Strong Heat

by Niobia Bryant

  “Are you calling me dumb?”

  “When it comes to your sister . . . yes,” she said, not backing down.

  “I’ll let you get back to your housework,” he said, his voice hard.

  “And I’ll let you and your sister get back to playing house,” she snapped, her anger rising.

  “I know damn well you’re not accusing me—”

  Lisha slammed the phone down and then slammed it again. To be honest, she had yet to release the anger she felt over Bea’s intrusion in their lives last week, and because of it things were strained between her and Kael.

  Needing to be free of the apartment, she grabbed her short leather trench and the hamper of laundry before heading down to her car. She saw Logan’s cane on the backseat. He’d ordered a new one through the clinic and Lisha had brought it home for him the day before.

  Climbing into her car, she headed to Holtsville first. She figured if Kelli was in town she wanted to avoid her, and since she was at Kael’s trying to show him just how much he didn’t need Lisha, it was the opportune time to drop in on Logan and get back to Walterboro.

  Lisha’s annoyance burned her stomach and didn’t ease off even when she pulled her Nova in front of Logan’s house fifteen minutes later. Leaving the car running, she grabbed the cane and rushed through the cold winds to the front door. She knocked.

  She was about to open the door when Logan opened it instead. He waved her in and turned as he coughed into his handkerchief. “You still got that cold?” she asked, eyeing him.

  Logan nodded as he folded the handkerchief.

  Lisha’s heart double pumped in alarm as she thought she spotted blood mingled in with the mucus in the handkerchief. She set the cane on the sofa and came over to stand by him, pressing a hand to his forehead and tilting his head back to look into his eyes. They were cloudy.

  Logan chuckled weakly. “I’m fine,” he said, trying to raise his hand to brush hers away.

  He tried and failed. He was weak.

  Lisha rushed into his bedroom and grabbed a pair of shoes from the floor of his closet and a winter coat. She spotted sweater hats on the top shelf and grabbed one of those as well and the blanket folded across the foot of his bed.

  Heading back into the living room, she set the shoes on the floor. “Let’s go, Mr. Strong,” she said.

  “Go where?” he said.

  “The hospital,” she said, her voice firm because she knew his stubbornness and resolve were firm as well.

  “For what? A cold?” he asked, moving his feet when she kneeled down to put his shoes on them.

  “Pneumonia . . . I think. But I don’t know for sure,” she said, holding his wrist as she stared up at him. “I do know it’s more than a cold.”

  Logan opened his mouth.

  Lisha shook her head. “Sometimes you got to know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em, Mr. Strong,” she said. “It’s time to fold. Please let’s go.”

  “You’re wasting your time,” he said, bending to reach for his shoes and slide them on his feet by himself.

  “Any time I spend with my favorite ex-client is not a waste,” she said.

  “Future daughter-in-law,” he corrected her before another round of coughs.

  Lisha didn’t respond as he stood and she handed him his coat to slide over his ever-present Dickies uniform. She noticed him wince when he raised his arms. “I’ll call your kids,” she said, turning to the end table to pick up the black rotary phone.

  Logan made his way to the door.

  Kael’s line rung endlessly, but no one picked up. “Kelli’s not answering at Kael’s and he’s probably outside.”

  “Kelli’s at Kael’s?” Logan asked as they left the house.

  Lisha bit her lip to keep from saying something smart. “Yes, sir, she must have gone straight there because I know if she saw you like this she would’ve taken you to the hospital too.”

  A few steps from the car Logan stumbled forward and fell onto the hood. “So weak,” he admitted, his breathing labored.

  Lisha rushed to his side and tried her best to help him stand upright, but Logan Strong was tall and sizeable and his weakened state made his body like deadweight.

  “Can’t . . . breathe,” he said, closing his eyes as he let his forehead rest against the rumbling hood.

  Lisha covered him with the blanket she still held and rushed into the house to call for an ambulance and then tried Kael’s number again, slamming the phone down when it was never answered.

  Rushing back to his side as the winter winds continued to brutally whip around them, she prayed over and over again for the ambulance to hurry. Before it was too late.

  Kael raked the stalls of the barn like a madman. He was fueled by his anger at Lisha’s words. What did she want him to do, stop speaking to his own sister?

  “Never,” Kael mumbled.

  Blood was always thicker than water.

  “Here you go, Bubba.”

  He looked up as Kelli strolled into the barn carrying a thermos. “Thank you,” he said, turning the top to take a sip of the steaming coffee straight from the thermos. “You told Daddy you was home?”

  “I talked to him earlier, but I didn’t tell him I was at your place,” she said, stepping up on the bottom rung of the door to the stall. “I thought we’d surprise him tonight.”

  “How’s his cold doing?” Kael asked, handing her back the thermos to finish cleaning the stalls.

  “Not good. But he keeps saying he’s fine,” she said. “I made him some chicken noodle soup.”

  Kael nodded in approval.

  They fell silent.

  “You still working for King?” she asked, drawing her coat closer around her tall thin frame as a cool draft of wind found exposure in the wood to fill the unheated barn.

  “Just part-time now,” he said.

  “Willie is running for the city council,” she said.

  Kael grunted. He paused in his raking to look at her. “I thought he said to call him Will?”

  Kelli shrugged. “He lets me call him whatever I like,” she said with confidence.

  “I bet he does,” he said.

  “How’s Lisha?” she asked.

  Kael nodded. “She’s good.”

  “I’m sorry again about that stunt Bea pulled,” Kelli said as she climbed up in her jeans to sit on the top rung of the stall’s door. “I told her about her and I told her to put her feelings for you aside because you were with Lisha now.”

  Kael said nothing, his thoughts still filled with concern that Lisha seemed to have something against his sister. He started to voice his concerns to Kelli but knew that might make things worse. And he wanted his only sister and the woman he planned to marry to get along.

  He thought of the engagement ring nestled among his socks in the drawer of his bedroom. This last week things had been so strained between them that he put the notion of proposing aside. He didn’t want the moment he proposed to be overshadowed by hard feelings by either of them.

  And now he was wondering if the issue of his sister was more than he was willing to swallow for any woman.

  “Lisha coming over?”

  He shrugged. “Not sure,” he answered.

  “Everything all right?”

  Kael opened his mouth and then closed it.

  “Hey, you can talk to me,” she said.

  “Lisha doesn’t think you like her,” he said, looking over at his sister.

  Kelli’s eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t think she was the girl for you—and I still don’t, to be honest. But I like her just fine,” she said. “Did I do something to make her feel that way? If I did, I’m sorry.”

  Kael shook his head. “That mess with Bea didn’t help.”

  “Bea?” she said. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”

  “I know.”

  Kael finished up his task and made his way to the barn door with his sister at his side.

  “I hope Lisha isn’t stirring up so
me mess to come between blood,” Kelli said. “And I hope you know better than to let her.”

  “Maybe you two should hang out together a little more,” he offered.

  Kelli nodded. “Okay, if you think that will help, I’ll invite her to eat or to go shopping or something.”

  He brought his arm up to hug his sister to his side. “I think that’s perfect. Thank you, Smelly Kelli.”

  She pinched his cheek. “Go ahead and change and let’s head to Daddy’s.”

  They walked the lengthy distance back to the house. As soon as they walked in, the blaring of the telephone met them. “I got it. You go on up,” Kelli offered, moving across the living room as Kael jogged up the stairs.

  Kael took a short but steaming hot shower before changing into jeans and black turtleneck. Walking over to his dresser drawer he pulled out a pair of black socks and his hand brushed against the black velvet of the box holding Lisha’s engagement ring. He picked it up and pressed his thumb against it to pop it open. The round half-carat solitaire gleamed on the thin gold band.

  He would have loved to afford a bigger ring to truly reflect the bigness of his love, but he knew Lisha would love it just the way he knew she loved him. Stroking the diamond with his calloused thumb, he wanted to see it on her finger never to be removed until the one day he could afford bigger and better.

  He wanted Lisha Rockmon to be his wife. The mother of his children. The one he spent the rest of his life with.

  Then just ask her.

  Once Lisha and he were back on solid ground, he planned to do just that. They were the only ones keeping him from claiming his destiny. Not his sister or anyone else. Closing the box he shoved it back amongst his socks.

  Knock-knock.

  “Come in,” he called out, pulling on his socks.

  The door opened and Kelli stepped inside, still in her coat. “Daddy’s in the hospital,” she said, her face lined with worry.

  Kael dropped the leather ankle boot he’d just picked up. “What happened?” he asked.

  “Lisha called and said she had an ambulance rush him to the hospital and we should hurry up and get there,” she said.

  Kael jerked on the boots and quickly zipped them before grabbing his leather coat from the closet. “Let’s go,” he said.

  “I already got my car running,” she said, rushing down the stairs with Kael close behind her.

  They left the house and climbed into Kelli’s VW Beetle. “Is it his hip?” Kael asked. “How did Lisha find him? Was he in Walterboro?”

  Kelli’s knuckles were nearly white from clutching the steering wheel tightly as she drove. “All I know for sure is it has to do with that cold being worse than we thought,” she said.

  Kael nodded and fell silent.

  The sun was just beginning to set and the skies were darkening from a deep blue and lavender to ebony as they made their way up Highway 17. Kael was anxious to get there, but didn’t bother to urge his sister to drive her little car any faster. She was going as fast as she could with the line of cars ahead of them.

  When they finally pulled into the small parking lot of the county hospital, Kael remembered the day he came there all those months ago. “Daddy must be sick if he let them bring him here,” he said as they rushed into the emergency department.

  The same nurse was at the desk, and when she spotted them she stood up. “He’s here this time,” she said.

  “You remember me?” he asked.

  “Who could forget you?” she said, pointing behind him to the door. “The second room through that door. His daughter is with him.”

  Kelli pierced the woman with her eyes. “I’m his only daughter,” she snapped.

  Kael stopped and turned to grab his sister’s elbow. “The woman with him is my wife,” he lied, before steering his sister through the door. He knew Lisha lied about being his father’s daughter because only close family would be allowed.

  Lisha was standing outside the closed curtain of the room and she looked relieved at the sight of them. Running into Kael’s arms, she hugged him close. “Thank God,” she sighed.

  “What happened?”

  Lisha stepped back from Kael, wringing her hands. “I went by his house to take the cane and he didn’t look good and I thought it could be pneumonia—”

  “Pneumonia!” Kelli exclaimed.

  “I walked him to the car to bring him to the hospital and he got really weak so I called an ambulance,” she said, still wringing his hands.

  Kelli moved to open the curtain but Lisha reached out a hand to stop her. “They asked me to step out while they examined him,” she explained.

  Kelli brushed away Lisha’s touch before wrapping her own arms around herself. “I’m going to find a phone to call Will,” she said, before turning to open the door and disappear through it.

  The curtain was pulled back. A short pudgy woman with reddish hair waved them in.

  “I’ll go find Kelli,” Lisha offered.

  Kael nodded as he stepped inside the small examination room. His father was on the bed with the head positioned up. He had on an oxygen mask and his eyes were closed as he struggled to breathe.

  “I’m Dr. Horowitz,” she said.

  “I’m Kael. Kael Strong. His son,” he said, feeling completely rocked by the sight of his father.

  “We’re going to run some blood tests to confirm, but I believe your father has congestive heart failure and my exam leads me to think he may have some pretty serious heart damage as well,” she said.

  Kael locked his knees when he felt them weaken. He glanced at his father and felt a pang of hurt to find his father’s eyes open and resting on him. He stepped closer to the bed. “So it’s not pneumonia?” he asked, resting his hand on his father’s arm.

  “No, the symptoms for both are very similar. All of the coughing is caused by a buildup of fluid in the lungs, but regardless, it is a good thing your sister called the ambulance and got him in here as quickly as she could,” she said. “I’m having him moved to ICU, and as soon as I get the labs back I will come to his room and talk to you. Okay?”

  The curtain opened and a nurse entered. He looked on as she began to draw blood from his father.

  Lisha looked around the small waiting room as she stepped through the doorway. She spotted Kelli just as she was turning away from the pay phone on the wall. Lisha made her way over to her.

  “Kael’s in the room—”

  Kelli brushed past her and raced through the door.

  Lisha paused and tried her best not to feel slighted. She tried and failed, but she still set it aside as she made her way to the door.

  “Your husband is delicious looking.”

  Lisha stopped and looked at the nurse. “My husband?” she asked, not really focused because of her concern over Logan.

  “The young man with the silver hair,” she said. “Good pick.”

  Lisha just smiled a bit and kept on to through the door and to the exam room, not knowing or caring what the other woman was talking about.

  She was just passing the row of curtain-covered rooms when Kael and Kelli stepped past the curtain of Logan’s exam area.

  Kael looked past his sister at Lisha, causing the other woman to look over her shoulder to see what had caught her brother’s attention. At the sight of Lisha she eyed her up and down and rolled her eyes before turning back to Kael.

  Lisha reached them and stretched up her arm to lightly tap Kelli’s shoulder. “Do you have a problem with me?” she asked her.

  Kelli turned. “Excuse me?” she asked with attitude.

  “Lisha,” Kael said, his voice and eyes concerned.

  She ignored him. “I said, ‘Do you have a problem with me?’” she repeated.

  “Are you kidding me right now?” Kelli snapped. “You have the audacity to question me like that right outside where my father is laying up in a hospital fighting for his life? Are you crazy?”

  “I am well aware of where we are and why since I had sense
enough to recognize that your father needed medical attention,” Lisha told her coldly. “And I ask again. Do you have a problem with me?”

  Kael stepped in between them and looked down at Lisha. “Is now the time for this? What are you doing, baby?” he asked, his voice low.

  Lisha leaned past him to continue to eye Kelli, some of her anger being fueled by the stunt Bea had pulled last week. “And my question remains,” she said, waving her hand.

  Kael sidestepped in front of her. “Lisha,” he said, his voice filled with warning.

  She leaned to the left of him. “Maybe if you were more focused on your father and less focused on minding your brother’s business you would have known he was sick.”

  Kelli gasped in shock.

  Two of the hospital nurses stepped up. “We have other patients here,” one of the nurses said.

  Kael grabbed Lisha’s upper arms. “Stop it,” he said shortly.

  “What did I do to deserve her attacking me like that, Kael?” Kelli said, her voice pained.

  He turned to his sister and hugged her close to his side.

  Lisha threw her hands up at how gullible he was.

  “If you had carried your sneaky behind straight to your father’s house, you could have seen he was sick,” Lisha continued even as Kael stopped comforting his sister to guide her to the door.

  Lisha snatched away from him as she glared. She pushed past him to walk to Logan’s room. His eyes were still closed, but she slid her hand into his and pressed a kiss to his brow.

  “What? Is she attacking Daddy now?” she heard Kelli say from beyond the curtain.

  Her anger dissipated. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made a scene. I was wrong. I hope you feel better soon, but I’m going now. I love you, Mr. Strong,” she said, pressing another kiss to his forehead.

  She turned and his hand tightened on hers. Lisha’s eyes filled with tears. Of regret. Of shame. Of anger. Of sadness.

  She eased her hand from his and turned just as Kael and Kelli stepped into the room. Shaking her head at the pain of Kael escorting her out, she didn’t even look at him as she passed him. “Your sister believes she is your everything. Maybe you believe that too. Either way, there’s no room for me in your life, not with her around,” she said softly before leaving them behind.