Page 82 of Road Trip
“Get out of here, dummy,” she said, handing me the keys to Grandpa’s extra truck.
I heard giggling on the other end.
“Dummy? You going to let her get away with that?”
Oh, Lord, how I’d missed that laugh. After this morning, I’d worried I wouldn’t hear it again.
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Just hold on.” We disconnected. I was already to the cab of the truck when I stopped to look down at myself. I was covered in horse hair, mud, and Lord knows what else. I sprinted to my place, changed into a department T-shirt and some utilities, yanked on my boots, and was back to the truck in less than four minutes. I still smelled bad, but I hoped she’d be able to ignore it.
The drive to Eden Hospital was smooth until I hit Castro Valley Boulevard. I debated taking side streets until I finally hit it lucky and got three green lights in a row. I wished I were in my patrol car so I could speed right through.
I parked the truck in a far off spot because it was too hard to get the darn thing into a regular spot and I ran into the emergency room. I didn’t see Abra, but I saw a woman sitting with an iPad and I smiled when I saw the Dread Pirate Roberts on the screen. Just then Abra came out into the waiting room and approached the woman. She sat next to her and put her head in her hands. The woman didn’t seem to notice, just went on watching her movie and smiling at the screen.
Abra looked even tinier than I remembered all curled in on herself. She was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans. Her hair was long and straight. I wanted to hold back the deluge of feelings I had for her, but I could feel them pressing at the dam I’d built after this morning, looking for a weak spot they could break through. I walked over and put my hand on her shoulder.
She immediately looked up, and I got a load of Abra in her natural environment. Gone was my playful, sassy doll. Before me was a woman bent by the demands placed on her.Thiswas why she’d left.Thiswas what she hadn’t wanted me to see. She looked a little older, a little more hardened, but if I looked closely, I could see the despair in her eyes. I was determined to fix it, whatever it was. She stood slowly, glancing at the woman to make sure she was occupied, and then grabbed my hand. She pulled me around the corner and fell in my arms, exhausted.
“I’m so sorry I called. I didn’t mean to pull you away—”
I pulled back. “What’s the situation?”
She told me about the fall, that she was going to have to stay with her mom and Gran for a while because Gran couldn’t take care of herself, much less Abra’s mother.
“I’m not very patient with Mom and it stresses Gran out. I’m just worried.”
I pulled her to me and let her lean on me. I intended to keep her leaning on me. “I’ll stay with you,” I breathed into her hair. “You don’t have to do this alone, doll. Let me help you.” I could tell just how exhausted she was because she agreed.
Her gran had to stay overnight for observation and was scheduled for surgery the next morning. I offered to take her mother back to the house and stay with her until she could come back and then stay at the house with her mother so she could be at the hospital.
“Kelly, that’s so much! You have—”
“Nothing else to do. Nothing else I’d rather do. Remember? I’m on leave for a few more days. After that I go to a desk, so I’ll be able to help relieve you.”
She was speechless. She stared at me open-mouthed. “You are fucking insane for offering this, you know that? You have any idea how trying it can be to watch someone like my mother?”
“Just what do you think I do for a living?”
She laughed at that and snuggled back up to my chest. I never wanted her to move, but she started to giggle.
“Thateau de barnyou got going on is pretty hot.” She snickered, and I groaned.
“I’m sorry. I changed clothes, but yeah. I probably smell fantastic.”
She rolled her eyes at me and kissed my chin. She went back over the plan with me, making sure I had the address and alarm code.
“I’ve got this. Now, why don’t you introduce me to Mom?”
She turned on me wide-eyed. “Um, what do I tell her?”
I didn’t quite know how to take that. “You can tell her I’m a friend if that makes you feel better.” It was like getting kicked in the gut just saying those words.
“It doesn’t make me feel better,” she said, somewhat indignant. “But do I call you my boyfriend? We never talked about it.”
Okay, now I could breathe.
“I’d like that, to be your boyfriend. But whatever you are comfortable with. Now is not really the time to worry about semantics.”
She laughed and stepped back, scrubbing her hands over her face. “You sure?”
