Accidental Family. Joan Elliott Pickart

Patty said.

      “One moment, please.”

      Two seconds of music played, then a new voice came on the line.

      “Emergency.”

      “Yes,” Patty said, wishing her voice was steadier. “I’m inquiring as to whether a David Montgomery has been brought into the emergency room there at Mercy Hospital.”

      “Are you a member of his immediate family?”

      “Oh, well, I…” Patty said, her mind racing. “Yes. Yes, I am. I’m… I’m his wife. I’m out of town, you see, and phoned the house and David wasn’t there, and I’m so worried and…”

      “Let me check, Mrs. Montgomery.”

      More music echoed in Patty’s ear and she drew a shuddering breath.

      “Mrs. Montgomery?”

      “Yes?”

      “I’m sorry to tell you this, ma’am, but your husband has been in an automobile accident and was brought here to Mercy. We tried to contact next of kin and finally found your home number through the operator as a new listing, but no one answered the phone.”

      “I’m not there. I mean, I’m out of town as I said. Please tell me how David is.”

      “Mr. Montgomery is in surgery at the moment to set a broken leg.”

      “Oh, God,” Patty whispered.

      “He also sustained a blow to the head, has a concussion and we’ll be monitoring him closely through the night for that. I know you want to get here as quickly as possible but please travel safely. We’ll be waking him through the night because of his head injury but we fully expect him to be groggy. He really wouldn’t know you are here.”

      “I understand,” Patty said. “Thank you. Thank you very much for your time. Goodbye.”

      Patty dropped the receiver back into place and pressed her hands to her cheeks, feeling how cold her palms were against her flushed skin.

      Go back to thinking, she ordered herself. What to do, what to do. Think. Okay. She was calming down. Gathering the facts. David was battered but alive. Mercy Hospital was the best in Ventura. But any wife worth the title would drive above the speed limit to sit by his side, whether he knew she was there or not.

      But she wasn’t David’s wife, and when she’d been Peter’s wife she hadn’t been worthy of the title, so…so she was going to operate in the role she did best. Mother. David was receiving the best of care and she would see to it that his daughter did the same.

      Patty left the office and went to the table where the children were sitting.

      “I have a wonderful surprise for you two,” she said, forcing a bright smile onto her face. “Sarah Ann is coming home with us, Tucker, and spending the night. Isn’t that fun, Sarah Ann?”

      “I want my daddy,” the little girl said.

      “Your daddy had a very important place he had to go tonight, honey,” Patty said, “and you’re going to have a wonderful time at our house. Tucker has toys to share with you and we’ll eat dinner together and… Okay? Sure. Now let’s get your snack stuff in the trash and off we go.”

      “This is great, Sarah Ann,” Tucker said. “We’ll have a play date and a sleepover. ’Kay?”

      Sarah Ann nodded slowly. “’Kay.”

      Bless you, Tucker, Patty thought. And David? Hear me, please, somehow, somehow, hear me. Don’t worry about Sarah Ann because I’ll tend to her as though she were my own. I swear I will. Just be all right, David. Please, please, please, just be all right.

      The next morning Patty sat at the large oak table in the huge sunny kitchen at her parents’ home. Her mother, Hannah, sat opposite her daughter, a frown on her face as she listened to Patty’s tale of David and Sarah Ann. Hannah Sharpe had the same coloring as Patty, with a few gray strands now visible in her dark hair.

      “So, there you have it,” Patty said. “I called the hospital this morning to tell David that Sarah Ann was with me, safe and sound, but the nurse on his floor said he was in X-ray. Since I’m pretending to be his wife I couldn’t leave a message saying that Patty from the Fuzzy Bunny is tending to his daughter. So, I need to get to the hospital to put David’s mind at ease. Thank you for watching Tucker, Sarah Ann and Sophia while I go.”

      “Oh, that’s no problem,” Hannah said. “Tucker and Sarah Ann are so cute together. With their dark hair they look enough alike to be brother and sister. And you know I adore getting my hands on Sophia Hannah.”

      “I really appreciate this,” Patty said, getting to her feet. “Well, off I go. Good grief, I’m so nervous. How do you tell a man that you sort of kidnapped his daughter?”

      “What you did was very caring, very thoughtful and loving,” Hannah said, rising.

      “I hope David views it that way, but it was the only solution I could come up with.” Patty paused. “Where’s Dad?”

      “Playing golf with your Uncle Ryan. Neither one of them is a threat to Tiger Woods but they have a very good time. Off you go. You’ve already said goodbye to the kiddos so just be on your way. David Montgomery must be sick with worry this morning over what happened to Sarah Ann when he didn’t arrive to pick her up last night.”

      “You’re right. At least I can assure him that Sarah Ann is fine. But, oh, dear heaven, I am just so nervous.”

      At Mercy Hospital, Patty was directed to the third floor and given the room number for David Montgomery. She stood outside the closed door and smoothed the hem of her red top over the waistband of her jeans, acutely aware that her hands were not quite steady.

      Get it together, she ordered herself. She was being so ridiculous. It wasn’t as though she’d done an unforgivable thing by taking Sarah Ann home last night, and had to beg for David’s forgiveness or… Oh, stop thinking, Patty.

      She knocked on the door and heard a muffled directive to come in.

      Forget it. She didn’t want to come in, Patty thought. She was turning around and going home. She was… Darn it, enough of this nonsense.

      She pushed the door open and entered the room.

      “I…um…hello,” she said, as the door hushed closed behind her.

      David Montgomery was propped up against the pillows on the bed, a bandage at the hairline above his right eye. His right leg was in a cast from below the knee to the tips of his toes and suspended above the bed by a complicated-looking apparatus. He was pale despite his tawny skin. He was also staring at her with wide eyes and his mouth had dropped open a tad.

      A short man in his fifties, wearing a white coat and standing next to the bed, smiled and approached Patty.

      “I’m Dr. Floyd Hill,” he said, his smile growing even bigger. “I’m assuming you’re Mrs. Montgomery, and I must say we are very glad to see you. This will solve a great many unanswered questions for us.”

      “Oh, no, I’m not Mrs. Montgomery,” Patty said. “I’m not married to anyone. I’m Patty Clark and I have David’s daughter Sarah Ann.”

      “I didn’t marry you?” David said, shifting up on one elbow. “You gave birth to my child and I didn’t marry you? What kind of bum am I?”

      “Huh?” Patty said, totally confused.

      “Oh, my head,” David said, easing back onto the pillow and pressing the heels of his hands to his temples. “It’s going to fall off and roll across the floor. Break it to me gently. Do you have any other kids I should know about?”

      “Me? Well, yes,” Patty said. “Tucker is three years old and Sophia is three weeks old. Of course, Sarah Ann is three years old, too. We’re really into the number three at