Not the middle of the Gulf of Mexico without escape.
I kicked my legs out of the blanket and rubbed the heels of my hands into my eyes until stars dotted my vision. Leaning over the edge of the bed, I blindly swept the floor for my abandoned shorts and fished my phone out of the pocket, realizing that the buzz of it restarting was what must’ve woken me.
I squinted blearily at the screen to unlock it and swiped to answer without reading the caller ID. “Yeah?”
A short, choked laugh I would have recognized from the grave sounded. “Good morning, sunshine. Did I wake you?”
I grunted in response. “You on the way over, Cher?” Stretching, I swung my legs over the side of the bed.
“Ugh, I’m so sorry, but I’m gonna have to postpone to later today or maybe tomorrow.” Her voice was strained, and that woke me up more than anything could. “The nursing home called and said I needed to come in as soon as possible for a meeting about Grandmother.”
I stood up. “Do you want to pick me up on the way? I can go with you.”
“I appreciate that, but Mrs. Lott is already here to take me, and Vinh will pick me up when he gets back from dropping Liem off in Gulf Shores. The nurse didn’t say what it was exactly on the phone, but who knows with them. Sometimes they ask me to come in just to say she’s refusing to eat, and other times she’ll run a fever for two days and I won’t find out until my next visit.”
My stomach dropped at every part of that. It was still difficult to imagine Miss Barb in a nursing home.
And Liem not here.
But as I didn’t currently have the balls to ask if she knew when he’d be back, I instead said the only thing I could. “I’m sorry, Cher.”
“No,” she sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated. But I’ll text you with any updates later. Hopefully it’ll be quick, and I can come help you get moved in after that? If that’s the case, I’ll call you to come pick me up?”
She and I both knew I didn’t have enough possessions to warrant needing her help. It was really just one bag and getting some stuff from Dad’s. This was more about her not wanting to change a plan she’d made with me, and the last thing I wanted was for her to be stressed about it. To become an extra burden to her.
“Hey,” I replied lightly. “Don’t worry about anything today on my end. I actually think I’m going to go visit Mom.”
There was a short pause, and then she said, “Oh?”
I scratched the back of my head, wondering if there was any way to spin this that she wouldn’t smell as bullshit. “Yeah, it’s, uh, about that time. You know, for my annual trek to Cajun Country. Might as well go today, it being a nice day and all.”
Another short pause was followed by “You know it’s raining outside right now, right?”
Easing out the bedroom door, I looked through the sliding glass doors at the rain pelting the deck. “Barely.”
“And you know that I know that you’re not actually from Cajun Country, but as much as I’d like to unpack whatever is going on here, Mrs. Lott is waiting for me. Whatever you do, keep me updated, too, and please be careful driving. And give your mother my—” She stopped mid-sentence, huffed audibly, and then shocked me with quite the sassy swerve. “Tell your mother nothing from me and get back here as soon as possible. Please.”
My smile was so big, my jaw popped. “You’ve come so far.”
“Your butt’s so far.”
I hummed. “Not your best.”
“I know. I’m hanging up now.”
“That would’ve been a better way to—” I stopped and looked at the screen to see that she’d followed through and hung up on me.
Nice.
This waswhat I got for not calling ahead.
This right fucking here.
Perhaps if I’d called my mother—Dr. Alexandra Cormier, as she was known to both colleagues and friends—then maybe I wouldn’t be sitting here like the dumbest son of a bitch in all of Louisiana.
Or, at least, I could have pushed this new information to the back of my mind, where it could fester with many a toxic compatriot, who were all committed to weighing me down until I could deal with them. Until I could find steady enough ground to start creating a new feelings plate, or whatever Cher called it.
This was not steady ground.
