Leave the Pieces (Strawberry Inn Book #5)

Chapter 27

GLENN

I stayed with Emory and Callum for two more days to make sure he was fully over his virus before heading back to the city. I was tempted to ask them to come along, but Emory needed to get work done and I didn’t know what these days were going to look like. I had a meeting tomorrow morning with the head of my department and our medical director to hand in my resignation. I’m pretty sure Ralph knew what I was going to say at the meeting. I could hear the disappointment in his voice. Resigning from my position would undoubtedly make the hospital look bad and be a mark on my work history. Considering I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, besides be with my family, it was a risk I was willing to take.

My house was way too quiet when I got home, but I wasn’t staying there long anyway. I took a quick shower to scrub the five-hour car ride off of me and then traveled across town to see Julio and Tina. They were the closest thing I had to family before I met Emory and they both deserved to hear this life-changing news from me and not through the gossip vines.

“Gosh, you are a sight for sore eyes!” Tina opened the door before I even had the chance to ring or knock. I handed her the bottle of wine I brought over and gave her a side hug as we walked in the door.

“Good to see you too, but don’t let your husband hear the way you’re talking to me,” I teased.

“Doesn’t matter, brother,” Julio shouted as he walked into the foyer to greet me as well, “she wears the pants in the relationship and brings home the bacon. What am I going to do? Kick her out?”

“Pssh,” Tina scoffs and moves from my side to her husband’s, “You know Glenn has nothing on you, baby.”

“I think you just insulted me again.”

“I did,” she winked my way. “Strawberry Vineyard?” She asked, looking at the label on the wine.

“Yeah, that’s the place Emory’s parents own. It’s good stuff and she practically has a wine cellar in her house. She told me to bring you that one, it is her favorite.”

“Yummy, I’m going to open it right now. Are you cool with that?”

“I’ll take a glass, but that’s it. I haven’t had much to eat today and I learned the hard way that stuff is stronger than it seems.”

“Well then that is my type of wine, your girl has good taste.”

I follow Julio into the living room while Tina goes into the kitchen, returning in a few minutes with some wine glasses and the bottle uncorked. She pours herself a healthy dose while Julio and I opt for just a normal serving size. I meant what I said about it being high in alcohol content. We shared a bottle the night we ate Cody and Blair’s dinner and I almost tumbled up the stairs to get to bed and woke up with a killer hangover. 

“I’m glad to hear that Callum was fine,” Tina mentions. “I bet that was really scary to get that phone call.”

“I can’t even describe the panic that ensued the moment I heard her voice on the phone. I knew right away something was terribly wrong.”

“Did they ever find out the cause of the illness?” Julio asked.

“We think it may have been a virus that Esme, Emory’s niece, passed to him unknowingly. His parents feel bad, but kids are germy, it could have happened to anybody.”

“Even sick kids are germy,” Tina adds. “I’m not sure a winter has passed without me catching at least one cold from a patient. Even when we mask up, I swear it still lingers in the air.”