Winners Read Online Free PDF Page A

she said apologetically.
    “I got that,” he said, as he stood up and kissed her.
    “Will you take Jimmy bowling? I promised. I told them I’d make tacos tonight too. I bought a bunch of frozen pizzas if you don’t feel like cooking. I’m really sorry. I thought maybe I’d get away with a night off too.”
    “I’ll manage. You think you’ll be operating tonight?”
    “Sounds like it. Ben says they’re stabilizing her now, and still assessing her. If she’s stable, we’ll go in. If not, we may have to wait till tomorrow. It doesn’t sound too good. She fell off the chairlift at the high point. The instructor she was with was killed.”
    “I wonder if they’ll call me in too,” Tim said, glancing at his own phone, but there were no messages, and he assumed some of the other anesthesiologists had come back on duty.
    “I hope not. If they call you, Chris will have to drive Heather and Adam and babysit for Jimmy, which will screw up his date and he’ll be pissed.”
    “I’ll do my best not to spoil his evening,” Tim said, as Jessie went upstairs to change. She was wearing torn jeans and an old sweater, and Ben had sounded anxious for her to come in as soon as she could to help with the evaluation. She was back downstairs five minutes later, with her hair brushed and in the braid, wearing a turtleneck sweater, black jeans, and boots, and she grabbed her heavy parka off the hook in the front hall. She looked a little more serious than she did in an old sweater and torn jeans, but she still looked very young for forty-three.
    “I’ll call you as soon as I know what I’m doing, and if I’ll be there all night.” She kissed him on her way out, and a few minutes later she was in Tim’s Jeep, heading to the hospital. She left her van for him, since he’d need it to drive the kids. She noticed that the roads were icy, and she drove carefully on the way to the hospital. She was already thinking about the patient Ben had described to her, and the people who had been hurt in the chairlift accident. It was one of those things that could happen in a ski resort, although you prayed it never would. Just thinking of it made her shudder, and worry about her kids. All of them were avid skiers, especially Chris and Adam. What if it had been one of them on the chairlift today? She pushed the thought from her mind as the car started to skid and she got it back in control. She was used to driving on snow and ice, and she pulled into the hospital parking lot a few minutes later, parked Tim’s Jeep, and walked into the hospital. She went to her locker to change into her white coat with her name on the pocket, and she slipped it on over her sweater and jeans. She was in the trauma unit five minutes later, examining Lily and listening to Ben as she did. Lily was stable but still unconscious, and she agreed with his diagnosis of the case. He suspected a T10 spinal cord injury. If he was right, Lily would never walk again. Jessie wanted to operate on her that night to do all they could.
    Ben went to the waiting room with her so they could explain it to Bill. He was sitting on the couch, with his head leaned back against the cushions and his legs stretched out. He looked as beaten as he felt. He opened his eyes as soon as they walked in, and Jessie met his eyes with a serious expression and introduced herself. Ben told him that she was the neurosurgeon they’d been waiting for. Bill did not look pleased when he saw how young she was.
    “Is there a more senior member of your group?” he asked bluntly, and Jessie looked momentarily stunned. No one had ever asked her that before. But she could see how distraught he was over his daughter, and she understood. She spoke to him in a gentle voice.
    “We are the senior members of the team,” she said, indicating Ben. “We’ve been in practice here for ten years.”
    “What did you do before that?” he questioned, with eyes that probed hers.
    “I was in a practice at Stanford