Chapter 4 #2
She turned away from the counter and faced the corridor.
Linda was very familiar with the corridor, and she refused to let the memories of that day overwhelm her.
Instead, she squared her shoulders, made sure she wasn’t holding her grandchildren’s hands too tightly, and walked down the corridor that had plagued her nightmares for five years.
It is just a corridor. She told herself that with every step. Just walls. Just a floor. Just fluorescent lights and the soft hum of distant equipment and the faint rolling sound of a cart somewhere up ahead. Just a corridor in a building.
Linda rounded the corner at the end and saw the waiting room. And then she saw Tom.
He was sitting in one of the plastic chairs near the window, his shoulders a little hunched, his hands resting loosely on his knees, looking ten years older than she’d remembered him. He was watching the double doors that led back to the operating theatres.
Linda’s heart lurched.
This was the man who had walked her down the aisle thirty-nine years ago because her own father had been gone for over thirty years by then.
The man who had held both her babies on the days they had been born, gentle and reverent.
The man who had quietly, faithfully made sure her mother had been happy for the last twenty years of her life, and who had sat with Linda for three nights straight after her mother had gone, saying very little, just being there.
Here he was again. Sitting quietly and patiently in this hospital, alone, for hours. As he heard footsteps, Tom looked up.
His eyes found hers across the waiting room, and for a long suspended moment, they just looked at each other. Tom’s face slowly transformed into one of relief. He stood and held out his arms.
Linda and the kids walked straight into them.
She didn’t say anything. He didn’t either.
The kids folded in around them both, Sophia pressing her face into Tom’s side and Jake wrapping his small arms around as much of all three of them as he could reach, and for a long moment, the four of them stood there in the corner of a fluorescent-lit waiting room and just held each other.
Linda felt Tom take a long, ragged breath against her hair.
She knew what he was breathing through. He hadn’t been back to this building in five years either.
When Linda finally pulled back, she had to wipe her eyes with the heel of her hand.
Tom did too, though he tried to hide it by turning his face slightly toward the window.
The kids were unembarrassed and openly tearful.
Sophia kept one arm around Tom’s waist as the four of them moved toward the chairs.
“Hello, Grandpa,” Sophia whispered up at him.
“Hello, my big girl,” Tom said, his voice gravelly. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Hello, Jake, my boy.”
“Hi, Grandpa,” Jake said, hugging Tom around the middle.
“Sit down, sweetheart,” Tom told Linda, gesturing to the chair beside his. “Come on. All of you. Sit down.”
Linda sat. Sophia and Jake settled into the chairs on her other side, leaning into each other. Linda reached over and took Tom’s hand without quite knowing she was doing it.
“How is he?” Linda asked.
“He’s still in there,” Tom answered quietly. “I’m still waiting for information. There’s been nothing since the last update when you were on the road.”
“I’m sure it won’t be much longer,” Linda assured him.
“He’s been in there for hours,” Tom said, running a hand through his hair.
They fell into a comfortable silence. Linda glanced around and looked at her wristwatch.
“Have you eaten?” Linda asked, turning toward Tom.
“Not since breakfast,” Tom admitted.
“Tom.” Linda squeezed his hand. “You have to eat something. There must be a vending machine or a cafeteria somewhere.”
“There’s a vending machine down the hall,” Tom said. “I’ll get something in a bit. I didn’t want to leave the room in case the doctor came through.”
“I’ll get it for you,” Linda said immediately. “What do you want? A sandwich? Crackers?”
“Anything’s fine,” Tom said. “Actually, let me get it.” He stood and stretched. “I need to walk for a bit.”
“All right.” Linda managed a small, watery smile.
Before Tom could leave, footsteps resounded down the hall, and they turned to see Maggie sweep in.
Linda was on her feet before her best friend had crossed the room.
Maggie’s silk scarf was askew. Her hair had escaped the careful pin she always wore at the boutique. She reached Linda and threw her arms around her.
“I’m so sorry,” Maggie whispered into Linda’s hair. “I’m so sorry I called you on the worst day of your life with even worse news.”
“You did exactly what you had to do,” Linda told her, holding on tight. “And I’m glad you did.”
“How are you?” Maggie pulled back and held Linda’s face between both her hands, the way she had been doing since they were ten years old. “Look at me, Linda Heart. How are you, really?”
“A lot better now that I’m finally here,” Linda said. “What a day.”
“What a day it has been for the Heart family.” Maggie nodded in agreement, then turned toward Sophia and Jake. “How was your trip?”
“Hi, Maggie,” Sophia said, getting up to hug her. “It was great.”
“Hi, Maggie,” Jake added, hugging her around the middle. “Where is Toby?” He glanced around, looking for Maggie’s grandson, who was the same age as him.
“He is at home and knows you’re coming to Sweet Blossom Bay for the summer,” Maggie told Jake. “I’m sure you’ll see each other tomorrow.”
“Cool,” Jake said, moving with his sister to sit down.
“Hi, Maggie,” Tom greeted her, walking over to give her a hug.
“What’s the news?” Maggie asked, stepping out of Tom’s embrace.
“Same as when I called you,” Tom replied. “George is still in surgery.”
“It’s been a while now,” Maggie stated, her brow furrowing.
“I’m going to get something from the vending machine,” Tom told them, looking at the four of them. “Does anyone want something?”
“We’ll come with you, Grandpa,” Sophia offered as she and her brother stood up.
“Did Tom tell you what happened to George?” Maggie asked as the kids and Tom left the waiting area.
“No,” Linda answered with a shake of her head. “Do you know? Did Tom tell you?”
“He did,” Maggie nodded.
“Please tell me,” Linda said. “How the heck did my uncle end up with a broken hip?”
Maggie drew in a slow breath and began telling Linda the story.
Maggie told Linda how Rosa, the head housekeeper at Hearts Hotel, had gone up to the penthouse with fresh towels and heard Buddy whining at the door.
Rosa found Uncle George at the bottom of the back stairs that ran down from the penthouse to the staff hallway.
He’d been trying to change the lightbulb above the door at the top of the stairs.
“He was trying to change a lightbulb?” Linda gaped at Maggie. “He went up on a step ladder alone on the top of the stairs to change a lightbulb?”
She pictured it. She pictured Uncle George on a step ladder, one hand reaching up toward a fixture, the way he had probably done a thousand times in his long life running that hotel.
She pictured the moment his foot had slipped, or the ladder had wobbled, or his tricky knee buckling as it sometimes did, and her heart thudded as she could clearly picture him going down.
The simple, stupid, ordinary horror of it almost undid her.
“Oh, Uncle George!” Linda whispered. “The man is so stubborn.”
“I know,” Maggie agreed with her. “He could’ve called someone to help him. He still thinks that he can do what he did when he was young.” She shook her head.
“He could have lain there for hours,” Linda said, “if Rosa hadn’t gone up there with the towels.”
“Yes,” Maggie said. “He could have.”
“Where was Martin, the accountant who lives at the hotel now and helps Uncle George around the place?”
“He went to Tampa for some finance conference,” Maggie told her. “He left this morning and is only due back tomorrow night.”
Linda closed her eyes for a moment. “Oh, goodness.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “Thank goodness for Rosa. Thank goodness, thank goodness.”
“Yes, I know.” Maggie nodded.
They fell into a tense silence, their eyes trained on the door that would eventually bring the doctor with news of Uncle George.
Maggie was first to break it as she reached over and took her free hand. “Linda,” she said, and her voice was very gentle, “we have to talk about George.”
“What about him?” Linda’s head shot up.
“Linda, he needs more help than he’s been letting on. He has for a while.” Her eyes held Linda’s.
Linda stared at her best friend. Maggie’s eyes were full of an old, tired affection.
She drew in a deep breath, and her heart slammed against her ribs as guilt exploded through her because Linda had known.
But she’d been so busy with her own life falling to pieces that she’d told herself Uncle George was still quite capable.
“I know,” Linda admitted quietly, pinching the bridge of her nose. “To be honest, I’ve known for a while. I just didn’t want to know it.”
“None of us did,” Maggie told her. “I also turned a blind eye whenever I popped in to see him every week.” She shook her head slowly. “Tom and I spoke about this last week when Martin told us the hotel was losing customers.”
“Why?” Linda’s eyes widened.
“The place needs…” Before they could continue, Tom came back with the kids. They’re hands full of cookies and soda, with big smiles.
“I should have come sooner,” Linda whispered before they got closer.
“We’ll talk later,” Maggie promised, and Linda nodded.
“Tom, what have you done?” Linda asked, looking accusingly at him.
“It’s been a long day for them,” Tom said with a charming smile. “I thought something nice would make up for the something horrible part of today.”
“Don’t worry, Gran,” Jake told her. “We won’t eat everything now.”
“We’re going to put some away for tomorrow,” Sophia said with a grin.
“It’s okay,” Linda said with a sigh. Tom was right. A few cookies and candies were okay. “Just don’t eat too much, as you still have to have dinner, and I promised you pizza from the best pizza place in the world.”
“Sweet Bay Pizza,” Sophia and Jake chorused, taking their seats before Linda. Tom sat on the other side of Jake.
“Still no news?” Tom looked at them, glancing at the door hopefully.
“Nope,” Maggie answered before Linda could.
Linda thought about Uncle George trying to change a lightbulb on a step ladder by himself.
She thought about her own house, packed up and gone.
She thought about Richard’s wedding at the end of the summer, and the empty bank accounts, and the long, uncertain road of trying to start over at fifty-nine.
She glanced at her grandchildren, and they seemed happy to be here.
They always loved visiting Uncle George.
Who wouldn’t want to come to Sweet Blossom Bay, which was the most incredible seaside community for kids, for adults, for retirees?
It was a special place. Linda thought, very quietly, that maybe coming home wasn’t a detour after all. Maybe coming home was the road itself.
The double doors at the end of the waiting room opened.
A man in surgical scrubs came through. His mask was pulled down around his neck.
His expression gave nothing away as he glanced around the room.
His eyes found Tom first, then Linda, who had risen to her feet without realizing it, with Maggie standing beside her, Tom beside Maggie, and the three of them holding each other’s hands without quite knowing whose hand was whose.
The surgeon walked toward them.