Chapter 8
Tiana blew on her hands, warming them up as she walked up the path to Golden Years.
She got a call that morning that Pops’ fever broke, and he was feeling up to visitors, so she was going to see him and let him know that not only was Brock in town, but his family was as well.
She wasn’t sure how he was going to take the news.
That wasn’t entirely true. She was absolutely sure how he was going to take the news, poorly.
But he needed to know, and she wanted him to hear it from her.
The doors swooshed open, and Cindy greeted her with a wide smile. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Victoria.”
Tiana glanced behind her, sure she must be addressing someone else.
“Oh no, Miss Lady, I am speaking to you.” Cindy smiled widely as she pointed her French-tipped acrylic nail in her direction.
“Me?” Tiana tapped her chest with her right hand. “Victoria?”
“Well, yes, because it seems you have nothing but secrets. Your ex is in town, you say nothing, and you are in a relationship with Niko Costas? What happened to not dating athletes?” Cindy’s perfectly manicured brow arched.
“Oh, it’s not…I mean…we’re not…it’s not…”
Cindy lifted her hands in the air in mock surrender as she continued smiling and shaking her head back and forth. “You don’t owe me or anyone any explanation. I love that you kept something to yourself in this town where privacy is a foreign concept, I’m actually impressed.”
“No, but it’s—”
Before she was able to explain herself, not that she had a clue what she would say, the phone rang and Cindy answered, “Golden Years, this is Cind—”
Her face lit up, and Tiana knew who was on the other end of the line. Cindy’s face only ever brightened like that for Davis.
Tiana signed in and headed back down the hallway. Residents were playing cards in the common room. There were several men playing croquet on the green. Gus and Bruce both waved at her as she passed. Normally, Pops and Arthur would be with the duo, they played doubles golf together.
Arthur was moving to the cottage next door now that he was married, and she hoped that he would still be around.
Because no matter what, she would find a way to keep Pops at Golden Years.
Even if she had to dip into the money she’d told herself she’d never use.
It was the last resort, but sometimes that was the resort you ended up at.
When she rounded the corner to Pops’ room, he was lying on the bed and his eyes were closed. She paused and started to turn, when she heard Pops say, “Where do you think you’re goin’, Tiny?”
“I was just going to wait in the community room for you to finish your nap.” Tiana entered the room, crossed to Pops’ bedside, bent down, and kissed him on his cheek.
“I wasn’t nappin’, just restin’ my eyes.”
“Right.” In all the years she’d known Pops, he’d never actually “napped” although he’d “rested his eyes” for long stretches of time and snored while doing so.
“How are you feeling?” she asked as a sudden swell of appreciation and gratitude that he was in her life flooded her.
“My lawyers advised me not to answer that question,” he deadpanned.
She sighed, knowing that she was never going to get a straight answer from him. But at least she knew he was feeling up to giving her a hard time. She noticed he was still pale and had dark circles under his eyes.
“You know what they say about worryin’?” Pops questioned as he struggled to sit up.
Tiana held his arm to steady him as she pressed the button on his bed, which caused it to lift higher. “No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
Once it was tilted up to a ninety-degree angle and she’d adjusted his pillows, he leaned back and lifted his eyes to her. “It gives ya somethin’ to do, but it gets ya nowhere.”
She ignored him and pulled up a chair next to the bed. “Listen, I need to tal—”
“Mr. Matthews!” Patsy beamed as she walked into the room, white paper ramekin in hand. “How are you doing?”
“Fair to partly cloudy.”
The smile that spread across Patsy’s face was the reason he was still running with that same schtick for all these years.
She handed him his medication, and he swallowed it without water. Patsy shook her head. “You shouldn’t do that. You could choke.”
“Well, now, if a tiny pill takes me out, then it’s my time to go.” He winked at her.
Tiana hated when Pops joked like that. She didn’t think there was anything remotely humorous about his mortality.
When Patsy left the room, she took a breath. “I’m glad you’re feeling better. I wanted to come by and talk to you yesterday.” She glanced down at her hands, folded in her lap.
She’d had over twenty-four hours to consider how she was going to drop the Brock Bartlett bomb, yet for the life of her she couldn’t come up with the right words to tell him.
Her main concern was putting a strain on his heart or cause his blood pressure to rise.
Her best chance was to project confidence, ease, and peace so that he could see whatever Brock was doing wasn’t affecting her.
Tiana took a deep breath.
“What? What’s wrong?” Pops’ alarm bells were raised instantly at her hesitation.
“Nothing.” Tiana shook her head. “I just—I wanted to see you to give you a heads up about a situation. I got a message from Deborah—”
“Debbie B.?” Pops used the nickname he’d called Brock’s mom when she’d been married to Brock.
“Yes,” Tiana confirmed and braced herself as Pops' face performed its own version of the slow sunrise, the lines around his eyes deepening, his mouth shaping into a grimace of anticipation.
"She reached out," Tiana continued, choosing each word like glass beads she was afraid would shatter in her hands. "She wanted me to know that they are… here. In Hope Falls. For the holidays."
She didn’t need to give Pops any more context. He knew what ‘the holidays’ meant for the Bartlett family. Every holiday she’d spent with the Bartlett family, she’d dragged Pops along with her, whether he wanted to be there or not.
The silence that followed was volcanic. Pops' sunrise smile pressed into a bloodless flat line, the gray in his temples seeming to bristle.
His weather-worn, calloused hands curled around the blanket with the steely intent of a retired bear.
It would have been comical if not for the spike of dread snaking down Tiana's back.
"Is that right?" Pops murmured, each syllable clipped, as though he were biting off the head of a nail. "Well, isn't that just the best news I've heard since they canceled Matlock."
Tiana took a moment, trying to find an opening, a handhold, a safe way to proceed.
"And he is with someone. A woman, her name is Gianna," she said, twisting her fingers together in her lap.
"They are going to be announcing their engagement. I wanted you to hear it from me before it started making the rounds.”
"Started?" Pops snorted, a sound that rattled somewhere in his sinuses.
"You know this town. News like that moves faster than a sweet tooth at a bake sale.
" He glared at the blank TV for a moment, as if Brock's grinning face might appear there, mugging for the cameras like he always did in his glory days.
"Have you seen him?" Pops shot her a look, the kind that could both melt steel and freeze water.
The horror in Tiana's expression must've been answer enough, because Pops muttered, "Good.
Best if it stays that way. If that man has the stones to step into Golden Years, I'll have words.
And don't think I can't." He patted the side rail of his bed with emphasis.
"I still remember how to make a man regret his choices. "
"Please don't," she said gently, "try to fight anyone. Especially him."
Pops rolled his eyes, but the storm in them hadn't abated. "I'll do what I have to, Tiny. You got out of that marriage a shell of yourself and built yourself back up. I'm proud of you for that. Don't let him or anyone else drag you back into his mess."
"I'm not letting him, Pops. I promise."
He watched her for a long minute, suspicion and worry see-sawing across his face. "You're sure this isn't upsetting you?"
She lied with the skill of a woman who'd grown up in foster and group homes where lying was a skill one needed for survival.
"It doesn't bother me." She forced a smile, choosing to believe it was only halfway fraudulent. "He has nothing to do with the life I’ve built here. I’m just glad you’re feeling better. "
But Pops was Pops, and he could see through a cinderblock wall if he thought his girl was in trouble. "You're a good actress, Tiny, but I know when you're hurting. That boy—" He shook his head, as if the memory was a wasp he could never quite swat. "He never deserved you. Never."
Tiana felt her defenses wobble, but she held them up. "Let’s not waste any more time or energy on him. He’s stolen enough of that."
As if on cue, a soft knock announced the arrival of another nurse, Julie, she wore bright pink sneakers and held a clipboard decorated with stickers of sunflowers.
"Mr. Matthews, I’m here to do your checks," she said, her voice all bubbles and rainbows.
She gave Tiana a sideways glance and beamed.
"Tiana, you know, everyone’s talking about how you and Niko Costas are the cutest couple in town. "
Tiana nearly choked. "Oh, we’re not—"
The nurse, oblivious, snapped on a blood pressure cuff and began taking Pops’ vitals. "He’s such a looker," she said confidentially. "And he always brings us cinnamon rolls from the bakery whenever he’s in town. A keeper, that one."
Pops shifted in the bed, his eyes narrowing. "Is that so?" he asked, voice oily with skepticism.
Tiana felt her face burning, the lie growing legs and learning to run. She locked eyes with Pops, silently pleading for patience. "It’s not serious," she muttered, wishing she could disappear into the linoleum.
Julie finished with her tasks and smiled brightly as she recorded the numbers. "Well, if you ask me, it’s about time you had some fun. You deserve it after all you’ve been through." She left with the buoyancy of someone who had never had a day ruined by rumor or regret.
That was one of the worst parts of having a high-profile divorce. Everyone knew what you’ve “been through.” Or at least they thought they did.
Tiana waited until the footsteps receded before she addressed the new wildfire in Pops' eyes. "It’s not real, it’s fake." She shrugged unconvincingly.
"A fake relationship?" Pops didn’t blink. “That’s the story you’re tryin’ to sell me?”
"It’s the truth."
He took a long, rattling breath. "Well, I s’pose you could do worse," he admitted, grudgingly, as he grabbed the remote control, indicating this chit-chat session was over.
Getting Pops’ approval, even for a fake relationship, was actually pretty meaningful to Tiana. He didn’t just hand those out. He’d never handed one out before, not that he’d had that many opportunities to. She’d only had a handful of boyfriends before Brock, and Pops wasn’t a fan of any of them.
They sat together in comfortable silence watching Dateline until Pops started ‘resting his eyes’ again, and Tiana stood and slipped out quietly.
She hoped Brock knew better than to visit Golden Years.
She wished she could say he did, but knowing him, he might just show up.
She decided to stop by and make sure that Cindy knew he, and sadly, any members of his family were not on the approved visitors list. A surprise visit from an unwanted guest was the last thing Pops’ heart, or hers for that matter, needed.
The difference was she could survive it, he might not.