Look to the Rainbow (14 page)

    “I noticed that he speaks very well.”

    “He does, considering he’s never been able to hear. I think lip reading is harder for him, but it doesn’t make him stand out. There are times when we all resort to signing.”

     They continued talking as they ate and then sat on one of the comfortable benches and looked out over the ocean. She hadn’t brought up the article about Alise, although she had told Bobby she was working on it. Debby had painted a picture of the perfect marriage, ending tragically. But their time together had been so nice, she hadn’t wanted to spoil it and she hadn’t wanted to talk about him being with someone else.

    “Everything here is so beautiful,” she said.

     “Yes,” he said, looking at her instead of the view, “it is.”

     He took her face very gently in his hands and pulled her close. Her arms went around him as he kissed her and she was totally caught up in his embrace. He didn’t act like a man who was grieving his late wife. He was very much in the present, kissing her and making her just a little dizzy with the intensity of it. At that particular moment, she wanted nothing except to be right there, secluded from the world, passionately involved with Kelly O’Brien.

     “We’re going to have to go somewhere else,” he said. “Preferably with other people. If we stay here all by ourselves I’m going to let this go too far.”

     She pulled away from him ever so slightly and smiled. “I think I would go right along with you.”

     “Tara, I
am
falling in love with you. And I think it’s safe to say that I am completely attracted to you in a physical sense. But this is happening at the worst possible time.”

    “Just because it isn’t easy, doesn’t mean it isn’t right.”

     “No, it doesn’t, but it’s going to get a lot harder in the next few months. You were almost at the breaking point a couple of weeks ago with the press.”

     “I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

     “While I’m gone I want you to think about what life with me would really be like. Particularly if I win the White House.  But I’m not just talking about what my job might be either.”

    “Do you mean could I handle you being diabetic ?”

     “It was a problem for Alise. And given my history, I am realistic about the fact that I’ll probably have problems in the future.”

     “I talked to Evan. I know what the risks are.”

     “Then what you need to do is decide whether you want to follow my dream with me.”

     He stood up and pulled her to her feet and then wrapped his arms back around her and kissed her again, every bit as passionately as he had before. She closed her eyes and responded in kind until he broke away from her and said “We are going up to the house with Ross and Molly
right now
.”

      She laughed and blew out the candles and took his hand and walked back to the house, certain, at least for now, that Debby had not given her the accurate story.

Chapter Thirteen

     Evan helped Mary Katherine up the stairs. She was already feeling the effects of her chemo treatment. Only by sheer will power had she kept from throwing up before they got home. As nausea overwhelmed her, so pulled away from Evan and just made it to the bathroom before she was violently ill. Evan knelt on the floor beside her and held back her hair and caressed her shoulder until she was done. She started to get up to go back to the bedroom, but instead, Evan sat down on the floor and pulled her into his arms.

    “We should probably stay here for a little while,” he said as she relaxed against him. He was right, she was throwing up again within five minutes. She collapsed in his arms again totally exhausted. He rested his head on top of hers and stroked her hair.

     “Will all my hair fall out?” she asked.

     “Maybe, maybe not.”

     His voice was soothing and so was the strength and comfort of his arms as he held her. She had been told many times in the past that his bedside manner had a calming effect on his patients, she had come to believe that in the last few weeks. Since the moment she had been diagnosed he had been a pillar of strength and comfort, surpassing even the usual gentleness and concern that he had always given her. She lay there letting him be the strong one and even dozed off for a few minutes. She woke up when she began feeling nauseated again.

     “Is everybody this sick? Is that normal?” She was wondering how anyone could stand multiple rounds.

     “The general consensus in the medical arena is that if you aren’t sick it isn’t working.”

     “Then I must already be in remission,” she tried to joke and then was promptly sick again. Totally spent, she started to cry. Evan picked her up gently and carried her into the bedroom and put her on the bed. He stretched out beside her and she moved closer and cried some more.

     “You’ll be okay darlin’, you will,” he whispered. “Close your eyes and try to rest.” He had said that Harry might never have loved her as much as he did and for the first time she considered that he might be right. She couldn’t picture Harry in Evan’s position right now. As much as it hurt her to admit it, Harry had been lacking in some of the stronger points of character that Evan possessed.

     “Evan?”

     “Yes darlin’?”

     “I’m sorry things haven’t been better…physically.”

     He laughed a little. “Trust me, that’s the last thing on my mind right now.”

     “But I do wish I had treated you better.”

     He said, “Let’s keep things present tense, okay? You can change our physical status anytime you want to. I’ll be here whenever you decide to. I’m not going anywhere.”

     But I very well might be, she thought. She was suddenly willing to do anything she could to stay alive. How could she leave Evan? He gave so much of himself to everyone he loved, but who would take care of him if she died?  Her thoughts wandered as she lay there fighting not to be sick again to the early days of their marriage. They had quickly discovered nether one of them could cook but Evan was worse off than she was in that regard; he couldn’t even make a decent cup of coffee and relied on Starbucks each morning. ‘Thank God for Sutton Place Gourmet’ he had often said. She had learned to cook a little, but all of their favorite take out places knew them on sight by name. She also remembered the first Thanksgiving when one of her aunts had asked Evan what holidays had been like for him before his parents died and Evan had gotten a pained look on his face and said that he couldn’t remember. When Charlotte had pressed him to explain that he had excused himself from the table and she’d found him in the hallway, holding his chest and gasping for air. She had been afraid he was having a heart attack and asked him if she needed at call 911 but he had said no, and managed to get out that he was having a panic attack. For five horrifying moments she watched him trying to get a full breath and then, finally it was over. He told her that he could remember nothing about his parents, except identifying their bodies and burying them. She had known they were both dead, but he had never shared the story with her before She had led him to her father’s study by then and closed the door and he told her how his parents, on their way to see their son off to the Olympics, were killed in a fiery car crash in which their bodies were burned beyond recognition.       

     “How,” she has asked him, “did you identify them?”

     He pulled a pair of golden wings out of his pocket inscribed with his father’s name; she knew they were Drake Jones’ Blue Angel wings and that Evan was seldom without them. “They were completely untouched by the fire.” He had lifted her left hand, the engagement ring on her finger had been his mother’s. “So was this.” He confessed that the images he could remember were so horrible that he still had nightmares of them. “If I could think of something else, I would. But there’s nothing else I can recall.”

     She had gone through the boxes of photographs and letters in the attic and contacted every person for whom she could find a name and asked them to send a letter sharing memories of his parents. Little by little, some of it had come back to him, but he still almost never spoke of them. In fact the only time he talked with anyone about them was when Molly’s parents were present. She had told Col. Jennings that she thought it might be too painful for Evan but he had kindly told her that Evan needed to remember them and it wasn’t possible for him to be around the son of his closest friend and not talk about him.

     How could she leave him with all the ghosts of his past to haunt him? What would her death do to him? She had no choice. She had to be there for Evan.

     Kel splashed cold water on his face and tried to concentrate. Focus, he told himself. They had taken a few days to come home and regroup since Kel wasn’t feeling well and had developed an annoying cough. Tonight, every time he coughed it hurt. He had climbed the stairs with the intention of going to bed, but had never made it there. He had suddenly become so disoriented and dizzy that he knew he was in trouble. He knew he wasn’t capable of checking his sugar level and both of his children had gone back to their respective campus dorm rooms. He probably had enough clarity of thought to make one phone call. John or Ross?

     Ross answered on the second ring.

     “Ross, I need some help.”

     “What’s wrong?” He was already up and getting dressed.

     Kel coughed, a long ragged cough that sounded painful, even over the phone. “ Just… hurry.”

     “Kel, stay awake, okay, don’t go to sleep.  I’m on my way.”

     Molly had sat up and turned on the light. She wasn’t completely awake. “Was that the hospital?”

     “No, Kel. I’m going over to check on him.”

    “I’ll call John and tell him to meet you there.”

     “Thanks.” He kissed her. “I’ll let you know what’s going on.”

      Ross sprinted up the stairs. Kel was lying on the floor of his bedroom and when Ross leaned over him he said “It hurts to breathe.”

     “I’m sure it does.” He pulled out a stethoscope and said, “But even if it does I need you to take a really deep breath.” He listened and frowned. “I’m going to check your blood sugar.” Kel closed his eyes and Ross performed the test and found the levels to be dangerously high, which was alarming but not surprising since he estimated Kel’s temperature to be at least 104.

     “Ross?” John had started up the stairs. He assessed the situation from the door as Ross confirmed his fears by calling for an ambulance.

     “Is he in a coma?” John had been to one to find Kel years before.

     “Not yet. We need to keep him awake until they get here and start fluids.”

     John gently shook Kel back awake. “You can’t sleep Kel. Talk to me.”

    “Are we…going to…the hospital?”

     “We are, but you’re going to have to stay awake until we get there. Sit up just a little. It might be easier to stay awake that way.” He lifted Kel up and supported him. He was, John realized, absolutely burning up with a high fever.