Chapter 21 Dig Some
DIG SOME
“Mrs. McCarthy, it’s nice to see you,” Farrah said over a week later. “Not that I want to see you for being sick. You think you’ve got a UTI?”
Stacy wasn’t really interfering. This was the last place she’d do it if she wanted to, but it kind of fell into her lap.
If getting a UTI was a good thing falling into her lap.
“Yes. Pesky things that happen now and again. I know the signs. I took one of those home test things and it came back positive, so I knew enough to come in for antibiotics.”
“Let me see if your urinalysis is back yet,” Farrah said, looking at her laptop. “I don’t see it, but I’m sure it will be any minute. Let’s go through some questions and then we’ll do a quick exam.”
She answered everything that was asked of her, then lay back on the table while Farrah pressed on her stomach, winced a bit, then again on the side.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “I can tell by your face.”
“Have you ever had a kidney stone?”
“Not that I know of. I don’t have a lot of pain on my side, but some.”
“A kidney stone could cause a UTI. Or a UTI can spread to your kidneys. You’re tender when I press on your right kidney, which doesn’t normally happen with just a UTI.”
“Oh,” she said. “Now what?”
Farrah went back to her computer. “Results are in. You have bacteria in your urine. So there is an infection. I’m going to send over a prescription for antibiotics. You should start feeling better in a few days. I can send you for an ultrasound to see if there is a stone if you’d like.”
“It just has to pass on its own, right?” Stacy asked. She’d heard those things were crazy painful. If she had to endure this, she was damn well going to snoop for her son and get some knowledge.
All she’d put together in the past ten days was Jayce was gone a few nights and all day on Saturday until around nine.
He’d come back with new clothes so he could have been shopping. Might be with friends or could have been hanging out with Farrah and her son.
It was hard work not questioning her son on his whereabouts.
“Most times that happens,” Farrah said. “It’s whether you want to know for sure. You said you’re feeling cramping as you urinate; it’s possible it’s moving down or you could have passed it already. Have you noticed any blood or cloudy urine?”
“It was really cloudy this morning. It hurt a bit more than normal and there was a lot of pressure. That prompted me to take the last home test I had.”
“Then it’s possible you passed it already. I can always order you an ultrasound if you decide you want it.”
“Why don’t we start with the antibiotics,” she said. “If I passed a stone you wouldn’t know with the ultrasound anyway, right?”
“No,” Farrah said and typed into her computer. “It’s sent over now.”
“Thanks,” she said. She waited a beat. “Jayce had a lot of fun watching Archer for you a couple of weeks ago.”
“Archer had a blast too,” she said. “I’m glad it worked out so well.”
“He’s eight, right?”
“He is,” Farrah said, smirking at her. She wasn’t going to get anything out of this conversation.
If her son was seeing the woman in front of her, they were keeping it quiet.
And if she said too much, and was wrong, it might cause issues with a future between Jayce and Farrah.
She’d always liked Farrah as a kid and was sad the two of them didn’t work out. But she hadn’t been hoping her son found the love of his life at seventeen either.
He needed to go out and explore the world.
Then he came home where he belonged.
Would she ever share her thoughts of that with her son? Absolutely not.
But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t drop a few breadcrumbs on the floor.
“All I know is they are always your baby and I’m glad mine is back home again.”
“I hope I’ve got just as good of a relationship with Archer when he’s an adult as you’ve got with your kids and I do with my parents,” Farrah said.
Again, giving her nothing. Grrr.
“That is always a parent's wish,” she said.
“If you have nothing else, have a great day and I hope you feel better soon, but let us know if you don’t.”
“Thanks,” she said.
Stacy checked out and went to her car and did what she’d said she was going to hold off on.
She debated a few minutes and picked Carolyn Fierce first. The first name that popped up in her contacts.
“Stacy,” Carolyn said. “How are you doing? Enjoying that grandson of yours?”
“Every minute I can,” she said. “But I’m calling about Jayce.”
“What about him?” Carolyn said. “Garrett told me he’d seen him the other day and Jim said not to even consider questioning his personal life.”
“Nah,” she said, waving her hand. Not that anyone could see her. “I think something is going on and I’m trying to get to the bottom of it.” She filled Carolyn in on what had happened in the past few weeks. “What do you think?”
“I think you might be on the right path. Sorry about your UTI and kidney stone. Those can be painful.”
“Thanks. I think I passed it by the sounds of it and it wasn’t horrible, but I’ve got the infection now. Life goes on. I’ve had worse things in my life. But it brought me in front of Farrah. Guess I got lucky to get the appointment with her.”
There were three doctors and three physician assistants here. The fact she got Farrah felt like a sign to nudge a bit.
She did. Got nowhere, but had to do her tiny part like she’d told herself she was going to.
“I’ll take that as the universe’s way of saying you need to find out more,” Carolyn said. “What could be your next step?”
“I’ll be honest and let Jayce know I saw Farrah. I know she won’t say anything to him, she can’t. But I’ll put it out there. Maybe just my presence alone could get the ball rolling. If there is something going on, they might decide it’s time to not have it hidden so much.”
“It’s a good start,” Carolyn said. “Keep me posted. We can put our heads together and work on it some more.”
“Thanks. I’m getting the hang of this. It only took the third kid for it to feel easy.”
Now it was time to poke at her son.
After lunch, Farrah’s phone went off with a text. She was on the last bite of her chicken salad sandwich and looked at her watch to see if it was important or not.
Her grin filled her face when she saw Jayce’s text pop up and caught the part about his mother.
She had a few minutes before her appointment, pulled her phone out and dialed.
“Hey,” he answered. “Let me close my door.”
She looked around outside where she was sitting on a bench and didn’t see anyone else around to overhear her.
Not that she was too concerned, but she tried not to be one of those people who talked about their personal life where others could hear.
“So your mother told you she saw me?”
“Yes. I hadn’t known she wasn’t feeling well and am glad it doesn’t appear to be anything major. I still worry, even all these years later.”
Stacy was a cancer survivor. Farrah was friends with Jayce when his mother was sick back then. They hung out in groups more than anything, but everyone had been aware of what was happening.
“It’s a valid concern for anyone,” she said. “But she appears in excellent health to me other than today.”
“I remind myself of that,” he said. “Did she try to dig some? I’m positive my name came up.”
She laughed. “I know she was digging. My mother does the same.”
“But your mother knows you and I had a date alone, my mother doesn’t,” he argued.
“Fair point.” There was some silence on the other end.
“What do we have?” he asked.
She knew this would come up but hadn’t known it would be now.
Then she had to ask herself why she hadn’t thought it. She wanted more than Jayce just being Archer’s friend.
The past Saturday the three of them went hiking and did a scavenger hunt that she and Jayce both put together with lists of things for everyone to find to surprise Archer.
It’d been a blast. She thought she might have had more fun than her son.
Then she realized she wanted more than just family fun days and dinner once or twice a week.
Pretty soon Archer was going to ask more questions too.
“I think we have the start of something good,” she said.
“Agreed. But how long do we pretend it’s not for Archer’s sake? It’d be different if I didn’t spend time with him.”
“I know. He’s going to ask me soon. I can just feel it. It’s coming.”
“Then don’t you think we should be honest about it? Maybe tell him so he knows. I’d like to at least touch you and not worry he’s going to get confused or upset.”
“Touch me how?”
“Not slip my hand in your shirt,” he said, laughing. “Someday, sure, but not when your son is around.”
The heat rippling through her body made it impossible to deny how much she wanted his touch.
More than she could ever put into words.
The feel of a man’s hands, the press of another body, the dizzy thrill of what might follow. It had been nothing more than a fading memory until Jayce walked back into her life.
Since then, the hunger had only grown, a restless ache clawing for release and stealing pieces of her control each day. She knew she couldn’t hold out much longer.
And maybe… maybe it was time to be honest. To prepare Archer. Because if her son couldn’t accept this, better to find out now before she gave away even more of herself to Jayce.
She grinned. “I’d expect you not to do that in front of him.”
“Nope,” he said. “But I’d like to put my arm around your shoulder, maybe hold your hand, steal a tiny kiss on the lips or cheek. Not just give you a fist pump or high five.”
“I’d like that too,” she said. “Let me think about it tonight. I’m not sure if I want to tell him myself or do it together.”
“You don’t think he’ll be upset, do you?” he asked.
“No, but I don’t know if I want to take that chance either. We’ll see you tomorrow and go from there.”
“I like it when you plan.”
“I like it when I do too,” she said. “Now I need to go.”
“Bye, Farrah.”
He dragged her name out like he had over a decade ago. It swirled around inside of her lighting the arousal to the point that back then, she almost said she was ready for him to be her first.
But her heart was falling and she knew she wouldn’t be able to handle them going their separate ways.
Though she didn’t know what the future held, and didn’t want to be hurt, she found she was strong enough now to handle what came her way.
It was only what would happen to Archer if it didn’t work out, and that was more of what she had to think about than herself.