by Lexy Timms
The moment I ran into my mother’s room, my back hit the wall.
My mother was withered away to almost nothing, even though I’d seen her only a week ago. Her mouth was hanging open, and she was coughing, struggling to take even shallow breaths. She was gurgling like she was underwater as my eyes scanned the monitors.
Her fever was one hundred and four and still climbing.
“Can’t you give her something for it?” I asked.
“We already have. We can’t give her body any more. Her liver will crash otherwise,” the nurse said.
I watched my mother struggle to turn her head.
“Who are you?” she asked.
I whimpered as I walked toward her, pulling up a chair so I could sit down.
“Oh, Mom,” I said.
“Mom? I’m not your mother,” she said.
I took her hand anyway.
She didn’t fight me. At least, she was too weak to fight. Usually, she did. If she didn’t remember who I was, she fought any touch I wanted to give her, but she was immobile in her bed as her eyes stared up at the ceiling. Still, her fever ticked higher.
I brought my mother’s hand to my lips, and the beeping of her heart monitor went up. I felt my mother’s hand shaking, and I settled it back onto the bed. I leaned over and pressed a wet kiss to my mother’s cheek, and I heard her heart rate skyrocket.
“Come on. We need you out of the room,” the nurse said.
“She’s my mother. I’m not going anywhere,” I said.
I tried to shrug the nurse off, but she had a strong grip on my arm.
“She doesn’t recognize you, and the stress on her heart is too much,” the nurse said.
“I’m her damn daughter!” I said.
My mother’s heart rate was off-the-charts as doctors flooded the room. I watched them stabilize her as the nurse rubbed my back. Tears poured down my cheeks as my entire body shook.
My mother was dying, and she had no idea who I was.
I watched the doctor’s give her something in her IV before they left the room. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her vitals steadied out. Her fever was still growing, but they had ice packs all around her body, trying to get her to cool down without pumping her body full of medication any longer.
She had probably built up a tolerance to them over the years.
“How long?” I asked.
“Honestly?” the nurse asked.
“Yep.”
“I’ll be shocked if she makes it through the night.”
I leaned my forehead against the glass as my mother slipped off to sleep. My heart shattered into a million pieces. The last of my family was about to slip away from me. Then, I would be an orphan. No more Thanksgiving dinners and no more Christmas presents to bring her. No more laughter when she was lucid and no one to travel down memory lane with.
My mother was dying, and I would be all alone.
“Could I go in? Now that she’s asleep?” I asked.
The nurse looked hesitant, and I drew in a deep breath.
“I’ll be quiet, I promise.”
“Then, go ahead, sweetheart. Take your time,” she said.
I opened the door and slipped in silently. I pulled up the chair again and took my mother’s hand in mine. I brought it to my lips and kissed it repeatedly, memorizing how it felt. I interlocked our hands together, feeling the way our fingers mimicked one another’s. I reached up and wiped some hair from her face, memorizing how it felt underneath my skin.
So many small things I wouldn’t get to feel again.
What was I going to do without her?
I thought about all the things she’d never see. The grandchildren she would never have and the wedding she would never witness. She wouldn't be there for the birth of my children or any of their birthdays. She wouldn’t be able to run around in the yard with them or take pictures on their first birthday. She wouldn’t be there to give my fiancé the rundown on what she would do to him if he hurt me.
She wouldn’t even be there to ogle over the ring he would get for me.
Silent tears poured down my face as I rested my head against the mattress. One last nap with my mother. That was all I had. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to drift off, and so many memories came to mind. The first time I could remember hugging my mother. The first time I could remember her kissing me. The first time she ever told me she was proud of me and the way she rejoiced with me when I was accepted into college.
I saw all of them flashing behind my eyes as I slept.
I groaned and shifted as my eyes fluttered open. The sun had set outside, and the faint beeping of the machines brought me back to life. My mother’s heart rate was steadily dropping, and her fever was still raging at one hundred and five degrees.
She was dying, and I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to be around for it.
I stood up on shaky legs and bent over to kiss her lips. I nuzzled our noses together, taking in the feel of her one last time. I released her hand and brought it up to her cheek, cupping it before I ran my fingers through her hair.
“I love you so much, Mom. I swear, I’ll never forget you. Not for a second.”
I picked up my things and left the room as the machines began to drone behind me. I refused to turn my head around. I refused to remember my mother like that, hooked up to tubes and lying lifeless on a hospital bed in a nursing home.
I refused to debase her legacy with that mental image.
Nurses and doctors were running past me as I walked up the hallway. I held my head high as tears streamed down my neck. I turned and walked out the front doors and continued walking into the street, not really going anywhere except for forward.
A car pulled up behind me, and a pair of strong hands settled on my shoulders, turning me around as the darkness of Jimmy’s car called to me. I was led by a pair of warm hands as I got into the car, and as I looked up, I was met with a familiar pair of eyes.
“Oh, Ashley,” Cass said. “Come here.”
I felt someone slide in beside me as the car pulled off. I wrapped my arms around my best friend as she knelt between my legs. She rocked me side to side as I sobbed in her hair, crying for my mother and yet somehow relieved she was no longer confined to the hell she was living in.
The car pulled away from the nursing home and out onto the main road, and I felt that same strong hand fall to my back. I turned my head to see who was next to me.
And I found the eyes of the man I loved staring down at me.
“Back to your place?” Jimmy asked. Then, he nodded at his driver as his hand found mine, our fingers linking together in strength.
Replacing the feel of my mother’s.
Chapter 23
Jimmy
I knew the moment Ashley left work in tears that something was very wrong with her mother. She slammed her way through everyone and was yelling at someone to hold the elevator. I looked at my receptionist, and she had tears in her eyes, tears of sorrow for something she couldn’t even understand. I could feel the entire mood on our level change in that moment, and everyone turned their eyes toward me to see what I would do next.
I went back to my office and closed my door.
I sent my driver a text message, telling him to come get me once he dropped Ashley off. Then I set to work trying to track down a way to contact Cassidy. I only knew her first name, but I figured she would be easy to track down anyway. I called in a favor to the private investigator we were using and told him I would owe him a favor if he did something for me.
And twenty minutes later, I had Cassidy’s phone number.
“Whoever the hell this is, I can’t—”
“It’s Jimmy Sheldon,” I said.
“What?” she asked. “Who?”
“Jimmy Sheldon. The man attempting to date your best friend.”
“Attempt is actually a good word for it,” she said. “I still can’t talk to you. I have to get to—”
“I know something isn’t right with Ashl
ey’s mother, and I know it’s not good.”
“Are you going to let me get a word in edgewise?” she asked.
“No, but I know she’s going to want you next to her. I’m packing up my things and headed down to meet my driver in the garage. Can we come pick you up?”
“Where are we going, Mr. FancyPants?”
“To wherever Ashley is. She’s going to want her best friend once she’s done,” I said.
I gathered up my things and placed them into my briefcase as Cassidy fell silent.
“I’m in front of Ashley’s apartment.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen to get you,” I said.
I hung up the phone and told my receptionist to cancel my day. She tried to fight me, but I walked around the corner before I could hear it. Ross stuck his head out of the office to question me, but I held up my hand to silence him.
I still wasn’t happy with him, and I wasn’t in the mood to have a conversation.
I took the elevator down to the garage and met my driver there. He whisked me through the growing crowd of people in front of my office and took me straight to Ashley’s apartment. I opened the door for a young woman standing on the sidewalk in front of OceanHomes, and as soon as she slid in, I knew I had the right girl.
“Nice to finally meet the mystery man. Though I have to say, I have a lot to say to you.”
“I’m sure you do. I haven’t been in good form lately,” I said.
“Then at least you recognize it. But I’ll say this: Ashley isn’t innocent in all this either. She tends to create these storms then act like she didn’t tornado all over her life.”
“I’m familiar with the type,” I said.
“Ashley’s a good girl.”
“She’s a good woman.”
“And I think her mom is dying.”
I whipped my head around to face her friend as Cass heaved a heavy sigh.
“It’s been coming for a while, but Ashley was frantic in her text messages. The words were misspelled and sent at rapid-fire pacing. She said I needed to be at her apartment because she would need me no matter how this ended.”
“Shit,” I said.
“So, I’ll keep the best friend rant to this one phrase: Ashley cares for you. A lot. She deserves better than the way you’ve been treating her. She’s strong, but she’s not immovable. Take care of her, and she’ll take care of you. But rarely does she take the first step, though it’s not for lack of trying to get her to.”
“She’s stubborn, and I love it.”
Cass whipped her eyes up to me as a grin crossed my face.
The two of us rode to the nursing home and sat out there for hours. The sun was starting to set before we saw Ashley emerge from the doors. She was in a trance, and tears were flowing down her cheeks. My heart fell to my toes as I got out of the car. She wasn’t looking where she was going, simply walking until something stopped her from doing so.
I stood in front of her, but she looked right through me, so I used my hands to guide her into the car.
The ride back to her apartment was solemn, at best. I didn’t care about the media or the investigation or if anyone saw us. By the look on Ashley’s face, she had just lost her mother. With the way she was gripping Cassidy and the way she was gripping my hand, she had lost the one thing that kept her rooted to the floor. I sat there, tall and strong, as she volleyed between hugging her best friend and leaning against me.
I wanted to take the pain away from her, shoulder it as my own burden so she could keep on smiling that beautiful smile that always lit up a room.
The driver pulled us up to the curb of her apartment, and I helped her out. I picked her up into my arms and told my driver I’d catch a cab home. I watched him drive off as Cassidy stood at my side, Ashley’s arms wrapped around my neck.
“Let’s get you upstairs,” I said.
She cried into my neck the entire way up, all the way down the hallway, and all the way into her apartment. I sat down on her couch with her in my lap, and her friend brought her some water to drink. She couldn't even take a sip without choking on it.
“Take it slowly,” Cassidy said. “Drink it slow.”
“I can’t believe she’s—”
“Ssshh.” I said as I stroked her hair. “Take your time.”
“What am I supposed to do?” Ashley asked.
“Take it one millisecond at a time,” Cassidy said. “I’ll be here every step of the way.”
“We both will,” I said.
“How did you?”
Ashley sighed as her forehead fell against my chest.
“I’ll always be here when you need me the most,” I said. “No matter what.”
“My mom’s dead,” Ashley said breathlessly.
I wrapped her up in my arms as Cassidy sat beside us. Ashley was crying so hard, she was heaving into my chest. Her fists were holding my clothes so tightly, she was popping buttons off my shirt, ripping through the fabric with her nails as she clung to me.
“I’ve got you,” I said with a whisper. “I’ve got you, Ashley.”
I’d wanted to propose to Ashley that morning. I’d planned to get down on one knee and tell her how much I loved her, show her how much she meant to me, but I couldn't do it now with something like this looming over our heads. The only thing she would think was that her mother wasn’t there to witness something like that, and it would taint the moment.
No. Ashley needed to process and heal before I could propose.
I rocked Ashley on the couch as Cassidy ordered us some Chinese takeout. I tried to get her to let me pay for it, but she was as stubborn as Ashley was. Even more so, if that was possible. Ashley sighed into my chest before she lifted her head to look up at me, and the pain in her eyes broke my heart.
“I don’t know how or what you did, but thank you,” she said.
“No thanks needed, Ashley. I—”
My phone rang before I had a chance to tell her. I groaned as she shifted off my lap, and I dug my phone out of my pocket. It was Ross. Of course, it was Ross. I had taken a personal fucking day, and he was calling me like it was nothing. I muted the call and turned my attention back to Ashley, but he promptly called back.
“Who is it?” Ashley asked.
“No one important,” I said.
“So it’s Ross.”
“Possibly.”
“Take it, Jimmy. It could be serious.”
“What could be more serious than the woman I love losing her mother?”
I watched Ashley’s face contort as Cassidy gasped in the corner. I clenched my jaw and pulled my ringing phone back out of my pocket. My eyes locked with Ashley’s as the stunned expression on her face grew, but I could tell by Ross’s voice that he was frantic.
“What is it?” I asked.
“The media. It’s out of control. You have to do something, Jimmy.”
“What do you expect me to do?” I asked.
“You need to get over here and hold a press conference. One of our secretaries tried to leave, and they fucking blew out one of her tires, stranded her in the middle of that wild pack. I had to send the entire security team out there just to get her out of her damn car.”
“Call the police. I’m on my way,” I said.
“What’s going on?” Ashley asked.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “The press outside of the building is getting worse, and one of our secretaries was almost attacked.”
“What?” Cassidy asked.
“You have to go,” Ashley said.
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Get out of here, and go deal with this,” she said. “I get it.”
“I want to be here with you. For you,” I said.
“And you were. You were there, somehow, when I stumbled out of the nursing home in a daze. You kept me from walking straight into the woods and falling off a cliff or something, Jimmy. Go. But call me when it’s done. Let me know you’re okay.”
I wrapped Ashley in my arms
and pulled her in for a kiss. I hoped she felt it. The love I bled through my skin for her. I wiped at her tears and kissed her sniffling nose, and then I set my sights on the next task.
I had to set up a press conference and deal with the bullshit.
I texted Ross and told him to set it up. I caught a cab and told them to drop me within a block from my company. I didn’t want anyone else getting hurt or having their property damaged because of all this. I could hear police sirens and see their lights blaring as the cab dropped me off. Then I started the short walk up to the podium that was being set up for me.
The media saw me and came running. My security team sprinted up next to me and surrounded me with protection. Cameras were flashing, and people were sticking microphones in my face. The police were hauling people off in police cars left and right.
Good. I wanted them to know I meant business.
I stood by and waited for the podium to be set up. Then, I took my place on the stage. People fell silent, and police were still cuffing individuals. I held my hand up to silence both the cameras and the few questions still flying at me.
“First of all, I want to address the status of my secretary. She’s shaken up, but she hasn’t been harmed. Thanks to your antics, however, I will be finding out who caused the damage to her vehicle and your company will be supplying her with another one. As well as being slapped with multiple harassment lawsuits.”
Murmurs ricocheted through the crowd as I cleared my throat.
“Second of all, the picture circulating of Miss Ternbeau and me is, in fact, real.”
That really kicked up the crowd and cameras began flashing again.
“I lied in my prior address to the media to protect her from the hounds I know you all to be. I was dealing with an internal fraud issue, which is being resolved as we speak by the FBI. I didn’t want her reputation devoured in the press, but it seems all of you are hell-bent on destroying that young woman’s life. So I will come clean.”
I drew in a deep breath and hoped Ashley didn’t hate me for this later.
“Ashley and I are in love. Deeply in love. She lights up my world in ways you cannot imagine, and she brings an intelligence and a grace to my corporation it has never seen before. Miss Ternbeau, the one you guys have called—what was it?—a ‘slut who sucked her way to the top?’ She was the one who pointed out the fraud to me in the first place. She was the one who not only put the clues together but found out who was committing the fraud. That intelligent mind of hers saved not only my companies but many more companies who I assume will come forward eventually to talk about this dishonorable man who will never see the light of day again because of the hurt he has caused and the money he has stolen.”
