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“At three-thirty,” they said together.
Bea looked out at the neighborhood.“Grant, I haven’t told all of my kids about you.What—?Do you think I should?”
“I think you should do what you think is right.”
“I want to tell them.”
“Then tell them.”
Bea took a big breath and tried to force her brain to think better.“Tell me how Vanessa is doing.”
“Starfish can use a computer better.”
Bea laughed, the sound rising up and filling the air around her.“Grant.”
“Bless her heart,” he said.“But yeah.She has the certifications, but the practical application?”
“That’s what you’re giving her, sweetheart.”Bea stilled as the endearment came out of her mouth.Grant obviously had too, because he said nothing.
“I wish it was Friday,” he finally said.
Her phone buzzed in her hand, and Bea looked at it.“Grant, my mom is calling.I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Okay,” he said, and Bea swiped on the call from her mom, which ended the one with Grant.
“Mama,” she said, needing to tell someone about Grant and get some advice.Her friends knew, but they were biased.They’d all stopped telling her what they thought too.Once she’d booked the beach cottage again, they’d assumed she was committed and didn’t have doubts.
But she did.If anything, Bea needed more help reconciling her thoughts with her heart.
“Are you there?”Bea asked as she started to get to her feet.
“Bea,” her mom said, her voice a burst of air.“Your dad fell, and I think he broke his hip.”
Pure terror seized Bea.“Did you call the ambulance?”
“I’m calling you.”
“Mama,” Bea said, rushing back inside.“Hang up with me and call nine-one-one.Do you hear me?Nine-one-one.”
“I know how to call an ambulance,” her mom yelled, and Bea wanted to rage back at her.
“Then do it,” she said.“I’m going to call you back in five minutes.”She jabbed at the phone icon to end the call, and Meredith looked up from the table.She’d obviously fallen asleep and Bea had woken her.“Pops fell,” Bea said, her adrenaline firing on all cylinders now.“I need to get back to Sweet Water Falls.”
“Yeah, of course,” Meredith said as she stood.“I can come too.”
“No,” Bea said.“You need to be here for the tastings and fitting.I’ll be fine.I’ll call you and update you.All of you.”She headed down the hall, her fingers still jabbing at her phone.She needed to get help over to her parents’ house, and she needed to pack.She needed to book a flight, and she needed to keep everything together until she was alone so no one would see her break down.
“Cass,” she said when her best friend answered.“My mother just called and said my daddy fell.Can you get over to their place and see what’s what?”
“I’m on my way,” Cass said, just like that.No questions asked.A rush of gratitude filled Bea, and she jammed her clothes in her bag, swiped her brush from the dresser in Meredith’s spare bedroom, and headed into the bathroom to get her toiletries.
With her bag packed, she called her mama again.“Mama,” she said.“Tell me what’s going on.”
“The ambulance isn’t here,” she said, and she sounded frightened now.“You’re coming over, aren’t you?”
“I’m still in Austin, Mama.”She re-entered the kitchen, and Meredith swiped her keys from the counter.They didn’t have to speak before they both headed for the front door.“I called Cass, okay?She’s on her way over.”
“Okay,” Mama said.“I’ll let her handle everything.”
“Yes,” Bea said.“That’s probably a good idea.”Her mother couldn’t hear very well, and she refused to wear her hearing aids if it was just her and Daddy around the house.“I’ll call you right when I’m taking off.”
“All right.”
Bea said, “I love you, Mama.Tell Daddy I love him too.”She got the words out without a hitch in her voice, but she felt it seizing through her lungs, then her stomach, and all the way down to her toes.
She said nothing on the way to the airport.She hugged her daughter with a fierceness she didn’t know she possessed.Then she texted a marathon of texts, some to her friends, some to Grant, and some to her children.
By the time she arrived at the hospital in Sweet Water Falls, darkness had fallen, and Bea felt one or two steps away from a complete collapse.Mentally.Physically.Emotionally.
But she pushed open the door where her father reportedly was, determined to find out what she needed to know.
