Chapter 3

Don looked at his watch and increased his speed. After his lunch with Charlie, his concentration was blown, and the afternoon quickly got away from him. Now, he was late for the wedding rehearsal. Charlie would think it was because he was mad at him, his father would think it was because he was selfish…he sighed as he turned into another hallway of the hotel. He knew neither one of them would think those things. He should just stop thinking.

The meeting room reserved for Charlie and Amita's wedding was just around this next corner. He heard his father's voice. "Let's just give him a few more minutes, please, Rabbi", and broke into a soft jog. He plowed around the corner — and straight into Katie, one of the nurses who had worked closely with Charlie while he was in the hospital. She and Amita had struck up a friendship as well, and she was going to be one of the bridesmaids. A cell phone flew out of her hands, and both she and Don reached instinctively to grab it. This threw them further out of balance, and Don tried to steady himself on the wall, but all too soon the wall became an open doorway. The next thing he knew, both he and Katie were lying in a tangled heap of limbs.

"Hi, Don," she mumbled from somewhere beneath him, and he felt at least a dozen eyes burn into him. He looked down in time to see Katie twist her head around and try to look backwards at the stunned witnesses. "It's all right," she said happily. "I think I found him."