Page 61 of Dirty Puck

He’d do it when he was ready.

They kept her for another two days to make sure she’d be okay to travel back to Charleston with us. On the day we picked her up, she fought us, albeit weakly, about thewheelchair. Hospital policy mandated she use the wheelchair down to the front doors, but her doctors recommended it and even if they hadn’t, she was still too fragile to walk on her own. She’d get some strength back as long as she kept up with the infusions, but we had a good deal of walking ahead of us today.

We weighed the pros and cons of driving versus flying, even tossing around the idea of renting an RV to make it more comfortable for her, but Arlington to Charleston was more than an eight-hour drivewithoutany traffic delays, and it made the doctors uncomfortable. I talked to them at length when deciding how best to transport her. In the end her medical team okayed us flying back to Charleston as long as we all masked and tried to keep her away from too many people.

Reece ran to get the rental while I waited with Char outside the front doors of the hospital. He loaded the wheelchair in the trunk while I helped buckle her in the back seat. We still had to get through the airport, and she’d never make it through on her own.

Given the situation, we decided to catch the red-eye flight home. Fewer people at the airport and on the plane. Reece shelled out for first class, which lowered her contact with others even further. With her infusion done that morning, basically all we had to do was make sure she ate and stayed hydrated. The three of us kept our masks on the entire trip, sure we got some side-eye looks from other passengers. It was inevitable. For the most part, though, we had an uneventful flight.

Char slept most of the way back to Charleston. Reece watched his mom.Iwatched Reece. Few things in life felt as good as truly helping out someone you cared about. With all the time we spent together, Reece had fast become my best friend.

When we landed, Reece got her wheelchair and I helped her down into it. I sighed the biggest sigh of relief once weleft the plane. Never since Benny’s birth had I been away from him for this long. I missed my boy. I missed Claudia. But before my reunion with them happened, we had to get Char to Reece’s place.

I couldn’t say what I’d expected from his house. He’d said it was huge, so I guess some kind of mansion. He didn’t live in a mansion. He lived in a big farmhouse set on a lot of property that butted up to the ocean. White clapboard siding. A huge wraparound porch with a swing. It already had a ramp for Char’s chair and I knew the man had money, but to get this done in, like, four days? That was a straight-up miracle.

As I sat in the passenger seat staring at the home, my head cocked in confusion, he said, “I’m good, but I’m notthatgood. It was here when I bought the place. Since it connects to the side porch, not the front, I didn’t bother to remove it because it didn’t bother me.”

“It’ll make getting her in and out easier. Do you think we could get a boardwalk put in that leads to the beach? It would make the trip less bumpy for her.”

He squeezed my knee. I guess he liked that I asked that. “Already—” Reece cleared his throat. “Already have one. The last owners put it in.”

“Good. The view is amazing. I bet she’d like to have tea out there in the mornings.” I’d have asked her about it directly, but she’d fallen asleep again pretty much the moment we’d moved her into the truck. Being in the hospital took a lot out of a person.

“Ma has a room on the first floor. En suite. That’s where she always sleeps when she stays with me. If Claudia wants, I can move my office upstairs because there’s a Jack-and-Jill bathroom between my office and the den. Tub, shower, and commode. We have an en suite in our room, but the other two bedrooms upstairs share a bathroom at the end of the hall. I had Bishop put Benny in a room upstairs by us. He said there’s a gate at the top and the bottom now. In case Bennygets up in the night, he’ll be fine. Bishop and Jaycee knew exactly what to use to get my place ready for him.”

“That’s incredible, Reece.”

“I know Benny has to feel comfortable with the move, but having you here will mean the world to my mom.”

Char woke up when he shut the truck off. This time, I got her wheelchair while he helped her down. I rolled her up the ramp so Reece could get the door for us. The boxes with her clothes and other belongings sat stacked neatly inside by the front of the house.

“Hungry yet?” I asked her. “I have to get Benny and Claudia, then I can cook. Or I can order out. Reece is—wasa single guy. I bet he’s got cans of soup or frozen entrees. I can throw something together before I leave.”

“I can wait until you get back…” She paused to take a breath. “I’d like to have dinner with Benny and Claudia too.” Her voice was weak, softer even than when we’d spent that weekend with her. I hated it. I’d known her for what equaled a week at most, but I hated this for her. I hated it for Reece. Hell, I hated it for me, too. That was a whole lot of hate for a situation none of us had any control over. This was my problem to deal with and I wouldn’t let it affect how I cared for her.

Sucking it up I asked, “Do you have any white beans, Reece?”

He stopped to think. “I got a couple jars in the pantry, I think. What are you thinking?”

“Meat in the freezer?” I asked.

“I’m sure. You’ll have to check what I have, though.”

Rummaging through his pantry was hardly a hardship. He owned my dream kitchen. The pots and pans alone cost a small fortune, and don’t even get me started on the appliances. A Vulcan range. Subzero refrigerator. I was in the throes of culinary ecstasy. A girl could get used to living in a place like this real fast.

Now I only hoped that Claudia’s and Benny’s transitions to staying here would go just as smoothly.

I needed Claudia to want to move here because I needed Char to be happy, and I needed Reece to be happy. Benny, my beautiful boy, I figured he’d be fine as long as he had his momma. I mean, yes, I wanted to be happy too, but my life was one big, perpetual heartbreak, setback or disappointment with little pockets of joy like becoming a momma or meeting Miss Claudia. Now I could add times with Reece and Char to that list. I liked bringing joy to the people I cared about. So if Claudia didn’t want to move here with us, I didn’t know what I’d do.

After a thorough check of the pantry and freezer, I found Reece had all the important components for me to make this French bean stew that was a staple in my house because beans were pretty budget friendly. Between the expensive pans, the huge kitchen island, and the panoramic view of the ocean from the bank of windows, I felt like a host of a Food Network show. Prep done, into the oven it went to bake low and slow.

The low and slow method provided me the chance to grab Benny and Miss Claudia. If we swung by the store, I could pick up some breadcrumbs and a loaf of crusty bread to go with dinner.

Two arms wrapped around me from behind and Reece planted a kiss to my neck. “What are you concocting in here? It smells great already.”

“A kind of bean stew I like to make. I saw it on a cooking show and decided to try it. Even Benny eats it—well, mostly. He eats the beans, but I feed him chicken nuggets instead of the sausage. I’ll get those at the store.”

“Nice. Anything I can do?”

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