The Wildflower (Completed) (Southern Nights)

Chapter 9

“The Heart of a Wildflower”

2012 Copyright All Rights Reserved

Chapter 9

For the next few hours Elizabeth robotically worked through her shift.  She felt dazed and couldn’t quite wrap her head around the idea that Brandon was actually here, here as in Macon, Georgia.  All these years he was so close and she didn’t even know it.  Since she was his birth mother, she couldn’t help but to think that she should have known or at least felt something, right?  

She slumped down in a chair at the Nurses station, leaned her head back and closed her eyes.  Maybe, she thought to herself, this was just God’s way of telling her that it wasn’t meant to be.  She wasn’t meant to be a mother.  The thought should have made her feel better, but instead it left her with a heavy, sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.  Between Zeb’s unexpected arrival and her discovery of Brandon, she felt like she had been put through the ringer, twice.

“Hel-lo!  Lizzie… earth to Lizzie.  Anyone home?”

Elizabeth popped her eyes open and jumped in her seat when she found herself face to face with Chris. He was bent over at the waist and no less than two inches from her nose.  Clutching her chest, she let out a slow, relieved breath.  “Damn it Chris!  You scared the living daylights out of me.”

Chris straightened up to his full six foot figure and laughed at her.  “Man,” he grinned and leaned his back up against the counter. “Zeb must have put you under some kind of spell.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this out of sorts.  That is the third time today that I have caught you staring off into space.” He cocked his head to the side and studied her.  “That’s not like you either.  Should I be worried?”

Elizabeth covered her face with her hands and fought the instinct to snap at Chris.  He didn’t know half the story and she wasn’t inclined to tell him either.  “No,” she groaned.  “I’ll be alright.  I’ve just got a lot on my mind and I need to work it out on my own.  I’m tired, I’m irritable and I’m currently PMS’ing.  What is it that you need from me this time?”

Chris pushed himself off the counter, took a cautious step back and held up his hands.  “Look, I don’t know who pissed in your cornflakes this morning but you need to get over it.  I’m worried about you and I want to know if everything is okay with this Zeb guy because if not, I’ll take him out.  All you have to do is say the word.  I don’t like seeing you like this.”

She let out a ragged sigh and mentally cursed herself for jumping down Chris's throat.  It wasn’t his fault that her life was going to hell in hand basket. “I’m sorry,” she quickly apologized and felt as if all the wind in her sail had blown out of her.  “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.  You’re right.  I know that you are worried but I just have a lot on my mind today, okay?”

She didn’t miss the clearly etched sympathy in his expression.  “Hey,” Chris came forward and lifted her out the chair as if she weighed next to nothing.  He wrapped his arms around her small frame and hugged her to his chest.  “Everything’s going to be alright.”  He squeezed her once more and then set her back from him.  “All I was trying to do was tell you that you had a phone call.”

“Oh,” she said and frowned.  “That’s all.”

“That’s it.” He gestured behind him with his thumb.  “Line four.”

“Eh,” she embarrassingly smiled. She’d have to remember next time she stopped at the Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to pick Chris up a dozen of his favorite glazed doughnuts for putting up with her bad attitude.  “Thank you… for you know, well everything.”