Victoria Pade - Hometown Sweetheart

“Theresa?” Neily said quietly when she didn’t show any notice that Neily had come into the room.

“Mikayla?” the older woman said when she did glance up.

“No, remember? It’s Neily.”

“Yes—Neily. I made that mistake again, didn’t I?” the older woman said vaguely.

“Your grandson Wyatt is downstairs,” Neily told her, watching closely for the woman’s reaction.

It was another positive sign that Theresa brightened at that news—her eyes, her face, even her posture perked up.

“My Wyatt?” she repeated happily.

“And Mary Pat…”

“Mary Pat, too?” Theresa asked as if that were the frosting on the cake.

But then she sobered and became pensive again. “They haven’t come to make me leave, have they? I can’t go away from here. I won’t. Not till I get what’s mine!”

“I know. And, no, your grandson and Mary Pat aren’t going to make you leave. They’ll be staying here with you.”

“They will?”

That sounded pleased and hopeful rather than fearful—something else Neily took note of.

“Will that be all right? For them to stay here in the house with you? Even if I leave?”

“Oh, yes. And they’ll help me. I know they will. They’ll help me get back what’s mine. My Wyatt takes care of everything while Mary Pat takes care of me. They’re very good to me, my little darlings.”

“Would you like to come downstairs and say hello to them?”

“To Wyatt and Mary Pat and no one else?”

“Everyone else is gone. And the house looks so much better—you should see the good things that were done today while you were up here.”

“I’d like to see Wyatt and Mary Pat.”

“Let’s go down then.”

Theresa had no problem rising from the rocking chair or accompanying Neily down the steps. And the moment she caught sight of her grandson and caregiver, she passed Neily to hurry into the living room and hug them both like a child thrilled to see her loving parents after a separation. Clearly the older woman had no fear of either Wyatt Grayson or Mary Pat Gordman. It helped to confirm for Neily what the Missoula caseworker had said—that it was okay to turn Theresa’s daily care over to them again while her situation, living conditions and ability to live at least somewhat independently were looked into.

“Oh, my dears, my dears! I’m so glad to see you!” Theresa was gushing. “But, Wyatt, where are Mikayla and the baby? Didn’t you bring them? I still haven’t seen that baby!”

Neily’s interest got even stronger as she watched Wyatt Grayson’s expression tense before he said, “Remember, Gram—Mikayla and the baby died.”

Theresa pressed her fingertips to her cheeks on both sides of her face. “I’m sorry! I forgot again. I’m sorry, Wyatt, I’m sorry.”

“Me, too. But it’s all right. We’re just glad we found you. You gave us all the scare of our lives.”

“I had to get back here,” Theresa confided as if she were telling a secret. “This is where I was born, you know,” she added, motioning to their surroundings.

“We knew you were born in a small town near Billings,” Wyatt said. “But that was all you ever told us. We didn’t know the name of the town or that you still owned a house here.”

“The lawyer pays the taxes. I think he pays to have someone look after it, too. Grampa had it arranged that way for me years and years ago and it’s been happening automatically ever since. But I needed to come back now. I needed to, Wyatt!” Theresa said, suddenly sounding desperate and on the verge of getting upset.

“It’s okay, Gram. We’re just relieved that you’re safe.”

“Safe. I’m safe. I’m a bad person—you don’t even know it—but I’m safe…”

Neily had seen this happen several times the last few days—Theresa drifting off while talking, things creeping into what she was saying that didn’t make sense. In her brief experience Neily had already learned when that happened, talking to the older woman any further was futile. Pressing her only agitated her and nothing concrete or informative could be garnered from that point on.

Her grandson must have known that himself because he didn’t push her.

Like a small child, Theresa moved to Mary Pat’s side then, looping her arm through the nurse’s. “I want to go to bed now. Will you read to me while I fall asleep, Mary Pat?”

The nurse patted Theresa’s arm, tucked her in closer to her bulky side, and said, “I brought the book we started last week.”

“I hope you didn’t read any without me.”

“Not a word,” the nurse assured her.

Wyatt told Mary Pat that he would bring in her suitcase while she was getting his grandmother to bed, then he said to Theresa, “I’ll come up and say goodnight in a few minutes.”

“Yes, in a few minutes,” Theresa echoed before the nurse took her upstairs.

Neily and Wyatt Grayson watched Theresa and her nurse until they were out of sight.

“So,” Theresa’s grandson said then. “Are we all just going to be housemates?”

Neily turned to face him, recalling again how bad she looked and wishing even more, now that they were alone, that she’d somehow miraculously gotten cleaned up in the last few minutes.

“I won’t be staying now that you’re here. I’ll be leaving Theresa to you and Mary Pat,” she told him.

“We’ve at least passed muster that far?” he asked with a wry smile that—as difficult as it was for Neily to believe—made him even more drop-dead handsome.

Before she could answer, he said, “I know that once something like this has happened with a person who can’t take care of themselves, and Human Services has been called in, the situation and the people involved are called into question. I’m not thrilled about it, but we don’t have anything to hide and you’re just doing what you have to. We all want the same thing—what’s best for my grandmother.”

That attitude made Neily’s job much easier and she appreciated that.

“That is all we want,” she confirmed.

“And for now you think it’s best if we stay in Northbridge?”

“Theresa seems to have worked pretty hard to get here.”

“I’ll say. Ordinarily we have trouble convincing her to leave her house in Missoula. And she never leaves home alone. She hasn’t in years. She also hasn’t driven a car in years—I’m surprised she remembered how to do that. Of course, like I said, we still can’t believe she did any of this.”

“But now that she has, she feels strongly about staying here. I’ve conferred with the caseworker in Missoula and the Northbridge doctor who’s examined your grandmother, and we all agree that for the time being it’s probably better not to rock the boat.”

“We don’t have a problem with that. Whatever makes Gram happy, we’ll accommodate.”

“Good.”

“But you won’t be staying?”

“No, but I’ll visit every day until we get this all sorted out.”

“Fair enough. Anything you’d like to ask me now?”

Who Mikayla was and how she and a baby died…

But Neily wasn’t sure if that really pertained to Theresa, so she refrained. “It’s late. You probably want to settle in. And I’m wearing at least an inch of the dust and dirt we cleaned up around here today, so I think everything I need to discuss with you can wait.”

“We,” he repeated. “I saw that big group of people coming out as Mary Pat and I were coming in—were they part of that cleanup?”

“They’re people who live around here. They all came in today to help out.”

“Can I pay them?” Wyatt asked.

“That’s not how things like this are done in Northbridge—when there’s a need, people lend a hand to help out.”