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She sighed, resulting in another spike of anxiety.
“Well, yes and no. Your father had a little bit of an accident on a job site, but he’s okay.”
“An accident? What kind of accident? Is he really all right?” I wasn’t going to need coffee to get my blood pumping this morning. My dad owned his own construction company, so the ways he could have been injured on the job seemed infinite. All the worst-case scenarios were currently racing through my brain.
“Yes, sugar, he’s really fine, and ornery as a bear in spring. Some rotted floorboards gave way, and he hurt his leg pretty good. The doctor put him in a contraption and told him he needs to stay off his feet for a couple weeks. You can imagine how well that went over. I’m going to have to borrow some horse tranquilizers from the Gilberts to keep him still.”
“He’s lucky it was just his leg! Can I talk to him?” I needed to hear his voice to convince my frantic heart that he really was okay. There was a long pause. “Mama? Can you put Daddy on please?”
I knew there was no way the man was still sleeping. He hadn’t slept past five a.m. in twenty-some years, not even on weekends or holidays. Waking up at the crack of dawn was his religion.
“Now, I don’t want you to panic. He’s perfectly fine. He’s already called me to complain about what they served for breakfast.” I did not like the way that sounded at all. “The doctors wanted to keep him overnight for observation. He should be discharged later today.”
“Why would they need to keep him overnight for a leg injury?”
“Well, the rotted floor was in the attic and he...well...he kind of fell through the floor.”
“What!” I yelled, not caring that I was in a silent office. “He fell through a floor?”
“It was a slow fall. And he landed on some insulation they had pulled out. He never lost consciousness and didn’t hit his head. The doctors said they were just acting out of an abundance of caution is all.”
I rubbed my forehead, trying to process this information.
“A slow fall. Through a floor.”
“It could have been a lot worse. God was looking out for him.” I heard her suck in a deep breath. “We’re going to need some help around here while he recovers. I can’t be home with him all day, and he’s going to need someone managing the office. You’re always saying how nice your job is, because you can work from anywhere. I was hoping you could come home for a bit to help.”
The panic morphed into a ball of dread and fear and guilt that left me rubbing my forehead so hard I was liable to rub my eyebrows off.
“I thought Sissy was home,” I began carefully. “The last I heard she wasn’t working.”
“Sissy is very busy right now.”
I snorted. “Doing what exactly? Sacrificing small woodland creatures?” Mama sighed the long-suffering sigh of a parent who didn’t understand why her children couldn’t get along after all these years. “Sorry, that was mean. I should have said stealing the souls from children so she never ages.”
“Don’t you think you two are a little old for this sibling rivalry nonsense?” I made a noise that she chose to ignore. “Sissy is helping me around the salon, on top of wedding planning.”
“She’s working as a wedding planner now?” Sissy changed careers like most people changed underpants. It was hard to maintain full-time employment while looking for a wealthy husband, and being a trophy wife was Sissy’s life-long ambition.
“What?” Mama sounded exasperated for some reason. “No! She’s planning her own wedding. What are you thinking, Sutton?”
“Uh, that I didn’t even know she was engaged.”
“How is that possible? You must have missed her text about the engagement.”
“Yeah, that’s not how texting works.”
“Then you probably ignored her calls, as you do. Are you checking your mail? You should have gotten your invitation to her engagement party weeks ago.”
“I check it every day, Mama, and no invitation.”
She hmmed. “It must have gotten lost in the mail. The same thing happened with the Petersons’ invitation.”
“I’ll just bet it did.”
“This is all the more reason for you to come home. You won’t miss another thing, and I’m sure Sissy will want you to come wedding dress shopping with her.”
I decided to ignore her comment about wedding dress shopping. There was no doubt in my mind that Sissy would not care whether I went wedding dress shopping with her.
