As She Fades(59)

“He read to me when I was in a coma. Gave my family a break regularly and brought them coffee and muffins. That makes him my friend, too. Even if our friendship started while I was asleep.”

He was silent for a moment. I let him think about what I’d said, and hopefully he’d have a reasonable response.

“You know his reputation, don’t you? I mean, you don’t want to be heaped in the pile with those girls. People will assume that’s what you are.”

I gripped the phone a little too tightly in my hand. I couldn’t blow up on him. That wasn’t fair. He had his concerns and I needed to let him have them. But I wasn’t bending to his will. Those days were over.

“He is my friend. He needs a friend right now. I don’t care who says what. I know the truth and that’s all that matters. Do you have a problem with that?” My tone had gotten snappy and I could tell he was startled by it.

“Uh, no. I guess I don’t.”

“Good. Mom’s in there with him now. I need to go. I’ll text you when I’m headed back.” I almost added that we could get together but didn’t. Because I wasn’t sure I’d be in the mood to see him. Not after what I was about to face.

Ending the call the way we had for years, we said, “I love you,” but this time it felt different. Like I didn’t truly mean it. I shoved those thoughts from my head and made my way inside.

My mom sat in a chair beside the window and Slate sat beside his uncle. He had one of Uncle D’s hands in his. When I stepped inside, his head turned to me and I saw gratitude and relief. My mom was there, but it was me he needed.

“Hey,” I said, walking over to him. “How’s he been?”

Slate sighed. “The same.” He glanced over at my mother, who was watching us. “Your mom has been great. I just wish I had more of an appetite to eat the food she brought. What I could eat was really good.”

“There’s more where that came from. You just eat when you can,” she said gently.

“Thank you,” Slate told her.

“Mom, you go on. I’ll stay until tonight.”

She stood up and walked over to Slate. With a squeeze from her hand on his shoulder she said, “Your uncle is a lucky man. He is loved by you and he knows it.”

Slate nodded, but he didn’t say anything. I could tell he was having a hard time with her words. He swallowed hard.

“Call me if you need anything. I’ll bring some dinner over later.”

“Thanks, Momma.”

She hugged me, then left us there. Watching his uncle hold on, but barely.

“He’s bleeding internally from the fall. Nothing they can do, though,” he said when the door closed behind my mother. “They don’t think he’ll make it through the night.”

“I’ll stay with you.” There was no way I could leave him.

“You have classes in the morning,” he argued, but it was weak. He wanted me here. He was afraid.

“I’ll get what I miss from someone else in my classes.”

He didn’t try to talk me out of it. Which was good because I wasn’t going anywhere.

“I’ll have a farm to think about. Not sure how I’m going to handle that. Uncle D owned all of it. Worked his whole life to own it in full. He told me this summer when he got sick that he’d left everything to me. It was my decision what I did with it. I can’t run a farm right now, but I can’t just sell it. It was his life.”

There were going to be a lot of decisions like this for him to make. Things that wouldn’t be easy. I knew they were all starting to run through his mind.

“Does the farm support itself financially?” I asked him.

He nodded.

“Well, why don’t you find someone to run it—live there, take care of things, and pay them? When and if the time comes that you want to live there, it will be waiting.”

Again, he nodded. “Okay. Yeah, I think in town there’ll be some folks who would want to do that.”

“Don’t stress and worry over things like this just yet. It will work out.”

He didn’t respond and I figured he needed a moment. I walked over and sat in the seat my mother had deserted. I could smell her homemade doughnuts in the box beside me.

“I’ve never had someone in my life who would do this,” he said, looking over at me. “Stay when things were tough. No one I could trust other than Uncle D.”

That made my heart hurt. I had a big family. I had been blessed with so much in life and I’d taken that for granted, while Slate had no one else.

“You have my family now. Me and Knox. We’re your friends. With us comes our family.”

A sad smile touched Slate’s lips and his gaze shifted to the doughnuts. “Yeah, you’ve got a great family. Not sure what I did to get their support.”

I knew what he had done.

“I think it all started with the coffee and muffins you brought to them when they were watching me sleep, wondering if I’d ever wake up. And the reading to me when they needed a break. Kindness like that isn’t forgotten.”

He shrugged. “Knox was my friend and…” He paused and his eyes locked on mine. “And I wanted to see your eyes. I wanted to hear your voice. I wanted to know you. Sleeping Beauty.”