The Next Best Thing (Gideon's Cove #2)(47)

“Hi, Boggy!” I say. “I brought you a scone. Blueberry and cream. I think it’s a winner, if I do say so myself.”

I press the button to raise the bed to an upright position—Boggy won’t wake unless she’s sitting up and she’s hungry.

“Doesn’t that smell great?” I ask, holding out the treat.

She opens her eyes. Good old Boggy. How nice that she never lost the urge to eat.

“Who are you?” she asks.

I jump about a mile into the air, dropping the scone on her lap. Her voice is creaky, the words running together, but my God! She spoke! I haven’t heard her speak in fifteen years!

“I’m…uh…I’m your grand-niece. Lucy. Lucy Lang. Daisy’s daughter.” My heart races, my hands are shaking. “Your niece, Daisy Black.”

“Daisy?” The old lady squints, her face creasing into a thousand wrinkles.

“She’s your sister’s daughter.”

“My sister Margaret?”

“Yes!” I exclaim. “Boggy! It’s so…How are you feeling? Are you okay? You’ve been kind of…out of it for a while.” I dig in my pocket for my cell phone. “I’m just gonna call my mom, okay? Let her know you’re, um, awake.”

“Can I eat this?” Boggy asks, then coughs a little. She picks up the scone and gives it a suspicious sniff.

“Well, sure! It’s a scone. Uh, go ahead.”

She takes a gummy bite, then smiles up at me, innocent and happy as a puppy.

“Bunny’s,” my mother sighs into the phone.

“Mom! I’m at High Hopes. Boggy’s awake and talking!”

“What?”

“Get over here right now! She’s sitting up in bed, eating a scone, and she…well, just come! Hurry!”

Six minutes later (a new land-speed record), the Black Widows come into the room, their faces hopeful and suspicious at the same time. I’m shaking with excitement. “Aunt Boggy,” I say, my voice thick with happy tears, “do you remember Iris, Rose and Daisy?”

My mother and aunts approach cautiously. They are holding hands, which touches me more than I can say.

Boggy studies them carefully. “Well,” she creaks. “I hope you girls don’t expect me to cook.”

And with that, the three nieces burst into tears at the sights and sounds of Boggy, awake after so, so long. They swarm around her, petting her, taking her gnarled hands into theirs, kissing her, all talking at once to their beloved aunt, whom they have so faithfully visited all these years.

I take a hitching, happy breath, then step out into the hall to call Corinne. I only get her voice mail, though, and leave a message to come to High Hopes as soon as she can.

Then, peeking in once more at the four women, I call Ethan. He’ll love this. He’ll want to hear all about it, maybe even will leave work early. He doesn’t know Aunt Boggy, but he sure loves the Black Widows.

He answers on the fourth ring. “Ethan, you’ll never guess what!” I exclaim.

“Hi, Lucy. Everything okay?”

“Aunt Boggy woke up! And she’s talking!”

“One second, Luce.” His voice grows muffled. “Sorry, this will only take a minute,” he says to someone. “Lucy, I’m in a meeting, I’m really sorry. That’s great about your aunt.”

“I know! I brought her a scone, and there she was—”

“Luce, I’m sorry. I can’t talk now. I’ll have to catch up later.”

“Oh,” I say, deflating like a popped balloon.

“Sorry,” he repeats. “I’m really glad about your aunt. Talk to you soon.”

And with that, he clicks off.

Well. He’s busy, of course. The new job is all about meetings, from the little I’ve heard. Still. It seems to me that a month ago, he would’ve stepped out of whatever he was doing to hear more of this incredible news.

By now, the word has spread that Boggy is a chatter-box after nearly two decades in a partial coma. Three doctors and two nurses are in her room, checking vitals and asking questions.

“Are there any more scones?” she asks, craning her skinny neck, and with a big smile, I run down the hall to the reception desk to get her some more.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

LATER THAT EVENING, I’M BACK in the apartment, getting ready for a date, slapping on mascara as Fat Mikey watches from his perch on the back of the toilet. Actually I almost forgot the whole thing, given the excitement of the day. I would’ve bowed out, but I got home at six, and we were supposed to meet at seven. Didn’t seem nice to cancel an hour before.

I’d spent most of the day at the nursing home, filling in my cousins and phoning my sister about the Miracle of the Scone, as I’m calling it. I should sell these at the bakery. Lazarus Scones.

Boggy’s return really is quite a miracle. The doctors are stumped and pleased, and other than a these things happen sometimes explanation, they had nothing to add. A local news crew dropped in, thanks to a call from Stevie, who figured he could get some free publicity (he’s planning to use his skateboard to jump over five cows and feels the world should know). Grinelda the Gypsy dropped in, too, claiming that just last night, she’d received a message that the Black Widows would be visited by someone they thought was long gone.