to the house. He walked with Meg to the apartment steps, leaned a shoulder against the garage’s corner and went on as if they’d just begun a conversation at a party.
“Chase and I were talking about that, about you working at a hospital and your Ph.D. and everything. I told him what you told me—that you wanted to experience the lighter side of kids to recharge your batteries. Chase wanted to know more details and I had to admit that I didn’t have any to give him.”
So he and his business partner had talked about her. Meg wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. She also wasn’t sure she wanted to be more open with him on this subject even though he was obviously hoping she would be.
But she didn’t like that note of doubt that was in his voice and wondered if his longtime friend had planted seeds of suspicion about why she was being secretive. And she supposed that he had the right to know details about someone he was entrusting his daughter to.
Plus, if she told him what he was fishing for, it would give her a little more time with him.
“It’s complicated,” she admitted as she weighed her decision.
“I kind of thought it was,” Logan said with a smile that welcomed her confidence but didn’t push for it.
It was the smile that got to her.
“I had a bad incident a few months ago,” she said, sitting on the second-to-the-bottom step as she did.
Logan came to sit with her, his back to the garage wall so he was facing her. He propped one foot on the lowerstep and braced an arm on that raised knee, giving no indication that he was in any hurry to get home to bed.
“I see kids with a lot of different issues,” Meg continued. “Physical, social, emotional, environmental—you name it, we see it all at Children’s Hospital.”
“Stuff that will break your heart, I’d imagine.”
“Oh yeah,” Meg agreed. “And stuff that’s frustrating and maddening and sometimes dangerous…”
She hadn’t talked too much about this. She’d told her family as little as possible so she didn’t upset them. She’d told her two closest friends in Denver who had helped her when she’d come home after surgery, but again she’d downplayed the event and her own feelings and reactions. Buried it a little, she supposed. And she’d refused any kind of counseling or therapy herself because she thought she could deal with it on her own. And she thought she was. But that still didn’t make it any easier to tell Logan.
“Dangerous?” he repeated to urge her to go on.
“Sure, kids can lose it and even small ones can do damage—to themselves, to anyone around them, to a whole room. I’ve been trained in how to restrain them—and have had to on a few occasions—but for the most part I can usually tell when a kid is about to go off and I can defuse the situation and de-escalate before it gets that far.”
“Usually…”
Logan was such a good listener and attentive enough to pick up on even the smallest things.
“Usually,” Meg repeated the word that had apparently given her away.
“But not always.”
She shrugged. “I’m dealing with disturbed kids. Some of them really disturbed.”
And if she was going to be completely honest with him, now was the time, she decided.
“I had a twelve-year-old boy referred by his school psychologist—the parents and the schools had tried everything and sending him to us for evaluation was the last resort. He came in sullen and annoyed with having to be there, but he wasn’t raging at anything. It was obvious from the start that he was manipulative, there were some incidents of cruelty…” Confidentiality wouldn’t allow her to get too far into the pathology. “Let’s just say that he wasn’t a kid I was comfortable turning my back on,” Meg said with a humorless little laugh, trying to make it sound lighter than it was. Lighter than she felt.
“But you were alone with him?”
“That’s part of the job. He couldn’t manipulate me—and believe me, he
“Chase and I were talking about that, about you working at a hospital and your Ph.D. and everything. I told him what you told me—that you wanted to experience the lighter side of kids to recharge your batteries. Chase wanted to know more details and I had to admit that I didn’t have any to give him.”
So he and his business partner had talked about her. Meg wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. She also wasn’t sure she wanted to be more open with him on this subject even though he was obviously hoping she would be.
But she didn’t like that note of doubt that was in his voice and wondered if his longtime friend had planted seeds of suspicion about why she was being secretive. And she supposed that he had the right to know details about someone he was entrusting his daughter to.
Plus, if she told him what he was fishing for, it would give her a little more time with him.
“It’s complicated,” she admitted as she weighed her decision.
“I kind of thought it was,” Logan said with a smile that welcomed her confidence but didn’t push for it.
It was the smile that got to her.
“I had a bad incident a few months ago,” she said, sitting on the second-to-the-bottom step as she did.
Logan came to sit with her, his back to the garage wall so he was facing her. He propped one foot on the lowerstep and braced an arm on that raised knee, giving no indication that he was in any hurry to get home to bed.
“I see kids with a lot of different issues,” Meg continued. “Physical, social, emotional, environmental—you name it, we see it all at Children’s Hospital.”
“Stuff that will break your heart, I’d imagine.”
“Oh yeah,” Meg agreed. “And stuff that’s frustrating and maddening and sometimes dangerous…”
She hadn’t talked too much about this. She’d told her family as little as possible so she didn’t upset them. She’d told her two closest friends in Denver who had helped her when she’d come home after surgery, but again she’d downplayed the event and her own feelings and reactions. Buried it a little, she supposed. And she’d refused any kind of counseling or therapy herself because she thought she could deal with it on her own. And she thought she was. But that still didn’t make it any easier to tell Logan.
“Dangerous?” he repeated to urge her to go on.
“Sure, kids can lose it and even small ones can do damage—to themselves, to anyone around them, to a whole room. I’ve been trained in how to restrain them—and have had to on a few occasions—but for the most part I can usually tell when a kid is about to go off and I can defuse the situation and de-escalate before it gets that far.”
“Usually…”
Logan was such a good listener and attentive enough to pick up on even the smallest things.
“Usually,” Meg repeated the word that had apparently given her away.
“But not always.”
She shrugged. “I’m dealing with disturbed kids. Some of them really disturbed.”
And if she was going to be completely honest with him, now was the time, she decided.
“I had a twelve-year-old boy referred by his school psychologist—the parents and the schools had tried everything and sending him to us for evaluation was the last resort. He came in sullen and annoyed with having to be there, but he wasn’t raging at anything. It was obvious from the start that he was manipulative, there were some incidents of cruelty…” Confidentiality wouldn’t allow her to get too far into the pathology. “Let’s just say that he wasn’t a kid I was comfortable turning my back on,” Meg said with a humorless little laugh, trying to make it sound lighter than it was. Lighter than she felt.
“But you were alone with him?”
“That’s part of the job. He couldn’t manipulate me—and believe me, he
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