by Celeste, B.
Chapter Seven
After signing in at the registration desk and being greeted by the same speckled-haired nurses who usually works when I stop by Sunny Acres Nursing Home, I turn and note the empty waiting room. My lips twitch as I take a seat close to the doors leading back to the patient’s rooms, wondering where everyone else’s families are. Do they not get visitors?
When my name is called by Glenda, a sweet dark-skinned woman who typically fills me in on everything Mable related, I stand and give her a light hug. “No Ainsley today?”
I shrug loosely. “I wasn’t sure if Mable would be up for it. It was kind of a spontaneous decision to pop in, and when I called on my way here…”
She nods in understanding, a strand of black hair falling from the updo it’s in. “She’s been okay this week—lucid. In fact, she was just asking about you two this morning.”
That puts a smile on my face. We walk back, past familiar rooms full of other elderly residents until I make it to Mable’s in the far corner. Sometimes we hang out in the common room, but most times we just chat in hers where it’s quieter.
As soon as we walk in, Mable’s eyes brighten. “Piper, my dear!” My heart squeezes when she stands and wraps me in her thin arms. I want to hug her tightly but I’m always afraid this woman, the one who’s always known how I felt about her grandson, would break. “I missed you. Where’s our favorite little one?”
Pulling back, I give her a sad smile. “I didn’t tell her I was stopping in. I just wanted to see you. Jenna is picking her up from school and probably feeding her way too much sugar.”
That makes Mable laugh.
Glenda brushes my arm and looks between Mable and me. “I’ll be out in the common room if you need anything.”
We both nod, Mable gesturing for me to sit at the small table housed by the large window that bathes the room is warm sunlight. As soon as my butt hits the red cushion, I sigh and stare at the people walking the gardens. They’re beautiful in the springtime when the flowers bloom, and even prettier when some of the residents—like Mable—go out and plant more in the summer.
“What’s wrong, dear?”
Sweet, sweet Mable. I love her like she’s my own grandma. And, in a way, she is. My grandparents passed away long before I was born, and I never got to know what it was like to be spoiled by them. Mable filled that hole, even being my temporary grandparent during the allotted days in elementary school when I had nobody who came to eat lunch with me like the other kids whose grandpas and grandmas sat with them.
Swiping the tip of my tongue across my bottom lip, I turn my eyes on her. “Carter Ford is one of my professors this semester at Linwood University. You remember him, right?”
She doesn’t take pause as she reaches for her teacup and brings it to her mouth. After a short sip, she nods. “Of course. Fine young man, that one. Danny was very fond of him and your brother.”
Right. Which leads to my next question, one I probably shouldn’t ask. But Mable has never shied away from talking about Danny like it hurts her. So, I go for it. “Did you ever hear from him after…?” I wave my hand in the air. “I was just wondering. I didn’t see him that day and wondered if maybe he and Danny had stopped talking altogether.”
Mable sets her cup down and rests her hands on the table. “Those boys had their own lives. I didn’t take offense to them not checking in on a little old lady they had no obligation to.”
“But…” Maybe Easton is right to tell me to let it go. Mable doesn’t seem bothered by the situation, so why should I be? “Yeah, I guess so.”
“He’s doing well them?”
I smile. “He seems to be.” Truthfully, I have no clue. It isn’t like he and I have a lot of time to catch up, and I doubt he’d want to. “I think he’s doing what he loves. You should see him teach, Mable. He’s good.”
Her smile is light on her face as she reaches out and pats my hand. “You always had the cutest crush on him. To be honest, I would have thought you’d end up with one of those two. Jesse probably would have had a fit, but the idea of you and Danny always made me happy.”
My cheeks burn over this unexpected turn of events. Not wanting to dive into old feelings, some not so old, I change the topic. “Ainsley’s birthday is in a couple weeks. I was thinking of asking Glenda or one of the other nurses if it’d be okay if I could sign you out for the day to come to our house. I’m doing a small theme party. Cake, presents, the works.”
“I’d love that, Piper.”
I sink into my seat. “Mable?”
“Hmm.”
I pause, looking out the window again and staring at the elderly couple walking hand-in-hand. I smile absently at them as they laugh at something the other says. “Do you think about Danny a lot? Get angry over what happened?”
“I think about him all the time,” she admits, moving her cup out of the way. The sound of glass against wood causes me to focus back on her. “But I’ve learned a long time ago that anger gets us nowhere in life.”
I let that soak in. She’s always handled loss so well. Sometimes I envied her. Then I realized how sad that is, to envy someone who’s lost so much—her husband, her daughter, her grandson. It makes me sick to my stomach that something so horrible can happen to people like her. People undeserving of tragedy.
Her hands shake slightly as she lifts her cup and examines the contents. “Oh, my. When did I finish that?”
My brows pinch slightly. “Want me to get you more?” I know how much she loves her green tea in the afternoons, and lavender tea just before bed.
She brushes it off. “Of course not.” Perking up, she holds up a wrinkled finger at me and reaches for her pocketbook. “I want to give you money for my present since I can’t go out shopping on my own.”
“Mable, you don’t have to—”
“Oh, hush, Darlene.” My lips part as a crack splinters a little further down my heart. Darlene. Danny’s mom—her daughter. She passes me a twenty-dollar bill with a big smile on her face, unaware of what she even said. “I want the birthday boy to have everything he wants. He loves G.I Joe still, right?”
Mouth dry, I force a nod. “Right.” Voice cracking, I clear it and accept the money. Danny used to have a huge G.I Joe collection growing up. Mable always spoiled him with a new one any chance she got. I’ll give the money to Glenda to sneak back in her purse later. “I’ll go get you some more tea, okay?”
She waves me off and busies herself with tidying the table of her crossword puzzles. A stack of romance novels sits by the window seat, some I recognize from what I’ve given her, others that the nurses may have gifted her.
When I take her cup and walk out of the room, I find Glenda speaking with another patient’s visiting family. She stands when she sees me and knows by the look on my defeated face that Mable is slipping again. I just nod once and go to get her tea refilled.
Glenda and Mable are chatting when I return to her room, passing her the tea that’s lukewarm because I’m afraid she’ll spill it on herself if she doesn’t recognize me.
“Thank you, dear.”
I press a kiss to her cheek. “I need to get going so Ainsley isn’t bugging Jenna for too long. I’ll come see you again soon, okay?”
Her smile gives me hope as Glenda waves at me, knowing that I can find my way out. I slip her the money and gesture toward Mable’s purse. We’ve been here before. She knows the drill by now.
As soon as I close my car door, I let a single tear slip down my cheek. Then I brush it away, take a deep breath, and drive to Ainsley.
Ainsley’s head bobs beside me on the couch, causing me to hide a smile. When her cheek meets my thigh, I brush strands of her hair behind her ear like Mom used to do with me.
Her forehead is warm, confirming what her teacher warned me about earlier in the day when she found me at lunch to say Ainsley wasn’t feeling well. When I saw her during my free period, she’d been flushed. I brought her home an hour early and we’ve been tucked in on the co
uch watching movies ever since.
I don’t want to wake her when she drifts off to sleep on my leg. Instead, I pull her blanket around her and drape an arm over her body to tuck her closer to me. It’s sometime later when I feel something heavy get placed on my lap, and my eyes flutter open.
East’s face glows in the flickering light of the television. “Didn’t mean to wake you up.”
I shake my head and try not rouse the little girl who’s settled tight against me. “What time is it?” I have no idea how long we’ve been asleep, but it’s pitch-black out based on the front windows.
“Twelve-thirty.”
Blinking until my eyes adjust, I glance down at Ainsley to make sure she’s okay. “She has a fever. You know she’s sick when she drinks water and soup without a fight.”
He chuckles, knowing the breakdown she had once over me telling her she had to drink more water instead of stealing his ginger ale from the refrigerator. It wasn’t just a few tears and a foot stomp, but full blown, snotty tears. And still, no words. Part of me wished she’d scream at me for wanting to hydrate her, but nothing.
“Want me to take her upstairs?” His question surprises me, but I find myself shaking my head.
“I think we’ll sleep here.”
He nods once, turning to head toward the stairs like he’s heading for bed. “East?” Pressing his lips together, he raises his brows in wait. “I think there may be a movie on here that isn’t Disney princess related.”
Half his lips quirk up. The truth is, I know this man would watch anything. For Ainsley. Tattoos, muscles, and all, he sits and watches whatever she chooses whether it’s bathed in pink, full of music, or anything in between.
“Let me grab something to drink,” he says walking into the kitchen. I hear him open and close the fridge before grabbing something that rustles loudly before coming back into the living room. He sits in the armchair and passes me the opened bag of popcorn.
I grab a handful. “Thanks.” He picks up the remote and offers it to me, but I shake my head. “You pick. We’ve tortured you enough with our choices.”
I almost miss the way the corners of his lips curve upward. Almost.
When he chooses a comedy, I settle in and nibble on the popcorn. Ainsley stirs but never wakes, cuddling into my warmth and snoring softly.
“Will she be okay?”
I snap my gaze over to him. He watches Ainsley with drawn brows, concern lingering. “It isn’t a big deal, just a little cold. Between the weather and school starting back up, it was bound to happen.”
He scrubs a palm down his jaw and nods, leaning back in the chair to make himself comfortable. He seems content with the answer, going back to the popcorn and movie. We finish the first one and start another despite it being after two. I should be tired but I’m not.
Shortly after it begins Ainsley makes a small moaning noise and wiggles under the blanket until her feet kick it off her. I frown as she swipes at her eyes and face. “Ains? You okay, Nugget?”
Another noise comes out of her throat.
The chair next to me creaks. “Piper…”
“She’s okay,” I whisper. “Can you get her a glass of water and some of the children’s Tylenol from upstairs? It’s in the cabinet by—”
“I know.” My lips part as I watch him go grab it without a question, leaving me speechless.
Ainsley climbs onto my lap, latching onto me like a little koala. I hold her tight, resting my chin on the top of her head. It doesn’t take long for Easton to come back down, a glass of water in one hand, and a bottle of pills and thermometer in the other.
Swallowing, I thank him and take her temperature, wincing when I see the 102.3 on the screen. I tell Ainsley to take the medicine despite the face she makes. I praise her with a kiss on the forehead when she obeys.
East shifts. “Is she…?”
“We’ll see if the medicine helps.”
He wets his lips.
Ainsley wiggles in my lap again, so I stroke her hair with my fingers. She eases into me, resting her warm face in the crevice of my neck. I shush her and settle back onto the couch, swinging my legs onto the cushions.
“Sleeping down here still?” he guesses.
I nod, giving him a small smile. With Ainsley draped across my body like a weighted blanket, I brush her hair and wait to say goodnight to East.
But he sits back down in the chair.
“What are you doing?”
He shrugs, picking up the remote and turning the television volume down. “Just go to sleep. I’m not tired anyway.”
I blink.
He continues watching the movie like I’m not staring at him with a sick kid laying on me. A kid that’s not his, but he has a soft spot for anyway. It makes my heart feel funny, but I don’t analyze it. I refuse to.
It’s long after Ainsley’s asleep again that I decide to speak up. “I saw Mable last week. You know, Danny’s grandma that I was telling you about? Anyway, I guess I needed to hear from her that I was being stupid.”
There’s humor in his tone. “And did she tell you how stupid you’re being?”
My smile grows. I refrain from laughing because I don’t want to disturb Ainsley. “No. But she said what I needed to hear.”
His silence makes me feel the need to explain even though I know he doesn’t expect anything from me. “I don’t want to be angry over something I can’t change. That seems…”
“Pointless,” he murmurs.
“Pointless,” I agree, realizing he says it out of personal experience. I wonder what makes him get it, but I don’t ask. Not now at least.
Neither one of us says anything else.
Chapter Eight
A week later Ainsley is back to herself just in time for her birthday. Though I think she was afraid she wouldn’t get her ice cream cake otherwise.
The morning after we’d fallen asleep on the couch, I woke to see the chair beside us empty. I’m glad Easton hadn’t stayed. There was no point in both of us being sleep deprived and worried when it was just a little cold. Based on how he asked every night following that one if she was okay, he isn’t accustomed to sick kids.
I’m grading the last few practice essays for the high school regent exam in the small office at the school when a knock at the door has me picking my head up from the scratchy handwriting scribbled in front of me. I glance at the clock when I see Ainsley’s teacher. “Hi, Evie. Is everything okay? My friend was supposed to pick Ainsley up.”
She smiles. “Jenna already picked her up. I wanted to talk to you though, and Diana said I could find you here. May I come in?”
I gesture toward the little green chair in front of the makeshift desk. Nerves bubble in my stomach as I cap off my red pen and sit back as she takes a seat. Her friendly smile doesn’t fool me into thinking this is just her wanting to catch up or check in.
“Evie?”
Her hands go to her lap. “There’s been some talk about Ainsley’s education. Principal Harris has asked me to update her on Ainsley’s progress and I’m afraid she’s not satisfied enough with the results.”
I gape at her. “But Ainsley’s smart. She knows her alphabet and is learning to read—”
“We can’t test that for certain,” she replies apologetically. I know what she means, but that doesn’t stop me from fighting.
“She knows her words.”
“I know that, but Harris…”
“Is bitter,” I state against my better judgement. I sigh heavily and palm my face. “I can’t take her out of this school because Harris doesn’t think she should be here. I watch the way Ainsley goes through books at home. When we go over spelling words she knows them.”
“Does she voice them? Read aloud?”
My jaw locks.
She nods once. “Listen, I’ll fight for Ainsley because I know she’s a smart little girl. But you know how Harris can be. She doesn’t like putting the effort into students with certain learning disabilities.”
&n
bsp; “Then she should get fired.”
Evie winces, but doesn’t argue.
Grinding my teeth, I push my ill feelings down and try to take a calming breath. “Isn’t this discrimination or something? There are plenty of students who don’t talk for one reason or another. Would she deny their right to an education?”
Evie’s face morphs with pity, a look I hate with all my being. “She brought up some schools that she feels Ainsley could flourish in.”
Now I’m mad. “She spoke to you about this without me? Me … Ainsley’s guardian. I can’t believe that woman. I’m going to—”
We both stand, me out of rage and Evie out of necessity. “Piper, I know this isn’t fair, but you can’t go to her office and make a scene. That won’t help either you or Ainsley.”
I close my eyes. “You’re right.” The words don’t ease any tension building in my body despite the truth in them.
It’s what she says next that has me cracking my eyes open. “Have you considered other options to keep her here? I think she should stay, and there are ways to get her to.”
My brows raise.
“What about learning sign language?”
Sign… “Oh my God.” I shake my head and slowly sit, blinking up at her. “How come I’ve never thought of that? None of the doctors even mentioned that as an option to explore.”
“Piper—”
“Does that make me terrible?”
“Piper—”
“Seriously, Evie. There’s no reason I shouldn’t have thought of something to get her to communicate.” I blow out a harsh breath and plant my face in my palms. “The doctors told me she’d talk when she was ready. I just took them for their word.”
“Piper,” she says softly, walking around the desk and brushing my shoulder. “You are doing the best you can. I only thought about this because I have a friend with a deaf son who she’s going to teach sign language.”
I wet my lips and look at her. “Did your friend teach herself?”
“She took classes.”
I perk up. “Would Ainsley and I be able to sign up for something like that? I want her to stay here. I don’t want to send her off because Harris is a … mean person.” There are plenty of other names I have for the elementary principal, but none of them are smart to voice here.