A Gift to Remember Read Online Free PDF Page B

the evening reading in bed, and realised that she must have dozed off before setting her alarm. And in her slumber had enjoyed a recurring dream that was just about
to reach a most satisfactory conclusion . . . only to be interrupted.
    Looking blearily at the phone display, Darcy discovered that she had multiple missed calls and – frighteningly – that it was almost 10 a.m.! She was more than an hour late for work,
and poor Joshua had been phoning steadily for the last hour and was trying to call her right then.
    Feeling panic rise in her chest, she fumbled with the keypad to answer the call. Fully awake now, she hit the accept button.
    ‘Oh my goodness, Joshua, I’m so sorry. I know I was supposed to be in with you first thing, but my alarm didn’t go off and my phone was on vibrate and I am a complete putz and
I’m
so
sorry. I’m on my way right now.’
    ‘Darcy, thank God.’ Joshua sounded concerned. ‘Are you OK? I’ve been phoning for the past hour. I thought Ashley was supposed to be in, but then she told me she’d
changed shifts with you and I was just about ready to start calling round the Emergency Rooms. Where are you? What are you doing?’ Clearly, Joshua had been too agitated to register any of
Darcy’s excuses.
    She threw back the covers, hoping she could calm down her workmate, who had a penchant for dramatics akin to the stage mothers on the TV show
Toddlers & Tiaras
. Darcy knew that,
right now, he was probably wringing his hands and on the verge of tears. Small wonder his earlier career as a trainee paramedic hadn’t worked out.
    Growing up in a family of surgeons, it seemed inevitable that Joshua would follow in his older siblings’ footsteps and take up a career in medicine, but ultimately he proved too much of a
delicate soul to handle the inevitable daily chaos of such a profession. Much to his relief, Joshua’s parents had grudgingly accepted his decision to cut short his training and pursue instead
his passion for literature. Which was how he’d ended up working in Chaucer’s, in a job which (most of the time) was considerably less tumultuous than the ER, while taking a Masters in
Drama – something that suited him all too well.
    Strange though, how her and her colleague’s career paths had taken such similar routes, suggesting that you could (and should) never fight your own destiny.
    ‘Joshua, I’m fine, you can call off the search-party. I forgot to set my alarm last night, that’s all. And I’m sorry I scared you.’ Darcy hurried across the room
towards the tiny adjoining bathroom and turned on the shower while trying to pull her pyjama top over her head with one arm. ‘I’m just jumping in the shower now. I’ll be with you
in no time.’
    ‘For all I knew you could have been hit by a car on your way to work and were laid up at Mount Sinai, unconscious, on life support. I mean, don’t you understand how much you scare me
– especially on that bike?’
    Darcy couldn’t help but giggle. ‘And don’t you understand how much you sound like a worry-wart mother?’
    Joshua’s voice was gentle. ‘Someone has to look out for you, you know,’ he said, and Darcy was touched by his concern.
    ‘Thank you. I’ll be there as fast as I can, OK?’
    ‘And take a damn cab!’ Joshua pleaded. ‘Don’t even think of trying to make your way all the way up here on the bike. It’s a mess out there this morning with all
that snow. The city put salt down but the roads are still a horror show, and everywhere people are losing their damn minds. Honestly, it’s like something out of
The Dead
Zone
.’
    ‘Joshua, I’ll be fine. My bike has seen worse, believe me. See you soon.’
    ‘Well, don’t pedal too hard!’ he said in parting.
    Having showered and dressed, Darcy clattered downstairs. On the way, she met one of her neighbours, Mrs Henley, a cantankerous type who lived in the apartment across the hallway. Darcy smiled as
she passed the older woman, who was on