Free Blue Skies by Catherine Anderson Page B

started coming on to her, she actually believed all your hokey lines.” Bess made a sound of frustration. “Oh, she says now that she actually didn’t, that she just went with the moment, knowing deep down that it was all a bunch of blarney. But I’ve known her all her life. On some level, she believed every miserable lie you told her. Otherwise, she never would have gotten in the truck with you.”
    Hank’s heart gave a painful twist. Oh, God. He remembered wondering if Carly were fresh out of a convent or something. He hadn’t realized at the time how close he was to guessing the truth. He’d been one of the first men she’d ever seen at close range? His own voice rang in his memory. You’re so damned beautiful. When I first saw you, my heart damned near stopped beating. Where have you been hiding all my life, darlin’? He’d come on like a high wind.
    Hank couldn’t blame Bess for lighting into him, and he listened in miserable silence as she went on to tell him that this pregnancy could have an adverse affect on Carly’s lattice dystrophy. “Her first SK may not last as long as it should now, and her specialist advises against her getting a second one while she’s pregnant. Do you understand what that means, Hank? My friend, who’s waited twenty-eight years to finally see, may go blind again during this pregnancy and remain that way until the child’s born. To make matters even worse, she’ll no longer be eligible for special grants to help her finish school. In order to be reinstated as legally blind and become eligible for the financial aid again, she’ll have to undergo another SK and a corneal transplant, and both procedures must fail. How do you think that’s going to affect her studies, not to mention her finances?”
    Bracing an elbow on his knees, Hank pressed a knotted fist to his forehead. Shit, shit, shit!
    “Having a baby will be expensive, too,” Bess added.
    “Doesn’t she have insurance?”
    “A major medical policy with a rider for eyes that her dad got right before she graduated from college, but it only covers eighty percent.”
    “She has private insurance? I thought she was a teacher.”
    “She was a teacher, but she knew from the start that she would leave the job in two years to attend grad school. Her group coverage stopped the moment she quit.”
    “Couldn’t she get on Cobra until school convened and she could get student insurance?”
    “Cobra is frightfully expensive, especially with eye coverage, and she could only stay on it for eighteen months.”
    That seemed like plenty of time to Hank until Bess added, “Carly had no guarantee that her first eye surgery would be successful. If it hadn’t been, the specialist would have waited to let her eyes recover, and then he would have done a corneal transplant, lengthening the time before she could start attending classes and qualify for student insurance. Even if Cobra had extended her coverage on the preexisting condition, she couldn’t have paid the huge premiums for any length of time.”
    “Ah.”
    “When you’ve got an ongoing condition like Carly’s that will require numerous surgeries and you’re not yet ready to settle into a permanent career job because you want to further your education, you have to look ahead and make sure you’ll always have insurance, no matter what. Too many things can go wrong. If you let your private coverage lapse, your chances of finding another private insurer to take you on are slim. Most times, they won’t even consider accepting someone with a serious preexisting condition. The only reason she was able to get the coverage she has is because she’d been covered for years under her father’s policy. When she finished college and became ineligible as his dependent, his provider was obligated to give her coverage under her own policy.”
    Barely able to concentrate, Hank passed a hand over his eyes, trying to remember how they’d gotten off on a discussion about insurance.