Part 28 (1/2)
”Maybe till tonight,” she said. ”I'll feel a lot better when I know Daddy's all right.”
”See what I mean,” Adam said. ”He's a lucky man.”
Riley got off the elevator on the third floor. She pulled her cell phone out of her coat pocket and glanced at it. Four missed calls from Logan. She had texted him about the accident, told him everyone was fine but she was tied up and would call him later. Then she'd turned her phone off.
And she knew where her cell phone was all along.
She was relieved to see that none of Jock's family remained in the waiting room. She went into the recovery area where she'd seen Jock not ten minutes ago and there he was, sleeping off his anesthesia and pain meds, mouth open slightly. She felt tears threaten again. She walked over to his bed and gently touched his forehead. ”Oh, Jock,” she whispered. ”I'm the screwup. Not you.”
All those years of being angry, of being awash in pride and determined to keep Jock from ever hurting her again, she held him back, held herself back. She put her head down and worked like a maniac, single-minded in aiming to succeed in business and show them all-I am not a bad person, am not a disloyal, betraying friend. ”All I wanted to do was keep myself safe,” she whispered to him. ”To keep Maddie safe. To prove to the world I could make it without trusting anyone.”
He opened one eye and she sniffed.
”You're right about me, Jock. I was always angry. And scared. I never gave you a chance.”
He lifted his hand to where hers rested on the bed rail. ”It's okay, Riley,” he rasped out. ”It's going to be okay.”
”What if you'd been killed in that accident? What if I never got to say I'm sorry?”
”Shhh,” he said. ”It's okay.”
”It's not really,” she said with a hiccup of emotion. ”But maybe when you get better... If you think you can give me another chance, I'd like us to be friends.”
He smiled sleepily. ”Okay,” he said, letting his eyes drift closed. ”Boy, you really make a guy work for it, don't you?”
A huff of laughter escaped her. ”It wasn't my intention.”
”What about the other guy? The new guy?” he asked, not opening his eyes.
”Not much going on there, Jock. But listen, let's not say anything to Maddie. I don't want her having fantasies about us.”
”Okay,” he said. He gave her hand a little squeeze and she bent over and put a soft kiss on his forehead.
Suddenly there was an orderly and a nurse at the bedside, interrupting them. ”We're going to take Mr. Curry to his room now. You can follow us if you like, Mrs. Curry. But then you should let him sleep and come back in the morning.”
”I'm not... Okay,” she said. ”I'll follow you so I know where to find him in the morning.”
Chapter Eighteen.
Adam and Emma stayed in for New Year's Eve. Emma parked her car in his garage in case Riley or June drove by. ”I think the point of this discretion is just about moot,” Adam said as he was taking her coat. ”My mother has guessed, I think Riley has guessed and Maddie wouldn't care.”
”Still, until Riley a.s.sures me there are no longer any hard feelings between us, we will be discreet. One of the last things she said to me just before her phone chimed with Maddie's call was that she was stuck with me because of her family. She's not ready. By the way, where is Riley spending New Year's Eve?”
”She and Maddie took some snacks and a couple of board games to the hospital to spend it with Jock. I'm pretty sure they won't be allowed to stay until midnight but they're keeping him company tonight.”
”Aw, that must make him very happy. He'd probably risk another car accident to get this much attention from Riley.”
”Now, why would you say that?” Adam asked.
”I think he cares for her very much. I think he might love her. The way he talked about Riley and Maddie, about how he screwed up with Riley... It just sounded like he has deeper feelings than he lets on in front of you.” She put her arms around Adam's waist and looked up at him. ”Do you ever think about ways things could've been different?”
”Like how?” he asked, really wanting her perspective.
”Well, Jock could've started dating Riley in the first place. Then I think we would all have remained friends. But Riley might not have built her business-I get the impression she did it out of survival. Or I could have come back here after college and fallen in love with you ten years ago.”
He stroked her cheek with the back of his knuckles. ”Are you in love with me now?”
She nodded. ”Pretty much. It all hangs on what you feed me tonight.”
”If I'd known that I would have tried harder. I have a big a.s.sortment of finger foods-your favorite crab b.a.l.l.s, stuffed mushrooms, a cheese ball and no dog present, spinach/artichoke dip and a veggie tray.”
She put her arms around his neck. ”My absolute favorites. You're a shoo-in. But, Adam, when do you think you'll fall in love right back?”
”Emma, I've been in love with you since I was eighteen. I'm just waiting for you to get your life back so you can share it with me.”
”Well, I didn't expect this, you know. I thought I'd be spending my Sat.u.r.day nights with my gay boyfriend and his jealous partner, looking for work all the time and trying to forget the debacle that was my marriage.”
”I don't know if you'll ever forget it,” he said. ”We can move on in spite of it. Are you finally over the idea that being with you will hurt me?”
”I'm still worried that it might, but I'm now convinced I couldn't change your mind if I tried. There has been yet one more complication, one more piece of unfinished business I have to deal with. I'm going to see Rosemary tomorrow. She asked Lauren to get in touch with me. It seems Rosemary can't die in peace without seeing me and she's come back to Santa Rosa to die. She's in the house that had belonged to my father.”
”And you're going to do it?” he asked.
”I am. Maybe I'm crazy but I'm hoping that since she asked for me, staring death in the face has made her kinder. But honestly? I'm scared to death. Our last words weren't very nice.”
”Let me go with you,” he said.
”You are my champion,” she said. ”That's what Riley called you, 'my champion.' Lyle also offered, but I told him no. You I might take along. I always feel a little braver with you around.”
The house Emma grew up in was now about forty years old and because it was a custom home built on a large lot, it had held up handsomely. It was, she remembered, one of the best homes in the area, at least in the parish where her Catholic school was located. Compared to some of the homes Emma had cleaned lately, it seemed ordinary, but it wasn't. It was a large five-bedroom, three-bath home decorated in Country French style. With its huge kitchen, s.p.a.cious master bedroom and bath, and twelve-foot ceilings, it had been considered very much upscale forty years ago. The curb appeal was still there; the house was very attractive with its well-maintained lawn, shrubbery and a couple of formidable trees, sitting on a wide street with well-s.p.a.ced homes.
Of course Emma didn't have many good memories of the place. She was not Rosemary's child. Rosemary introduced Anna and Lauren as her daughters, Emma as her stepdaughter.
”I've never been in the house,” Adam said.
”Never? How is that possible?”
”If I came to fetch Riley and walk her home, I waited on the stoop.”
”I never noticed. But that doesn't surprise me. Let's get this over with.”
At first Emma wasn't sure which of her sisters opened the door as they looked very much alike and she hadn't seen them in a few years. It took her a moment to realize it was Lauren for not only did she look tired and ashen but she'd gained about a hundred pounds. And then right behind her was Anna, thirty-seven now and morbidly obese. They both looked entirely miserable, but how should they look, knowing their mother was dying?
The house was cluttered and held a strange smell. Dust, chemical cleaners, perhaps death.