Page 44 of Ordered Home for the Holidays
He’d gotten her letter - he’d known that his little sister had married his best friend. But seeing the truth of it now, when their entire childhood had been characterized by their mutual aggravation, was jarring.
He stepped forward and thumped his best friend’s upper arm. “I never imagined you’d be the one keeping her in line.”
Dio just gave Perry an adoring look and squeezed her side. “I wouldn’t trade places with anyone,” he said without taking his eyes off her.
“Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” Cass teased.
Perry smiled softly and laid her head on her husband’s shoulder.
Cass cleared his throat and steeled himself for the answer to his next question. “Our mother’s telegram was cryptic. What has happened?”
“Father suffered another apoplexy and we don’t think he’s long for this world. Mother’s been keeping a bedside vigil.”
“Am I too late?”
Perry shook her head and placed a hand on his arm. “No, he’s still with us. Prepare yourself - he is much changed and has lost the ability to speak. You should go upstairs and make amends.”
“Is Archie already here?”
His sister’s troubled gaze met his. “He left for a field expedition nine months ago - to document the culture of the tribes near the Great Lakes. He’s somewhere near the border between Minnesota and Canada and we haven’t been able to reach him.”
Though they had their differences, Cass knew Archie would feel guilty if their father passed away without hearing his farewell.
“You’ve tried sending a telegram?”
Perry nodded vigorously. “To the receiving office in the location of his last letter.”
In his heart, Cass had known this homecoming wouldn’t be an easy one. He knew from Perry’s letters their father had dealt with a series of apoplexies over the past year. Dr. Hamptonwas in attendance quite frequently, and with each week that passed his father’s condition worsened.
Although he hadn’t known why his mother had summoned him, the telegram had been just the jolt he needed to make things right before it was too late.
“I’ll go up and see him now.”
Perry enveloped him in a swift hug. “He is much changed, Cass. Be patient.”
Cass braced himself as he trudged up the stairs.
The upper floor was quiet, but he heard the murmur of voices from his parents’ bedroom. When he swung open the door, his mother was settling into the rocking chair she’d used when they were children, a bundle of thread in her lap.
The slight form heaped beneath the blankets didn’t resemble the robust, strict man who’d raised him. And Cass stood there for a moment. Shocked, until his mother threw her arms around his midriff. “Oh, Cassius. Thank goodness you’re here. He’s been asking for you.”
There was a grunt from the bed, and when Cass peered over her shoulder, his father peered back at him. His perusal was as sharp and flinty as it had been before Cass left.
“Father,” Cass nodded in the direction of the mound of blankets. He felt chastised, even though he was a full grown adult. His father had always made him feel like he wasn’t quite up to scratch.
There was a garbled response and there was no chance of misinterpreting the glare that accompanied it.
“His speech isn’t what it was before the apoplexies. I’m the only one who seems to understand him,” his mother soothed as she awkwardly patted Cass’s hand.
“Can you interpret what he just said?”
“He said it’s about time you got here and grew up instead of gallivanting all over the country.”
Cass recoiled. “I haven’t been gallivanting,” he furiously insisted. “I’ve been making my way in the world and learning things I never would have been exposed to here.”
His father snorted, and Cass wondered exactly how much he knew about Cass’s gambling exploits.
When an imperious finger pointed at the slate perched on the bedside table, his mother scurried forward. With a frown of concentration his father took a piece of chalk in his left hand and painstakingly scratched out a message.
