Free Living Again by L.L. Collins

was embarrassed that she seemingly caught him standing there outside the room. “Please, call me Ben. And you were…”
    “Emily,” she said, holding out her hand. He took it and shook her hand, seeing the mischievous look in her eye. She was a beautiful woman herself, but Ben didn’t feel anywhere near the same as he did when he looked into Kayley’s eyes. “Kayley’s best friend. Did she leave already?”
    Ben felt caught, knowing that she knew that was why he was standing there but not wanting to outright admit that he was keeping track of Kayley and Alexis. “Oh uh, yeah, I think she left a few minutes ago.”
    Emily laughed, breaking the silence of the PICU hallway. “Ben,” she started, putting her small hand on his forearm. “Don’t stand here and pretend that you weren’t up here looking for Kayley and that you don’t know exactly how many seconds ago she left.”
    Ben couldn’t help it, he laughed. He liked this girl. She reminded him of his younger sister, Lindsay. She never minced words with him either. He held up his hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, you got me,” he smiled, feeling immediately like he could trust her. “She left…” he made a point of looking at the watch on his left arm, “Three minutes and twenty nine seconds ago.”
    “And did you ask her out? I saw the way you looked at her in that exam room downstairs. I might be married, but even I know the look a man gives a woman when he’s interested.”
    Ben blew out the breath he had been holding. “Well, I tried.” He ran his hands through his hair again. “I can’t explain why I feel so drawn to her, Emily. I mean, she’s beautiful and obviously a good mom, but that’s not why I feel so connected to her. I didn’t know anything about her until ten minutes ago except her name. Hell, I took a chance by coming up here that she wasn’t married. Now I know she has had the worst year of her life. I know she was completely in love with her husband, I can tell that by what she told me. But- I want to know more about her. Who she is. Whether there is something there with us.”
    “What did she say?” Emily’s voice was soft, her expression kind. They moved to the side as a mom pulled a toddler in a wagon down the hallway, an IV bag attached to the pole on the wagon. The toddler squealed in delight.
    “She told me she couldn’t be in a relationship, that she didn’t know if she ever could again,” Ben explained. “But then, when she turned her back to me and was packing Alexis’ things, she told me that she works at In Loving Hands Therapy Center. Then she walked out.”
    A smile lit up Emily’s face. “Really?” she practically jumped up and down. “She did? She told you where she works? Wow.”
    When she had said that to Ben he felt like it was a good sign, but seeing Emily’s reaction, he knew that it definitely was.
    “Don’t give up, Ben,” Emily said, taking out a piece of paper and jotting her number on it. “Here, take this. Just in case.” She winked at Ben and took off down the hallway, her cell to her ear.
    Ben watched her until she disappeared into the elevator, then looked at the scrawled note on the back of the gift shop receipt. He took out his cell phone and programmed Emily’s number in it. His heart pounded as he thought of the feeling he had when he looked into Kayley’s eyes, and hope surged in him as he thought of her telling him where she worked.
    He pivoted down the hallway and headed back to his own floor to see what was going on in the ER, but his thoughts never left the beautiful girl with the painful past.

 
     
    “So, tell me about this doctor,” Kayley’s coworker and friend Rachel sat next to her in the break room, taking out her sandwich and apple.
    Kayley rolled her eyes. It had been two weeks since she had left the hospital with Alexis, and she hadn’t had any issues since the day she was admitted. She had been home with her for the last two weeks, and today was her