“You’re right. We can do it tonight after dinner.”
They reached the outskirts of Pelican Harbor, and she pointed out the independent-living place on the left as they entered the city limits. “I probably should have called to make sure it was all right to come by. Since she’s at Harmony Haven, she has to be pretty spry. They take residents on outings, and they aren’t patients who need care. Back when I was a kid, she seemed ancient. Her husband had died, but Doris emotionally adopted all of the neighborhood children. When I got sent to foster care, she came to see me a few times, but the Adams family wasn’t very welcoming, and those visits ebbed.”
A clear vision of a round woman with her hair in a curly mop on her head came to her. She wished she’d thought of Doris before now.
Blake parked, and they trooped inside where Paradise asked to see her.
The nurse pointed down the right hall. “She’s in room 114. It’s on the left. Doris doesn’t get much company, but she adores visitors. We love her around here. Are you family?”
“She used to be a neighbor when I was a kid. I thought I’d come find her now that I’m back in the area.”
“She’ll be so glad. Sign in here.” The nurse pointed to the digital screen that recorded visitors’ names.
Paradise entered all their names. Her pulse throbbed in her throat at the thought of seeing Doris. Why was she afraid? She’d loved the woman when she was a child, but trepidation slowed her steps and dried her mouth. It made no sense. She knocked on the door.
“Come in,” a familiar voice called. It was scratchier and frailer than Paradise remembered.
Paradise’s hand shook as she twisted the knob and opened thedoor. Doris’s apartment here smelled just like the house where she’d lived all those years—a mixture of lemon furniture polish and vanilla from the candles she always burned. The first picture she spotted on the wall was one of Paradise with five other neighborhood kids. They were eating cookies and chocolate smeared their faces. Paradise’s mother was smiling in the background. Paradise didn’t think she’d ever seen this picture.
She gripped Blake’s hand and blinked away the tears that gathered in her eyes. “Doris?”
Doris rose from the blue-and-yellow plaid sofa and smiled her way. The woman’s curly hair was mostly white now, but her blue eyes still twinkled, and her skin looked soft and almost translucent. Her smile faltered. “Becky?”
Paradise took a step toward her. “It’s Paradise, Becky’s daughter.”
“I knew you’d come eventually.” And Doris promptly fainted back onto the sofa.
Chapter 25
Paradise sprang toward Doris, but Blake moved her aside. “Let me check her. Call for a nurse.”
Paradise pressed the button to summon the nurse and stepped to the side. Drew hovered nearby. Doris couldn’t be dead. And why would she be expecting her? There’d been no mention of her being interrogated in the police files. Had she kept quiet for years about something important?
The nurse ran in and joined Blake at Doris’s side. She administered smelling salts, and Doris coughed, then opened her eyes and pushed the vial away. “You trying to kill me, girl? Help me up,” she commanded Blake.
He supported her back and eased her into a sitting position. “Take it easy.”
“This has happened before,” the nurse whispered. “Her heart.”
Regret squeezed Paradise’s chest. “Should we leave?”
Doris’s hand shot out and clamped around Paradise’s forearm in a surprisingly forceful grip. “No. I’ve been waiting to see you, Paradise. This old ticker will hold on a little while longer. I’m ninety-five, and when the good Lord calls me home, I’m readyto go. I’m tired of this crazy world anyway.” She released Paradise and patted the cushion beside her. “You sit right here. Blake, you could start coffee. I don’t have much of a kitchen, but it’s enough.”
“I’m on it.” He walked to the minuscule kitchen, and the nurse brushed past him to exit the apartment.
Doris stared at Drew. “You look like Paradise. Are you Andrew James?”
Drew nodded. “You knew about me?”
“Shoot, Becky told me everything in that bright head of hers. She was a remarkable woman, your mama. I loved her like a daughter. She and Granger’s deaths about took me to my grave too.” Doris patted the sofa cushion again. “Sit in the chair there where I can see your face, Andrew James.”
Drew looked confused but did as he was told.
The aroma of coffee began to overlay that of vanilla and lemon furniture polish. Blake returned with a glass of water that he handed to Doris. She thanked him and took a sip. “How’s your mama, Blake?”
“She’s great. Busy of course. She’ll have my hide when she finds out I came to see you without her. The boys will too.” He moved to sit beside Paradise.
She took his hand, relishing the rough calluses on his fingers and palms. She should have talked to him and Jenna about Doris as soon as her name came up. Paradise’s pulse thrummed along her veins at the thought of what they might learn from her.
