All He Ever Dreamed (The Kowalskis)

by Stacey, Shannon

  “If you’re fine, the doctor will tell us you’re fine and send you home with us,” she said. “Please, Mom. If Josh thinks you need to go, then I need you to go. For me.”

  Rose sighed dramatically. “Fine, but I’m going to change my clothes first.”

  Josh waited until she’d disappeared up the stairs to turn to Katie. “I don’t think I’m overreacting. I could hear her coughing and hacking all night and she’s wicked pale, except for her cheeks and around her collar, which are red.”

  “She’s definitely sick. I just really hope it’s not pneumonia again.”

  “How we doing this? One vehicle? Two?”

  “You don’t have to go, you know. I can drive her.”

  “I’m going. One vehicle or two?”

  “Even though it kills me to say it, she’ll be more comfortable in your truck.” She ignored his smug grin. “And there’s no sense in burning extra gas. I’ll just ride with you guys, unless you don’t want to stick around at the hospital.”

  “You know I’m going to stay.”

  She nodded, because she did know. All five of the Kowalski kids considered Rose almost like a mother and they loved her as much as Rose loved them. Josh wouldn’t leave the hospital until he knew she was going to be okay.

  Rose took her sweet time getting changed and, when she came down the stairs, she was lugging her big tote bag. Josh rushed up the last few stairs to take it from her. “Jesus, Rosie. You moving out?”

  “You know how waiting rooms can be. I have my book and my knitting and a few other little things.”

  Katie’s heart twisted as she looked at the heavy tote. There was more than a book, a skein of yarn and a few little things in there. Her mother was afraid she wouldn’t be coming home from the hospital and she’d thrown the things she couldn’t live without into the bag.

  “I’ll go start the truck and throw this in there,” Josh said. He grabbed a set of keys off the side table and went out the door.

  “I feel horrible,” Rose said.

  “Which is why you’re going to the hospital.”

  “Hush, little miss smart-ass. I mean I feel horrible that you kids have to bother with this. It’s an hour just to get there.”

  “So it’s an hour drive. You took at least a year off my life when you passed out last month.”

  “Just let me double-check that everything’s off in the kitchen.”

  Katie went to get her mom’s coat out of the closet and then watched Rose check the stove burners and oven she had never once left on. She was obviously worn down and, maybe it was Katie’s imagination, but she seemed to be looking worse by the minute.

  There was a clinic the next town over, but the doctor was more the ear infection, stepped on a nail, need a physical kind of guy. Since Rose would almost certainly need chest X-rays and an IV, he’d only refer her to the hospital anyway, and charge her a hefty exam fee for the advice.

  Josh stuck his head in the back door. “You ladies ready?”

  Katie watched as Josh helped her mother climb up into the shotgun seat, and then she settled herself next to Rose’s tote on the narrow bench that passed for a backseat. As tempting as it was to say to hell with the gas and follow in her Jeep, she wanted to keep an eye on her mom.

  They hadn’t gone very far down the road when Rose nodded off. Her face was flushed and her breathing raspy, and Katie’s concern was reflected back at her from Josh’s gaze in the rearview mirror.

  * * *

  Rosie had pneumonia again, and they weren’t letting her go home. Josh sat in the waiting room, turning his cell phone over and over in his hands while he debated who to call first. Even though there wasn’t much anybody could do, they all had to be informed that Rose was being admitted.

  Mitch was someplace or another for work. He owned a controlled demolition company, which required a lot of travel, and he was pushing hard to wrap up a job so he could enjoy an extended holiday stay at home with his new wife. Ryan had left Whitford last night and gone back to Brookline for the workweek. He was still commuting back and forth until Lauren and Nick were ready to make the final move. His other brother, Sean, lived in New Hampshire, and Liz—the only girl—was even farther away, in New Mexico.

  He’d call Paige, he decided. Mitch’s wife could spread the word not only to the rest of the family, but around town, as well. And she’d do it without adding drama. Since she’d still be at the diner, he pulled up that number on his cell and waited for her to answer.

  “Trailside Diner,” she said a little breathlessly after four rings.

  “Hey, it’s Josh. Sorry to bother you at work.”

  There was silence on the line for a few seconds. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  “Katie and I brought Rosie to the hospital this morning. She has pneumonia again and they’re admitting her.”

  “Oh, God. What do you need? Do you need me to call people? Bring some things from the lodge for her?”

  One of the many reasons he adored Paige—she didn’t hesitate before offering to make a two-hour round-trip to help out the family. “I think she has everything she needs, but I was hoping maybe you could call everybody. After your shift ends, of course.”

  “Absolutely. What should I tell them? I mean…do they need to come home?”

  “No,” he reassured her. “It’s not that bad. But it could be if they don’t have her on the antibiotics and IV and shit. She’s going to be okay and nobody needs to come home. I just don’t want anybody finding out later Rosie was in the hospital and they didn’t know.”

  “I’ll take care of it. You’re there now?”

  “Yeah. Katie’s with Rosie, getting her settled and everything. Once she’s in her nice hospital jammies and tucked in, I’ll go in again. Oh, and she has her cell phone, but they’ll probably be fussing over her today, so tomorrow she might like to hear from people.”

  After he got off the phone with Paige, he leaned his head back against the wall, stretched his legs out and closed his eyes. He should have listened to his gut instead of Rosie and brought her to a doctor sooner. Maybe she wouldn’t have had to be admitted to the hospital and stay for who knew how long.

  And he had no idea how he was going to keep her corralled once she got out. With less than two weeks until the first guests of the season arrived at the lodge, the list of things to do was insane and quite of few of those things usually fell to Rosie. She was a stubborn woman and there was no way he could do everything and make sure she stayed in bed. As soon as he turned his back, she’d be running the vacuum or sneaking bedding down to the washer.

  “The way the nurses keep walking back and forth, giving you the eye, I’m surprised you haven’t been offered a bed yet.”

  Josh opened his eyes and grinned at Katie. “I’m holding out for the hot doctor who examined Rose down in Urgent Care.”

  “Pretty sure she was wearing a wedding ring.”

  He shrugged and pushed himself upright in the really uncomfortable chair. “So I’ll be holding out awhile. How’s your mom?”

  “Worried about getting the lodge ready for guests.”

  Josh sighed and scrubbed his hands through his hair. “She can’t feel too awful, then.”

  “I feel bad. They might have let her come home, but when they asked me if I thought she’d rest, I said probably not.”

  He threw one arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “It was the right thing to say, because she probably wouldn’t.”

  “I offered to stay, but she said we should go back to Whitford and get on with things.”

  “Let’s say goodbye, then, because the thought we’re actually getting stuff done will comfort her a lot more than sitting around watching daytime television with her.”

  Katie shook her head. “She was actually nodding off wh
en I left her. She said to tell you she’d call you tomorrow.”

  It didn’t seem right to leave Rosie without at least a kiss on the cheek or something, but he’d heard how rough her night had been and he didn’t want to wake her up if she was managing to sleep. “Probably with a list of things to get done.”

  “Of course.”

  He waited while Katie went to the nurse’s station to double-check all the contact info they had, and then they went outside to find it had started snowing at some point. It wouldn’t amount to anything, since it hadn’t merited a mention on the morning news, but every little bit helped.

  The snow cover wasn’t quite as good as he’d hoped for, but the white stuff had been building up on the ground. Though there was hardly anything in town, in the woods and higher elevations there was enough for the groomer to pack down. Maybe every trail wouldn’t be open for the fifteenth, but the gates would open and there would be enough riding to keep their guests happy. Unless they had some weird warm-up and rain and all the snow melted. But that was something to worry about when he was supposed to be sleeping, as usual.

  “I’m glad there’s snow this year,” Katie said as they walked across the slick parking lot. “Working to get business back up and then not having trails to ride would suck.”

  “Got that right.” He shoved his hand in his pocket and dug out his keys. Suck wasn’t even a strong enough word for it. This season had to play out for him. Good snow, good business and a good opportunity to get the hell out of Whitford.

  “So I was thinking,” Katie said when they were on the main road, headed back to Whitford. “Mom’s going to get released before the fifteenth.”

  “Yup. And she’s going to drag her ass out of bed and make herself sick again trying to make sure everything’s perfect for the first guests.”

  “I’m going to move in for a while.”

  Josh risked taking his eyes off the road to glance over at her, but she was looking out the side window and he couldn’t see her face. “What about the shop?”

  “It’s Whitford. I’ll cut back on the hours and put a sign up. If I’m open just in the morning or even just three mornings a week for a month or so, they’ll adjust. Especially if it’s for my mom.”

  He wondered about income, but she probably wouldn’t have offered if she couldn’t afford it. Her dad had owned the building, so there was no rent for either her apartment or the barbershop, and it wasn’t as though she was paying utility bills for fancy tanning beds or anything.

  “That would be great,” he told her. “You can take Liz’s room, since it’s right next to hers. And right across from mine, so we’ll both be able to hear her.”

  “You don’t think it’s stupid?”

  “In the waiting room I was wondering how the hell I was supposed to do everything that needs to get done in the next two weeks and keep her from doing any of it at the same time. You staying at the lodge is a perfect solution. And, hell, it’s almost as much your home as it is ours.”

  He saw her nod through the corner of his eye. “I’ll put up a sign at the shop today about the temporary shop hours. And when we find out when she’s coming home, I’ll bring over some of my stuff.”

  “It’s a plan, then.” Plans were good and helped him sleep at night.

  Having Katie live under the same roof, even temporarily, was the perfect solution to his problems.

  * * *

  The way Rose saw it, this was her best—and maybe final—shot at interfering in Josh and Katie’s lives without getting caught, and that meant it was her best shot at raising grandbabies at the Northern Star Lodge. But she had to play it smart, no matter how bad she felt or how fuzzy her head was.

  When Katie had called to say good-night and see if there was anything she needed and had forgotten to bring, she also said she’d be moving into the lodge to help Josh and make sure Rose did nothing but recover. It was a perfect opportunity.

  Having Josh and Katie living under the same roof might not be enough, though, because it was a big place and they were used to being around each other after years of being practically best friends. Rose would have to come up with ways to throw them together. If she could keep them tripping over each other, eventually the boy was going to get a clue and realize his feelings for Katie were a little less platonic than he’d always thought.

  Getting the place ready for guests would mean working together occasionally, but it wouldn’t be enough. Rose needed to come up with something that would require them to talk to each other and spend time in each other’s company.

  Something like planning the Christmas Eve party for the family. A lot of lodging establishments put on Christmas for their guests, because some families would take the holiday to go on that snowmobiling trip together. But Frank and Sarah Kowalski had made the decision when she was pregnant with Mitch that, for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the Northern Star would be closed.

  The family had decided over Thanksgiving they wanted to have a special get-together and, since Nick was spending Christmas Day with his dad, stepmom and younger brother and sister, the Kowalskis would celebrate the night before. And Rose wanted it to be special. It would be Paige’s first Christmas as Mitch’s wife and, though Ryan and Lauren wouldn’t marry until summer, she and Nick were family, too.

  If she knew the kids, they’d try remove the so-called burden of the party from Rose. No doubt Paige would offer to host it, or they’d try to make it low-key. She didn’t want that. She wanted something special.

  And because Josh and Katie had no clue how to plan a holiday party—since Rose had always done it—they’d have to work together. Closely. And that kind of proximity, without sports or something else to focus on, would make the chemistry everybody else saw between them pop.

  Even Josh wouldn’t be able to miss it.

  Her brilliant plan was pushed to the back of her mind when another coughing fit ruined the moment. She was so tired of coughing. Tired of feeling exhausted and weak and on-and-off feverish.

  Once it had passed, she tried to make a comfortable nest out of the extra pillows they’d given her and fished around for the television control. She couldn’t find Criminal Minds, but at any given moment one could always find a rerun from one of the Law & Order franchises, so she settled for that. She should probably knit, since she had several projects to finish before Christmas, but her arms felt as heavy as her eyelids and she closed her eyes instead.

  Tomorrow she’d call Andy and let him in on the plan so he didn’t accidentally work against her. If he made life easier for Josh, Josh might not turn to Katie for help.

  She had a long history with Andy Miller, most of it spent with her refusing to speak to him. But the boys had hired him to do some work around the lodge over her objections, which had led to her forgiving him, and she’d actually come to consider him a really good friend over the past few months.

  And with his help, she was going to make this a Christmas Eve party Josh and Katie would never forget.

  Chapter Three

  Josh pulled into an empty spot in front of the barbershop and killed the engine.

  Katie was on a stepladder, hanging Christmas lights around the big window. She must have been at it for a while because she’d stripped down to a sleeveless red shirt, and he spotted a fleece hoodie tossed onto a mound of garland at the base of the ladder.

  That was Katie. For as long as he could remember, Rose had had to threaten Katie to get her to wear a coat, because she was never cold. And, while the temperature was hovering in the low forties, the sun was so warm he’d left his own sweatshirt at home since the long-sleeved henley was more than enough. Fortunately, it was forecast to be a very brief warm spell, because they couldn’t afford to lose what snow they had.

  He leaned against the tailgate of his truck and crossed his arms. “Need a hand?”

&
nbsp; She looked over her shoulder and made a face. “This sucks.”

  “That’s a festive attitude.”

  “Mom always does the decorating.”

  But she’d been sick and now she was in the hospital. “You could just skip it this year.”

  “I could.” She climbed down the ladder and joined him on the tailgate. “But it would be the first year in the history of the Whitford Barbershop it’s not decorated.”

  Sometimes Josh had to remind himself that, while Katie might be just one of the guys, every once in a while she’d do that complex woman thing where what was going on in her mind didn’t make any sense. But this time he thought he might get it.

  Earle Davis died when Katie was nineteen, the year after she graduated from high school. Even as a clueless sixteen-year-old kid, Josh had felt her pain. She and her dad had been close, and it had been painful to watch another man move in and run the shop for Rosie, who hadn’t been willing to sell it outright. And when it became clear that guy was an idiot, Josh had watched Katie get through school and work her way through the licensing requirements so she could take it back.

  In Katie’s mind, the barbershop and her dad were all wrapped up together in an emotional ball and, especially with her mom sick, decorating the shop for Christmas had probably become the most important thing in the world.

  “I didn’t think it would take this long,” Katie said. “I was going to get this done and then go to the hospital and visit Mom.”

  “Why don’t I give you a hand and then we can drive over together?” It was Thursday and, while he’d talked to Rosie on the phone, he hadn’t seen her since they’d brought her in Monday.

  She laughed. “Sure, now you show up to help. All that’s left is to wrap the garland around the damn pole.”

  “Good, let’s wrap the pole and grab some lunch before we hit the road.”

  They made quick work out of merrying up the place and then she grabbed her hoodie before jumping in his truck. She looked the barbershop over and nodded. “That’s better.”