Barefoot Brides

by Annie Jones

  Kate couldn’t help it—she felt a twinge of pride in being singled out. She didn’t know where she stood precisely with Vince but clearly she was needed here.

  Kate took another elongated stride, then reached for the door with her free hand, her head up in readiness to meet the situation both as a medical doctor for Billy J and as the designated comfort-giver to her youngest sister. She pulled the door open.

  “I wouldn’t go back in there for all the tea in China,” Dodie said.

  As a blast of cold air whooshed into Kate’s face, she heard her mother tell the group why.

  “Right now, Molly Christina is so mad she could spit fire and I think if she could spit fire, she’d spit that fire at all of us.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Please, Daddy, please, hang in there. Don’t…” Moxie couldn’t bring herself to actually voice her greatest fears out loud.

  Silently, though, deep in the places where she didn’t have to hide anything, she offered her most profound prayers to her heavenly Father. Don’t let my daddy die. Not now. Not when things are so uncertain. Not when I still need him so much.

  She gave Billy J’s large, leathery hand a squeeze. Her throat had gone so dry it hurt. She could not seem to swallow. She blinked. Tears bathed the view of Lionel hovering over her father, applying sensors hooked to a heart monitor.

  The nurse on duty moved quickly.

  Moxie stroked her father’s thin white hair to get it off his ruddy, round face. “Just don’t, okay?”

  Billy J started to speak but only managed to croak out her name before convulsing in a raspy, rattling coughing fit.

  “Should I get some water?” Moxie twisted one way then turned the other, not sure what to do.

  The nurse pushed past her and began to draw blood.

  Moxie’s knees went weak. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.

  Lionel moved to the monitor then threw a glance at her over his shoulder. “Why don’t you go check on your…”

  Moxie rallied enough to glower at him, her only warning against him invoking “that word.”

  “Why don’t you check on Dodie?” he tried again, wisely circumventing the touchy topic of family. “You were awfully hard on her.”

  “Can you blame me?” Moxie clung to Billy J’s hand. “My father, the only father I’ve ever known, is having a heart attack and as she rushes him to the E.R., she calls everyone she knows in town but me?”

  “First off…” Lionel took her by the shoulders firmly, much more firmly than he ever had while they were dating. Very confident. Very doctorly.

  Moxie had never seen this aspect of him. Well, not from this side of things, not as a patient or the patient’s next of kin…next of kin. That’s who they notified when the worst happened. “My father is having a heart attack, Li. Shouldn’t you be doing something?”

  “First off,” he began again. “Your father is not having a heart attack.”

  Moxie exhaled in a whoosh, dispensing some of the gathering tension in her body. “What about the pain in his chest, the trouble breathing, his inability to focus?”

  “We’ll need more tests but all signs point to the pain and the breathing as lung-related.”

  Billy J let loose with another barrage of racking coughs. When he finished, he heaved a weary sigh then asked the nurse if this was a “nonsmoking” emergency room.

  “The inability to focus?” Lionel leaned in to make himself heard above Billy J’s fit. “Well, are you really sure that’s a new thing?”

  The hair on the back of Moxie’s neck bristled. “My father is possibly dying and you’re making jokes?”

  Lionel held her arms tighter. “Your father is not dying. There’s definitely a problem, but he’s not at risk from immediate death.”

  She relaxed a little more. She wanted to believe him. “Are you sure?”

  “I went to one of the best medical schools in the country, Mox. Trust that I learned a thing or two there.”

  “About potential heart attacks?”

  “No, about never telling a patient you know for sure about anything!”

  “Lionel!”

  His grasp on her transformed into a hug. “I wouldn’t joke if I didn’t think your dad was going to be all right.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.” He gave her a kiss on the forehead.

  That’s when Moxie realized he had quietly, compassionately and adamantly moved her from her father’s bedside to the door.

  “Do you have any idea what’s wrong with him?”

  “I’m thinking pneumonia.” He opened the door.

  “Pneumonia?” In one way she felt relieved. “That’s better than a heart attack, isn’t it? It’s treatable, right?”

  “It’s treatable, but still very serious, given his age and the generally poor state of his overall health.” He prodded her to go on into the hallway.

  She held her ground as tension began to coil again through her body. “Will he be all right?”

  A frown flicked over his face. He adjusted his glasses. “Pneumonia is tricky.”

  That didn’t answer her question. Or did it?

  “I think, to be safe, after I check him out, maybe see if I can give him something to make him more comfortable, you ought to take him straight over to the hospital. I’ll call over to let them know he’s on his way and leave it up to the docs there to decide if they want to keep him or send him home with meds.”

  Moxie tried to take it all in, tried to figure out what she needed to do for every eventuality. Take her father, get meds, bring him home, take time off work to take care of him.

  “Why don’t you go make whatever arrangements you need to and let me get back to your dad?”

  Now she was the one having shortness of breath. First things first, she decided. Otherwise it would all overwhelm her. “Okay. Let’s see, the hospital is over forty minutes away. You think he’ll be all right for the ride?”

  “Do you want me to order an ambulance?”

  “Does he need an ambulance?”

  “No.” Another insistent push and he had her outside the room. “Just thought it might be the easiest way to transport him. You can’t exactly use your truck.”

  “What’s wrong with my truck?” She held her hand up. “Don’t answer.”

  “Moxie, I have a patient to tend to. The sooner I take care of him the sooner you can be on your way and then—”

  “Then what, Li? I don’t know how I can handle this alone.”

  “You’re not alone, Moxie.”

  “That’s true.” She clenched her teeth. “I’m never alone.”

  “That’s the way to talk.” He gave her arm a pat.

  “I didn’t mean it was a good thing. I meant that since the Cromwell family came back to Santa Sofia they are always—”

  “I’m here!” Kate came practically careening around the corner. Her cane swinging in one hand, she used her outstretched arm to counterbalance. This kept her rocking gait rolling until she reached them. “Lionel? Where’s Billy J? What do you need me to do?”

  “Everything is under control.” Moxie looked to Lionel for confirmation.

  He gave her a nod and disappeared into the room to see about Billy J.

  Moxie drew a deep breath and pressed on. “So why don’t you deal with Dodie? You can take her home, I’ll stay with my dad and I’ll call you later when we know more about what’s going on.”

  “What’s going on, y’all?” Vince rounded the corner then pulled up short when Moxie turned to face him.

  She must have looked a sight as he not only stopped in his tracks and in midsentence, but also threw his hands up to keep the people following close on his heels from coming any closer to her.

  Jo all but smashed her pretty little nose into the man’s broad back.

  Travis had to make a quick side step to keep from plowing into Jo.

  However, Dodie, wringing a tattered tissue in her plump little hands, bypassed them all. “I couldn�
�t convince any of them to stay outside. The whole family insisted on coming in.”

  “Family.” That word again! “Family? A couple months ago they were all strangers to me, and to my dad.”

  “Molly, sweetheart, we only want to help.” Dodie sounded apologetic and yet firm in her conviction.

  “I understand that, but do you always have to help from so close?” She laced her arms tightly over her chest and pulled her shoulders up. This kept her from actually swinging her elbows out to physically create more room and gave her just enough comfort to keep from bursting out crying. Moxie tried to keep her anger and frustration low-key but it wasn’t easy. Her father’s health scare had really gotten to her and the fact that she only learned about it by accident didn’t ease her mind any. “It’s just so…overwhelming.”

  Travis stepped forward. “Look, I know you’re under a lot of stress right now, Moxie, but Dodie and the girls only thought—”

  “Of themselves.” She filled in the blank with quiet conviction.

  “What?”

  “Dodie and the girls only thought of themselves.” She spoke softly, saying what she thought had to finally be said. She did not lash out. She did not allow her voice to quiver. She took a deep breath and talked from her hurting heart to the people who claimed to want only the best for her. “You said when there is trouble, family goes—well, doesn’t family also include each other? Don’t they take the other members of that family into account?”

  “Molly Christina, that’s no way to talk to us when we only wanted to—”

  “My name is Moxie.” She almost stamped her foot, just like a petulant child. “And don’t try to pull that maternal guilt card on me, Dodie.”

  Everyone seemed to take a quick gasping breath at that.

  Moxie didn’t care. Well, she cared, she just didn’t see any other way to get her point across except to stop caring about how these people would feel and let them know how she felt.

  “It was one thing when you simply crowded into my life.” She thought of all the examples she could give but decided that was not the point; the point was…“Today you tried to crowd me out of my dad’s life or, worse, a threat to his life.”

  “I am so sorry.” Dodie reached out to touch Moxie’s cheek.

  Moxie flinched, just enough that the woman’s finger only grazed her hair instead of brushing her face.

  “You thought my dad’s life might be in danger and you called everyone…” Moxie pressed her lips together but they still trembled with the emotion she wanted so desperately to hold back. “Everyone but me.”

  “It was a gut reaction, honey.” Dodie stroked her arm. “It made sense at the time. I called Kate because she’s a doctor and then Jo because I knew she could find Travis and get him here.”

  “Not because it mattered whether I knew or not,” Jo mumbled in a way that seemed half humorous and appeasement for Moxie’s sake, half hurt little kid straight from her own heart.

  “I was making calls fast and furious as I tried to get Billy J here,” Dodie went on. She sounded truly sorry about the oversight but not upset about Moxie’s rudeness brought on by her injured feelings.

  “I had to drive Kate,” Vince volunteered. “But you can bet your bait bucket that if I knew you and Billy J needed help, nothing could keep me away.”

  “Thanks.” Moxie smiled at the man she considered a big brother to her.

  “I came because I thought Lionel could use backup,” Kate snapped. “So I’m going in there to see what I can do to help.”

  “No help necessary.” Lionel came through the door again with a file in his hand. “Though, if you’d like, you can go in, look him over and see if you concur with my diagnosis.”

  “Diagnosis?” Dodie stepped forward.

  Everyone else pressed in behind her.

  “What is it?”

  “Is he okay?

  “What can we do to help?”

  Moxie held her arms close in at her sides and shifted her feet to keep anyone from trampling her toes. It was as though they hadn’t heard her diatribe about backing off at all.

  “It’s not a heart attack,” Lionel assured the group.

  “Thank the Lord,” Dodie whispered, her hand over her heart.

  Vince exhaled and stepped away to rest his back against the wall. “That’s great news.”

  “Jo and I prayed the whole way over here.” Travis took Moxie’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

  Suddenly Moxie felt just awful. They had come and crowded in and ignored her ugly reaction because they cared about her father and about her and she had acted so…“I wasn’t really angry at you, just…”

  “Scared.” Dodie did caress Moxie’s cheek this time. “I know. And hurt.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you had every right to feel that way.” Dodie’s gaze searched Moxie’s face.

  Tears shimmered in the woman’s eyes. Eyes that seemed to Moxie like those of a stranger and at the same time so familiar that she felt she had looked into them a thousand times and every one of those times found love and acceptance.

  “You should have been my very first call, Moll…um…Moxie, sweetheart.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I’ll stop and take your feelings into account before I do anything like that again.” Dodie gave Moxie a hug.

  For the first time since she’d begun feeling hemmed in by this new situation, Moxie returned the gesture. Tentatively but without reservation. “That means a lot to me.”

  Moxie let go and started to step away.

  Dodie kept holding her.

  Mom. The woman clearly wanted Moxie to say, “That means a lot to me, Mom.”

  Moxie wanted to comply but then stopped herself. Calling Dodie Mom was not something she could do lightly. It was, in essence, acknowledging a bond had formed between them. One of the greatest bonds in all human nature. Mother and daughter. Was Moxie ready for that?

  She didn’t know. That was answer enough to keep her from blurting it out just to free herself from the awkwardness of the moment.

  She had promised herself she would set boundaries. She had begun that work by letting Dodie know how much her thoughtless exclusion of Moxie had hurt. The Cromwells respected her in a totally new way now. No more running roughshod over her emotions based on their own notions of family and the proper pecking order.

  That made Moxie smile, her conviction that Kate and Jo and Dodie would back off a little now. They would give her room to breathe. Allow her to take her time to sort out what she wanted and how she wanted to approach things.

  “Okay. Kate concurs with my diagnosis of pneumonia.” Lionel stepped into the hallway, clapping his hands together. “I’m sending him to be checked out at the hospital. Have you decided how you want to get him there?”

  Moxie opened her mouth.

  “I’ll take him,” Dodie volunteered. “I have the most comfortable car. Y’all can come along, too. Plenty of room.”

  No, there’s not! Moxie held her breath to keep from shouting it right there in the hallway. There was not enough room in the whole state of Florida if this was how Dodie planned to do things—to promise to back off and defer to Moxie one minute then the first time a decision must be made she up and says—

  “Hello? I’m here.” A strong, masculine voice with a Northern accent rang out from the lobby. “Have an appointment to talk to the doctor about doing some advertising with the Sun Times?”

  “Great!” Moxie recognized the voice and the accent immediately. Just what she needed to put the cherry on the top of this rancid ice-cream sundae of a day.

  “I’ll tell him you need to reschedule,” Vince said to Lionel.

  “We’ll all go.” Dodie turned to lead the way. “Then we can hop in our cars and caravan to the hospital.”

  The whole group turned and hurried down the hallway.

  Moxie looked at Lionel. “They’re doing it again.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Crowding me out of my
own dad’s life.”

  “They are just trying to be helpful.” Lionel gave her a smirk then shook his head. “You have to get your dad to the hospital and you can’t use your truck. Who else are you going to rely on if not your family?”

  Moxie shut her eyes. She could just imagine her old truck stalled in the road, needing help, having to rely on who knew what kind of character to…

  “Leave that to me, Lionel. I have a great idea.” She hurried to cut the group off before they reached the lobby. Boundary setting in the most primitive but effective way. “Well, not a great idea, but it’s going to have to do.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “The Bait Shack does not need to run no full-page ad in the Sun Times to draw in customers.”

  “Shh, Daddy.” Moxie gave the heavyset sixty-something man a push toward the white Mustang convertible in the parking lot. “Think of it as a goodwill gesture to thank our patrons and show support for our local paper.”

  “Graft is what you mean. You offered that new editor an ad in exchange for the favor.”

  “That’s not exactly how I look at it.” Moxie meant that. The truth was she had always thought her father had skimped on marketing and failed to spread his success among other local businesses. “Now, do you want to sit in the front or backseat?”

  Billy J jerked his arm away from Moxie’s guiding hand, yanked open the door and lumbered into the backseat.

  “Now I see how I came by my ‘does not play well with others’ attitude toward family members,” she muttered.

  “No.” Billy J held his hand up to stop her cold as she tried to climb in behind him. “I’m fine. I don’t need you to ride alongside me and hold my hand like I was some tantrum-throwing kid.”

  Moxie chuckled to herself, then leaned in and planted a big smacking kiss on his warm, ruddy cheek. “If I stop treating you like a tantrum-prone kid, you might stop acting like a kid, Daddy. Where would be the fun in life for me in that?”