by Erin Dutton
Sean climbed back in the car, holding a small duffle bag on his lap. “I got him some fresh clothes, too. For when they let him come home.”
Casey smiled, pleased with what a thoughtful young man Sean had become. He didn’t say anything more during the drive to the hospital, and Casey didn’t press him to. But she hoped whatever he was thinking so hard about as he stared out the passenger window didn’t weigh too heavily on him.
When they reached the hospital, Casey continued to take charge while Sean trailed along behind her. She followed the signs until they found the room number Jacqueline had texted to Sean. But when they reached the correct hallway, she let Sean enter first.
A lamp in the corner combined with a subdued glow coming from somewhere behind the bed provided enough light to see the room’s two occupants. Teddy lay in the bed, covered to his chest, his eyes closed and his face peaceful. His right arm lay outside the sheet, encased in a splint to his elbow. But she didn’t see any other obvious injuries. Jacqueline slumped in the chair beside him, pulled close enough that her hand rested on the bed next to his. Jacqueline’s eyes were also closed, but her body radiated tension. Her fingers twitched like they often did when she wasn’t fully asleep, but she seemed to be hovering just under wakefulness.
Casey stepped inside the room and pulled the door closed behind her, hoping to keep the bustle from the hallway outside from disturbing them. But as the latch clicked, Jacqueline jolted awake. The motion caused Teddy to stir as well. Sean moved immediately to his bedside, but Casey hung back and offered them both a small smile in greeting.
“How are you feeling?” Sean touched his shoulder.
“Not bad enough to warrant all this fuss.”
“Would you rather I’d left you on the kitchen floor to fend for yourself?” Jacqueline asked as she rose and pulled Sean into a quick hug. He held her for longer than Casey expected, as if he needed the embrace as much as she did. “He’s okay, buddy.” She cupped the back of his neck quickly before releasing him.
Sean nodded, his jaw muscles working against the emotion in his sweet eyes.
“Since you came all this way, sit and tell me about school.” Teddy waved his good arm at Sean and then toward the chair at his bedside. After Jacqueline stepped out of the way, Sean sat down, bent close, and began talking to him.
As Jacqueline moved farther from the bed, Casey spoke quietly to her. “Hey, I hope it’s okay that I tagged along.”
“Of course.”
“What happened?”
Jacqueline shrugged. “I went to take him his groceries and found him on the floor.”
She lowered her voice. “Was he unconscious?”
“For a bit, but we don’t know exactly how long he was there before I found him. His scans came back clean, but since he hit his head when he fell, they want to monitor him overnight.”
“You could have called me when you found him. I would’ve come over and helped. You know I’m only a couple minutes away.” She hadn’t meant to sound as accusatory as she did.
Jacqueline shrugged. “Once I’d called the ambulance, I didn’t have much to do but keep him still and wait.”
“I’m right around the corner.”
“I know where you live, Casey.”
Jacqueline’s expression remained stoic, so Casey tried another avenue. “How’s he really doing?”
“Not as well as he’s projecting. They’re giving him something for the pain, but I think his wrist is hurting. He’s too tough to show it, especially now that Sean’s here.”
“We won’t stay long. He’ll need his rest.”
“Sean’s his grandson. He’s welcome to stay however long he wants to.” Jacqueline gave her a sheepish look. “Sorry. I realize how that sounded. You’re welcome as well.” She rubbed her fingers across her forehead. “It’s been a long evening. And judging by the looks of that chair I’ll be sleeping in, it’s going to be a rough night, too.”
“Maybe they can get you a roll-away or something in here.”
Jacqueline shook her head. “I won’t be sleeping much anyway.” She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them, a piece of her armor vanished and Casey glimpsed her pain. “I was so scared.”
Casey glanced across the room and caught Sean’s concerned gaze. She gave him a reassuring nod and he visibly sighed.
“Sean, can you keep Poppa company for a few minutes while I take Mama to get some coffee?”
“Yeah.”
Casey turned to Jacqueline, who she could already tell was gearing up for a fight. “Come with me.”
“I don’t think—”
“There’s a family lounge just down the hall, and I’m sure I saw a Keurig when we passed.” Casey took Jacqueline’s hand and led her out the door. Despite her resistance, Jacqueline continued to hold her hand as they walked to the other end of the hall, releasing her only when they’d entered the otherwise empty room.
Casey crossed to the beverage station along the opposite wall. She positioned a foam cup under the dispenser and loaded a K-cup into the machine. “We’ve established that Teddy is a stubborn old goat. But how are you holding up?”
“I’m fine.” She shook her head as she spoke. “Or I will be. Now that I know he’s going to be okay.”
“Was he able to tell you what caused the fall?” Casey dumped two single-serving pods of creamer into Jacqueline’s coffee and motioned her to an empty table nearby.
“Thanks.” Jacqueline took a careful sip from the cup. “He doesn’t remember anything right before the fall, or even what he was doing in the kitchen. The last thing he can recall is that he was on the couch doing the crossword out of yesterday’s paper. I don’t even know for sure how long he was there before I arrived, but the doctor doesn’t think it was very long.”
“Well, thank goodness you were there.”
“Yeah. I was leaving for Memphis tomorrow. When I think about being out of town and him lying there all alone—”
“Don’t do that to yourself.” Casey covered her hand. “I can check on him more often. And maybe we can get him one of those life-alert pendants.”
Jacqueline shook her head. “No. If he’s unconscious and can’t push the button—he can’t be left alone. I’m going to hire a nurse or something.”
Casey couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m not sure he’ll be receptive—”
“He’ll have to suck it up and deal.” Jacqueline surged to her feet. “For now, I’ll be here. I called Owen, and he got someone to cover the meetings in Memphis for me. I’ll stay with Dad this week until I can figure out what to do.”
Chapter Five
“Are you ready to go home?” Jacqueline followed an aide pushing a wheelchair into her father’s room. His doctor had been in with discharge instructions over an hour ago. They’d waited another thirty minutes after that for the paperwork, and now even she was itching to get out of there.
“As if I have any say in my life anymore.”
“Dad, we talked about this. You shouldn’t be alone right now. I’m going to try to adjust my schedule, but when I can’t be there, I’ll hire someone to stay with you.” She managed not to sigh in frustration. They’d argued half the morning about her plan. The doctors hadn’t found anything to indicate that he’d passed out prior to falling, but he didn’t remember slipping or losing his balance either. He’d recommended her father follow up with his primary-care doctor. And until Jacqueline got some further reassurance about his competence to stay alone, upright, and conscious, she didn’t want him left alone.
“I don’t need a babysitter.”
“Clearly.” She waved a hand at the splint on his wrist.
“I was walking through my kitchen. Since when did that become a high-risk activity?”
“You don’t even remember what happened. And you could have been seriously hurt.”
“Well, I certainly don’t need that thing.” He snapped his good hand toward the wheelchair. “There’s nothing wrong with my legs.”
“Hospital policy.” The aide didn’t seem amused.
“Get in the chair,” Jacqueline demanded.
He pouted but complied. He remained quiet during the elevator ride to the lobby. She knew he hadn’t conceded but was biding his time until they were alone again.
When they reached the lobby, Jacqueline gave her ticket to the valet, and they waited only a few minutes while he pulled her car up to the front. Her father refused any help getting in the car, and the aide didn’t wait to see him in safely before he whisked the chair away.
As she’d predicted, she had barely exited the circular drive of the hospital when her father started in.
“I’m not an invalid. I can make my own decisions.”
“I never said you couldn’t.”
“But you want to force a nurse on me.”
She slipped her sunglasses on and took a breath before answering, reminding herself that he was frustrated and most likely feeling emasculated. “I don’t want to. This isn’t a power trip for me, Dad.”
He didn’t respond, instead staring stubbornly out the side window. She glanced at him, then back at the road.
“Can’t you just do this, for me?” Her words came out harsher than she intended, and he stiffened in response.
“You’ll go back to work, and then we’ll see who’s in charge.”
She shook her head. “Now I know where Sean gets that tone from.”
*
Wednesday night, Casey took her usual walk through the neighborhood to Teddy’s house. She’d spoken with Teddy on Monday evening to make sure he’d gotten home and settled. Since then, she’d left him in Jacqueline’s capable hands. Though Jacqueline’s forced vacation hadn’t happened under the best of circumstances, she actually hoped it would be good for them both. She suspected that deep down, when he wasn’t being grumpy about being under her watchful eye, Teddy would enjoy having Jacqueline around this week.
She hadn’t actually confirmed that she and Teddy would have their usual dinner date this evening. In fact, she’d avoiding calling in case he said he wanted to cancel. She’d worried about him. Several times in the past two days, she’d stopped short of rearranging her day so she could go over there between shoots and check up on them.
As she expected, Jacqueline’s car was in the driveway. And when she rang the bell, Jacqueline answered it.
“Hi. I wasn’t sure if Teddy and I were still on for dinner. But I wanted to check on him anyway, so I took a chance and walked over.”
“Come in.” Jacqueline stepped back. “You and Dad had dinner plans?”
“Casey and I always have dinner together on Wednesdays,” Teddy said from the living room. “And of course we’re still on. Get in here.”
“Why didn’t I know this?” Jacqueline followed Casey into the living room.
He shrugged. “You’re not usually here on Wednesday.”
“I thought we could order in Thai this week, since it’s Jacqueline’s favorite.” Casey gave him a wink. She’d effectively shut down any chance Jacqueline would protest.
“That’s low,” Jacqueline murmured.
She pulled out her phone and unlocked the screen. “So I shouldn’t call and order? I still have that place you like on speed dial, you know.”
“Well, since you’re here.”
Casey gave her a smug grin.
“Jacq, open some of that wine Casey likes.”
Jacqueline looked to Casey for approval.
“I have an early shoot tomorrow. Unless you plan to join me, don’t bother opening a bottle for just one glass.”
Jacqueline headed for the kitchen. By the time Casey placed the order and hung up her phone, Jacqueline had returned with two glasses of Moscato. She handed one to Casey.
“Thirty minutes.” Casey sipped, savoring the sweet, fruity flavor. She always kept a couple bottles of her favorite label at Teddy’s house.
“Great.” Jacqueline’s cell phone rang and she glanced at the display. “I have to take this.” She stepped back into the kitchen as she answered in her most professional tone.
Casey settled on one end of the couch and chatted with Teddy, trying to gauge how he was feeling without asking outright. He was more alert than he’d been in the hospital. In fact, aside from the splint on his wrist, she could almost convince herself he’d returned to normal. But even Teddy’s normal hadn’t been the same in the past several months. A fact she was reminded of ten minutes later when he started to nod off during a lull in their conversation.
“Should we wake him?” Jacqueline whispered as she returned from the kitchen.
“Let him rest. We have a few minutes until the food arrives.”
“Thank you for this.” Jacqueline sat at the other end of the couch.
“For what?”
“For having dinner with him.”
Casey smiled. “These evenings probably mean as much or more to me than they do to him. You don’t have to thank me for that.”
“Do you—um, does Nina come over with you?”
Casey shrugged. “Sometimes. A couple times. Teddy invited her.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
“Yeah, I mean, I’m glad he’s made her feel welcome.” Jacqueline’s expression grew pensive, and when she took a breath, Casey suddenly felt anxious about what she might say. But when she did speak, Casey got the impression she might have changed her mind about what to say at the last second. “How is she, by the way?”
“She’s fine.” They rarely talked about their respective relationships, though she would admit to some curiosity about Jacqueline’s dating habits over the years.
“Sean says you might be moving in together.”
She nodded. She’d mentioned the possibility to Sean during their last phone call. He didn’t offer an opinion one way or the other, and she didn’t necessarily need one, but she didn’t want him blindsided if it happened. When—when it happened. “We’ve been talking about it. I suppose once we’d made some decisions, I planned to tell you.”
“Tell me?”
“Nina thinks—um, we’ve talked about getting a new place together.”
“What’s wrong with your house?”
“Nothing’s wrong. We want someplace that’s ours.”
“Yours?”
“Yes. Hers and mine, together. Don’t you remember how much fun you and I had picking out the house together?”
“Yeah. I do.” Jacqueline’s eyes grew serious.
“Well, Nina and I want to experience that, too.”
Jacqueline stared at her, and then her expression darkened. “You want to sell the house.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t.”
“I think you lost the right to decide what happens to the house when you sold it to me.”
“I hardly had a choice. You kicked me—”
“I didn’t—”
“We couldn’t keep living together once you broke up with me. And I wasn’t going to have you and Sean move out.”
“We agreed—”
“Yes, I know. I know, damn it. We agreed. Except you didn’t give me much choice. What else could I do but go along with your decisions once you quit on us.”
“I felt as if I didn’t have a choice either. I’d been losing myself for a while, Jacq. And when I tried to talk to you—and then after Elle—”
“I don’t want to talk about that.” Jacqueline slammed her wineglass on the coffee table so hard that Casey flinched, surprised the stem didn’t snap in half.
Teddy came awake with a start and looked at them both, his gaze bleary with sleep and confusion. “What’s going on?”
Jacqueline rose more calmly than Casey would have thought she was capable of, given her previous outburst. She gave Casey a cold look, then headed for the front door.
“Jacq,” Teddy called. Then to Casey he said, “What the hell happened?”
Casey shook her head as the front door slammed shut behind Jacqueline.
“I think it’ll just be the two of us for dinner.”
*
Jacqueline’s furious strides ate up nearly two blocks before she slowed enough to realize she had no idea where to go. She couldn’t return to the house—not yet, anyway. So she kept walking, covering ground she’d barely traveled in the past eight years but that somehow still felt like a piece of home. She’d grown up in this neighborhood, first in her father’s house, and then in the smaller place she and Casey had bought together.
Did she remember the excitement of picking it out together? Yes, she did. Like it was yesterday. Just as she remembered the first night they’d spent there and how they’d christened the place on an air mattress because they hadn’t moved their bed yet, and they couldn’t wait another moment to be with each other in their new home. How long had it been since she’d truly just had to have someone? And when had she stopped letting Casey know that she wanted her that badly?
When she reached the park, she stopped to sit on a bench within sight of the playground but far enough away to avoid having to interact with either of the two women watching over their children. One of the kids, a fair-haired little girl, ran to the slide, and Jacqueline swallowed hard when a grin lit up her face. Though she knew the resemblance wasn’t that close, the girl suddenly reminded Jacqueline of Elle. She’d reacted so badly when Casey had brought her up earlier. But she couldn’t have stopped the rage and pain that had boiled up in her if she’d tried.
When Sean was ten, Casey had begun talking about fostering another child. Jacqueline took a bit more convincing, but eventually she’d relented. After all, if Casey really thought she could handle two kids while Jacqueline was out of town, who was she to tell her otherwise?
They’d taken the necessary steps to renew their status as foster parents, and within months, they’d taken in Elle. She’d been a joy from day one—a bright and bubbly five-year-old and so trusting for a girl who’d had a rough start. Her friendly smile and unending optimism had reminded Jacqueline so much of Casey when they’d first met. She’d fallen in love immediately. And so had Casey and Sean.