The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky

Author:Barbara Delinsky [Delinsky, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 0767931092
Publisher: Anchor
Published: 2008-01-15T06:11:24+00:00

Chapter 13

Michael’s car wasn’t in the driveway when Deborah got to the house, which relieved her on two counts. First, she truly did want to think that he was out for breakfast. And second, she was pleased not to have to see him so soon.

Parking nearby, she carried her med bag, her coffee, and her untouched sticky bun down the driveway. Three cars were in the small lot there—those of the receptionist, the nurse, and an early patient who had caught a cold from her kids. After diagnosing bronchitis, Deborah sent her off with the proper prescription, and went down the hall. Her father hadn’t arrived.

His office was neat but crowded. Books filled every shelf, relics of the day when journals weren’t digital, and while he was totally addicted to the computer that sat on the side of the desk, he refused to get rid of them. Same with the presents that his youngest patients had given him over the years—Valentines added each year to a decorated board, numerous shells, rocks, and twigs, a primitive clay mug. Each held a memory. For all his dictatorial bearing, Michael was a softie at heart.

“Gone looking for a bottle in the drawer yet?” asked her father, coming up behind her. He dropped a handful of magazines on the desk and flipped on a light.

“No,” she said. “I would never do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s your desk.”

His face was sober. “But you were thinking of it.”

“I was actually thinking about you and Mom,” Deborah said. And yes, it had crossed her mind to check the desk, though she hadn’t drummed up the courage to actually do it. “I would have liked to have had a marriage like yours.”

“You thought you did. I thought you were rushing. He was a hippie, for God’s sake, but you said that was what made him special.”

“It was.”

“Arguable, given what he’s done since, but back then you said you’d found the right guy and that if you waited until after med school, he’d be gone.”

“He was,” Deborah remarked.

“He wasn’t gone until two years ago.”

She gave a sad smile. “He was gone long before that.”

“The marriage was bad all along?” Michael asked in surprise.

“Not bad. Just not the same as yours. I chalked it up to our being a two-career couple.”

“You said he was fine with your being a doctor.”

“I thought he was, women’s rights and all. He seemed so modern, the ideal mix of free spirit and realist. At work, he was amazing. He brought unconventional ideas to a conventional field. I thought he was brilliant.” She paused. “I thought he adored me the way you adored Mom.”

“Maybe back then he did.”

“Maybe I misjudged him.”

“Maybe you were too young to judge him at all.”

“Oh, Dad, I was not,” she scolded. “I was no younger when I got married than you were.”

“Things were different in my day. My buddies were being sent to Vietnam, and some of them weren’t coming home. We didn’t have the luxury of time.”

But she shook her head.

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