Okay, maybe she spoke a little more passionately than she intended. When she stopped speaking, Sophie stared at her for several heartbeats, then shook her head.
“Wow. You’re really crazy about my dad, aren’t you?”
Jess swallowed, feeling her face go hot. She hoped Sophie couldn’t see it.
“Don’t be silly,” she muttered, pulling the keys out of the ignition. “This has nothing to do with how I do or don’t feel about your father. It’s about you.”
She faced the girl, and on impulse decided this was a moment that demanded raw honesty.
“I would have gladly sacrificed anything to have a dad who loved me and my sister a tiny percentage as much as your dad loves you.”
“You didn’t?”
She shook her head. “Not even close. And from the outside, I can tell you that I find it very unfair of you to take out the anger and hurt you might be feeling about not having your mom around on the one parent who was here the whole time to take care of you. How would you feel if it were your dad who was here sick in the hospital, after the way you’ve treated him lately?”
Sophie seemed struck by that as she gripped the handle of Eleanor’s overnight bag. “I still wish he hadn’t lied to me all this time,” she mumbled.
“You should tell him that. But remember when you do that your father loves you with his whole heart. I saw that the first day I came here. That’s what matters most, isn’t it?”
Sophie sighed. “I guess.”
Jess hoped her words had made some kind of impact on Sophie. It gave her some comfort to hope that after she was gone, the two of them could find some measure of peace together.
They went in the front doors, as Nate had texted earlier that his mother was being moved to a room in the cardiac unit.
“Oh, Sophie. Hi, honey.” The woman at the reception desk jumped up and circled the desk to give the girl a hug.
“Hi, Mrs. Aoki.”
“I’m so sorry to hear your grandmother was admitted. She’s in room 112. Take a left past the atrium and look for signs that say ‘Cardiac Unit.’”
“Okay.”
The woman gave Jess an appraising look. She braced herself to face off against another gatekeeper spouting off about family and limited visitors. Instead the woman gave her a broad smile.
“And you must be Rachel McBride’s sister who has been staying with our Eleanor, right? You look like her.”
People rarely said that, mostly because their coloring was so different. “That’s right. Do I need to wait out here?”
Mrs. Aoki shook her head. “Oh no. You can go in, too. I’m sure she’ll be glad to see you.”
The two of them walked down the hall until they found the right unit and then Eleanor’s room. Despite what the receptionist had said, Jess wasn’t sure whether she belonged there. She hovered outside the room as Sophie hurried in to hug her grandmother.
Through the doorway, she spotted Eleanor on the bed. Her color looked much better than it had before and she didn’t seem as wrung out.
Nate must have been standing in the corner where she couldn’t see. He walked out into the hallway, the same warm look in his eyes she had seen earlier.
“You don’t have to stay out in the hall. Come in.”
In her head, Jess could hear the receptionist in the waiting room of the emergency department telling her visitors were limited to family. As much as she had loved helping Eleanor these past few weeks, Jess wasn’t family. The sooner she remembered that, the easier it would be to move on Monday without looking back.
How was she ever going to leave the Whitakers? The thought ripped at her heart.
Already she could feel the void they were going to leave in her life. All of them. Eleanor. Sophie.
Especially Nate.
This was the very reason she tried to compartmentalize her emotions when she was working. She didn’t want to get involved. She didn’t want to care so deeply about her clients that the thought of leaving them to move on to the next job hit her like a punch to the gut.
On this particular job, she had thrown every one of her personal tenets out the window. What was wrong with her? How was she going to drive away when she would be leaving a huge part of her heart behind, here in Cape Sanctuary?
“Everything okay?” Nate asked, and Jess realized she hadn’t spoken since they arrived.
She forced a smile. “Super,” she lied. “I’m so glad you’re feeling better, Eleanor.”
“I am. I’m wishing I weren’t stuck here in this hospital bed, but other than that I’m fine.”
“I’m so glad.”
“I was so scared, Gram,” Sophie said, resting her head on her grandmother’s shoulder.
Eleanor patted her. “I’m sorry I worried you all. Hopefully they will be able to figure out what’s going on with my ticker and I’ll be out of here soon.”
“I hope so, too,” Jess said.
She stayed a few more moments while Sophie showed her grandmother what they had brought to help her feel more comfortable. Eleanor exclaimed over everything.
Finally, when the walls of the hospital room began to close in on her, Jess edged toward the door. “I should go.”
“You don’t have to,” Eleanor assured her.
“Yes. Stay. I can go find another visitor chair for you,” Nate said.
Jess shook her head. “It’s a small room. I don’t want to be in the way. And, anyway, we left a mess behind in Eleanor’s bedroom. I should go back and finish up, so you have a clean room to come home to when you’re done here in a day or two.”
“Hopefully sooner rather than later,” Eleanor said.
Nate gave her a searching look and she wondered if he could sense her restless feeling of not belonging. It was a feeling she ought to be used to by now, after thirty years.
“Thank you again for everything today,” he said. He kissed her cheek and she knew she didn’t imagine how his mouth lingered on her skin.
She forced a smile, gave Eleanor and Sophie each quick hugs then hurried out of the room.
She would return to Whitaker House to finish cleaning out Jack’s closet and then turn her attention to the remaining work.
With a few more hours of hard effort, she could be done by midafternoon the next day.
The sooner she finished the job she came to do, the quicker she could hitch up her Airstream and drive out of town.
36