Only One (Reed Brothers)(17)

Carrie grunts. “That’s Mom’s bedroom,” she says.

I brush her hair back from her face. “I think he knows that.”

“Thanks for staying.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Will you stay some more?” She looks up at me, blinking those wide eyes. “Come sit on the couch with me.”

I nod. “Will he be mad at me for that?”

She laughs. “If he was truly mad, he wouldn’t have gone to bed.”

She leads me to the couch, and I sit down. She crawls into my lap and tucks her head under my chin. Then she starts to talk.

She tells me all about what happened with her mom, her mom and dad, and her mom’s boyfriend. Then she settles against me, once the story is out there and off her chest. I hold her until her breaths are steady and she’s asleep. Then I close my eyes too.





Carrie

I wake up alone on the couch. When I went to sleep, Nick was wrapped around me, but now he’s gone. I roll over and smell the heavenly scent of coffee. Dad is sitting at the table, talking with someone. At first glance I think it’s Nick, but it’s not. It’s the man from last night, and his wife, the one who talked to the 9-1-1 operator for me.

I get up and go put on something besides my jammies, and then I go out to join them. I touch Dad lightly on the shoulder and squeeze. His hand comes up to cover mine. I bend and kiss his cheek. “Have you talked to Mom today?”

He nods. “She’s awake and ready to come home.” He swipes a hand down his face. “I just have to disassemble the bed and move some stuff around, and then I’ll go pick her up.”

“Why do you have to disassemble the bed?”

“Honey, hospice is sending over a hospital bed and supplies.” He stops and watches me.

“Oh,” I breathe.

Matt breaks the stalemate. “Why don’t you let my brothers and me move the furniture around for you? We can get it done a lot faster. And we’ve done it before.”

“Oh, no,” Dad says. “We couldn’t let you do that.”

Matt waves a hand in the air. “It’s nothing. And my brothers won’t be happy unless you let us help. They’ve been dying to come over since yesterday, but I told them they couldn’t.” He laughs. “They’re nosy.”

“Why do you care?” I blurt out.

“Carrie.” Dad scolds me with just that one word, and heat creeps up my face.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur. I busy myself pouring a cup of coffee.

Matt pulls back his sleeve and shows me the cancer ribbon tattoo on his bicep. “I’m a survivor.”

I drop into a chair beside Dad. “Of cancer?”

He nods and takes a sip of his coffee. “Yes.” His wife’s hand slips under his on the table and he looks up at her with a smile.

“That’s how we met,” she says. She waves at me. “I’m Sky, by the way.”

“You met over cancer?” Dad asks.

She shakes her head. “We met because of our kids, actually. Matt met my half-sister when they were both in treatment. She had three kids, and I took them when she died. And I met Matt through the process. They stuck. The kids and the man.”

“To make a long story short,” Matt says, “we’d be happy to move your furniture around, so you can get some other stuff done.” He jerks a thumb toward the hallway. “Do you want to show me what you need to have moved?”

Dad follows him in the corridor and I watch. Sky says softly, “Matt has a tender heart. He’s faced his own mortality more than once, so he knows what your mother’s going through.”

“He survived, though,” I say. Emotion swells inside me, right when I least expect it, and I have to swallow hard to push it down. “My mom isn’t going to.”

“I know,” she says. Her eyes well and she blinks hard to keep the tears from falling over. She doesn’t say anything. She just stares at her coffee. Finally, she says quietly, “You’re lucky, you know?”

My head jerks up and I snort. “Define luck.”

“My oldest boy, Seth, he would give anything to have a few more minutes with his mom. So don’t take it for granted.”

“I’ve been a bit of a bitch, lately,” I admit.

She laughs. “You’re a teenager. That comes with the territory. Your mom knows that.”

“Not about normal teenage stuff. Not boys. Not periods. Not makeup or clothes. But just about life.”

“Sometimes life convinces us it sucks. And sometimes it convinces us we suck. It happens. You get over it. I would wager your mom won’t hold it against you.”

I look into her eyes. “You promise?”

“I’m a mom. So, yes, I promise.”

I nod.

Dad and Matt come back down the hallway and they stop to shake hands. Matt and Sky leave hand in hand, and Dad leaves to go pick up Mom. I look around and wonder what the heck I’m supposed to be doing. But then a knock sounds on the door and Matt lets himself in. Hospice is there with the furniture and supplies, so he shows them where to put everything. Following him are four more men just like him, and then one that’s not like him at all.

Matt introduces his brothers and his son, Seth. Seth is so darn good-looking that I wish I’d brushed my hair when I woke up.