Surprise, Surprise

by Anita Kidesu

  “Reenie?” a man’s voice asked.

  What the heck? Reenie pulled the phone from her ear and looked at the display. Yep. Her mother’s number and name showed up. “Who is this?”

  “Al, the custodian at your mother’s building.”

  Reenie’s stomach clenched. “Is something wrong? Why are you calling from Mom’s phone?”

  “Your mother was taken to the hospital. We believe she’s had a heart attack.”

  Tears pooled in Reenie’s eyes as her heart stuttered. “Oh, my God. Is she all right?” Even though her mother drove her crazy at times, Zelda was all the family she had.

  “She was awake when they put her in the ambulance, but beyond that, I don’t know. I’m going to the hospital right now.”

  “But why do you have her phone?” Reenie briefly wondered at Al’s hesitation before worry overtook her.

  “I figured you’d answer if Zelda’s number came up on your phone,” Al said, his voice sounding shaky. “Can you come home from Chicago?”

  How did he know she was in Chicago? Reenie shook her head. That was not something to think about right now. “I’ll call the airlines and see how soon I can get on a flight.”

  “Call Zelda’s phone with the details. I’ll keep it turned on. I’ll pick you up.”

  Were Al and her mother involved? Why else would he have had her phone? Even in her panic, she sensed something going on. “That’s all right. You stay with Mom. I’ll call one of my friends. It’s Saturday. Someone should be able to get me from the airport. Which hospital is she at?”

  “Christus, Westover Hills.”

  “I’ll get the first flight out. And Al?”

  “Yes?”

  “Tell Mom I love her.” After disconnecting the call, she ran to the bathroom, brushed her teeth, threw her hair into a braid, and dressed while praying her mother would be fine.

  ****

  “Thanks, Ashley,” Reenie said hours later after leaving the airport and tossing her suitcase in her friend’s small trunk. She slid into the passenger seat and buckled up. “I really appreciate this.”

  Ashley checked for traffic before pulling out. “Do you know how your mother is doing?”

  “I called Al as soon as we landed. He said they’re still running tests. She was awake and alert, but still in pain.” Reenie dropped her head back on the headrest. “I can’t believe this is happening. She’s always so active and in good health.”

  “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Ashley said. “Your mother is one of the strongest women I know.”

  They were quiet on the way to the hospital. Reenie couldn’t get her mind off her mother. As a nurse, she knew how heart attack patients could look, so she steeled herself for wires, tubes, and pale skin. Her mother was still young, so the prognosis from a heart attack was probably good. If she had bypass surgery, the trip to Greece would be out. Would that mean Reenie would have to take over being in charge? If so, that would cut into time with…

  Bart. Reenie slapped herself on the forehead. How would he react when she didn’t show up today or tonight?

  “What’s the matter?” Ashley asked, turning onto the street to the hospital.

  “Nothing. I met a man this weekend. In my rush to get here, I didn’t let him know I was leaving. Now, I feel guilty for thinking about him instead of Mom.”

  “Call him when you know Zelda is all right.”

  “That’s just the problem. I don’t have his phone number.” Reenie shrugged. “It’s probably for the best, anyway. If Mom needs surgery, I’ll have to take care of her. I don’t have time for romance.”

  Ashley pulled up to the hospital. “There’s no sense worrying about it until you know how she is.” She popped the trunk and got out. When Reenie reached for her suitcase, her friend stopped her. “You want me to take your things to your apartment? I still have a key. It might be a hassle having your suitcase here.”

  Reenie hugged her friend. “That would be great. I’ll take my backpack.”

  Hugging her back, Ashley whispered in her ear, “Let me know how she is. I’ll be praying for you and her. If you need anything, call me.”

  “I will.” Reenie wiped at the tears running down her cheeks. “You’re the best, Ashley.” As she walked through the glass doors, she braced herself for what was to come.

  ****

  Monitors beeped, and the sound of a blood pressure cuff expanding cut the quiet of the room. Before she did anything, Reenie checked the monitors and the words on the bags of fluid being pumped into her mother. With relief, she noted everything looked normal. Al’s face was haggard as he snored quietly in a chair on the other side of the bed. Why was he still here?

  “Hey, Mom,” Reenie whispered as she kissed Zelda’s cheek. A tube pumped oxygen into her nostrils. Careful not to bump the IV in her mother’s hand, Reenie squeezed her fingers.

  Zelda’s eyes fluttered open. “You’re here, sweetie,” she said, her words sounding hoarse and old to Reenie.

  “I just talked to the doctor. It wasn’t a heart attack.”

  “I know. Stupid gall bladder.” Zelda closed her eyes. “I feel so foolish.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t. You did the right thing. Sometimes a gall bladder attack mimics a heart attack.” Reenie wiped away the single tear running down her mother’s cheek. “I’m just glad it wasn’t worse. And once they remove your gall bladder, you’ll feel better.”

  Al woke and wiped a hand over his face. “The woman never said a word about not feeling well,” he said. “I didn’t know she was sick until she keeled over.”

  Reenie frowned. “Mom, have you been feeling sick? Why didn’t you say anything?”

  Zelda sighed and turned her head away from Reenie. “Just a little tired. Upset stomach. Pain in my side. Didn’t want to bother anyone.”

  Reenie hated to ask—really, she did—but… “Where were you when you had the attack?” By the looks Zelda and Al gave each other, maybe she’d rather not know.

  “My place.”

  Reenie’s stomach jumped. “Mom! You and Al?”

  “Now don’t get your undies in a bundle, Cyrene Deianira Anatole.” Zelda waved her hand at her daughter. “I’m an adult, and what I do with my sex life is none of your business.”

  Reenie cringed. Having the word “sex” used in conjunction with her mother was a bit much. After the night in Zelda’s office with Bart, she’d had a good idea her mother had one, but having her admit it was an entirely different thing.

  Zelda frowned “Do you have something against Al?”

  She glanced over at Al. “No. He’s a nice guy.”

  “Your father has been gone five years. Are you against me having a love life?”

  Reenie rolled her eyes. “No, Mom, but I don’t really want to know about it.”

  “Do you have a sex life?”

  Reenie closed her eyes. If her mother only knew… “That’s none of your business, Mom.”

  Zelda pointed a finger at Reenie. “That’s right, and I don’t want to know about it. What we each do in our personal lives is private. Let’s keep it that way.” She reached for Al’s hand. “We love each other.” Al kissed Zelda’s cheek. “He’s going to Greece with me. And we won’t be having separate cabins.”

  Holding back a grin was impossible. If her mother was involved with Al, she wouldn’t notice the time she spent with Bart—or where. “I’m happy for you two. Really, I am. But why didn’t you tell me about your relationship?”

  Zelda shrugged while Al’s face turned red. “I don’t know,” she said. “I guess we wanted to see where things were going.”

  Al looked across the bed at Reenie. “I want you know that I’ll take good care of your mother. I love her and want to spend the rest of my days with her.”

  Reenie’s breath caught. “You’re getting married?”

  Zelda nodded.

  Reenie couldn’t deny the love passing between Al and her mother, but marriage? “To each other?”

  “No
, silly. I’m going to marry my heart monitor.” Zelda slapped Reenie’s hand. “Of course, to each other. Do you have any objections?”

  “No. But this is pretty fast, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you think about it?”

  “Reenie, my dear, Al and I have been together for nearly two years. I think we know what we’re doing.”

  Two years? How had she not seen any signs of a romance? Of course, she’d been absorbed in her studies and the mess with Perry, but still. “Two years?”

  “You had enough going on in your life; I didn’t want to add anything more to it. Besides, Al was afraid of what people would say about a custodian dating a professor with her doctorate.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Reenie said, wondering why anyone would worry about such a thing.

  Al grinned at her. “Glad to hear you say that. It’s exactly what Zelda has been trying to tell me. She finally won me over when she proposed to me.”

  Reenie giggled. “Mom, you proposed?”

  “Sure did. Damn fool never would have done it himself. I knew he loved me, and I certainly love him.” Zelda reached up and patted his cheek. “The only way to prove I didn’t care about what people said was to ask him to marry me. And I wanted to make an honest man out of him.”

  “Sneaking around was getting old, too,” Al added. “All those nights in your mother’s office…”

  Reenie slapped her hands over her ears. “La, la, la. Don’t want to hear this.” She was saved from further comments from the loving couple when the doctor came into the room, followed by a nurse.

  “So how are you feeling, Zelda?” the doctor asked.

  “The pain meds are working, so better.”

  The nurse checked Zelda’s vitals, while the doctor read notes on her iPad. “The tests indicate we need to remove your gall bladder. We have you scheduled for surgery first thing tomorrow.” She looked at Reenie.

  “I’m her daughter. I just flew in from Chicago.”

  “Right now, your mother needs rest. We’ll give her something for sleep and pain then prep her for surgery early in the morning. I suggest you head home and come back around six.”

  After the doctor and nurse left, Reenie kissed her mother and left the room. Before she got to the elevator, Al was beside her. “Let me give you a ride home.”

  “You don’t have to do that. I can call a friend.”

  “I want to,” Al insisted. “It’ll give us a chance to talk.”

  ****

  Later that night, after supper with Al, she snuggled down under her blankets. She’d always liked Al. Whenever she went into her mother’s building, he’d say hi and ask about her day. Now she knew it was because of her mother, but he was the type of person who would have been friendly regardless.

  That he loved Zelda was obvious without him reassuring Reenie of the fact. It showed in his eyes, in his body language. Her mother was lucky to have found two men to love her. First her father, and now Al.

  Would she ever find that in a man? Her thoughts went to Bart and how he made her heart flip and palms dampen. Was he the one? If she ever managed to get his phone number, she could take matters into her own hands like her mother and call him. For a moment, she thought about going to the files in her mother’s office. With her being laid up, it would be easy enough to get Bart’s number from them. But that would be an invasion of privacy and border on stalking. She wasn’t about to become Perry.

  As she drifted off to sleep, she wondered what Bart was doing and what he’d thought when she hadn’t shown up at his booth.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “You’ve been in a pissy mood since you got back from the convention,” Jon said. He took a sip of his beer and slammed his glass down on the table of the bar. “I thought you said the event was a success.”

  Matt glared at his brother. Since the convention, he and Jon had finished one book and had it cooling off before editing, and had plotted out the next series. He’d wanted to base the heroine on his sketch of Reenie, but he couldn’t bring himself to share it with Jon. It was too personal, still too close to his heart.

  Running a hand over the stubble on his chin, Matt wished he could block out the noise of the college bar Jon insisted on going to in hopes of bumping into the “love of his life.” At least, Jon had somewhat of an idea where to locate her. Matt didn’t even know where to start.

  The racket in the bar grated on his nerves. If one more woman came sidling up to them, asking if they were twins, he was going to blow a gasket. “I’m sorry, man.” Matt leaned his elbows on the small table they’d managed to grab when they came in and looked at Jon. “The convention was a success. We’re going to be famous.”

  “Then way are you so damn ornery?”

  “Kinda like you were a few weeks back?”

  Jon grinned. “Yeah. I guess that means a woman is involved?”

  “Yeah.” Matt peeled at his beer bottle’s label with his thumb. “I met this woman at the convention. God, she was beautiful. Funny. Easy to talk to.”

  “Did you sleep with her?”

  Matt couldn’t hold back a laugh. “What the hell do you think? We couldn’t keep our hands off each other.” He waved to a waitress for another round of beers. “It was one of the best nights of my life. That was Friday. She was supposed to come to my booth on Saturday and go out after I was done working.”

  Jon raised his eyebrows. “Let me guess. She didn’t show up.”

  “Nope. Turns out, she left the hotel that morning. Just up and checked out. No message or anything. Poof. Just disappeared. I’ve gone over and over what I could have done wrong to make her run off like that.”

  “You didn’t get her phone number?”

  “No. I’d planned on getting hers and giving her mine that night.”

  “Kinda sounds like my situation.”

  Matt snorted. “Hell, at least you had her number, even if temporarily.” He looked at Jon. “How come you never went back to campus and asked her mother for the number?”

  Jon shrugged. “Seemed a little too much like stalking. Besides, how would it have looked if I went to her mother and said, ‘I had the best sex of my life with your daughter but wiped her phone number from my hand. Could you please give it to me?’ How moronic and creepy would that sound to a mother?”

  “Boy, we’re both a couple of saps, aren’t we?” Matt said, shaking his head. “A couple of love-sick saps.”

  “You got that right.”

  Matt slapped the table and stood. “I need to hit the can. I’ll be right back.”

  As he was wiping his hands on a towel, his cell phone rang. He answered it.

  “Hey, Matt, get your ass out here.” Jon’s voice sounded as if he’d won the lottery.

  “What’s up?” he asked, pushing the bathroom door open.

  “She’s here. I can’t believe she’s here.”

  “Who?” Matt asked, looking at his brother, then at the woman with a long, black braid weaving her way around crowded tables to the bar. His breath caught, and his heart raced.

  “Reenie,” they said at the same time.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Reenie shuddered at the scent of stale beer, over-powering perfume and aftershave, and burned pizza as she walked across the bar with Ashley. Why had Ashley chosen this place? She was so over the bar scene, but with hopes of possibly running into Bart, she’d agreed.

  Ashley said something that was lost in the roar of the crowd.

  Reenie yelled, “What did you say?”

  Ashley repeated, “I asked how your mother was doing?”

  Reenie couldn’t hold back a smile as they wove their way across the room to the bar. “She’s doing great. Feeling much better than she has been. She should be able to go on the trip next month. Al has been taking care of her.”

  “He’s still in the picture?” Ashley leaned across the bar to get the bartender’s attention.

  “Yep.” After ordering her favorite drink, Sex on the Beach, she pulled some money from h
er jean pocket. “They’ve been together for quite a while. Sounds like they’re going to get married.”

  Ashley took her drink and faced the room. “How do you feel about that?”

  Reenie shrugged. “I’m fine with it. If it makes Mom happy—”

  “Wow.” Ashley interrupted and aimed her drink to a table across the room. “Would you get a load of those two guys? What a sexy pair.”

  “What two guys?” Reenie picked up her glass and faced the direction Ashley pointed.

  “Those two. The twins. They. Are. Gorgeous.”

  In the past, Ashley had shown an interest in sex with two men—especially with twins. Reenie never quite understood it but had to admit reading ménage stories were a real turn-on. She looked across the room at a tall man standing by a table.

  All the oxygen in her lungs escaped. She swore time stood still as her heart stopped. Grabbing Ashley’s arm, she gasped. “Oh, my God. It’s him.”

  Ashley frowned. “Him? Who?”

  “Bart, the guy I’ve been telling you about.”

  “You mean that tall guy by the table over there.” Ashley nodded her head toward the man. “The one who looks as if he wants to devour you?”

  Reenie’s raised her glass to her lips and met the man’s eyes. With her stomach flipping and her pussy springing to life, all she could was nod.

  Ashley nudged her in the side. “Or the identical one sitting at the table? Who, by the way, looks as if he wants to devour you, too.”

  Lowering her drink, Reenie glanced from the man standing to the man sitting. Both were staring at her. Both were… They couldn’t be… They… Shit. There were two of them. Two Barts. Her stomach rolled. Her drink threatened to rise to her throat. Which one had she slept with? If she’d had sex—make that incredible sex—with them both, did they know it?

  The standing Bart was frowning at the sitting one. Now, the sitting one rose and faced the other one. It seemed as if their exchange was getting heated. Oh, lord. That could only mean she’d been with both, and neither one had known about it.

  “There can’t be,” she said.

  “Can’t be what?” Ashley asked, taking Reenie’s glass from her hand. “Shit, friend. You look as if you’re seeing a ghost.”