Read Year One for Free Online Page A

learn his way around.
    As he stepped to the elevators, a slightly built, pretty black woman in a white lab coat and black Nikes stepped off.
    His mind cleared. “Dr. Hopman.”
    â€œMr. Parsoni, how’s Katie?”
    â€œIt’s Tony, and she’s trying to rest. Everything’s good. No contractions for the last hour, and the babies are both fine. They want to keep her at least overnight, probably for a few days. She’s asking about her mom, so I was coming up to check.”
    â€œWhy don’t we sit down over here?”
    He’d worked in his family’s sports equipment store since childhood—managed the main branch now. He knew how to read people.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI’m so sorry, Tony.” She took his arm, guided him to the chairs. “I told Dr. Gerson I’d come down, but I can have him paged, have him come talk to you.”
    â€œNo, I don’t know him, I don’t need that.” He dropped down, lowered his head into his hands. “What’s happening? I don’t understand what’s happening. Why did they die?”
    â€œWe’re running tests, looking for the nature of the infection. We believe they contracted it in Scotland, as your father-in-law had symptoms before he left. Katie said they stayed on a farm, in Dumfries?”
    â€œYeah, the family farm—a cousin’s farm. It’s a great place.”
    â€œA cousin?”
    â€œYeah, Hugh, Hugh MacLeod. And Millie. God, I need to tell them. Tell Rob, tell Ian. What do I tell Katie?”
    â€œCan I get you some coffee?”
    â€œNo, thanks. What I could use is a good, stiff drink, but…” He had to be strong, he remembered, and wiped at his tears with the heels of his hands. “I’ll settle for a Coke.”
    When he started to get up, Rachel put a hand on his arm. “I’ll get it. Regular?”
    â€œYeah.”
    She walked over to the vending machines, dug out change. A farm, she thought. Pigs, chickens. A possible strain of swine or bird flu?
    Not her area, but she’d get the information, pass it on.
    She brought Tony the Coke. “If you’d give me the contact information on Hugh MacLeod and for Ross MacLeod’s brother, it may help us.”
    She took it all, keyed them into her phone. The cousin, the twin brother, the son, even the nephews, as Tony offered them.
    â€œTake my number.” She took his phone, added it to his contacts list. “Call me if there’s something I can do. Are you planning on staying with Katie tonight?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œI’ll set that up for you. I’m sorry, Tony. Very sorry.”
    He let out a long breath. “Ross and Angie, they were … I loved them like my own ma and pop. It helps to know they were withsomebody good, somebody, you know, caring, at the end. It’ll help Katie knowing that, too.”
    He walked back to Katie’s room, walked slowly, even deliberately taking a wrong turn once to give himself more time.
    When he went in, saw her lying there, staring up at the ceiling, her hands protectively cradling the babies inside her, he knew what he had to do.
    For the first time since he’d met her, he lied to her.
    â€œMom?”
    â€œShe’s sleeping. You need to do the same.” Leaning over the bed, he kissed her. “I’m going to run home, pack us some things. Since the food probably sucks in here, I’ll pick us up some lasagna from Carmines. Kids gotta eat.” He patted her belly. “And need some meat.”
    â€œOkay, you’re right. You’re my rock, Tone.”
    â€œYou’ve always been mine. Be back before you know it. No wild parties while I’m gone.”
    Her eyes glimmered, her smile wobbled. But his Katie had always been game. “I already ordered the strippers.”
    â€œTell them to keep it on till I get back.”
    He walked out, trudged to his car. It started to snow in anemic