A Patient Heart...my 2012 Valentine's Day themed release
From
the desk of Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
As a little girl I dreamed about
weddings. Almost every Sunday when my
cousins came over to play I wanted to play wedding so I got the older kids to
gang up on my year-older male cousin (I’ll leave his name out to save his
reputation) to make him play the groom.
He never wanted to pretend to marry me but it never bothered me he got
dragged kicking and screaming to our makeshift altar. As long as I could pull
one of my mamma’s white lacy slips or discarded dresses on, drape something
lacy over my head, and grab a bouquet of fake flowers, I became THE BRIDE.
After I made my First Communion the
way we good little Catholic girls do my first communion veil transformed into a
bridal veil for my weekly weddings and if I didn’t get enough bride fantasy, I
owned a beautiful bride doll and even bride paper dolls. I cut out bride pictures from the Sears and
JC Penney catalogs and dreamed of the day I’d be a ‘real’ bride.
Since Valentine’s Day is this week I
figure I need to tell a romantic story so here we go. At the age of nine I fell head over heels in
love with, well, I guess I won’t tell his name either since he works at a big
time university with a fancy title and a good job. He might not want the world or his wife to
know about our summer flings. For the
sake of story, we’ll just call him ‘Johnny’.
So I fell hard and fast for
Johnny. He lived next door with his many
brothers and sisters (yep, another big Catholic family) to my aunt and
uncle. We spent a lot of time there so
we joined in the never ending baseball game in Johnny’s back yard. Before long I ran through Johnny’s house with
the other kids (his mother probably never noticed a stray) and we decided to
take over the unused apartment over the free standing garage for our ‘club
house’. We talked his mom out of some
old furniture, put a couple of pictures on the walls, and hung out there
together. Since we were just nine and
ten it stayed clean but imagine what could’ve happened if we’d been just a
little older…oh, my! Eventually one of his older brothers realized the sagging
old couch and relative privacy offered endless possibilities so he kicked us
out and brought his girlfriend over.
But I dreamed of marrying Johnny to
an almost obsessive degree. As teens we
played more than a little tackle football but in time my affections turned
elsewhere and so did his. But the sweet
fantasies I spun in those long ago summers when the days lasted longer, the
heat didn’t seem as hot, and the sunlight sparkled golden remained in my
consciousness.
I sat down to write a Valentine’s
Day novel for Rebel Ink Press and my memories of Johnny popped up. He inspired me – how’s that for sweet and
romantic – to write A Patient Heart. Now Johnny isn’t Connor Donavan and his life
doesn’t parallel Connor’s in any way.
But
Johnny is who inspired this opening for my new contemporary Valentine’s Day
release:
Here’s
the blurb:
Excerpt:
Connor nodded as he let his eyes fall shut. He’d be totally out in a few minutes so she didn’t move, still held his hand. Catherine waited until his breathing evened out slow and easy. She watched the monitor and decided he slept deeply now.
“Connor,
you’re the last person I ever expected to turn up,” she said, softly, “but I’m
glad you did. I wouldn’t tell you when you’re awake but I
don’t think I ever quit loving you.”
For
a second, she regretted saying that. He
might recall what she told him but then she shook her head. The morphine would prevent that, she thought
as she unwound her hand from his. She
released him and stood there for just a moment or two more. On impulse, she bent down to press her lips
against the uninjured side of his forehead.
It wasn’t erotic, just the kind of kiss you might give a child but it
made her feel like she’d crossed. “Sweet
dreams,” she said, as she hustled out of the room.
Catherine
reported to the desk and kept a hectic pace for the rest of her shift. At six a.m. when she should be going home,
she stopped in Connor’s room. He slept
but his vitals were strong and when she put her fingers on his right wrist, his
pulse beat steady and slow, just right.
“You’re
doing really well,” she said, even though he wouldn’t hear her but his eyelids
fluttered and he opened his eyes to look up at her. For a moment, confusion clouded them and then
he blinked twice.
“You’re
still here?” It wasn’t a complaint.
“I’m
back,” Catherine said. “I sat here until
you went to sleep and checked on you through my shift. It’s morning now and before long, the doctor
should be up.”
“Will
you be here?” His dark brown eyes stared into hers with intensity.
She
shook her head. “My shift just ended.”
His
face fell. “Oh.”
“I’ll
be back tonight.”
His
sigh ruffled his shoulder length hair, now in disarray across the pillows.
“Okay.”
Catherine
read his disappointment and she said, “I can find out what time your CAT scan’s
scheduled and return so I’ll be here when you’re back from it – if you’d like
me to.”
Connor
brightened so much she almost could swear he didn’t look as pale. “I’d like
that since you’re the only person I know here.”
But maybe you don’t know me now and I wonder
if I still know you, Catherine thought but didn’t share it.
“Then
I’ll be back in a little while,” she promised “and I’ll be here when they bring
you up from your scan.”
Connor met her eyes and nodded, “Thanks,
Catherine.”
At
the nurses’ station she determined his scan time, even spoke with the doctor who
would perform the procedure. Dr. Craig
didn’t seem to think her inquiry strange and she thought, with a wry grin, he must
assume her interest was professional, not personal.
Outside
she stepped into a world of white, snow above her ankles and she wondered if
she could make it home. Street crews
scraped Jefferson Street outside the hospital to the pavement but once she left
it, some of the other streets remained snow packed and slick. At home, she fed her dog Henry, changed from
her scrubs into comfortable old jeans, a favorite sweatshirt and boots. Catherine watered her house plants and took
time to make a cup of tea. Each little
task kept her from thinking, from wondering what she might be getting into with
Connor.
I’m crazy, she thought as she headed
back to the hospital, he could be married;
he might have a girlfriend or more than one.
But he wants me and he seems to need me at least for now so I’ll be
there.
And besides, she reminded herself he said he didn’t
have anyone.
For
right now, this moment in time, he did even if it was just her
On February
14 so somewhere between the roses, the chocolates, the lingerie treat yourself
to a saucy read about an old love brought out of the past and into the present…A Patient Heart!
Available
at All Romance Ebooks, Bookstrand, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon:
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