Chapter 29
It’d been two days since Luke told me he was getting addicted to seeing me when he gets home, and for some reason unknown even to me, I haven’t told him I’d broken up with Max.
I played Luke’s comment over and over in my head, exhilaration swirling through my insides each time.
I stirred the vegetables I was sautéing on Mimi’s stove, psychoanalyzing myself.
Why am I reluctant to tell him I’m single now?
No longer emboldened by alcohol and wandering eyes, I was afraid to find out if the flirtation between us was the crackling surface of something real, or just for fun.
I didn’t know if he dated or was interested in dating.
He’d never talked about it. And even if he did feel something, I worried he wouldn’t want to risk it, given how well things were going with me babysitting Luna for him.
Mimi was due home any minute from running errands with her friend Cathy. Cathy had been one of Mimi’s closest friends on the island for as long as I could remember. She often reminded me that she’s known me since I was a child digging for crabs and other critters at the beach.
My phone buzzed on the table. I turned the burner down and grabbed it. It was Cathy.
“Val, everything is okay now.” My stomach dropped. “But we’re at Vineyard Hospital.”
The room froze as my panic spiked. “What happened?”
“We were at the store, and your grandmother started to feel faint. Before we could find her somewhere to sit, she collapsed.”
“Did she hurt herself?”
“No, just a bruise on her arm. She didn’t hit her head or anything.”
“I’ll be right there.”
I turned off the stove, threw on flip flops, and ran out the door.
An hour later I sat in a chair next to Mimi’s bed while she rested.
The doctor said she was only dehydrated, and there was nothing to indicate the fainting spell was caused by her heart.
She’d had an arrhythmia in the past, so of course that was immediately where my mind went as I drove five miles an hour over the speed limit on the way here.
I called my mom on the way. My family was visiting us starting that weekend, and my mom changed her plans so she’d arrive tomorrow instead.
They planned to give her fluids, run a few tests, and monitor her for the next twenty-four hours, but expected she would be released by tomorrow morning. Mimi herself was fine—personality fully intact, embarrassed that people were making a big deal out of it.
Sitting here, looking at the monitors, leg bouncing, I was beyond uncomfortable, and it had nothing to do with the hard plastic chair beneath me.
Mimi’s personality was so youthful, I sometimes forgot she was in her eighties.
She’d long felt more like a friend than my grandparent, always showing interest in my life, my friends, and my boyfriends, and sharing stories of her own.
She stayed strong through grieving my grandfather, but that had to have taken a toll on her.
Aging was so cruel. I usually made it to Martha’s Vineyard at least once per summer, but I often spent most of the time upstairs in the spare bedroom, hunched over my laptop, stressing about whether the internet would hold.
I shook my head at the memory. With Mimi’s age, who knew how many more summers we’d have together. I can’t believe I missed some.
I chewed the inside of my cheek until it hurt, willing the moisture in my eyes to evaporate before it escaped. My legs carried me out of the room to the hallway. I closed the door to give her a shred of privacy. Hospitals were so revealing.
I dropped into a chair a few paces beyond the door to her room and stared at my phone in my lap.
Calling my mom again wouldn’t be productive.
She was already upset, and I didn’t have any updates to share.
Still, I opened my contacts. Acting on natural impulse more than conscious thought, my finger tapped Luke’s name.
He answered on the second ring. “Hey, Val.”
I heard a second “Hi, Val” in the background from Luna and a smile cracked through my somberness.
“What’s up?” he asked. I took a deep breath before answering, and he added, “You okay?”
I blew out my breath and steeled myself.
“Yes, I’m fine, but Mimi had an episode, felt like she couldn’t breathe while she was at the store, fainted.
She’s okay now, the doctors said she was probably just dehydrated.
I’m waiting outside her room while she rests before they run a few more tests. I—I don’t know why I called, actually.”
“Because you’re upset, and you need a friend right now. Pretty normal thing to do, Val. I’m glad you called.”
For some reason his kind words made my eyes well up. My throat constricted. “Thanks, Luke,” I choked out, hoping he couldn’t hear the tears in my voice.
“Have you eaten?”
“No. I was cooking us dinner when Cathy called me. I’m too emotional to eat anyway.”
“How about this, Luna and I will come by and check on you and Mimi, and I’m bringing you both dinner, in case your appetite comes back. Okay? The hospital food sucks.”
I opened my mouth to object, but something told me Luke wouldn’t take no for an answer even if I did. He phrased his suggestion like a question, but there wasn’t any uncertainty in his deep tone.
I sniffled. “Okay. If Mimi wakes up while you’re here, I’m sure she’d love to see Luna.”
“It’s settled then. See you soon.”
The book I attempted to read on my phone while I waited didn’t hold my attention for long. I poked my head into Mimi’s room a couple of times and found her sleeping.
The pitter-patter of a child’s footsteps down the linoleum-tiled hallway announced Luke and Luna’s arrival. Luna threw her arms around my neck, my shoulders at the right height for her arms while I was seated—saying nothing. I started to choke up again but banished the feeling quickly.
“Hi, Luns,” I cooed. “Thank you.”
“Is Mimi okay?”
“Yes, she’s okay. Let me go see if she’s awake, and you can go see her.”
“Okay! I brought my book.” She held up a Magic Tree House paperback like it was a trophy.
I smiled. “That was a great idea.”
When I looked into the room again, Mimi was up, changing the channel on the TV. “Are you up for a petite visitor?”
“Of course.”
I told Luna to come in. She plopped right down in the chair next to the bed and asked Mimi if she wanted to read Magic Tree House with her.
“Oh, yes,” Mimi said, her smile encouraging.
I stepped out of the room again, closing it only halfway. Luke had set down the soft-sided cooler he brought with him on the chair. I didn’t know what to say. Thank you for coming when I called?
I missed you in the three hours that have passed since I last saw you?
“Hey,” Luke said softly. It was less of a greeting and more of an invitation as he opened his broad arms and tipped his head in a way that said, come here.
Pulled by an invisible thread, I stepped into him, and he wrapped his arms around me without hesitation, holding me flush against his body.
I rested my cheek on his chest, letting out a full breath for the first time since I flew out Mimi’s front door.
The next breath in was Luke: pine and a hint of sawdust and warmth.
The sound of his heartbeat filled the ear I had pressed against his shirt. His arms tightened around my back.
It was not a friendly hug. This embrace spoke its own language—sturdy and true and full of care.
I kept a tight lid on the pressing emotions crackling beneath the surface of my chest—my panic about Mimi’s wellbeing earlier, my somber thoughts about her age, my mom’s fear when I told her, all mixed with the relief and comfort and safety I felt when I let myself lean on the man before me.
I refused to let the emotions bubble out while he held me. Although, I suspected he wouldn’t mind if I did.
He ran his palm over my hair, from the crown of my head to the spot between my shoulder blades, before stepping back. He looked at my forehead and bit the inside of his cheek. If that meant he wanted to kiss it, I wished he would.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Don’t mention it. Least we could do. Is your appetite back at all?”
I looked down at my stomach, waiting for it to tell me. The sound of Luna reading her book out loud to Mimi floated out the open door. “Maybe?”
He nodded to the row of chairs and sat down, then handed me a fork and a Tupperware container filled with rice, beans, peppers, and grilled chicken he’d sliced and placed on top. The scent of cumin and chili powder wafted up to my nose, and my stomach grumbled.
“This smells really good.”
He did a mock bow, twirling his hand and dropping his head.
I took a bite, consciously chewing. “Max and I broke up,” I blurted.
Cool, Val. Way to ease into it.
I checked his face for his reaction. He pressed his lips together like he was fighting a smile, but the little crinkles around his eyes gave him away. I didn’t know what I expected, but my stomach somersaulted nonetheless. Then he schooled his expression to neutrality and cleared his throat.
“Are you…upset?”
So diplomatic.
“No, I’m relieved. It was enjoyable for a while, and I kept waiting for it to grow, but it never did. We didn’t really click, you know?”
Not like I do with you.
He nodded and didn’t say anything for a moment. His eyes followed a nurse that strode by in front of us in a blur of lavender scrubs.
“That makes sense,” he said finally. His brown eyes met mine, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
I wanted to say more, but it wasn’t the right time or the right setting. He seemed to tacitly agree. “Want to bring this in to Mimi? See if she’s hungry?” He gestured to the other Tupperware he had in the cooler.
“Yes. Thank you so much for doing that.”
He squeezed my knee for a millisecond before I stood. “Of course. We wanted to.”
I believed him.