It took two hours and three titanium screws to do the reconstruction on Timmy Jones. When she came out of the operating room, she found Timmy's mother and father in the waiting room. She assured them Timmy would probably regain full use of his ankle, but it would be some time before he could play hockey.
Seven-thirty.
She called her office and used her code to retrieve two messages her secretary had left before she went home for the day. Her one o'clock for the next day had canceled, and a pediatrician from Farley Bay wanted to consult on a ballerina with scoliosis.
She called the house.
No messages. Of course, it was nowhere near dark. In mid-August, it was light here in Seattle until almost nine. Night would fall even later up north in Prince Rupert where Chris was.
She went into the physicians' lounge and found Alex studying a medical journal, his feet up on a coffee table.
"Timmy okay?"
"Three screws," she said. "It was a mess, but it should heal well."
"Ready for dinner?"
"Chris hasn't called yet." Two boys kayaking north through British Columbia's Inside Passage. Both Chris and Jordy were experienced with kayaks and the wilderness, but what if something had happened to them? "I think I'd better go home."
Alex folded his journal. "Don't they have a cell phone? You could call."
"Cell phones are useless where they are. Too many mountains."
"Right, then. We'll go to your place, order pizza and wait for Chris to call."
"I'll cook us something."
Chris must be in Prince Rupert by now, busy organizing a place to stay for the night. Or maybe they'd pitched their tent at a campsite where there was no phone.
Outside, the sun lay low in the sky, nestled between two towers in the financial district. Emma pulled her keys out of her purse. As they parted, heading for separate cars, Alex said, "I'm sure Chris is fine."
"Of course he's fine," she agreed, but with the hospital at her back she could think of a dozen things that might have gone wrong. She voiced none of them, because she'd vowed she wouldn't be an overprotective parent like her father, and she'd fought from Chris's birth to keep the fears suppressed.
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