Midnight Promises (27 page)

She leveled a look into his eyes, her own eyes sparking with a surprising glint of anger. “That’s exactly the problem,” she said unreasonably. “There’s never time for plain-old talking.”

“Isn’t that why we’ve been scheduling date nights?” he said, trying his best not to get drawn into an argument, especially when he couldn’t figure out why they were fighting in the first place.

“And when was the last time we had one?” she demanded.

“I don’t know. A week or two ago? You know how crazy it’s been, getting these renovations done. And we just had an entire day to ourselves with the kids at the beach.”

To his shock, her eyes welled with tears. “
Querida,
what’s going on?” he asked, dismayed.

She swiped at her cheeks as the tears began to fall. “I’m being impossible,” she said.

“You’re not being impossible, but you’re obviously upset, and I don’t think it’s about date nights.”

She shook her head. “It’s not. Raylene and I were talking this morning and she said something that scared the daylights out of me.”

Elliott was at a loss. “What?”

“That maybe I should see my shrink again.” She gave him a look filled with panic. “Do you think I’m losing it?”

“Losing it?” he asked incredulously. “No. Why would Raylene say such a thing? I thought the two of you were friends.”

“We are, and it wasn’t some kind of indictment. She just picked up on a few things I mentioned and said she thought an objective outsider might help me put things in perspective.”

Elliott was still struggling to put the pieces together. Whatever had been said, it had obviously shaken his wife. “What things?”

She didn’t reply right away. In fact, she was careful to avoid his gaze, but eventually she heaved a sigh. “I told her how scared I am that we might not make it.”

Shock settled over Elliott. “Us? You think we’re not going to make it? Why? Sure, we have our share of disagreements, but we’re both committed to this marriage. Whatever comes along, we can handle it.”

She gave him a watery smile. “You sound so sure of that.”

“I
am
sure of that,” he responded. “Aren’t you?”

“Most of the time, yes, but then something happens and I start to question everything.” She met his gaze. “It’s crazy, I know. You’re the best husband I could ever have hoped for. You’re amazing with Daisy and Mack. It’s almost as if it’s too good to be true, so when we fight, it makes me question if anything so good can possibly last. Then I act crazy and wonder why you put up with me, like now.”

Elliott stood up, gathered her into his arms, than sat back down with her cradled against his chest. He kissed the dampness on her cheeks.

“We’re going to make it,” he said, holding her gaze. “We’ll have ups and downs like every other couple, but we’ll get beyond them.”

She sighed and tucked her head on his shoulder.

As he stroked her back, he said, “I thought Raylene was crazy in love with Carter.”

“She is. And she was just trying to be a good friend. She said maybe my old shrink could help me figure out why I can’t trust what we have a hundred percent.”

“I can answer that,” Elliott said without hesitation. “That idiot Ray made it impossible for you to believe that any relationship could be what it seems.” He met her gaze. “But if you want to see your shrink again so she can tell you the same thing, it’s fine with me. I’ll even go with you.”

She regarded him with surprise. “You’d do that? I thought you’d completely freak at the idea of seeing somebody.”

“You’re thinking of my father, I believe,” he teased.

“Maybe so,” she admitted.

He caressed her cheek, saw the fear in her eyes give way to something else. “Ah,
querida,
don’t you know by now that there’s nothing I won’t do for you?” he murmured.

A faint smile finally played on her lips. “Does that include making love to me tonight?”

A full-fledged smile broke across his face. “You don’t have to ask me twice.”

He stood up with her still in his arms, flipped off the light switch with his elbow and headed out of the kitchen. After all, who needed sleep when he had a woman like this in his bed?

15

T
hough he still didn’t entirely grasp why Karen had been so emotionally distraught the night before, Elliott took her seriously when she complained that their time together had been too limited. No job was worth paying such a high price that it affected his marriage. And even though the demands of a start-up were high, he figured this particular business would never work if he were worried about it destroying his relationship with his wife.

When he saw Frances at the seniors’ exercise class, he approached her before class even started.

“Are you free tonight, by any chance? I know you usually play cards, but if you could pick the kids up after school and keep them, you’d be doing Karen and me a huge favor,” he told her. “Feel free to tell me, though, if it’s not convenient.”

“Oh, I’d love to,” she said at once.

“Then I’ll call the school, so they’ll know.” He studied her closely. “And it won’t be too much trouble for you to get them there in the morning? I’d ask my mother to keep them overnight, but she’s got some sort of event at the church tonight. I know it’s going to run late.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Frances assured him. “I’ll manage just fine. What about clothes for school tomorrow?”

“Karen or I will drop them off on our way out to dinner, if that’s okay.”

“Couldn’t be better,” Frances assured him. “I’ll go home right after class and bake cookies for them.”

Elliott chuckled. “I know they’ll love that, but there’s no need for you to spoil them rotten.”

“I have to compete with Maria Cruz, don’t I? I know how your mother spoils them.”

“Sadly, that’s true,” Elliott said. “Thanks, Frances. You’re a godsend.”

“You know this is as much about me, as it is about helping out you and Karen. It’s my pleasure.”

As soon as the seniors’ exercise class ended, he called Karen and filled her in on the plan.

“But what about the renovations?” she asked. “Are you sure they can spare you?”

“Already cleared,” he said. “And Frances, as you might imagine, is ecstatic about having Daisy and Mack to herself.”

“Wouldn’t she prefer to babysit at our house?”

“She’s fine with having them for a sleepover,” he reassured her. “In fact, I think she’s looking forward to it.”

“So am I,” Karen said, her voice turning low and breathy. “You and me with a whole night alone! What will we do?”

“Oh, I’m sure I can think of a few things,” he said. “See you later. Love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Elliott didn’t give the matter another thought until four o’clock when the school principal called.

“I tried to reach Mrs. Cruz, but apparently she left work early,” the woman explained.

“Is there a problem?” Elliott asked, regretting once more that they’d opted not to take on the expense of having cell phones. With the kids, Karen, especially, shouldn’t be unreachable for any length of time.

“When you called earlier, you mentioned that Frances Wingate would be by for Daisy and Mack,” the principal said. “School’s been out for a while now and we’ve seen no sign of her. The kids are still here, waiting in my office.”

Elliott felt as if someone had just yanked his heart straight out of his chest. The kids were safe, so his immediate concern was for Frances. There was no way, short of an extreme emergency, that she’d fail to pick up the children. What if she’d collapsed after class at the spa? Or been struck by a car en route to walk the children home? A million and one things, none of them good, flashed through his head.

“I’ll be right there,” he assured the principal.

On the way, he kept trying to reach Karen. “Problem,” he said at once when he finally caught up with her at home. “Frances never showed up at the school. I’m on my way to get the kids, but I think we need to trace her likely footsteps and go by her place to make sure she’s okay.”

“I’ll start doing that,” Karen said at once, her voice threaded with fear. “Could you see if Adelia could look after the kids, then meet me at Frances’s apartment? I don’t want them with us if…” Her voice broke before she could vocalize the same thought that had struck terror in him.

“Good idea,” he said. “I’ll be there as quickly as I can be. Wait for me, okay? Just in case.” He left his direst thought unspoken.

At the school, Daisy and Mack looked perplexed, but otherwise seemed perfectly fine.

“The teacher said Frances was coming to meet us,” Daisy said. “Where is she?”

“She was held up,” Elliott told her, praying that it was no more than that. “I’m going to drop you off at Adelia’s instead.”

“Yay!” Daisy said eagerly. “Selena says she has a boyfriend and I want to hear about him.”

“Selena’s too young for a boyfriend,” Elliott said automatically, but he didn’t have time at the moment to worry about that crisis. The one he was facing with Frances was plenty big enough.

* * *

Frances had picked up the ingredients to make oatmeal raisin cookies, baked three dozen of them, then decided to take a few over to Liz and Flo, who agreed to meet her at Flo’s apartment. She kept having this nagging thought that there was something else she was supposed to be doing, but there was nothing noted on her calendar.

As it usually did, her visit with Flo took the better part of an hour. Flo always had plenty to say, and her adventures usually kept both Frances and Liz in stitches, trying to imagine themselves behaving so outrageously at their age.

It was nearly five o’clock when she returned home to find Elliott and Karen pacing frantically on the sidewalk in front of her building. As soon as she saw them, comprehension dawned.

“Oh, my God, the children,” she whispered as she walked toward them, tears in her eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” she called out to them, only to have Karen race toward her and envelope her in a hug so tight it nearly knocked the breath out of her.

“We’ve been so worried,” Karen told her. “When you didn’t show up at the school, the principal called Elliott. We couldn’t imagine what had happened to you. We’ve been looking everywhere.”

Frances was weak-kneed at the thought of the terrible mistake she’d made. “I think we should go inside, if you don’t mind,” she said. “I need to sit down.”

“Of course,” Karen said at once, tucking Frances’s arm through hers and walking her into the building.

Elliott took France’s key and opened the door. “How about a glass of water?” he asked.

She nodded. “I’d love one. And there are cookies on the counter,” she said, trying to make up for her memory lapse by playing the dutiful hostess.

She sat on the sofa, with Karen right next to her holding her hand as if she was afraid to let go. Only after Elliott had come back with three glasses of water and a few cookies on a plate did Karen meet her gaze directly.

“Frances, can you tell us what happened?” Karen asked gingerly, as if she feared even that simple question might be too much for Frances. “Where have you been?”

Under the circumstances, Frances understood her caution. She patted Karen’s hand reassuringly. “I baked the cookies for the children, just as I told Elliott I planned to do. Then I decided to take some over to Flo and Liz.” She drew in a deep breath before admitting, “I could lie and tell you I simply lost track of the time, but I didn’t. I completely forgot about picking the children up at school. I didn’t remember until I saw the two of you out front looking so frantic. Are the children all right?”

“They’re at my sister’s,” Elliott said. “They’re fine. No harm done.”

Frances was aware that Karen was watching her closely.

“This isn’t the first time, is it?” she asked. “You’ve forgotten other things?”

Frances nodded, seeing little point in lying to a young woman who’d been every bit as kind to her as a child of her own could possibly have been.

“Have you seen a doctor?” Elliott asked, his expression filled with so much concern it made Frances want to weep. This was exactly what she hadn’t wanted, to have people worrying and feeling sorry for her. Accepting that from Flo and Liz was one thing. To have these two dear young people, who already had so much on their minds, adding her to their list of concerns wasn’t right.

“I haven’t seen my doctor yet,” she admitted. “A part of me doesn’t want to know what I’m dealing with. If you ask the majority of people my age, Alzheimer’s is one of the things they fear the most.” She was proud of herself for actually saying the word aloud.

“But Frances, there are other things that could be going on,” Elliott said. “Maybe it’s not as serious as Alzheimer’s. Maybe there’s just some sort of chemical imbalance that can easily be corrected. Maybe your meds are interacting adversely.”

“You need to find out,” Karen said, then added decisively, “I’ll call your doctor myself and I’ll go with you.”

“We both will,” Elliott volunteered.

Fresh tears spilled down Frances’s cheeks. “You’re both so sweet to care so much.”

“Nonsense. It’s the least we can do after everything you’ve done for me, for us,” Karen said. “Or, if you’d rather, I can call one of your children, tell them what’s going on and they can come and see the doctor with you.”

“Absolutely not,” Frances said. “They’ll have me in some retirement home faster than you can say old age. I want to manage as long as I can on my own. So far, I haven’t burned down the apartment or gotten lost on my way to the senior center.”

Her attempt at humor fell flat. If anything, Karen looked as if she were on the verge of tears. Frances gave her hand a squeeze.

“Stop looking as if this is the end of the world,” she instructed. “Liz and Flo know what’s going on. They’ll see to it I don’t do anything foolish. I intend to be around a long, long time, hopefully with most of my wits about me.”

“But this is so unfair,” Karen whispered. “You’ve done so much for so many people. You shouldn’t have to face something like this.”

“We all have our crosses to bear,” Frances consoled her. Oddly, she found that comforting Karen eased her own panic. She couldn’t imagine why, since today’s incident was a clear and final indication that she could no longer put off getting answers.

Karen leaned into her side. It was hard to tell who was drawing comfort from the other.

“I want to see the doctor with you,” Karen said again. “I know you have Liz and Flo, but you’re like a mother to me, Frances. I want to do whatever I can to help.”

“Just treat me as you always have,” Frances said. “I want to hold on to every last shred of dignity for as long as humanly possible.”

She saw Karen exchange a look with Elliott, but she couldn’t quite interpret it. She also noted his nod in return.

“I’m staying here tonight,” Karen told her quietly, though there was a note of steely resolve in her voice. “And tomorrow we’ll see your doctor.”