at work tomorrow, no matter what magic Edmund had performed, he would be out of a job.

“Well.” Stacy frowned. “She was a little confused when she was admitted. The facility said she fell in the sitting area of her apartment. Thankfully, she has a panic button, and it activated automatically when she fell. The reason Dr. Garcia wants her to stay overnight is because we’re not sure exactly what caused the fall: if she had an episode, fainted or was light-headed for some reason, or if it was just an accident. She’s definitely better than when she arrived. She’s also a little dehydrated—something we need to keep our eye on. I don’t think she’ll be going home until Saturday. Dehydration is dangerous in the elderly.”

They talked for a few minutes longer. Stacy did her best to assure Owen Pearl had the best care and they were making sure she was comfortable. He believed her, but it was hard for him to hear what Stacy was gently trying to tell him: Pearl was elderly, and her time was precious.

“Thank you, Stacy.” Owen took a deep breath before reentering Pearl’s room. He needed to mentally prepare himself for saying goodbye and heading back to Skagit.

He opened the door and slipped back into the room. Pearl was listening to something Edmund was saying. Owen suspected she enjoyed his English accent as much as he did.

“The kitten is a menace. Chance and John have built a sort of cat maze for it. It’s like something out of a fancy home improvement show. Now, though, instead of McClane climbing the draperies, he’s climbing the walls and peering at the humans as if they are prey. I don’t think he’s pure house cat—I think he’s part lynx, or perhaps panther.”

“Well, did you get all the information you wanted out of the nurse?” Pearl asked Owen, one eyebrow raised.

Edmund turned, smiling at Owen as he did so, and Owen felt something funny in his chest. He smiled back as his gaze slid to Pearl.

“Yes, Auntie, Stacy was quite informative. She told me Dr. Garcia will be back in the morning.”

“And now you know you didn’t need to come haring over the mountains to see your old aunt. I am just fine.”

“You aren’t fine, or they wouldn’t have brought you here; the nurse said you haven’t been getting enough water, that you’re a little dehydrated.”

Pearl frowned. “I just tripped. I was… well, I had a book in my hand. I was trying to get back to the right page and wasn’t looking where I was going. It was an accident.” She honest-to-god pouted. “And the book is back at my apartment, so I still don’t know what happened!”

Owen and Edmund both laughed. Pearl’s expression at wanting to know what happened in her book was hilarious. Owen understood her pain; he was a bookworm too. From an early age, he’d found his escape from life by delving into books of all sorts.

He’d spent his weekends, which inevitably stretched into weeks, at Pearl’s house. They would make almost-daily treks to the public library, where Owen would be allowed to check out as many books as he liked. Once they were home, he’d race to the room Pearl kept for him and read for hours.

Pulling one of the visitor chairs up next to Edmund’s, Owen sat down close enough that they bumped shoulders. The three of them chatted for another hour or so, until he realized Pearl was tiring.

“Auntie, Edmund and I need to get going,” he said before she could tell yet another embarrassing story from his childhood.

“You’ll come back for the Christmas holiday, both of you?” she asked, looking at Owen and then Edmund.

Owen didn’t know how to answer. Edmund answered for him.

“We’d love to. I hope you know we will be doing all the cooking and spoiling. That way you can tell me more about Owen.”

Owen groaned. “I don’t know if I can handle the two of you.”

Standing from his chair, he leaned down and gave his aunt a kiss on the cheek. She pulled him close, hugging him tightly and whispering in his ear, “He’s a keeper!”

Owen was horrified; there was no way Edmund hadn’t heard her whisper. He supposed by the upcoming holiday they would fake a breakup, and the problem would be solved.

“Oh, my, god, I am so embarrassed.” Owen turned to Edmund once they were out of Pearl’s room and heading down the hall toward the elevators. “I should’ve said something. I mean—” Shit, he wasn’t saying this right. He struggled to find a way to not stick his foot farther into his mouth. “I’m not embarrassed about you, I’m embarrassed I didn’t correct Pearl right away and now she wants us both to come for the holiday.”

“I knew what you meant. There’s no harm in letting her be happy for you.” Edmund darted a glance toward Owen but didn’t meet his eyes. “I don’t exactly have smashing plans. I’d either spend the day with Chance and John and the damn cat or on my own.”

Of course. Owen was being oblivious. Edmund was being polite, and he had nowhere else to be anyway.

“You’d really want to come back here to visit Aunt Pearl?”

Edmund shrugged. “We had a very pleasant time chatting while you were interrogating the nurse.”

“I wasn’t—” Owen snapped his lips over his protest, since that was exactly what he’d been doing. “Well, Pearl wants to see you again, and the trip would be more fun with a friend. I’m warning you ahead of time, though, the food at the senior home is horrid. Last year I brought a tiny little live tree to decorate. I need to find one again.”

The elevator dinged, and the doors swept open. Owen shivered; the lobby doors must be open as well. He looked out the windows and groaned.

“Crap, we are going to need to haul ass. Look at the snow.”

It had been years since Mother Nature had decided to bring snow to Wenatchee this early—why did it have to be today? Honestly, he hadn’t believed the snow would stick, but the parking lot was dusted with the stuff. There were car tracks where vehicles were coming and going, but the empty parking spots were covered by at least an inch of fluffy white. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out Edmund’s keys and pressed the fob. The car’s headlights flashed in the oncoming dusk.

“Let’s get going.”

It was going to be a long drive. Owen figured with the snow in Wenatchee and probably more on the pass, it would take at least four or five hours—and that was if there were no surprises. He prayed there were no surprises.