by Jodi Payne
“Oscar.” Oscar stuck out a hand to shake. “I know. I’m—I apologize. What happened?”
“The guy didn’t stop. He ran a red light. I swear my light was green, Mr. Kennedy. I wasn’t speeding or anything, I promise. I wouldn’t…. I love Emily. I always take care of her. He came out of nowhere.” Poor Brian sounded heartbroken.
Brian’s mother hurried back and sat down beside her son, and Oscar took two huge steps forward to kneel at Brian’s feet.
“He was drunk,” Ron added with a sigh.
“I understand. It wasn’t your fault, Brian, and I don’t blame you. Okay? I’m sorry I snapped at you. I… I’m just so scared for her. I know you are too.”
Brian burst into tears, and Oscar wrapped those solid arms around the kid. Russ rested a hand on his shoulder. Rose went and sat with Helen, taking Helen’s hands between hers. The waiting room was quiet and still except for Brian’s hiccupping sobs and Oscar’s soothing words.
“Tell me this is going to be okay,” Russ whispered to Jeffrey.
“It will be okay.” Jeffrey needed to say it so he could believe it himself.
Oscar was just finally stepping away from Brian when a doctor in scrubs came out. “Which one of you is Emily’s father?”
“I am.” Oscar hurried over, and Rose joined him. “Oscar Kennedy.”
Jeffrey held his breath.
“She’s out of surgery. She did beautifully. We didn’t run up against anything that overly concerns me. It’s still a head injury. It’s too early to make promises, and she will need a little time, but I’m quite optimistic.”
Oscar nodded and covered his face with both hands.
“Thank you, doctor,” Rose said for him. “Oscar just arrived. He’s a bit overwhelmed.”
“I completely understand.” The doctor looked at Rose this time. “We won’t allow her to wake up until tomorrow at the earliest, and when she does, she could be disoriented in any of a handful of ways. We can talk more about that tomorrow. Would you like to see her?”
“Yes.” Oscar was quick enough with that reply.
“Follow me, Mr. Kennedy.”
“One second, please.” Oscar moved back over to Brian. “The doc said she’s out of surgery and she did great.”
Ron sighed, relieved. “That’s good news.”
“It is. They’re going to let me see her. Are you okay?”
Brian shrugged silently.
“We have to think positively, kiddo.” Oscar gave Brian’s shoulder a squeeze, then looked back at Jeffrey.
“I’ll come back and get you guys in a bit, okay? Unless… I mean, you heard, right? She’s not going to wake up until at least tomorrow. You could go home and get some rest.”
“Like hell.” Russ’s words sounded rough, but the affectionate smile that went with it wasn’t at all.
“We’ll be here, Oscar. Go see Emily.”
Oscar nodded and put his arm around Rose’s shoulders as they followed the doctor.
Ron looked at Jeffrey. “I think we’re going to take Brian home.”
“Of course. We’ll keep you up-to-date.”
“Can I see her tomorrow?” Brian was still so pale, and his eyes had dark circles under them, but the kid looked like he was breathing now at least.
“I don’t know what they’ll allow, but I will let your folks know as soon as we get word.”
“Thanks.”
“Are you…? Which of you is Oscar’s boyfriend? It’s you, Jeffrey, right?” Helen asked slowly.
Jeffrey smiled. “I am. And so is Russ.”
“So… oh!” Helen gave him a smile. “Well, Oscar has lots of support, then.”
“He does.”
Ron started moving. “We’re pulling for Emily. She’s a sweet girl. We like her very much. Good night.”
“Night.” Russ tugged on the brim of his baseball hat.
Jeffrey looked around the waiting room. “Guess it’s just us, now.”
Russ led him over to a couch in one corner of the room, and they sat—Jeffrey with his arm around Russ, who rested a tired head on his shoulder. “Oscar was a wreck on the way over. He was saying all kinds of crazy things—how he shouldn’t have stayed with me, that getting involved with us was a bad idea, he needs to focus on his family. He kept saying how much he appreciated the ride, like I was someone he shouldn’t be asking for a favor.”
Jeffrey took a deep breath and sighed. “You know he didn’t mean any of that, babe. That was guilt and worry and fear talking. It’s like promising God you’ll be a better person when something bad happens if he’ll only make it all right. It’s something you say to make yourself feel better.”
“I hope so.” Russ sighed. “I really hope you’re right.”
“Me too.”
Russ was asleep in seconds, and Jeffrey was envious.
RUSS WOKE up alone on the couch in the waiting room. He blinked, still bleary-eyed and disoriented from a nap he hadn’t meant to take. He knew he should make himself wake up and find his men, he wanted to see Emily and be there for Oscar, but his eyes felt thick, his back was stiff, and he just wasn’t ready to move quickly.
He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair, yawned and stretched, and scratched the back of his neck. God, he needed some coffee in the worst way.
“Good morning.”
Jesus.
Not alone after all.
Startled, he blinked again and looked over in the direction the voice had come from. “Uh. Hey.” He nodded to Rose. They’d only been introduced in passing the very few times Rose had made it out to the farm, but he knew who she was. Truthfully, that burned him more than it probably should right now. This wasn’t about him.
“Hay is for horses.” Rose looked at him expectantly.
What? Was he really being schooled by a little old lady at 4:00 a.m.? “Yes. Sorry, ma’am, I forgot my manners.” I did just wake up and all. “Hello, Miss Rose. I’m Russ White.” He watched her, hoping that was better. He thought his mother would have been happy with that. How formal did she want him to be?
Rose smiled, looking pleased. “I remember. It’s nice to see you again, Russell.”
Russell. Only his mother called him Russell. “I’m awfully worried for Emily. I’ll be keeping her in my prayers.”
“Thank you, Russell. I appreciate that. Send one or two up for that dear boy too, if you can spare them.”
What was his name? Brian? He was pretty sure it was Brian. Poor kid. “Yes, ma’am. Will do. How are you hangin’ in? Would you like a ride home? I have my truck.”
“Aren’t you darling. No, thank you. Oscar said he needed some things from home. I’m going to wait for him.”
He nodded. “Do you know where I can find a cup of coffee?”
“I don’t. But I think Jeffrey does. Oscar just took him to see Emily. Did you want to join them?”
“Oh. I… uh.” Yes and no. He wasn’t sure how Oscar would feel about it, and he didn’t want to make things more complicated right now. They had things to talk about, words that needed to be said, but it could wait until they were all rested and things were less scary with Emily.
“Russell?”
Oh God. She used his full name again. Did that mean he was in trouble? “Yes, ma’am?”
“Can I ask you a very frank question?”
“Oh. Well… I….” She raised an eyebrow at him, and he knew there was no refusing her. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Thank you, Russell.” Rose smiled at him and leaned closer. “Are you… you’re Oscar’s lover, then?”
Oh God. Oh God. Please come back, Oscar, and save me. “I—”
“His other lover, I mean.”
Oh, no, no. Oh, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go, was it? Oh, help. “Yes, ma’am. Oscar told you?” He knew damn well Oscar hadn’t, but what was he supposed to say? This was the strangest conversation he’d ever had.
“No,” Rose replied carefully. “No, he did not, I’m afraid. But it seems he should h
ave, since he was with you last evening.”
Russ’s cheeks lit on fire. “It’s… we’re….”
Jesus Christ.
“It’s quite all right, Russell dear. I don’t expect you to explain. I think I should probably ask Oscar to do that.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Thank you, God. He was on the stuttering end of embarrassed as fuck now.
There was a long silence. He was trying to figure out how to politely excuse himself and go find coffee or go after Jeffrey and Oscar, anything to get him off this couch, when Rose cleared her throat and looked at him again. “Why don’t you come to dinner? Normally I’d suggest Sunday, but this weekend is… no. No, so next Sunday, then? Once we have Emily home and things have settled a bit. Yes. You’ll come then, won’t you?”
Oh. Should he say yes? Was he supposed to? Would Oscar want him to? “I… thank you, ma’am, but—”
“But nothing. I’m cooking and you’re invited.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be there.” Okay, got it. You don’t say no to Miss Rose.
Chapter Twenty-Six
INSTEAD OF spending that Saturday together at the farm, Jeffrey and Russ spent the day at the hospital with him, taking turns getting naps and food and helping him deal with the doctors. In the days that followed, one of them was with him nearly all the time. Oscar couldn’t bring himself to tell them to go home, not seriously anyway, although he would have preferred to be alone. It was hard to think with them sitting so close, bringing him coffee and water, reminding him to get out of Emily’s room and walk.
While Emily lay in her hospital bed, letters from colleges were coming in. Acceptances across the board. Rose had brought a few to the hospital, but he felt that Emily’s state of mind was still too fragile and her short-term memory still a bit off, so he hadn’t shown them to her yet.
Otherwise, though, she was doing well. After nearly a week, she was able to sit up for some of the day, they were allowing her to move around her room with assistance, and she’d finally gotten the long-awaited shower she’d been begging for. She’d be going home soon. Sometime in the next couple of days, the doctor said, perhaps even tomorrow.
But he needed to think. He needed to reconsider what he was doing, how he was spending his time, whether this relationship was fair to his girls. The answers weren’t that clear. He needed to focus now on Emily and what was best for his family. For the time being at least, it would be quiet once he got her home, and then he could figure himself out.
“Knock, knock.”
Oscar blinked and looked up, mustering a smile. “Hey, Rose.”
“Hello, dear. Oh, Oscar. You look so tired.” Rose came in and sat with him, taking his hand in hers.
“She’s doing better today. She was awake a little while ago, and we were talking and watching TV.”
“How are you, sweetheart?”
“I’m fine. She just gets tired so quickly. They think we’ll be able to bring her home in a day or two. I guess I need to talk to the school. She won’t be able to go back for at least another week, maybe two. And work. I need to talk to work.”
“Oscar.”
Work had been good about everything, and he had lots of time saved up that he could use, but it was still stressful. “Thank goodness for you, Rose. I don’t know how I would do this without you.”
Rose sighed. “Oscar. How are you?”
“I’m okay. I just need to get all these ducks in a row, you know? There’s a lot to think about.” They’d done the nursemaid thing before, he and Rose, with Emmett. The last six months or so when they knew the trial drugs weren’t helping and Emmett had refused further treatment, they took shifts so Oscar could keep working. Someone needed to. Rose would look after Emmett during the day while the kids were at school, then get the girls settled with after-school chores and homework. Then he’d come home and take over with Emmett and the girls while Rose made dinner. They’d get everyone in bed, Rose would retire, and he’d do the dishes…. God, if he thought about it, he could remember everything. But if it hadn’t been for Rose—
“Oscar? Oscar, you need to sleep. Take a shower. Eat something.”
He nodded. “I will.” He could use getting his arms around his girls for more than five minutes, actually. Maybe hear about their days.
“Why don’t you go now? I can stay for….” Rose looked at her watch. “Oh. The twins will be home from school in a bit, and I should be there. I have a little time, though.”
“That’s all right. Jeffrey and Russ are going to come sit with Emily for a few hours tonight so I can get home for dinner and see Soph and the twins.”
“Oh, that will be nice. They miss you.”
“I miss them too.”
“I invited your Russell to dinner next Sunday, after things have settled down.”
Oscar glanced at her. “Did you?” Oh, boy. She wanted to have this conversation now?
“He’s a nice young man.”
“He’s not that young.”
Rose looked at him over the rim of her glasses. “Oscar.”
“He’s twenty-eight. He’s a grown man.”
“Let’s see, he was… barely ten when Emily was born.”
“Stop that.”
Rose chuckled, pulling some needlework from her bag. He thought it was crochet, but he could never keep all that stuff with yarn straight.
“Sophie speaks very highly of him, you know, and she is looking forward to riding with him. She told me all about how he’d put her to work in the barn and about the sick horse.”
He looked at his mother-in-law. “They made a connection at the barn after… that horrible day at school.”
“They did, and he made quite an impression on her.”
“He’s remarkable.”
“Very sweet. And so very in love with you.”
Okay, so this was less of a conversation and more of a reckoning. “You are far too perceptive for your own good, woman.”
Rose appeared to ignore that comment, fingers and eyes busy with her yarn. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t quite understand how this works.”
“Oh, yes. You’re forgiven.” He grinned.
“Don’t be funny, son.”
“Sorry.” He wasn’t, really. He loved calling her out when she was being coy. It made her so mad, it just made him laugh.
“You have a lot of family already. But two lovers?”
“Oh, Rose. Did you say ‘lover’? Emmett would be so proud of you.”
She dropped her hands into her lap. “Are you going to explain it to me, Oscar, or not?”
He blinked at her and smiled, and she smiled back, and then they were both laughing. Rose shook her head at herself like she didn’t have words.
“I will. But it won’t be easy because I’m not sure I understand it myself. The easiest bit is that I love them both, one as much as the other. I feel as if either one of them alone would be wonderful, but not… enough. And they look at me differently. I think it’s the same for them.”
Rose’s fingers were busy-busy, and she didn’t say anything for a long time.
In fact it wasn’t Rose who answered him at all. “So, wait. You have two boyfriends now, at the same time?”
Oscar turned his head abruptly, and Rose looked up from her crochet, as shocked as he was.
“What? Are you okay, Oz? What’s wrong?” Emily reached up and felt her face with her fingers. “Do I have a huge zit or something?”
Oscar snorted. “No, honey. You surprised me. I didn’t know you were awake.”
“Well, I’m glad I am or else I wouldn’t know you were finally dating.”
Oscar had no idea what to do next. “Finally?”
“I was worried about you. What have you been waiting for? It’s not like Dad is coming back.”
Oscar looked at Rose and then down at his hands. Out of the mouths of babes. Not that Emily was a baby anymore, far from it. “I have you girls to think about, to look after. It didn’t seem right, and I didn’t want t
o upset you.”
“Sophie and I were hoping you were dating Jeffrey.”
“He is, darling,” Rose chimed in.
“Oh, yay!”
“Hoping?”
“You know how weird it was that I was dating and you weren’t? Weird. Who’s the other one?”
He felt like this snowball had started rolling downhill and it just kept getting bigger and bigger until his legs weren’t long enough to keep up. “Russ. He’s the—”
“Oh, the horse guy? At Grandpa’s farm? I remember him, kind of, but Sophie told me all about him. She said he was cute.”
You actually met him. Yesterday. The short-term memory thing was kind of scary, but the doctors promised him it was normal.
“He’s adorable.” Rose leaned forward like she was conspiring with Emily. “And young.”
“Rose!” Oscar sighed.
“What? Oz! How young?”
He rolled his eyes. “Russ is twenty-eight.”
“Oh. That’s not young, Gram. God. That’s almost thirty.”
Oscar looked at Rose and winked, and they shared another laugh.
“I like the sound of that laughing.” They all looked up at Brian, who was leaning in the doorway, smiling at Emily.
“Brian!”
Oscar was on his feet. “Shh. Emily, you need to stay calm.”
“Hey, Em.”
“Brian, she really needs to—”
Brian leaned over the opposite arm of Emily’s hospital bed and kissed her. Right in front of Oscar, on the lips, like he wasn’t standing there. It was a nice kiss, but….
“Oscar, you should go get some coffee.”
“No, I really—”
“And I’d like some tea.” Rose stood up. “Come on.”
Brian and Emily were talking softly and smiling at each other. It was sweet, but he couldn’t leave them alone, could he? “Emily, make sure you—”
“Come along, Oscar.”
“But—”
“She’s not listening to you anyway.”
He looked back over his shoulder as he left the room. Rose was right. Emily wasn’t paying attention to anyone but Brian. Right now, Brian was her whole world.
