Page 38 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
“Yes,” I whispered.
“He is your flower, Lina. He always has been, and you know it. You’ve known it for a long, long time. And he,” my mother smiled, “well, he has needed a bit more time to figure it out.”
Cal stopped walking through the tall grass and turned back to me. I couldn’t make out his face, but I felt him smile, and the shadow over and around him disappeared. He reached his hand out as if inviting me to go with him.
I looked back at my mother.
She nodded after Cal. “Go to him, baby girl. He is your flower.”
15
CALLUM
My chin hit my chest, waking me up for the tenth time in the last hour. I sucked in a breath and sat up a bit straighter in the rigid, metal-framed chair beside Lina’s hospital bed. Monitors beeped all around me in that steady yet unsettling way that they did, and nurses bustled by soundlessly out in the hall as Lina slept.
She hadn’t woken since the accident three days ago. She’d been here, on her back, pale and expressionless, for over seventy-nine hours now. The doctors had told Kelli’s mother, the closest person Lina had to a relative, that Lina had bleeding and swelling in her brain. They were unsure if she would ever wake up, and if she did, they didn’t know what state she would be in. There was a chance she would not be the same person she was before the crash. She might have lost her ability to speak, to walk, to be.
She also might not wake up at all.
I rubbed at my eyes with the heels of my hands and groaned without meaning to. When I opened my eyes again, my vision was blurred with white splotches from rubbing too hard. I peered around and sought out a pitcher of water that one of the day nurses had brought before I dozed off. I poured myself a small paper cup full of water and drank it down before refilling it.
A soft knock on the door made me look up.
Judy Rollins stood in the doorframe, illuminated by the fluorescent hallway lights behind her. “Hi, Cal. Do you mind if I come in?”
“Of course,” I said, motioning her in with my hand.
Lina had a private room down the hall from Kelli.
Judy came in and sat in the chair beside me. She put her brown leather purse in her lap and stared at the young woman on the bed before us for a few minutes before she sighed and glanced at me. Her knuckles were stark white as she gripped the straps of her purse. “How is she?”
“About the same,” I said.
Judy licked her lips. “You don’t have to stay, you know? You’ve been here for three days, Cal. I can watch over her if you want to go home and get some rest.”
“No,” I said, forcing myself to smile at her. She was going through worse than me. Both her daughters were lying in hospital beds. “I can’t leave her alone. Besides, you have enough on your plate as it is. I’m the one who should be offering to help you.”
Judy’s smile was tight lipped and more of a grimace. But she tried anyway. “I appreciate that, Cal. It’s been… difficult.”
I nodded. “How is Kelli?”
Judy looked down at the bag in her lap. “Today hasn’t been good, if I’m being honest with you. We sat down with the doctors this morning, and they… they gave Kelli their prognosis.”
“Which is?” I asked. Then I realized I was being inconsiderate. I shook my head apologetically. “I shouldn’t pry. We don’t need to talk about this.”
“They told her she won’t walk again.”
I knew my mouth was open, but I was incapable of closing it. I just sat there like an idiot, staring at the mother of a girl who had just received life-changing, terrible news. I swallowed hard and forced my tongue to work. I took a steadying breath. “Judy, I’m—”
She looked at me and gave me a real smile this time. She put her hand on my knee. “I know, Cal. It’s all right. It’s not your fault. If anything, without you getting to them when you did, things could have been a whole lot worse.”
Her words didn’t make me feel any better. “I should go see her.”
“No, she doesn’t want visitors. She’s not ready for that sort of thing yet. I think she needs some time to wrap her head around this, and we’ll take each day as it comes. I just wish…” She trailed off and sighed. She leaned forward and put her purse on the floor between her feet before running her hands up and down her thighs. “I wish her father was here. I don’t know how to handle all this on my own.”
“You seem to be handling it well from where I’m sitting.”
She smiled. “Thank you. You’ve always been kind, Cal. Lina would appreciate you staying by her side like this. Even given the circumstances.”
