Heartstrings and Diamond Rings

by Jane Graves

  “You deserve better than that.”

  Yes, I do. How about the matchmaker himself?

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I’ve been so busy. I don’t know if I would have had time to go on another date, anyway.”

  “No time? You’re here with me now.”

  “Yeah, but this isn’t a date.”

  “Maybe not. But is it what a date with you is like?”

  Her heart stuttered, not so much because of his words, but because of the sound of his voice—soft and low and suggestive. Or was she hearing things that weren’t there?

  “Yeah,” she said. “You get to watch me play a lousy game of pool and listen to my father flirt with women. How exciting is that?”

  “Sounds like good times to me.”

  Oddly enough, he seemed to mean that, and Alison decided she could move that twenty-five percent up a little. Say, to twenty-six.

  As Brandon sat at that table with Alison, listening to the music and watching Bea and Charlie play darts and argue, he ticked off in his mind the dumb things he’d done recently, one by one.

  He shouldn’t have kissed Alison that day she came to his house to apologize.

  He shouldn’t have come here tonight, where there was too damned much temptation in the form of the woman sitting next to him.

  He shouldn’t have had that second beer, which made him all the more willing to give in to that temptation.

  And he shouldn’t be sitting so close to Alison that he could feel her warmth and see her smile and think about that kiss all over again.

  It was an endless cycle that he really needed to find a way out of. But there was something about this night, this place, and this woman that gave him a sense of well‑being he’d never felt before. For once in his life, he was more than just a face in the crowd. He felt as if he belonged there, and he wanted to enjoy it as long as he could. And as long as he kept things on friendly terms, a little casual flirting with Alison wouldn’t do any harm, would it?

  No. It wouldn’t. Then next week he’d get serious and double down on finding her another match, and everybody would be happy.

  “Funny thing,” Alison said. “Did I tell you that one of the Preservation League board members knew your grandmother?”

  Brandon was startled by the question. “No. You didn’t tell me that.”

  “She went to the First Baptist Church with her. And she remembers you when you were a teenager.”

  Brandon had no idea where this was going, and he was pretty sure he didn’t want to know. “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah. And she said you didn’t just visit your grandmother. You actually lived with her for a couple of years.”

  All at once, Brandon’s mind was spinning, trying to remember what he’d told Alison. Had he ever said he just visited? He wasn’t sure.

  “Yeah,” he said finally. “I did live with her. Didn’t I tell you that?”

  “No, I don’t think so. So where were your parents?”

  “It was just my father. My mother was dead.”

  “Oh. I’m so sorry! How old were you when she died?”

  “I was only four. I don’t remember much about her.”

  “Do you have brothers and sisters?”

  “No. It was just me.”

  “So why did you go to live with your grandmother?”

  “My father traveled a lot with his job.”

  “What did he do?”

  Damn it. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about his father, or anything else about his past. He wasn’t proud of the fact that his old man was a pool hustler who’d dragged him all over the country with zero regard for his own son’s well being. So Brandon ended up stretching the truth so hard it almost snapped.

  “He was a professional pool player.”

  Alison sat back with a smile. “Ah, so that’s why you’re such a good player. You learned from your father.”

  “Oh, yeah. He taught me everything he knew.”

  Yep. When it came to hustling, his father was the best teacher on the planet.

  “Judith told me you gave your grandmother a pretty hard time,” Alison said. “Now, understand that she’s a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. To her, a hard time could mean that you didn’t say ‘Yes, ma’am’ at the appropriate time.”

  It had been more than a lack of polite behavior. Way more. By the time he went to live with his grandmother, he’d had a chip on his shoulder so big that nobody could knock it off, even the one person on earth who tried so desperately to give him his first taste of the normal life his father had always denied him.

  “I was a teenage boy,” he said with an offhand shrug, even as the memory of those days still ate away at him. “They can be real pains in the ass, and I was no exception. Sometimes my mouth got the better of me.”

  “But I thought you had a good relationship with your grandmother. You told me you used to sit on the stairs and listen to her with her clients, and—”

  “I listened to a lot of things. But admit I listened? Hell, no. Again. Teenage boy.” He forced a smile. “It’s all about the attitude.”

  “Let’s see…” Alison went on. “What else did Judith say? Oh, yeah. You were once…arrested.”

  He didn’t know who the hell this woman was, but he sincerely wished she didn’t have quite so good a memory. Just downplay it. It’s all you can do.

  “A friend and I were arrested for vandalism,” he said. “Which only proves exactly how stupid teenage boys can be. It was kid stuff, Alison. I wasn’t a saint.” He paused. “I’m still not.”

  Given the lies he’d told her, that was the understatement of the year.

  “But at least you don’t vandalize things anymore, do you?” she said with a smile.

  “No,” he said. “I did outgrow that.”

  “Oh,” she said. “One more Judith thing. She said you don’t actually own your grandmother’s house. That if you move out, it goes to her church?”

  Good God. Was there anything this woman didn’t know?

  “That’s true,” he said. “It was the only asset my grandmother had of any real value, and she wanted the church to have it. But she also made the provision that I can live there as long as I want to before that happens. So if I never move out, I guess I have a house forever, don’t I?”

  Alison smiled. “Yeah. I guess you do.”

  He smiled back, but it was the last thing he felt like doing. He’d told her the truth—if he stayed there forever, he had a house forever.

  But he wasn’t staying forever. Not even close.

  Suddenly every bit of the euphoria he’d felt earlier had seeped right out of him, leaving him feeling like crap. He’d done nothing but lie to Alison since the day he’d met her, making her believe he was somebody he wasn’t. And she believed every word of it.

  That was the hardest part for him. That she believed every word.

  If he’d never gotten to know her, it wouldn’t have mattered. If he’d just kept things professional, he wouldn’t be sitting there trying to put a spin on his past that wouldn’t have her questioning the things he’d already told her. This conversation was proof positive that he was in too deep with Alison and he needed to get out now.

  Then all at once he heard a commotion across the room. Bea’s voice rose above the crowd. “Alison! Something’s wrong! Get over here! Now!”

  They both spun around to see Bea hovering over her father, who was lying on his back on the floor.

  And he wasn’t getting up.

  Chapter 21

  The next half hour was a sickening blur for Alison. By the time the paramedics got her father to the hospital, he was fully conscious and talking to them, but until a doctor saw him and said he was going to be okay, Alison was going to keep worrying.

  Brandon insisted on driving her to the hospital, and he was there now, sitting in one of those uncomfortable plastic waiting room chairs beside her as they waited for the doctor to come out and tell them her father’s condition. Heather and Bea were the
re, too, assuring her things were going to be just fine.

  “But what if he had a heart attack?” Alison said. “Just because he was conscious doesn’t mean there wasn’t heart damage.”

  “The paramedics didn’t think it was a heart attack,” Brandon said.

  “But they won’t know for sure until they do tests.”

  “That’s true,” Heather said. “But I don’t think he’s in any immediate danger.”

  Alison just nodded and stared down at her hands. They didn’t understand. Bea or Brandon, or even Heather, who’d known her forever. They didn’t understand the gut‑wrenching feeling she’d had when she saw her father passed out on the floor, that horrible fear that something terrible had happened and he was gone. From one instant to the next, he could have been gone from her life forever.

  Sometimes in the middle of the night, she lay awake in bed, huddled under the blankets, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for the bad news she was sure was coming. Then daylight would come, and it would all be shoved to the back of her mind and she’d forget about it for a while, but it was always there.

  “I hate hospitals,” Alison said.

  “I know,” Heather said.

  “It makes me sick just to get near one. It’s hard even sitting here.”

  Heather patted her arm. “Your dad will be out of here soon.”

  They sat in near silence for another fifteen minutes. Alison tried to focus on the Good Housekeeping magazine on the waiting room table and the smiling woman on the cover who looked as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  Finally a man wearing blue scrubs stepped out into the waiting room. “I’m looking for the family of Charlie Carter?”

  Alison looked up. “Here.” She rose as the doctor approached, sliding her hand to her throat, fearing the worst. “I’m his daughter. How is he?”

  “He’s going to be fine.”

  “It wasn’t a heart attack?”

  “No. There’s no evidence of that.”

  Alison let out the breath she’d been holding, but the fear still hung on. “So what happened?”

  “He just got a little dehydrated and his electrolytes were out of balance. He passed out and fell. We’re giving him some fluids now and he’s feeling better. But he took a pretty solid bump on the head, which means he could have a concussion. So we need to watch him overnight.”

  “That’s all? Really?”

  “Yes. We’ve moved him to a regular room. You can see him now if you want to.”

  The doctor gave them the room number and left. Alison turned to the others and told them it might be best if she visited him alone. She knew her father. Being seen in any kind of compromised position wasn’t something he felt comfortable with.

  “I hate for you guys to have to hang around,” Alison said. “Heather, I know you need to get back to the bar.”

  Heather nodded. “I’ll take Bea home on my way.” She turned to Brandon. “Assuming you don’t mind sticking around to take Alison home.”

  “No. Of course I’ll stay.”

  Heather gave Alison a quick hug, and when she pulled away, a furtive wink. Alison didn’t know exactly when she’d changed her mind about Brandon. She was only glad she had.

  “I’ll wait for you right here,” Brandon said, as Heather and Bea walked away. “Take all the time you want to with your father.”

  “Thank you for staying.”

  “No problem.”

  She nodded and went to the elevator, feeling a myriad of emotions pulling at her. Relief that her father was okay. Fear that it was only a matter of time before he wasn’t. Helplessness to control any of it.

  A few minutes later, she peered into room 416. Her father was hooked up to a couple of monitors, and there was an IV in his arm. He wore a hospital gown, and his ashen skin against the white sheets made him look every bit of his sixty-four years.

  She came into the room. “Hey, Dad.”

  He looked over. “Hey, sweetie.”

  “How are you doing?”

  “I feel fine. A little headache is all. I tried to talk them into turning me loose, but they wouldn’t do it.”

  “You hit your head when you fell. You may have a concussion. Those can be dangerous.”

  “A concussion? Dangerous?” He made a scoffing noise. “Try putting out a four-alarm fire on a hundred-degree day with a twenty-mile-an-hour wind. That’s dangerous.”

  She sat down in the chair beside his bed. “You look pale.”

  “It was the turkey burger. You want me to have rosy cheeks? Feed me some red meat. Which I bet I’m not going to get in this place.”

  “Don’t give these people a hard time. They’re trying to help you. Can you just eat whatever they put in front of you?”

  “If it tastes like crap, they’re going to hear about it.”

  “Dad—”

  “Okay. Fine. As long as I get to go home tomorrow.”

  “The doctor is just being careful. And you need to be, too. You can’t work as hard as you did today and not drink plenty of water. And then when you put beer on top of that—”

  “I know. You think I don’t know? I just got busy, that’s all.”

  “That’s all? Well, you can’t get so busy that you forget. That’s what lands you in the emergency room. Not taking care of yourself. You have to take care of yourself.”

  “Lighten up, kid. It’s not like I had a heart attack, or something.”

  Alison’s stomach knotted just hearing the words “heart attack.” Ever since they’d found out six months ago that his cholesterol was high, she’d envisioned the worst happening. Most of the time she could just put it out of her mind, but right now, seeing him in this hospital bed, listening to the mechanical sounds of the monitors and breathing in the antiseptic smell of the hospital, it was hard to shake those thoughts. She remembered a time years ago when she’d sat beside a hospital bed like this. When that vigil ended, she no longer had a mother.

  “Who came to the hospital with you?” Charlie asked.

  “Heather and Brandon.” She paused. “And Bea.”

  “Bea came?”

  “Yeah. She’s worried about you. Now that we know you’re fine, Heather’s taking her home.”

  “Did you know she carries a gun?”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “She threatened me with it.”

  “I don’t doubt that.”

  “She’s a crazy old broad.”

  “No crazier than you are, Dad.”

  A tiny smile curled his lip. “I want all of you to go home so I can get some sleep.”

  “Are you sure? I can hang around for a while longer.”

  “I said go.”

  “Okay. Good night, Dad.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek, then headed for the door. “I’ll be back in the morning.”

  * * *

  When Alison came back downstairs, Brandon hoped she’d look at least a little relieved, but her face was still pinched with worry. He was happy to be here to take her home, but expressing sympathy wasn’t his strong suit. It always felt awkward to him, and he never knew what to say.

  “Ready to go?” Brandon asked, standing up.

  “Yeah.”

  “How is he doing?”

  “He’s okay. For now.”

  They went through the automatic doors into the parking lot. “What do you mean, for now?”

  “It’s going to happen someday,” she said. “He’s going to have a heart attack.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “He has high cholesterol. He doesn’t eat right, and he doesn’t exercise. But he tells me the devil doesn’t want him because he’s too mean, so he’s going to live forever. That’s his rationale to get me off his back.”

  They got into Brandon’s car. As he pulled out of the parking lot, Alison dropped her head against the headrest.

  “You look tired,” he said.

  She took a long, deep breath and let it out. “Yeah.” And she didn’t say anothe
r word until he pulled into a parking space in front of her condo. Being around Alison for a full ten minutes without her talking was something he’d never experienced before, and it worried him.

  “Thank you for taking me home,” she said, and started to get out of the car. He caught her arm.

  “Hey, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Don’t take this wrong, but you don’t look fine.”

  She took another long, deep breath. “I’m just worried.”

  “You don’t need to be. It was just a fluke. It had nothing to do with his heart. It could have happened to anyone.”

  “But what if it had been a heart attack?”

  “It wasn’t. Don’t borrow trouble.”

  “But he has high cholesterol. It isn’t inconceivable that he could have one.”

  “That’s true. But there was nothing about this tonight that makes that any more likely.”

  “And hospitals. God. They’re full of disease. I’ve heard of people going into hospitals with ingrown toenails and then getting horrible bacterial infections and dying.”

  “Aren’t you getting a little carried away?”

  “No, I’m not. I’ve read about it. It happens all the time.”

  “Yes, but it’s not going to happen to your father.”

  “Are you one of those ‘glass half full’ people? Because I am not in the mood for that right now.”

  “Just relax,” Brandon said. “He’s fine.”

  “But he might not have been!”

  “Alison. Calm down.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Who are you to tell me to calm down?”

  Her sudden anger surprised him. “This just isn’t worth getting worked up about. Your father fainted and got a bump on the head, and you’re acting as if he’s at death’s door.”

  “You know nothing about this,” she said fiercely. “Less than nothing. So if I were you, I’d keep my mouth shut.”

  This was it. This was exactly why he didn’t get too involved with women. Sooner or later all their emotions came roaring out, emotions he had no idea how to deal with. He needed to get out of Alison’s world and back to his own, back to a place where things made sense to him and he didn’t get tangled up in stuff he knew nothing about.