Her mother just repeated herself. “Daniels ain’t got me. No. No. No.” Tess grabbed onto her mother’s shoulders as her mother started to rock herself.
Kade seemed concerned as Tess looked around to see how the guys were handling this. He stood up from the window seat and came over to stand beside Tess. “Maddy, are you okay?” Kade asked.
Not Ms. Sinclair. It was the right thing and Tess felt something inside her chest give a squeeze.
“I’m okay, It’s going to be okay,” her mother said.
“I’m sorry if you don’t feel up to talking about that stuff right now, and I’m not going to push,” Tess promised.
“We’re going to be okay,” her mother said. It still had the stiff, robotic tone that wasn’t her mother’s normal voice, but at least it was something, not the childish voice either that was often her mother’s retreat.
“Okay. I’m going to sit down on the bed and talk to you a bit more about something else, anything. I don’t want to leave until you feel better,” Tess said.
“Tell me about the boys,” her mother said. “Do you have a boyfriend? Has Kade asked you out on a date?” her mother questioned, eyes wandering up to Kade beside them.
It was an improvement to staring ahead and rocking.
Tess sighed, looking for Keir to help her. He always knew the right thing to say to break the tension. Maybe the romantic book was wearing off on her mother but Tess didn’t take the easy way out and answered her mother’s question, kind of, when Keir left her high and dry.
“I’m not dating anyone. I just moved back here. I did break up with my previous boyfriend, although you never met him in person. Remember Harvey?”
“Harvey was older than you,” her mother commented, and this time, she did sound more like herself.
“Yeah, he was a couple of years older. He goes to university and he met another girl. You know how it goes with these long-distance relationships,” Tess said, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice. Her mother hadn’t liked Harvey. She hadn’t even met him but her mother judged him based on what Tess had said about him over the phone.
Harvey wasn’t one to call and talk or to buy Tess gifts to tie them together despite the distance, not even for her birthday, which her mother had decried as a sign he wasn’t the right one. Her mother was a romantic, and Tess kind of was one too. She just hadn’t wanted to give up on a relationship with an older boy that had the smarts and motivation that Tess shared to accomplish a lot in life.
Harvey had been in pre-med and he had pushed her to work hard to join him next year. They had met at her school’s homecoming dance, the older brother to one of her previous roommates at her boarding dorm. He had been handsome and charming and quite literally swept her off her feet at the dance.
Looking back, Tess could admit she had been ripe for fooling, or being fooled around on, as Harvey had done. A girl living on her own, no parents to interfere or warn her, or at least none that she would take advice from when their own lives were so messed up.
Except, her mother had tried to warn her. So uncharacteristic, when her mother usually just hmm’d over everything that Tess said she had done on the rare occasions she called. Her mother hadn’t hmm’d Harvey though. She said he was too old and Tess didn’t have anything to hold a boy like him.
Of course, her mother had been right. She never rubbed things like this in Tess’s face, however, and had even held her silence on the phone while Tess sobbed out the story of walking in on her boyfriend kissing another girl.
“Kade is allowed to date you. He reads well, and his mother taught him to treat others with kindness. He promised me he was going to take good care of you,” her mother said, almost sounding completely like herself.
This was exactly the kind of thing Tess should expect from her mother. See, her intuition about what her mother would advise if she saw Tess eyeing up Kade that first day they met had been bang on.
“He’s dressed like a motorcycle punk and is the twin to more trouble than I can juggle. The only place Kade’s going to take me out is grocery shopping,” Tess replied, wondering what else the guys had talked about with her mother while she was gone. It was doubtful reading ‘Anne of Green Gables’ was all that happened.
“We’re dating,” Keir said, coming up behind Tess and giving her a kiss from behind on the cheek, hands on her shoulders.
Tess grumbled out something about not getting her mother started on the subject of dating advice.
“All of us,” Kade said. “Tess is keeping her options open. I promise we won’t let any loser college boys around her until you’re back home to beat them off.”
“I have the perfect stick, er, bat,” Keir said.
“Stop it,” Tess said, blushing. Her mother was laughing, which made it worth the embarrassment.
“We really are going to take Tess out for grocery shopping tonight. She mentioned that your younger children have some specific dietary preferences or restrictions. Maybe you can give us some hints about what they like to eat,” Kade said, finally drawing the conversation away from the awkwardness of discussing boyfriends. Plural.
“Restrictions?” her mother repeated. She looked confused but sounded clear and strong. It was tempting to take advantage of her mother’s improvement. So tempting, but Kade met her eyes and gently shook his head as if he knew what she wanted to ask.
He was right. Tess nibbled her bottom lip, frustrated.
“Gonna nibble that for you in the car if you keep it up,” Keir whispered into her ear very softly.
Kade smiled at her after telling her mother the kids’ diet preferences. He knew his brother was up to something.
“Jason has been trying to eat healthier to put on some muscle for football next season. I told him that puberty is really in charge of most of that and nothing he eats is going to make that big of a difference as long as it’s fairly healthy overall, but he started the same diet as some of his football buddies,” Tess said. At least, that was what she had gotten out of Ashley, and then confirmed when she confronted Jason before school about it today, telling him she needed to know how to grocery shop for them.
“Wait a minute,” Keir said. “Jason’s the one eating a vegetarian diet, right? How is that going to build up any muscle for him? I thought that guys trying to bulk up need lots of protein, meat and eggs, not a vegetarian diet.”
“Some of the guys on the football team went to veganism. They’re usually big guys to start,” Kade said. “I would agree that a change into a vegan diet without understanding all that is involved in balancing the restrictions against the caloric and protein need would make it difficult to accomplish muscle gain. Maybe War can talk to Jason about it. He has to eat a pretty specific diet for hockey and his mom helps him out with food choices since she’s a nurse and she has some experience in nutrition from her classes.”
“Clean your plate,” her mother said.
“Eat what you’re given,” Tess replied, knowing this game well.
“Eat your veggies, but...,” Keir said, pausing as he tried to think up something. This was why you shouldn’t mess with sage advice.
“An apple a day,” Kade said, not bothering to finish what they all could in our head.
“Hmm... none of the really popular sayings refer to meat. I guess I could try to work around it for Jason. He’s sure to drop the diet soon if it’s a fad, anyway,” Tess said.
“Definitely gluten-free will be more difficult, but not impossible,” Kade told them. Tess nodded.
Her mother finally came to the rescue. “Puffed rice cereal with banana for breakfast, or oatmeal with maple syrup; lettuce wraps and veggie sushi for lunch; lots of mashed potatoes or baked potato with sour cream, paired with grilled tofu or an omelette, and they like curries at dinner that you can cook all day in the crockpot.”
“Um, thanks,” Tess said. She wasn’t sure she was capable of cooking and putting together all of those things. Maybe she could get War to help her after he talked with J
ason about his diet.
The list had been long but unfortunately, that was as articulate as her mother got, so Tess decided it was time to make their goodbyes after a few more minutes.
“It’s good that you’re back home,” her mother said as Tess pulled out the blanket so her mother could lie down. She looked tired.
“We’re happy to have met Tess,” Kade said.
“And it was nice meeting you, Maddy,” Keir said.
“It was nice meeting both of you. Bring the rest of her boyfriends next time,” her mother said to Tess’s consternation. Yep, they had discussed quite a lot when Tess was talking to the doctor on the phone. “Don’t let the kids get under your skin. They’re teenagers,” her mother said to her as she tucked the blankets over her mother.
Tess gave her mother a wry grin. “You know, technically, I’m still a teenager.”
“Age is just a number,” her mother said.
Tess should have anticipated it. She smiled. “I’ll take care of them. Don’t worry.”
“I know you will, Tessa. I’m sorry you have to see me like this. I’m so tired,” her mother said.
“I heard that you didn’t get enough rest today. Let us get you tucked in and tell the nurses not to disturb you,” Keir said.
“That sounds like a good idea. Thank you. I’m sorry I’m not better company today,” her mother said, already closing her eyes. She must have been fighting the sedative effects of the medications just to stay awake to talk with them all as long as she had already.
“We can come back and see you tomorrow if you’re up for company again. I know that Bastion and War would really like to come to meet you. We can all take turns coming and visiting,” Kade said.
Tess was about to leave when her mother suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. Her green eyes snapped open. “Tessa, stay away from Daniels.”
Kade cleared his throat. Tess wanted more information, but she shouldn’t push; not too much, not too fast. They had gotten her mother calmed down and sounding reasonably more like herself. Right now, her mother was lying down to rest, looking much better and she has sounded last night.
Hold your horses.
“Be safe,” Tess whispered to her mom instead of questions, kissing her mother’s forehead.
Her mother released her with a heavy sigh, finally closing her eyes.
This was so messed up. Tess didn’t know who was reassuring who, mother or daughter, or if both were caught up in the same dangerous game.
Who hurt her mom? Was Tess next?
She had so many questions but it looked like today wasn’t the day she would get answers. Or if she had, they were buried under the mumble-jumble of her mother’s delusional thoughts and speech.
Daniels. One day, Tess was going to have to see if there were monsters there.
The guys squeezed her between them as they walked out of the hospital and Tess was glad that today she could forget about this mystery. They had helped her make sure her mom was okay. More than that. They had given her mother back some of her normal happiness and the quirky comfort of her familiar sayings. It had been a relief.
Tess felt she wasn’t alone in this fight for her mother any longer.
Chapter 18
THE NICE FEELING OF not being alone lasted until the grocery store. Kade and Keir had gotten into an argument about where Tess should sit, and hence, who would get to sit beside her. When she had suggested she sit by herself in the back seat to settle it, Keir had acted like she offered to sit in the trunk.
Apparently, the back seats weren’t as comfortable as the front seats. The music system was optimized for front seat listening. There was one broken seat warmer that was more sluggish than the rest in the rear driver’s side. Kade also pointed out that the rear seat was safer in accidents, especially for someone as short as Tess.
She had retorted that she was over the age of twelve and legally allowed to ride up front.
Everybody had travelled in silence, the same spots as on the way to the hospital. Tess figured if she ignored both guys equally, neither of them could complain.
“You don’t have to come in with me,” Tess said, hoping to get the shopping over with quickly.
She would only pick up a few things and do more shopping on the weekend. Tess had a list in her head and it wasn’t a big one. She still needed to pick up the monthly check with the child services office, where the social worker had insisted on sending the funds instead of depositing them in her mother’s bank account, per usual. It was another humiliating step to climb to get the money she needed to support her family while her mother was unable to do so due to her illness.
The guys never shoved their money directly her face. Well, Bastion had been pretty blatant about it, but somehow, that didn’t seem as bad as it sounded because Tess knew that he had done it to stop her from wasting her money on frivolous but nice things. He was right. He could afford it and it wouldn’t kill her to accept a little kindness and that was what it had been. She could still taste the sweetness of the chai tea he had given her the first day she drove with him in his car.
Bastion’s true wealth was his generosity and his easy recognition of how difficult it was for her to accept anything from him at first. He had challenged her by being a bit of a devil's advocate and playing the spoiled rich boy.
It was better not to underestimate Bastion or the rest of the guys. He was as strong-willed as she could be and she had no doubt that his friends were equally stubborn. The last thing she needed right now was to get into a fight with the twins over what she bought for groceries for the week to feed herself and her younger siblings. They likely never had to budget what they were going to eat. It was unlikely they could begin to understand the difficulty of shopping with your brain and not your stomach.
Her mother had helped the situation with her suggestions, although some of those delicious but expensive meals to make for the twins would have to wait for the monthly check and perhaps help from War on how to prepare them properly. Jason and Ashley hadn’t been trying to make things hard for Tess when they said they had dietary restrictions. There might not be any medical reason for them to eat that way, but teenagers were always trying out new things. Tess was capable of giving them this if she was creative.
Gluten-free and vegetarian? They were both going to be a challenge but she had to at least try. Tess didn’t have any experience with either diet. She had always eaten cheap and easy, although she wasn’t really picky, so it was simple for her to pick something up at the grocery store and whip it up. She had pedestrian tastes.
She doubted that Kade and Keir were eating a plant-based diet by the size of them. She knew vegetarians were supposed to be able to put on weight as well if they ate enough protein, even if it wasn’t meat-based, but they had the look of guys that had eaten heartily of everything and she had already seen Kade eating a meat sandwich.
“We’re coming inside to help you carry everything,” Kade insisted, exiting the car. He held the door open for her to scootch over and exit, too.
That sounded a lot like an excuse, but even if it wasn’t, she didn’t want to admit to Kade that his effort was going to be wasted. There wasn’t going to be that much stuff or that was heavy enough that she would need help to carry it outside. These guys had the wrong impression about what this grocery store trip was going to entail.
She exited the car and decided to make one more effort to get them to stay behind and wait. “I’m not going to be buying to feed a football team, here. There’s only me and the twins to feed, and to be honest, we’re on a budget. Thrift over waste. I’m buying a few essentials right now.”
“Bastion said that you would say that,” Kade retorted. He closed the car door.
Keir beeped the car alarm after he closed his own door and came around the front of the car, waiting for them. No way she was going to convince them to get back in the car now.
Tess sighed.
Keir gave her a once over. He must have decided
she looked like she needed more convincing. “War said that you needed to buy some good protein for your brother. I texted him earlier and told him about the vegetarian diet that Jason was trying out, and he gave me some examples of foods that we could buy that are still vegetarian but also have a nice protein base, as well as some fat-based foods to build the calories. I didn’t get as many ideas about gluten-free, but I tried eating that way once myself, and I can give you an idea of what food has gluten in it,” Keir said.
He was being sensible again. She had already gone over in her head how little she knew about these diets and the help would be appreciated; if only she wasn’t worried they were going to turn this into a marathon of shopping.
“I want to make a quick in and out trip and get home because I am exhausted. It’s been a long week already and it’s only halfway through. I’d rather wait until we have time to sit down and go through some of the options to make a bigger list on the weekend instead of trying to squeeze it in now,” Tess insisted.
“Okay, in and out. Want to make it a race? We could hold a bit of a competition to see who can get the items on your list into the cart fastest, me or my geezer twin. I will win of course, so let’s pick the prize now,” Keir proposed.
“Why even wait to play a game you’re going to win, Keir? Don’t you want to claim your prize now?” Tess teased, giving him a flirty look. She couldn’t help herself. Keir’s playfulness rubbed off.
Kade practically growled into her ear, snatching her by the shoulders against his chest and leaning down to whisper. “Twins share everything, especially winnings as sweet as you.”
Tess felt herself get warm. She tried to wiggle free of Kade’s arms. Of course, Keir wanted to turn this into a competition that he could win, and Kade had expected it enough to counter the plan.
Impetuous (Victory Lap Book 1) Page 26
