Summer on Blossom Street (Blossom Street #6)(70)

Casey sat on the bed with her back to the wall. Cody was sitting there, too, and Chase lay between them. Casey’s hand was on his fur, which she stroked methodically, avoiding eye contact with either Brad or me.

“Thanks, Mom and Dad,” Cody said.

We’d been dismissed.

We went back to the living room, where I picked up my knitting and Brad turned on the TV. We were halfway through an episode of CSI: Miami when the bedroom door opened and Cody came out, holding two empty bowls.

“Everything all right in there?” Brad asked. Cody nodded. “Ice cream doesn’t cure anything,” he said sagely, “but it sure helps with the pain.” He brought the bowls to the kitchen.

“Who told him that?” Brad wondered.

I ventured a guess. “Either Margaret or Alix.”

“You hang around with wise women, my love,” he said with a grin.

I had to agree. “You in the mood for ice cream?” I asked.

“Why not? It seems to work.”

We smiled at each other. A crisis had been averted. After a while Casey came out of her room with her crochet hook and a skein of yarn under one arm. “I need help with this,”

she said, as if the events of this evening had never occurred.

“Okay.” I certainly wasn’t an expert at crocheting but I could read the directions. If not, I could always contact my sister. Casey sat on the sofa beside me. “I think I made a mistake here.” She held it out for me to examine.

I studied the washcloth she’d started and didn’t f ind anything wrong. “It looks f ine to me, Casey.”

“You’re sure?”

I shrugged. “You might want to have Margaret check it tomorrow.”

Her eyes f lew up to meet mine. “Can I come to the shop again? You don’t have to pay me.”

“I’ve got a whole list of things that need your attention and of course I’ll pay you.”

I could see she was pleased, although she tried to hide it.

“That would be okay, I guess.” I realized she didn’t want me to know how much she liked being at the yarn store. That attitude always caught me unawares. This fear of losing what she valued most. Wasn’t that exactly what Alix had warned me about?

She returned to her room, and I went to bed around ten, exhausted. All the melodrama of the evening had tired me out. I still didn’t know what Lee had said to Casey and most likely I never would. If she’d told Cody, he hadn’t indicated in any way. Curious though I was, I didn’t feel I could pry it out of him. That wasn’t the example I wanted to set. The phone rang just as Brad stepped out of the bathroom, dressed for bed. The sharp, unexpected sound startled us both. I reached for it quickly.

“Hello,” I said in a hushed voice.

“Lydia,” my sister boomed over the line. “It’s Mom.”

“What happened?” My mother’s declining health had been a major concern for more than a year now.

“I’m at the E.R. Mom fell.”

I gasped and reached out for Brad. He gripped my f ingers. “Is she hurt?”

“It’s her hip.”

“No.” Shivers raced down my spine.

“Thank God someone heard her.”

More than a year earlier, Mom had been diagnosed with diabetes and had to have her blood sugars carefully monitored. That had been the beginning of her health problems. The decline had been rapid since then.

“Is it broken?” I asked, fearing the worst.

“No, just a hairline fracture. She also hit her head pretty hard, but that seems to be okay.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes,” I said. Brad freed my hand and I tossed aside the covers. My feet were already on the ground when Margaret stopped me.

“There’s no need. The tests are done. I didn’t feel there was any reason to phone you until we knew something def inite.”

“You should’ve called me earlier,” I cried, upset and relieved at the same time. I had a right to know about my own mother and yet…ignorance was bliss.

Guilt washed over me. I shouldn’t be thinking that. I loved my mother and was grateful Margaret had been there to handle the situation.

“The doctor wants to keep Mom overnight for observation. She needs her sleep and frankly,” Margaret said, sounding drained and emotionally depleted, “so do I.”

“Go home,” I advised. “Tell the hospital that if they need to contact anyone during the night, they should call me.”

Margaret hesitated, then reluctantly agreed. After she’d answered a few more questions, I replaced the receiver. Tears f lowed unrestrained down my face, blurring my vision. I worried about my mother, but I had no idea how to help her. Brad handed me a wad of tissues and I tried to explain what had happened.

“But she’s f ine, right?” Brad pressed.

I nodded. Mom was unaffected by this incident, as far as the physicians could tell, but I wasn’t. It was all too obvious that I was going to lose my mother.

In many ways I already had. Margaret and I were her caregivers now. We’d assumed the role of adults, and she’d become almost a child—dependent, passive, at the mercy of others. I worried that I’d somehow failed her.

When I wiped my eyes, I saw Cody and Casey standing in the doorway to our bedroom, watching me.