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“Michaela was always late for class in high school. Gemma always procrastinated when there were things to do she didn’t like and Adin is well…she’ll probably be here in an hour just because she has so much going on in her life as she always does. Keegan told me that she was coming later. I assumed your dad could stay with her until the surgery started. I thought you shouldn’t be alone.” He opened his arms and without thought I stepped into his embrace.
“Thank you,” I whispered against his chest. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.” His hand large and strong caressed my lower back lovingly comforting me.
I could have stayed in his arms forever but eventually Kerry guided me to a waiting area. We were blocking the hall as we were. We sat in chairs next to each other. He held my hand while we waited for Pop to come back. We were quiet. Last night, kissing him and loving the feel of him so close to me felt like it had not happened. Just like a dream but a lovely dream at that.
This wasn’t where I wanted to be in my life at thirty-four years old. I wanted happiness. I wanted a normal life. I wanted Kerry McCoy in my life, I thought glancing at him. His eyes locked on mine. He smiled at me.
“I love you,” I told him.
His smile grew bigger on his face reaching his eyes, warming them.
“Love you too.”
Adin walked in an hour after Kerry and I sat down to wait. She made it just in time. Doctor Winkle came out to the waiting room. He had the same wild silver hair that touched the collar of his shirt. His round glasses were perched precariously on his bulbous nose. His clothes were rumpled. He looked least like a doctor. He had known Adin and me our entire lives. He had delivered us at this very hospital. Now he was taking us for a brief visit with Yancy before she was taken into surgery.
The fluorescent lights were dimmed. The stark white walls were cold and sterile reminding me of the seriousness of her condition. Yancy was already doped up on drugs ready for her surgery when we entered the room where she was lying in a hospital bed, sheet up to her breasts, a thin cotton colorless blanket covering her as well. Her IV tube ran across the bed to the bottle hanging from the long thin stand at the side of the bed. She was connected to machines that monitored her heart rate and blood pressure.
“Yancy,” Adin said taking my mother’s hand. “I love you.”
“I wuv ewe too,” Yancy replied groggily. “Where’s my other two?” She asked. “Oh never mind, shit, Micki isn’t eben out of bed.” My mother’s cursing brought a smile to my face. “Gem is dwagging her feet right?” She asked. She could barely keep her eyes open. “Call me Mom.”
“What?” Adin and I asked in unison looking at each other with puzzled expressions. We had always called her Yancy.
“Mom. I just wanna hear it fore I go into surgery.”
“Mom,” I started my statement using the moniker that sounded odd to my ears. I glanced at my sister who gave me a weird look while I continued, “Have you always wanted us to call you Mom?”
“Oh hell no,” Yancy replied giggling. “No one bewieves I old enuff to have you four grils your ages so Yancy is fine.” She giggled again.
“Good God she’s more confusing with drugs in her than I thought was possible,” my sister told me.
I looked across at Adin and chuckled. “I kind of like her like this.”
Pop chuckled. We had forgotten he was even here. Adin hugged my father warmly when he stood to great her.
“I guess,” Adin said still holding onto Pop as if her life depended on it. She was scared too. We all were.
“We have to get your Mom to surgery now. Say goodbye,” Doctor Winkle told us as he entered the room.
Turning at the sound of his voice we just stared at him as if he weren’t speaking English. We didn’t want her to go. What if she didn’t come back? What if the cancer was worse than they thought? Reluctantly we kissed Yancy and they wheeled her away. Down, long sterile halls to the waiting area Pop, Adin and I walked. I found Kerry was still waiting for me. I sat down next to him without hesitation he put his arm around me. I laid my head on his shoulder and his chin rested against the top of my head.
Adin glanced at us quizzically before she said, “Is there something you two want to tell me?”
“No,” we said in unison.
“Okay,” Adin replied. “But maybe there is something you should at least admit to yourselves.”
We both glared at Adin. We had already admitted everything that needed to be admitted to ourselves. No one else needed to be included in our business not even my sister. Not until we could tell Keegan. We both knew that without speaking the words. First, I had to get out of my marriage before anything could happen between us. I sighed.
“I’ll be shutting up now,” she said.
Pop never said a word. Knowingly, he smiled as he took a seat across from us. Pop was a man of few words but I had caught his smile.
#
Michaela arrived two hours into the surgery and Gemma an hour after her. Kerry went upstairs to visit with his mother when Kat arrived taking her with him. She went with a promise that one of us would come get her when her Nana was in recovery.
