A Fine Mess (14 page)

“And the x-rays showed a small tumor in her right lung. Nothing in the left, so that’s good. And this one isn’t very big, so it’s not as bad as it could be.”

“What are they going to do about it?”
Annie whispered, squeezing her eyes shut.

“They think a few radiation treatments may get rid of it.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

“Do they think more will develop?” It was the question she hated to ask.

“Honey, I don’t know. They don’t know for sure.”

“So what do they think?”

“They think it’s a good possibility there’ll be more. The nutritionist is working on reformulating her vitamin and herbal therapy, and they’ll just keep a closer eye on her.”

“Does Mom know?”

“Of course she does. But you know your mom. She’s trusting God and she’s trusting the doctors. And that’s what we’re going to do, too. Aren’t we?”

“Yes. Yes we are,” she agreed, blinking back tears. “Now- Why don’t you go up and take the nickel tour while I finish up down here, okay?”

“Are you going to be able to pull yourself together before we get back?” he asked sternly.

“Of course.”

And she would. It was the one thing Maddie had demanded of them both from the start. No long faces. No tears. No fear. She and her father both made it their policy to comply with those rules.
In her presence anyway.

In private was another story.

~~~~

“Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” Ian finally asked at dinner that evening.

“Wrong?” Annie asked absently, moving her food around on her plate.

“You’ve barely said ten words since your folks left
,.
And I’ve had to practically pry each one of those out of you with a crowbar.” At least she smiled a little at that. “Come on, Annie. What’s the matter?” Her sigh sounded like it came from the soles of her feet.

“Dad had some news about Mom’s doctor’s appointment yesterday. It’s not very good.”

Ian closed his eyes, sorry he’d asked. He didn’t want to hear that Maddie Blake was having more problems than she already had. He didn’t want to hear that she might be worse. Or that she might not make it at all. Because he’d truly come to care for her. And kind of look upon her as the mother he hadn’t had since just after his tenth birthday.

“How bad is it?”

He lost his appetite, too, as she told him what her father had said that morning. How much more could this family take?

“Your mom seems to be holding up well,” was all he could manage to say.

“Mom’s held up better than Dad or I either one since this all started.
Emotionally anyway.
Physically-”

“Yeah, I know.” He was pretty sure that Jack, who was currently snoozing on his bed in the corner near the table, weighed more than Maddie. “She’s an amazing woman.”

“She is. I only hope she has whatever it takes to beat this.”

“We’ll have to make sure she does, won’t we? Do you think tempting her with an after Christmas cruise would help?” Annie managed a laugh.

“Probably not.
I think she saw too many shark and ship disaster movies in the seventies and eighties because she told me once that it would take an act of God to get her to even put her little toe in the ocean.”

“What about another trip to Israel?”

“Now that might do it.
 
As long as I can stay here.”

“Are you telling me you wouldn’t care to fly in another airplane?” he teased, trying to lighten the moment.

“Pretty much.”

“Well, we’ll have to come up with something that you can do, too, then.”

“Okay. I’ll let you think about it though. I’m going to start cleaning up here so I can take Jack for a walk.”

“A walk?”
Ian said incredulously. “It’s getting dark out.”

“It usually does this time of night,” she agreed, scraping her plate and setting it in the sink.

“Shouldn’t you walk him during the day?”

“I do. But he needs to go out at least twice a day. Sometimes I have to do it at night.”

“You do realize that it’s not safe to walk at night, don’t you?”

“Jack will protect me.”

In his opinion, Jack had never met a human being he didn’t like. The mutt didn’t seem to harbor a vicious or protective bone in his body.

“That’s debatable,” he muttered, shoving his chair back and taking his plate to the sink. “I’ll go with you.”

“Ian, that’s not necessary.
Really.
I do it all the time. I’ll be fine.”

“Well you’re not doing it anymore. I’m going with you.” Apparently she realized he wouldn’t be dissuaded because she didn’t put up any argument.

As they cleaned up the dinner mess in companionable silence, Ian realized he’d spent more time in the kitchen during the three weeks since their marriage than he had in any kitchen in his entire life. Washing dishes or chopping vegetables for her didn’t seem as much like work as he remembered from his school days.

“I’m going to get my sweater,” she said when they’d finished. “Do you want me to grab a jacket for you?”

“Sure, if you would. I’ll get Jack’s leash on him.”

“Do you want to get his scooper and a plastic grocery bag, too, please?”

“His
what?
” he asked suspiciously.

“Scooper.
If he-relieves himself, we can’t just leave it there.”

“What do you mean,
relieves
himself
?” Annie only raised her eyebrows and looked at him steadily. And then Ian knew, scowling down at the dog. “Can’t he relieve himself here?”

“He probably will. But just in case, we can’t leave it on someone else’s property. It’s against the law. And even if it wasn’t, it’s rude.”

“All right.
Whatever you say.
Where is his scooper?”

“In the corner on the back porch.
And don’t worry, Ian. I’ll clean up any mess he makes. I’ve been doing it for six years now.”

Good thing she would because one thing Ian hadn’t mentioned to her was that he tended to have a weak stomach.

~~~~

There wasn’t a whole lot of traffic for a Saturday night. Though the neighborhood was a fairly quiet one, which was why Annie had felt safe in taking her dog for a walk. But Ian tended to be a chivalrous kind of guy, so it didn’t surprise her that he’d take exception to her being out alone without a big strong man at her side.

And he was pretty close to her side, an arm wrapped around her shoulders while he held the leash in his free hand. They had to keep up appearances, he reminded her, and so she put her arm around his waist.

“When we were talking on the plane, you said your mom died in a car accident,” she said quietly. “But you didn’t say how it happened.” She felt him stiffen for a second, then shrug.

“The old story about someone running a red light.
Only it wasn’t a drunk driver in this case. Some old guy had a heart attack. He died at the hospital later that night. My mom died instantly.”

“How did you handle it?”

“How does anyone handle something like that? Not well at first. And then my old man told me it was time to grow up. Life was tough and I’d better get used to it. And then he sent me to boarding school.”

“
How awful!
”
Annie gasped, looking up to see him smile sadly.

“Hey, he always made it clear that I was only here because my mother wanted a baby. It’s just the way he is. He cared about her, and that’s all he ever had room for in his life.”

“But- You
were
just a little boy!” She brought her other arm around his stomach in an instinctive reaction.
As though she could comfort him.

“It was a long time ago,” he murmured, hugging her closer for a moment. “Why did you want to know the details?”

“I just wondered.”

“Your mom will be okay, Annie. We’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she is. So stop worrying, okay?”

Chapter 8

Ian had finally located an office on the southwest side of town. It had taken longer than he’d anticipated because, having never really looked into what the expenses
were
at his father’s office, he hadn’t realized how high rents could be. And everyone wanted a year-long lease.

But now that he had found it, he had to furnish it, his biggest cost being the best computer system money could buy. Then there were the permits, the DBA, the business tax I.D. number and a host of other things. Things he should have been thinking about all along but hadn’t.

“I can help,” Annie said, as he poured over information at the kitchen table one Saturday in mid- October. “I pretty much ran the office at the factory I worked at.”

“I don’t actually need office help at this point,” he murmured, taking a sip of coffee. “Right now I need to come up with a logo and brochures and business cards.”

“I can help,” she repeated. “I did all that for my boss. I also designed the website for them.”

That got Ian’s attention.

“Really?”

“Sure. I don‘t know if they‘ve changed it, but if it‘s still the same, you can get some idea of what I can do. Do you want to take a look?”

“Yes, I do. Come on.”

They walked to his office, which was located off the kitchen, at the back of the garage. Annie sat in the chair behind his desk and turned on the computer. As they waited for it to boot up Ian asked,