Chapter 7
“This wasn’t too bad,” Jones said as he finished up the spaghetti. It definitely wasn’t spaghetti sauce, but it wasn’t terrible.
“Thanks. Not too bad. So in other words, you don’t think you’re going to need to have your stomach pumped in the next three hours.” Amy rolled her eyes, and he laughed.
She got up from the table and went back to take a shower while he cleaned up the dishes. They didn’t even talk about it. He had gotten his shower first while she cooked, so it just made sense that he cleaned up while she got hers.
He thought about that for a while. He supposed if he did find some random stranger up the street to marry him, eventually they would have that type of relationship. Where they just did things without talking about them. Where they were opposite, but that could turn into their biggest strength, the way he and Amy were. But why would he try to get that with a stranger when he already had it with Amy?
That just made sense. He would be just as happy with Amy as he would be with someone else, wouldn’t he? After all, he was already friends with her. It wouldn’t be that hard to be more.
He thought about that kiss again. Thought about the mistletoe that Robert just happened to pick up that morning. Of all mornings.
Lord, was that You trying to show me something? Am I really that dense?
He didn’t have to answer that question. He knew he was dense. While he did believe that God cared about man and guided the events of their lives, he also believed that God gave them opportunities to have their free choice. Where He gave them principles to see, and they could make decisions within those principles, where anything was correct.
In marriage, for example, as long as the person that he was thinking about was also a Christian and lived for the Lord, agreeing to have the kind of marriage that God wanted, he could choose anyone that fit those criteria. The principles that God laid out.
That was what he believed anyway. He knew that there were other people who believed that God had a perfect person, a soulmate, just waiting for them to find, and that if they made one wrong choice, they could miss their opportunity with that person forever.
He just didn’t think that things had to be that exact. Mostly because he figured that God knew that humans were never going to do things that perfectly.
Amy didn’t have a dishwasher, so he did the dishes by hand and put the little bit of spaghetti that was left over away. While he did so, he saw his groceries in the refrigerator and made a mental note to grab them and drop them off at his house on their way to the hospital.
Amy came out not that long afterward, wearing a white blouse with a vest along with her jeans and boots.
He looked up from the refrigerator, forgetting that he had the door hanging wide open while he looked at her.
She’d put a little bit of makeup on. He’d seen her wearing it before; typically on Sundays, she wore some, and if they were going somewhere other than shopping or with her family.
He wasn’t quite sure why women did that, although he did like the way she looked with it on. Maybe not better than with it off though. He just liked the natural Amy. Knowing that there wasn’t anything hidden. He didn’t have to worry about whether or not he was going to be scared of the way she actually looked on their wedding night when she took her mask off. The way he honestly was with a couple of the girls that she’d suggested.
“What?” she asked as she stood in the doorway, waiting for him to say something.
“I don’t know. You just look...good.”
“Try not to sound so surprised. It’s bad for my ego.”
“You don’t have an ego,” he said, rolling his eyes and closing the refrigerator door, turning away from it. “Don’t let me forget to take my groceries.”
“I’m ready to go if you are.”
“Did you call and tell them that we were coming?”
“I can text Gilbert on the way. I’m pretty sure visiting hours are over at seven, so it’s not like we have to worry about whether or not we’re going to get in.”
“Two people at a time?”
“That’s what it was last time I was there.”
She had gone once while he was at the clinic during the day.
She petted Dragon’s head and then squatted down and gave Casper a few scratches as well.
Casper was the one who usually hung out with him, and interestingly, he’d never thought about Amy possibly being jealous. It was almost like Casper was his dog. And that’s just the way it was.
Maybe that was when it really hit him, hard, that if he were to get married to someone else, he wouldn’t be hanging out in Amy’s house all the time. On his days off, his wife would most assuredly expect him to, if not be with her, at least be at his own house, not with some other woman.
“I wish this would never change,” he said.
She looked up, her brows drawn down. “What? Are you talking about the dogs dying?” She glanced at Casper. He was the oldest.
He bent over and scratched his ears, and then he said, “No. Just this. Life is good, you know? ”
“Yeah. I’ve been thinking about that with Gilbert. He’s got a big change in his life. And I know he never dreamed this would happen. But how do you pick up the pieces and go on from that?”
That hadn’t been what Jones was talking about at all, but she was right. He never knew when something like that would happen. He tried to imagine losing Amy. What would life be like without her? He did everything with her, other than what he did at the clinic, and half the time, she was there. She filled in for his receptionist when she took off, and she worked as a vet tech when his tech needed a day off. She cleaned it with him and talked with him about what he’d like to do if he actually ever did get to expand.
If he got married, he could expand immediately.
“That’s kinda a serious subject for this time of year.” Amy sighed. “We’re supposed to be thinking about Christmas and the joys of the season.”
“Speaking of the joys of the season, I heard we’re supposed to get a storm next week.”
“Really? That must be new.”
“There were some rumblings about it yesterday, but this morning on the way over, I was listening to the radio and they were saying that it looked like things were coming together, and we might get up to a foot.”
“Really?” she said, straightening up and wiping her eyes. “That’s a lot.”
“I know. But they always go wild and crazy, and then they ratchet it down, until it finally comes, and you get a dusting. Everybody ends up disappointed.”
She laughed, because she knew as well as he did that that was true. The weather people were fearmongers.
She walked to the refrigerator and grabbed his groceries, and lifted her brows at him .
She didn’t have to ask him twice, and he went to the door and opened it for her. And then he opened the passenger side pickup door so she could put the groceries in the back before she got in.
“Thanks,” she said, hopping in the seat and looking a little surprised when he closed the door for her.
He didn’t usually stand and do that. But he’d been thinking. It was funny how a couple little sentences could change someone’s entire life. How a letter, a letter with information that had the potential to upend everything he had been doing and planning on, could change his world.
“It was nice of my aunt to choose to pass away during the holidays,” he said, knowing that he could say that to Amy and she wouldn’t take it the wrong way. She’d know that he wasn’t happy that his aunt died.
“It was a great Christmas gift, wasn’t it?” she said, laughing.
“Well, the idea was a great gift, but the more I think about it, the more I think I’m just going to let it go.”
“What? Are you serious? You’d give up the money?”
He lifted a shoulder and didn’t say anything.
“Jones?” she said, a little bit of the warning in her voice.
He gave her a grin and then turned his signal on to turn into his place.
He looked at the sign out along the road, Mistletoe Meadows Veterinary Clinic, and thought about how he and Amy had put it up.
They had bags of quikrete and had gotten the holes dug, and then it started to rain. He thought that it was going to be a disaster, but somehow they got the quikrete mixed up and put in the holes, and so far, the sign hadn’t blown down. That was five years ago.
He’d been fresh out of school, and she’d been ecstatic to have him back full-time. That was why he had put his hours to four days a week. He took emergencies sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the evening, and he was on call all weekend. But those hours allowed him to spend time with his best friend, whom he’d missed dearly in college.
Even now, he couldn’t believe he’d spent so much time away from her. Although they talked every day, messaged a lot, and FaceTimed almost every evening after she was done feeding her dogs. She’d even helped him study.
He got out, and she hopped out on her side, grabbing the bags and arriving at his door as he got it open.
She knew where his refrigerator was. He didn’t have to follow her in, and he didn’t, just waited at the door while she threw the stuff in the refrigerator and came back out.
“You are seriously thinking about giving up the money?” she said as she walked in front of him and stopped.
“Well, I could rush into a marriage that might not last a lifetime, but I’m doing just fine without the money. I’d love to pay off my student loans, and I’d love to support your pet sanctuary more, but otherwise, I don’t need millions of dollars. I’m happy the way I am.”
“I’m happy the way I am too, but the money would be nice. For you. You could build a vet clinic, you could have everything paid off, you could not work if you chose not to or take cases for free.”
She lifted her shoulders, and he shook his head. “I can’t believe you, of all people, are trying to convince me that I should do something crazy, like marry someone I barely know, and at this point, I don’t even have a name in mind, and just so I can get money. I mean, is a lifetime of misery with the wrong woman worth ten million dollars?”
She huffed out a breath, looking him in the eye, but he knew she was thinking about it and she had basically agreed with him.
Her lips flattened, and she looked away before she walked out the door .
He followed her out, but he knew his argument was valid. He was right. He might not have a good marriage, and it just wasn’t worth it.
They were backing out when she said, “You know, you and I have talked about this with my family at times. And I believe that you could have a good marriage with anyone as long as you have the same values and morals. As long as you agree on the basic things, religion being the most important. After all, you don’t want to be married to someone who isn’t going to go to church with you or isn’t going to spend eternity in heaven with you.”
“I agree. I think you can get along with anyone, and I think that’s why God doesn’t tell us or have more specific requirements beyond the command to be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. That’s the main requirement. Now of course, you want someone who will keep their vows and will follow the biblical roles for husband and wife, but if they’re a Christian, they should.”
“You have to be careful of those people who say that they’re Christians and really aren’t.”
He nodded. That was true. He knew several unhappy marriages where one of the spouses had been deceived before they were married by a spouse who pretended to be a Christian but was just going through the motions because they wanted to get married to that particular person.
He felt like that was the greatest deceit of all. Especially when the person who was doing the deceiving knew that the one that they were courting wanted a Christian spouse. And wanted to have a Christian marriage. He didn’t understand why they would pretend to be different.
That was not his problem in this instance though. So he let the idea go.
“So... What you’re saying really doesn’t hold water,” she ended finally .
He laughed. “I guess. But...” He couldn’t finish. He didn’t know. He just couldn’t get on board with any of the girls that she’d suggested. Sheena, Brit, and Lily and all the others they’d talked about were all really nice girls, but how could he tell her that none of them were her?
“So what’s the problem?” she asked, and then she added, “I promise, I’m not asking you because I’m trying to push you into doing something you don’t want to do. And I’m definitely not asking because I’m hoping to get a cut of that ten million. I assume if you get a wife, she’s going to have ideas of her own as to how she could spend the money, and I’m guessing that if you married the right woman, or maybe in this case the wrong woman, ten million dollars could disappear pretty fast.”
“I agree with you completely. I don’t think it would take any time at all to spend it, if you have the idea that it was just all there for you to blow.”
He didn’t say anything else about that, but changed the subject and started talking about the storm some more and how much he loved snow. Amy hated it. Mostly because it made her job harder, while all he had to do was go downstairs to open his clinic, although if it snowed a foot, he’d definitely be closing. He was a Southerner to his core, and Southerners didn’t drive in the snow with any amount of skill. And he preferred to keep his truck undented. Not because he drove into someone but because of his patients’ parents sliding into his truck.
They pulled into the hospital around three o’clock. It seemed busy for a Friday, but what did he know about hospitals and how busy they typically were?
He didn’t spend any more time than he had to at hospitals. Ever.
But Gilbert was like a brother to him, and he was Amy’s brother, and if they could come visit him and be a little bit of support to him, he felt it was the least he could do.
They parked and slowly got out of the vehicle .
Neither one of them really wanted to go into the hospital. And the mood between them had become sober.
There was no more talk of marriage, no joking about it, and no thoughts of ten million dollars. It was about Gilbert and the fact that he was slowly losing his wife.
And the pain he must be feeling.
“When I texted him, he said they were in the same room,” Amy said softly as they walked in the doors and nodded at the people standing at the counter, ready to offer help for anyone who needed it.
“All right. That was on the second floor?” he said as they walked toward the elevators.
“That’s right. Number 237.”
Both of their voices were softer, and Jones had to resist the urge to run away. He didn’t know what he would do if he were losing Amy.
Amy wasn’t his wife.
But she could be .
He heard that voice, and a day ago, he would have thought that that was crazy, but now... He couldn’t imagine the pain if God were to take Amy from him. Although, he knew God promised to walk with him through anything, so apparently he’d be able to handle it if He did.
They were silent as the elevator doors closed, and both of them stared at the closed doors as the light moved to the number two, and the doors opened.
He waited while Amy walked out first, and then he put a hand on the small of her back for just an instant as he walked up behind her. Just a touch to reassure her that he was still there, or maybe it was to reassure himself that they were together.
Whatever it was, she looked up, not in shock, but in gratitude, as though she had needed that human touch, that little bit of reassurance.
He smiled down at her, and she returned the smile, both of them sad, feeling heavy.
They stopped at the nurses’ station, told them who they were looking for, and the nurses waved them on, sending them back.
The door was open, and Jones could see Gilbert sitting in the chair beside Sally’s bed, his arms on his knees, his hands clasped together, his head down.
He could be sleeping, but Jones guessed he was probably praying.
“Hey,” Amy called, her voice subdued, as she tapped on the door, and then they walked in.
Gilbert’s head lifted, and his bloodshot eyes and ragged face brightened a bit as he watched them walk in.
“Hey there. You guys got in okay,” Gilbert said, starting to rise.
Jones put a hand out. “You don’t have to get up,” he said, coming in and glancing at Sally, who lay in the bed, tubes attached everywhere, her eyes closed, her face deathly pale.
Gilbert swallowed, glanced at his wife, then jerked his head.
“Good to see you. It’s quiet in here.” He took a breath, as though he were forcing himself to be a part of the living. “How are the kids? Did you guys see them today?”
“I can tell you a story about them if you want me to,” Amy said from beside him, and he knew immediately she was going to tell the mistletoe story.
He cringed inside, because he wasn’t sure that she wanted to be reminded that they’d kissed earlier today. Was that really just today?
And how was she going to tell that story?
She glanced at him, and he could see questions in her eyes. He knew she was wondering if it was okay that she share the contents of the letter.
He nodded, and before Amy could say anything, Gilbert laughed. “You guys are so funny when you do that.”
“Do what?” Jones asked.
“What you just did.”
“What did we just do?” Jones said.
“Just looked at each other, had a whole conversation without speaking a word, and you understood everything you said, and you made a decision. It’s like the rest of us don’t exist.” Gilbert shook his head. “You know, I always wished I had that with my wife, and we never really did.” He ran a hand through his hair. It looked like he’d been doing that a good bit, the way it stuck up all over the place. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you guys just have some kind of special bond.”
“Funny you should say that, because that has a little bit to do with what your kids did this morning.”
“Okay, now. Tell me they didn’t do anything terrible? Did Mom decide to kick them out?” He grinned a little as he said that, because he knew his mom wasn’t going to kick anyone out, and they knew it too.
Jones snorted. “Your mom would pay you to move in with her. She loves those kids. And they didn’t do anything wrong today. It was just a little bit funny.”
“All right,” he said, sitting back with another glance at his wife and then indicating the two chairs on the other side against the wall. “You guys can sit if you want to. She’s unconscious. She’s been that way since yesterday. I...I’m feeling that she’s probably not going to wake up. I keep asking the nurses, and they don’t really say anything, and of course the doctor just says that’s what’s going to happen. The cancer’s gonna take over.”
Gilbert closed his mouth and lifted his shoulders, hunching a bit, while Amy and Jones sat down. Jones allowed her to pick her seat, and she chose the one closest to Gilbert. Then, after she sat down, she got up and scooted even closer so that she was almost touching the end of the bed.
He scooted his chair over too and said, “I guess if a nurse comes in, we’ll probably have to move.”
“I should have brought her home. Hospice would have been better. Then you guys wouldn’t have to drive so far to see me, and I’d see the kids, but... I didn’t want them to see their mother like this.”
“We can bring them here if you want us to,” Amy said.
“You think that’s what I should do?” Gilbert asked. “Because Sally said when we came here last time, she kissed her kids and hugged them, and they all were happy, and she said, ‘I don’t want them to come in and see me dying. I want this to be their last memory of me.’”
He looked out the window before turning back to the bed. “I want to give her what she asked for, but at the same time, she’s leaving me, and I’m going to have to raise my kids myself for the rest of my life. Are they going to be mad at me because I didn’t tell them that their mother was dying? Are they gonna be angry because they didn’t get one last moment with her, even though she’s not talking and they can’t communicate with her?” He ran a hand through his hair again and sighed. “I don’t know what the right choice is. They’re so young.”
“I don’t know either. You just have to do your best,” Amy said, and Jones nodded.
“When they get older, we can tell them that you struggled with what to do. I think that they’ll just have to understand that sometimes there’s no roadmap. You weren’t prepared for this type of thing and are just doing your best.”
“Yeah. I felt like my place was beside my wife, and she was afraid to die at home. She thought she might...suffer.” He took a breath. “And I didn’t want to be responsible for deciding whether to call an ambulance or whether to resuscitate her, or see her struggling and... I don’t know. What do you do in that instance? ”
Jones had never thought of anything like that. He hadn’t considered it at all. But it was a good point. He didn’t want to be home with someone who was supposed to be dying, who...was suffering, then what would he do? Call an ambulance? Take them to the hospital? They’d made the decision to die at home.
“I didn’t want my kids to see that. I mean, it might mark them to not feel like they got to say goodbye to their mom, but how would it mark them if they saw her at home, struggling, or in pain, or unable to breathe, or... I didn’t know it was going to be like this.” He nodded at his wife, unconscious in the bed. “Maybe if I had, it would have been different. Or maybe it wouldn’t have been like this if we’d been home.”
“I don’t know. I guess every person is different, and you can’t tell until you’re going through it,” Amy suggested.
“I just... I want to do the best thing for them. And it’s funny, when you have children, you have a spouse to talk everything over with. Every decision, you can discuss what’s best, get a different viewpoint, and go from there. But now, I don’t. I have to do this on my own, and I wasn’t expecting that.”
He fell silent, like he had more to say, but he was forcing himself to go quiet, because what good was railing at God for taking away the one person he had to talk to about the decisions they would make for their children together?
Since God was the one. He was in charge of everything, and He got to decide whether Sally lived or died.
Jones glanced at Amy and thought about the time that they’d had together. Maybe he’d taken it for granted. He hadn’t thought about anyone dying this young. Sally wasn’t any older than either one of them. The cancer had been unexpected, and her death the same. It could happen to anyone, anyone at all.
It was a good reminder to cherish every day.
And that’s when he realized, there really wasn’t anyone else in the world that he wanted to spend his days off with. There wasn’t anyone else in the world that he wanted to spend his evenings with. There wasn’t a single person in the entire world that he had fun with like he had fun with Amy. That he could talk to like he could talk to Amy. That he enjoyed being around like he enjoyed being around Amy.
Whether he got the money, or whether he didn’t, it just seemed to make sense to marry her. But women didn’t want things to make sense. They wanted romance and flowers and hearts and stuff he didn’t know anything about and would feel awkward even attempting with Amy.
“So tell me about the kids? What did they do?”
“Well, Robert came out holding mistletoe, and he asked Mom what it was.”
“Oh goodness.” Gilbert laughed. It was a sad laugh, but still, he was smiling. Jones was glad Amy had decided to tell the story.
“Of course, Mom was busy trying to make breakfast, and we told him it was mistletoe. The purpose of which was when a couple stood underneath it, they had to kiss the person they were with.”
“Oh, great. The things you guys are teaching my son when I’m not there.”
“Well, our town does have mistletoe in its name, so he ought to know what it is.”
“And?” Gilbert said.
“So anyway, the other kids came out. They were hungry. It was before school, and there were a lot of things going on, and before we knew it, Robert was standing behind us, one foot on my stool, one foot on Jones’s stool where we sat at the counter, and he held the mistletoe above our heads and told us we had to kiss.”
“Oh. Robert’s a brave one.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jones said, confused. He was expecting Gilbert to laugh .
“That’s what everyone thinks about you two, but Robert’s the only one who apparently has the guts to say it. I’ll have to congratulate him when I get home. Was he able to get you guys to kiss?”
“We weren’t going to, but we felt bad for Mom, so Jones leaned over and said we ought to do it just so we could shut them up. It was complete chaos in the kitchen.”
“I see,” Gilbert said, lifting a brow.
“So, we made sure they were all watching, and then I gave her a quick peck on the lips to satisfy your son.”
“You know, we should grab that mistletoe and throw it away. What do you think of that?” Amy said, looking at him with her head tilted. Almost as though she were trying to change the subject so that Gilbert couldn’t say anything more about how everyone had thought that that was what was going to happen between them.
“Maybe because you want to do it again,” Gilbert said, grinning, looking between the two of them. “Everyone in the family will say we all had bets placed at one point or another as to when you guys were going to get together. Personally, I thought you were going to be married before Jones went away to college. I didn’t think Amy could survive without you for eight years. And I thought at some point, you’d come home and decide that being a vet wasn’t what you wanted.”
“Are you serious?” Jones said, having trouble believing that. “People were betting on us?”
“Sure. I had a bet with Roland for fifty bucks. I had to pay up, because he said you guys wouldn’t get married until you came home for Christmas.”
“Wow. Have we ever acted like boyfriend-girlfriend?” Amy asked, looking at Jones.
“You guys don’t have to act like boyfriend-girlfriend. You act like a very old couple. You blew right by the girlfriend-boyfriend stage and just landed in the old married couple stage. ”
“That’s no fun,” Jones said, giving Amy a look which she didn’t have too much trouble interpreting. He was pretty sure she understood that he was just going to go along with the flow, because it was getting Gilbert distracted from what was going on with his wife.
“Old married couple?” Amy said, shaking her head. “What an insult.”
“It’s not an insult. It just means you guys are so comfortable with each other, and you have a subtle language of your own. That’s...really nice. Sometimes I’m not even sure I knew my wife.” His voice trailed off, and he looked at her, lying still and silent in the bed. “I guess I just always thought that there would be tomorrow, you know? I figured we had our lifetime to get to know each other and do all the things we wanted to do, and now I realize that wasn’t true.”
“I guess there’s a lot of lessons to be learned there. I was actually thinking the same thing as I was sitting here. That we think we have a lot of time, and we take it for granted. People, mostly. We just think they’re always going to be there, and we don’t realize that they might not. So we need to take the time to do what we can today, while we still have time.”
Jones knew his words were serious, and Amy looked at him, nodding, like she understood perfectly what he was saying.
“So tell me, should I bring the kids in?” Gilbert looked helplessly at Jones, who didn’t have a clue of what to say.
“Do what you think is right. And don’t second-guess yourself. If you want to honor Sally’s last request, do it. And then tell the kids that’s why you did. And they’ll just have to accept it. And if you want to bring them in, because you think it’s necessary, do that. Just... Do the best that you can, because no one can do anything more than that,” Amy said, her voice confident, but low and quiet.
“All right then. I’m gonna stop guessing about it. I know my place is here beside her, but the kids are staying home. I’ll just tell them that she’s gone, when she goes, and I’ll deal with the fallout if I have to. After all, I suppose they could be just as mad at me for bringing them in and ruining what could have been their last memory of their mom, which was somewhat happy.”
She hadn’t been in the best shape when she’d gone to the hospital, but she’d at least been upright and smiling. Now, she was so still and white that she almost looked like she was dead already.
“Are the doctors giving you any hope at all?” Amy asked after a bit.
“None. They look for signs of death, and apparently they saw it on her feet today. I don’t even know what they’re looking for, but they said it wouldn’t be long.” Gilbert looked down and pursed his lips. “I guess, I guess at this point if it’s going to happen, I just wish it would. I’m tired of thinking about it. Not that I want to wish her leaving any faster than what I have to, it’s just... If she’s not going to get better, I need to get home to my kids.”
Those were harsh words, and Jones flinched a bit. He kind of understood what Gilbert was saying though. To him, Sally was already gone. She wasn’t talking, she wasn’t moving, and while it seemed like he was holding out hope that a miracle might happen, it most likely wasn’t going to and he just wanted to be able to get home.
Maybe that wasn’t the most compassionate thing that had ever happened, but Jones kind of understood. And no one who saw Gilbert would doubt that he was being torn apart by his wife’s death.
“I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. But it’s hard for me to wish that she’d hang on the way she is. Like, if she’s going, all right. Go.”
“We understood exactly what you were saying. And it makes sense. No one can blame you for it. I don’t think anyone could give you a hard time for the way you’ve been at her side the entire time and still try to do as much as you could with your kids too. You’ve got to be exhausted.”
“Yeah,” he said, sighing.
They sat for a while, occasionally saying something, but mostly just being there with him, until darkness started to settle in and Jones stirred. All the time that he’d been sitting there, Sally hadn’t moved at all. Her breathing was low and slow, and the machines beeped beside her, but there had been no sign of life.
“Would you like someone to stay with you?” Jones asked. Gilbert startled when he spoke.
“No. I’m not afraid to be alone. Actually, God’s here, and that’s just as good as anything. But she never said what she wanted. Maybe she’d like to have the whole family. I don’t know.”
A nurse came in just then, and Amy and Jones stood up, moving their chairs for her to be able to get around. She walked slowly, moved carefully, and spoke softly.
“I think, I’m pretty sure anyway, if you’d like to call the family in, this would be the time. I’m guessing that she’s going to go sometime this evening or tonight.”
“All right. Thanks,” Gilbert said, his voice cracking a bit, but his eyes remained dry. Although, they were bloodshot and his face was haggard like he hadn’t slept in a week.
It wasn’t long until they walked out of the hospital, quiet and sober. Was there any other way one could be after spending the afternoon like that? But he wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“Thank you so much for doing that. I know it had to have been miserable for you. But I just felt like Gilbert needed people to be beside him.”
“He didn’t sound like he wanted to call anyone to come in.”
“Maybe he just wants to spend the last few minutes with his wife alone. He...is right. I never really thought that they were a great couple, you know? Like I can’t really put my finger on it—”
“I know exactly what you’re talking about. They were okay, they got along just fine, but it felt like they were missing a deep connection that a lot of couples have. Although, I think they would have stayed married for life.”
“Oh, I know they would have. Both of them were totally devoted to each other, but I think sometimes they wished that they would have chosen differently. Like they weren’t best friends.”
Jones said, “Yes. Exactly.”
They had just exited the elevator and were walking toward the doors when Jones’s phone rang.
“It’s your brother,” he said as he looked at his phone before swiping it.
Amy’s eyes got big, but she didn’t say anything.
“Hello?”
“Jones, I’ve been thinking about this, and... If you wouldn’t mind letting the family know about Sally. If they want to come in, they can. And if Mom wants to bring the kids, she can. I’m going to give her a ring, but I know the last thing I said was that I wasn’t going to, and I just wanted to let you know, so you weren’t out of the loop.”
“All right. We have to go home and feed the dogs, but we’ll be back in.”
“I appreciate it. I got to thinking about it, and I honestly don’t really want to be alone, and I don’t think Sally would want to be either.”
“All right. Give us some time, and we’ll be back.”
“He changed his mind?” Amy said, knowing immediately what had happened as Jones clicked off on his phone.
He nodded. “And he’s going to tell your mom that she can bring the kids in if she wants.”
“Wow. That’s tough.”
“Don’t they have a horse therapy session scheduled for tomorrow? ”
“I think you’re right. Maybe... Maybe we can offer to take them in if Mom wants to be with Gilbert.”
“Yeah. Whatever he wants. Whatever he wants with them.”
“Sure.”
It made sense that they would just do whatever it was that he wanted them to do, and they weren’t going to insist that they had to do something that was easier for them. It was their job to serve him, since he was the one going through a difficult time.
But that had solidified in Jones’s mind what he needed to do.