Waiting for You (RightMatch.com Trilogy) by Kathryn Shay Page B

you.” She smiled warmly. “What can I do for you today?”
     “I’m running errands for our September shindig.” He held up some paperwork. “This has to be rechecked by Nancy Sherwood for the party.”
    “Oh, she’s out today. I can give it to her tomorrow.”
    “And I have to talk to her, too. We need an approximate count of kids who’ll be there.”
     “I’ll make sure she calls you.” Sandy checked the clock. “You have any spare time now?”
    “I got nothing but.”
    “I know a little guy who would love a visit from you.”
    “Yancy? Is he here again?”
    Her face shadowed. In Joe’s opinion, the staff members on this floor were saints for having the emotional stamina to deal with the suffering and maybe death of little kids. “I’m afraid so. The leukemia’s back. He had surgery this week on his leg.”
    Oh, shit. Joe loved this kid. “I wish I’d known.” Joe had taken an interest in the boy two years ago at their September party. Since then, he kept in touch, took Yancy out periodically and tried to be a sort of occasional big brother. He hadn’t seen or talked to him in a month. “Sure, I’ll go down.”
    “He’s in five.”
    When Joe reached the room, he stood in the doorway, watching the boy for a few moments. Yancy was struggling with his crutches, trying to get from the john to his bed. He’d lost his hair again and was alarmingly thin. Yancy wanted badly to play baseball again on his middle-school team, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, if ever.
    “Hey, slugger,” he called out when Yancy finally settled in bed.
    Yancy looked up and a huge grin split his face. “Hey, Sarge. What are you doin’ here?”
    “Paperwork duty for the party in a few weeks.” He rubbed his arm as he walked up to the bed. “Got hurt and I’m off the job for a while.”
    The boy’s eyes widened. There were dark smudges beneath them. “How’d you get hurt?”
    “Shot in the line of duty.”
    “Geez!! Gimme details.”
    After he responded with a watered-down version of the incident, Joe pointed to a video game on the night table. “What you got there?”
    “A new baseball game for my Game Boy. You wanna play with me? I know how to set it up for two people.”
    “I sure do, Yance, my man. I’m gonna bury you.”
    “I been practicing.” The boy’s enthusiasm was good to see.
    Joe spent an hour with Yancy and left feeling a whole host of emotions. Sadness for the kid’s childhood being marred by a life-threatening illness. Pleasure at his own ability to make Yancy’s day brighter. And another insight into Dana. She was resilient like Yancy. Hmm, he thought philosophically, everything seemed to come back to her. He wondered briefly if he chose to bow out, if that would go away.
    o0o
    Cole couldn’t stop thinking about his brother. Sitting in a rocker, holding Ellie close to his heart, he crooned nonsense words to her while she dozed off. Some books said it wasn’t good to rock a baby to sleep, she’d get too used to it, but Cole indulged himself because she was, quite frankly, the center of his life. And he liked the fact that she was, as he’d told Joe, more than he ever could imagine. Would this kind of bonding happen again for Joey? Could Dana even have any kids? Regardless, he hoped Joe would give himself a chance with her. Dana shouldn’t have lied to him, but reality was she had, and so Joe just had to go from here.
    Just like you want to do, lover boy. As he stood, he reminded himself he was thinking about playing the same unhealthy game that Spence had with Annie and Dana had with Joe. But he couldn’t seem to stop himself considering the possibility. At the crib, he bent over, brushed back Ellie’s wispy, brown hair and left the nursery filled with undiluted joy.
    Out in the living area, he went online, on to RightMatch, with his administrator password. He’d just check out and see who else Dana had connected with. Hmm, she’d gotten a ton of winks. He glanced