Was her mom the reason she’d marked my dad and targeted his money? Didn’t make it right, but— No. No softening.
I let her drift off. Specific knowledge was what I was after and I wanted to get it myself. She’d already proven she could worm into someone’s life enough that they’d dedicate a portion of their fortune to her. No way would I trust another person getting close to her, if I could even get past telling a private investigator my personal business.
I’d do this myself. Sam had as good as abandoned me after the divorce, but I couldn’t help but feel protective toward my father. Whatever I had done to drive Sam away, I could make up for it by figuring out why Mara would play with an old man’s emotions.
Mara
I waved at Sam as he drove off.
He’d showed me where he was going to park my car and he would lock my key inside. I had my fob. I’d offered to stay with him until his Uber arrived, but he’d told me to get to my mom.
My responsible side asked why I had trusted him with my keys. If he stole my car, I could grunt out the deductible and use insurance to buy more reliable wheels. If Sam took it on a joyride and crashed it, well, that’d fit my night perfectly. I sighed and trudged down the corridor toward the emergency room. The nurse from the living center had reported that Mom’s breathing was growing more labored. From experience, we both knew nothing short of a hospital stay would help.
Smiling at the girl manning the ER desk, I introduced myself and was shown back to Mom’s room.
The quiet bustle of the emergency room always surprised me. TV shows made it look so chaotic, so…urgent. But nurses worked quietly at the counter that circled the middle of the ward, doctors studied charts at pods with screens and keyboards, and any employees and patients in the halls went straight for their destination with little commotion. Once in a while, I’d hear a moan from a patient’s room, but even that was rare.
Stillness and warmth encompassed me as I entered the room. The square, white, all-too-familiar space was like any other, except for the suites where patients were curtained off. I dreaded when Mom was put into one of those. Made it all seem more serious.
In the time it’d taken me to get here, the ambulance had already delivered their patient and left. Mom lay resting. I doubted she was asleep with a nasal cannula in and a blood pressure cuff strapped around her arm. An IV ran to her other arm.
I pulled a chair closer and sat.
“Hey,” Mom breathed. “Sorry to disrupt your night.”
I gave her a reassuring smile. “Oh, you know my Friday nights are never exciting.”
I didn’t allow my thoughts to settle on Sam and his sparkling blue eyes and broad shoulders. Mom would sense my disappointment and she had more things to worry about, like getting better.
A knock on the door interrupted us a moment before a guy, not much younger than me, entered. He had a ready smile and wore gun-metal gray scrubs.
“I’m here to take Wendy Baranski for an X-ray.”
I knew the routine. “That’s her. Do you need me with?”
“No. Hold the room down for us and we’ll be right back.”
I sat back while they rolled the entire cot to X-ray. The quiet hadn’t unnerved me when it had been just the two of us in the room, but alone, I couldn’t stand it. I numbly surfed through the crappy cable offered by the hospital and waited.
The rest of the night went by with the familiar blur of doctors’ reports of pneumonia, treatment plans, admitting her for a hospital stay, and settling her in.
I checked the time, deciding whether I should catch a few hours of sleep in an ungodly uncomfortable chair or head home for a few hours before work.
“Oh my gosh, Mara.” Mom’s eyes barely stayed open. She was going to sleep soon herself. “Go home and get some rest. I know how busy Saturdays are for you.”
“I can always call Chris to man the store.” If he was around. My only full-time employee had a life, too. Maybe. Likely a movie to see, at least.
“I’m just going to sleep all night and day. You know how this goes.”
Yeah. I did. When Mom had been sick last week, I’d worried that it would result in this. “I’ll stop by after work, okay?”
Mom nodded, already drifting off. I leaned down and kissed her cheek, the burn of tears igniting behind my eyes. I neared the doorway and stopped to brush off my cheeks before entering the wide hallway, where nurses darted back and forth.
God, this sucked. Nights like this reinforced my decision to put Mom in a nursing home, but it didn’t assuage the guilt any. Even though Mom had urged me to do it, claiming she didn’t want her daughter’s life to be burdened with caring for a parent’s basic needs.
More tears rose. I often thought I should’ve soldiered on, but I’d seen how hard succumbing to severe multiple sclerosis was for her. Twenty-four-hour care was required and I couldn’t provide it. At least I’d secured the money to pay the bills for it.
Chapter 3
Wes
I tapped another golf ball across the green. The white, dimpled ball swirled around the hole and dropped in without hesitation.
“Sick.” My friend Flynn thumped his club against the ground. “I think you come out and play instead of working all day.”
Rapping my club against Flynn’s, I strode past him to let my friend have his turn.
For me, there was no play in the workday. A man didn’t keep his millions by jacking around instead of making money.
Flynn was the same, it was why he teased me constantly. Equally focused on his own business, he respected my time and space but also kept me from getting lost
