Page 52 of In Full Bloom

I couldn’t bring myself to speak to Clarissa. She has a way of making you want to talk, to open up and share everything and I didn’t want to slip and accidentally tell her what had really happened between Toby and I.

Clarissa is exactly how I remember her. Tall like Toby and Max, dark hair pulled back in a French braid, dark eyes like her sons’, except hers are traced with soft lines that I know are from smiling.

I struggle to suck down a breath, until I feel Dallas pressing his fingers into my back. He’s not pushing me forward, he’s simply lending his support.

“Clarissa,” I croak out.

I have no idea how she’s going to react to seeing me. It’s been years.

One son is dead, the other blames me for his death. I don’t know where Clarissa stands on that. I don’t know if she believes the same things as Max, if she feels the same way.

We were fairly close when I lived here before and shealways seemed to approve of my relationship with Toby, but that was before we left, before he died.

“Oh, Katie. I’d heard you were back in town,” she says, then reaches forward and wraps her arms around me, pulling me in for a tight hug.

My arms automatically come around her and I find myself clinging on, tears welling despite me trying to push them down.

The relief that she doesn’t hate me too is overwhelming. I want to curl into her and let her hold me forever.

Eventually Clarissa releases her hold and steps back. She wipes at her cheek and it takes me a moment to process that she’s wiping away tears.

She clears her throat. “Alright, sorry Dallas, let’s get this arm looked at.” She reaches out and rubs my arm. “It’s good to see you, Katie. I hope you’re doing okay. Are you cold? Do you want me to find you something to wear?”

I shake my head. “I’m fine. Just look after him.” I gesture towards Dallas, who’s watched our whole interaction silently.

He must know Clarissa is Toby and Max’s mum. His reaction to seeing her tells me he does. Why else would he look at me like I was going to bolt right out of the hospital?

I almost did. If she hadn’t surprised me with that hug, I’d be long gone by now. I always assumed Max had convinced his parents of his side of the story, whatever it is, because Clarissa never reached out to me after the funeral. Any communication I had with them was through their lawyer when it came time to handle Toby’s possessions after his death.

But that hug … maybe she doesn’t hate me as much as I thought.

“Come on through,” Clarissa says to Dallas, heading for the examination rooms.

I watch her go, then turn to resume my position on the hard plastic waiting room chair. “I’ll wait for you here,” I say.

Dallas cradles his injured arm against his chest and reaches out his good hand. “Come with me,” he says, voice impossibly soft. “Please.”

“You don’t need me,” I say.

“You’d be surprised,” he says. He reaches out and slips his fingers back into mine. “Please,” he repeats and the plea in his tone has me following him soundlessly.

Dallas has his injury inspected,poked and prodded, cleaned out and stitched closed. I stay right by his side for the entire process, for much of it with his good hand in mine.

The doctor is certain there isn’t any major damage inside his arm, which is a huge relief. Tendon damage would mean surgery and Dallas wants none of that. When the doctor tells us all the injury needs is a thorough clean and stitches, Dallas wilts against me, muttering something along the lines of ‘thank fuck’.

Clarissa talks him through caring for the injury, when he needs to come back to have the stitches out, then releases us back into the world.

Aside from her initial show of emotion when she hugged me, Clarissa was entirely professional during our visit. She spoke to Dallas, but largely ignored my presence, except for along moment when she took in the sight of our hands linked together.

She treated him with care and respect and wished him well with his recovery, saying she’d see him again in a week to check the wound.

I blink rapidly at the bright sunlight as we step outside.

“What time is it?” Dallas asks while I readjust to the outside world. Being in a hospital is such a weirdly disconcerting feeling, with no sense of time or place.

I check my phone. “One-thirty.”

He sighs. “By the time we get back to the Ridge, it’ll be time for me to come back in to get Sadie. What a waste of a day.” He scowls over his shoulder at the hospital like it’s personally wronged him.

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