by Leah Atwood
Both ladies waved as Serena headed straight for the bank of elevators just beyond where they worked.
The Oak Hollow Hospital was more familiar than she’d ever wanted it to be. She stepped into the elevator and hit the button for the third floor. Leaning against the back wall, she drew in a deep breath and willed her mind back to the present. The past was dead and gone. Literally. She had to focus on the present, so she could get back to her life in Atlanta.
A chime sounded, and the elevator doors slid open. In the hall she took a left at the nurse’s station. Halfway down the corridor she stopped outside room 1318. An unexpected smile lifted her lips. Why did this small town insist on the pretense of size? There were less than one hundred beds in this facility. But because it was the biggest employer in the county, the community and staff esteemed it like an elite hospital. Yes, the care was good, but it was still in small-town America.
And there went her calculating mind, distracting her from people. She took a breath and rapped on the door before easing it open.
“Serena, you’re here!” Her mother reached her arms wide in anticipation of a long-overdue hug.
“Mom, what have you done?” Serena dropped her purse onto the chair by the bed and embraced her mother. The kiss her mother put on her cheek was sweet. Like the lady in the bed.
“Just a little tumble. You know how those back steps to the carport have always been.” Her mom pointed at the sling supporting her lower leg. “Doctor Akers says it’ll be fine in no time.”
Serena looked at the apparatus. “This does not look like a little break, Mom.”
A deep voice behind her said, “It’s not a little break.” She didn’t have to turn around to know Michael Roundtree’s voice. She still heard it in her sleep when she was restless or worried. After all these years he was the voice of reason in her head. The voice she’d ignored when she’d left town. And that she wouldn’t start listening to now.
Her mother smiled a welcome. “Michael, I told you not to worry about coming back this evening. You’ve done so much. And what about those boys at church? How did you miss your Wednesday class?”
“Pastor Timmons arranged for a substitute.” Michael walked to the other side of the bed and put a take-out bag on the rolling table against the wall. “I couldn’t skip country-fried steak night at Luther’s. I know how you love the mashed potatoes and gravy.”
Serena’s tummy rumbled at the aroma of home-style cooking. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast. It was dark out now. The view from the window showed the surrounding streets lit by the glow of streetlights fashioned in a style of a bygone era. It almost looked like a Christmas card at night. The lights reflected off the streets that were still damp from a rain shower that had ended just before she’d pulled into the hospital parking lot.
She watched Michael take her mother’s hand in his. He touched her forehead with the back of his other hand. “A bit warm. Are you still arguing with Julie about your meds?”
Her mom laughed, but the movement must have hurt because she grabbed her side. “You know Julie won’t take no for an answer.”
Michael held her hands while she pulled against his strength and shifted in the bed. She settled back against the pillows in a more comfortable position. “That’s what makes her a good nurse.”
“Mom, what are your injuries? It’s more than just your leg, isn’t it?”
“I told you to tell her everything.” Michael’s voice held censure like someone would use to scold a favored child.
Her mom scrunched her face in a playful scowl. “She only walked in just a moment before you.”
Michael turned to Serena and pointed to the chair beside her. “You may want to sit down. This could take a while.” He started to open the take-out bag. “But don’t worry. It’s nothing that won’t heal over time. A few weeks, maybe.”
“Weeks?” Serena sank into the chair.
Her mom smiled. “That doctor thinks I’m going to take weeks to heal. He acts like I’m an old lady or something.” She pushed the button on the side rail of her bed to raise herself to a seated position. “He’s only a year younger than I am. I wonder if he’d like it if I started saying he needed to take it easy.”
Michael took the lid off the plastic container and rolled the table up to the bed so the meal was in front of her mom. “Tea or coffee?”
“Tea, please.”
“Tell her what your injuries are while I go get your drink. I’ll be back inside of five minutes, and if you haven’t told Serena everything, I will.”
He stepped toward the door.
Her mom called to him. “I’m your boss, Michael Roundtree. Don’t you start ordering me around.” Michael had managed her mother’s store for years. Her mother’s words were spoken in a teasing manner that reflected that relationship. Serena was almost positive that, without his help, All Things Christmas would have closed shortly after Serena left Oak Hollow.
“You’re the boss, but I know what’s best for you right now.” He winked at her mother. Then just as quickly his face became serious, and he lowered his voice. “Serena is your family. It’s time the two of you had a long talk.” He turned and was gone.
Serena shifted to the edge of her chair. “What is it that you’re not telling me?”
Her mother salted the potatoes and stirred them with her fork. “Doctor Akers says I bruised some ribs on the steps when I landed.” She pointed at her leg. “The surgery went well.”
“Surgery? You didn’t tell me you had surgery.” A sheet was draped across the sling that held her mother’s leg.
“Well, I did. Yesterday afternoon. And I’m fine. There was no need in you worrying about it. You had a long drive ahead of you. The last thing we needed was for you to have a wreck on the interstate. I knew you’d rush to get here if you realized I needed a rod in my leg.” She took a bite of the potatoes and smiled at the flavor.
“A rod?” Serena was dumbfounded. “What else, Mom?” She tried to keep her tone calm, but her mother’s tendency to smooth over the fine points of a matter was a pet peeve of Serena’s. Facing facts. Putting them right out in the open. That’s how Serena dealt with things. That’s the way her father had done things. But never her mother.
“I should have no problem healing. None. And I’ll be able to walk just fine.” She tore off a piece of a roll and buttered it. “It just may take a while for the bones to heal.”
Serena was starting to worry. It was almost Thanksgiving. All Things Christmas was about to enter the busiest few weeks of the year. “How long?” The profits from these few weeks would make the difference in whether or not the store would end the year in the black. Her mother lived for that store.
“A few weeks, like Michael said.”
She didn’t want to know what Michael said. He was good to her mother, and she appreciated that. But he wasn’t a doctor. And sometimes, no matter how much she wanted to take him at his word, he didn’t know best. “I want to know what the doctor said.”
A step behind her announced Michael’s return. He put a cup of iced tea on the table for her mother. “The doctor said what I said. That’s where I got the information.”
Serena didn’t look at him. She couldn’t. Those eyes of his, soft brown and deep. Filled with compassion. She couldn’t look at them and not think about how the lids lowered and closed when he’d leaned in to kiss her. The softness of his breath against her face when he’d said he loved her was a memory she’d never lose. And she couldn’t think about it now. She knew he’d never say it again.
Walking away from Michael had been the hardest thing she’d ever done. Harder than leaving her mother to run the store without her.
* * *
Michael pulled up a chair on the opposite side of the hospital bed from Serena. He pointed at the food he’d brought. “How is it?”
Denise nodded and sipped her tea. “Delicious, as always. Thanks for thinking of me. I hope you got something for yourself.”
He leaned back
in the chair. “I’ll grab a bite on the way home.”
Serena looked at her watch. “You best head out then. Everything will be closed up within the hour.”
He chuckled. “We’ve got two new fast food restaurants on my side of town. You’ll be surprised to know that one of them has a twenty-four hour drive-thru.”
Her pretty eyes grew wide. He’d always loved her eyes. Until the day they’d grown cold and hard. The day she’d refused to listen to a word he said. The day she’d rejected his promise of a future proposal of marriage.
“Fast food? You’re eating fast food?” She tut-tutted. “After all those years of meat and potatoes and working out to stay in shape?” She blushed and took her cell phone out of her pocket. He knew she didn’t want to talk about how she used to jog beside him on the track at the high school.
“An occasional burger won’t kill me. It’s like a reward for all the veggies I eat.” He wanted to tease her. To see her smile and watch the light dance in her eyes. But her head bent over the glowing screen of the latest phone reminded him that she’d had more than one reason to leave small-town America behind. Oak Hollow didn’t move at a fast enough pace for her. And neither did he. He’d wanted to wait to propose until he had saved enough money for the down payment on the house she loved on Griffin Street, with its round turret and porch on the front corner. She said it would be such a lovely room for their daughters to grow up in. Three. She’d wanted three daughters. Any boys would be relegated to his domain in the huge shed out behind the house. She’d snuggled into his arms on the swing on that porch and said that all the boys must learn to work with their hands, and it would be his job to teach them.
Memories. All memories. That’s all he had left of the dreams he’d imagined with Serena as his bride. That and the house he’d bought when she left, foolishly hoping she’d come to her senses and come home to help Denise with All Things Christmas.
He needed to go. The room would close in on him if he stayed any longer. He stood and took a candy bar from the pocket of his jacket and put it beside Denise’s plate. “A little something for later.”
Denise smiled and reached for it. The bruised ribs caught her up in pain again.
“Oh, my.” Denise’s eyes grew wider. “I’ll learn to stop doing that, won’t I?”
Serena was on her feet at the first sign of a grimace. “Mom, what can I do?”
Michael pushed the candy closer. “That was my fault. I’m sorry.”
“Nonsense. Just show Serena how Doctor Akers showed you to help me shift in the bed.” Denise reached her arms out to him.
He pushed the rolling table out of the way and stepped close to the edge of the bed. He leaned in with his arm bent at the elbow, and Denise grabbed on. “Careful.”
Serena watched as her mother pulled on Michael’s arm to sit up straighter in bed.
“You want her to do the pulling. Just offer her a steady arm. She will know if it starts to hurt. If it does, she’ll let go. If you pull on her, it could aggravate her injuries.”
Serena’s green eyes watched him. The concern in them was real. As far away from her mother as she’d made a life for herself, the love was still there.
“Thank you, Michael.” She tucked the sheet around Denise and pulled the table closer, so she could finish eating. “I really appreciate all you’ve done.”
“It’s what she’d do for me.” He dropped a kiss on Denise’s forehead. “Right?”
Denise answered, “Yes, but thank you just the same.” She waved him away with one hand. “Shoo. You get some rest. You’ve got a store to run.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He headed for the door and stopped. “Serena, my number is in your mom’s phone if you need me. For anything. It’s in the drawer by the bed.”
She was quiet and still as she stood by the bed. “Okay.”
“I’m only leaving because you’re here.” For some unexplained reason, it was important to him for her to know. “Not because of you – but so you two can talk.”
She nodded. And he left.
How awkward to walk away from her when, the last time, she’d walked away from him. Had it felt like this to her? Had she longed to turn around and clear the air? To beg for the two of them to work together on a solution to all the problems she faced?
He headed down the empty hallway on feet that grew heavier with each step. Being in the same room with Serena after five years of not seeing her or hearing her voice had taken the air from his lungs. And the pain of their breakup oozed out of him.
All these years he’d known the core of it was festering in his soul. He’d buried it and tried to move on. Now that he saw her in her expensive shoes and smart business attire, he knew there was no going back. He’d known for a long time. Today’s meeting was the closing seal on a long-dead chapter of his youth.
Funny. There was no bitterness or anger. Only sorrow. Not for the lost relationship, but for all she’d missed with her mother. She couldn’t get back the years away from Oak Hollow. Sure, her mother had visited her in Atlanta, but it wasn’t the same.
Denise had felt it. Michael watched her move from longing for Serena’s return, to acceptance of her absence, to resignation at the finality of it.
Lord, please let those two ladies bond tonight. You know I only had the hospital call Serena for Denise’s sake. But I think You may have a bigger plan. Help them both to see it.
* * *
Michael stopped by to see Denise before he went to open the store the next morning. He tapped on the door and entered at her muffled response.
“Good morning, sleepy head.”
Denise let her head roll on the pillow until she could see him. “Hi.”
“How was your night?” He put a cup of coffee on her tray and pulled back the tab on his own cup.
She pushed the button on the rail of the hospital bed and raised herself to a seated position. “Tolerable. Made better because my girl stayed with me.” She picked up the cup and said, “This will help.”
Michael sat in the chair by her bed and looked around the room. Signs of Serena’s presence were everywhere, but she was nowhere in sight. Her leather purse was stashed in the corner of the counter opposite the sink. A small, expensive overnight bag was pushed under the counter. The blazer she’d worn the day before hung on the back of the chair by the window. But the most telling hint was the open yellow box of chocolate-covered caramel candies. An empty diet soda bottle stood beside it.
Sweets for stress. It was one of the ways Serena coped.
He smiled at Denise. “I’m glad you had company. It makes the time pass faster if someone is there to share it.” A fact he’d learned during the long, lonely nights that had dragged by after Serena had left – until he’d decided time would pass, whether he enjoyed it or not.
Serena came into the room with two mugs of coffee. She stopped in her tracks and said, “Well, I see I’m too late.”
Denise reached for one of the cups. “There’s always a need for more coffee.”
Serena shook her head. “Too much isn’t good for you.”
“Don’t go trying to tell me what’s good for me. You’re talking to the woman who refused to let you eat candy for breakfast.
Michael laughed. “What a mean mom you were, Denise.”
“Were? I’m talking about this morning.” Denise pointed to the open yellow box of candy.
“Mom, you don’t need to tell Michael everything.” Serena laughed and raised her mug. She winked at Michael. “Don’t tell her what’s in a caramel mochaccino.” The power of her humor hit him in the chest. How he’d missed her. He knew from the way she turned her shoulder to him that she already regretted the familiarity of winking at him.
Dr. Akers knocked on the door and entered. “Serena, I’m so glad you’re here. Hello, Michael.” He went to stand by the bed. “And how’s our patient this morning?”
“I’ve got a name, Thomas Akers.” Denise squinted her eyes at him.
“Don’t make
me take you off caffeine, Denise Evers.”
“I already did, Doc. That’s decaf.” Serena shot a sly grin to her mother, who opened her mouth in shock. This was the take-charge Serena Michael remembered.
“Well done. Then you are exactly who needs to stay with your mom while she convalesces.”
Denise raised the bed to a sharper angle. “Convalesces? I am not an old woman, Dr. Akers. Old people convalesce.”
The doctor corrected her. “Wounded people convalesce. And you are wounded. If Serena hadn’t come to take care of you, I wouldn’t be able to let you go home. You’d need to go into the rehab center at Shady Pines.”
Serena parroted the doctor. “Shady Pines?”
Michael saw the shock of Dr. Akers’ words settle over mother and daughter. The rehab center was part of the best nursing home in the county, but no one – including Michael – ever thought Denise would be a patient there. Long, or short, term.
Dr. Akers answered, “Yes. That’s my only choice for patients with such serious injuries who have no one at home to care for them.” He extended his hand toward Serena. “With you here, your mother can go home today.” He looked to Denise. “Of course, you’ll need physical therapy when you’re able to put weight on your leg again. That won’t be for at least three weeks. You’ll leave here in a wheelchair.”
“But, Doc, I have to work. I came to check on Mom.” Serena turned to Denise. “You didn’t tell me it was this bad.”
Denise finally spoke up. “I didn’t realize.”
The doctor continued, “It’s not uncommon for patients to miss the details I share when they’re first injured. When you came in two days ago, your pain level held your attention.”
Michael was processing all the doctor’s information. “I heard you say she’d need therapy, but I didn’t realize she wouldn’t be able to stay on her own.” He reached a hand to Denise. “I can stay with you.”
