chapter FIFTY-SIX
Five days later
Friday, April 8, 2016
“What’re you doin’ up?” Kaleb asked Zoey when he found her downstairs sitting on the couch, the small table lamp on beside her. It was a little after five in the morning, and he knew for a fact that when he’d gone to bed, his wife had been right there beside him. Since he’d spent the last two nights at the hospital, Travis had urged him to go home because he looked like hell. Never mind the fact that Zane had chimed in saying that was how he normally looked. Punk ass.
Zoey glanced up from the book she was holding, and there were tears in her eyes.
“Are you readin’ one of those romance things again that makes you bawl your eyes out?”
Her smile was sweet. “No, I’m not.” She held up the book for him to see.
Kaleb had to move closer to read what was on the cover. “1973?”
Zoey smiled. “It’s your mother’s diary.”
“Really?” Interesting. “And you’re reading it?”
She placed the book in her lap and pulled her blanket up closer to her chest. “I couldn’t help it. I brought one to your dad the other day, and he let me read a couple of the entries. I asked him if it would be okay to read them. I hope your mom won’t get mad.”
Kaleb lowered himself to the couch beside her. “Honestly, I think she’d be honored. She kept those diaries for a reason.” He wasn’t quite sure what that reason was, but he doubted she’d thought no one would ever get a chance to read her life story.
“It’s funny,” Zoey said, her voice low, “I’ve lived next door to your parents my entire life, and it never occurred to me all that they went through long before you or your brothers came along.” Her smile turned mischievous. “I think your old man might just be able to give you a run for your money when it comes to that dirty talk.”
Kaleb frowned. “Now that I don’t need to know about.”
Zoey laughed. “Looks like they had a pretty healthy relationship. And your mom apparently liked his dirty mouth.”
That was probably a fair assessment. “Let’s just say, as kids, we did walk into a few situations that should’ve scarred us for life.”
Zoey chuckled. “I can only imagine.”
The last thing Kaleb wanted to do was remember those times. Specifically, those times when his parents hadn’t expected one or more of their children to walk in on them. His mother and father, for as far back as he could remember, had been very … close.
“But it wasn’t always roses for them,” Zoey noted, a sadness in her tone once again. “Did you know your mother miscarried a baby a few years before Travis was born?”
Kaleb remembered his mother telling them the story once. She’d been so happy to find out she was pregnant, but she’d miscarried at week seven or eight, or something like that. Although she had reflected back on it with a warm smile, he knew in his heart that his mother still mourned the loss of that baby.
“It took her a long time after that to want to have another child,” he told Zoey now.
“I can’t even imagine.” Her eyes welled with tears. “She’s been through so much.”
She had. They both had. And Kaleb knew without a doubt that they would get through this, too.
Which was why he’d spent days on end on his knees, praying that the good Lord not take his mother from him. These past few days had been hell on all of them. Especially his father.
“Come on, Pop. We’re blowin’ this joint for a little while.”
Curtis’s first instinct was to tell Travis that he wouldn’t be going anywhere, but the look in his oldest boy’s eyes told him that would be the wrong answer.
Travis shook his head as though reading his thoughts. “Come on,” Travis stated firmly. “No is not an option.”
There were a million and one reasons why Curtis didn’t want to leave the hospital, and they all pointed right back to his wife lying in that bed, sleeping soundly for the first time today. The infection was still ravaging her body, and she was continuing to vomit profusely. Unfortunately, she wasn’t making any progress, and as the minutes continued to tick by, when she wasn’t throwing up, she was sleeping more and more, her body working overtime to fight the infection that was slowly and completely taking over her body. The infection the doctors still couldn’t pinpoint.
“Kylie and Zoey are gonna stay here with her. If anything happens, they’ll call me immediately. You have nothin’ to worry about, so get up off your—”
Curtis cocked his head at his son, the look alone cutting him off. But instead of arguing, he managed to get to his feet. “Where’re we goin’?” he grumbled.
“Across the street to grab a bite to eat. Everyone’s waitin’ on us.”
“Everyone?” Curtis frowned.
“Yeah, you know, the other six who you donated sperm for.”
Curtis shook his head in disbelief. Some of the things that came out of his boys’ mouths.
He stopped by Lorrie’s bedside, leaned down, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll be back in a bit. Love you, baby.”
She didn’t respond but he hadn’t expected her to. She was sleeping soundly, mostly due to the drugs they were feeding her for the pain.
On his way out the door, Kylie appeared, hugging him quickly before sending him on his way. He caught up to Travis, following him out of the hospital and directly to Travis’s truck. Just as his son had promised, they didn’t go far, only to the small Mexican food place across the street.
“You hangin’ in there, old man?” Travis asked as they walked through the parking lot.
Not nearly as much as he was letting on, but Travis didn’t need to know that. “I’m tryin’.”
“She’s gonna get well,” Travis assured him.
Curtis only hoped his boy was right. It had already been a week, and they were no closer to identifying the source of the infection, and the antibiotics didn’t seem to be working. The doctors had called in more doctors, everyone scratching their heads as they tried to determine what the issue was.
“Hey, Pop,” Ethan greeted as they approached the table.
Curtis nodded, taking a seat.
“Jared’s on his way,” Sawyer noted. “I invited him.”
Although Jared hadn’t been in Coyote Ridge but for a few years, having grown up in El Paso with his mother and father and gaggle of siblings, it was good to have the boy there with them. Gerald had called Curtis right after the big falling-out between Jared and his ex-wife, asking if Curtis could keep the boy preoccupied. Since Travis had just opened the resort and Curtis knew they were all moving toward handling that and less and less at Walker Demolition, it had seemed the natural thing to suggest. That was how Jared had come to Coyote Ridge.
And the good news was that it looked like the boy was there to stay.
“So, there’s a rumor goin’ around,” Brendon stated after the waiter had brought tea and chips.
Curtis looked up, realizing his son was speaking to him. “About?”
“About diaries Momma kept,” Braydon added.
Curtis smiled. “What about ’em?”
“Did she really keep a diary since she was fourteen?” Zane asked.
“She did,” he told the boys, reaching for a chip.
“I heard Zoey’s readin’ them?”
Curtis nodded. His daughter-in-law had asked, and after he’d okayed it with Lorrie, he’d given her the go-ahead. He was proud of the life they’d lived and he knew Lorrie was, too.
“You think that’s a good thing?” Zane’s question was directed at Kaleb. “Your woman readin’ about Pop’s dirty mouth? I heard her talkin’ about it.”
The group laughed, and Curtis shook his head.
“I can totally see Momma writin’ that in there,” Sawyer added. “I remember when I was little”—Sawyer glanced at Travis—“I think I was, like, three or four. Trav came into my room one night and told me I wasn’t allowed to get outta bed ’cause Momma and Daddy were makin’ lots of noises and they didn’t wanna be bothered.”
Oh, Lord.
Curtis felt a blush creep up his neck. He couldn’t help it.
Ethan barked a laugh. “So it is true!”
“What?” Curtis asked, looking from one boy to the next. “Y’all think you were the only wild ones in Coyote Ridge?”
Kaleb turned to him. “I still can’t believe you renamed the whole freakin’ town for her.”
“I woulda renamed the whole damn state if that’s what she’d wanted,” he said confidently.
“Wouldn’t doubt it,” Jared said, taking the empty seat beside Curtis. “Sorry I’m late. My daddy always said Uncle Curtis had it bad for Aunt Lorrie. Said he’d never seen anything like it.”
Curtis didn’t know about all that. It was love. Plain and simple. A love that had taken a firm grip on his heart long ago and never let go. Not much different than what his boys had found.
“There’s not a whole lot you can do when love finds you,” Ethan said, smiling at Curtis. “Right, Pop?”
“Nope. You just gotta give in and enjoy the ride.”