Lightning Strikes Part 3

As if he were feeling left out, Jerry chimed in, changing the subject. “The missing Sloane kid’s not the only one who’s making the news.”

Amanda stiffened. “Oh? You haven’t by chance heard anything about Randi Howell, have you?”

“Nope.” Jerry rubbed his burred head. “But that’s right—she’s missing, too. Cut out before the ‘I do’s.’”

Amanda shot him a sharp glance. “I guess that’s one way of putting it.”

Jerry shrugged. “Well, it’s the truth, or at least that’s the story going around.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Amanda said, again uncomfortable discussing hospital personnel or their families. Where Noah was concerned, that doubled. When she thought about him and what had almost taken place between them in the linen closet, she literally panicked.

“Surely Noah knows something by now,” Doris said. “I should make a mental note to ask him.”

“All I can say is that I hope Randi’s all right.” Amanda walked to the window, fighting off the desire to leave the hospital and never come back. That was how disjointed and distraught she was. Noah’s unexpected come-on to her had jerked a knot in her life that she couldn’t seem to untie.

“So do you want to know what else I heard?” Jerry asked, biting into a Milky Way candy bar. “Or don’t you?”

Amanda wanted to tell him it wasn’t nice to talk with his mouth full, but she didn’t. It appeared that everyone and everything was wearing on her nerves. She should tread more carefully.

“Yes, yes, tell us,” Doris said. “We’re waiting with bated breath.”

“Yeah, right,” Jerry responded in a sullen tone.

Doris beckoned with her free hand; the other one was still in the bag of chips. “No, really, I’m listening. Spill your guts.”

“Actually, it’s no big deal,” Jerry said. “Anyone know Paige Summers?”

“I do,” Liz said, “though not personally. A friend of mine works with her. Don’t tell me something bad’s happened to her.”

“I heard she got stuck in an elevator last night.”

Doris shuddered. “Better her than me. Man, I’d have freaked out.”

“Me, too,” Amanda said, turning and moving away from the window. “Was she alone?”

Jerry took another bite of the candy and chomped on it. “Nope, or at least that’s what the announcer led me to believe.”

Amanda watched him, thinking he looked a bit like a cow chewing its cud.

“All I know,” Liz said on a sigh, “is that terrible things are happening to good people. What gets me is there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight, unless the rain does wash us away.”

“Heaven forbid, don’t even think like that,” Doris said.

“I wish that’s all we had to worry about,” Jerry muttered darkly. “My family’s stumbling around in the dark. They got caught without candles.”

“I’m sure yours is not the only one who’s in the same dire straits.”

Following Amanda’s words, the room fell silent. She stared at the clock and noticed that time seemed to be limping along. If only she could sneak home for a while, maybe she could get a better perspective on things, on what was happening inside her. Right now, her thoughts, her body, were obsessed with Noah.

And to think, he might be married to someone else as Dora had suggested earlier. Her heart rebelled. Surely, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have initiated that fiasco in the closet, touched her like he had.

When it came to Noah, what did she know? At one time, she would have sworn that she knew him better than he knew himself.

She almost laughed out loud. Boy, had she been fooled. Like Jerry had said about Randi, Noah had also “cut out.” Where he’d gone and what he’d done remained top secret.

Well, forget him.

She wouldn’t be used again. Unfortunately, she already had been. If he hadn’t pulled back, she would have let him make love to her in that closet—on the floor, against the wall, anywhere. It wouldn’t have mattered.

Thank God she’d come to her senses, because it mattered now.

“Are you okay?” Doris asked.

Everyone was looking at her. “Who, me?”

“Yes, you,” Doris said in a droll tone. “You were making a sound like you were in pain.”

“Don’t pay any attention to me,” Amanda said. “I’m just pooped.”

“Aren’t we all,” Liz said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “By the way, where’s Bethany? She’s been rather scarce lately.”

Doris raised her hand. “I know.”

“So, spit it out,” Jerry said. “If there’s some secret to getting out of this hellhole, Lord, do I wanna know it.”

“What would you do that’s so important?” Doris asked.

Jerry threw her a wicked grin. “Find me a willing woman and do some serious fornicating.”

“You’re sick, Jerry,” Doris said.

This time Jerry glared at her. “Thanks, sweetie. I’ll say something nice about you sometime.”

“If you two are going to behave like children,” Amanda remarked in a weary tone, “I’ll have to treat you as such.”

“Sorry,” Doris said.

But she wasn’t, Amanda knew, noticing the mischievous twinkle in Doris’s eye. She loved giving Jerry a hard time. And he gave it back, tit for tat.

“So where is Bethany?” Liz asked.

“With that preemie, the one the teenager had.” Doris wadded up the chip bag and tossed it in the garbage. “She’s smitten with that infant.”

“Well, it’s time she came back to her bailiwick,” Amanda said. “When you return to the desk, Jerry, call Beth.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Speaking of calling, I can’t believe you guys haven’t been screamed for.” Doris stared up at the clock. “How long’s it been?”