AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mexican.”
“Yum.”
“I hope you’re hungry because I brought plenty.”
“I see that.” She gestured to the bags on the table. “We could invite the whole neighborhood over and not run out of food.”
He grinned. “You prefer fajitas or burritos or both?”
She dug through one of the bags, pulled out a tortilla chip and popped it into her mouth. “Let’s just spread out what you brought and share.”
“Sounds perfect.”
* * *
Dinner had been perfect. Carly and Stone had eaten, laughed, and for a while she’d completely set aside the stresses of the day.
Unfortunately, they crept back in when her watch alarm went off.
“Sorry, I need to go feed Momma.”
“Don’t be sorry,” he assured her, his eyes compassionate. “I understand.”
He seemed to.
Which didn’t make sense to Carly. She and Tony had dated for more than a year, had planned to get married after graduating from college. They’d talked kids and forever. Yet he hadn’t understood when Carly’s mother had gotten more ill, when Carly had moved home to care for her.
He’d been mad. Upset. Jealous. Had accused her of not having time for him, of not meeting his needs. She’d tried to make time for him, had done her best to make him feel loved and appreciated, but her mother had come first. Tony hadn’t understood. He’d left, started seeing someone else, and hadn’t looked back.
Neither had Carly.
Not really.
Tony hadn’t been the man for her.
Having met Stone, that was easy enough to see.
Not that Stone was the man for her, either, but he’d made her realize there were good guys out there.
Ha. Barely into this “friendship” and she was classifying him as a good guy. Stone was a good guy.
Some day, when she could devote herself to a relationship, she hoped to find a man like him. Because she didn’t kid herself by thinking Stone would still be around. He’d tire of her restricted life soon enough.
She bit the inside of her lower lip.
“Thank you for dinner,” she told him, trying not to let her thoughts dampen the joy of his being there. “And for the company.”
“That’s my line,” he teased.
She nodded, then went to the kitchen, mixed her mother’s meal for her feeding tube and a small bowl in hopes she’d eat some actual food, too, not that she had for the past two days.
Actually, she just hoped her mother was herself and knew her, or even if she thought she was Margaret, Carly’s grandmother, that would be okay. The angry woman of the past two days was someone Carly wasn’t emotionally ready to deal with again.
It didn’t surprise her when Stone followed her into the kitchen, his hands full of the containers their food had been in.
“You can leave that and I’ll clean up later,” she offered, just as she did every night. Not that he let her, but she offered. Part of her understood his need to be doing something besides sit while she was with her mother. Some nights, she was only gone for fifteen or twenty minutes. Some nights, she’d be in the room with her mother for more than an hour. No doubt cleaning the kitchen gave him something to pass the time.
Why did he keep coming back when she had so little to offer?
“Thank you,” she told him again as she picked up the food tray, carried it to her mother’s bedroom, and said a quick prayer.
Her mother didn’t know who she was, but wasn’t as agitated as she’d been earlier. Then again, with the way her head kept bobbing, Carly felt it safe to say that the effects of the calming medication she’d given a second day in a row hadn’t worn off yet.
“Momma, I have your dinner.”
“I—I’m n-not h-hungry.”
“You need to eat.” Carly went through their normal routine as she set the tray up next to the bed.
Audrey didn’t eat anything by mouth no matter how many times Carly tried to get her mother to. She’d refuse the bite, would push whatever Carly managed to get inside out with her tongue, and had even spit at Carly once, covering her with little splatters. Until all the food she’d made was out of the small bowl and on her mother’s bib, the tray, and Carly, Carly had kept trying.
With a sigh, she set down the spoon. “I’m sorry you don’t feel like eating tonight, Momma.”
Carly flushed her mother’s feeding tube, then delivered the high-nutrient mixture. Her mother moaned and groaned as if in pain, saying she didn’t want Carly to give her the food, saying she just wanted to go home.
“You are home, Momma.” Determined to at least put on a happy show for her mother, not that her mother seemed to care, but maybe her mother was still in there somewhere. “Guess who else is at our home tonight, Momma? Dr. Parker is here. He’s in the kitchen. He brought dinner. You have to get to feeling better so you can eat with us again one evening.”
