'You didn't say if this was serious or not,' Katherine pressed.
He shrugged. 'I don't know yet.'
'You're sleeping with her.'
His mother was the most amazing woman he'd ever met. She had determination and class and more love than any three people he knew. He would take a bullet for her, but he wouldn't let her run his life.
I’m not discussing Dani,' he said quietly. 'Not in that context.'
'I see.'
Two words. Easy, simple words said in a tone that hinted he'd broken her heart. That by shutting her out, he was saying she didn't matter.
'I know Dani is a complication,' he said, trying to give a little.
'For all of us. You're aware of the difficulties this relationship presents.'
He nodded.
She drew in a breath. 'Alex, I don't want to run your life or judge you. You've been an adult for a long time. You've made good decisions and bad ones. I thought you knew the difference.'
'I do.'
'I don't think so. Why her? Why now? There are so many other women out there. Women like Fiona.'
His concern and compassion turned to anger. 'My marriage with Fiona is over. I've let it go, I wish you would. I've made my position clear.'
'Yes, you have,' she snapped. 'Although you haven't said why. Fiona is far more appropriate than Dani Buchanan. Of course that's not a very high bar to get over. Is it asking too much for you to have a relationship that doesn't tear this family apart?'
More guilt, which wasn't Katherine's style, he thought as his anger faded. 'Are we torn apart? You matter to me, Mom. You always will. I don't want to hurt you.'
'Then don't,' she said, almost pleading. 'Don't hurt me.'
Which was another way of saying 'Don't do this.' But it wasn't her decision to make.
Long ago he'd vowed to protect his family, no matter what. It had been a vow born of pain and fear as he'd watched his biological mother die on the street. He'd never been in this position before with Katherine. Never felt he was doing the wrong thing.
But being with Dani wasn't wrong and he refused to let circumstances control his personal life.
'I need to get to the office,' he said. He stood and kissed Katherine on the cheek. 'I'll call you later.'
She nodded, but didn't speak. There was still tension between them. Unresolved issues. It had never been like that with her and he didn't like it now.
Dani woke up with a stiff back and cramped arm. Somehow she'd managed to curl up in a corner of a sofa at the hospital waiting room. She straightened and saw Cal talking with a doctor. She stood and hurried over.
'What?' she asked. 'Is she all right?'
The doctor, a pleasant-looking woman in her late thirties, smiled. 'She's fine. There was a mix-up in her medication. Everything worked its way through her system, so she'll be perfectly all right. We're going to be releasing her in a few hours. There aren't any special instructions. Just make sure she knows what she's taking.'
The relief was as quick as it was powerful. Dani turned to Cal and hugged him.
'She's okay. It's fine.'
'I know.' He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. 'Let's tell everyone else.'
They turned back to the full waiting room. Dani looked at her other brothers, their fiancees, and wondered when her family had gotten so big. For years it had seemed like her and her brothers against the world. But not anymore. With Penny's, there was even a second generation beginning.
It was more than she could take in on an hour of steep. 'You tell them,' she said. 'I want to go to her room.'
Dani hurried down the hall and walked into her grandmother's room.
Gloria lay on the narrow bed, her face pale, her eyes closed. Dani stopped next to her and lightly touched the back of her hand.
Gloria opened her eyes. 'I'm not dead,' she said. 'That's something. Of course if you've been looking for an excuse to lock me away due to mental incompetence, you've found it. I can't believe I did that. Even an idiot should be able to handle three or four medications. I must be getting old, which I hate to admit.'
Dani felt her throat closing. Emotions flooded her, making it impossible to speak. This was her
'I don't want you to die,' Dani said, then shocked herself and possibly Gloria by bursting into tears. 'I d-don't want you to die.'
'Hush, child. I don't want that, either. I have a lot of things to atone for and that's going to take some time. Being an idiot isn't fatal. Well, I suppose it could be if I continue to take the wrong pills. But I'll be more careful. Does that work?'
Dani covered her face with her hands and nodded. Gloria patted her arm for a few seconds, then said, 'Bend down so I can hug you. You'll feel better and so will I.'
Dani did as she asked. Gloria put thin arms around her and squeezed.
'I've been a horror to you,' she said, her voice soft and shaky. 'So cruel. There's no excuse, although I'm likely to try to give you one. You're like me. Oh, not the bad things. You're better than that. You have a lot of your mother in you. I always liked Marsha. I hated her, too, for being strong. My son was never strong. There was too much of his father in him.'
Dani sniffed and straightened. She wiped her face. 'What are you talking about?'
Gloria smiled and blinked away a few tears of her own. 'I'm saying I was hard on you. Too hard. I wanted you to be better than me, but I never knew how to say that. You didn't run away, like your brothers. I kept waiting for you to, so I pushed and pushed and then one day you were gone. I've missed you so much.'
Tears trickled down Gloria's sunken cheeks. “I’m sorry. I know that's a useless thing to say, but I mean it. I'm so sorry, Dani. I love you. I have from the moment your mother handed you to me and I held you.' She smiled. 'Even then you were feisty. You grabbed onto my hair and you wouldn't let go.'
Dani didn't know what to think. There was too much information, but in the best way possible. She felt happy and confused and connected with the woman she'd most admired all her life.
'I love you, too,' she said. 'I wanted to be like you.'
'Perhaps you need a more inspiring goal. Maybe you should be like Katherine Canfield. She's a saint, isn't she? Everyone says she is.'
'She's very special, but you're my family.'
Gloria took her hand and squeezed. “They're your family, too. That could make for very interesting holidays.'
Dani laughed. 'I hadn't thought of that.' She drew in a deep breath. 'The doctor says you're fine. You're going home in a few hours. I'll be there to keep watch on you.'
'I live to be a prisoner in my own home.' But she was smiling as she spoke.
The door to her room opened and Dani's brothers spilled into the room. Dani stepped back to let them reach Gloria, but she didn't leave. She needed to stay close.
The irony of the situation didn't escape her. A year ago, she'd felt alone in the world. Only her brothers had been there for her. Now she had Gloria and the Canfield family. What was that old saying? An embarrassment of riches?
Speaking of embarrassment, she had a bad feeling that when she checked out the morning papers, her personal best on the humiliation level was going to sink to an all-time low. She hadn't said anything yet-not while they didn't know what was going on with Gloria. But she should probably tell them before they saw it themselves.
She waited for a lull in the conversation, then stepped in front of Gloria's bed and said, 'Guess what I did last
