Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“I just don’t want to be a burden to you, Hen.” She shakes her head. “Or to Geneva. All this fuss for me and—”
“Don’t even think like that,” I cut in. “We’re family. It’s what we do for each other. It’s what you’ve done in some way for everyone else through the years, especially me. It’s my turn.”
I lean forward to kiss her forehead. “And I love you. You’re never a burden, Mama.”
“Okay,” she says, patting my hand. “Well, if I’m gonna be in this place a few days like the doctor says, I’m gonna need my stuff.”
She goes through the list of things she needs brought from home. It ranges from her Velcro hair rollers to her special hand lotion she can only ever find at Rite Aid.
“And my devotional,” Mama mumbles, lashes fluttering closed as the meds kick in. “It’s on my nightstand.”
Outside her room, the nurse pulls the door closed and turns to me.
“She’ll be fine here tonight,” she says. “I suggest you go home and get some rest, especially since I heard you mention your aunt is still recovering there.”
I glance at my watch. It’s been almost three hours since Dr. Katz brought me back to Mama’s room.
“There’s nothing you can do here tonight,” the nurse adds.
“I’ll be back as early as I can tomorrow then.”
I mentally run through my schedule and the appointments I need Skipper to cancel as I head outside. When I reach the parking lot, I glance around for a few minutes, dazed and trying to remember where I parked.
“Damn.” I rub my eyes tiredly. “Girl, you rode here in the ambulance.”
I pull out my phone to call an Uber, which may take longer than I’m used to considering this isn’t exactly a booming metropolis. I’m punching in Mama’s address, wondering if I may have to find a taxi, when a set of headlights flare brightly. I put a hand up to cover my eyes, shocked to see a silver Maybach, fully tricked with five-spoke titanium rims. When it pulls to a stop and the door opens, I almost fall to my knees for the second time tonight.
“Mav?” I whisper, half believing this is some mirage and the fatigue and hunger have me hallucinating.
But then he says the words that only he would say.
“Wagwan, Gorgeous.”
In the middle of the parking lot, not caring who’s watching or what anyone would think, I fling myself into his arms. More like collapse, droop. And the tears I’ve managed to stave off all day, hell, for weeks, maybe months, break past the restraining wall, overflow my heart, and flood my eyes.
“She was on the floor,” I sob into the crook of his neck. “And I couldn’t… she wouldn’t… she wouldn’t wake up.”
Words are so inadequate to express my helplessness; the despair at not only what happened with my mother tonight, but what is happening to her and to all of us. And how this whole situation is a runaway train welded to the tracks with an inevitable crash looming. I’m being crushed. I’m already under the charging mammoth metal of this diagnosis. Trapped and being dragged beneath the wheels of an unavoidable conclusion to my mother’s life. It’s slow, but unrelenting. I’m tied to the tracks and hypnotized by the lights. It all comes crashing down and the tears are a deluge.
“I was so scared,” I say, barely able to get the confession out for the tears.
“I know.” Maverick kisses my temple and runs long strokes of comfort down my back. “I’m sorry, Hen. I got you, baby. I’m here.”
I sniff and nod, gripping the lapels of his suit jacket as if making sure he actually is here. I’m still getting used to needing him, and I already don’t ever want him to go.
CHAPTER 41
MAVERICK
You’re still in the boondocks?” Bolt asks.
I adjust my earphones and bark out a laugh, leaning my elbows on the desk in the office Hendrix told me used to be her father’s. “It’s not the boondocks. It’s a small town outside of Charlotte.”
“Semantics. Everything under control? How’s Mrs. Barry?”
“Much better. She’s been home a few days now and is taking her medications like she’s supposed to,” I say. “Looking at her, you’d never know a few days ago she was in the hospital. It was a lot for Hendrix, though, especially with her aunt down, too.”
“Do you need anything? Need me to come?”
I glance around the room Hendrix and I have commandeered for meetings, which is also apparently some kind of cemetery for sewing machines.
“No, I’m fine. Just keep my schedule clear of anything that isn’t absolutely essential.”
“So pretty much only the Vipers deal?”
“I need everything on that. We’re too close. I can’t drop any balls there. We’re just waiting on the league’s final clearance.”
“How’s it feel? Buying the team that dissed your dad for years?” I detect a bit of a smile in Bolt’s voice.