Saugatuck Summer (Saugatuck, #1)(93)
I laughed, shaking my head. Yet another irony of my family: the only one of them who actually believed my talent to be worthwhile was my neglectful drunk of a mother, the one who didn’t have a lick of common sense in her body. “Well. Maybe after I graduate.”
“Damn right,” she muttered, still looking displeased. Then she squeezed my hand. “Hey. You remember that Christmas play you had the lead in when you were in the sixth grade?”
“Yeah, of course I do.” It was memorable not just because I’d had a leading role, but because Mom had actually attended. Something most kids took as a given had been momentous enough to catapult the memory to one of the happiest of my childhood.
She swung my hand back and forth. “I remember sitting there in that audience and hearing the other parents whispering, My God, he’s good! I was so proud. You were meant to be a star, baby. You were always the extraordinary one.”
I closed my eyes, willing away the sting. I didn’t bother arguing that I wasn’t good enough for the huge things she envisioned for me, however unrealistic it might be. She would have just insisted that her pipe dreams were perfectly reasonable. “Well, thanks. I’m glad you think so.”
We stayed awhile longer, but she started to get drowsy when they dosed her with something for the pain again. Clearly it was the good shit, because she was in the clouds in minutes flat.
“I’ll come see you tomorrow, Mom.”
She slurred something in response as I kissed her cheek. And then, quite clearly: “I love you, baby.”
“Love you, too, Momma,” I whispered, and let go of her swollen hand.
Like I told Jace. No one is all good or all bad. Not even the woman whose screwups had made most of my life hell.
Jace was in the middle of giving me some morning sexin’ when Colleen called, and let me tell you, you’ve never had an awkward conversation until you’ve tried to talk normally to your sister with your boyfriend’s dick in your ass, because he flatly refused to move.
“Yeah, Colleen? What d’ya need?” I really didn’t care if I sounded rushed. Let her think I was still carrying a grudge about her behavior the day before.
“I’m at the hospital. I stopped by to see Mom before going to work. They’re moving her to ICU. She’s developed an infection. They think it’s just a bladder infection right now, but they’re concerned about her breathing. She might be headed toward pneumonia.”
“Fuck.” Then Jace did move, rolling over to lie beside me, watching me with concern. “Didn’t we go through all this last time?”
“She pulled through it last time, she’ll pull through it again. Right now they’re just being cautious. Tonya and Blythe should be here this afternoon, but I’ve got to get to work.”
“Right.” I rubbed my gritty eyes. “Um, let me take a shower and get some breakfast and I’ll be up there in an hour or so.”
I hung up with Colleen, and Jace drew me into his arms, down against his chest.
“Wow,” I said after a moment of holding on to him for dear life. “Welcome to the worst three weeks of my life: the sequel.”
“I’m here with you this time.” His lips brushed my temple. “I can’t change whatever is happening with your mom, but I can run interference, try to make everything else a little easier.”
“Aren’t you going to have to go home and work at some point?”
“I brought my tablet so I can work here. The graphic processing on my laptop isn’t quite as beefy as it is on my desktop, but I can manage for as long as necessary. If it becomes a problem, I’ll upgrade the laptop.”
“Thanks.” I kissed his chest and pushed myself up as he discarded the unneeded condom. “I better go shower. Then I’ll call Robin and Geoff and apologize for leaving them high and dry with Ling still on maternity leave.”
“They’ll be fine. I’ll call them and give them the update while you shower. Then we’ll get something decent to eat before going up to the hospital. There’s a Bob Evans practically next door, and I haven’t had their biscuits and sausage gravy in forever.”
By noon, Mom’s temperature—which had been dropping so low they’d been worried about her the day before—had shot up. They had a weird, air-conditioned blanket thing laid over her to try to bring it down. Of course, each time they brought it down, it started to plummet again, so then they had to work to bring it back up. Apparently, whatever damage her (presumed) suicide attempt had done to her brain functions still made it difficult for her to autonomously control her body temperature whenever she was dealing with any other sort of trauma.
After making sure I’d be okay, Jace went back to the hotel to work, and I sat in Mom’s room with my iPod and Android. I met the day nurse—a beautiful brother named Dominick Truscott—who would be providing dedicated care for her until the shift change at seven o’clock this evening. Dominick kept me company a little while he checked all the monitors and gizmos, asking about Saugatuck when I told him I was spending the summer there. Once I told him about the Dunes, he said he might go there on his next vacation.
Then I spent the afternoon shifting my attention back and forth between the muted TV on the wall and playing games on my phone. Finally, remembering my conversation with Jace the night before, I pulled up the information Brendan had entered into my phone when we were together and sent a message to his webmail address.