CHAPTER 6
“Dad’s in the hospital,” Aubrey said. “Where are you?”
“Patagonia.” Adrienne glanced around at the windswept, barren landscape. “Literally the middle of nowhere, but I think Puerto Natales must be close because we have reception. Tell me what happened.”
“They think he had a stroke.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“They don’t know. My flight leaves tomorrow, but I can’t stay for more than a few days.” Aubrey’s unuttered question hung in the air. “Mom is…well, she shouldn’t be alone.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Adrienne promised.
The sound of a clicking keyboard came through the phone. “I found you a flight from Punta Arenas to Seattle.” She softly swore. “The fastest flight is more than twenty-four hours. Want me to book it?”
“What’s going on?” Nick sat beside her, his breath tickling the back of her neck.
“My dad has had a stroke,” Adrienne told him.
Aubrey swore again. “The cheapest flight is thousands of dollars.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Nick said. “I’ll pay for it.”
“No,” Adrienne protested.
“You’re here because of me,” Nick said. “Let me get you out of here.”
“I’m here because I want to be here.”
“And now you want to be home.”
“I’m not arguing with you,” Adrienne said.
Aubrey laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Adrienne demanded.
“You sound just like Mom and Dad,” Aubrey told her.
Aubrey made the arrangements using Adrienne’s credit card, but Adrienne only half-listened to the particulars. Her thoughts were already with her parents.
#
“This time with you has been amazing,” Adrienne said to Nick as they stood on the curb of the Punta Arenas airport. She leaned in to kiss his cheek. “But this is goodbye.”
“For now,” Nick put in.
She had so much more to say, but she had no time. He drew her in for a quick hug. Briefly, she allowed herself to sag against him.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Keep to the plan. Sing your songs. You never really needed me, you know? Get yourself a tripod—”
“I can’t replace you with a tripod,” Nick told her. “You were my cheerleader. No, more than that. You were my catalyst. You made everything happen for me.”
“And I can still do that, but from a distance. I need to be with my parents.”
Nick nodded, hugged her again, and turned away. Adrienne’s heart twisted as she watched him walk through the airport . He looked naked without his guitar bumping at his side. She felt torn between wanting to stay with him and burning anxiousness for her mom and dad.
It dawned on her that for Seb she felt nothing at all.
#
A day later she arrived in Seattle to find a weak sun struggling to break free from a shroud of clouds. She shivered in the misty gloom as she waited on the curb for Aubrey to pick her up. After several minutes, she spotted her parents’ aged Oldsmobile puttering through the line of cars.
Aubrey steered the Olds alongside Adrienne. Moments later, Adrienne was slowly thawing beneath a blasting heater.
“How are they?” she asked.
Aubrey nodded. “Good, but try not to be shocked when you see Dad. He’s lost use of his left side. The doctors are hopeful, though. He’s in amazing condition for his age.”
“And Mom?”
“It’ll be hard. He’s always been large and in charge. He’s not going to surrender his dominance just because half his body refuses to work properly.”
“Do you think,” Adrienne swallowed, hating the thought and not even wanting to know the answer, “that this could be permanent?”
“They’ve scheduled a brain scan for tomorrow. We should know more then.”
Adrienne nodded and looked out the window. Her parents had always been such brainiacs. It was impossible to think of them in any other way, but she supposed it could happen. In time, one or possibly both could lose their mental capacity. Maybe her dad already had.
“Are you going to see Seb?” Aubrey asked.
“Yes.”
“What are you going to say to him?”
Adrienne sucked in a deep breath. “What do you think about divorce?”
“That it’s a whole lot easier if there aren’t children involved.”
Adrienne thought about this. Of course she agreed, but it wasn’t really the answer she was looking for. “I made a vow before God.”
“So did Seb.”
“I can’t let his behavior determine mine.”
“You’ve told me this before,” Aubrey said through tight lips. “Who are you trying to convince, me or you?”
“You don’t like him.” This wasn’t a question.
“I never have.”
“Why?”
“He was always smarmy. Trying too hard to be something he wasn’t.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before I married him?”
“Would it have stopped you?”
Adrienne thought about pointing out that Aubrey, who had never been married, was unqualified to be handing out marital advice, but since she didn’t want to start an argument she bit her lip.
“Where are we going?” Aubrey asked. “Will you stay at your apartment or at the house?”
“With Mom.” Adrienne slid her sister a glance. “My being here has everything to do with Mom and Dad and very little to do with Seb.”
Aubrey smiled. “Of course. Why would you stay with your husband when you can stay with your parents?”
“One more word and I promise you I’ll start ripping out the plants in Mom’s garden.”
Aubrey braked hard at the street signal and fixed a glare on Adrienne. “You don’t mean that!”
Adrienne nodded and snapped her fingers. “Make me mad and the lilacs are out of there.”
“Mom won’t let you!”
“I’ll do it while she’s sleeping.”
“You’re evil.”
Adrienne just grinned.
“Man, I’m glad you’re here,” Aubrey said.
“Me, too.”
“The dogwood tree is off limits.”
“There are no promises,” Adrienne said. “Nothing is safe.”
#
They stopped at the hospital to visit their parents, but both her father and mother were sleeping even though it was the middle of the day. Her father lay on the bed with an IV strapped to his arm. With his shock of white hair and graying skin, he looked corpse-like. Her mom dozed in the chair beside him, her hair hiding her face.
“Let’s not wake them,” Aubrey whispered.
Adrienne nodded. “Take me to my apartment.”
“Are you sure?”
“Seb will be at the office. If I want to pick up some clothes and my car without drama, right now is the perfect time.”
“Seems cowardly,” Aubrey said.
“Keep talking and your tomato plants are toast.”
Aubrey pressed her lips together as they headed down the hall.
“I know I need to talk to him,” Adrienne conceded, “but the thing is, I don’t know what to say.”
“Why can’t you tell him his corn has been shucked?”
Adrienne elbowed her sister.
Aubrey’s grin faded as she nodded at a man in scrubs with a stethoscope striding toward them. “Dad’s doctor.”
Adrienne wondered how a man dressed in baby blue could command such presence.
“Dr. Lazlo.” Aubrey went to meet him. “Can you tell me any more about my father?”
Dr. Lazlo consulted his tablet. “I’m sorry, no. We should know more after his brain scan. He’s sleeping now, which is good. Sleep is when our bodies heal.” He smiled at Adrienne, prompting her to put out her hand and introduce herself.
He took her hand and held it a minute too long, making her wonder if he’d noticed her wedding ring. Maybe she should have had him shake her left hand.
“He’ll be glad you’re here,” Dr. Lazlo said as he shot a glance at their dad’s room over his shoulder. “They’ll both be.”
“I’m glad I’m here, too,” she said, although just then she heard a familiar voice and her heart stopped for a moment. “Excuse me.” She followed Nick’s voice to an open door.
A tiny woman sat propped up on her bed with a lunch tray in front of her. When she caught Adrienne staring at the TV screen, she waved her fork at Nick’s image. “They call him the Where’s Waldo of Music. I call him dreamy.”
“He just follows you around, doesn’t he?” Aubrey asked from behind her.
“He’s everywhere,” the tiny woman said as she attacked her dessert. “Kind of like the holy spirit,” she said through a mouthful of cake.
“Wowzers,” Aubrey said. “Nick just got elevated to deity.”
#
“There’s my car.” Adrienne nodded at her Camry when Aubrey pulled the Oldsmobile into the apartment complex’s parking garage.
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Aubrey asked.
“Absolutely. I have a set of car keys in my purse.” She winked at her sister. “So I can make a quick getaway if needed.”
“What if he’s there?”
“Then we’ll talk.”
“But you said you don’t know what to say!” Aubrey’s voice lifted in panic.
Not knowing what to say or do was probably what Aubrey, as a professor, feared the most. But as an attorney, Adrienne was used to thinking on her feet.
Although, not when it came to matters of the heart. In that area, she was almost as inept as her sister.
“I’ll see you back at the house,” Adrienne promised.
“I’m going back to the hospital,” Aubrey said.
Adrienne nodded. “Call me when either Mom or Dad wakes.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to rest after your long flight?”
“I’m sure.”
Adrienne supposed she could claim the apartment as hers and force Seb out, but that would require a lot of emotional energy she didn’t have.
Strangely, she didn’t feel sad as she moved through the rooms she used to consider hers. Seb had picked out most of the furniture and the art on the walls. It looked like a spread from a magazine, but one she didn’t particularly enjoy.
She took pity on the dying plants on the kitchen windowsill and found a box so she could take them to her parents’ house, knowing Aubrey would approve. The basil appeared scraggly and the dill had wilted but the rosemary seemed hardy, if prickly.
Most of the apartment wore an empty and abandoned look, but a discarded pair of black socks lay on the floor next to Seb’s side of the bed. She tried not to look as she headed for the closet and her clothes, but then she saw a hair. A long, straight black hair lay on the fluffy white pillow.
That hair said more to her than Seb ever could. It was the final statement in her long debate. Of course, she’d known about Therese. Why hadn’t she ever considered her—the other woman—in Adrienne’s bed?
Adrienne stomped into the kitchen, pulled the roll of trash bags from the cupboard and began to fill one bag after another with everything she considered her own. In her closet, she considered her business suits. She hated them—not only their boxy shoulders and slim skirts, but because they represented the person she’d become. In the end, she left all but the most expensive one hanging in her, make that Seb’s, closet.
On her way to her parents’ house, she called Crenshaw and told him she quit.
#
“Life it too short,” she told her mom as they sat side by side in her dad’s hospital room. “Watching you take care of Dad made me realize I have to let Seb go. It’s not fair to him, or to me, to try and stay.”
Her mom patted Adrienne’s hand. “If you think you’ll be happier without him, then of course that’s what you have to do.”
Adrienne frowned at the raindrops streaming down the window. “But I made vows before God. Those should count for something, right? I know you and Dad aren’t religious, but…”
“Actually,” her mom interrupted, “it might surprise you to know that I’ve been doing a lot of praying these last few days.”
“Really?”
Her mom nodded. “But don’t tell your dad. I’m not sure he’ll understand.”
“Oh, I understand,” her dad said, uttering his first words in a week.
“Harvey!” Adrienne’s mom bounced to her feet.
“Dad!” Adrienne called out, then, “Nurse! Nurse!”
Minutes later, the room was full of doctors, nurses, and the buzz of excited and hopeful conversations. Adrienne stepped back to watch while tears clouded her vision. Her dad caught her eye and winked.
#
The day her father was released from the hospital, something snapped in Adrienne. She put on her expensive business suit, pulled her hair back into a tight chignon, picked up her nearly empty briefcase, and marched into Seb’s office.
The secretary raised her eyebrows as Adrienne strode past the reception desk. A few people in their cubes looked up. Their gazes followed her into Seb’s office.
“Adrienne,” Seb said, leaning back in his chair. “This is a surprise.”
“Really?” She shut the door with a loud click and turned to face him.
“What’s this about?”
“You didn’t even call when my dad had his stroke.”
“So?”
“I thought you loved my dad. He loves you.”
Seb ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry, Adrienne, but I haven’t read the handbook on how to navigate family relations with your ex.”
“You shouldn’t need a handbook on how to be a decent person.” She put her briefcase on the desk and clicked it open. “But I’m not here to reform you. I’ve brought the divorce papers.”
Seb stared at her. “I thought we agreed to wait until after Abuelo’s death.”
“I don’t want to live a lie, nor do I want to wait with bated breath for the passing of a sweet old man that I happen to love before I can get on with the rest of my life.”
“What sort of life is that?” Seb asked with a smirk. “I heard you left Crenshaw and Meeks.”
“That’s right, I did.” She placed her fingers on the papers and edged them toward him. “And now I’m leaving you, too.”
“Listen, it’s in your best interest, you know, to wait. When Abuelo passes, this company will be mine, which will only increase your alimony settlement.”
“The company is yours already, and you know it. You should settle with me now and save yourself potentially millions.” She watched him calculate the risks. “If we can go through arbitration amicably,” she pressed, “we won’t need to incur unnecessary legal costs.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said.
“I wish it wasn’t like this,” she said. “I wish we could be friends.”
“We can be friends,” he said with a smile Aubrey would call smarmy.
She gazed at him, wondering what had happened to the boy she’d fallen in love with. “Sure,” she said, all the while hating herself for perpetuating another lie.
#
Later that night as she tried to sleep in her childhood bed, her phone buzzed with a text from Seb.
Can we talk?
Sure. Call me, she responded.
I’m on your front porch.
Adrienne slipped from the bed, pulled on her clothes, and although she hated herself for running as soon as Seb called, she pulled open the front door within minutes.
The moon, peeking through a haze of clouds at the zenith, provided little light, but even in the dimness Adrienne could see Seb’s distress.
“Abuelo’s d-dead,” Seb stuttered.
Adrienne, fearing that he would wake Aubrey, or worse, her mom and dad, took Seb’s sleeve and pulled him off the porch, down the front walk, through the gate, and onto the sidewalk. She shied away from the streetlamp’s glow. The last thing she wanted was her sister to see or hear her talking to Seb. She dreaded her sister’s lecture more than whatever Seb had to say.
I thought that was what you wanted came to her lips, but she bit the words back, and said instead, “I’m sorry. I know you loved him.”
He nodded and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked like a lost child. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Do? I’m not sure what you mean. You’ve been running the company for years.”
“The business is fine. That I know how to manage.” He toed a pebble on the ground, not meeting her gaze. He breathed out a sigh and looked up at the bleak stars. “I’m sorry. I’m not sure what I’m doing here.”
“I can see that.”
He swallowed. “Do you still want the divorce?”
“Of course. Don’t you?”
“I’m, hmm, not sure?”
Adrienne stared at him and an image of her Uncle Josh weeks before his death flashed in her memory. He’d died after a long and painful battle with cancer. I always said that if I ever had a terminal illness I would drink, smoke, take drugs, and eat whatever I wanted, but now that I’m here, none of that forbidden fruit is interesting to me. Was that how Seb was feeling? Had Therese just been forbidden fruit? Poor Therese. Poor Seb. Adrienne felt nothing but release and even though she’d loved Abuelo, elation and a sense of freedom swept through her, as cleansing as the night air.
“Seb, go home.”
“There’s no one there.” His voice bordered on panic.
“You’ll be okay. When’s the funeral?”
“We’re burying him in Italy.”
“Oh, that’s nice. He’ll like that.”
“And having a memorial here in a few days.” He lifted his eyes to her. “Will you come?”
“Will Nick be there?” She tried to tamp down the excitement in her tone.
“No one’s been able to get ahold of him,” Seb said. He returned to toeing the pebble. “Steph thinks he’s either on Easter Island or in the Andes. We can’t wait for him,” he added defensively. “I’m leaving for Italy and the interment in a few days.”
“I’m sure Nick’ll understand.”
“Adrienne!” Aubrey called from the porch. She’d turned on the light and stood beneath it. Clad in a ratty, fuzzy red robe and a pair of men’s black socks, she looked comical, but there was nothing funny about the fury on her face.
“I have to go,” Adrienne said.
“How’s your dad?” Seb asked. “You were right, I should have asked about him.”
“He’s getting better.”
“That’s good. Maybe I can visit him? We could play chess like we used to.”
“I don’t know, Seb,” Adrienne hedged.
“Adrienne!” Aubrey barked.
“You’re not very popular around here,” Adrienne said with a sad smile.
“I get that,” he said. “I deserve that.”
“I have to go before Aubrey wakes the neighbors.” She leaned in to kiss his cheek and for just a moment inhaled his warm, familiar scent. “Goodbye, Seb.”