Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
“Sweetheart? Where are my keys?”
“I don’t know!” Alissa called to her husband. She was hurriedly chopping strawberries for a smoothie. “Did you check the kitchen table?”
Behind her, she started to hear a crackling sound, and she turned and groaned as she realized that she’d been cooking the eggs on too high of a heat.
She turned them down hurriedly, and then went back to her breakfast preparations. She wasn’t frustrated with Dane—she knew he’d had a lot to deal with that morning, since Johanna had asked for various things to be added to the guest bathroom to make it more accessible for her—but she wished he was there to help her make breakfast.
They were behind schedule already, and she felt jittery, wanting to make a good meal so that Johanna would be happy. Instead, her frazzled nerves seemed to be causing her to make silly mistakes. She reminded herself to slow down, and she took a deep breath.
“Found them!” Dane called a couple of minutes later, and she smiled in relief.
“Great!” she called to him. “Does your mom want to eat in the kitchen or the dining room?”
“I would prefer the dining room,” said Johanna.
Alissa whirled and saw her mother-in-law standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
“Oh, good morning.” Alissa smiled. “How did you sleep?”
“Not well,” Johanna answered honestly. “I hope you have some coffee?”
“Yes, of course,” Alissa said, although inwardly she winced, since she hadn’t started making it yet, and she should have. “Everything will be ready in… about ten minutes.” She almost added “I hope” but then stopped herself.
In another couple of minutes, Dane arrived in the kitchen and helped her finish breakfast. That made her feel a great deal better, and soon, they were all sitting comfortably in the dining room, enjoying a delicious meal.
Alissa hoped that Johanna might say something about liking the food, but she sat and ate it in silence. Alissa and Dane exchanged a glance, and he shrugged as if to say, “At least she isn’t saying she doesn’t like it.”
About halfway through the meal, Alissa looked at the clock and squeaked. “Oh, I have to go,” she said, feeling suddenly frantic. “I completely forgot I have an interview in town in twenty minutes.”
Johanna lifted curious eyebrows, and Dane stood up with her.
“Can I get you anything, sweetheart?” he asked, sounding worried.
“No, sorry. Well, could you clean up?” she called over her shoulder as she hurried out of the room.
She bit her lip as she started to race up the stairs. She was still wearing her pajamas, and unless she changed faster than she ever had before in her life, she was going to be late for this interview. She winced, wondering what Johanna thought of her. She probably thought she was irresponsible to completely forget about an interview like that.
She tore into the bedroom and dressed hurriedly in black pants and a sleeveless blouse. The blouse was a little wrinkled, but it would have to do. She paused for a moment briefly in front of the mirror, noticing that her glasses were askew. She adjusted them hurriedly and tore out of the room.
But as she was racing down the stairs, disaster struck. She was lifting her arm to check the time on her watch when she missed her footing and slipped. She tumbled forward and clattered down the rest of the stairs, her body jostling against every step.
Pain shot through her arm. She cried out and sat at the bottom of the stairs, clutching her elbow. Tears sprang into her eyes, and she barely registered the sound of footsteps racing toward the foot of the stairs.
“Sweetheart! Are you all right?”
In the next moment, Dane was kneeling next to her, frowning deeply in concern.
“I slipped,” she said. “I fell down the stairs.”
“Your arm hurts?” he asked, noticing the way she was holding onto it.
“Yeah, I think I must have slammed my elbow or something. It all happened so fast, I don’t even know.” She winced as she stood up. “I’m sure it’ll be fine in a couple of minutes. I’ve got to get going to this interview—”
“Hold it, missy. Absolutely not. We need to go get that arm of yours checked out.”
“What? Dane, I can’t. I’ll miss my interview.”
“We’ll call them on the way and tell them you have to postpone. They’ll understand.”
She swallowed. “And what about your mom?”
“I’ll be fine.” Johanna appeared behind Dane, hobbling up on her crutches. “You should get that checked out. Look, it’s starting to swell already.”
Alissa groaned, seeing that her forearm below her elbow was starting to look red and puffy.
“Come on. Let’s get you into the car.”
“I’ll go make you both some to-go cups of coffee,” said Johanna briskly, valiantly disregarding her own broken limb.
A few minutes later, Dane was driving as fast as the speed limit would allow toward the walk-in clinic. Alissa sat beside him, still wincing from the pain even though she’d already taken some painkillers. She tried to take some sips of coffee, and the warm, nutty beverage made her feel a little better.
“It was sweet of your mom to grab us coffee like that,” she murmured. “Very thoughtful.”
He nodded and squeezed her knee.
At the walk-in clinic, they hurried inside and were able to get Alissa checked out almost right away. The x-rays revealed that the arm was in fact broken.
“Oh no,” she groaned, staring at the x-ray results in dismay. “This is the last thing I need right now.”
“It’ll be okay,” her husband said, kissing her gently, but she could tell from his frown that he was worried.
“You’ll be all right soon enough,” the doctor said reassuringly. “We’ll get a cast on you and get you some strong pain medication while you’re here. You’ll have some pain once that wears off, but we’ll send some other meds home with you that will help.”
Alissa nodded, feeling overwhelmed. The pain was making it hard to think, but she felt like this had happened at the worst possible time. There were so many things she felt she needed to do.
Finally, she and Dane were walking out of the clinic. Her arm had been securely bandaged in a cast, and for the time being, the pain medication allowed her to feel all right.
“How are you feeling?” he asked her anxiously as they drove along.
“Fine.” She leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. “It’s just—ugh! I have so much I need to do.”
“No, everything you need to do can get done by other people or it can wait. Don’t stress about that. You can’t type now anyway, and the doctor said you’re still going to be in some pain even with the meds for a while. You should take time off from work to heal and recover. Relax for a bit.”
She bit her lip, squirming internally. The thought of abandoning her work load felt irresponsible.
“I can handle running the newspaper and the magazine by myself for a while,” he assured her, as if he could guess her thoughts. “And I can lean on Josie a bit more while you’re gone.”
“Oh, all right.” She sighed. “I know I’ll be pretty useless anyway, at least for a little while. But I want to try to go back to work as soon as possible. Even if I can’t type, I can still dictate. I can write that way.”
He nodded, reaching over and squeezing her knee. “If you want to,” he said. “But only if you want to. You get a free pass to take some extra time off now. Enjoy an unexpected vacation.”
“I don’t know how enjoyable it will be,” she said, grimacing.
A few minutes later, they reached the house. He helped her out of the car and wrapped an arm around her as they walked toward the front door. Then all at once she realized the other twist in this new development—she was going to be home alone with her mother-in-law all day, every day.
Her stomach did a somersault. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Johanna, but she had no idea what to say to her. She had a feeling things were going to be very awkward.
“What happened?” Johanna called from the living room the moment they were back inside the house.
“We’ll be there in a second!” Dane called. “Are you okay?” he asked his wife. “Do you need anything more from me before I leave for work?”
Alissa shook her head. “No, you’ve been wonderful. Thank you, sweetheart. I’ll just sit down for a while.”
“Sure. I’ll get you all set up in the living room with Mom.”
“Sure.” She smiled weakly. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
They went into the living room together, and Johanna clucked sympathetically as soon as she saw Alissa’s arm.
“Broken? Oh, that’s a shame.”
There was a pause. Alissa nodded.
“So you can’t go to work anymore?”
Alissa shook her head.
“Oh. That’s a shame.”
“Let me make sure you’re both comfortable and then I’ll head out,” Dane said. “Do either of you want anything? Tea? Coffee?”
“I’d take some more coffee, thank you, son,” said Johanna.
“I’m okay, thanks.” Alissa smiled as she sat gingerly down on the couch. Her arm throbbed a little, but the pain wasn’t too bad.
Dane got his mother some coffee and then turned on the TV. “Call me if you need anything,” he said.
The two women nodded at him, and watched as he left the room. Then they turned to each other and shared an awkward smile, neither of them seeming to know what to say.