Ruby groaned. “I’m sorry I ruined your day.”
“My day?” Mick laughed. “You freed me.”
“What?”
“I had planned to go into the hospital today to scope things out and see Dr. Madigan.”
“You just got here yesterday.”
“Which is what my mother said.”
Ruby giggled. “So, you mean my mishap gives you an excuse to do what you wanted to do?”
Mick concentrated on the road ahead and shrugged. “Something like that.”
“Glad I could help someone today.”
Mick turned for a second and winked. “There’s always a bright side, Ruby.”
***
Ruby massaged her temples gently and laid her head against the couch cushion. “Damnit, Ruby,” she muttered.
Mick stood in the doorway holding a cup of tea. “I don’t know why she’s so upset,” she whispered to her mother.
“Today was overtime for her,” Leona explained. Mick turned to her mother to explain. Leona pulled her back into the hallway. “It’s not easy for her, Mick—keeping the house, taking care of Logan. She’s been saving to take him on vacation to Disneyworld this April. It’s supposed to be part of his Christmas present. She’s been stowing away cash for two years.”
Mick sighed. “She couldn’t have worked today, Mom. Even if she hadn’t gotten banged up pretty good, she’s shaken up beyond belief.”
“I know.”
“I don’t think she likes me much,” Mick observed.
“Oh, I doubt that’s true. I think Ruby is a little nervous about what you will think of her.”
“I know how you feel about her, Mom.”
“Yes, I know you do. Ruby’s lost a lot in her young life,” Leona commented.
“You mean her partner?”
“I do, but also her parents. Logan is the center of her world.”
“And you.”
“Oh, I think I’m more like the porch where she gets to take a rest once in a while.”
Mick sighed. “It’s only one shift.”
“Not to her. Listen, I offered to help pay for that trip. She wouldn’t hear of it. Best I have managed to do is to put a few things under the tree for them. I know she won’t dare argue with me about buying them. Ruby is proud. She’ll accept help if she feels she can repay it in some way.”
Mick gestured to the cup in her hand. “Maybe you should take this to her.”
Leona grinned. “No, I don’t think so,” she disagreed. “I need to get back to my cookie chef in the kitchen.”
Mick took a deep breath and stepped into the living room. “Hey.”
Ruby looked up. “Hey.”
“I’m sorry about today.” Mick handed Ruby the cup.
“What? Sorry for what?”
“I don’t know. I know you were determined to work.”
“You didn’t make it snow, Mick, and you didn’t make me crash either. I did that all by myself.” Ruby took a sip of her tea. “Thanks.” She sipped slowly and looked back at the doctor. “Did you have enough time to do what you had planned while they were poking me?”
“I didn’t have much of a plan. I just wanted to touch base with Dr. Madigan and scope things out a little.”
Ruby’s phone rang before she could comment. “Hello? Oh. Really?” Ruby sighed. “Four or five days? That long? No, I understand. It’s not your fault,” Ruby said. “No, I understand. Thanks for calling.”
“Problem?”
Ruby shook her head with dismay. “It’s par for the course today. It will be at least four days before they can get my car fixed.” She groaned. “Guess I’ll be getting a rental.”
Mick scratched her brow. “You can borrow my car.”
Ruby snapped to attention.
“Why not? I don’t have anywhere to be. Besides, Mom will kill me if I don’t unpack the boxes I brought in a timely manner.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“I already crashed my car.”
Mick laughed. “I think the ice might have had a hand in that.”
“It’s generous of you.”
Mick shrugged. “Not really. Like I said, I don’t need it. It’s more like logical.”
“I can rent something.”
“You could. You don’t need to.”
“You barely know me,” Ruby reminded Mick.
“I know my Mom thinks of you like a daughter. I know you’ve helped her with all the things I wasn’t here to help with the last few years. Seems to me like this is the least I can do. Imagine how much lawn mowing and snow blowing you’ve saved me from all these years.”
Ruby’s lips turned into a smile. “Hardly the same thing.”
“True. I hate snow blowing. I probably should give you my car to make it even.”
“You’re a little touched aren’t you?”
“Not recently,” Mick deadpanned.
Ruby choked on the sip of tea she’d just taken.
“Easy there,” Mick said. “We’ve already been to the hospital once today.”
Ruby laughed.
“Please,” Mick requested. “Let me help you out with this.”
Ruby closed her eyes.
“If it makes you feel better, you can look at it as saving my behind,” Mick offered.
“How is that?”
“I tend to procrastinate. You know, on things like unpacking? Don’t tell my mother I admitted that.”
“Uh-huh.”
“No car—no finding excuses to escape. No escape—no paddling from Leona.”
“Your mother never paddled you,” Ruby said assuredly.
“No, but she threatened it, and I still believe her.”
Ruby let out a heavy sigh. “Only if you let me repay you somehow.”
“Saving my literal behind isn’t enough?”
Ruby held firm.
“Okay.” Mick held up her hands in surrender. “We’ll work something out.”
Ruby stared at Mick.
“I promise. We’ll work something out.”
“Mick, I—”
Mick winked at her new friend. “We’re stuck with each other, Ruby. Leona will have my head if I don’t look out for you as much as you’ve looked out for her.”
“I think you have that equation backward.”
“Not according to my mother,” Mick replied. “Hey, I might just make you play chauffeur one day.”
“Chauffeur, huh? To where?”
“I don’t know yet. I told you, I’ll think of something.”
Finally, Ruby chuckled. “Somehow, Mick, I believe that.”
Chapter Two
TWO WEEKS LATER
True to form, Mick had started her new position earlier than agreed upon. She was restless at home. Two weeks away from work was two too many. Mick hadn’t taken more than ten days off at a time in seven years. For some reason, today seemed extra-long. She wondered if somehow forty-eight-hours had been packed into the last twenty-four. She sipped from a cooling cup of coffee and let out a small sigh.
“Excuse me, Dr. Mulligan?”
Mick turned toward the door and smiled. “That’s a little formal, isn’t it?”
Ruby grinned. “We are at work,” she said.
“What are you doing down here?” Mick inquired. She looked up at the clock. “I thought you weren’t working until 7:30?”
“Shift change at 7:30. I have to take report at 7:00.”
“Right, but—”
Ruby stepped into the lounge and held out a plate.
“What’s that?” Mick asked.
“Dinner. Breakfast. I guess that depends on when you decide to eat it.”
“You brought me food?”
“You can let me know if it passes for that after you eat it,” Ruby replied cheekily. “Your mom told me you were working a double.”
Mick nodded. “Rough couple of days with all these call-outs.”
“Yeah, the flu is a beast,” Ruby sa
id.
“Speaking of,” Mick said. “How’s Logan? Mom said he was home from school today.”
Ruby smiled. Mick had struck up a friendship with Logan. Logan adored the doctor. He’d become Mick’s unpacking companion for two weeks, or as Ruby liked to call it, Mick’s excuse to avoid unpacking at all. “He’ll be okay—a little fever and a runny nose.”
Mick frowned.
“He’s okay, Mick. I dropped him off at your house on my way in. He was well enough to seek out that car you two have been building.”
Mick grinned. She’d unearthed a design she’d made as a kid to build a car for the local soapbox derby. Logan loved cars as much as she did. She’d been tinkering in Leona’s basement with Logan every day after school and whenever Logan visited while Ruby worked.
Ruby watched Mick’s eyes light up. The gleam reminded her of her son. Mick was all Logan talked about. Mick said, Mick did, me and Mick, Mick has, Mick can, me and Mick’s car—
“Maybe I’ll give Mom a call.,” Mick commented absently.
Mm. To check on your partner in crime. “Eat that at some point,” Ruby instructed the doctor.
Mick looked at Ruby curiously.
“What?” Ruby asked.
“I was wondering if hanging around my mom made you bossy or if that’s just part of being a mom.”
Ruby chortled at the serious tone of Mick’s voice. “It’s a secret,” she said.
“Figures. Like a Secret Mom Society or something.”
Ruby rolled her eyes and laughed. “Or something. Eat it,” she repeated her instruction. “Nurse’s orders.”
Mick huffed and watched Ruby leave. She peeked inside the container in her lap. “Ah! She made meatballs.” Mick smiled and placed her dinner in the refrigerator. Ruby’s revelation that Logan was sick nagged at her. She picked up her phone.
***
“I think a movie and maybe some ginger ale,” Leona told Logan.
“Can I just go downstairs for a little while?” Logan begged then coughed.
“Not tonight.”
“Mick would let me,” he grumbled.
Leona heard the phone ring and shook her head. Mick, Mick, Mick. She chuckled. “Hello.”
“Hey, Mom.”
“Well, speak of the devil, and she calls.”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Logan was just telling me that if you were here you’d let him go down into that basement—just for a little while.”
“Ruby said he’s sick.”
“She managed to find you?”
“Caught me on a break,” Mick explained.
“He’s just a little sniffly. Did you want to talk to him?”
“No, I—”
“Grandma,” Logan called for Leona.
“Yes?” she replied as she entered the room.
“Just for a minute?” he asked again.
“Not tonight, Logan,” Leona said.
Logan huffed.
“Do you want to talk to Mick?” she asked him. “She’s on the phone.”
Logan brightened and held out his hand.
“Apparently, someone would like to talk to you,” Leona told Mick over the line.
“Mick?”
“Hey, little man.”
Logan sniffled and coughed.
“Oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Mick said.
“Mick, can I go see the car?”
Mick laughed. She remembered this game. Leona would say no, and Mick would sneak into the den to find her father. It worked until it didn’t work anymore. She was seven. Leona had told her in no uncertain terms that Mick was not allowed to take her bike out in the rain. Then, Leona had left for the grocery store. True to form, Mick sought out her father. Gary Mulligan was watching television in the den. Mick sauntered into the room innocently.
“Dad, can I take my bike out?”
“In the rain?”
“It’ll stop soon,” Mick said. “I’m just going down to Adam’s house.”
“Where’s your mother?”
Mick shrugged. “She went to the store—I think.”
Gary peered out the window. “Just to Adam’s.”
“Okay! Thanks, Dad!”
Mick had failed to tell her father two important things: her mother had already said no, and that was because the last time Mick had decided to play in the rain, she’d ended up with more than mud on her jeans. Mick had missed three days of school with the flu. Mick had reasoned that everyone knew rain didn’t cause colds, germs did that. Leona didn’t buy the argument for a minute. Mick had managed to make it to her friend’s house and home again that day. She was greeted with Leona’s gesture to a small paddle that hung on the wall. Mick remembered gulping, and while the paddling never came, a week-long grounding had followed.
“Aw, Bud, I don’t think the cellar is the best idea if you’re sick.” Jesus, I am turning into my mother.
“But I could just go check on it.”
Mick suppressed a snigger. “Why? Do you think it’s going somewhere?” Mick waited for a beat and continued. “Hey, Christmas is only a week away. You don’t want to be sick for Christmas, do you?”
“You don’t like Christmas,” Logan commented.
Mick sighed. True. She would prefer to avoid the holidays. In fact, she was hoping to escape to work on Christmas Day. It bothered her that her humbugery had translated to Logan. She’d tried to be upbeat with him when he visited. Mick also realized she’d made their project a diversion from the upstairs version of the North Pole, questions about Santa Claus, and what she thought could’ve doubled as an elf bakery. Evidently, Logan had picked up on Mick’s aversion to the holiday. “You like Christmas,” Mick said. “And you don’t want to be sick when Santa comes. We’ll work on the car when you’re feeling a little better.” She heard Logan groan.
“You’ll be done—”
“Logan, I won’t touch the car until you feel better. I promise, okay?”
“But it’s your car?”
“Nah. It’s our car,” Mick corrected him.
“Okay.”
“Good. Listen, I have to go back to work. I’ll see you soon.”
“Mick?”
“Yeah?”
“Tomorrow?”
“What, Bud?”
“Can you see me tomorrow?”
Mick felt her heart lurch in her chest. She’d always loved kids, loved to play with her friends’ children and her cousins’ kids at gatherings. Logan was special. She’d spent more time with the youngster in that last two weeks than she had spent with her mother. Mick was fascinated by his perception of everything in the world. Logan was curious about everything. He wanted to know how things worked, what Mick did when she went to work, and what it was like to live all the way across the planet in California—that one made Mick laugh. Logan also liked to tell Mick stories about the things he did with his Grandma Lee and all kinds of things about his mother. Mick listened to everything Logan said attentively, particularly anything that had to do with Ruby.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Mick promised.
“Okay. Night, Mick.”
“Goodnight, Bud.”
“Grandma wants you.”
Mick laughed. The question is what does Grandma want me for?
“Mick?”
“I’m still here.”
“Thank you for that,” Leona said.
“Oh, I learned my lesson over thirty years ago,” Mick said.
“What lesson might that be?”
“Don’t ask Dad when Mom already said no.”
Leona laughed. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You will.” Mick disconnected the call and took a deep breath. Emotion bubbled in her veins. She admired her mother and she admired Ruby. Loss could make a person skeptical and jaded. She knew that firsthand. Both her mother and Ruby had experienced painful loss. Somehow, both women seemed to remain steadfast in their hopefulness. Perhaps, that was part of the Mom Society—or something. Mick ch
uckled. Or something.
***
Mick strolled through the door at 10:00 am. She was surprised to see Ruby standing in her mother’s kitchen. Ruby looked exhausted. “Hey,” Mick greeted the two women. She tossed her keys on the counter and removed her coat. “Is everything okay?”
Ruby tried to smile.
“What’s going on?” Mick asked.
“Logan has an appointment at 11:00 with the pediatrician,” Leona explained. “I’m pumping Ruby with caffeine for the next half an hour.”
“He’s still sick?” Mick asked with concern.
“Sore throat,” Ruby replied. “He can barely swallow. I hope I’m wrong.”
“Do you think he has strep?” Mick asked.
Ruby nodded.
Mick wasn’t surprised. She’d heard Ruby comment that two of Logan’s classmates had fallen prey to the infection. Kids liked to share everything and touch everything, including anything and everything that was gross.
“Either way, I think I need to call out for my shift tonight,” Ruby said.
“He can stay here, Ruby,” Mick said. “Or if you want him to be home, I can come over there. I’m off until Friday.”
Leona and Ruby exchanged a look of surprise.
“What? I am a doctor,” Mick said. “If I can handle vascular surgery and critical care, I ought to be able to manage a boy with strep throat.”
“Mick, you don’t have to—”
“Ruby,” Mick addressed her friend, “I can handle watching Logan. Let me help.”
“You haven’t slept in—”
“Neither have you,” Mick said.
Leona watched the exchange with interest. Mick had been spending lots of time with Logan. She guessed that most of her daughter’s conversations with the affable nurse had surrounded Logan’s interests and work. Ruby was likable. She was sincere, personable, and thoughtful. Ruby had been through hell. She doubted that Mick realized how difficult life had been for Ruby. Ruby was not one to complain. She looked for solutions and silver-linings. Leona thought that the young mother’s perspective on life, and on death might benefit Mick—if Mick took the time to listen to her new friend.
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