Best Practice (Special Delivery Book 5)

by J. A. Armstrong

  Tess covered her face to stifle a laugh.

  “Me and Gram can help Mom,” he said.

  “Even if you miss your game?” Mary asked.

  “Mom misses stuff all the time. Like, they were supposed to go to Maine last month, but Dani got a solo in some showcase thing so they didn’t go. They always come to my games. Brooke even left work a couple of times. I can miss one game.”

  Tess decided it was time to make her entrance. “You ready for that swim?” she asked as she entered the room.

  “Yep.”

  “Go on outside. I’ll be right behind you. Just don’t get in until I’m there.”

  “I won’t.”

  Tess turned to her mother. Mary looked pale and Tess moved to feel her forehead. “Are you okay?”

  “How much of that did you hear?” Mary asked.

  “All of it,” Tess admitted.

  “Life isn’t baseball,” Mary said.

  Tess smiled. “Maybe it is,” she said. She leaned in and kissed her mother’s cheek. “Rebecca should be down any minute. Dad went to get pizza. Do you need anything before I go outside with Davey?”

  Mary shook her head. Tess started to walk away and Mary grabbed her hand. “He reminds me of you.”

  Tess nodded. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  Mary watched Tess stroll through the sliding glass doors. She heard Davey call out, “Mom!” excitedly followed by a splash. “You should,” Mary muttered.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Brooke collapsed in a chair with a cup of coffee. About an hour before she was due to go on-call, her phone had buzzed. Rachel’s father-in-law had suffered another severe stroke. The decision had been made not to keep him on life-support. Less than an hour later, Brooke found herself performing an emergency C-section. It was only 11:00 PM and she felt exhausted. She seldom took naps when she was at the hospital. Right now, she had another patient in the throes of labor that she expected would deliver before morning. Over the years, Brooke had developed a sixth sense for the direction an evening at the hospital was inclined to take. Everything within her was screaming that this was going to be an exceptionally busy and potentially stressful night. It didn’t help that her thoughts were preoccupied with what might be transpiring with Tess, at home with Dani, and with how Rachel and Mike were faring with their inevitable loss. Even if she had wanted to, Brooke was certain sleep would not come to her. Coffee seemed her most likely ally.

  Brooke slid her phone from her pocket and noticed a missed call from Tess. She lifted the phone to her ear to play the voicemail:

  Hi, love. I’m sorry I didn’t get to you before you went on-call. It was a little crazy here after Davey and Mom arrived. I hope everything is okay there. Rachel called me a little while ago. I’m so sorry, love. I know how much you like Mike’s dad. If you need me, call me. I don’t care what time it is; okay? By the way, thanks for making me let Davey come down. I don’t know if it’s what he needed. It’s what I needed, though. I love you. Talk to you in a while.

  Brooke smiled and sipped her coffee. “I wonder if she is still up?” It was worth a try.

  ***

  “How are you doing?” Rebecca asked Tess.

  “Better than I was before you got here.”

  “Really?”

  “That surprises you?”

  “No,” Rebecca admitted. “I know that you had reservations about Davey coming here.”

  “I did. Brooke was adamant. She was right.” Tess chuckled. “Well, at least she was partly right.”

  “Care to explain?”

  “She thought Davey needed to come. Maybe he did, not as much as I needed to hear what he said to my mother today.”

  Rebecca was curious about what had transpired while she’d excused herself to call Brad and get changed. Tess seemed markedly more relaxed when she had returned. This was the first chance she had to talk to her daughter-in-law privately. Everyone else had retired for the evening, and Tess had suggested they share a bottle of wine on the patio.

  “What did he say?” Rebecca asked.

  “I guess he and Dani overheard Brooke tell you about my conversation with Mom yesterday—how she suggested that Ethan was Brooke’s son.”

  Rebecca groaned. “How in the world did they hear that?”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say they were spying.”

  Rebecca laughed. “Probably good odds on that one.”

  Tess winked. She sometimes wondered if the twins were secretly trying to prepare for a life in the CIA. They seemed to always be concocting some covert plan, and they loved to see if they could uncover a secret—even if what they ended up learning was no secret at all.

  “What did he say?” Rebecca asked again.

  “He defended his family,” Tess said proudly. “He told her that Brooke would never leave him.”

  “He’s right.”

  “He is. It’s not even what he said; it was the honesty and the wisdom in it. I sometimes forget how much they’ve grown, and how carefully they listen to all of us. It made me realize a few things.”

  “Oh?”

  Tess sighed lightly. Listening to Davey had shifted something within her—something that Tess understood had needed to shift for many years. She wasn’t sure how to explain it to anyone else. “I’m not sure how to explain this.” Tess gathered her thoughts and continued. “It’s like I traveled through time somehow.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Just what I said. My mother lives in a different time,” Tess observed. “I think I’ve always known that; I just didn’t understand it until today. When I say that, people might think I mean that her views on my life are generational. That’s not it. I think I’ll always wonder what it might be like if David were still here.” Tess closed her eyes and recalled her brother. She opened them and smiled. “Part of me will always wonder who she would be if he had lived. I used to wonder who I would be,” Tess confessed. “I love my life. I love my family—my family. If anything had been different who’s to say I would be with Brooke or that there would be a Davey and a Dani? This is my life. As hard as it was, as much as I still miss him, my life moved on; it kept going. Hers stopped. It stopped when his did. Everything she does and everything she says is tied up in that moment; the moment David left. It’s all about that. It always has been. It’s her fear. Her fear is that loss, feeling that loss. She fears that in everything. I imagine even with my dad. He’s learned to accept that—who she became. He had to, I think. It took a long time,” Tess said. “For me to move on with my life. I’m not sure that happened until Dani and Davey came along. It did happen. I guess Davey made me realize that. She’s never stopped mourning.”

  Rebecca took Tess’s hand. “She does love you, Tess.”

  “I know. I can’t lie to you. I wish that meant that she could be happy for me. Happy is too vulnerable for her. She expects disappointment, so she expects that for everyone else. I thought her issues were about Brooke being a woman.”

  “And now you don’t?”

  “I think it’s easy for her to make it about that. It’s not. Hell, Daniel left. Being a man had nothing to do with his decisions. It still doesn’t. She knows that. Deep down, she does. Gary? He’s sort of a nomad. He’s not even thirty yet.” Tess laughed as she thought about her younger brother. “Maybe he’ll settle down one day. I’m not sure that’s what he wants. In some ways, that’s easier for her to deal with. If he never looks to commit, she doesn’t have to open herself to another person—or two or three. Funny, she’s never pushed him about finding a wife. I think attachments scare her. I don’t know. I know she loves me. Hell, I think she even loves Brooke. With me, it’s given. With Brooke? She has to decide to let her in.” Tess’s eyes grew sad. “She loves me but she can’t let herself be close to me. I’m not sure she can let herself be close to anyone. It’s easier to worry about things that she thinks she can control. Davey reminded me again that we don’t control anything except ourselves. I’m not sure she wants to
accept that.”

  Rebecca squeezed Tess’s hand. “Quite the young man.”

  “He is,” Tess agreed. “I love my parents. I can’t change who they are or how they feel. Maybe I am just starting to accept that.”

  “Not easy.”

  “No, it’s not,” Tess admitted. “It is liberating.”

  Rebecca chuckled. “Yes, it is.”

  “Speaking from experience?”

  “You have no idea,” Rebecca said. “We’ll save that talk for a different bottle of wine.”

  ***

  Tess had just climbed into bed when her phone buzzed. She smiled, knowing instinctively whose voice would greet her on the other end. “Hi.”

  “Hey,” Brooke replied. “Did I wake you?”

  “No. I just finished a bottle of wine with Mom.”

  “A whole bottle?”

  Tess laughed. Funny how she knew whose mom I meant. “Be grateful; earlier I thought it might be a two-bottle kind of day.”

  “That bad?”

  “It’s better now,” Tess said. “How about there?”

  “Busy night already,” Brooke said. “But nothing out of the ordinary, I’m glad to say.”

  “You must be exhausted,” Tess guessed.

  “I’m okay. I’m more worried about you.”

  Of course, you are. “I’m okay,” Tess said. “I think I need to thank you though, and possibly apologize.”

  “For what?”

  “For giving you such a hard time about Davey coming down here. You were right.”

  “Oh?”

  “Feel free to rub it in.”

  “No, I just wonder what changed your mind.”

  “Davey. Mom. All of it, I guess. I don’t know. He had a talk with my mother tonight.”

  Brooke cringed. “Should I head to the emergency room now?”

  Tess laughed. “No. I probably shouldn’t have listened in.”

  “Why not? They listen in on us all the time.”

  “God, I hope not all the time.”

  “Please, I don’t have any wine here.”

  Tess giggled. “Sorry. He was just—God, Brooke, I know he’s only eleven but he sounded so…”

  “Grown up?”

  “Yeah, in an innocent way.”

  “Mm. I know. Dani wanted to know why Grandma thought Ethan wasn’t her brother.”

  “Her too?”

  “Mm. Maybe they are the double 0s in 007.”

  “That’s a frightening thought, love.”

  Brooke laughed. “She was standing there looking at me? Tess, I swear to you, she morphed into a twenty-year-old in two seconds flat.”

  “Bite your tongue.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I do,” Tess admitted.

  “But in an innocent way—like you said. Ten minutes later we were eating cookies and she was telling me about this boy Ricardo who has a drum lesson after hers.”

  “A boy?” Tess asked.

  “Yeah, I know. Let me tell you; I almost dialed 911 myself.”

  Tess giggled.

  “You sound better,” Brooke offered.

  “I am better. You were right about Davey. I don’t know that he needed this as much as I did, though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Him. I saw a bit of David in him today,” Tess said. “It’s not like I haven’t always seen it. David never wanted to upset my mom. Somehow, he always found a way to make his opinions known. I miss him so much, Brooke.”

  “I know you do.”

  “Crazy, isn’t it?”

  “What’s that?” Brooke wondered.

  “All these years later—every so often, I could swear I see him standing in a doorway or hear his voice down the hall.”

  “I don’t think it’s crazy at all.”

  “I do miss him. I also know he never left me. Somehow, I just know that. Maybe that’s because I listened to him before he left. He was ready to go even if I didn’t want him to. And, he’d never forgive me if I gave up because he had to leave. I know that.”

  “Must’ve been some conversation you heard.”

  “It was. It made me think; my mother never let go. She’s still hanging on. Not to him, but to the loss. I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to let that go.”

  “Maybe not.”

  “I think in some way that’s how she stays connected to him, even if it distances her from everyone else in her life.”

  “I’m sorry, Tess.”

  “Don’t be. I love her, Brooke. Maybe I’m seeing her clearly for the first time in my life.”

  “What do you see?”

  “Fear,” Tess answered. “Sadness, but mostly fear. Funny, Davey had that figured out before I did.”

  “He’s intuitive.”

  “He is. How is everyone there?” Tess asked.

  “Missing you.”

  Tess closed her eyes and let Brooke’s words wash over her. “You just want me to bake more cookies.”

  “No,” Brooke answered seriously. “Murphy’s moping. Dad said his lasagna doesn’t cut it, and Dani misses you a lot. When I left, she was playing with Ethan, and promising him that you’d be home soon. The cookies are a bonus, though.”

  “You know, you could make them yourself.”

  “Me? It took me two years to get pancakes down.”

  Tess laughed. “I miss you too.”

  “I’m glad that you’re feeling better.”

  “I am. I won’t lie to you; I’ll be happy to get home.”

  “When do you think you might come back?” Brooke tried to keep the hopefulness out of her voice. She’d been home a day and she already missed Tess. She had told herself it was silly. Brooke was often away for at least a night or two. Most of the time, that was due to an unusually chaotic couple of days on-call. Brooke also had conferences to attend a few times a year. It wasn’t unusual for her to be separated from Tess and the kids for a couple of days. Tess seldom traveled without Brooke. It felt strange to Brooke—coming home and not finding Tess reprimanding one of the twins, putting Ethan down for a nap, working on a painting out on the patio or making dinner. She was grateful that Dani and Ethan were at home. Tess hadn’t traveled without Brooke since Ethan was born. The couple of times Tess had visited her parents with the twins had been hell for Brooke. She never told Tess that. If she had, she was sure that Tess would balk at making those trips without her. And, Brooke wanted Tess to feel comfortable taking time for herself, even a few nights away. That didn’t change the fact that Brooke missed her sorely whenever Tess did leave. She missed the kids too. At least, when Brooke was away, she had things to keep her preoccupied. Coming home to silence unnerved her now.

  “I think I’ll look to get us a flight home on Thursday,” Tess replied. Brooke was silent. “Brooke? Is that okay?”

  “Huh? Yeah, of course.”

  “My dad offered to take Davey to the water park on Wednesday. I guess he has some kind of pass one of his friends gave him.”

  “D must be pumped.”

  “Understatement,” Tess said. “All I know is we had better get that pool open when I get back.”

  Brooke grinned on the other end of the phone. Her father had planned on getting the pool ready before Davey came home. Dani liked the pool. Davey loved it. Brooke was confident that if Davey could, he’d likely swim all day, every day unless he had baseball. “Well, the water park is definitely worth an extra day.”

  Tess detected a hint of disappointment in Brooke’s voice. “Brooke, if it’s too much there with work and the kids…”

  “What? No,” Brooke dismissed the notion. It wasn’t too much to handle. Brooke’s father was thrilled to spend a few days with Dani and Ethan. And, as much as Brooke knew that Dani and Ethan missed Tess, she also recognized that this short time was good for Dani too. Maybe it was even good for Brooke. That didn’t change the fact that she missed her wife. “Like I said, I miss you,” Brooke said. “What about you? You’ve gone from D squared to M
om squared. A whole day with no buffer?”

  “I’ll survive somehow,” Tess deadpanned.

  “You are feeling better.”

  “Let’s just say I’m finding I have a new perspective.”

  “Want to tell me about it?”

  “When I get home,” Tess replied.

  Brooke was about to respond when her pager went off. “I’m sorry. I just got paged.”

  “No worries, love. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Get some rest,” Brooke said.

  “I will. Make sure you do the same when you can.”

  “Promise.”

  “I love you, Dr. Campbell.”

  “I love you too.”

  Tess placed her phone on the bedside table and stretched out. For the first time since Brooke told her the news about her mother’s cancer, Tess felt she could breathe. She closed her eyes and savored the feeling. New perspective. I guess maybe it’s time.

  ***

  WEDNESDAY

  Tess startled when her phone rang. Brooke was at work and her father had left over an hour earlier with Davey. “Hello?”

  “Mom?”

  “Dani?”

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “What’s up?” Tess asked. “Everything okay there?”

  “Yeah. Me and Ethan were just playing with the drums.”

  Oh, God—no. Not another one already! “Oh? How is that going?”

  “Good. He got scared of the cymbal at first. Now he thinks it’s funny.”

  Great. Can’t any of my kids pick something quiet to find fascinating? “That’s great, sweetie.”

  “Grandpa said the pool should be ready later today.”

  “Are you going to go swimming?” Tess asked curiously.

  “Nah. It’s not really hot outside. I think me and Ethan might take a walk with Grandpa to the ice cream place, though.”

  “How is Grandpa?”

  “He’s good. He tried to make your cookies yesterday.”

  “He did?”

  “Yeah. He should really stick to spaghetti and pies.”