Forever Together (3 page)

His blue eyes had condemned her from the
moment he’d seen her downstairs. He must have known who she was,
who she’d come to see. But that didn’t make any difference to the
anger boiling inside him.

“You look like Kaylee.” Her father’s voice
cut through Dan’s anger and left her reeling.

She stopped outside the doors leading into
the Intensive Care Unit. Lily had looked like her too. Her mom
always said they were like two peas in a pod. And then there was
one, and her mom had fallen to pieces.

Her dad didn’t notice the panic racing
through her, or the cold sweat sticking her T-shirt to her
back.

“Your eyes are the same shade of bright blue.
Even your hair is the same chestnut color. Your grandma used to
joke that it was the Irish connection making an appearance.”

Kate couldn’t remember her grandmother. After
her dad had
left
they’d lost all
contact with his family, severed themselves from the people that
had thrown a wedge between her mom and dad.

“Is my grandmother still alive?”

Tom nodded. “She drives the staff at the
retirement village crazy. I swear she can get up to fifty miles an
hour on her mobility scooter. Dan nearly gave her a ticket the
other day for dangerous driving.”

“He’s a Police Officer?” That would seriously
round off one of the most stressful days of her life.

“Deputy Chief of Police,” Tom said proudly.
“He served in Iraq before coming home. I don’t know what we would
have done without him over the last few months.”

Kate’s heart sank. She’d spent most of her
life trying to forget her past. For some
reason,
it was all coming back to haunt her, pushing her
into places she didn’t want to go. People she didn’t want to
see.

“You’ll need to wear this.” Doctor T passed
her a face mask. “There’s hand sanitizer on the wall on the
left-hand
side when we walk in.
You’ll need to use it each time you enter and leave the Intensive
Care Unit.”

Kate nodded. She pulled the face mask on,
remembered his comment about dentists and hoped someone was finding
this funny. She sure wasn’t.

“We won’t stay long.” Doctor T’s smile was
almost too much. Seeing Kaylee would be hard enough. Knowing he
knew how hard it was made it worse.

Tom headed across to the hand sanitizer. The
only sounds she could hear in the room were the soft beeps of the
machines connected to patients. Every now and then one of the
monitors let out a shrill warning, sending nurses quickly across
the room.

They passed patients and their families,
people clinging to the edge of life. One girl lay on her side,
curled in on herself so tightly that Kate wondered if she’d ever
unravel.

Doctor T paused outside a room. A glass wall
separated the two areas. A blue curtain had been pulled halfway
around her sister’s bed. “I’ll wait out here. We limit Kaylee’s
visitors to two at a time. It makes it less stressful
for
her and easier for the nurses to
manage.”

Kate nodded. Her nerves were strung so tight
that she couldn’t have spoken if she’d tried.

“It will be okay.” Her dad patted her
shoulder with an awkwardness that would have been endearing if it
had been someone else. He opened the door and waited for her to go
inside.

Kate saw two feet lying on top of the bed.
The pink and purple socks looked thick and warm, too warm for the
temperature inside the hospital. She stood at the side of the room,
waiting for Tom to walk past.

“How’s my poppet?” he asked.

“
Daddy.
”

Kate heard the excitement in Kaylee’s voice.
She’d filled one word with so much love that it made Kate pause,
reconsider the father that had left her behind in San Diego.

“Is Kate with you?”

“She sure is.” Tom turned around and waved
Kate forward. “Kaylee, this is Kate. Kate, here’s our little
girl.”

The last thing Kate thought she’d do when she
walked into Kaylee’s room was
smile
. But the grin on her face was there, behind her
mask, as bright and bold as the crown sitting on top of her
sister’s head.

“I’m a Princess,” Kaylee said. “Do you like
my dress?”

The blue satin gown shimmered in the light
coming through the outside window. Its
square-cut
bodice and skirt had been trimmed with lace
and a white bow hugged her waist.

“You look beautiful.”

Kaylee’s cheeks turned a soft shade of pink.
Tom and Anna were right. Kaylee didn’t look like the girl Kate had
seen in the photos and it made it easier to be there.

Kaylee’s body had swollen to accommodate the
fluid building up inside her. A red rash covered most of her arms
and some of her face. But in spite of her disease, maybe because of
it, Kate started to relax. She moved closer to the bed.

“I didn’t know you liked Princesses. Who’s
your favorite?”

Kaylee scrunched her eyes tight, considering
Kate’s question as if the rest of her life depended on it.

“I like Princess Aurora because she has long
blond hair and sparkly dresses. But my favorite is Cinderella.”

The wistful catch in her voice tore through
Kate’s heart. Her dad had told her that Kaylee’s hair had fallen
out after her second round of chemotherapy. It would take years for
her hair to get anywhere near the length of her favorite Princess.
“I like Cinderella, too.”

Kaylee’s blue eyes glowed with excitement.
“Mummy said you’re a beautician. Do you like making people look
pretty?”

“It’s the best job in the world. I’ll show
you my makeup case when you go home. It’s got twenty different
shades of lipstick inside.”

Kaylee’s eyes opened wide. “Do you think
there’s a color that would look good with my dress?”

“I think all of them would look great. We
could even mix some of the colors together to get exactly what you
want.”

The machine beside Kaylee started beeping.
Tom walked across to the bags of fluid hanging from the pole. “It’s
just the saline. The nurse will be in soon to change it.”

Kate looked at the two bags, then back at her
father.

“Steroids are on the left. Saline on the
right,” he said. “They have another monitor at the nurse’s station.
If anything happens in
here,
they
know about it as soon as we do.”

Kate wondered how many times the monitors had
beeped. How many times the nurses had run to her sister because she
needed urgent help.

Kaylee focused all of her attention on Kate,
ignoring the beeps of the machine. “Why didn’t you visit us before
I got sick? Daddy told me all about you, but we didn’t know where
you were.”

“I…” Kate didn’t know what to say. “I didn’t
know where your dad was either. We haven’t seen each other in a
long time.”

Kaylee looked confused. “But he’s your daddy,
too.”

Tom stepped forward and rubbed Kaylee’s leg.
“Kate’s here now and that’s all that matters. Do you want me to get
the surprise out of your bedside cabinet?”

Kaylee nodded and smiled at her dad. “It’s in
the top drawer,” she whispered.

Tom opened the cabinet and handed a big
envelope to Kaylee. She held it against her chest, then passed it
to Kate. “I made this for you.”

Kate lifted the flap and pulled a homemade
card out of the envelope. In big, bold letters, Kaylee had written,
“Welcome to Montana.” Underneath she’d drawn a picture of four
adults, a
child,
and two
horses.

“That’s daddy and mommy and Uncle Dan.” She
pointed to the last adult. “And that’s you, beside me.”

“It’s lovely,” Kate said. “What are the
horses’ names?”

“Pearl and Bonny. Uncle Dan says Pearl has a
bad attitude. Every time he goes near her she tries to bite
him.”

Kate thought Pearl must be a perceptive
horse.

Tom coughed and the smile in his eyes sent
heat to Kate’s face.

“There’s more writing inside.” Kaylee pointed
to the card. “I drew some other pictures for you too.”

Kate opened the card and kept reading. Tears
filled her eyes. “You don’t need to thank me for helping you. I
came because I wanted to.”

Kaylee leaned against the pillows stacked
behind her. “Doctor T told Uncle Dan we’re running out of time.
What does that mean?”

Kate didn’t need to look at her father to
feel the sorrow crashing down around him. Kaylee looked at her
uncertainly, her blue eyes filled with worry. “It means it’s a good
thing I’m here. Doctor T will do everything he can to make you
well. Once you’re feeling
better,
he’s going to share some of my bone marrow with you.”

“Will it hurt?”

Kate shook her head. “It won’t be much
different to the medicine on the pole beside you.”

“Not for me,” Kaylee answered. “For you.
Daddy said the doctors will give you an injection in your hip. I
don’t like injections.”

Kate could only imagine the number of tests
Kaylee had endured over the past six months. She didn’t like
injections much either, didn’t like hospitals. But here she was,
back in an Intensive Care Unit, doing everything she could for a
little sister she knew nothing about.

A nurse tapped on the door and came inside
with a clear bag of fluid in her hands. “Someone called?”

Her voice was so cheerful that Kate took a
moment to work out what she’d said.

Kaylee smiled. “Daddy’s been playing with the
buttons.”

Tom leaned forward and kissed Kaylee’s cheek.
“Caught again.”

The nurse quickly unhooked the empty bag of
saline and replaced it with another one. “What are we going to do
about your dad?”

“We could tickle him until he squirms,”
Kaylee said.

Doctor T stood in the doorway. “Or you could
make him muck out Bonny’s stall.”

Kaylee shook her head. “Daddy should leave
Bonny to mom. She said he feeds her too many treats. Mom thinks
Bonny’s going to get as big as a bus if he doesn’t stop mixing
molasses with her oats.”

“Maybe we should put some molasses with your
oats?”

Kaylee shook her head. “I’m not a horse,
Doctor T.”

“Silly me.” He smiled at Kaylee. “We’re going
to leave you to have a rest now. We’ll come back in a couple of
hour’s time.”

Tom touched the tip of Kaylee’s nose with his
finger. “See you later
poppet
.
Have sweet dreams.”

“I love
you,
daddy.”

“Love you too.” He glanced at Kate, kissed
the top of Kaylee’s head, then walked toward the door.

“Show Kate my horses, daddy. I bet Pearl
doesn’t bite her.”

Kate smiled as she followed Tom out the door.
At some stage over the next few days she’d make sure she met Pearl.
She might even congratulate her for her good taste in men.

CHAPTER TWO

Kate opened her suitcase, unfolded her clothes and
carefully hung them in the closet. She’d driven out to the ranch
with Anna and Tom, not knowing whether she’d made the right
decision to stay with them or not. She’d never wanted to become
part of their lives, to connect with anyone or anything in Bozeman.
Her bone marrow was all her father wanted and that was all he was
supposed to get.

But Kaylee had managed to upset all of her
careful plans. Within a short space of
time,
she’d become a soft spot in Kate’s heart. She
couldn’t walk away from what her sister needed and if that meant
staying with her dad and stepmom to save money, she’d have to do
it.

With one last look around her bedroom, she
headed downstairs. Her dad’s home wasn’t architecturally designed.
It wouldn’t have won awards for energy efficiency or any
landscaping competitions. It was a modest two-story home with a
wide wooden porch and two big barns standing tall in the backyard.
For all its simplicity, it felt like a home that was loved.

“Would you like a cup of coffee and some
sandwiches?” Anna was moving between the kitchen counter and the
fridge. “Your dad’s fixing one of the tractors and won’t be back
for a couple of hours.”

“That would be great. Is anyone going to see
Kaylee this afternoon?”

“Dan takes the three o’clock shift. I’m there
at five and your dad says goodnight at seven. You can come back to
the hospital with me if you like?”

“Thanks, I’d like that. Do you split your
visits like that all of the time?”

“We try to. It makes it easier on Kaylee.
I’ll put everything on the counter for lunch. Help yourself to
whatever you want.”

Kate picked up a plate and a couple of slices
of bread. “How did you know Kaylee had HLH?”

Anna leaned against the counter, a carton of
milk sitting in front of her. “About six months ago we thought
she’d come down with a bad case of the flu. After a week she wasn’t
getting any better so I took her to the doctor. They didn’t know
what was wrong. A few days later she was admitted to the hospital.
They tested her for different things, but Kaylee kept getting
worse. She was transferred to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and
that’s where the doctors diagnosed HLH. We started her treatment in
Cincinnati, then transferred back to Bozeman when the transplant
unit opened.”

Kate didn’t know what to say. Her father’s
family had been through so much over the last few months that it
was a wonder they were still able to smile.

“I don’t know how we can ever thank you for
what you’re doing.”

Anna’s voice was so full of emotion that Kate
had to swallow the lump in her throat. “I hope it works.”

“So do I.” Anna slowly spread butter over two
slices of bread. “If you’d like to borrow my old car while you’re
in Bozeman, you’re more than welcome. It’s about twenty years old,
but it’s safe and will get you where you need to go.”

“It’s nice of you to offer, but I’m happy to
hire a car. I don’t want to be a bother.”