5. Hired Help

CHAPTER 5

HIRED HELP

TRINITY

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

I stared off at the blank wall where a large screen television used to hang. It wasn’t there any longer, and I didn’t have the heart to ask my mom what happened to it. There was literally nothing of value left in her house. I wasn’t sure if someone she dated had wiped her out or if she had sold off everything worth anything to help with her medical expenses before I came back.

“What’s to tell?”

“That your mom is about two steps away from death’s door, for one,” Hollywood whispered. I glared at him for having the audacity to say it out loud. It felt less real when it was something you knew but never mentioned.

“Why in the hell did you think I was back here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because you missed your hometown.” I gave Hollywood that “yeah right” look before I tucked my hair back behind my ears to keep it out of my face. “Talk to me, Trin. What’s going on? When you left for college, I never imagined you would stay gone. Now, you’re back and you’re telling me that you never planned to be.”

“She’s dying,” I admitted. “My mom, for all her issues, is my last family member besides Bishop. She might not have been the best mom, but I always had everything I needed and I guess I felt like I owed her to see her through this. She doesn’t have anyone, can’t afford help, and there was no way I could let her die alone.”

“I get all that, but what about the part where you stopped coming back?”

“I loved growing up here. It was a small community and it felt like everyone was there to help in a crisis.”

“Not seeing the problem,” my friend interrupted and I rolled my eyes at him.

“The problem is that after Trent left, it didn’t feel very welcoming anymore.” We sat quietly on the couch for a few minutes before I continued. “I was tormented all through high school, Carson. Those assholes made my life a living hell. My big brother wasn’t there to help me anymore, my mom was too focused on her latest boyfriend, and my dad was still a ghost. Nothing went right. Why in the hell would I want to stay in a town that made my life miserable for four damn years? They never let up. Not once. Not even when we found out that Trent died.” I choked back the emotion that clogged my throat whenever I spoke of my big brother. He was my favorite person in the whole world and it didn’t feel right that he was no longer a part of it. It had been eight years since he passed away in a training accident. I’d only been able to see him once after he left for the military. One time. One short week and then I would never see him ever again.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasn’t your problem. Besides, you were there for the first year of it.” I chuckled as I remembered the day my torment started. “It was your buddy that set everyone off to begin with.”

“My buddy?”

I arched a brow at him and then rolled my eyes again when the clueless idiot didn’t know what I was talking about. He probably hadn’t noticed what everyone said about me either, because despite caring about me, I wasn’t on his radar in his senior year. That was fine because honestly, I was just the little sister of his best friend, not his own family. He had more important concerns, like which one of the girls from school would put out for him that week.

“What buddy?”

“Trouble,” I admitted.

“How did he launch a four-year-long bullying campaign against you?”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean for it to go on that long, but that day you mentioned my crush on him in the cafeteria and he said all those awful things, the kids from school took those things and ran with it.”

Hollywood winced, obviously having not forgotten what was said that day. “I’m so sorry that I mentioned it, but I didn’t want you to get your hopes up. We were already gearing up to prospect for the club and there’s no way they would have let him if he started something with a girl as young as you were then.”

“Well, there was no danger of that happening,” I laughed it off, even though it was still humiliating to talk about. “Anyway, that was just the tip of the iceberg that led to me not feeling welcome in my own town any longer. I was happy in Spearfish. I graduated college, got a good job, and was saving to buy a house.” I waved my hands around indicating the sparse room we sat in. “Now, I am back home and my savings are dwindling by the day. Sheila just quit tonight, and I have no clue who to get to help with my mom while I work. Not to mention, Sheila was cheap, anyone else will charge me way more. I don’t want my mom to die, but I feel like I’m drowning here while trying to keep her alive a little while longer. She’s miserable. I don’t even think she wants to fight anymore. She stopped taking the chemo, but the doctors pretty much told her it wasn’t working anyway. They told her she still had months, but Dr. Vaughn told me she didn’t think it would be that long.”

“How long then?

“Weeks, maybe.” The admission felt like a sucker punch. My guilt over being away so long reared its ugly head again. “I should have been here.”

“No, you shouldn’t have. You were right where you were meant to be.”

“All the time we lost though…”

“Come on, Trin. We both know you wouldn’t have been her priority even if you were living in the same house with her all this time. In fact, most likely, she would have thrown you out on your own the minute she got a boyfriend who either didn’t want you around, or wanted you around more than her.”

“Gross, but true,” I mumbled. “Your turn. Why does my mom expect you to tell her dirty stories?” I didn’t know whether to vomit or laugh at the thought of Hollywood telling my mom about his escapades.

He chuckled and then shook his head as if he wished he could erase the need for this conversation. “When you told Bishop you had to come back here for a bit, he got worried and asked me to check on your mom sometimes. He didn’t tell me you were coming back though. When I drove by the first time, the lights were out and there wasn’t a car, so I called her instead. We started to talk, but I was at the clubhouse and I guess she overheard a woman asking if she could blow me. Your mom started to ask a bunch of questions and next thing I know, the boys and I are telling her stories of our conquests because it seemed to make her happy.”

“Why were you so shocked by her health if you were checking on her?”

He hung his head. “Man, this is the part where I need to have my ass handed to me. It looked like she was never home, so I only ever talked to her on the phone. The lights were always out and the car was never here.”

I pointed to the empty wall. “I’m guessing she either sold a bunch of shit or someone walked off with it and she was too sick to do anything about it. There are a lot of things missing, including her car.”

“How in the hell was she getting around?”

“She wasn’t. Her neighbor brought her some groceries and she used the transport service to get to her appointments. I don’t think she would have done that if Dr. Vaughn hadn’t arranged for it.”

“What the fuck, Trin?”

That was pretty much the same response I’d had for my mother and Sheila who had helped her. My heart plummeted when I thought about the mess I’d walked into the day I came home. The house was a wreck. Dirty dishes were stacked up on the counters and in the sink, there was a bucket of congealed vomit beside the couch and another beside my mother’s bed. There was a dried up puddle next to the toilet in the bathroom as well. The only thing to drink in the house was water from the tap and none of the sinks had been cleaned out in ages, so I could only imagine what kind of bacteria were crawling around. I shivered as I remembered every inch of mess I’d cleaned. I wouldn’t tell Carson any of that though, nor would I tell him about how my mother’s bed when I found her here all alone was worse than tonight’s episode by about a thousand miles. She didn’t deserve that indignity any more than I wanted to share it with it anyone. Besides, I carried enough guilt for the whole town where my mother was concerned. At least Carson had called and spoken to her. Even if the content of their conversations was a little controversial, it at least brought a little bright spot to my mother’s suffering.

“I’m working on getting everything together, but I need help. I don’t even know where to find someone to come in and help keep up with her while I work, especially since I work late evenings, weekends, and nights when people want the most money.” I sighed at the thought of how much everything would cost. Even when my mother passed, there was still the expense of a funeral and… What the hell was wrong with me? She wasn’t dead. She was still here and I was worried about how to cover her funeral expenses.

“I feel like I’m going nuts.”

“You didn’t have to do this all alone.” Carson pulled out his phone and texted someone. After a couple minutes he got an answer and sent me a text. “Contact Mountain At Home Care tomorrow. The owner is Preston Matthews. Tell him what you need and if it is too much for you, you will let me know and we’ll get something together at the club to try to help out. I’ll talk to Bishop about it. I know you won’t and he wouldn’t want you footing the bill to your detriment.”

“She’s my mom. It’s my job to take care of her.”

“No. She’s your mom. It was her job to take care of you - which she barely did. You don’t owe her everything you’ve earned since you got out from under her.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s hard to keep that perspective when I look at how pitiful this whole scene is.”

We sat there for a couple hours and worked on a plan of attack for everything from my mom’s medical bills, to the home health care help, and even trying to get the house back into better shape.

The next day, help came in the form of a wolf who didn’t bother to don the sheep’s clothing.

“What in the hell are you doing here?” The woman asked as I answered my mother’s door.

“I live here. What are you doing here?”

“Please, tell me it isn’t you who needs their ass wiped.” It took a minute, but finally I remembered where I knew the woman from. She had been one of Trouble’s regulars back before I left for college. For a minute there, I thought maybe he finally saw me as worthy of his interest, but then he started being an asshole to me again and she was always there. The viper in the nest, ready to shoot her venom into anyone who dared get too close to her man.

“I certainly hope you’re not from the Mountain At Home Care.”

“I am.”

“Well, then I guess I need to talk to your boss about the way you talk about patients with their families.” Her face turned red and panic flashed in her eyes before she looked down so I couldn’t see. I didn’t miss the way she took a minute to get herself under control.

“There’s no need for that. I was just not expecting you.”

“I should hope not since you’re here to care for my mother, but honestly, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

“No, I promise, I will care for her like I would my own mother. You’re the one I don’t like. Your mom never did anything to me and I can be professional with her.”

I debated on that for a few minutes, but the time was getting away from me. I glanced down at my phone and sighed. “I’ve already paid for the week, so stay here and I will be watching. Don’t even think of turning the cameras off either. If they go off, even for more than thirty seconds, I will call the police.”

Natalie rolled her eyes, but nodded her acceptance. It occurred to me then that she must be desperate to keep her job. I wasn’t sure if that meant she was shit at it or if it just meant her attitude got the best of her. “I don’t care if you have a shitty attitude, my mom probably deserves a little hostility sometimes, but you will do right by her in everything else.”

“Of course,” she huffed.

“My room is locked and it also has cameras. There is nothing you could possibly need in there, so don’t let me find out that you even so much as breathed on the doorknob.”

She huffed but nodded her head as I turned to leave. By the time I got to my Jeep, she was inside the house and I was left with a sick feeling in my gut, but there was nothing more I could do. If I missed another night of work, I’d be out of a job. The management at the club were as understanding as they could be, but a dancer who didn’t show wasn’t easily replaced. I wanted to call Reesa, the woman Shaina had introduced me to when I first got back to town. She would probably be the best person to ask for help, but she had a pre-teen daughter, a husband, and a pregnancy she hadn’t told him about yet on her shoulders. There was no way I could burden her with my issues, even though I knew she would help.