Wisteria Island Read online

  “I need to go before I say something I’ll regret.”

  “Danielle, please just think about it. Your job is still there waiting for you. Don’t let Richard take that away from you. Go back with your head held high. You did nothing wrong. Please say you’ll at least think about it.”

  “Fine. I’ll think about it,” she lied.

  “Good.”

  She hung up, walked back to her bedroom and fell face-first onto her new mattress. A bath was too much work. Tonight she just needed to pass out, forget everything that had happened, and try to figure out how to blend into this weird little island.

  Bennett stood on his deck, staring out over the ocean. The light from the moon shone down and provided a dazzling show on the surface of the water, like little pieces of glass reflecting back at him. The beauty of his view was breathtaking each time he looked at it.

  He sat down in his favorite chair and raised his glass of chardonnay. Most men drank beer, but he was a wine guy. His circle of friends had definitely swayed him in his choice of drink. Wine tastings used to be a common pastime for him, even though he hadn’t drunk the stuff until he was well into his thirties.

  He didn’t like to think a lot about his past. It had been a tough upbringing since his mother raised him alone and had no money. She was a hard worker, but there were so many times that they’d had no food in the pantry and only an old box of baking soda in the refrigerator. He vividly remembered different charitable organizations showing up at the door of their single-wide trailer with boxes of food, especially around the holidays. It was always an exciting time to rip open the boxes and find out what had been donated. His mother had always been frugal with what they would get, trying desperately to make it last.

  Bennett had taken those experiences and tried to use his money to help others. He had two charities that gave food to the poor, and not just around the holiday season. People needed food all year round, and his organizations focused on that.

  Although he’d adored his mother, he never wanted to be in that position again. With his financial wealth, he’d never be poor again. Mathematically, it was impossible unless he just suddenly gave all of his money away.

  Still, he was poor in other areas of his life, mainly in relationships. Finding a woman to share his life with had been difficult. Most were interested in his money and what he could buy them. When they found out he wasn’t that stereotypical rich guy, they bolted. He was more interested in giving back to the world than buying fancy cars and partying on yachts.

  What he’d learned about having money was that it didn’t buy happiness. It bought opportunities. It bought stability. It bought freedom. It didn’t buy happiness because happiness couldn’t be bought. Happiness required trust and vulnerability. Happiness required jumping without a parachute. Bennett wasn’t good at those things. Trust was not something that was hard-wired into him.

  He had also learned that money just made people more of who they already were. So many of his wealthy friends just became greedier as they earned more money. Some people became more unhappy or more depressed. Money was like a spotlight that showed the true nature of the person who earned it.

  He looked over at his phone sitting on the table next to him and thought for a moment about calling Danielle and asking how the mattress was working out. Realizing it sounded very inappropriate to ask an employee a question like that, he turned his phone off and finished his glass of wine.

  Maybe the price of his wealth was being alone for the rest of his life. If that’s what it cost him, it was a very high price.

  Danielle had never slept so well in her life. She’d snuggled into her new bed like someone who’d never had a bed. As she drifted off to sleep, she thought only briefly about her first day at work tomorrow. Would the patients like her? Would she like them? Would any of them show up nude?

  She woke up once during the night to take a drink of water. Her cottage got awfully dry, especially since it was right on the water. She decided to buy a humidifier if she ever got back to the mainland. Maybe Amazon delivered there?

  It didn’t take her long to fall back asleep, and she was in a deep sleep when she heard the noise. A loud banging on her front door. Someone yelling. A man. A very gruff, deep-voiced man. Startled, she grabbed the baseball bat she’d brought with her for protection and headed toward the front door. Thankfully, she was wearing a full set of pajamas instead of her normal t-shirt only attire.

  “Who’s there?” she called from the other side of the door.

  “Are you the nurse?” the man called, a hint of pain in his voice. She quickly unlocked the door and found a man standing there, doubled over. He was holding his right side and wincing.

  “Here, let me help you,” she said, gently taking his arm and helping him inside. She kicked the door shut behind her and helped him onto the small couch. He leaned back and groaned, a grimace on his face. “I’m Danielle. And you are?”

  “Frank,” he said, through painful breaths. “Frank Cooper.”

  “Show me where the pain is, Frank.”

  He pointed to his upper right side, which made appendicitis unlikely. “What did you eat last?”

  “Fried chicken.”

  “Frank, do you still have your gallbladder?”

  “Yes,” he said, his face contorting in pain.

  “I believe you’re having a gallbladder attack.” She felt very under prepared, given that she had no medical tools at her new home. They were all sitting in her new office, which she hadn’t visited yet. She looked down at her watch. Three-twenty in the morning.

  “It hurts a lot,” he said, turning slightly onto his left side to try to ease his pain.

  “I know it does. I’m going to make a call, okay? Just stay right here.” She ran to find her phone and quickly dialed Bennett’s cell phone number. Thankfully, it was on his business card, and she’d programmed it into her phone for emergencies.

  “Hello?” he said groggily.

  “Bennett, it’s Danielle.”

  “Danielle? Are you okay?” She thought it was a weird question, but she let it pass.

  “Frank Cooper just showed up at my house, and I think he’s having a gallbladder attack. He needs to be taken to the hospital.”

  “Oh wow. Okay. I’ll call for transport and head to your place.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” She hung up the phone and rushed back to Frank. He wasn’t looking good, and she wondered if he might have pancreatitis instead of gallbladder issues. Without her normal imaging equipment, her hands were tied.

  This wasn’t what she was used to. In a hospital setting, she had access to blood testing, MRI and CT machines and the finest medical minds. On this island, she had a medical bag, a small office and a phone to call for paramedics. It made her feel limited. In that moment, she realized she was now much more of a small-town nurse than an experienced ICU professional.

  A few minutes later, Bennett walked through the front door, his hair spiky and the look of sleep still in his eyes. “I called for help. They should be here within twenty minutes.”

  “Twenty minutes?” Frank yelled, groaning in pain as he clutched his right side.

  “They’re coming, Frank. Just hang on, okay?” Danielle said, rubbing his shoulder. Bennett motioned for her to come to the kitchen, away from Frank.

  “Is he going to be okay?”

  “I have no idea. I don’t have any way to assess him on this island.”

  “He’s eighty-one years old. I just hope they can get him to the hospital in time.” She could tell Bennett was genuinely concerned.

  “If it’s gallbladder related, I think he’ll be fine.”

  “Do you think that’s what it is?”

  “I’m really just guessing here, Bennett. But, yes, that’s my best guess.”

  She was looking forward to getting into her office in a few hours and seeing exactly what tools she had for assessing her patients. If it wasn’t adequate, she’d take up that fight with her new employer.
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br />   She continued working to make Frank as comfortable as possible, but gallbladder attacks were painful. There wasn't a lot she could do but hold his hand and tell him everything was going to be okay.

  It seemed like forever before the paramedics finally arrived and transported Frank to the mainland. She assumed riding in a boat with a gallbladder attack wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing Frank had probably ever done.

  "I hope he'll be all right. He really doesn't have any family. We're all he has," Bennett said as he watched the boat disappear out of sight. It was a dark night with very little moonlight.

  "I'm sure they'll take good care of him." They turned and started walking back toward Danielle's cottage. "I'm exhausted. I have a big day tomorrow, so I’d better go try to get some sleep."

  Bennett nodded. "You did a good job tonight, Danielle. I think you're going to fit in very well here."

  She smiled and walked up the stairs to the porch. He might have had confidence in her, but she was questioning her decision to take the job on Wisteria Island more than ever. If her hands were tied when it came to taking care of the patients adequately, she didn't want the job.

  Chapter 5

  The morning came early for Danielle. As she opened her eyes, the first glints of sunlight peaked through her blinds, assaulting her senses. It had been a long night, including when the hospital had called to let her know a status update on Frank.

  Turned out she was right. It was his gallbladder, and he would get it removed today. They said that he could come home in a couple of days unless there were any complications. Of course, Danielle would need to help take care of him and make sure he wasn't overdoing it once he got back to the island.

  She quickly got ready, downed a cup of coffee and a banana, and headed outside. It was a beautiful day, as most days were on the island, and she was looking forward to seeing her new office. Maybe she would be pleasantly surprised, although that hadn't been her experience so far on the island.

  "Hey there!" Gladys said, waving as she walked by. She had a little dog on a leash, dressed up in a pink tutu.

  "Good morning, Gladys. How are you today?"

  Gladys stopped and shrugged her shoulders. “It's always a good day if I wake up on this side of the ground.”

  Danielle laughed. "I guess that's one way to look at it. Well, I had better be going. First day at work."

  She smiled. "Can I give you a piece of advice?"

  "Of course."

  "Don't let these old fogeys get you down!" With that, she continued walking her little dog, humming a song loudly to herself as she went.

  Danielle wasn't sure exactly what was going on in Gladys' brain, but maybe she was just happier than everybody else. Maybe they were the ones with the problem, and Gladys was doing just fine.

  As she turned left down the main street where most of the businesses were, she found her office tucked between the coffee shop and the salon. She pulled the key that Bennett had given her out of her pocket and unlocked the door. Thankfully, nobody was there yet, so she'd have a bit of time to look around.

  Naomi had texted her and let her know that the schedule was pretty full, starting around eight AM. That would give her about thirty minutes to get her bearings before the first patient arrived.

  When she walked in, she was pretty surprised to find such a spacious office. There was a nice, large waiting room with a flat screen TV on the wall. The big picture window overlooked the street, and her office was across from the sandwich shop so she could see people milling about for the day.

  Beyond the waiting room was the door to the back, where she would be working. She opened it and found three exam rooms and a central area with a large table top for her to work. There was already a laptop sitting there, along with tongue depressors, cotton balls, and gauze pads.

  She looked around for an x-ray machine but found none. That would be the first thing on her list to bug Bennett about. An x-ray machine was the very bare minimum that a nurse would need to care for an island full of elderly people. What if somebody broke a hip?

  Thankfully, she found equipment to run bloodwork. She would definitely need that. Of course, there was no CT or MRI machine, and she didn't like her chances of ever getting that kind of thing. If she could get the x-ray machine and run bloodwork, she might have a chance of really being able to help people.

  A part of what she liked to do in her spare time was study natural health remedies. Of course, working in the ICU didn't lend itself well to that sort of thing, so she was looking forward to being able to branch out a bit. Still, she was unsure about this job. Did she really want to give up the big, prestigious career she’d built and opt instead to take care of an island full of rapidly aging people? Today would be an interesting adventure.

  Just as she was sanitizing each of the rooms, she heard the front door open. Evidently, her first patient of the day had arrived.

  When she walked out into the waiting room, it surprised her to see Morty standing there. He didn't look nearly as happy as he had when she met him at dinner the other night. Dressed in a simple golf shirt and tan slacks, he wasn't wearing his flamboyant attire.

  “Hi, Morty. I didn't expect to see you here this morning.”

  "Well, dear, it's been a rough day so far. I believe my blood pressure is acting up."

  "Well, that's not good. Come on back and I’ll check it."

  Morty followed her to the back and sat down in a little chair next to the blood pressure machine. She put it around his small arm and pressed the button. Many people liked to take blood pressure manually, but she was pretty happy relying on the machine to do it.

  "Oh, goodness, your blood pressure is a bit high. Do you take a beta blocker or a calcium channel blocker?"

  He stared at her, his eyes wide. "I don't take any medications."

  "You don't? None?"

  "No, ma'am. I made it to the ripe old age of sixty-seven years old without taking medications. I don't plan to start now!"

  "Well, this blood pressure is pretty high. In your age bracket, that makes it very dangerous. I suggest we get you on a prescription of beta blockers to help…"

  He put up his little hand, which was adorned with several gaudy rings. "Honey, I'm not taking any pills.”

  "Can I ask you why?"

  Morty smiled. "I'm one of those hippie dippy granola eating natural health kind of people. You should've seen me back in the sixties. I was a sight to behold," he said, smiling.

  "But you understand that having high blood pressure is very dangerous. You could have a stroke or heart attack."

  "Darling, anything could happen to any of us. I hoped that you could help me figure out some holistic things to do to help my blood pressure."

  She smiled and squeezed his shoulder before taking off the blood pressure cuff. "That's not really my forte. I am much more of a Western medicine-based nurse, although I have been doing some studying about juicing. I don’t know a whole lot about natural blood pressure reduction."

  "Well, we can all change, can't we?"

  "Morty, it sounds like you really need to see a nutritionist or something along those lines."

  "You're a nurse. You're supposed to help us," he said, a more stern look on his face.

  "I'm trying to help you. My advice is to take a beta blocker."

  He groaned under his breath. "This is why other nurses don't last here. You must be the most inflexible people God ever made. The people of this island came here because they're different. We want to live long, healthy lives. We don't want to be put on a bunch of pills and treated like we don't matter." He turned and started walking toward the door.

  "Morty! I didn't mean to offend you. It's just that I think you should be on medication for your blood pressure…"

  He turned around. "If you're going to stay here, you have to adjust to the island. The people of this island will not adjust to you," he said, staring at her for a moment longer before turning and walking out the door.

  Daniell
e was stunned. He seemed so happy-go-lucky, so laid-back. What on earth had caused him to get so riled up that quickly? Feeling a little shellshocked, she was glad that she had a few minutes before her next patient was due to arrive. If everybody acted like this, she might need blood pressure medicine by the end of the day.

  Bennett wondered how Danielle was getting on with her patients. He was afraid to stop by and ask for fear that she might actually tell him.

  He knew today was pivotal. Every other nurse had left almost right after their first day. Very few of them had stayed much longer. The residents of the island could be challenging, to say the least. Each one of them had their own distinct personality, and they all depended on the nurse.

  He thought many times about hiring more than one nurse or bringing on a doctor. It’d been stressful enough just trying to keep a nurse on the island, much less a staff of medical professionals.

  Still, he knew that the people who lived on the island were different. They were there for that very reason. Most of their families had decided they didn't want to be bothered with them. Or they felt like they didn't fit in and wanted to go somewhere they would be accepted.

  Nobody on the island was there accidentally.

  Bennett remembered going on a cruise one time in December. Not having a lot of family, he had decided to get away for the holidays. He was sitting at a table full of people that seemed absolutely crazy. They had assigned him to sit with these people at dinner time, and he wished he could’ve ordered room service for every meal.

  When he was talking to one worker on the ship, she explained that the craziest people went on cruises in December because their own family didn't want them home for the holidays. Bennett thought she was joking, but when he started running the island he realized that sometimes families really do cast off members that don't fit in.

  But he loved all the residents of the island, the difficult ones and the easy ones. He accepted them all. He still had hope that Danielle could do the same.