by Kris Jett
“Something like that.” Just then Jessie’s phone began ringing and she sighed. She pulled her phone out and glanced at it. “It’s Luci. Ignore.” She slipped her phone back into her pocket. “Where were we?” she said. Her phone rang again. She checked it. “Ugh! Luci again. Can’t she take a hint?”
“That’s one persistent sister you have,” Cade said with a laugh.
“Persistent pain in the ass,” Jessie said. Her phone buzzed again, this time with a text. Jessie sighed heavily and pulled her phone out to check it. Luci again.
Mom unconscious. At Snowy Ridge Memorial Hospital. Come ASAP.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Oh my God. It’s my mom,” Jessie said. “Something’s wrong with her. Luci said she’s in the hospital, unconscious.” She looked up at Cade, her eyes darting around wildly. “What if I did this to her? I did make a dramatic exit at dinner. Maybe I gave her some kind of heart attack?” Jessie’s mind flashed to six years earlier when her dad had passed away from his sudden heart attack and her body was overcome with fear. Not again, she’d thought. She felt her legs collapse under her and Cade caught her before she fell.
Tears stung her eyes and threatened to fall down her cheeks as she tried to steady herself on her feet, clutching Cade’s arms for support. “I have to go. I have to get to my mom,” she said, choking on a sob.
“I’m driving you. Where’s your car?” he said.
Jessie gave him a confused look and then shook her head, trying to think. “It’s just outside. But what about your snowmobile?”
“Forget about the sled. I’ll call Cooper from the hospital and he and Cash can go pick it up. I’m taking you.” He put Jessie’s left arm over his shoulder and his right arm around her waist, practically carrying her to her car. He placed her in the passenger seat and ran around to the driver’s side and started the engine.
Jessie slumped against the window, letting her wet cheek rest on the cold glass. She couldn’t believe this was really happening.
Cade rolled into the parking lot of Snowy Ridge Memorial Hospital six minutes later. He pulled into the ambulance bay under the large, red, lit sign saying EMERGENCY. “You go on ahead and I’ll park. I’ll come find you.”
Jessie nodded and slid out of the car, willing her legs to walk. She entered through the automatic sliding glass door and followed the signs for the check in desk. Behind the desk sat a chubby blonde nurse in blue scrubs, probably in her mid-forties, typing on a keyboard.
“Excuse me,” Jessie began, “I’m looking for my mother. Diedre Foster.”
The nurse typed some more into her computer and then looked up. “She’s being examined at the moment. You can go on and take a seat over there and we’ll have a doctor come out to speak to you just as soon as possible.” She nodded toward a large waiting area full of chairs, magazines, and a couple of televisions suspended in the air playing a hockey game.
Jessie lowered herself into one of the plastic chairs and wrung her hands together. There were three other people in the waiting area with her. An elderly woman crocheting what looked like a scarf and a couple with grave looks on their faces, silently holding hands. Jessie had just pulled out her cell phone to text her sisters and find out where they were when she saw Wynn and Luci walking toward her.
“Jessie!” Wynn called, rushing to her sister. She wrapped her arms around her and hugged tightly.
Jessie glanced at Luci. She had her arms crossed tightly and was rocking side-to-side. Her eyes were red.
“What happened?” Jessie asked. She looked around and noticed Melody wasn’t nearby. “Where’s Melody?”
Wynn released Jessie and stepped back. “Anne came up and got her for me. “She’s going to watch her until we know what’s going on. Oh, Jessie,” Wynn said, fresh tears forming in her eyes, “it was so awful.”
Luci gulped and fresh tears silently fell down her cheeks.
“What happened?” Jessie repeated in a quivering voice.
“Mom was washing dishes at the sink. I was carrying in the last load of plates from the dining room while Luci was washing the table down,” Wynn said. “I had just walked into the kitchen when I saw her go down like a ton of bricks.” She choked on a sob. “I couldn’t get to her fast enough to catch her. She hit her head pretty hard. I screamed for Luci. And oh God, Melody was there and came running in too. Saw everything.”
“We tried to wake her up,” Luci continued, “but we couldn’t. Wynn called 911 and an ambulance came. We all rode with her.”
“So…she fainted then you think? It wasn’t a heart attack?” Jessie asked.
A look of realization crossed Wynn’s face and she squeezed her sister’s hand. “No, Jess, it wasn’t a heart attack. But we couldn’t wake her up. I don’t know what’s wrong. We’ve been waiting for a doctor to come out and tell us.”
Jessie felt a whoosh of relief. She still didn’t know what was wrong with her mom but at least it wasn’t a heart attack.
Cade walked into the ER and briskly walked toward Jessie. “How is she? What’s going on?” he fired off.
Luci’s eyes widened in confusion. “Hot guy from the pub? What are you doing here?”
Jessie’s jaw clenched and her eyes flicked angrily at her sister. “He’s with me.”
Luci’s mouth dropped open.
“Is that a problem for you?” Jessie snapped. “Because if it is, get over it.”
“Um…no,” Luci mumbled and averted her eyes toward the floor.
Cade took Jessie’s hand in his and squeezed it. It was one of the best feelings she’d ever had and if she wasn’t so scared for her mom right now she’d have enjoyed it more.
“What did you find out?” Cade asked.
“Mom fainted and hit her head. We don’t know anything else yet. But it wasn’t a heart attack,” Jessie added, squeezing Cade’s hand back and leaning into him.
“Thank God,” Cade said and wrapped Jessie in his arms.
It felt so good to have him here for her like this. To be in his arms.
“Well,” Wynn interrupted Jessie’s thoughts. “I’m going to go find a doctor and get some answers.” Wynn turned on her heel and marched off.
Jessie led Cade to a quiet corner of the waiting room, far away from the other people waiting and took a seat. Luci sat down a few seats away.
Cade looked back and forth between Jessie and Luci, trying to figure if he should dare sit between the two of them or if it was safer to just stand. The tension between the girls was thick and uncomfortable. “I think I’ll go find us all some coffee,” he suddenly announced.
Jessie’s eyes darted to Cade’s face. “I’m fine. Really,” she said. She nodded slightly, hoping he was getting the signal that she didn’t want him to go. The last thing she wanted at this moment was to be left alone with her sister.
“I’ll…” Cade begun, “just be right back,” he finished. He turned quickly and left the room.
Jessie sighed and dropped her head in her hands. Where was Wynn? Why wasn’t she back from tracking down to doctor?
The stress of being stuck here alone with Luci made Jessie want to scream. She had to get out of there. “I’m just going to go help Cade with those coffees,” she said as she rose to her feet.
“Wait,” Luci said, putting a hand out. “Don’t go.”
She was so close to her escape. Jessie bit her lip and glanced over her shoulder at her sister.
“Can we talk?” Luci asked.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“I failed.”
What? Jessie thought in irritation. What game was Luci playing now? There was too much going on to have to deal with any more drama from her sister. Jessie wanted Luci just to sit still and be quiet for once. She knew she would hate herself for asking. She should just walk straight out of the waiting room, find Cade, and never talk to Luci ever again. Ignoring Luci was a good plan. It worked for years. No reason to change things now.
But she couldn’t make herself go. She turne
d and looked at her sister, crumpled up on a chair against the wall, defeated. She breathed deeply and then ventured, “Failed what?”
“Life. I suck at it, apparently.” Luci said matter-of-factly.
Jessie knew this was the part where, as any good person, she should protest and say no, you don’t suck. Your life isn’t crap. You’re a good person. But as far as she knew of Luci, she wasn’t that great of a person. And she didn’t know what her life was really like. “What do you mean?”
Luci sighed heavily and rubbed her temples with her fingers. She let them fall back down to her sides and sat up straighter, turning to face Jessie. “I mean, I didn’t come home because Mom needed me or I was being a good daughter or something. I came home because I had nowhere to go. I was flat broke. Homeless.”
Jessie gasped. “What?”
Luci nodded sadly. “I wasn’t like, sleeping at the bus terminal or anything. Yet. But I’d been living out of a backpack for weeks, hopping from friend to friend, begging for a night here and there on their couch.”
Jessie shook her head. This made no sense. “But, your apartment. And I thought you were writing…”
“I was. Am. I just haven’t been getting paid for it. I thought I’d have an agent and a bestselling book with a big New York publisher by now, but it’s been a lot harder than I ever thought. I’ve been rejected hundreds of times by just about everyone in the literary community it feels like. I just haven’t caught my break yet.”
“What about working?” Jessie asked. “Why didn’t you get a job to support yourself while you were writing?”
“I did. I’d been working at a local juice bar for a couple of years. It was perfect because it was only a few blocks walk from the two-bedroom apartment I was sharing with these three struggling models. I got paid well enough and I could sneak us juices and smoothies so we were always fed. I was fired about six months ago. Something about the cash register being off. I had nothing to do with it.” Luci gave Jessie a sharp look. “I swear. But it didn’t matter. With no job, I ran through what little savings I had and couldn’t afford rent or utilities. The girls eventually threw me out.”
“That’s awful.”
“I looked everywhere for a job but I have no experience with anything. Other than writing. Not a ton of jobs for writers, especially when you don’t have a college degree. I even thought about teaching yoga. But the classes to get certified were too expensive.”
Jessie frowned and switched seats to the one closer to Luci.
“I had to sell what I couldn’t carry,” Luci continued. “Everything I had left in the world fit into my backpack. I’d just been trying to…exist. Until I finally called Mom and she told me to come home.”
“Wow,” Jessie said.
“Yeah. Your older sister is a total failure. I’m twenty-six years old and I can’t make it on my own so I have to depend on my Mommy.”
“That’s not, I mean, you don’t,” Jessie trailed off. She struggled with what she could say that might help.
As if Luci could read her mind she said, “It’s all right. You don’t have to say anything. It is what it is.”
Jessie couldn’t believe what her sister was saying. All of this time she thought Luci was living a big city life in New York. Writing for magazines and working on a book. Traipsing around the city eating sushi and going to fashion shows with her model friends. She never pictured her living out of a backpack. She still couldn’t.
“But things will change now,” Jessie said. “You can get back on your feet and start again.”
Luci shrugged. “What am I good at?”
“You’ll figure it out. You’re young and creative and smart. It’s good that you came home. This will give you some time to find out what you want to do with your life.” Jessie could barely believe the words coming from her own mouth. Was she really sitting here consoling her sister she hadn’t spoken to in years? The woman who cheated with her boyfriend and even recently was just throwing herself at Cade, her…Jessie didn’t know what he was to her just yet.
Luci sighed heavily. “Sometimes I think I’m just defective. Just plain not a good person.”
Jessie opened her mouth to protest but then couldn’t and slumped back in her chair.
“I don’t have anyone to really confide in,” she continued. “No really good friends. The friends I do have are all flakey and self-absorbed.”
Jessie felt a pang of sadness for her sister. She couldn’t imagine having no one in the world to turn to. To depend on.
“And then of course there’s the family. Mom pities me. Wynn tolerates me. And you hate me.”
Jessie winced. How dare Luci put this on her shoulders? “That’s not fair,” she said.
“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? You couldn’t possibly hate me more.”
“And why shouldn’t I?” she accused angrily. She felt the heat rising in her face. Jessie took several quick breaths, trying to calm down. “You never even apologized,” she finally said in a strained voice, cursing herself for still feeling pain so many years later. “He was my first love.”
Luci licked her lips and let her shoulders slump. She stared down at her hands. “I know,” she responded, quietly.
“You didn’t talk to me for years. Like you were the one who had the right to be mad,” Jessie continued. “I mean, what the hell was that?”
Luci nodded and raised her head but avoided her sister’s eyes. “It was messed up. I was so messed up. I felt awful, Jess. Completely awful and just wracked with guilt. How could I do that to my baby sister? What kind of evil person does that to her own sister?” Tears streamed down Luci’s face as she choked on a sob.
Jessie felt a pain in her chest. Watching her sister cry was harder on her than she thought it would be. She wanted to reach out and comfort her but she couldn’t move. She shrugged like it was no big deal even though it was probably one of the biggest pains she’d ever felt in her entire life. Her whole world had unraveled in such a short time. She’d lost Jason, her sister, and then barely a few months later her father. It was hell.
“You were young,” Jessie said after a few moments. “We were all young.”
Luci rubbed at her eyes with the backs of her hands, leaving big black streaks across her face from her mascara. “It’s no excuse. It was a horrible thing to do. I was a monster.”
“No, you weren’t a monster. It wasn’t that…bad,” Jessie stammered. She could hardly believe the words coming out of her mouth. “Things happen sometimes. I mean, you weren’t purposely trying to hurt me, right?”
Luci fiercely shook her head. “No, of course not. I don’t think I thought much of anything. My friends and I had been drinking so much that night when we showed up at your school bonfire. I was upset because my boyfriend at the time had just dumped me for Christy Evans. You remember her? That cheerleader that never wore bottoms. Slut. Anyway, I was hurt and confused and pretty loaded on tequila. I was trying to find you to drive me home. Then some guy gave me something to smoke and after that I remember being in the backseat of a smelly cramped tan Mitsubishi with some random guy.” Luci’s eyes finally rose to meet Jessie’s. “Your guy.”
Jessie slowly inhaled and exhaled, trying to calm down.
“I should have said this six years ago, Jess. I am so, so sorry. I was such a stupid fool. I was trying to get through my own pain and instead I caused you pain. It never should have happened. And, not that it means much now, but I swear I’ll never hurt you like that again.”
Jessie couldn’t speak. She didn’t know what to say. Could she let go of the past and move on? Would she ever be able to trust Luci again? Maybe she gave her the only thing she could, an apology. Jessie had to decide if it would be enough.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“She’s awake! Come on!” Wynn called to the sisters as she rounded the hospital corridor.
Jessie and Luci leapt to their feet and ran after their sister, down the hallway, and into a curtained off area. Their mom lay
small and pale in a bed with her eyes closed.
“Mommy,” Luci said, starting to cry all over again. “Are you okay?”
Wynn grabbed Jessie’s hand and held it tightly as they approached their mom’s bed.
Her eyes fluttered open and she attempted a small smile. “Girls,” she said in a small voice. “Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
“Are you really, Mom?” Jessie asked. She moved closer to her mom’s bed and grabbed her hand. “What happened?”
“Just a bad fall. I fainted and hit my head is all. See? I’m fine.”
“Thank God,” Wynn said, her voice still shaky.
“Are you the Foster girls?” a deep voice said from the doorway. They all turned to see a tall, handsome doctor, maybe in his mid-thirties, with a clipboard in his arms. Wynn and Jessie exchanged a brief look.
“Yes, I’m Wynn. These are my sisters: Jessie and Luci.”
He smiled warmly at them. “I’m the on-call ER doctor who took care of your mother. She spoke highly of you three.”
“That’s so nice,” Luci said, batting her eyelashes at him.
Leave it to Luci to try and flirt with the doctor.
“Can we take her home?” Jessie asked.
“We got the CAT scan back and everything seemed normal. We’d like to watch her overnight but you can take her home in the morning. She should have plenty of fluids and I increased her magnesium. I’d like her to check in with her oncologist as soon as she can once we release her though. Just to be safe,” the doctor added.
“Of course,” Luci said sweetly. “We’re all about being…safe.” She gave a small giggle.
Jessie shot an irritated look at her sister. “Knock-it off Luci,” she scolded. To the doctor she said, “What do you mean, oncologist?” She turned to her mom. “What’s he talking about?”
“Aren’t oncologists cancer doctors?” Wynn asked.
The doctor stiffened and his eyes darted over to their mom’s. She’d suddenly become fascinated with her hands folded in her lap. “I’ll just let you all have some family time,” he said. “If you need anything don’t hesitate to ring the nurse.” The doctor fled the room leaving the girls alone with their mother.