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“I’m fine. It’s okay, I’m fine now.” Bobby Joe pushed himself up until he was sitting instead of lying flat. Vidalia held his shoulders, searched his eyes, read them, and knew in that moment that what had just happened was not a surprise to him. He already knew what was wrong. And he knew what he was doing.
“Maya, call Doc Shelby,” she said. “He’ll be home. He’s retired. Get him over here pronto. He’ll be faster than an ambulance anyway. You boys, help your father upstairs and get him into a bed.”
No one even thought to argue with her. People seldom did. Vidalia had been through enough emergencies to be able to handle herself in the midst of one. But she couldn’t get her head to stop spinning with a million questions. If he was sick and he hadn’t told her, then it had to be one of two things. Either it was nothing at all or it was damned serious.
The boys helped their father to his feet, because he wouldn’t let them carry him. He slung an arm around Jason, and nodded back at the other two. “Rob, Joey, get the tree upright and into a stand, will you? There’s a big one over there by the windows in front. It’ll look spectacular from outside, once we get the lights strung.”
The boys clearly knew something was going on.
So did Vidalia. She and Jason flanked Bobby Joe, but he looked at her next, smiled and it was a real smile. “I have no intention of missing that Sunday Dinner you promised me.”
“We’ll just see what Doc Shelby says.”
“All right,” he told her. “You bring him on upstairs when he gets here, will you Vidalia?”
She blinked. He was asking her to stay down here. He wanted time alone with his firstborn. Hell, what was going on with him?
She didn’t ask though. Not now. She smiled, knowing it didn’t reach her eyes, and nodded, and kept her tear spigot turned off. “All right.”
Jason helped his father up the stairs. When they were out of sight, Vidalia turned and saw seven younger sets of eyes staring at her, as if maybe she had the answers. She shook her head slowly. “I’m sorry, gang. I don’t know what’s wrong with him either, and I’m as worried as you are.”
“Maybe he just pushed himself too hard,” Selene said, staring up the stairway even though there was no longer anyone on it. “That tree must have been heavy.”
“That’s why he picked his from the bunch nearest the road, I’ll bet,” Vidalia muttered, kicking herself. “God, mine was almost halfway back, and he dragged it all the way for me.”
“Shouldn’t have been a problem,” Robert said. “Dad’s a young man.”
“He’s in better shape than I am,” Joey said, patting his flat belly as if it wasn’t.
“He’s never had a spell like this before?” Vidalia asked the men.
“Never,” Joey said.
“Never that we know of,” Robert added, sending a suspicious look up the stairs.
Vidalia got the feeling that young man was starting to have the same worries that she was. When a man sold all he had, closed his business, and went back to the town and the woman he’d long since left behind, maybe he had reasons. He’d said there was something he hadn’t told her.
Well, there was something she hadn’t told him, too, and once Doc finished up with him, she knew she had to. There was no more time for waiting around. Reverend Jackson was right. She’d have tanned her daughters’ hides if they’d kept the secrets she had.
She looked at her girls, shook her head. “I’ve got a tree out there needs taking to the Corral. And I hope to the good Lord someone remembered to turn off my pot roast.”
* * *
“Never been so embarrassed in my life,” he muttered as the local medic gave him the once over. “Dropped just like a sack of feed, right in front of the prettiest woman in creation.”
The retired medico who insisted Bobby Joe call him Doc, just smiled at him, his teeth too white and even to belong in such a well-lined face. His hair was shock white and curly. He smelled like peppermint and looked like Mark Twain.
“You don’t seem at all concerned,” Doc said when he’d finished listening to Bobby Joe’s chest, poking and prodding his belly, taking his blood pressure, and shining a bright light into his eyes.
“I’m not, Doc. You’re just here for show. I know exactly what’s wrong with me, and I’m not ready for anyone else to know. When I am, they will.”
Doc lifted his eyebrows. “There might be something I can do–”
“There’s not.” He sat up in the bed, feeling like himself again.
“You do realize that anything you tell me stays between us, don’t you? I may be retired, but my oath isn’t.”
Bobby Joe liked the old fellow. “I do know that. I also know that if you walk out of this room looking morose, no one’s gonna quit prodding me until I give them some answers. And I’m saving that for after the holidays.”
