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Carly shook her head, unforgiving, as she hitsendand replaced her phone in her back pocket. “Uh-uh. You heard both doctors. We need to keep your blood pressure nice and low, which means you’re taking a break from some of that stuff for a while. And don’t give the nurse any grief about taking your medicine, you hear me?”
Her mother’s physician had timed his visit to coincide with the ICU doctor’s rounds a few hours ago, and together they’d come up with a game plan to keep hermamaas healthy as possible after she returned home. While the dietary changes and the medication schedule were going to take some getting used to, they seemed like a casual stroll in Central Park compared to the alternative.
“The doctors said I’m going to be just fine,” her mother argued, although Carly noted it came without the usual fierceness. “I’m good as new.”
“You’re exhausted,” Carly answered, as gently as she could while still letting her mother know she meant business. “And you need to take care of yourself.” She stood next to the bed, mercilessly rearranging the silverware on the tray until it was ruler-straight.
“There’s the pot calling the kettle black.” Her mother shifted her weight against the lumpy mattress. Her pillow slid behind her graying head at an awkward angle, but she paid it little mind as she leveled Carly with a knowing stare.
“What are you talking about? I take care of myself.” Carly pressed one hip against the bed, bracing herself so she could lean in and straighten her mother’s pillow.
“No,tesoro mio. No, you don’t. Not here.” Her mother reached up to place a frail palm over Carly’s heart, and Carly jumped at both the unexpected contact and at the term of endearment her father had usually reserved just for her.
“That’s crazy, Ma.” But even as she uttered the words, Carly knew they weren’t exactly true. After all, if she’d been more careful with her heart in the first place, then Travis wouldn’t have had any room to stomp all over her. And as if once-bitten wasn’t bad enough, now she was risking it all over again with Jackson. While picturing Jackson cheating or lying to her was laughable, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t end up hurting her in some other way. Plus, right up until she’d caught Travis with his chef’s whites in a ball on the floor at Gracie’s, she’d have found the idea of him cheating and lying just as far-fetched.
God, what the hell was she doing?
Her mother cleared her throat, bringing Carly’s thoughts back to the hospital room. “It’s not so crazy. Look at you.”
Unease strummed up the length of Carly’s spine, and she froze. “I don’t want to fight about this.” God, this was going to go bad quickly if they didn’t change the subject. “Maybe you should get a little rest, huh?” She smoothed a hand over the thin blanket covering her even thinner mother, but her mother persisted.
“I’m not arguing with you. I’m trying to tell you. You want to get a divorce? So be it. I can’t change your mind, and I’m starting to think it might be the right thing, anyway. But you need to look at the bigger picture. You need to look atyou.”
Carly opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Finally, she managed to say, “You think I should get a divorce?”
Her mother made a face as if she’d bitten a lemon. “Oh, Travis is a sweet-talker, but he’s no saint. He put the moves on Rose De Luca’s daughter right in front of God and everybody at Our Lady of Mercy last week. Like Rose and I don’t have eyes in our heads,” she snorted, waving her hand in a tangle of IV tubes.
“My point is, even if you divorce Travis, you can’t keep hiding from your life. These things that trouble you, they’re gonna find you no matter where you live. If you want them to go away, you’ve got to deal with them.” Her mother looked at her with absolute certainty, and Carly felt her gut plummet toward her knees. She sat on the edge of the bed next to her mother.
“I’m not hiding on purpose, and I never meant to cut you out of my life. It’s just that the restaurant business is so tight-knit. Everyone knows everyone else, and they all believed Travis over me. I thought that if I could get out of the spotlight until things passed, I’d be able to come back and start fresh. But now…”
She trailed off, unsure how to end her sentence. Her mother was right. Simply being out of sight wasn’t going to fix anything, not with Travis or anyone else. If she wanted to prove herself, she was going to have to fight for it, to earn it.
To reclaim it.
“Are you happy, living out there in the mountains?” Her mother’s question was strangely devoid of judgment, and Carly’s answer tumbled out before it had even fully formed in her mind.
“Yes.” Her cheeks flamed at how readily the affirmation popped out of her, but she realized with a start that it was true. “I mean, I wasn’t at first, but I love La Dolce Vita. And having my own kitchen is a dream come true, even if it isn’t in a big-name city.” Carly hedged, dancing around the six-foot-four reason for the rest of her happiness in Pine Mountain. “But I still miss it here. And you’re right. I can’t hide from my problems with Travis. Plus, I belong with you and Dom and Frankie and Vin.”
“Hmph. You belong where you belong. You don’t have to be right in front of Travis to deal with him, Carlotta, and that will come with time. I’m talking about taking care ofyou, eh? No matter where you are.”
“Now who’s the pot and kettle? Come on,Mama. This is a two-way street.” Carly scooped up her mother’s hand. “You have to promise you’ll let us take care of you, too. And I need to be around for that.”
Her mother muttered a curse in Italian, but a smile lurked beneath it. “I suppose I could give it a try. After all, I want to stick around to see you happy.”
“I’m happy now, remember?” Carly smoothed a strand of salt and pepper hair back from her mother’s face, and something odd thumped against her ribs.
“No. Really happy, with everything your heart wants,” she said. “Your father and I had that, and I thought you would have it with Travis, too. I know I was wrong, but that’s why I wanted you to give your marriage a chance.” Her mother’s voice, normally so certain, wavered over the words.
The hitch made hot tears prickle beneath Carly’s tired eyelids. She’d already risked everything once, only to end up with a failed marriage and a fragile heart that couldn’t take another beating.
“I don’t know if I’m cut out for a relationship,” she admitted, and her mother gave her hand a squeeze.
“Maybe. Maybe not. Just take care of you,cucciola. The happiness will come.”
Her mother’s reply was summarily cut off by a familiar, teasing voice, and Carly gave her face a surreptitious wipe with the back of her hand as Dominic poked his head past the privacy curtain.
“Knock, knock. One turkey sandwich on whole wheat, lettuce, tomato, mustard, coming right up.” He held up a deli bag with a flourish, and Carly’s heart pattered in her chest as Jackson followed her brother into the room holding two more bags.
