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She reaches around the counter to a tray of cookies, lifting the glass cover off of it and handing me one. “Girl, you have enough on your plate right now. Deal with your mom, and don’t worry about Matthew. He’s happy here and doing some really neat things for the kids of this town. That’s all that matters now.”
I grab the cookie from her and take a bite, frustrated that she won’t tell me, but I’ll never turn down a cookie from Java Jitters.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Hannah
We all say good-bye at the coffee shop and head our separate ways, them heading to their families and me to Susie’s. Even though they offered me a ride, I decided to walk, wanting to clear my head a little more.
Being back here feels so surreal. As I look around, it seems like nothing has changed. When I see the slightly bent street sign that Matthew hit because I distracted him with a kiss I can’t help but smile that it’s still not fixed.
When I get to Susie’s place, she meets me out front.
“Oh, sweetie, it’s so good to see you again. I’m so proud of you, and I hate that I had to ask you to come home,” she says, giving me a hug.
“Are you kidding me? I should be thanking you for taking care of my mom since I wasn’t here. How is she?”
Her expression is somber, so I ready myself for the worst. “It’s gotten better, being back in Mason Creek, but she’s still a little confused.”
“Okay, have you called the doctor? Who’s the new guy who moved here when I graduated?”
She rubs my back. “Dr. Carlson is who took over the practice. I was waiting for you to get here, so we can go see him together. He’s expecting us at one. I did reach out to Sunshine as well. She helped Nate Bowmen with his dad when he was going through this and she’s been a huge help.”
I hug her again. “Thank you for taking care of her.”
She rubs my hair. “I’ll always be here for the both of you.” She pulls back. “Come on. She’ll be happy to see you. I didn’t tell her you were coming because I knew she would have said you shouldn’t with all you have going on.”
We enter her house, and I see my mom sitting at the kitchen counter, sipping on a cup of coffee.
“Hey, Mom,” I say, and she instantly turns to me. I watch as her eyes light up when they meet with mine.
“Hannah?” she says with so much excitement in her voice that my heart cracks wide open. She jumps to her feet and races to hug me. “My beautiful girl, you’re home!”
I have to choke back tears. “Yes, Mom, I’m home.”
She pulls back and runs her hand down the side of my face, and that’s when I realize just how much weight she’s lost. “I hope you didn’t come home for me.”
“Of course I’m here to help you. Mom, you’re skin and bones. When did you lose so much weight?”
She was constantly complaining how her phone never worked right, so I didn’t bother trying to FaceTime her. Technology savvy she is not, and I was tempted to get her a flip phone since she was having so many problems understanding her iPhone.
The thought hits me hard.Has she been confused because of what’s going on and I just thought it was her not understanding technology?
She blows me off with a wave of her hand. “I’m fine. Susie is just worried about me, but we’ll go talk to Dr. Carlson, and I’ll prove to you guys that there’s nothing wrong with me.”
Susie eyes me, and I get the sense my mom’s in denial about what is going on. Or worse, she really doesn’t understand or notice anything’s wrong.
“But enough about me. I want to hear all about what’s going on with you.”
* * *
A few hours later, we enter the office of Dr. Miles Carlson, the family practitioner here in Mason Creek. He’s standing where we can see him, and he instantly walks over to welcome us and invites us back into a treatment room to talk in private.
“Here, Bobbi. Hop up here and tell me what’s going on.” He motions to the treatment table.
We all take a seat and my mom says with a sigh, “I feel totally fine. Susie insisted I come in, but I think it’s no big deal. We went to Billings, and I just hadn’t eaten in a while. My brain doesn’t work properly when I don’t have enough protein, so that’s all it was.”
“Okay,” Dr. Carlson says. “Do you feel like you’ve been needing protein more often? You look like you’ve lost some weight.”
