“You truly are a wonderful person, Jules. I can see why Michael married you. I feel like you’re going to be the key to getting this family back together.” Tabitha smoothed Jules’s crimson locks as she looked at her affectionately.
Jules wondered if the gut-wrenching conflict she was feeling was visible on her face. She had wanted to be the person to help bring Michael and his mother back together. What a hero that would make her. She thought back on all the things Michael had done for her over the years; this would be her way to pay him back. The problem was it had become abundantly clear Michael didn’t want a path back to his mother. He wanted a one-way ticket away from her. Jules’s meddling and cheerleading for a resolution wasn’t helping anything. It had put a wedge between them. Michael had an image of his mother that seemed very different than the impression Jules had gotten. Wasn’t that because it was outdated? They’d gone nearly a decade without interacting very much. His anger was misdirected. Surely his father was the intended target; his mother was just the closest target. She bit at her lip as she thought how to answer Tabitha’s statement.
“I hope things do work out between all of you. You know I’ll do anything I can to help. Look at how wonderful you’ve been, making sure we have everything we need for Frankie since the moment we got here, especially now that she’s not feeling well. Just tell me how to help and I’ll keep trying.” Jules felt like she’d just dug herself a hole she might not want to jump into, but how could she leave all these hurting people in the state they were in? There had to be a solution. She just needed to find it.
“You’re already doing so much. I think if you can just stay around a little longer we’ll turn a corner. I just need more time. A little more time,” Tabitha opened her arms for a hug and Jules stepped right in. The smell of her elegant perfume and the feel of her expensive shirt against Jules’s cheek brought her some comfort. Tabitha couldn’t be the monster Michael kept painting her to be. He just needed to step back, put history behind him, and view his mother as the person she was today.
Jules grabbed her bag and headed for the waiting car out front. She thought for a moment she should head back in the house and let Michael know she was leaving. But he’d told her not to come back until she’d gotten a good break. She didn’t want to send a text and have the whole room lighting up by the screen of his phone or waking either of them with the loud chirp of its speaker. Michael was exhausted. There was a good chance he’d put Frankie down in her crib and nodded off himself in the chair. She’d be back before he even knew she was gone.
That all made perfectly logical sense, but as the car pulled down the long driveway and away from the epically beautiful mansion, Jules felt as though she were going to be sick. But the glow was back in Tabitha’s eyes and that had to count for something.
Pulling up to the deserted parking lot of Forty-One Restaurant, Jules’s hunger pangs were screaming. The smell as they stepped in the front door was like a wonderful assault on her senses. It made her think of the old cartoons where waves of smells came wafting off the food and lured the character off their feet and toward the source. She wasn’t sure if she could just taste food in order to pick, she was feeling like she’d devour something.
“Chef Corbin takes this all very seriously. I don’t want to insult him. This is a process, his process. When we step into his kitchen, he is the boss.”
“Of course,” Jules nodded, knowing she’d be willing to jump through a hoop of flames at this point if it meant she could taste whatever smelled so good.
“Ladies, thank you for joining me six minutes later than we agreed.” The chef wore a tall white hat and a scowl as he folded his arms across his chest. His golden blond hair came out in tufts below the hat and his eyes were a glassy grey. “Now we’ll only have four hours and fifty four minutes dedicated to this tasting. I have no idea what I’ll shave off to make up for the time but we’ll need to improvise.”
“Five hours?” Jules whispered with a look of terror as she pleaded with Tabitha to tell her she’d heard him wrong.
“Did I not mention that?” Tabitha asked with a look on her face as though she were utterly forgetful.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Michael, do you have a second?” Piper asked, looking as though she were moments away from facing a firing squad. Michael already had a terrible feeling and her expression pushed him over the edge.
“Did something happen to Jules? I expected her to come back and check on Frankie by now. It’s been almost five hours. I had to leave her with Nicolette so I could take a bathroom break.”
“No, nothing happened to Jules as far as I know. The doorman said she left with your mother a few hours ago to do something for the party but that’s not what I need to talk to you about. Do you remember when you told me to do whatever I thought was needed to help the situation here. I believe your exact words were any means necessary.”
“Yes,” Michael said slowly, stretching the word out as though he were afraid to find out what Piper might have done.
“I may have panicked when Frankie was sick today, and I kind of did something that might have been over the top.”
“What did you do?” he asked, holding his breath, but getting his answer a second later when a familiar voice echoed up the large hallway.
“How many damn rooms are there in this castle? I could get as lost as a blind dog in the woods in here.”
“What did you do?” Michael asked again, now in an accusing tone. “You called Betty?”
“I did. I got nervous with everything going on, and I thought maybe she could help,” Piper stuttered.
“Betty here, with my mother, in this place. You thought that would be a good thing? On what planet would that be a good thing?”
“In theory it sounded good,” Piper said, nervously wringing her hands as Betty’s voice grew closer. “But in reality I might be having some second thoughts.”
“Here they are,” Ben the doorman said as he guided Bobby and Betty around the corner to where Michael and Piper were standing.
“All things holy, Michael, where is Frankie? I get this call that she’s sick and everything out here is a mess. Give me that baby.” Betty looked as though she hadn’t stopped moving since she got the call. She was still dressed in the clothes she would wear to the restaurant and her hair was pulled into a bun the way she wore it at work.
“She’s in with the nanny right now,” Michael explained feeling like his world was spinning off its axis.
“She doesn’t need a nanny; she needs a doctor.”
“We know; she’s already seen a doctor. It’s an ear infection. He ordered an antibiotic and we’re going to start it tonight.”
“Like hell,” Betty shot back.
“Like hell what?”
“Antibiotics are a bunch of horse manure. They don’t really work, and they usually do more damage than good. There are plenty of things that can be done for ear infections besides antibiotics. You can massage behind her ear to ease the pain. That should keep her from tugging on her ears. Some garlic can help too; it doesn’t smell any worse than the ear does when it’s infected. And she’ll need lots of help getting to sleep. Some lavender drops in a bath should do the trick.”
Bobby put his hand on Betty’s shoulder and in a hushed voice tried to get her to calm down. “I know you’re worried, but Michael and Jules know what they’re doing.”
“I don’t think I’m going to rely on old wives’ tales to treat my daughter. She doesn’t have any of those symptoms. She’s having no problem sleeping. As a matter of fact we’ve been having a hard time getting her to stay awake long enough to even take a bottle.”
“What? That child doesn’t sleep on a normal night. Ear infections are very painful. She shouldn’t want to be lying down at all right now. She should be screaming like a banshee and wanting to be held,” Betty pushed on, furrowing her brows.
“Well, she isn’t,” Michael explained with a shrug.
“Then that don
’t sound like any ear infection I’ve ever heard of. Who’s the quack you’ve got treating her?”
“He’s a renowned pediatrician who’s been friends with my family for decades. His qualifications are extensive. He made a house call this afternoon and plans to come back in the morning.” Michael’s already frayed nerves were unraveling fast.
“Betty, why don’t we give Michael and Bobby some time to talk while I take you to the kitchen for some tea,” Piper offered as she touched Betty’s elbow gently.
“I want to hold that baby. I need to see her for myself,” Betty insisted as she shook off Piper’s touch and stepped forward assertively.
“Mr. Cooper,” Nicolette called from down the hallway. There was a frenzy in her voice that sent shivers down his spine.
“What is it?” he asked, hustling down the hallway with everyone following closely behind.
“There is blood in her ears. You need to call the doctor right away.” Nicolette held up a burp cloth with a spot of pink blood in her shaking hand.
“I’ll call him,” Bobby said, and Michael tossed his phone back to him. Betty elbowed her way by him and practically stumbled into the nursery. She picked Frankie up out of the crib and flipped on the light. Frankie barely stirred as Betty looked her over and felt her head.
“She’s not warm, no fever at all,” she said kissing the crown of the baby’s head.
“We just took her temperature a few minutes before you got here and it was still over one hundred one,” Michael explained as he came in to get a closer look at Frankie’s ears. Nicolette was right, they were leaking a pink bloody ooze that would have had Michael squirming in disgust in the days before he’d become a father. Now all it did was scare the shit out of him.
“The doctor is on his way. He’ll be here in ten minutes. He said her eardrums likely burst and that it shouldn’t be anything to rush her to the emergency room about but he’ll take a closer look when he gets here,” Bobby offered, clearly trying to stay calm.
“She’s completely lethargic,” Betty said, watching the flutter of Frankie’s eyelids as the baby made a pathetic little sucking noise and then fell back into a slumber. “How long has she been this way?”
“Since just after breakfast this morning,” Piper explained. “She didn’t want much to eat and then after that just kept falling asleep and didn’t want to wake up.”
“It’s nearly her usual bed time. Are you telling me she’s been asleep all day, for almost twelve hours now?” Betty’s concern made the hair on the back of Michael’s neck stand up.
“Yes, but the doctor didn’t seem too concerned about that,” Michael told Betty defensively.
“When he gets here you may want to make sure he’s not within swinging distance of my fists, because I’m not sure I’m going to be able to keep from slugging the fool.” Betty was looking like steam might come pouring from her ears any second and Michael knew the threat of punching a doctor wasn’t an exaggeration.
“Do you think we should take her to the hospital?” Michael asked, looking over at Piper and Bobby for them to weigh in too.
“I don’t know anything about kids,” Bobby shrugged. “If it were me I’d do whatever Betty thought.”
“That should be everyone’s philosophy on everything and this world would run much smoother,” Betty shot back. “I’m not saying she needs to go to the emergency room. Those places are loaded with sick people and germs. I’m just not liking what I’m hearing about this doctor so far.”
“I’m going to call Jules and see what she thinks,” Michael said, gesturing to get his phone back from Bobby.
“She isn’t here? Where the hell is she? Piper told me things were all screwed up out here but that sounds like an understatement so far.” Betty was waving her arms around wildly.
“Jules went out with my mother. They’re trying to get things ready for my sister’s engagement party this weekend. It’s convoluted. The best I can tell, my mother is trying to get Jules on her side so she can manipulate me into being her puppet and keeping the cash flowing around here. It’s not going to happen though. Jules and I are leaving. We aren’t even staying for the party. All of us are getting the hell out of here. I’ll work remotely to get everything done here if I need to. This is getting out of control. We’re all going home in the morning.”
“I don’t think that’s possible,” Dr. Sans interjected as he stepped into the nursery. “If the baby’s eardrums have burst you won’t be getting on a plane until she’s feeling better.”
“Then I’ll rent a car and drive home,” Michael retorted.
“I don’t think you should put her through that stress. I would give her some time to rest up,” Dr. Sans continued as he pulled out his otoscope and peered inside the baby’s ears. Betty narrowed her eyes and looked like a coiled snake about to strike.
“Betty,” Michael whispered with pleading eyes.
“This child is not well. She’s acting completely out of sorts. I don’t think it’s just ear infections causing her problem.”
“And who exactly are you?” Dr. Sans asked as he looked down his beak nose at Betty. “I’m guessing you aren’t a doctor.”
“It doesn’t matter who I am. It matters who she is. And she is my entire world. I know every noise she makes. I know which toys she loves and which ones buzz too loud and make her cry. I cooked her first helping of sweet potatoes and know which songs she loves in the morning. You clearly don’t know a damn thing about anything.”
“Well you sound immensely qualified to diagnose this child since you know her favorite things,” Dr. Sans scoffed arrogantly. A collective gasp escaped the lips of everyone in the room.
Betty seemed to brush over the doctor’s comment and move on, which was not like her at all. “So you’re saying my daughter is out planning a party while her child is sick? I’m asking for efficiency’s sake. If I’m going to whoop this doctor’s ass I’d like to know if my daughter is due for one too so I can get it all done at once.”
Dr. Sans smirked and then let his face fall still as he read Betty’s seriousness. He tucked his instruments away quickly and backed toward the door. “The child doesn’t need to go to the emergency room. She’ll be fine. Just let her rest.” He nodded his head at Michael and then backed out of the room, clearly not wanting to leave himself vulnerable in the presence of what he likely thought was a crazy woman.
“She’s just trying to help. Jules doesn’t understand what’s going on here with my mother, and she thinks she’s helping.” Michael felt like he needed to make a case for Jules and her choices, though realistically he was shocked to hear she’d left the house for so long.
“I don’t care if she thinks she’s liberating a war-torn country. The only thing she needs to be worrying about is this baby,” Betty argued.
“Please don’t come here and put more pressure on her. She’s been overwhelmed with the baby for months and never said anything to me. The last thing she needs is you judging her choices right now. You set a very high standard, and she doesn’t need that right now.” Michael’s lecture might have been misplaced, but his anger needed an outlet.
“First off, I didn’t realize she was struggling,” Betty said curtly. “Second, whatever the hell is going on out here with your mother amounts to a pile of beans. Something isn’t right with this baby. I might not be a doctor, but I know babies, and I especially know this baby.”
“So then what do I do? Do we really go to the emergency room? I don’t want to put her through all that,” Michael croaked.
“No, we don’t have to. She doesn’t have a fever and she did eat some today, right? I’ll watch her close tonight and if she’s not acting differently in the morning then we’ll go. But I’d like to talk to my daughter. Now.”
“Ma?” Jules asked as she peeked her head into the nursery. “I just saw the doctor on the way out. He’s talking to Michael’s mother and saying some crazy southern woman threatened to give him a whooping. I should have known it wa
s you.”
“He’s a moron. You need a second opinion, and you’ll be getting one in the morning. Now, I don’t want to leave this room until I understand what all the trouble is out here. I’ve heard drips and drabs but I want to know everything.” Betty sat in the rocking chair with Frankie tucked in her arms and waited for a reply.
“I thought maybe we had an intruder or something, but I’m guessing I can call off the security now?” Tabitha asked as she looked around the room.
“Yes, Tabitha, I’m sorry. This is my mother,” Jules said looking sheepish.
“Don’t apologize for me. There ain’t nothing sorry about me,” Betty shot back as she continued to rock and barely spared Tabitha a glance.
“Oh, it’s lovely to meet you. I didn’t realize you were coming for a visit. We’d love to have you at the party this weekend.” Tabitha’s fake smile grew another inch wider, but Betty did not return the gesture. “Is there anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable?”
“You can leave,” Betty stated flatly.
“Ma, stop it now,” Jules shouted, taking a step between her mother and her mother-in-law.
Betty shrugged. “I’m not trying to be rude. I’m just wondering how everyone got all wonky the second they got out here. I’m not getting any calls or updates at all, then Piper calls me to tell me Frankie is sick, and I better come to help sort things out. So now I’m here, and I intend to do some sorting. I’d like some time alone with my kin to talk over what kind of mess is going on out here.”
“I hardly think you’ll be able to come in here and sort out any of this. It’s quite presumptuous of you to think you could, actually. My family’s complex problems aren’t any of your concern.” Tabitha arched an eyebrow at Betty and pursed her lips.
“When your family’s complex problems start leaking like a rusty bucket all over my family then, yes, they becomes my concern. Now, this is your house, you don’t have to leave. But if I tell all these people to pack their bags and leave with me right now they will. It ain’t because I’m a bitch who orders them around, it’s because they know I know what’s good for them. So you can either step out of this room and let us talk or you can stay here and hope we don’t mow you over on our way out.”
Battling Destiny (The Piper Anderson Series Book 6) Page 13
