Chapter 5
Elise
The phone only rang twice before I heard her voice. I had no idea what her schedule was any longer, so it was a call with risks. Shay was the first girlfriend I met when I had moved to Humble and had become my best friend overnight. I loved her immediately—her spunk, her confidence, and her attitude—until I met Ford, and she asked that I not date him. She was convinced that he was for her and had me swear not to go near him.
You can see how well that played out. And she had been dating his best friend, Luke, off and on ever since. She has put the poor guy through the wringer.
She had moved four hours away for Northern Texas University. She definitely did more partying than learning, but that wasn’t a big shock.
“Hey, Shay.”
“Well, well, well,” she muttered.
“You busy?” I asked hesitantly.
“Just about to crawl my ass out of bed.” She always did sleep until noon.
“Me too. I stayed in bed longer today since I don’t have anything going on today. Ford just got up to take a shower.”
“Same man every day, huh? You’re not sick of it yet?” I could tell Shay was joking, but she also meant exactly the words she spoke.
“Nope, and don’t think I ever will.”
“You never know.” She smart mouthed back, and I rolled my eyes. She had been saying she didn’t want to settle down for as long as I could remember.
“Yes, I do actually … and you could have the same thing too, if you …”
“Spare me. You didn’t call me to lecture, did you?” Shay didn’t have much patience, similar to a first grader.
“Hell, no. I just hadn’t talked to you since we got married and then the honeymoon. I just missed you.” And I did. There were times when both of our lives were so busy, but now that things were slowing down for me, I felt her void.
“I miss you too, Elise. I thought I would love being away from Humble, but I hate it.”
“Grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”
“Sometimes, but I had to find out for myself.” I was frankly shocked that she was admitting this.
“You always do.”
“So tell me about your honeymoon …”
“It was amazing. And when I say amazing I mean a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I couldn’t walk for a week when we got back.” I smiled as I thought about our time together, and how I didn’t want it to end.
“Colorado, right?”
“Yep. Can you believe his parents paid for it all?”
“Why shouldn’t they? They are loaded.”
“I don’t care about that.” Shay always did care about money.
“You never have. I mean, shit you have money too thanks to Thad.”
“Yes, I guess. Anyway, we had our own hot tub on the back porch. We sat in it for hours after skiing. It was just him and me the entire time. We had room service deliver most of our meals and did nothing but just be us. And it was the first time I had ever made love by a fire.” I paused for a minute.
“I had never seen so much snow … I did pretty good skiing, but it’s not something I would want to do all the time. Ford never left my side to make sure I didn’t bust my ass.”
“So he’s a good skier too?”
“Yes. Good at everything.”
“Figures … That’s great, Elise. So was it long enough?”
“No, never. But he had to get back for work, and I had to get back for school and work.”
“How much longer till you are done?”
“Not long.”
“And then are you packing up that day to move to Humble?” She stated knowing my plan.
“I wish. I don’t know if we will live with Carol and Terry for a bit while we find a place or what. They have told us we are more than welcome, but I don’t want to invade their privacy. I mean, it was different when I was in high school.”
“Yeah, I get that. Especially now since you can do it whenever you want, wherever and however.”
“We have been able to do that for a long time, Shay. Always with the sex, aren’t you?”
“Yes … well, it sounds like everything is perfect.” I wasn’t sure if I sensed sarcasm or true happiness for us.
“Things aren’t perfect … but pretty damn close.”
“I see perfection.”
“I think it is more of knowing that no matter what happens, we will get through anything at anytime.”
“That’s a big commitment.”
“Something neither of us takes lightly.”
“I’m not sure I want to venture into that territory.”
“Come on over to the dark side.” I giggled. Ford came walking over to me with just a towel on that barely hung from his waist. I couldn’t believe he was all mine.
“Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?”
“I’m not …”
“Ford must be out of the shower …”
“Don’t you dare think about it. He’s my husband, and that is completely off-limits.”
“I’d better go.”
“I mean it, Shay!!!” I started to laugh as we hung up, knowing she might have been thinking of him, but I really had no right to be jealous. He was mine. All mine.
Elise
The knock on the door threw me completely off. We didn’t get guests often and especially not in the evening. Terry and Carol always came earlier in the day, and Ford’s parents had only been to our place three times.
The knocking continued until I stomped to the door.
“What in the hell took you so long to answer the door?” Shay stands before me looking pissed all to hell.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I thought I would come to town for a bit and stopped here on the way to Humble.”
We hugged each other like it had been ages and didn’t let go.
Ford had heard that she had called things off with Luke, her high school boyfriend, again. But this time, he thought it would stick. They were in college and still playing the same games as in high school. Well, Shay anyway. Luke worshipped her, and that had never changed not even for a split second.
The timer went off in the kitchen for the microwave. I had forgotten to thaw the meat last night for the meal tonight, so I had to do it quickly.
She followed me into the kitchen with a smirk. “Look at you … Miss housewife … that sounds so odd. I don’t know if I will ever get used to saying that.”
“Well, you have to because, believe it or not, I am married.”
“Blah, blah, blah. I’ve never seen you so happy,” Shay said sweetly smiling.
“I’ve never been so happy. You want something to drink? Wine, beer, water, soda?”
“Beer is good.” She made her way to the couch and plopped down like she had been traveling for days.
“So fill me on what’s new?” I took a seat beside her, picking up a throw pillow the shape of Texas that had home written across it.
“Things are good, busy … I’m ready to be done with school. In fact, I’ve thought about just saying to hell with it and get the hell out.”
“Don’t do that. You have already gone so far …”
“Nah, I don’t really care anymore. I just wanted to party, and party I have done.”
“Of course, you did. You have always been good at that!”
“And I miss someone more than I ever thought I could.”
I didn’t say anything, letting her talk her way out of this conversation.
“So tell me about you, Elise … I need to hear what has been going… I miss you so much. I mean, I know you got married without me here … And you had a sex-tastic honeymoon.”
“You just want to hear the details about my husband.”
“Okay …” She smiled evilly.
“Things are good. I honestly am ready to be back in Humble because I’m over the college scene, not that I was ever in it. One thing has me a bit worried, but I don’t want to bring it up to Ford. Did Luke tell you what happened at the last game?”
“Yeah, he did. I can only imagine how you must have felt. Why didn’t you call me?”
“I didn’t do anything but sit beside him. I was worried about him … I didn’t call anyone.” And I didn’t other than his parents and Terry and Carol.
“Anyway, Ford has been acting off lately. I need to just bring it up to him, but I fear it is only going to piss him off. He doesn’t like to be babied.”
“Who the hell cares? You are his wife, so if you are concerned, you should ask him.”
“Now that I think about it, when we had brunch with his mom the day after the wedding, she was looking at him completely differently. Like she knew something.”
“I very seriously doubt she knows something you don’t. That isn’t like Ford at all.”
“I hope you’re right.” Maybe I am just looking into things too much.
“Possibly, but you should ask. Put your mind at ease.”
She leaned in to give me a quick hug.
“I’m still upset about not being at the wedding. I don’t know if I will ever get over that!”
“We only wanted us,” I explained and probably should have felt guilty but didn’t.
“I’m half the reason y’all are together, so I should have at least been able to come to the wedding.”
“Bullshit, Shay. That is a good one, and I wish Ford was here so he could have heard that. He would have laughed his ass off.”
We both laughed for a minute and then hugged again.
“I really hope that one day I have what you have.”
“You will, Shay.”
“I’m not sure … you know you always seemed like you were different when you moved to Humble, and even when you tried not to be, you were. You already knew what was important in life.”
“Because I didn’t have it … not in the way I should have.”
“I did have it, but look at me. Look at you.”
“So we wanted different things in life. There isn’t anything wrong with that,” I reasoned with her.
“Elise, you got it all because you were smart about it.”
“I just happened to have had the right guy come in my life and make me fall in love.”
Shay rolled her eyes and laid her head back on the couch. “Make it stop … I should have never bent on letting you date him!”
“And that would have never worked, and you know that.” I looked at her like I was calling her bluff.
“I know it.”
“Y’all looked so pathetic; I knew that it would last.” She smirked.
“What? I liked him instantly. He was different, and I could tell.”
“He was your knight in shining armor. And he immediately wanted to be with you. It was so obvious that a stranger could have pegged it.”
“And you tried to block it.” I loved to remind Shay of her attempt to keep Ford to herself. Well … really, he was never hers, but she had hoped he would be. The popular girl falling in love with the star running back. Match made in heaven. Instead, he ended up in love with the girl who was sent to Humble that was not only lost but lacked trust.
“I swear you are going to bring that up when we are seventy years old.”
“Probably.”
*****
Shay left an hour later, and I got busy in the kitchen preparing dinner with a smile on my face. I was lucky, wasn’t I? And she was right; I need to talk to Ford and put my mind at ease.
Dinner was ready and waiting for Ford and me at exactly seven o’clock. He had a few teacher conferences after school today, which was inconvenient since I had just finished school.
Seven thirty came and went, and I paced the floors, wondering what was taking him so long. I had called his phone five times and got his voicemail. I had texted him three times with no response.
My phone rang, and the loudness of the ring in the otherwise silent house startled me. I seemed to always have something playing—an audio book, TV or radio—needing some type of sound to distract me from my thoughts. But not today.
I answer on the third ring already a little shaken.
“May I speak to Mrs. Kelly please?”
“Speaking.”
“This is Dr. Pelker. I’m calling because I have admitted your husband to Rockwall Hospital. He …”
“What? What? Is he okay? What happened?” I hoped that the words I managed to get out made sense.
“At the moment, he is stable, but asleep so I wanted to inform you of the update.”
“Update? Wait, what? Update on what? When did he get there?”
“He had an appointment today at one o’clock during his lunch hour and had a seizure in the office. I thought it would be best to admit him, observe him, and do a follow-up scan on his head to check the growth of the tumor.”
I was speechless. The word “tumor” stuck me like a hot poker over and over.
“I’m on my way.”
“He is in room 282. Have the nurse page me when you arrive, and I will get by to talk to you. Hopefully, he will be awake so we can discuss his health.”
“Of course.”
“Mrs. Kelly, were you aware that he had consulted with an oncologist for radiation? It is our first attempt to shrink the tumor.”
“No …” The words rolled off the doctor’s tongue as if I would’ve known the information. I couldn’t very well say I wasn’t aware of that or the fact that my husband had a seizure. How many had he had that I didn’t know about? Why would he keep such a life-threatening thing from me? That wasn’t helping me, that was hurting me. He was doing the same fucking thing that Thad did, and it pissed me off to no end. Why did the people I love have to leave me?
“It’s really best that we attack this as aggressively as we can. He is far too young, but the head injuries have done a job on his brain. Seizures are a sign that …”
“Thank you, Doctor, for your time, and I am heading that way. I should be there in ten minutes tops.”
Hitting end on my phone and staring off into the distance made me feel that my intuition was right on. My husband had a brain tumor, and somehow, someway, we were going to get through this because there was no way in hell I was losing him. It wasn’t acceptable, and I was not going to let it happen. That is what I tried to convince myself as the tears fell down my face anyway.