“Is the bleeding in her right eye a sign that it’s changing to the wet form?” Glory had done her homework when Granny had been diagnosed, but it had been a while.
“Not necessarily; in fact, I’d place odds against it.”
Glory asked, “So will this clear up on its own like last time?”
“I can’t really say, especially since I didn’t get a chance to see it after her last episode.”
Glory’s hands were sweating. She didn’t know if she was more angry with her grandmother or herself for taking the easy road and letting the last appointment slide. But she was angry. She gestured toward Eric, who had remained seated and silent. “I should have strapped you on the back of Eric’s motorcycle and made sure you made that last appointment.”
Dr. Blanton raised his palms. “Now, I wouldn’t recommend that. Bumping along on a motorcycle—”
“I wasn’t serious, Doctor. But I should have made certain she rescheduled.”
He patted Tula with the hand that was on her shoulder. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Then he winked at Glory. “Until then, don’t be too hard on her. I’ve already dragged her over the coals. I don’t think she’ll be missing any more appointments.”
Oh, my goodness, is that a look of contrition on Granny’s face?
He smiled at Granny. “Just take things easy until then. No running, jumping, rock climbing, smoking, lifting, three-legged races, headstands . . . in fact, go home and sit in one place. And elevate your head with an extra pillow tonight. Got it?”
Granny nodded. “Thank’ee, Doctor.”
Eric held the door for them as they exited. Scott was asleep on his shoulder, his little arm dangling alongside Eric’s muscular biceps.
When they reached the car, Eric took his free arm and wrapped Tula in a quick hug. “Don’t worry. It’s going to work out.”
It took about a millisecond before Granny bristled. She pulled away and said, “’Course it’s gonna work out. Now put that baby in the car seat and let’s get going. I’m hungry.”
Now that’s more like the Tula Baker we all know. Glory saw Eric fighting a grin.
He said, “I’m taking Scott home with me.”
“You ain’t workin’?”
“Not this afternoon.”
Granny’s face grew suspicious. “Good. If’n you’re not doing anything else, you can bring Glory back in to pick up her car.”
This time Eric did grin. “I’d be glad to.”
“Gran, we don’t need two cars right now.”
Granny’s jaw set as stubbornly as Glory had ever seen it. If she’d thought the old gal was down, she’d been sorely mistaken.
Granny said, “I might need mine tomorrow.”
“You can’t drive.”
“Not now. But tomorrow’ll be ’nother thing.”
“I won’t lea—”
Her grandmother rounded on her so quickly, Glory recoiled. “Don’t say it! Don’t you say it!” Then she drew in a breath. “This’ll be a good time to get your car.”
“What if Eric has other plans?” Glory asked, lifting her chin, matching her grandmother’s stubborn stance.
“I don’t. I’ll be happy to bring you back into town,” Eric said, in a tone that held warning against argument.
Glory shot him a killing glare, tilting her head and raising her brows. He just nodded and opened the car door for Granny.
With what felt like a huge lump of ice at the base of her throat, Glory watched as Granny fumbled with fastening the seat belt. After the third time she missed the slot for the buckle, Glory moved forward to help. Eric put a hand on her shoulder and with a slow shake of his head stopped her.
The buckle finally snapped into place.
With an angry glance toward Eric, Glory set the white paper bag in her grandmother’s lap. “Here, Gran. Eric made you a sandwich.”
With a bright smile for Eric, Granny said, “Oh, good.” She opened the bag. “I’m hungry ’nough to eat the seat of this car.”
Eric sat in the Explorer with the windows rolled down, waiting for Glory to get Tula settled in the house. He’d parked in the shade and there was a light breeze moving through the car, making it easy to leave Scott dozing in his car seat. He knew there was going to be trouble when Glory came back out; he was enjoying the calm before the storm.
His mind drifted back to Blue Falls Pond. There had been a perfect moment of connection with Glory that he wished had lasted after they’d left the magic of that place. But it was clear, as Glory had been avoiding him since, that either she hadn’t felt it or didn’t want it. He had fought his disappointment every day, assuring himself that the last thing he needed right now was a relationship—especially with a woman who roused suspicions about the truth of a fire he’d investigated. What a tangled mess that could become.
He should let well enough alone, leave Glory to her life and concentrate on his own problems—he had plenty to fill his plate at the moment. Jill’s call earlier today made him suspect that more was about to be heaped on.
It was “for the best.” He’d always hated that phrase—dragged out and paraded around whenever disappointment crushed fragile dreams. But now he had to hang on to it, believe it—or he’d end up doing something foolish.
Finally, Glory came out of the house. The scowl she wore as she stomped toward the car was no doubt meant to make him shiver—and it did, just not in the way she intended.
She yanked the door open and got into the passenger seat. She probably would have slammed it closed, if she hadn’t glanced in the backseat and seen that Scott was sleeping.
She hissed in a low voice, “You could have said you were busy.” She glanced back at the house. “I don’t like leaving her alone in this condition.” She turned angry eyes on him and jabbed a finger in his direction. “You shouldn’t want her to be alone.”
God, her eyes were brilliant green when she was mad. Just looking into them made all of his resolutions of a few minutes ago flit away quickly as a hummingbird. “Did you put the cordless phone next to her?”
“Of course,” she snapped.
“She’s been ordered not to do anything but sit, right?”
Glory rolled her eyes as if he was the most dim-witted character she’d ever come across. “Right—which is why I need to be there to watch her. You know how she is. First it’ll be, ‘I’ll just make myself a cup of tea.’ Then, ‘As long as I’m up, I’ll throw in a load of laundry.’ The next thing you know, she’ll justify her way into washing the windows or cleaning the gutters.”
As hard as he tried not to, he laughed.
Big mistake. She twisted in the seat to face him. “This is not funny!”
Unable to help himself, he reached out and brushed the hair away from her cheek. “I know Tula’s problem isn’t funny. But your reaction to it is.”
“I’m just trying to take care of her.” Her voice was incredulous. “I know you want to downplay it, so she can watch your kid. But things are changing, buddy, and your ignoring it won’t help.”
Now he was hot under the collar. He made himself take three deep breaths before he spoke. When he did it was between clenched teeth. “Listen. This has nothing to do with Scott. It has to do with what’s best for Tula. Do you seriously believe she’ll be happy with you hovering over her, watching her every second, cautioning her every move?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but he cut her off. “Nothing in this world means more to Tula than her independence. She needed to be left alone this afternoon.”
“Do you understand what’s happening to her? Do you know anything about this disease?”
He was getting tired of Glory talking to him as if he were an uncaring idiot. “I know that she’ll never go completely blind from MD. And I know there’s no successful treatment for it at the moment. I know before the central vision fails, straight lines will blur and waver. MD-affected eyes are like looking through a glasses lens with a smudge or opaque spot in the cent—”
�
��Okay—” Glory tried to interrupt, but he kept on talking.
“I know she’ll retain peripheral vision—not much solace, but when you compare it to total blindness, she’s lucky, and she knows it. Her world may lose focus, but she won’t be plunged into darkness.”
“All right!” Glory tried again. “You’ve done your research.”
Eric didn’t pause for a breath, but continued to recite in a rush. “With adjustments, she should be able to live her life independently for the most part. Sure, she won’t be driving. She won’t be quilting. She won’t be reading the newspaper. But life, especially for a woman like Tula, is so much more than those things.
“And I know that if you’re not careful, you’re going to make her feel crippled. It does absolutely no harm to leave her alone for an hour or so while I drive you to town—but I think it’ll do a world of good for her outlook.” He wasn’t sure he’d taken a breath in his entire speech.
Glory sat there staring at him. For a moment he thought he’d stunned her into silence. But no such luck. She said, “Let’s get going. I want to get back.”
Eric blew out a long breath of frustration. “All right. But think about what I said. Tula needs help in adapting, not someone to make her feel she’s helpless.”
Glory looked out the windshield and put on her seat belt. “She’s my grandmother. You let me worry about what she needs.”
Tula waited until Glory and Eric had pulled away. Then she got busy. She wanted to make a few changes without Glory around. Dr. Blanton had made some suggestions for making daily life a little more . . . accident-free. She didn’t really need most of the changes yet, but who knew when she’d have some time to herself?
She moved through the house as if a contestant on a game show with only seconds to perform certain tasks. There weren’t that many things to do, but she didn’t want to be “caught in the act.”
First, she went from room to room changing the lightbulbs, putting in higher wattage. Then she placed a dark hand towel over the edge of the bathtub to make it easier to see; she’d noticed in places of low contrast, she’d been misjudging. Then she rummaged in her purse and got the labels Dr. Blanton had given her to mark her vitamin and prescription medication bottles. Most of the time she was able to see them well enough to distinguish one from the other, but this color-coded, large-print system would prevent errors on her “bad days.”
She had the last bottle in hand when the phone rang. She jumped and her hand settled over her heart. “Good gracious, Tula, calm down.” It wasn’t like she was doing anything wrong, for heaven’s sake.
Squaring her shoulders, she took a deep breath and went to answer the phone.
“Granny? Are you all right?” Charlie asked.
“’Course I’m all right. What makes you ask?” Had he been peeking in the windows? She caught herself looking over her shoulder out the kitchen window.
“I came by around noon and nobody was home. I know you had Scott . . . it looked like y’all left in a hurry. I was worried something had happened.”
Tula’s chest warmed as hope sprang in her heart. Charlie might just make a good man after all. She decided to award him with a truthful account. “I had another spell with my eye. Glory drove me in to see Dr. Blanton.”
“A spell? Like last time?”
“Purty much. I have to go again tomorrow, but he thinks it’ll pass just like last time.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
“Now listen here, I been puttin’ up with mother henning from Glory. I don’t need you throwing in your two cents. If it don’t, I figure it out from there. No need gettin’ the reaction afore the disaster.”
Charlie chuckled. “I can see you’re good as ever. If you lost that fightin’ attitude, I would be worried.”
Tula huffed. She had things left to do. “Well, if that’s all, then . . .”
“All right. Bye, Granny. Love you.”
“You too.” She hung up the phone.
Good gracious, what if Charlie caught a case of the fretfuls from Glory? Tula didn’t think she could stand two of them ganging up on her.
She hurried to finish the labels. Then she tucked the spares away in her dresser drawer.
All of her hurrying had made her overheat. She grabbed a magazine and fanned her face. She had to cool down before Glory got back; she was supposed to be resting.
The ride into town had been filled with unpleasant silence. Eric didn’t want to leave things that way. The last thing he wanted was for Glory to view him as the enemy. As much as he wanted to be there for Tula if her sight deteriorated, he knew Glory was going to need support too.
He put the Explorer in park in front of Franklin’s Garage.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said as she opened the passenger door.
Eric grabbed her arm. “Wait a second. Please.”
She stopped and looked at him with anger brimming in her gaze.
He said, “I think we can both help Tula—our fighting won’t serve her at all.”
Glory glanced over her shoulder at Scott. “Forgive me if I think you have more than Granny’s well-being influencing your judgment.”
He dropped his left hand to the steering wheel and squeezed until his knuckles were white. “Do you really think I’d leave Scott with her if she wasn’t capable of taking care of him? I’ve been watching her carefully since long before you came back here. The second I feel it’s too much for her, or it’s not safe for Scott, I’ll act on it. But Tula is a proud woman, and her sight is plenty good to watch one child and keep him safe, but not nearly good enough for her to quilt. How is she going to make ends meet? Social security isn’t enough. She won’t accept charity. I’ve been racking my brain for months trying to figure out a way for her to sustain some sort of income.”
“Oh, I see, I ran off and you had to take up the slack.”
“Jesus, Glory, that’s not at all what I meant. It’s just I’ve had opportunities of observation that you haven’t. And this isn’t about you. You almost act like you want her to be impaired!”
She gasped as if he’d struck her. “How can you say that?”
“Maybe you need her to need you. Maybe it’s the first direction you’ve had since the fire.” He hadn’t intended to lay it out quite like that, but there it was, shimmering in the air between them like a bank of hot air.
She gritted her teeth when she said, “And you can’t save everybody. Granny is my family, my responsibility.”
He lifted his hands, palms out. “Touché. Now that we have that out in the open . . .
The tense muscles in her face relaxed slightly. She ran her hand through her hair. “You have your problem. And I have mine.” Her voice had softened enough to make him believe the fighting was over. “I think we both have our hands full.”
He could hardly dispute that logic. Still, it took everything in him to keep from arguing further, from telling her that they could help one another, they could talk things out. Now wasn’t the time. But he wasn’t going to walk away from Tula just because Glory got her knickers in a twist.
He gave a silent nod, and Glory got out of the car.
She paused before she closed the door. “Thanks, Eric. Good luck finding someone to watch Scott.”
She closed the door. That hadn’t gone at all as he’d wanted. He should have kept his temper; it had been a very emotional day for Glory.
His father had always taught him to make sure a lady had her car safely started before he left. As he pulled out of the lot, he stopped behind her Volvo.
When Glory reappeared out of the shop office, she looked slightly puzzled as she walked past his car.
He waved her on.
She got inside the Volvo.
He waited for her car to start.
She climbed back out.
He watched in confusion. She lifted the windshield wiper and took something from underneath it. The look on her face had him out of the car and by her side in less time than it took for her to t
urn.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Her face was a mixture of fear and pain as she handed him a matchbook. “This was under my windshield wiper.”
Eric opened the flap of the matchbook and saw the words I KNOW WHAT YOU DID written in block letters across the inside.
“I don’t understand,” he said.
Glory was visibly shaken. “This morning there was a copy of the newspaper article about the fire stuck inside Granny’s paper. It had the same words scrawled across it.”
A cold fist grabbed Eric’s gut. He’d never breathed a word of his suspicions to another living soul. But they were coming back to haunt him just the same.
Chapter Fourteen
JILL’S AFTERNOON CREPT slowly by as she sat at her desk in the surgeon’s office. She couldn’t seem to hold her thoughts to her work; bits and pieces of the past kept intruding no matter how hard she tried to block them out. At what point had she lost control of her life? Where were the crossroads where she had taken the wrong turn?
At one time, she’d been happy, back in the day when boyfriends had been plentiful; when there had always been someone waiting on her doorstep—back before she’d had to choose.
After that, the fear had set in, the doubt, the idea that by doing what she was, she was missing something else—the overriding conviction that there was more.
Now insecurity was again getting the upper hand.
She needed to get her mind back on her work, or she’d never get out of here today. She’d had to rewind the tape with the doctor’s dictation on it three times before she had the first paragraph transcribed correctly.
As much as she didn’t want to admit it to herself, she was nervous about seeing Eric tonight. Which was ridiculous; she saw him at least three times a week as they transferred Scott between them. But this was different. Tonight there was something at stake.
On Blue Falls Pond Page 18
