The Chance (Thunder Point #4)(79)

“Why?” Senior asked. “Is school out?”

Laine ignored her father; she was almost getting used to him being in other time zones. “You’re staying over?” Laine asked.

He nodded. “I can’t give you as much time as you need, but I’m staying over tonight. I have to leave for the hospital kind of early.”

“I understand,” she said. “Thanks.”

She watched as Senior headed for the stairs, Pax behind him. In this house he knew exactly where to go, what to do. She took out her phone. It was only six in Thunder Point—a busy time of day for Eric if he was still at the station. But he answered.

“Laine. How are you?”

“Well, now I know what it’s like to travel with triplets under the age of six months. It was quite an exciting trip. Although it was close, I wasn’t arrested for coming between Senior and a TSA agent.”

“God,” he said.

“We’re home now. Pax is here and is staying the night so I can close both ears and both eyes. I’m having a martini.”

“I didn’t know you drank martinis,” he said.

“I haven’t had too many in my life. I’m rethinking that. This has merits. I miss you.”

“I miss you. But you made it. You got him home.”

“And the second he got in the house, everything got better for him. He’s tired, that’s obvious, and he’s still a little wacky, but he isn’t as confused. You’re working late tonight?” she asked.

“I have to repay all those favors. The past few days everyone else has been staying late. Besides...” His voice trailed off. “So, what’s on for you tomorrow?”

“What were you about to say?” she urged.

He sighed. “Without you here, work fills up the time.”

“Don’t wear yourself out, Eric. I’m going to be back soon. Tomorrow, not too much is happening. We’ll settle in, go to Pax and Genevieve’s for dinner and to see the girls. The next day we have a doctor’s appointment and a counseling session with a specialist. And then it begins—tests and that sort of thing. I’ll keep you posted.”

“Laine...be good to yourself.”

“What will you do tonight?” she asked him.

“I’ll go home. I might use your computer for a while—looking for parts for the GTO. Maybe I’ll watch TV....”

He didn’t watch much TV. “Eric, don’t work too hard. Promise me you’ll give yourself some leisure time.”

“That’s easier when you’re around,” he said. “If I get a lot done, the days until you’re home will go faster.”

“I promise,” she said yet again. “I’m going to hang up before Pax comes downstairs.”

They signed off with endearments and Laine sat in the dimly lit study. When she was growing up, this room had been off-limits. This was where her father worked on patient charts, researched, called his patients to check on them, handled correspondence. Now, here she was, the caregiver of sorts. Sitting in his space, trying to unwind from a stressful day.

Pax returned to the study and went behind the bar to fix himself two fingers of Scotch. “You mellowed out?” he asked her.

“Um, yeah. Was he comfortable in his own room?”

“Seems to be,” Pax said. He sat down in the opposite chair and crossed a leg over his knee. “What about you? How are you doing?”

“I couldn’t be more screwed up if you stuck your fingers in my brain and stirred things around in there. All my life, since I was just little, I wanted my father to love me, to be proud of me, to approve of me. Then one day he tells me he’s always been proud of me, that he’s in awe of me but was too afraid to praise me because he wanted me to be less daring. All the while he was holding back his approval, I was trying harder and harder to earn it by taking more and more chances. He just wanted me to be cautious and stop scaring him. And he told me this right when he admitted he came to me for help.” She laughed. “So here I am. I finally have the father I always longed for. At quite a price.”

“You’re not an only child, you know,” he said.

“But you’re rational,” she said. “You’re not dealing with this conflict—Senior has always approved of you. You’re not still aching for a little of his affection. Not only that—you have a family and a big fellowship on your plate, and Genevieve says the doctor who’s taken you on is a real dick....”

Pax laughed. “I knew about that going in. He’s a brilliant dick. I wanted a nicer guy to work for but this one—he can teach me things no one else can. This situation with Senior can be managed, Laine. I can tell in fifteen minutes his disease isn’t advanced enough for an Alzheimer’s facility so we can check out home health care. Genevieve has already collected names—we can get right on it. I don’t want you tied to this problem forever. Now, tell me something—this man of yours, Eric, is he having a problem with this arrangement? You coming to Boston?”

“He’s been incredibly supportive. It’s all fake, but I’ll take it. He hated seeing me leave—I’m an expert at reading people, remember. He wants me to come back as soon as possible. And I want to go home. And I also want this one chance with my father before it’s too late. I make no sense.”