Page 38 of A Return For Ren
“He’s in the ninetieth percentile, I’ve been told. For height and weight. I do worry about his motor skills and any developments. I want to make sure he is at least on time and not behind or do what I can to get him to where he should be. But he’s above or faster than he should be at his age.”
“Because his father is so smart,” she said, winking at him.
“Yeah, but I don’t know about Rachelle. I never knew much about her on a personal level,” he said. “We didn’t date long and weren’t that close.”
Considering the woman was pregnant and never told Ren pretty much summed that up. “It doesn’t seem you have much to be worried about.”
“I do,” he said, sighing. “I told you she overdosed. I never got to find out if she was drinking or using drugs when she was pregnant. If I was to take a guess, I’m sure she was. At least early on. But again, no clue. She dropped Max off and left. I never got to ask her anything. Then when I was notified she’d died, it was like a kick in the gut that there’d be all these unanswered questions.”
“The doctor’s office didn’t have anything?” she asked.
“Not much. The basics. It’s not like I could have access to her medical records. I can’t. I only have Max’s stuff and even then my lawyer had to get involved. When Max was left with me, I called the doctor’s office right away, but they weren’t taking my word for it and I understood. I couldn’t schedule him an appointment. I couldn’t get information. Nothing. I didn’t know where anything stood for weeks.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry, Ren. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been. All those things I didn’t think of or wouldn’t unless I was living it. And you were doing it alone.”
“I was,” he said. “I had good friends.”
“Tell me about those friends. Colin and Dee. They are married with a few kids?”
“Yes. Colin is a few years older than me. We were hired about the same time at our jobs. It was a startup company. I’m not one for taking risks, but they recruited me, gave me almost double my salary and then a ton of stock options on top of it. I figured it was worth the shot. If it worked out, I’d be sitting pretty for life on the stock alone. If it didn’t, I had a nice decent salary for a few years and could find another job.”’
“And I’m going to guess that it did since you’re still there?”
“Yeah. I know you’ve never heard of the company, but their software is very popular in the medical field. It was started by a father-son duo. The son is the tech guy and his father is a doctor.”
“That’s great,” she said. “I could see where it helps to find someone in the field to show what works.”
“Yes. In this day and age, doctors are typing their own notes. They are using software just like the nurses are and the admin office. But there are items that the doctors wanted or needed. It would make it easier for them to do their notes. Faster. The faster they do that, the quicker they can see another patient.”
“Ahh,” she said, “Always about the almighty dollar.”
“Very much so,” he said. “They had investors, some hospitals which helped, as it got more doctors involved. The father and son still own about forty percent of the company. More than anyone else, and employees got a lot of options too. The product took off and it evolves all the time. Different versions, branches of medicine and so on. The risk paid off tenfold and I get to work from my house.”
“Which surprises me,” she said.
She knew that he hadn’t always been one to hang out in big groups, but he did like being around people. Or those that shared the same interest as him.
“It did me too. I enjoyed being in the office. Teamwork and sitting around brainstorming. That was what I always saw myself doing. And we still do it but on calls.”
“I couldn’t imagine. I’m too much of a people person,” she said. “I can’t sit still either.”
“Which I remember about you,” he said. “Come here closer to me while we talk.”
He’d sat on the couch and her in the chair. They were facing each other, but she got up and sat next to him. They weren’t touching, but she turned to look at him, one leg bent and on the couch, he was in the corner and angled.
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked. “Anything specific?”
“I like what we are doing now. Let’s see where it goes. My job is boring, but you know a bit about it. You asked about my friends so back to that. Colin and I, we just hit it off. We shared a big cubicle together. We’ve always worked on the same projects. When the company grew so much and didn’t want to buy a bigger building, it was decided we’d all work from home. Trust me, my tiny apartment wasn’t set up for that.”
“I’m sure a lot of people weren’t. But you made do?”
“I did. I cleaned a corner out of the living room and set up there. I didn’t have a lot of guests and if anyone came over, they saw my setup. Most of my friends were or are in the tech field. They didn’t think much of computers everywhere.”
“I’ve seen your setup,” she said.
She’d popped her head into his bedroom here. He had a simple desk with multiple monitors. She couldn’t stand the time she spent in front of her laptop doing the books for her business.
But she didn’t want to pay someone and took a few classes to manage it on her own.
