The Calendar of New Beginnings Read Online Free PDF Page A

toward the front door.  
    Never let it be said Ellen O’Brien didn’t appreciate a good strategic retreat.  
    “We won’t be long,” Lucy said, hooking her arm through his. “Do you need to tell Danny we’re stepping out?”
    He spied his son in the corner of the dining room, performing his signature trick. After making fake choking noises, he proudly flourished an uneaten carrot like a magician would display a rabbit. Danny was holding court with Moira, their brother, Matt, and his fiancée, Jane. When Danny threw the carrot up and opened his mouth to catch it like a dolphin, Andy shook his head.
    “No, he’s fine. My family looks out for him. He won’t even know I’m gone.”  
    “I’ll have to show him how many grapes I can catch in my mouth later,” she said. “That trick won me a hand-carved wooden flute from a snake charmer in Delhi.”
    “Leave it to you to win a musical instrument by catching fruit,” he said dryly, trying not to imagine the snakes.
    “Where are you two headed?” his cousin Jill Hale drawled as she rushed over from the dessert table. “Sneaking out?”
    One of Jill’s twins, Mia, gurgled on the floor, crawling toward them like a small panther. Jill shoved her brownie into her mouth and snatched the little girl up.
    “Going for a walk,” Andy said with a laugh, remembering the days when he’d had to watch Danny like a hawk. “See you later, cuz.”
    She made a noise through her full mouth as Mia tugged on her red curls.  
    “Better make a break for it, or we’ll never get out,” Andy said, picking up his pace. “Do you want to grab another beer?”
    “We’ll never make it,” Lucy said, shaking her head.
    When they reached the front door, he opened it and made a melodramatic sprint down the sidewalk to the street. He did it to make her laugh, but he suddenly realized he was practically dragging her. Immediately stopping, he turned to face her. She was breathing hard, he realized. A short run shouldn’t do that to a normal adult system, but it would to an injured one. His gut tightened.  
    “Let’s walk to the park,” he said, giving her a moment to catch her breath.
    Nodding, Lucy removed her arm from his and took off, saying nothing, which worried him even more. He followed her, walking slowly beside her. When they reached the park, he pointed to the bench by the swings.
    “I bring Danny to this park a lot when the weather’s nice,” he commented when they were seated, surreptitiously scanning her face out of the corner of his eye. “We’re only a block away from my house.”
    Her color was a ghastly gray, and while she wasn’t breathing hard now, her pulse was still pounding visibly in her neck.
    “Okay, Luce,” he said, folding his sweating hands in his lap. “Why don’t you tell me what’s really going on? You’re sick, and you’re scaring me.”
    “I am not sick,” she immediately shot back, “so you have no reason to be scared. It’s the altitude. I appreciate your help in deflecting my mother’s efforts to stop me from getting my own place while I’m here, but you didn’t have to take me on a walk. I can take care of myself.”
    He turned to face her again. There was fire in her eyes, and the gray pallor of her face was disappearing. So she wasn’t going to tell him after all. At least not willingly.
    He nudged her with his shoulder like he used to do in school when she was angry. “How long have we been friends, Lucy? You need to tell me why you came home.”
    She crossed her legs and stared straight ahead. “I already told you—and everyone else for that matter. I’m—”
    “Don’t bullshit me,” he said, edging closer until his knee brushed her leg. “I’m a doctor. I’m trained to tell when a body has been injured.”  
    When she remained silent, he proceeded to tick off the signs like he was writing them on a patient’s chart at the hospital. “Your clothes are hanging on you from a sudden loss in weight. Your face is