CHAPTER 26

“S he called in sick, so I did, too,” Hollis said.

“She’s only been working here for a couple of weeks,” her mom replied.

“She’s a nurse, Mom. I bet she gets sick a lot, dealing with sick people,” Hollis replied, pulling the car into the parking lot.

“You shouldn’t have to take the day off. We could have postponed the appointment.”

“It’s a doctor’s appointment, so no, we couldn’t have. And it’s fine. I’ll work tonight. Kenna said it was okay. She cleared it with my actual boss.”

“We should have Kenna over. And her wife, too. You said she has a daughter?”

“She does, yeah,” Hollis said, unbuckling her own seat belt and then her mom’s.

“I can make dinner,” Olivia offered. “Do they like anything in particular? Maybe we could do a whole thing for them. Kenna’s been so nice to you. The tomatoes out back are looking good. I could make homemade sauce for some pasta.”

Hollis looked at her mother, who was smiling at the idea of making a nice dinner for Hollis’s friends when she’d never been able to do that before. There were no tomatoes in the back garden. There might have been years ago , but not now, and Hollis had been struggling with what to do in these situations. Her mother was sleeping even more now, and sometimes, she’d have these moments where she’d say something like this, something that wasn’t possible. Olivia hadn’t done any cooking in weeks. She hadn’t been able to sit at the table long enough to teach Hollis anymore, either .

“Maybe,” Hollis replied. “I can ask her when they’re free.” She smiled softly at her mother.

“That would be great. Now, let’s get the poking and prodding over with.”

Hollis checked them in, and they waited for a few minutes before a male nurse came out front to help Hollis get her mom into a wheelchair and take her in the back. Olivia could still walk short distances on her own, but she needed to stop and rest more and more. Once her mom was on the bed in the patient room, Hollis sat in the chair designated for family members and waited for the doctor, who did his best to make Olivia feel like a person and not a patient, which Hollis appreciated more than she’d ever be able to convey to him.

“So, here’s where we are, Olivia,” he said, checking her test results. “Hollis tells me you have two at-home nurses now.”

“Yes,” Olivia confirmed. “It was too much for Hollis to handle on her own.”

“I think we’re at a point where we should get you checked into the hospital so that we can keep an eye on you. I’d like to get a few more tests, and it seems you’re still a little dehydrated.”

“They’ve given her IV fluids,” Hollis spoke up.

“It would be better if she just stays on them for the next few days. I’d also like to monitor her.”

“I don’t want the hospital,” Olivia told him.

“I know your opinions. You’ve made them very clear,” he said, chuckling at her. “No more chemo, radiation, new trials, or medication. This isn’t any of that. It would just be monitored pain meds and fluids while we run a couple of tests.”

“I have a day nurse and a night nurse. I’m only without a medical professional for a couple of hours a day. Can’t you give me instructions to give them?”

“I’d still need the hospital to run the tests, Olivia.” He smiled over at Hollis .

“Mom, come on. It’s only for a few days. Right?”

“Two to three, at most,” the doctor replied. “And if I remember right, you said you liked hospital Jell-O.”

“Everyone likes hospital Jell-O,” Olivia said, laughing through a wet cough.

“I’ll take time off work and stay with you,” Hollis told her. “Maybe I can get a cot again so that you don’t have to be alone.”

“Absolutely not. Hollis, I don’t want this to be your life.”

The doctor stood from his rolling stool and said, “Why don’t I give you two a moment to talk it over? I’ll send the nurse in with my instructions in a few minutes. We can talk more, depending on what you decide.”

“Mom, you’re dehydrated. And he wants to run some tests,” Hollis said once the doctor was gone.

“The tests will only tell him that I’m dying,” Olivia reasoned. “And the nurses can give me IV fluids for the dehydration, but I don’t need hospital Jell-O. Honey, I think it’s time we have that talk you keep begging me to put off.”

“No. We’ll get you checked into the hospital, and they–”

“Hollis, I’m dying.”

“We can–”

“Baby, I love you. I know this is hard. But you need to listen to me, okay? I don’t know how much longer I have, but I don’t want to spend two or three days in a hospital with you sleeping on a cot in the corner. If I only get the first five years of your life with you and this time right now before we have to say goodbye, I don’t want that.”

Hollis’s eyes welled with tears, and she said, “What if it could give us two to three more days?”

“We’ve talked about this, Hollis… I know what I’m asking, and I know it’s hard, but I’d like to go home with my daughter. I’d like to sit in bed with her as we watch TV and talk until I fall asleep, okay?”

◆◆ ◆

“She had her attorney call me,” Hollis shared as she washed a plate and handed it to Raleigh.

“Why?”

“To go over what he called ‘end-of-life stuff.’”

“Oh, babe… I’m so sorry.” Raleigh rested her head on Hollis’s shoulder.

“He’s coming by tomorrow, and I don’t know if I can handle it.”

“Do you want me to be with you?” Raleigh lifted her head and dried the plate, putting it onto the drying rack and wiping her hands on the rag now that they were done.

“You have to work,” Hollis said.

“I can work from anywhere,” Raleigh replied. “But I can also work from home and take a break to come over here. I don’t want to get in the way. It’s a packed house as is, with the nurses here now.”

“The day nurse quit yesterday,” Hollis told her.

“What?”

“Apparently, this is normal. People go through a ton of nurses, I guess. I assumed we’d get one, and she’d be here for the long haul, but the agency said they could send someone the day after tomorrow. I’m working from home tomorrow, and the lawyer agreed to come here, given the circumstances.”

“Where’s the night nurse?” Raleigh asked. “Shouldn’t she be here by now?”

“She had a patient emergency,” Hollis replied.

“What?”

“She works a swing shift and then the night shift. The swing-shift patient went into cardiac arrest, so she was dealing with that, and I told her to take the night off,” she explained. “I’m here. It’s fine.”

“When was the last time you slept?” Raleigh asked, turning Hollis toward her.

“I slept really well the night before last, actually,” Hollis smirked.

Raleigh laughed, moved her arms around Hollis’s waist, and asked, “And last night?”

“Not that well. But the nurse was here, so I got a few hours, at least.”

“What if I stay over tonight and just work from here tomorrow? I can help you with your mom tonight so that you can get some sleep, and then be here with the lawyer tomorrow and help with her, too. You could focus on work when you need to, and it would give you a little break.”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” Hollis said.

“You didn’t. I offered.”

“Raleigh, you already have so much going on. This is the part that’s complicated. I don’t want you to have to take on even more.”

Raleigh leaned in, kissed her sweetly on the lips, and said, “As if you haven’t taken on more of my stuff with Eden. If we want this, Hollis, it has to be all of it. We can’t do it halfway. We can’t not talk about the stuff that’s going on, but we also can’t be surrounded by it all the time, either. You were right that night at the restaurant: we need the moments, the nights where it’s just us, two people who are dating and getting to know each other. Still, we can’t just ignore the fact that your mom is sick while you’re trying to deal with your dad’s trial, and I’m losing work clients at an alarming rate, and my daughter is missing.”

“It’s just so much…” Hollis sighed.

“I know,” Raleigh said. “I wish we were just two people dating and none of this was going on, but we can’t ignore it.”

“Can we ignore it for, like, five minutes, maybe? I haven’t really kissed you yet.”

“You noticed, huh? I got one lousy peck when you opened the door, but then I just got put straight to work drying dishes,” Raleigh teased.

“Please allow me to remedy this immediately,” Hollis replied as she wrapped her arms around Raleigh’s neck and pulled her in. “I missed you.”

“Me too,” Raleigh told her .

Hollis pressed her lips to Raleigh’s and kissed her slowly, missing the taste of her, even though it had only been just over a day since they’d kissed goodbye at Raleigh’s front door. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been standing there, but Raleigh turned them until her back was pressed to the counter, effectively trapping herself between Hollis’s body and the sink. Hollis moved her lips to Raleigh’s neck, breathing her in as she did, and just as she was about to suggest they stop because they couldn’t take things further in her mother’s kitchen, Hollis heard a throat clear. She turned her head and saw said mother standing right there in the kitchen.

“Mom!”

“I just needed more water,” Olivia said. “And hello, Raleigh. It’s nice to see you again.”

Raleigh wiped her mouth and said, “You too.”

“So… I assume there’s something Hollis hasn’t told me?”

“No, it’s not–” Hollis tried and stopped. “It’s new. It just happened. But you had your appointment, and I didn’t want to–”

“Bother me with the news of your new relationship?” Olivia said.

“It’s not– I mean, we haven’t–”

“Yes,” Raleigh interrupted. “It just happened the other night. I was a jerk on our first date. Did she tell you that?” Raleigh moved out of Hollis’s grasp then and over to Olivia, whom she helped to one of the kitchen table chairs. “And I was lucky enough that she forgave me and gave me another chance.”

“Hollis didn’t say anything about you being a jerk.”

“She wasn’t a jerk,” Hollis said before moving to take the empty cup from her mom, filling it with water from the tap, and placing it back on the table. “And I’m getting you that electrolytes drink the doctor suggested. So, drink that when you’re thirsty, okay?’

“Were you a jerk?” Olivia asked Raleigh, who had sat down next to her .

“I was,” Raleigh said. “And your saint-of-a-daughter has allowed me to try to make it up to her.”

“She’s a good one, isn’t she?” Olivia asked.

“She is.” Hollis watched as Raleigh leaned in. “I kind of hope I get to keep her,” she whispered to Olivia as if Hollis couldn’t hear.

“Good.” Olivia nodded slowly. “I want her to have someone.”

“Mom!” Hollis chuckled. “It’s been, like, three days.”

Raleigh smiled at her and then added to Olivia, “I was thinking about staying over tonight, if that’s okay with you. It’s your house.”

“Of course, it’s okay,” Olivia replied.

“And would you mind if I help out so Hollis can get some sleep since the nurse couldn’t come tonight?”

“I would love that. She’s not sleeping well,” Olivia noted.

“There. It’s settled,” Raleigh said to Hollis. “Her house. Her rules.”

“Come on, Mom. Let’s get you back to bed. The drinks I got you are in your bedroom. I’ll put two on the table for you in case you get extra thirsty, okay?”

“They’re blue,” Olivia pointed out to Raleigh. “She got mountain blastoff blue flavor. That’s not a flavor; that’s a color. What the heck is a mountain supposed to taste like when it’s blasting off?”

Raleigh and Hollis both laughed.