The Courage Tree - Diane Chamberlain [95]
“Great.” She appreciated his optimism.
“What about lab work?” Lucas asked. “I mean, I know Sophie’s doctors thought the improvement would be mostly symptomatic and temporary. Are you actually seeing a change in the blood work?”
Janine felt a bit embarrassed that Lucas was taking up so much of the doctor’s time. “He cares a lot about Sophie,” she explained apologetically to Schaefer. “That’s why he’s so interested.”
“I understand,” Dr. Schaefer said. He answered the question about blood work, but it was still a few more minutes before Janine was able to get Lucas to leave.
Lucas smiled at her once they were in the hallway of the medical building. “Did I ask too many questions?” he asked her.
“No,” she said. “I think it’s sweet that you care.”
Lucas dropped her off at Ayr Creek, pulling the Taurus into the turnaround near the cottage. Janine reached for the handle on the car door, then hesitated.
“Why don’t I just wait here for you to finish your work and we can drive back to West Virginia together tonight?” she asked.
He shook his head as he got out of the car. “I can’t leave until tomorrow morning,” he said. “But we can be on the road at the crack of dawn. I promise.”
She got out of the car herself, then walked next to him toward the cottage. “I really don’t understand, Lucas,” she said. “Is it Joe? Did you just need to get away from him for a while? I know he’s been—”
“It has nothing to do with Joe,” he interrupted. He stood in front of her cottage door, his eyes squeezed shut, as if deep in thought. “I know you need me right now, Jan,” he said. “If I could be in two places at once, I would be.”
“If you would just tell me why it’s so important for you to stay here in Vienna tonight, I—”
“It’s a business thing, and I can’t let it go any longer.”
“Is it illegal?” she asked, and he laughed.
“No, nothing like that,” he said. “And I’ll tell you about it when this whole thing with Sophie is over. It’s not worth getting into now. For now, just trust me, okay?”
“Okay,” she said. She had trusted him completely these past few months. She’d shrugged off her parents’ complaints about his missed time at work. She’d never badgered him for an explanation as to why he couldn’t see her certain nights of the week. If one of her girlfriends had come to her, telling her about some guy she liked who was as full of excuses and secretive behavior as Lucas, she would have told that friend to turn tail and run.
But Lucas was not some guy. And she still trusted him. Completely.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Joe sat with Paula on the folding chairs outside the trailer. Although the road was shaded, and the June sun had to fight through the trees to reach them, Paula’s nose and cheeks were a vibrant pink, and Joe could feel the sting of the sun on his forehead. A few yards away from them, Frank sat on another folding chair, reading a book about the Civil War, and Donna had gone back to the motel for a nap. Paula had bought paperback books for Joe and herself the day before, but she had read only a few pages of hers, and he had not even opened his. There was no way he could concentrate on a novel when his own life felt so much like fiction.
A buzz of radio communication spit from the trailer every minute or so, and Joe took comfort in the knowledge that the woods were alive with people intent on finding Sophie. Searchers came and went from the trailer, some with dogs, some on their own. Cases of bottled water were stacked at the outside corner of the trailer, and buckets of water stood nearby for the dogs. Joe studied each of the searchers’ faces, hoping for a smile or a sparkle in an eye, anything that might give him reason to hope. But for the most part, their faces remained unreadable, and they avoided direct eye contact with him.
He wasn’t sure how many more days he could tolerate sitting still, helplessly