Chapter Six
Holly dressed in jeans and covered her tank top with a chambray shirt.
If she was going to ride a four-wheeler, the clothing she usually wore out into the fields seemed to be more appropriate than a sundress.
She hadn’t thought to bring her work boots along, so her sneakers would have to do.
After she tied her hair up in a ponytail, she checked her reflection in the mirror.
Tonight was going to be the night. Her heart was so heavy that she had to tell him who she really was, what she did for a living, and who her folks were.
Then the pieces could fall where they would, but at least her mind would be at peace.
She knew that anyone could be romantic for a week, but could cows and rocks really work together?
She narrowed her eyes and gave herself a silent lecture.
Like Darlene told her: There were lots of fishes in the sea.
Lula Ann would cease to exist after that night, and that was who Bubba was interested in.
He’d feel intimidated for sure around Holly McLean.
She was already packed and had already called an Uber to pick her up at midnight.
Holly McLean would crawl into the back seat of that vehicle, and she would wake up tomorrow morning in her own apartment and her own bed.
Lula Ann would cease to exist in those short hours in between Friday night and Saturday morning.
But it wouldn’t hurt to have just one more night with Bubba. She wanted to get back to work, and Lula Ann would no doubt shed some tears, but Holly was tired of keeping up a persona. She left the world of worry and came back to reality when she heard a knock on the door.
She threw it open, expecting to see Bubba on the porch, but her father stood there with a worried expression on his face. “Daddy, what are you doing here? Come in. Is everything all right? Where’s Mama?”
“I’m sorry to cut your vacation a little short, but it’s your mother. She’s in surgery for what could be a burst appendix, and …” His voice cracked.
“I’m packed and ready. Is she going to be all right?” she asked as she ran back to the bedroom. “Give me just a minute …” She rolled her suitcase to the living room, adjusted the thermostat, and turned off all the lights. “I’m ready now.”
“The doctors think she will come through just fine, but she’ll be in the hospital for a few days. I want to stay with her the whole time, so you’ll need to step up and take care of things for a while,” her father answered.
“Why didn’t you just call?” she asked. “I could have gotten an Uber or taxi to bring me straight to the hospital.”
“There’s nothing I can do at the hospital, and I didn’t want to deliver that kind of news over the phone,” her dad said. “Before they took your mother back, she told me to come get you, not send someone or call. I’m obeying her.”
Holly locked the door and put the key in the mailbox. “Mama did that so you wouldn’t sit in the waiting room and worry.”
Fletcher tossed the suitcase into the back seat of his Cadillac.
“I know, and you know I’ve never been able to refuse her anything.
It’s a good thing that she’s not one of those diamonds-and-fancy-things women.
Holly, I have worried myself crazy all the way down here to get you, and it won’t stop until she’s completely well. Your mother is the love of my life.”
“I know that, Daddy, and she feels the same about you. Why don’t you let me drive?” she suggested.
“Yes, please,” Fletcher answered, and handed her the keys while he put her suitcase and computer case in the back seat.
She slid into the driver’s seat, buckled her seat belt, and was about to back out onto the road when she remembered that Bubba was probably on his way.
She hurriedly texted him and said that she’d had a family emergency and couldn’t make it that evening.
Her heart seemed to drop to her knees when she thought of not seeing him again.
If she had known that that sizzling kiss on the beach would be their last, she would have made out with him all night.
“Darlene?” Fletcher asked.
“No, just a friend that I met while I was down here,” she answered.
Just like that. She imagined snapping her fingers, and Holly was reborn while Lula Ann was put in the corner, most likely never to be heard from again.
“Have you had a good vacation?” Fletcher asked.
“Yes, I have,” she answered. “A great one, but Darlene got sick, so I was here alone. How are things at the office?”
“We got all the paperwork finished on that site out southeast of El Paso. A crew is headed that way in the next few days,” Fletcher answered. “You don’t have to keep me talking. Nothing will keep my mind off Noreen.”
The drive would normally have taken thirty minutes, but that evening nothing cooperated.
Every traffic light was red and seemed to take forever to turn green.
Sometimes she was so far back in line that when it did change colors, she didn’t even get through on the first run.
Forty-five minutes later, the tinny GPS lady’s voice finally said, “You have reached your destination.”
Fletcher was out of the vehicle and headed toward the hospital entrance so fast that Holly had to run to catch up. “Daddy, you’ve got to slow down, or you’re going to have a heart attack.”
“My heart is fine. I exercise every day,” he snapped.
“So do I, but we’re both stressed right now, and rushing will make it worse,” she said, panting.
The automatic doors swung open, and Fletcher headed down the hallway to a room marked: Surgery Waiting. Holly followed him inside and stood beside him with her hand on his arm while he watched the board up high on the wall.
“She’s out of surgery and in recovery,” he whispered, and turned to hug Holly. “She’s survived so far.”
“Mama is tough,” she reassured him.
“McLean?” a lady sitting behind the desk right inside the door asked.
“That’s us,” Holly answered.
“The doctor is on the way to talk to you. He should be here any moment.” She turned to look at the screen. “She is out of surgery.”
Fletcher swiped his palm across his wet cheeks. “I see that. Thank you.”
Holly had never seen her father cry—not even once. She had seen him angry, upset, and tense over business deals. She had seen him laugh so hard that tears rolled down his cheeks, but never so sad that it brought him to the weeping stage.
A young doctor opened the door and came into the room. He focused on Fletcher and smiled. “Mr. McLean, your wife did extremely well, and the appendix was severely inflamed, but we got it in time before it burst, and we were able to do the surgery laparoscopically.”
“That’s great. When can we take her home?” Holly asked. “We can get a private nurse to help until she is back on her feet.”
“We will want to keep her for a couple of days to be on the safe side,” he explained. “We are moving her from recovery to a private room as you requested, with a cot for you, in a few minutes.”
“You are sure that she’s going to be all right?” Holly asked. “I’m her daughter.”
“Yes, she’ll be fine and back to work within a couple of weeks. The volunteer at the desk will take you to see her as soon as we get her settled. I’ll be in to check on her each morning,” he said on his way out the door.
Holly sank down into a chair and covered her eyes with her hands. Fletcher sat down beside her and draped an arm over her shoulders. “I was so afraid we would lose her, and I’m not sure …”
“Don’t go there, Daddy. She’s going to be fine. You heard the doctor. She’ll be back in the office in two weeks, bossing everyone around like always. I bet she’ll be pitching a fit to go back to work as soon as she gets home,” Holly assured him. “This is one time you will have to tell her no.”
“I can do it in that case,” Fletcher said with conviction. “And she’s getting a complete checkup with all the bells and whistles every six months from now on.”
Holly looked him right in the eyes and did not blink. “So are you. I’ll make the appointments, and you will both go. I couldn’t stand to lose one of you. I want you to be around to rock your grandbabies or at least watch them play chase down the halls of the building.”
“I’d like that, and after this scare, we will make those visits,” he agreed.
Thinking about babies made her think of the conversation she had had with Bubba. She owed him more than a quick text, so she reached for her purse, but it wasn’t there. She hoped she hadn’t left it on the sofa in the living room of the house.
She went through step by step from the time that her father knocked on the door until she tossed it in the back seat of her father’s car after she had texted Bubba. He would have to wait until later. At that moment, her mother was more important.
The clock had struck midnight at least an hour before a taxi dropped Holly off at the front of the corporation building.
She rolled her suitcase inside, said hello to the night guard, and went straight for the elevator.
Noreen was in and out of sleep, but the pain meds were keeping her comfortable.
Fletcher had promised that he would stretch out on the cot and get some rest, and had demanded that she go on home.