In the Midnight Hour

by Deborah Cooke

  Haley smiled, knowing that was the best offer she’d get from her mom.

  * * *

  Apparently, Haley was perfect for the job. She had an email from the human resources department at the hospital at two minutes after nine on Monday morning. They wanted to schedule a telephone interview, which Haley booked for Wednesday afternoon, her day off, so she wouldn’t be watching the clock

  She thought it went well, then knew it when she received another email Thursday morning. The HR person wanted to arrange an interview in person and asked to coordinate with Haley’s shifts. They were going to book flights for her to come for the interview.

  Apparently, they had some budget to fill this position.

  By dinner time Friday night, Haley was booked for three days in the Midwest. She was flying out the following Wednesday. Her brother Brad was going to pick her up and she’d stay overnight at the house—which he was in the midst of buying from her mom. She’d have the interview Thursday and fly home Friday afternoon. Her mom wanted her to stay over the weekend, since she had it off, but Haley had those days off for a reason.

  She had something to do.

  It might very well be the last time she was able to visit her dad on his birthday.

  Even that thought made her clench up inside, but she had a feeling it was time for change.

  When she asked for the extra time, her boss suggested that she take all of the following week, since her unused vacation was adding up. Haley agreed.

  She hadn’t heard a thing from Damon, and told herself that was all she’d expected.

  Had he booked a memorial service for his mom? Haley hoped so, but she wasn’t going to phone him to find out.

  “We might be moving,” she told Ninja. He jumped up and strolled toward her, winding his way around her ankles, then looking up at her before meowing again. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you.” She reached down and was surprised he didn’t move away. She rubbed behind his ears and he closed his eye, leaning into it for a moment. He even purred a bit, his tail flicking.

  Haley crouched down to give him a good rub. “I’ll go down and ask the super to look in on you, make sure there’s fish in your dish. But I’m coming back. If I go to Illinois, we go together.” He meowed his approval of that, then gave her one of his intent looks, as if to say that he’d hold her to it.

  When he jumped up and went to his favorite perch on the window sill, Haley went down to talk to the super.

  * * *

  Nathan Buchanan was grabbing a bagel on his way out the door to work. His mom was at the kitchen table, reading the newspaper while she finished her second cup of coffee. He couldn’t understand her obsession with the obituaries. Every day she read them and circled the names of any people she knew. The Saturday paper took her ages to read and she often got the ones from the city, too. Sometimes she had to dig out old yearbooks or address books to confirm whether she knew the person or not, especially if there wasn’t a picture.

  Nate thought it was morbid. One thing he’d learned in Afghanistan was to make the most of every day, and savor every good thing in life—because you never knew when it would all go to hell. He wanted to focus on life, not death. Present, not past.

  “Oh, isn’t this sad?” his mom said and he hoped she didn’t really want an answer.

  “You could read the births and announcements,” he said. “That would offer more cheerful news.”

  “Maybe I would if there were any brides or pregnancies in the family.”

  “Don’t give me that, Mom. You only want the second if it comes after the first.”

  His mom laughed then snapped the paper, refolding it so the article was on top. She tapped it. “Look at this. I remember seeing this ballerina dance. She was so beautiful.”

  Nate glanced at the picture. It was old, but that didn’t hide the truth. “She is pretty.”

  “Was. This picture has to be thirty years old. No, closer to forty. She defected from Russia, you know, for love.” His mom sighed, running her finger over the article. “Yes, here it is. She fell in love with a carpenter, Marco Perez, while on tour and dancing in New York almost exactly forty years ago. She defected to be with him and they had one son. Damon. Then the carpenter was killed in an accident. So sad...”

  “Wait a minute” Nate turned in the act of leaving the kitchen. “Her son was Damon Perez?”

  “Is. Yes, his name is right here. He’d be about your age, I guess, Nat, maybe a little older, given the date of her defection.”

  “I served with a guy named Damon Perez.” Nate returned to his mom’s side and took another look at the paper.

  “I would think it’s a common name.”

  “Yeah, but he was from Queens and his mom was a dancer. I think he said a ballet dancer. His dad had been a carpenter, but he was dead.”

  “Really?” His mom handed him the paper and Nathan stood at the counter, so intent upon reading it that he forgot his bagel. “‘Survived by her son, Damon.’” He tapped the paper. “I bet this is him.”

  “Don’t you know? I mean you keep in touch with a lot of your friends from the service.”

  “Perez wasn’t pals with many people. He was kind of a loner.” Nathan waved his artificial hand. “He was there that day, my commanding officer actually.”

  “Well, then, why didn’t you keep in touch?”

  “He never answered me.”

  His mom’s eyes brightened. “Do you think he blamed himself for the other young man’s death?”

  “I don’t know. When he didn’t respond, I thought maybe he’d moved on to other things. I know he left the service.” Nate shrugged. “I thought maybe he got married or went back to school. I remember he’d signed up without finishing his degree.” He frowned. “I forget what it was, though.”

  “Well, it doesn’t look like he got married. There’s no daughter-in-law or grandchildren mentioned, and I think there would be.”

  Nate nodded agreement and read the end of the article again. “Next Thursday afternoon is the service. I think I’m going to go, just in case it is him. We weren’t buddies but I knew him, and if this is Perez, he might be glad of some company.” He glanced at the clock and knew he had to get moving. “I’ll ask for the afternoon off. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “I’ll press your white shirt, dear, and make sure your dark suit is clean.”

  “Thanks, Mom.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Now how could I go and fall in love with anyone who isn’t as wonderful as you?”

  “You should fall in love with someone, and soon.”

  “You’ve got to wait for the good ones, Mom. That’s what you always taught me.”

  “Oh, don’t be throwing my words back at me over this!” his mom protested with a laugh. “Hurry up or you’ll be late.”

  * * *

  It was strange to be in Illinois in the wintertime again. Haley was never there for her dad’s birthday. When she came for Christmas, it wasn’t the same. There was all the bustle of the holidays distracting from his absence. But in the winter, with the decorations gone and the snow piling up, it was hard to forget that he was gone.

  Her big brother, Brad, picked her up at the airport. “I’ll give you advance warning,” he said, after she’d admired his new full size pick-up truck and they were on their way. “The house is in chaos.”

  “You said you were going to buy it from Mom, since you needed the space and she didn’t.” Haley had heard about this plan in the fall and thought it was a good one. “And that you were going to convert that huge room over the garage into a separate apartment for her.”

  “Right. That’s the plan. The renovation will happen in the spring. For the moment, she’s moved from the master bedroom to another bedroom.” He winced. “That’s fine. The issue is everything else.”

  Haley smiled. “Two sets of dishes.”

  “We should be so lucky. I think there are four sets of dishes, maybe five, plus at least two of everything else. I’m calling it the cha
nge of regimes.” His frustration was clear and Haley sympathized. It would be like Brad to think only of the logistics and practicalities of buying Mom’s house.

  “I guess some things have to go,” she suggested.

  “But sentimentality is high. I feel stupid that I never expected it.”

  “Can’t you put some stuff in the basement for a while? Out of sight and out of mind, so it’s easier for them to eventually leave.”

  “Great minds think alike,” Brad said with a grin. “That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Still, it’s taking a lot longer than I expected.”

  Haley bit back a smile. That was one thing she and her brothers had in common: their interest in achievement and not possessions. Her sister, Tiffany, wanted all the things and was often teased about that. “You probably just thought you’d keep the ones that fit best or were most useful. That’s what I would have expected.”

  “I can believe it!” Brad laughed. “I can’t imagine you fighting to the death over keeping your fancy china that you never use instead of someone else’s fancy china that she never uses. I need to remember that I married someone more like Tiff.”

  “Mom and Katie will work it out.”

  “Well, I hope they do it soon. We can’t renovate when the house is jammed to the rafters with stuff.” He paused for a moment, and his tone was hopeful when he continued. “You could take some of it, you know.”

  Haley laughed. “Not a chance! Taking it would mean I’d have to keep it, so Katie or Mom could come to visit it, just to make sure it was okay. No, thanks.”

  “See? We’re just the same.” Brad sounded rueful but there was a twinkle in his eyes. “This might finish me.”

  “I think you should just stay out of it,” Haley advised. “You can’t pick a side and win.”

  “Don’t I know it.” He took the exit, heading toward the house. They rode in silence for a few minutes.

  “You should be warned,” he said when he turned into the subdivision.

  “Me? Why?” Haley had a bad feeling, but she’d been trying to dismiss it.

  “Mom is over the moon about you moving home. I’m wondering if she thinks she’ll be able to move in with you and bring her stuff, since we all know that you don’t have any.”

  Haley was surprised, although she knew she shouldn’t have been.

  “Don’t look so astonished,” Brad said. “You have to have seen this coming.”

  “I knew she wanted me to apply for the job, but that’s not quite the same as setting up house here together. I thought you were making her an apartment over the garage.”

  “I am, but she might see your coming home as a better opportunity.”

  “The stuff.” Haley made a face.

  “The stuff.” Brad smiled. “Well, you always said you weren’t going to get married. Not our career girl Haley.”

  Haley felt as if Aidan was sitting in the back seat, waiting for a gap in the conversation. Who was she kidding? Aidan didn’t wait for anything. He made his opportunities. His confidence that the world was his oyster was one of the things she’d most admired about him. He’d believed he could do anything he wanted and it seemed that the world shared his conviction. Everything had come his way so easily.

  Like it was destined to be.

  Would Haley see him on this trip? She had to be ready for it. Cool. Casual. Indifferent, if she could manage it.

  She might not.

  “That’s different from living with Mom,” she said, because Brad was waiting for her reply. They passed the high school and Haley noticed that it looked much the same.

  “Once she fills your house with her stuff, it’ll be like you never left home.”

  Haley shuddered. “And I’ll never be able to have sex again.”

  Brad laughed hard then. “Might be worth getting married, rather than being celibate forever.”

  “I’m not going to live that long, but if I was celibate...”

  “...it would sure feel like forever,” they said together and grinned at each other.

  Haley felt the weight of her family’s expectation and didn’t much like it. “Look, I haven’t decided to move home yet,” she protested. “It’s just a job interview.”

  Brad gave her a look. “There is no ‘just’ in Mom’s world when it comes to all her chicks being close to the coop again.” He exhaled. “Let alone her stuff being rehomed. She’d probably offer the down payment for the house you two could share—unless, of course, you do plan to get married, too.”

  Haley felt cornered that her acceptance of a job she hadn’t even been offered was being considered a done deal and disliked that her marital status was up for discussion again. “Let me guess. You and Mom have a list of eligible bachelors drawn up and one is coming for dinner tonight.”

  “Not tonight,” Brad acknowledged.

  “You didn’t.”

  “I didn’t do anything.” He sighed. “I might as well be the first to tell you that Aidan’s divorced.”

  Haley’s heart skipped in that wild way she always associated with Aidan’s appearance. Divorced? She swallowed and deliberately didn’t reply to Brad’s earlier comment. She really hoped they hadn’t decided to invite Aidan for dinner. She didn’t need an audience for that meeting. “Really? That’s a shame.”

  “Is it?”

  “Divorce always is. Did they have kids?”

  “I think so.”

  “So, it’ll be hard for the kids.” Haley kept her tone light. “Anyway, I’m not sure I want to leave New York.”

  “Even for your dream job?”

  “I don’t know that it is, not yet. It just sounds interesting.”

  “You’re going to a lot of trouble for something interesting.”

  Haley sighed. “I don’t think that exploring opportunities is going to a lot of trouble.”

  “Uh oh,” Brad said. “There you go, sounding stubborn again. Tell me that you’re not just teasing Mom, that there’s at least a possibility that you’ll accept the job if it’s offered to you.”

  “You’re being protective of her.”

  “Damn straight. Someone has to be.”

  Haley felt keenly aware of her father’s absence and wondered if Brad did, as well. They never talked about it and she wasn’t sure she wanted to now. She felt agitated and self-conscious, exactly the way she didn’t want to feel for a job interview.

  “That’s a lot of variables,” she said instead. She counted them on her fingers. “The job needs to be what I hope it is; the pay has to be as good as advertised; the authority has to match the responsibility; I have to be offered the job in the first place...”

  “All right, all right!” Brad grinned. “I know enough to recognize when you’ve dug in your heels.”

  Haley didn’t say anything. She hadn’t dug in her heels. She was exploring. She hadn’t made a decision yet. It wasn’t nearly time to make a decision.

  But she felt that her brother was deciding for her all the same.

  Aidan was divorced... Her heart fluttered and she halfway wished Brad hadn’t told her.

  No. It was better to be warned.

  Haley hadn’t had the jitters about the interview, but this news had fixed that. There was a whole fleet of butterflies in her stomach.

  Brad turned down the street to the house. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had no intention of taking a job here,” he said. “Which makes no sense since it’s supposedly the job you’ve always wanted.” He gave her another of those intent looks as he pulled into the driveway. “Unless of course there’s a specific reason you want to stay in New York.”

  “I like my job. That’s a pretty good reason.”

  “Besides your job,” Brad said and Haley felt as if he’d caught her in the middle of something one more time. Her big brother had always been too perceptive. “Like a guy.”

  He didn’t wait for her answer, but got out of the truck and grabbed her bag, heading for the door as he flicked through his keys. It was on
e of his favorite moves, to drop a verbal bomb then walk away, leaving the other person to run after him and explain.

  “No guy,” Haley said when she caught up to him. She sounded breathless, as if she was lying, and she knew it.

  So did Brad. He smiled at her. “I knew it. It’s about time, Haley. He could move here with you, you know. You would be the first one to tell me that the guy’s job doesn’t decide everything.”

  “No, that wouldn’t work. He’s a partner in a business...” Haley bit her tongue and fell silent.

  “No guy officially, but a guy all the same.” Brad shook his head. “You’re not the kind to play games, Haley, not with Mom and not with this guy. Decide what you really want and don’t screw with anyone else’s expectations. It doesn’t suit you.”

  “That’s not my intention,” she said, meaning every word and hearing her own vehemence. “I just don’t know about this job yet.”

  Brad studied her for a long moment, then nodded. “And maybe you don’t know about him. Fair enough. At least I know you won’t take long to decide. It’s just not in you to dither.” He bumped her shoulder companionably. “And I’m glad to hear the news that isn’t news. Mom will be talking up Aidan, but between you and me, I never thought he deserved you.”

  Haley blinked, because she was sure that everyone thought Aidan was amazing—and that she’d made a big mistake letting him “slip away.”

  Brad winked and opened the door, raising his voice to a shout. “Anybody home? Haley’s here!”

  There was a squeal of excitement and Haley was surrounded by her excited nieces and nephew before she could even get past the foyer. She glimpsed Brad and Katie in their features and her heart twisted in a strange new way.

  She’d never thought much about having kids. Motherhood had never been her objective even with Aidan. A career was something she could count on. But as she was swept into what Brad cheerfully called domestic chaos, Haley felt a yearning for something absent from her life.

  Maybe a good job and an ornery cat wasn’t enough.