A Small-Town Reunion (18 page)

A
DDIE’S DRESSY SANDALS
clicked on the hospital floor and the chiffon floated around her knees as she followed the emergency department nurse toward her mother’s curtained cubicle. How would she explain her fancy evening wear?

By telling the truth, of course. Part of the truth, anyway—just the part about tonight’s date. And then she’d hope her mother wouldn’t have a fit.

Another fit.

Good thing they were already in the hospital.

Addie pasted a smile on her face and smoothed an unsteady hand over her stomach as they neared the curtain.

The nurse pulled the drape to one side and entered first. “Still doing okay?” she asked Lena.

“As well as can be expected.
Addie
. Where were you? I—” Lena’s gaze traveled from Addie’s hair to her shoes and back again, her lips thinning in a tight frown. “Where have you been?” she asked as Addie leaned in to kiss her cheek. “I’ve been trying to reach you. Everyone’s been trying to reach you.”

“I was out on a date.” Addie swept her mother’s hair from her forehead and then let her hand fall to her shoulder. “I didn’t have my phone with me.”

“Why not?”

“It wouldn’t fit in my bag.” Addie moved it behind her back. She’d tried to be so stylish this evening, but carrying a shimmery purse wasn’t worth the stress she’d added to Lena’s evening.

“Excuse me.” The nurse shifted in toward Lena’s side and took her arm. “Let me get your blood pressure while I’m here.”

Addie moved restlessly to the opposite side of the gurney and back again while the nurse checked her mother’s pulse. Lena looked fine. A bit tired, a bit strained, perhaps, but that was to be expected. Her color was good and she didn’t seem disoriented.

She seemed ready to give Addie a thorough grilling.

The nurse left, pulling the curtain closed behind her. Lena pointed to the chair. “Sit down.”

Addie did as she was told. “What happened?” she asked. “What has the doctor told you?”

“I don’t want to talk about that right now. I want to know where you’ve been.”

“I told you.” Addie slid her handbag into an empty space on the cart beside the gurney. “I was out on a date.”

Lena’s frown deepened. “It must have been some date, considering the way you’re dressed. Where did you get those clothes?”

“Tess found the dress for me.”

“It looks like something Tess would choose. And where was this date?”

“At The Breakers.”

“The Breakers! How did Mick get into that place?”

Addie kept her gaze steady on her mother’s. “I wasn’t there with Mick.”

Lena’s eyes narrowed. “Please don’t tell me you were there with Dev Chandler.”

“How am I supposed to respond to that?” Addie stood and paced to the foot of the gurney.

“I warned you about that man.”

“That was years ago. We were both much younger.”

“Nothing has changed.”

“I’ve changed.” Addie pointed a finger at her heart. “And so has he.”

She moved to her mother’s side. “I like Dev. I like being with him. We’re friends. I was thrilled when he asked me. I was having a wonderful time.”

Lena turned her face toward the medical equipment dangling over the edges of a basket on the wall. “I’m sorry I spoiled it for you.”

Filled with mortification and worry and guilt, Addie edged her hip over one side of the gurney and took Lena’s hand. What was she doing? She was in an emergency room, arguing with a woman who might have had some sort of heart attack or stroke. A woman she loved, a woman who had always put her daughter first. “Mom. Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Disapprove of a man who doesn’t seem to care about anything but himself? Worry about my daughter spending time with him? You knew I would.”

“Mom, please. Calm down. Lower your voice,” Addie whispered. She took her mother’s hand, needing the contact. “You shouldn’t get yourself all worked up.”

“Oh,
now
you think of how this news might affect me. Well, that’s convenient. You obviously didn’t consider my feelings before.”

“Yes,” Addie said, miserable and smothering beneath another layer of guilt. “I did.”

“And yet that didn’t stop you.” Lena pulled her hand from Addie’s and folded it with the other at her waist. “And what about Mick? What are you going to do when he finds out about this date?”

“Mick and I aren’t seeing each other anymore.”

“Oh,
Addie
.” Lena closed her eyes and shook her head, moving it from side to side against the pillow. “Since when? No, never mind. You don’t need to answer that. Since Dev Chandler came back to town.”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“What was it like, exactly?”

How could Addie explain that Mick had never lit her from within the way Dev could with a glance or a smile? How could she explain the miraculous night of lovemaking she and Dev had shared?

She pinched a fold, and then another, pleating the gray chiffon spread over her knees. The fabric seemed dull and lifeless in the harsh glare of the hospital lighting, insubstantial against the industrial-white sheet wrapped around the mattress. She felt alien in this place, in this skin, as though she’d been plucked from one world and identity and dropped into another.

None of it seemed to matter anymore. As she sat here with her mother, the memories of the past two weeks wavered and faded, losing their power to change her life. She felt herself fading, too, the color leaching from her. Soon she’d be as gray and transparent as the fabric of her dress.

“I broke up with Mick before Dev asked me to the dance.”

“Because Dev is back in town, and you thought—you hoped—you could do better.”

“I told you. Dev and I are friends.”

“You were never good at telling a lie, Addie.”

“It’s not a lie. We are friends.”

“Excuse me?” One of the clerks from the reception counter peeked through an opening in the curtain. “Addie Sutton?”

“Yes?” Addie stood.

“The gentleman out in the waiting room sent these things for you.” She handed Addie a soft drink can and two women’s magazines. “He asked me to remind you that he’ll wait to give you a ride home.”

“Please tell him thank you.” Addie glanced at her mother. “And tell him that he can go now. We’ll find some other way to get ourselves home.”

D
EV LOOSENED HIS TIE
and slumped in one of the chrome-and-vinyl chairs in the emergency room waiting area. A seventies’ car-chase scene careened in silent mayhem on the television screen suspended high in one corner. Across the room a toddler banged a dented toy car against the side of a plastic table while his mother browsed through a creased and faded travel magazine.

The dance floor at The Breakers seemed a world away.

And his memories of Lena seemed a lifetime ago. He hadn’t been surprised, when he’d caught that glimpse of her at Addie’s shop door, to see that she was still rail-thin, if she still pressed her lips together as though she could prevent one of her rare smiles from leaking too much happiness. He’d always thought that Lena believed joy was a finite commodity.

He glanced at his watch. A nurse had escorted Addie
into the treatment area nearly fifty minutes ago, and there had been no word yet on her mother’s status. Dev considered whether if he could chance a search for coffee without missing Addie if she came looking for him. He supposed the receptionist could get a message to her to ask if she’d like something more to drink, or perhaps a snack—that is, if visitors were allowed to eat in the treatment area.

As he stood, intending to check at the counter, Tess strode through the wide door. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Addie called and asked me to bring her a change of clothes and something to read.” Tess lifted a bulging canvas bag. “She says she’s very grateful for all your help, but she may be here for several more hours. You’re free to go.”

“Ordered to go, you mean.”

“I refuse to get caught in the middle of this.” Tess shook her shaggy black bangs out of her eyes. “I’m just the delivery girl.”

Dev muttered a curse. “Lena probably threw another fit when she found out where Addie had been this evening. And with whom.”

“You both knew she’d find out eventually, anyway. Didn’t stop you from going.” Tess shrugged. “Don’t worry. You’re too old to be grounded.”

“I’m not leaving.”

“Suit yourself.” Tess shoved the bag into Dev’s arms. “Tell Addie I love her, and ask her to give me a call when she gets a chance.”

“Wait.” Dev set the bag on the chair behind him. “What’s the number for the phone Addie used to call you?”

“Clever,” Tess said, “but that won’t work. Cell phones are forbidden back there—too much interference with too many finicky machines. She called me from a pay phone down the hall.”

She’d left her mother’s side to use a pay phone, but Addie hadn’t come to the waiting room to talk to him herself. Either she didn’t want to see him, or Lena didn’t want her to see him.

The fact that he couldn’t guess which scenario was more likely made him more determined to stay and find out. Addie was going to have to talk to him—to deal with him—if she wanted her things. “Did she say anything else?”

“They’ve run a couple of tests, and there’s one more to go. No one is saying anything for sure until they get the results, but the doctor who’s been talking with them back there thinks Lena had a TIA. Transient something-or-other. Serious, but not life-threatening.”

“Are they going to admit her?”

“Probably not. The fact that she snapped out of it so fast is supposedly a good sign.”

“Thank God.” Dev released a long sigh. He hadn’t realized how tense he’d been, waiting and hoping to hear something positive. “Hard to imagine Lena in a hospital bed.”

“She’s a tough lady. I’m sure she’ll be fine. Besides,” Tess added, “she’ll have Addie fussing over her.”

The image warmed him clear through. “I’ll bet no one fusses like Addie.”

“Like mother, like daughter.” Tess ran a finger along the edge of his lapel. “You look nice tonight.”

“Thanks.”

“Too bad things worked out the way they did.” She flattened her palm over his chest and gave him an affectionate pat before dropping her arm to her side. “Okay. Gotta run.”

“I’ll make sure Addie gets her things.”

The corners of Tess’s mouth curled up in one of her catlike smiles. “I’m sure you will.”

I
T WAS NEARLY TWO O’CLOCK
in the morning when Dr. Tripathi told Addie she could take her mother home. The initial tests indicated cholesterol was the culprit, but Lena’s personal physician would schedule more tests, on an outpatient basis, during the coming week.

Addie thanked the emergency room doctor for his help and pulled the privacy curtain closed. Behind her, Lena swung her legs over the side of the gurney to step into her shoes. Addie lifted the extra sweater Tess had brought, waiting for her mother to slip an arm into one of the sleeves.

“I can dress myself,” Lena snapped.

“Sorry.” Addie handed her the sweater and backed away, already dreading the next battle. They were both exhausted and on edge. “Got your purse?”

“Right here.” Lena pulled it from beneath the thin cotton blanket she’d shoved to the foot of the gurney. “We should call for a cab, although I’m not sure we can get one in this town at this time of night.”

“We don’t have to take a cab.” Addie slung the straps of her canvas tote over one shoulder. “Dev is still waiting to give us a ride.”

“We don’t need his charity.” Lena rummaged through her purse and pulled out a small compact.

“He knows that. But he chose to wait all this time
for us.” And though he must have suspected his assistance wouldn’t be welcome, he’d arranged for the receptionist to smuggle in candy and a deck of playing cards in addition to the drinks and magazines. “The least we can do is be gracious about accepting his help.”

Lena didn’t respond. But the way she freshened her lipstick and tugged a comb through her hair told Addie she was preparing herself for the inevitable.

“I thought I’d have Dev take us both to my place first,” Addie said. “I need to get my truck. And then I want to spend the night at your apartment, so I can keep an eye on you.”

“You heard the doctor. I’m fine, for now. There’s no need for you to worry about me.”

Addie rested a hand on Lena’s arm. “I love you. I can’t help but worry about you.”

They walked together to the nurses’ station, where they listened to a brief discharge lecture and Lena signed the paperwork. And then they moved through the wide double doors and into the noisy waiting area.

A young woman paced the room with a bouncing step, crooning to the squalling infant in her arms. In one corner, Dev sat in a plastic chair, hunched over a low table. Beside him, a pajamas-clad toddler ran a plastic truck over a stack of magazines, up Dev’s sleeve and down again. The two of them growled silly truck sound effects.

Addie halted near the doorway, staring. She’d never imagined Dev interacting with a young child. Somehow he’d always seemed disconnected from the minor distractions and discomforts of everyday life, as though he’d never repaired a leaky sink or mowed a
lawn or camped in a waiting room, tolerating the attentions of a little boy. “Dev.”

He glanced over his shoulder and grinned. “Just a minute.” After the truck rolled noisily off his arm, he murmured something to his playmate and then stood and stretched. “Good evening, ladies. Lena, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Hello, Dev.” Her mother’s back was so stiff and straight Addie wondered if it would crack when she moved. “Thank you for waiting.”

“No problem.” He pulled his car keys from his pocket. “Ready to go?”

Lena nodded, turned and headed toward the door.

“That’s a yes, then.” Dev jogged to the entrance to push the door open for her. “I’m parked in the emergency area, to your right.”

He waited until Addie walked through and then fell into step beside her. “Your place?” he asked. “Or Lena’s?”

“Mine. I’ll get my car and take her home myself.”

“Figured that might be the case.”