Chapter Twelve
Cole
My gut instinct told me that Allie would be fine, that she had a mild concussion at most, but I still couldn’t help but wake up several times that night and go down to check on her. Each time I did, she was asleep, lying on her back, her hair spread out against the white pillow, her face turned slightly to the side. Her breathing was soft, even. She looked entirely peaceful.
I finally fell asleep, just a few hours before the sun would begin to rise. When Declan came in to wake me up, I felt groggy, but then I got up, and I called Danielle and asked her to reschedule the patients that I had for the day.
“Are you sick?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “Just... something came up. A personal matter. I can’t really get into it right now. But I’ll be in tomorrow, so just do your best to reschedule everyone from today.”
“All right,” she said, sounding a bit skeptical.
Allie woke up a little after 9. I went in with a glass of water she took a tentative sip from.
“How are you feeling?”
“Well, I made it through the night.” She smiled. “I feel better,” she said. “I think it was good we skipped the hospital trip.”
“Do you think you can eat anything? I could make you some toast.”
“I could go for some toast,” she said. “Maybe just one piece.”
When I went out to make the toast, Declan tiptoed in with a stack of board books that he read to Allie.
I made sure she took it easy for the rest of the day. I did a few things around the house, but I kept going back to the living room where they were set up, and we’d all hang out. We played several games of Go Fish, and Declan read us some more stories, making up the words as he went along. I liked having Allie there, I liked the new dynamic, and when, later that afternoon, she told me that she felt much better and would be able to go home, I couldn’t help but feel a swell of disappointment. Not that I let that show on my face.
“My headache’s almost gone,” she said. “I think I am going to be A-okay.”
“Do you have to leave?” Declan asked.
Allie smiled. “Don’t worry, Declan. I’ll see you soon. Actually, do you want to drive me down to get my car?”
“Oh, that’s right. Your car is still there. Sure, why don’t we do that. And we can stop and get an ice cream on the way back, Declan,” I said, knowing that the promise of an ice cream cone would distract him from the fact that Allie was going back to her own house.
That Sunday, my parents showed up early afternoon and took Declan to the playground. I went for a ride, though it was very humid, and I was drenched in sweat before I’d even gone a few miles. I rode for maybe an hour, but then cut the ride short, went home, and took a cold shower.
I was just getting out when I heard my parents and Declan come back. I could tell the heat had tired Declan out, too, so I brought him up to his room and put him down for a nap, the fan pointed straight on him. When I went back downstairs, my parents were sitting out on the deck, under the umbrella, drinking glasses of lemonade.
“He’s tuckered out,” I said, sitting down with them. There was a slight breeze, which, while not entirely refreshing, at least moved the warm air around a little.
“He had a good time. We made sure he stayed hydrated,” my mother said. She set her glass down. “Declan said his teacher stayed over here the other night?”
“His teacher, our neighbor,” I said. I nodded in the direction of Allie’s house. “There was a bit of an incident at the fundraiser, and I thought she should stay over, just to be on the safe side.”
“Is everything all right?”
“They let someone ride one of the jet skis who shouldn’t have been on it, and she ended up colliding with Allie, and she hit her head. But she’s fine.”
“Oh, my.” My mother shook her head. “Those things can be very dangerous.”
“Not if you know how to use them properly, which this person didn’t. Everyone is lucky that nothing more serious happened.”
“That was nice of you to let her stay here like that.” My mother sighed and rubbed her eyes.
“Everything okay?” I asked. “You’ve seemed kind of... I don’t know, like something’s been bothering you.”
My mother pursed her lips and frowned, a sure sign that something was not actually okay.
“We saw Sam today,” she said softly. “At the grocery store. He works there now. The one over in Wakeby. We had just stopped on our way over to get some of those cookies that Declan likes.”
I nodded. “How’s he doing?”
“I didn’t talk to him,” she said, shaking her head. “No, we didn’t talk to him. He was bagging groceries in another line, and I happened to see him so we just went and did the self-checkout. I think your father wanted to talk to him, but I didn’t. Couldn’t.” She shook her head again. “I didn’t think he’d be able to work. Even something like bagging groceries. That surprised me.”
Sam Powell had been my little sister Marissa’s boyfriend, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks if there ever was one. He’d gotten the shit kicked out of him not long before my sister got sent away, effectively ending their relationship. The beating he took had caused him permanent brain damage, though I had a feeling that if she were alive today, none of that would have mattered to Marissa, and she’d still be with him.
“Do you think I should have talked with him?”
“Only if you wanted to,” I said.
She gave a short, strangled-sounding laugh. “Wanted to? What would I have said to him? That’s what I said to your father when we were finally out in the car—what exactly was it that he was planning to say?”
“I don’t know, Mom,” I said. I rubbed a hand over my eyes. This wasn’t the conversation I wanted to be having right now. Or ever, really.
I was saved, though, when my father asked me how the practice was going, and we started to talk about that, instead. The conversation then moved on to the weather, to sports, to how Declan was doing in school. And then Declan was up from his nap, a little bleary-eyed at first, his hair sticking up on one side of his head.
“What do you feel like doing for the rest of the day, buddy?” I asked.
“Can we get ice cream?”
“I did promise him we could get ice cream,” my mother said. “We were going to stop on the way home, but I could tell that he was too tired.”
“Too tired for ice cream?” I raised my eyebrows.
“I’m not too tired anymore! Look how much energy I have!”
And Declan shot off my father’s lap and started racing around the backyard like a pinball.
“Must be nice to have all that energy,” my dad said, laughing.
I was about to tell Declan that we could go get ice cream then, but then he must’ve spied Allie, because he shot across the yard and into her backyard, yelling her name.
“Where’s he going?” my mother asked. I stood up.
“Why don’t you come meet Declan’s teacher,” I said.
My mother brightened. “The woman you saved?”
“Yes, Mom, though we don’t need to refer to her as that, okay? Her name’s Allie.”
Allie must’ve been working in the garden, because that’s where we found the two of them when we got over there. She stood up and brushed her hands off when she saw that my parents were with me.
“Nice to meet you,” she said after they introduced themselves.
“We’re going to get ice cream!” Declan said.
Allie wiped at her forehead. “Are you?” she asked. “It’s certainly a good day for it.”
“Why don’t you join us?” my mother asked. “We were just going to go into town and get this boy here an ice cream—it’d be lovely if you joined us. That is, if you feel up to it, of course—I heard about what happened at the fundraiser. I hope you’re all right.”
“I’m fine,” Allie said. “Just a little banged up, but luckily, Cole was there. And I feel much better now.”
“We’re so glad to hear that,” my mother said.
We all packed into the Range Rover, my mother insisting that I sit in the front and she, Allie, and Declan in the back. It felt a little bit awkward at first, like I was on a date with my parents with my son in tow, but I could tell that it was definitely helping my mother’s mood to be around Allie, which was good. I didn’t want my mother to think about running into Sam because I knew all the guilt that would bring up for her.