PRESENT DAY
SUNDAY EVENING IN MAY
GREENVILLE
Ava sat up with a gasp, inhaling the scent of bleach, pine, and rubbing alcohol. She’d fallen asleep in the chair next to her mother’s bed. Her phone buzzed once more, and the dream faded, even as she wondered what had triggered it.
She snagged the phone. Nathan. Finally. She tapped the screen. “Hi, little brother.”
“Hi, big sis.”
She’d been trying to get ahold of him about his credit card bill and he’d been ignoring her. “I guess you got my message.”
“All five thousand of them.”
She’d left four. Her threat to withhold his monthly allowance until he called her back must have scared him.
“I’ll take care of the bill, Ava,” he said. “I needed new tires. I’ve been putting it off, but after I hydroplaned and almost hit a tree the last time it rained, I decided it might be smart to stop procrastinating.”
Oh. She shuddered at the mental picture he painted. “Well, that was important. Of course you needed new tires. You did the right thing.” She hadn’t recognized the name of the tire place on the bill and hadn’t known what the charge was for.
“I know I did. I do occasionally make good decisions. You don’t have to constantly be watching out for me.” He paused. “It’s time to close that account and get one in just my name. There’s no reason for you to have access to it. I’m twenty-five years old. Old enough to weather my own storms, pay my own bills, and more. So, you can quit helicoptering and just be my sister, all right?”
Helicoptering? Was she really doing that? Probably. “Well, you’re still little bro to me,” she said, “and you’re not quite on your own yet, so please excuse me for checking to make sure you’re all right.” And not racking up credit card debt that would take him forever to pay off. But the tires were necessary. She also paid his tuition and rent for the small house he lived in near the hospital, but she refused to hold that over his head. “Regardless, what’s most important is that I need you to answer your phone in case something happens with Mom.”
He went silent for a few seconds. “How is she?” he finally asked, sounding subdued. “I figured you’d leave a message if it was something really bad.” Before Ava could groan at the thought of leaving bad news in a message, he said, “I can come sit with her this weekend if you need me to.”
“She’s the same, Nate. There’s no point in you coming unless you just want to see her, but I know you have that big exam on Monday. I recommend you stay there and study.”
A sigh filtered through the line. “I’m sorry, Ava. I know I’m not helping you like I should.”
“You’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.” She hoped. “Answer your phone when I call or text me a certain time that would be better to call, but don’t ignore me, please.”
His audible sigh made her wince. “Will do. I’ve gotta go now.”
“I love you, kiddo.”
“Love you too.” The phone clicked off and she let out her own sigh.
She prayed he was focusing on his studies. He was in his last year of medical school in North Carolina. With a prayer winged to the one she had entrusted him to, she turned back to her mother.
The woman was in the final stages of dementia and didn’t know Ava was on the planet, but Ava found herself spending as much time as possible with her. She grieved the loss of the strong, vibrant woman her mother had finally become once she’d kicked the alcohol addiction. She took comfort in the good memories simply sitting with her invoked.
A knock on the door made her smile. “Come in, Caden.”
“It’s just me, Ava.” One of her mother’s nurses, Petra Cortez, stepped through the door.
“Oh, sorry,” Ava said. “I was expecting Caden. He’d texted he might stop by.”
The dark-skinned nurse winked at her. “If I was a few years younger, I’d look for him too.”
Ava ignored the heat climbing into her cheeks and chuckled. “Now, Petra, you know Caden’s just a friend, no matter how much you’d like to play matchmaker. Some things just aren’t meant to be.”
“You had dinner last night, thanks to me, didn’t you?”
“Because you told him I’d been here for six hours and hadn’t eaten and if he didn’t feed me, you were going to call the cops because that was a crime.”
“And he fed you, didn’t he?”
“You do know he is the cops, right?”
Petra shrugged and walked to the bed, checked her patient’s vitals, and turned back to the door. “He’ll be here soon, I’m sure. I’ll send him on in when I see him. He might even ask you out on another date.”
“It wasn’t a date.”
“Uh-huh.”
Ava couldn’t help laughing once again as Petra disappeared into the hallway. The sweet nurse always managed to brighten her day. And she had to admit, Caden Denning had somehow captured her attention like no other man had ever been able to do. But—
Her mother moaned and Ava turned to grip the woman’s cold fingers. “It’s okay, Mom, I’m here.” Ava smoothed strands of gray away from her mom’s forehead. “I’m here. Just relax. I love you.”
She couldn’t believe the disease had struck her young mother, but it had started creeping in two years ago at the age of fifty-six. And now, she probably had mere weeks to live.
“Rest, Mom,” she whispered. “Everything’s okay.”
She never knew if her words penetrated the diseased mind, but her mother’s restlessness eased and her breathing settled. A lump formed in Ava’s throat and she glanced at the clock. If Caden was coming, he would have been there by now. She checked her phone. No text or call from him. “Hmm. Wonder what that’s about?” she muttered. Must be a case he was working. She sent up a brief prayer for his safety and kissed her mother’s cheek. “I’ve got to go now, Mom. I’ll be back to see you tomorrow.”
Ava stood and left the room, making her way to the exit. She waved to those she knew, glad she’d allowed her best friend, Sarah Denning, to talk her into moving her mother into this facility while she relocated into an apartment two miles away. Getting out of the Navy hadn’t been the original plan, but after her mother’s diagnosis, when the opportunity had arisen, she’d taken it.
Now that she was in Greenville, Caden—and a few of her other friends—had been regular visitors over the past three months, joining her in the evenings when they could, talking, playing cards, keeping her from going crazy while her mother continued her decline. But it had mostly been Caden. Or Caden and Sarah. Ava had grown up with the two siblings and readily admitted she didn’t know what she’d do without them at this stage in her life.
She pushed through the glass doors into the evening. Mid-May, and the weather was warm enough to take a dip in a pool. Her friend Brooke James wouldn’t mind if Ava came over and used hers, but for now, Ava simply wanted to go home where she could think. Mostly about what she was going to do with her suddenly wide-open future. After ten years in the military, this was a rather daunting topic. And, of course, she needed to think about Caden’s obvious interest in her. But she knew what she was going to do about that last one.