Irene leaned over and hugged me and as she did, she whispered in my ear. “Tell her we’re here for her.”
“I will,” I whispered back. I walked toward the door and grabbed the handle, stopping before I opened it. I didn’t know what was waiting for me on the other side, and a big part of me didn’t want to see it.
19
I opened the door and could immediately hear the beeping and humming of machines. Grandma looked like she was asleep, so I walked quietly to her bedside. She didn’t look like herself. I suddenly understood that weird agreement. There was no way she’d want anyone to see her like this.
I sat in a chair next to her bed. My mind was cluttered with thoughts. Was Grandma going to be okay? What would life be like after she went home? What were we going to do about the case? Just give up on it? Part of me was more than happy to do just that. It had caused nothing but bad things. I looked at Grandma and knew she was in that hospital bed because of it.
She turned her head toward me and it startled me. Her eyes looked sad and exhausted.
“I thought you were sleeping,” I said, scooting the chair closer to her bed.
She sighed. “It’s too hard to sleep hooked up to all this stuff.”
“How are you feeling?” I asked, taking her hand.
“Like I was hit by a bus.”
“Well, the doctors and nurses will have you feeling better in no time!” I tried to sound cheery, but my heart just wasn’t feeling it. I was afraid it showed. “You’ll be home before you know it, planning your next adventure.”
Grandma looked up at the ceiling. “I don’t know about that.”
“What do you mean?” I questioned, suddenly worried. Was there more information no one shared with me?”
She looked back at me, tears filling her eyes. “Nikki,” she said hoarsely. “I feel like I have more to look back on than to look forward to. Maybe it’s time I accept my age and the limitations that come with it.”
“That’s nonsense! You and I both know you still have a lot to accomplish!”
She looked back up at the ceiling and a tear slid down her cheek. I had never seen her like this before. It was like she was giving up. It broke my heart and terrified me at the same time. What would Grandma Dean do if this was me in this situation? What would she do to cheer me up?
I stood up and reached in my pocket. “Hold still,” I said, leaning over her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, surprised.
I slid the lid off my lip gloss. “You’re an absolute mess,” I said to her with a sly smile. “Kitty Purry would have a fit if she saw you like this.” I carefully applied the lip gloss then stood back to look her over. “Well, that’s a little better.”
Grandma gave me a little smile. I could tell she was perking up.
“Do you have a hairbrush?” I asked.
She pointed to a table against the wall. “Check in my purse. It’s over there.”
Within seconds, I had pulled out a brush and was brushing her hair. I tried to ignore how frail she suddenly seemed. I was only going to focus on the positives.
“Your friends are all in the hallway,” I said as I brushed. “And I heard about your little agreement.”
Grandma chuckled.
“So, what are Hattie’s wishes?” I asked.
Grandma rolled her eyes. “She wants all twelve of the firemen in last year’s Peace Pointe Fire Department calendar at her bedside…shirtless…playing bagpipes.”
“There’s a calendar?”
“Oh yes.” Grandma smiled. “And it’s a good one too. Joe’s even in it.”
I’d have to figure out how I could get one of those.
“That woman,” I said, shaking my head. “Like those firemen would actually do that.”
“Hattie already asked them,” Grandma said, “and they all said yes.”
Wow. She was really something. I was a little jealous.
I finished brushing Grandma’s hair, then stood back and looked her over again. “Much better.”
“I feel a little better,” she said with a weak smile.
I didn’t want to leave her, but I knew she needed her rest. “I’m going to step out for a bit,” I told her, “but I’ll be back after you get some rest.”
I stood to leave, but she grabbed my hand. “Take good care of Kitty Purry and Catalie Portman.” She gently squeezed my hand.
“I will, but you’ll be home soon. They’ll barely have time to miss you.”
She closed her eyes and let go of my hand. I listened to the machines and got a lump in my throat. I didn’t want her to know I was getting emotional, so I quietly walked out. When I got to the hall, I saw that all the Grannies were gone. But Joe was standing in their place. He had a bouquet of flowers and a teddy bear.
“They went to the cafeteria to get some coffee,” he said before I even asked where they were. He opened his arms and I practically ran into them. He held me as close as he could with his hands full of gifts for Grandma.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “How’s she’s doing?”
I pulled away to look him in the eyes. “She looks so frail. But she seems like she’s doing pretty good.”
“Good,” he said with a smile.
We were quiet for a minute then Joe broke the silence. “So, things seemed a little awkward the other day at the fire station.”
I sighed. “I know. I’m sorry about that. For some reason, I was freaked out by the thought of you…of us…house hunting.”
Joe pulled me close again. “I noticed that. I’m sorry if I’m rushing things. I just…I feel ready…you know?”
I did know. I knew that he felt ready and I didn’t. “Joe, I just think this is moving too fast. We’ve just started dating…”
He cut me off and pulled away to look at me. “But it doesn’t feel like that, does it? Doesn’t it feel like we’ve known each other forever?”
In a way it did, I couldn’t deny that.
He pulled me close again. “Now’s not the time to talk about it. Let’s get Geraldine healthy and home. We have all the time in the world to figure this out.”
I felt my tensions ease and I pulled him closer. He pulled away just enough to look me in the eyes. Then he leaned forward and kissed me. It was warm and soft, and I felt it flow through every inch of my body. For just a moment, I forgot all my troubles—the murder, the gang, the heart attack. My world seemed right again. Little did I know that world was about to come crashing down around me.
20
That night, I put the kettle on the stove and set the teabags and sugar in the middle of the table. It was nearly 8:00pm, the Grannies would be arriving any minute. Grandma always made tea before the evening meetings. I wanted to keep things as normal as possible, even if it felt far from normal.
Greta and Virginia arrived first, and Irene and Hattie were there just a few minutes later. We all sat around Grandma’s kitchen table. It felt weird having a meeting without her.
“Would anyone like some tea?” I offered.
“We have something better than that,” Irene said, and Hattie pulled a bottle of rum out of her purse. I couldn’t help but laugh. The last time I saw them with rum, they were drunk-pedaling a bicycle.
“I’ll take some,” Greta said to my surprise.
“Me too,” Virginia chimed in.
I got up and grabbed each of us a glass, and Irene poured a generous amount for us all.
“To Geraldine Dean,” Hattie said, raising her glass. “She has more balls than a bowling alley and more grit than sandpaper.”
We all drank to that odd toast and leaned back in our chairs. If someone had told me months ago, when I still lived in Illinois, that one day soon I’d be drinking liquor with a bunch of old ladies while we tried to solve a murder, I’d have laughed in their face and thought they were crazy. But yet, here I was.
Irene poured herself another glass. “I’m going to make a crazy suggestion, and just hear me out.” She took a drink and put
down her glass. “I think we need to call in Betty.”
“You’re crazy!” Greta shouted.
“No way,” Virginia said, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed.
“Who’s Betty?” I asked.
“I like Betty,” Hattie said, pouring more rum in her glass. She nearly filled it to the top before Irene took the bottle from her.
“Who’s Betty?” I repeated.
The group went silent for a minute.
“Let me tell her,” Hattie said, sloshing her glass a bit. Was that her second or third glass? “One dark night, a long time ago, two teenagers were making out in a car parked in the woods…”
“That’s not Betty’s story,” Irene interrupted. “That’s that weird story about the hook that ends up in someone’s car door.”
Greta shuddered. “Hookman. That story freaks me out.”
“Me too,” Virginia added.
Irene rolled her eyes. “Betty wanted in our group not too long after we started. We were actually going to let her in, and we invited her over for a little welcoming ceremony….”
“Wait a minute!” I interrupted. “I remember this story! This is the woman that nearly bled to death when you tried to make her do a blood oath to secrecy? Right? Virginia sliced her hand open and you couldn’t get it to stop bleeding?”
Virginia got all defensive. “First of all, she didn’t almost bleed to death! And secondly, I didn’t know she was on blood thinners! That’s the sort of thing you should disclose before you let someone cut you!”
“Anyway,” Irene said, getting control of the conversation, “after she came to, she said she didn’t remember what happened so we told her she passed out and cut her hand on the way down.”
“You lied to her?” I asked, shocked. “That’s terrible!”
Hattie started laughing. “And we also told her she couldn’t be in our group if she just randomly passed out like that!”
“You guys are awful.” That poor woman.
“And we decided that night to never talk to her about our group again!” Greta said. “Remember that? We don’t want her to figure out the truth, and we can’t trust everyone at this table to hold their tongue.”
All eyes went to Hattie. “I can hold my tongue, look!” She stuck out her tongue and held onto it. “I can hold yours too!” She reached over and put her hand in Irene’s mouth. Irene screamed and pushed her away.
“Woman, you’re drunk!” Irene said, taking Hattie’s glass away.
Hattie smiled. “If I’m already drunk, then there’s no harm in me finishing my glass.”
Irene rolled her eyes and handed it back to Hattie.
“If we call Betty,” I said, trying to figure all this out, “what can she do for us? Why would we ask her for help?”
“She has an interesting way of thinking about things,” Irene answered. “I think she can look at this from a different angle.”
“Plus, she’s clairvoyant,” Hattie said over her glass.
I was skeptical. “Really?”
Greta rolled her eyes. “She thinks her gallstones talk to her.”
Okay, this was a bit too much for me. “I’m not sure calling Betty is the right thing.”
Virginia sighed. “I don’t know. The more I think about it, the more I think maybe it’s a good idea. She’s levelheaded, and we all know we need another one like that in this group with Geraldine out for a while.”
I could tell the mood was changing and suddenly everyone was in favor of calling Betty. “Seriously, guys? We’re going to ask someone with talking gallstones to be a levelheaded member of this group?”
“Just temporarily,” Irene added.
“Yes, just temporarily. And she needs to understand that from the get-go,” Greta chimed in.
They took a vote, and mine didn’t matter. Betty was in. Irene called her and they chatted for just a minute. She hung up with a big smile. “Betty will be here tomorrow evening!” Irene looked at me. “You better brace yourself. They don’t call her the elephant for nothing!”
21
I sat down at the little sandwich shop and looked at the time. I was early. I sank back in my chair and told myself to breathe. I had fifteen minutes to collect myself before Les and Annalise arrived.
I had spent the morning visiting Grandma Dean and even though she was full of good news—it had only been a minor heart attack that they felt was brought on by stress—I still felt shaken by the whole thing. The phone call I got from my mother an hour ago didn’t help. The Grannies had called her, per the agreement, and told her what happened. Her and my sister were flying in tomorrow to stay for a few days. I should’ve been happy to see them, after all, it had been a few months since I saw them last, but for some reason, I dreaded it. Maybe because I had hoped that the next time I saw them, I’d have my life straightened out. Instead, I was the same hot mess—just with lip gloss.
I looked up and saw Annalise walk in the door. I was thankful she was early too. It gave me less time to stress about things out of my control.
She hugged me when she got to the table. “I’m so sorry to hear about Geraldine!” she said, sitting down. “I bet that was such a shock to all of you!”
“It was,” I admitted.
“So,” Annalise said with a smile. “Tell me about Les. Is he cute?”
Hmm. How should I answer that? But before I had a chance to answer, a guy walked over and interrupted our conversation.
“Hey, Annalise. How are you doing?” I looked up to see a tall guy with muscle upon muscle. He was huge. Clearly, he was a bodybuilder.
Annalise’s cheeks flushed. “Hey, Aaron, how are you?”
“I’m great,” he answered quickly and a little too high-pitched.
There was a moment of awkward silence and then he spoke again. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”
He turned to leave, and I whispered to Annalise. “Who was that?”
She rolled her eyes. “My ex-boyfriend.”
Uh-oh. If that’s what she was used to, she was going to be really disappointed when she saw Les. Les could fit into that guy’s back pocket.
I couldn’t help myself, I had to know why they broke up. “So, what happened between you two?”
She laughed. “Well, for starters, he was more into himself than he was me. He was always looking in a mirror, always talking about his ‘gym goals.’ Outside of a physical relationship, we really didn’t have much.”
“Well, hopefully that was at least good,” I said, trying not to imagine myself with him.
“When you were little, did you go trick-or-treating?” Annalise asked.
“Um…yes.” That was an odd question.
“And did you ever have that one house that always gave out full-size candy bars?” she asked.
“Yes!” I said, remembering the exact house. Sometimes, my sister and I would even stop by again later in the evening to try to get them to give us a second one.
“Well, imagine going up to that house, excited you were going to get a full-size candy bar, only to find out they were giving out fun-size that year. That’s what it was like with Aaron.”
Ouch. I would never think of candy bars the same way.
I felt like I should warn her about Les, tell her he wasn’t built like Aaron—at least not in the muscly sense, as I didn’t know about the candy bar area. But before I had a chance, he walked in, carrying his notebook. When he walked up to the table, I tried to judge Annalise’s expression—was she disappointed?—but she was smiling and already introducing herself to him.
I sat there watching the two of them laugh and talk. It was like they were old friends, like they had known each other forever. This was what Joe was talking about, how he felt about us, and suddenly I understood it. There was an instant attraction, instant connection, instant comfort. These two had it…and so did me and Joe.
I sent him a quick text. “When Grandma gets out of the hospital and she gets settled in, let’s go look at houses.”<
br />
He instantly replied with a heart emoji. I was making a decision all on my own, based on my own feelings. I felt empowered at that moment. And for the first time in a long time, I was excited about life, excited about the possibilities.
“Hey, guys,” I said to my lunch dates. “I’m going to go back to the hospital and check on Grandma Dean.”
They didn’t even look up at me, but Annalise gave me a little wave. “Tell her we said hi!”
“Yeah, tell her hello from us,” Les said, staring into Annalise’s eyes.
Us. They had just met and were already an “us.” This was either going to last forever or burn out quickly, and I had a feeling it was going to be the former. In that moment, I couldn’t imagine ever seeing those two apart. It was like they had found their other half, and maybe they had.
I went back to the hospital and was again greeted by the Grannies outside Grandma’s hospital room. “She still doing okay?” I asked as I walked up to them.
“As far as we know,” Greta said with a smile. “We just got here.”
“Before you go in,” Virginia said, grabbing my arm, “we want to talk to you.”
“Yeah,” Hattie said, her eyes flashing left and right like she was making sure no one was listening. “We talked to Betty and we decided to meet at Geraldine’s house at six. Are you up for that?”
I nodded.
Virginia let go of my arm. “Good. But we’ll have to meet somewhere else after today. No offense, but I don’t think we should meet there when your family arrives.”
Definitely. My mother would not be okay knowing her daughter, or her own mother, were going after a murderer—and did so on a regular basis.
“We can meet at my house,” Hattie suggested.
I inwardly groaned. Hattie kept her apartment hot, like hot enough to cook a turkey. Thankfully, Greta spoke up. “How about we meet at my house? I can make cookies!”
A Family Affair Page 9