Читать книгу No Ordinary Home - Mary Sullivan - Страница 10
ОглавлениеGRACIE ATE LIKE a half-starved animal, which Austin guessed she was. Man, could she pack it away.
“Careful,” he warned. “Don’t make yourself sick. You’re putting all of that into an empty stomach. You’ll fill up too quickly.”
“I can take care of my own stomach.” She stopped eating. “Sorry,” she said. She must have realized her tone had been caustic and remembered that he was paying for her meal. Austin almost laughed. He figured if she’d been on the road awhile, on her own, she’d learned to take care of herself pretty well.
She was a prickly one, all right.
“We going to get a move on soon?” Finn nursed the last of his coffee. Both he and Austin had finished their meals, but then they’d ordered less than Gracie had, and she was still plowing through hers.
Finn was still watching him, as he’d done all through lunch, but Austin had avoided his gaze. Now he met Finn’s cynical glare head-on. Finn’s left eyebrow sat cocked. The man could carry on whole conversations with his unruly eyebrows.
That raised brow said everything he wouldn’t utter in front of the woman. They’d been best friends for more than fifteen years. Austin could almost read Finn’s mind, imagined every word he wouldn’t say out loud.
Are you for real, Austin? We’re on the road, on vacation, and you pick up a stray? You can’t stop yourself from helping people, can you? Not even on vacation.
Ready to defend his actions, Austin halted at the quirk of Finn’s lips, because the man was glancing from his scratched cheek to the small woman beside him.
Again, man, really? You let that little thing get the better of you? Some cop you are.
Austin wanted to say she was stronger than she looked, but shame had him holding his tongue. And a certain odd loyalty to the woman he’d only just met. Then his humor kicked in and he grinned and shrugged.
Finn grinned, too, and the tension between them eased.
It would be a shame to let a woman, a stranger, come between a pair of good friends.
Even so, at the moment, Austin’s loyalty was to Gracie, because of her hunger and poverty. Finn had never known a day of need in his life. Austin had. He understood desperation. He totally got despair.
To his credit, Finn had held himself back from asking what had happened while he’d waited for Austin inside the diner.
“As soon as Gracie is finished we can go.” Austin turned his attention to her. “Where’re you going from here?”
She shrugged. He didn’t like the thought of her on the road, even if she was tough enough to handle anything that came along. He wondered if she fully understood the dangers to a woman alone in these places.
If she’d robbed a different kind of man, if it had been late at night with fewer people around, she might have been in more trouble than she could handle. And behind the building, no one would have heard her scream. The thought chilled him. She might be stronger than she looked, but hunger had left her depleted.
“Where did you sleep last night?”
She shrugged again. He grasped her wrist and repeated the question.
She put down a spoonful of rice pudding and wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. She’d been raised to have manners. He’d noticed her speech was good, her grammar correct, better than his. She hadn’t been raised poor. He’d bet on that. So, what was her story?
“I know you’re feeding me and I appreciate it,” she said, tugging on her wrist until he let go, “but where I sleep is nobody’s business but my own.”
“You made it mine when you stole my wallet.”
“She what?” Finn leaned forward, expression fierce. “Why haven’t you called the cops? Instead, you’re feeding her?”
Austin raised a hand to placate his friend. “She stole my wallet, but I caught her and got everything back.” Finn looked angry enough to spit bullets. Or maybe that should be tranquilizing darts. After all, the guy was a veterinarian. Naw. The way he was staring at Gracie was pretty lethal. Austin figured he’d better appease him. “She apologized—didn’t you, Gracie?”
She nodded. She’d returned to her pudding and her mouth was full. Good thing. It prevented her from lying. Or maybe she lied easily. He knew nothing about her.
“Where are you headed?” he asked again. “Where are you sleeping tonight?” Last thing he needed was a woman depending on him—he’d had a bellyful of that, more than one man should have to bear in only thirty-one years—but he couldn’t help worrying. The world was a dangerous place, especially for a woman on her own.
“I’m trying to get to Denver. I’m hoping to hitch a ride from here to the nearest town.”
She was heading to Denver? So were they.
Finn must have seen the wheels turning in Austin’s mind because he shook his head. “No. No, no, no. Stop thinking what you’re thinking, Austin.”
Finn had sat through enough of Austin’s griping sessions to know exactly how hard Austin’s life was with his mom. Finn’s eyebrow shot up again. Don’t take on another needy woman, man.
Sensing the tension, Gracie’s head shot up. “Are you heading to Denver?”
Austin nodded.
She swallowed the last gulp of her milk. “Can I hitchhike to the next town? I’ll be no trouble. You can drop me off there and I’ll find my own place to sleep. I promise,” she said, her voice full of both desperation and hope. “Just give me a ride that far. I can make my own way to Denver later. I’ll be no trouble. Honest.”
Finn groaned. Austin knew why. They’d been best friends since high school, and he knew Austin inside out. He knew there was no way Austin would—could—say no.
“Okay, but only as far as Casper. We’re stopping there so Finn can visit a friend.” They could drop Gracie there. The last thing, the very last thing Austin needed was a woman hanging on to him.
* * *
GRACIE SAT IN the back seat of Austin’s old SUV doing sums in her small notebook. She wouldn’t pay him back for the gas since they were going this way anyway, but she would pay him back for everything she’d ordered at lunch.
She remembered to add the extra dollar for rye toast.
This ride to the next town would give her ankle a chance to heal. Things couldn’t have worked out better.
Fascinated by the bantering between the men in the front seat, she eavesdropped shamelessly. She’d been on the road so long she didn’t know what a normal friendship felt like. Thinking back, she couldn’t remember having had one.
The friends she’d had as a child had all been adults and transitory, coming and going as careers and jobs changed.
These men had a strong friendship. She sensed how deep and real it was and it filled her with envy.
Finn talked; Austin listened. She’d learned this lesson about relationships—in many, one was the talker and the other the listener, one the social butterfly and the other happy to take a back seat.
“No way will they lose this year,” Finn said. “Even on their bad days, they’re miles better than the Broncos.”
She’d lost track of the conversation, something about sports teams, but she’d missed which sport they were discussing, distracted by a gurgling in her stomach. She rubbed it.
In the rearview mirror, Austin glanced at her. She settled her hand back into her lap. The man didn’t miss much. Good cop. That was all she needed, to have this guy pester her with an I told you so.
“They’re an awesome team,” Austin said. “Even if they did lose this year. They could go all the way next year.”
If he said I told you so, he would be right. She should have eaten less food more slowly.
Finn popped the lid on a can of nuts and, one by one, tossed them into the air and caught them in his mouth. “They choked, man. No way will they take the championship this year.”
He offered the can to Austin, who shook his head. He ignored Gracie, she noticed. Just as well. Her tummy gurgled and roiled.
Austin’s response was quiet. “We’ll see. They lost. Let’s get past it and hope for a better result this year.” The voice of reason. He probably made a good cop.
Teams. Athletes. She knew nothing about sports, or popular culture, or TV shows. Ironic when you thought about it, because—
A stomach cramp had her hissing in a breath. Fortunately, Austin hadn’t noticed. Or had he? His eyes flickered to the mirror and back to the road.
She studied his profile. Where Finn was lean, quick and full of nervous energy, and a couple of inches shorter than Austin, Austin could probably out-calm the Dalai Lama. He didn’t have the Dalai Lama’s charming wit and smile, though. She knew. She’d met the man once, and had been enchanted by him. It had been difficult for her, though, with him so pure and kind, and her a fraud.
What held Austin back? What caused the sadness that lurked in his fine blue eyes?
“What’s so great about this herd we’re going to see?” Austin asked. Everything about him, even his strong, straight profile, was serious.
“I went to college with the owner. A great guy. He’s giving up his hobby ranch. Needs to sell the herd.” Finn tossed peanuts into his mouth then offered the can to Austin again, who shook his head and pointed over his shoulder to her in the backseat. Finn offered them to Gracie, reluctantly. Odd as it was for someone who’d been starving a short while ago, the thought of eating even one left her nauseated.
She shook her head.
“Knowing this guy—” Finn turned around again “—those cattle will be top quality and in good shape.”
“Can’t wait to see them.” Ah, a spark of excitement lit Austin’s voice. So, they were on a trip to see some cows. She wondered why, so eavesdropped some more.
The gist was that these guys were apparently on their way to Texas, where Austin was going to buy a herd of cattle. So...Austin was not only a sheriff’s deputy, but also a rancher?
“You want a mouser for the barn?” Finn asked. “I’ve got a real little cutie in the office right now.”
What office?
“No one’s adopting her. All everyone wants these days is kittens.” He ate more peanuts. “I don’t want to put her down. Worst part of the job is putting down healthy animals just ’cause they don’t have a home.”
Finn was a veterinarian?
“I’d really like to find her a home.”
“You can’t take her to your dad’s ranch?” Austin asked.
Finn grinned. “Dad would kill me if I brought home another stray. He knows how much I love animals, but put his foot down after the last dog I brought over.”
Austin smiled. “Yeah, I remember all the strays you took home even before you became a vet.”
Ah. So he really was a vet. He had at least that going for him even if he was a jerk in other ways.
“Sure.” Austin shifted gears. “I’ll take the cat.”
A satisfied grin lit Finn’s face.
Finn made a joke about a bunch of cows in a field they were passing and Austin laughed—so the man could laugh—the affection between them palpable.
Again, that pang of envy.
Even before Gracie had run away, there had been few people she could trust. There’d been Gran and...that was it. No one else.
Now Gran was gone and Gracie was alone.
The men laughed and she pulled her gaze away from the fields flying past the vehicle.
Her stomach cramped. Crap, she felt sick and shivery. Her stomach churned.
It cramped again, hard and sharp.
“Stop the car,” she croaked.
“What?”
A strong breeze rushed through the open windows, but it wasn’t enough to stem the rush of bile into her throat.
“Stop the car,” she shouted.
Austin jerked the steering wheel and slammed on the brakes. The car fishtailed on the gravel shoulder.
Gracie just managed to scramble out and make it to the ditch before losing her lunch.
She retched until there was nothing left, and she wanted to cry. All of that food wasted when her body needed it so badly.
She heard footsteps on the road behind her, calm and measured. Had to be Austin.
She felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Here.” A hand held a tissue in front of her face.
Embarrassing. It wasn’t bad enough the man had to see her as a homeless person, now he had to witness this indignity?
“Sorry,” she said.
He rested his hand on her back while she retched one more time, his touch reassuring. She wiped her mouth.
“You have any gum or mints?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He removed his hand. She missed the warmth. She heard him walk to the car. He returned a minute later with a pack of gum.
“Thanks.” She took two sticks because her mouth tasted like crap and the gum was sweet and minty. The chewing and her saliva helped to settle her stomach.
She wiped her damp forehead and brushed sweat from her upper lip. When her legs stopped shaking, she returned to the vehicle with Austin keeping step beside her.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. Just sorry I had to lose that food.”
He climbed into the driver’s seat while she got into the back. She had to give him credit. Not a single I told you so. There was something to be said for the strong, silent type.
Trouble started, though, once they reached the small town midway to Denver when Austin parked on the street near a small hotel and Gracie walked into a back alley to sleep for the night.
“What?” Austin gaped. “No way am I letting you sleep in an alleyway.”
“Letting me?” Gracie asked, voice dangerously quiet. “You bought me lunch. You gave me a drive. I appreciate it. That doesn’t give you rights, or any say in what I do or where I go.” She set her knapsack on the ground on the far side of a Dumpster, where she could hide from the prying eyes of anyone walking past.
Austin followed her. “You can’t sleep here.”
“I can and will. It’s a warm night.” Although the sky had darkened on the drive and thunder rumbled in the distance. Gracie walked to the back door of a store that fronted onto the street they’d parked on, where bales of compacted cardboard had been put out for recycling.
Taking a folding knife from her back pocket, she slit the baling wire and dragged a couple of large boxes to set up a bed for herself.
“You’re going to sleep out in the rain when I’m offering you a place to stay, free of charge?”
“That’s right. I’ll cut your hair in the morning. That’s for lunch. I can’t afford to pay you back for a hotel room.”
He stood arms akimbo and brow as thunderous as the approaching storm. “I’m not asking for payment.”
“I know, but I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t give you something in return.”
“You don’t like taking.” His quiet tone said he understood too much.
“No,” she answered. “I don’t like owing anyone anything. Not one dime. I like my independence.”
Fat drops of rain fell, settling the dust and the stench of garbage. She ignored the rain. What Gracie couldn’t ignore, though, was the cramping in her gut. At that moment, it returned with a vengeance. It wasn’t going to be vomit this time. She could vomit in an alley, but the runs were another thing altogether.
Crap. Double crap.
When another sharp pain hit, she suppressed a groan. More than shelter from the rain—she had spent many nights exposed to the elements—she needed a washroom. She wasn’t going to have a choice. The cramps in her stomach became fierce. She would have to take a hotel room and figure out later how to pay Austin back.
“Okay, thanks. I’ll take the room.” She picked up her knapsack and quick-stepped out of the alley.
He didn’t question her change of heart. Maybe he thought it was his manly powers of persuasion. “Wait in the car,” he said. “I just have to pick up a few items.” He stepped into a pharmacy just down the street.
Gracie climbed into the backseat. Hurry, she thought, squeezing her knees together.
Tension sizzled between her and Finn.
“You don’t like me, do you?” she asked.
“I don’t like what you represent.”
“Which is?”
“People looking for a handout.”
“I told Austin I would cut his hair for the food he bought me for lunch. It wasn’t my idea to get a hotel room. I tried to sleep in the alley tonight, but I’m learning he’s persistent when he’s got his mind made up.”
Finn snorted. “Yeah, he’s stubborn.”
He turned around in his seat to pin her with a glare. “I’m giving you fair warning—you hurt my buddy and there won’t be a truck stop in the States where you’ll be safe from me.”
Finn might look easygoing, but he had a sharp edge. She didn’t blame him. If she had friends, she would be just as fierce in her defense of them.
“Warning duly noted.” Not that she needed it. She had no intention of hurting Austin because they would be parting ways tomorrow morning.
An itchy silence reigned until Austin returned and dumped a plastic bag onto the backseat.
They stepped into the foyer of a small hotel and the heavens opened up behind them, rain drumming hard on the sidewalk, Gracie secretly glad she’d agreed to stay in the hotel. She would have been drenched sleeping outdoors.
Austin and Finn went to the desk to sign in. Gracie shifted from foot to foot. Her stomach hurt. She couldn’t wait for a room.
“Excuse me?” she asked the clerk, who checked out her old clothes, her dirty backpack. Yeah, yeah, she knew how bad she looked. “Is there a washroom on this floor?”
He pointed down a hallway. “Past the elevators.”
She managed to make it to a toilet before her stomach voided.
* * *
AUSTIN STOOD AT the front desk and watched Gracie run for the washroom. She couldn’t even wait until he rented her a room.
He tried not to shoot her an I-told-you-so look as she ran off. Putting all of that food into a severely empty stomach had been a bad idea.
It took him a moment to catch what the desk clerk was saying.
“What do you mean you don’t have rooms with singles?”
“There’s a ranchers’ conference in the area this week. Rooms are booked for miles around. We have only two small rooms left, both with only a double bed.”
“Okay,” Austin said to Finn. “I’ll get one for us and one for Grace.”
At the thought, a shiver ran through Austin. He could imagine the two of them sleeping like a pair of two-by-fours clinging to the edges of the mattress. There weren’t many limits to their friendship, but this was one of them.
They were both big men and a double bed wouldn’t hold them. Austin had a double all to himself at home and spent most of his nights sprawled across the thing.
He shivered again. He couldn’t sleep with Finn.
Apparently, it weirded out Finn, too, because he stared openmouthed. “Are you nuts? I love you, man, but there’s no way I’m sharing a bed with you.”
“Is there any way you can set up a cot in one of those rooms?” Austin asked the clerk, thinking that Gracie could sleep in a bed and he could take the cot. Or vice versa.
“We’re all out. You’re lucky to get these rooms because of a cancellation we received ten minutes ago. This is a small hotel. We don’t usually see this volume of traffic.”
The clerk waited for his decision.
“There are two rooms,” Finn said. “One for you. One for me. Leave that woman to find her own accommodations.”
Aware of the clerk listening in, and probably speculating, Austin pulled Finn aside. “I can’t leave her to sleep outside. Listen to that rain.”
“So what? She smells like she’s been doing exactly that for a while. Maybe the rain will clean her up.”
“And give her pneumonia.”
“She’s not your responsibility.”
“She’s in the washroom right now probably puking up her guts. She’ll be weakened and unable to defend herself if she needs to. She could get robbed or raped.”
“Seems capable of taking care of herself.”
Austin’s anger flared. Finn didn’t have a clue. “You’ve never gone hungry. You’ve always had a good home. You’ve never slept in dirty sheets let alone outside with nothing over your head. You’ve never even camped without a tent. Am I right?”
Finn had the grace to look sheepish. “I know. I get how fortunate I am. I really do.” He pointed at Austin, nearly jabbing him in the chest. “But you’re getting sucked in again.”
“No. I’m not.”
Finn held up his index finger. “Your mom. You’ve spent thirty-one years taking care of her.”
“Technically, only twenty-five. She didn’t fall apart until my dad died when I was six.”
“Your dad?” The sarcasm in Finn’s voice rankled.
Austin didn’t talk about his dad. Ever. “Don’t go there,” he warned. “Besides, Mom wasn’t much use on her own. I couldn’t have left her to live alone until now. You know that.”
Finn shrugged because they’d debated that point to death. Austin knew his buddy thought he should have walked away years ago.
He held up another finger. “How about the kids?”
The kids were a group of teens in Ordinary with whom Austin spent time shooting hoops and making sure they stayed out of trouble. He planned to help by giving them jobs on his ranch when it was up and running, by teaching them skills they would need when they got out into the world. They had nothing, reminding him too much of himself at that age.
“That’s good work that keeps them off the streets. Besides, if it’s so bad, why are you going to help teach them about animals once I get the ranch?”
“Because I like animals and kids, not because I’m neurotic about helping every sad-eyed waif who comes along.”
Finn had hit the nail on the head. Despite Gracie’s tough shell, a sad-eyed waif lingered inside. Finn wasn’t as oblivious and unaffected as he pretended to be. There was more depth there than met the eye. Just as there was with Gracie.
Finn held up a third finger. “Roger.”
Ordinary, Montana, was small but had a couple of poor old drunks whom Austin threw into jail periodically just so they could sleep indoors. He’d organized a system of sorts to find them beds every night during the winter—in the back room of Chester’s restaurant, in C.J.’s barn for a few nights, wherever Austin could get them a spot. One of those homeless men was old Roger, who’d fallen apart after his wife of forty-two years had died. He had no one on this earth on whom he could depend but folks in his hometown. What was so wrong with Austin taking care of him?
Guys like Roger had mental health issues. Who knew what Grace’s problem was?
“Gracie needs help, Finn. She was desperate enough to rob me. She said she’d never done that before and I believe her.”
“You’re a sucker. You’re supposed to be on vacation, taking a holiday from helping people.” Finn paced in the foyer to offset his nervous energy. “Don’t do this to yourself.”
“Do what? I’m giving her a bed for the night and breakfast tomorrow. That’s it. Nothing more. Then we’ll go our separate ways.”
“That woman is trouble. She even has us fighting.”
“Fine,” Austin said, testy. “Let’s stop fighting. You take one room and I’ll take the other with Gracie. Okay?” He didn’t like the idea, but it had to be done. He’d already told her he would get her a room for the night and he wasn’t a man to go back on his word. If he had to, he would sleep on the floor, even if that thought held as much appeal as a bad case of fleas.
Finn didn’t respond, just nodded, but it looked like he was maybe biting the inside of his cheek so he wouldn’t argue more. Or so he wouldn’t laugh.
Austin punched him on the arm.
“Ow. What was that for?” But Finn laughed openly at Austin’s discomfort.
Austin sighed. How had the night come to this?
Grace came out of the washroom down the hall, pale and sweating.
Damn. Great start to their vacation, the two of them bickering over a woman Austin didn’t even know, and that woman looking sick as a dog.
* * *
GRACIE COULD HAVE CRIED, her gastric distress a waste of calories she desperately needed. She didn’t know how long she’d stayed in the washroom before she was done, but was finally able to emerge with her hands washed and her face rinsed with cold water.
In the lobby, she found the men waiting, Finn’s expression an odd mix of triumph and dismay, while Austin looked tense and unable to meet her eyes. What was going on?
Once they got to their rooms and Gracie saw the double bed in the hotel room—and Austin dumping his hockey bag onto that bed—she ran for the door, shooting at him over her shoulder as she left, “I told you I wouldn’t pay for lunch with sex.”
Austin followed and slammed the door closed before she could leave. “For God’s sake, be quiet before someone calls security.”
He looked genuinely offended. “I don’t want sex,” he shouted. “This is all that’s available.” He slammed his hand against the wall. “I’m not asking you to sleep with me. How many times do I have to say it? Who’d want to go to bed with someone as skinny as you, anyway?”
His remark hurt. She might be homeless, but she was still a woman. He explained about the hotel having no more rooms left with single beds or with two doubles. Not even a spare cot. Nothing. This was it. Or the alley, but that wouldn’t work. She suspected she wasn’t through yet with stomach problems.
She heard Austin’s frustration and saw it in the way he scrubbed his hands over his face.
“Okay. Fine.” She moved away from the door.
She didn’t know why he wanted her to stay, except for this strange feeling that he couldn’t let her go off on her own. Foolish man. She’d been doing it for years.
He sweetened the deal with two words. “Hot shower.”
Getting clean won out over all of her objections. Oh, to not have to use heavy-duty cleaning solvents in gas stations.
“Here.” He handed her the bag of stuff he’d bought.
She peeked inside then stared at him, tried to glare, but couldn’t pull it off because she wanted what she held in her hands too badly to turn it down. He’d bought her pieces of heaven. She laid them out in a row on the bed. A brand-new toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste. Dental floss. Body wash. She snapped up the lid and inhaled. Strawberries. Matching body lotion. Hand cream. Skin cleanser. Facial moisturizer! Shampoo and conditioner that smelled like coconut and pineapple.
Oh. Oh. It had been so long since she’d had any of this stuff.
“Okay,” she said, but her voice cracked. She cleared her throat and said, “Okay,” again, because she’d become too emotional too quickly, his thoughtfulness so sweet, so unexpected, it left her speechless. She shouldn’t take any of this, but as far as she could tell, it was freely given. In six years, the only times men had offered her anything had been with the understanding that she pay for it in ways she wouldn’t.
Austin hooked his thumbs into his back pockets and stared at the carpet. “I hope it’s all okay. It’s not the most expensive stuff out there.”
“It’s perfect.” And it was. In her former life, she’d bought only the best. Until doing without, she hadn’t realized how truly fortunate she’d been. This, though, was an unparalleled gift. Who was this guy? Why would he care so much for a stranger?
He’d set the bait securely. Of course she would stay. They would make the sleeping arrangement work somehow because there was no way she wasn’t having a long hot shower tonight. “I’ll sleep on the floor. You can have the bed.”
The weird hum Austin made sounded noncommittal.
“If it reassures you at all, I’m not any happier about this than you are.” Austin gestured toward the double bed. He rummaged in his bag and pulled out a fresh shirt. “You want to shower before dinner or after?”
“I guess you’d prefer before?”
“Yeah. We’ll be going to a nicer restaurant than a truck-stop diner. You’re pretty ripe.”
She gathered the things he’d bought her, but hesitated just outside the bathroom.
“I won’t come in and attack you. You’re safe with me.” She registered his hurt tone at being silently questioned; she’d already seen that he was a decent man.
Gracie entered the small bathroom and closed the door behind her. She locked it. Wrong. That only added insult to injury. In an act so foreign to her that it required a leap of faith she hadn’t taken since she’d run away six years ago, she unlocked the door. Right.
* * *
AUSTIN HEARD THE lock click and disappointment hit him. Then Gracie unlocked it and he smiled. Progress. He listened to the shower turn on and stay on for a long time; Gracie must be making full use of the hot water. Good. She needed it and it would give him a chance to call his mom. He picked up his cell, but didn’t dial right away, just stared at the wall, steeling himself.
Tension that hadn’t been there five minutes ago tightened his neck. He rolled his shoulders, but it didn’t ease.
He should have checked in earlier. Should. Too much of his relationship with his mom was clouded with too many shoulds.
Well, you didn’t call earlier, so quit with the guilt trip and do it now.
No phone call had ever been tougher to make. A moment later, she answered.
“Hey, Mom. It’s me.”
Silence. What else had he expected? People didn’t change overnight just because others wanted them to.
“How are you? Did Deputy Turner stop by today?”
A long hesitation followed, but he wouldn’t break it. The ball was in her court.
Finally, he heard, “He came by,” in the small voice he knew too well. He could hear the subtext as clearly as a bell: I’m helpless. I need you.
It tugged at him, but he hardened himself.
“Good. I’m glad he visited.”
“He didn’t bring me anything.”
“No reason he should. The milk would still be good. You’ll have enough fresh fruit and vegetables for the next few days.”
“He said you shouldn’t have gone and left me alone.”
Austin doubted that. Turner had been one of the ones urging him to get away. Mom must have misinterpreted something the deputy said. Deliberately, no doubt.
“Mother.” Austin kept his tone firm. “You’re not an invalid. You’re only fifty. You can take care of yourself. You have no diseases, no dementia.”
She made a sound that was hard to characterize. It might have been a humph. He’d called her on her so-called helplessness in the past, and yet he still took care of her.
Breathe deeply. Hold. Exhale the guilt.
“Listen, I have to go,” he said. “I’m meeting Finn for dinner.”
“Go. Have fun.” Her clipped words came out loaded with resentment.
Holding his anger in check, Austin decided he’d better cut the call short. “I’ll call again tomorrow. Good night, Mom.”
He tossed the phone onto the bed. Better than throwing it at the wall.
For years, he’d been trying to rehabilitate his mother, to prop her up, and he was exhausted from taking care of her. It had to end soon. He was sick of it. She—
A sound of distress from the bathroom caught his attention.
Gracie! In her weakened state, had she fallen? He barged in.
