Free Coast Road by Barbara Delinsky Page A

I'm in neurology, second under Dr. Bauer. He checked your wife before he left. She's holding her own. " "But not awake yet. He mentioned cranial pressure. What's happening there? " "It's the same."
    "Then the drip isn't helping? " "It may be, since she isn't getting worse. We'll have to wait a little longer to see improvement."
    "And there's nothing else we can do in the meantime? " he asked, hearing Samantha in the words, but hell, he was scared, too.
    "Not yet. Are those your girls? " Kara Bates asked with a glance toward the room.
    On the other side of the glass, Katherine had coaxed Hope to Rachel's bedside. Though Samantha was nearly as tall as Katherine and a head taller than Hope, both girls looked very blond, very young, very frightened.
    "I'm not sure I should have brought them. They might have been better off at home. I keep telling them this is temporary, but it's hard for them to see. I don't know what to say to make it better."
    "Let me give it a try, Kara said.
    Willing to forgive her the pretense of power pearls if she succeeded, Jack walked her back to the room, but he waited at the door while she went inside. Gently, she told the girls much of what Steve Bauer had told him earlier. They listened. Their eyes went from Rachel's face to Kara's and back. They nodded when Kara asked if they understood, and didn't balk when she told them what they could and should do. By the time she was done, Hope was standing at Rachel's side under her own power and Samantha was holding her mother's hand�and suddenly Jack felt angry that two strangers, two women who were no relation at all to his daughters, had been able to reach them when he couldn't.
    His family wasn't supposed to be like that. His family was supposed to be cohesive and communicative. It was supposed to be everything his childhood family hadn't been.
    Turning against a sense of failure, he strode down the hall to the phone.
    FIGHTING mental static, he made two calls. Both were to San Fran cisco.
    "Sung and McGill said Christina Cianni. She had been with Jack since the firm's inception, back then as receptionist, general assistant, overall gofer. The ten years she had on Jack didn't show. Her hair was a rich mahogany, her olive skin smooth as ever, her smile ready, her manner calming. Sitting at the front desk in those early years, she had conveyed an aura of success long before they had any. Now she manned the front phone only when the regular receptionist was on break.
    She divided the rest of her time between keeping the books and doing PR. The most precious of her traits was her undying loyalty to Jack.
    "Hi he said in relief when her voice cut through the static in his head. She was an anchor in his suddenly topsy-turvy world.
    "Jack! I'm so sorry to hear about Rachel! How is she? " "Comatose.
    Her injuries wouldn't be all that serious if it weren't for the one to the head. But that's a tough one. I don't know what's going to happen."
    "I can't begin to picture it. I'm so, so sorry. How are the girls? " "Scared."
    "Do you think she'd be better off at a hospital up here? " "Not yet.
    This team seems on top of things, and if they are, there's no point moving her. But I want an expert to tell me for sure. Can you get me the name of the best neurologist in the city? " "Done she said with blessed confidence.
    "What's happening there? " There was a pause, then a pregnant "You don't want to know."
    "We lost Montana? " "Worse. We didn't. They rescheduled for next Tuesday." He was tired enough to laugh. Only Tina understood him enough to put it that way. She had seen him through years of increasing success when the adrenaline was rushing and wild dreams were coming true. But something had happened to the joy.
    Lately, it was harder to come by. Lately, there was less actual designing, less creative satisfaction, and more business meetings, one after another after another after another.
    "I should be flattered he said. "What about Napa? " He had designed a restaurant