Roxanne Rustand - A Man She Can Trust

“K-Kurt got it.”

In a divorce that had been far from equitable, if the rumors were true. “Then I’ll bring in mine,” Jill said briskly. “How about that? I’ll bring it in tomorrow, and leave it at the nurse’s station with a few extra blank cassettes.”

“Not sure I’m ready for prime time,” the younger woman said, touching the wisps of her thin hair. But the grateful expression in her eyes spoke volumes.

“There are people who will never be beautiful, no matter how perfect their hair. But you? Your kids will treasure every moment. And once the tapes are transferred onto DVDs, the copies will last forever. Or so I was told,” Jill added with a smile, “by the young guy at the electronics store who sold me a DVD/VHS dubbing machine.”

“Thank you.”

She was so clearly exhausted that Jill glanced at the clock on the wall. “I need to let you get some rest, so you’ll be ready when the kids arrive.” She picked up the chart at the end of the bed and studied the nurse’s notes and lab reports. “You know that you can still request hospice if you change your mind?”

“No. I want home…to be happy for them. Not a place where they watched me…die.”

“Hospice can get you back here before that point, if you still want to,” Jill said gently. “They’ll help you be comfortable, and they’ll help your children deal with all of this.”

Yesterday Patsy had refused to even discuss it. Now, she blinked away the moisture in her eyes. “For them, then…if it will help.”

“I don’t think you’ll regret it.”

“I could go home and stay for a little while? With this?” She lifted a fragile hand toward the IV pole. “And I…could come here when…when…”

“Everything, just as you wish.” Jill put the chart on the window ledge and sat beside Patsy on the bed. She took one of her hands. “The nurses tell me you’ve been refusing your morphine.”

“Makes me too…fuzzy. I need to visit with my kids.” She managed another faint grin. “Alison says it makes me sound drunk.”

Her nine-year-old daughter probably knew about that kind of behavior all too well, given who her father was. The thought of that jerk—an arrogant, self-righteous dentist who’d had an affair with his hygienist, then abruptly moved to Green Bay and filed for divorce—set Jill’s teeth on edge. “But what about your pain control?”

“Okay.” Patsy sank deeper into the pillow. Her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing deepened.

Her heart heavy, Jill watched her for a moment, then she picked up the chart and headed for the door.

Even after two years in family medicine, she still found it impossible to accept that a stroke of terrible luck could strike anyone, anytime.

Patsy’s husband hadn’t asked for shared custody. He hadn’t arranged a single visit since he’d walked out.

And soon three young children were going to be left in his care, because their loving mother was going to die.

“HEY, ROSS. GREAT NEWS!” his mom gushed into the phone. She giggled, breaking away from the call to tell Tony to leave her alone, and Ross could just imagine what the guy was doing. Pawing her, probably. Playing vampire at her neck.

Tony’s smarmy possessiveness over his mom had made Ross’s stomach churn from day one, and he’d so wanted to land a fist right in the creep’s smug face. The guy was way older than she was, for one thing. And there was something about him that made Ross’s skin crawl.

He started to hang up when she came back on the line breathless and laughing. “Sweetie, you’ll never guess! Tony and I are going to Reno—we’re getting married!”

He froze, unable to speak.

“We’re leaving tomorrow on an early flight. It will be so cool! We’ll take in some of the shows, and I hear the food is great. Tony knows of a little chapel where they have real flowers and everything…. Are you still there? Did you hear me?”

Ross mumbled something unintelligible into the receiver.

“Look, I know you’re gonna be real disappointed, but it’s just me and him going. He got a great deal on tickets and a hotel for two. And,” she added after another burst of laughter and the sound of Tony’s voice in the background, “it is our honeymoon.”

“Y-you planned this all along.” Ross swallowed hard. “You took me up here so you could go to Reno?”

“Of course not, sweetie. It…it just sorta came up. Just last night, in fact. Isn’t it exciting?”

Just sort of came up? The week after she’d dumped him in Grace’s lap? The false cheerfulness in her voice told him she was lying, which just made it worse. “Yeah, right. Exciting.”

“It’s still a good thing you’re up there with Grace,” she added quickly. “Tony’s real busy with the bar and all, and…well, you know.”

“Yeah.”

“I’d think you could at least be happy for me.” Her voice took on a petulant edge. “You know how we’ve struggled.”

She’d never noticed that Tony was a real jerk toward Ross. She’d been defensive and even angry when he tried to tell her, because she didn’t want to hear it.

In return, Ross had never tried to hide his own disgust. Especially not after he’d seen the bastard coming out of a late-night movie with another woman, though Mom had refused to hear a single word against her latest lover.

A chill settled over Ross as he dropped the receiver into its cradle; a feeling of emptiness so huge that if he’d been a few years younger, he might have just sat and bawled.

Grace had tactfully left the kitchen when Ross answered the phone, and from out in the living room he’d heard the sound of her bustling around. Now, she appeared at the kitchen door. “About ready for school? I’ll give you a ride.”

“Nah.” He grabbed his jacket from the back closet and shouldered on his backpack. She’d offered every day of his first week here, and every day he’d refused. With no school bus service for the town kids he could be dropped off like a grade-schooler or he could get there on his own. No contest, there—even if it meant eight blocks of snow-packed streets through the bitter cold.

“Are you sure?” Biting her lip, she glanced outside. “It’s five below and windy this morning. The streets aren’t that good, either. People don’t even try to ride bikes here this time of year, and I really don’t mind—”

“No.” Before she could push any further or worse, ask him about the phone call, he jerked open the back door, unchained his mountain bike and hoisted it down the steps.

He slung a leg over the bike and sped down the long hill toward Main Street without a backward glance. He didn’t have to look back to know that Aunt Grace was watching him from the porch, her arms folded across her chest and her brow furrowed with worry.

Her house was small, and she’d probably heard some of the conversation.

The roughly plowed street caught his front tire. He wobbled wildly for a split second, then righted himself and eased into the track of a car. Great—I might as well break my neck and be done with it.

As cold as it was in this godforsaken place, he was already so numb he probably wouldn’t even feel a thing. The phone call this morning almost made him wish he had the courage to let it happen.

For now, he had a place with Grace. But what about later?

Moving back with Mom would no longer be an option. Though Tony had a creepy way of being nice to his mom while getting her to wait on him, his whole personality changed when she wasn’t home. He swore a lot, slammed things around and got his kicks out of trying to be intimidating.

It didn’t take any imagination to guess how much he’d dislike having a teenage kid around.

A gust of wind kicked up a blinding cloud of snow at the intersection of Oak and Lake. A dark shape suddenly materialized at his left. Coming too fast…