Irritated by his mother’s behavior, Ryan sat in the chair Kari had vacated and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Okay, spill it. What’s with you? You hardly said hello to Kari, and you’re acting like she’s some used-car salesman trying to swindle you.”
“I’m still recovering. That’s all.”
“You’ve spent the last two days telling me that you’re well enough to go home, and you certainly have shown that you’re capable of having a polite conversation when you want to.” He waved toward the door. “You were being downright rude to Kari.”
“I don’t like her.” Susan crossed her arms and stared at her son.
His voice raised a decibel. “You don’t know her.”
“I know she doesn’t let you do anything without her.” Fire lit her voice. “Jenny said she was with you every time you came to visit me.”
“Do you even remember her coming with me?”
She shook her head.
“Well, I remember. She put everything on hold to sit here in a hospital room with someone she didn’t even know because she was worried about me,” Ryan said, driven to defend Kari. In truth, he didn’t know how he would have gotten through the stress of the past two weeks since his mother’s accident without her support. “The only reason she came with me today was because I asked her to.”
“Which only proves my point. You’re in the middle of baseball season, your mother is in the hospital, but your focus is on that girl.”
“That girl is one of the kindest people I’ve ever met,” Ryan shot back.
Her eyes narrowed, and he suspected he was about to get a don’t-talk-to-your-mother-in-that-tone-of-voice lecture. “Exactly how serious are you about Kari?”
“What do you mean?”
The edge to his mother’s frustration melted away, and he saw a glimpse of the woman who had supported him through Little League, broken windows, and algebra. “Seems to me you didn’t get this riled up when I first met Brandi.”
“You weren’t this hard on Brandi.”
“Oh, sure I was,” she insisted. “I just don’t think Brandi cared if she made a good impression on me, and she certainly didn’t care whether I liked her or not.”
Ryan’s tone turned cold. “Kari isn’t anything like Brandi.”
“I can see that.”
“And yet you’ve decided not to like her.”
She pursed her lips, but then her demeanor softened. “I might be persuaded to change my mind.”
“I hope you do.”
“Now, on to more important things.” She lowered her voice. “You’ve got to talk to the doctor about getting me out of here. I am going insane.”
“Mom, you had a serious infection. You’re going to need medical care when you do go home.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“So you keep telling me.” Ryan started to bring up the new house but decided against it. One thing at a time. “In the meantime, is there anything you need while you’re still in the hospital?”
“I wouldn’t mind something to read. Daytime television isn’t terribly entertaining.”
“I’m sure I can come up with something.” He stood. “I’ll run down to the gift shop and see if they have any magazines down there.”
“You don’t have to worry about it today. Are you coming back to visit tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I’ll be back in the morning, but then it will probably be a couple days before I can make it back down.”
“Is Kari coming with you tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so. She was going to visit a couple of colleges in the area. She’s thinking about transferring.”
“What is she studying?”
“Medicine.”
Disbelief registered on her face. “That little thing thinks she’s going to be a doctor?”
“That’s her current plan.”
“Maybe if she was my doctor, she’d let me out of here.”
Ryan chuckled. “I’m sure she would just to get some peace around here.”
“I should rest.” She shifted her position to get more comfortable.
“I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too.” She waved toward the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
* * *
Kari sat in a chair in the hospital lobby and used her phone to search through college websites. She was trying hard not to take Susan’s cold reception personally, and any distraction right now was a welcome one.
Twenty minutes passed before she came to the conclusion that if Ryan’s mother had chosen to dislike her so quickly, she probably didn’t approve of any women Ryan dated. That helped smooth away the sharpest edge of disappointment but didn’t take away the negative sensation completely.
“Hey, Kari.” Ryan’s voice broke into her thoughts, and she looked up to see him approaching. She tucked her phone into her purse and stood. “I’m sorry about my mom. She’s always been overprotective, and being trapped in the hospital for so long hasn’t helped her mood.”
Though Susan’s disapproval stung, reliving it wouldn’t help either of them. Instead, she asked, “Did you tell her about your new house?”
“Not yet.”
“Why not?” Kari asked as they headed for the door. “I would think your good news would make a nice distraction.”
“I don’t think she’s going to see it as good news, especially since that’s where I expect her to live for the next couple months.”
“Ah.” They got into the car, and Kari twisted in her seat to face him. “Have you figured out what you’re going to do about home care yet?”
“I left a couple of messages with the company the doctor recommended, but so far I’ve been playing phone tag. My schedule isn’t the best when it comes to dealing with office hours.”
“Do you want me to try to get some information for you?”
“Kari, you’ve already done enough.”
She heard the weariness in his voice and noted that he didn’t say no. “Give me the phone numbers of the places you want information from, and I’ll see what I can find out tomorrow while you’re at practice,” she said. “And if that doesn’t work, I can ask Maya’s friend Henry. He works at the hospital. I’m sure he knows what companies are worth talking to.”
“You really are too good for me. You know that, right?”
The thought that his mother didn’t agree crossed her mind, but she swallowed those words. “I hope you keep thinking that.”
“I doubt you could do anything to change my opinion. You’re one of a kind.”
The words and the sentiment behind them left her speechless. Ryan pulled up to a red light and reached out to give her hand a squeeze. “Since you’re being so generous with your time, any chance you would be willing to come with me to my apartment before I drop you off at home? I thought I could pack a few more things so I could sleep at the new house tonight.”
On the surface, the request seemed innocent enough, but remembering how he had welcomed her to his new home, she hesitated.
“No hidden agenda. I promise. You can even keep the door open,” he said as though reading her thoughts.
“I’m happy to help.”
“You really are one of a kind.” He squeezed her hand again. “And I mean that in the best possible way.”
“Thank you.”
* * *
She kept the door open. Ryan almost laughed out loud when they entered his apartment and she deliberately pushed it against the wall. When she looked around the messy apartment, her eyebrows lifted.
“I would think if you can afford to buy a new house, you would have invested in a cleaning service.”
“They come tomorrow.” Ryan picked up a suit jacket that had fallen to the floor.
She started toward the kitchen. “Do you want me to pack some of your food while you pack clothes?”
“Yeah, that would be great.” Ryan started for the hall. He had already pulled his suitcases out of his closet, but except for meeting with the Realtor to sign his paperwork, he hadn’t been home long enough to pack.
He opened his closet, stared at the contents, and decided packing was overrated. He lifted a dozen items still on their hangers and carried them into the living room.
Kari poked her head around the corner. When she saw his arms full, she grinned at him. “It looks like you pack the same way I do.”
“It seems silly to throw everything into a suitcase when I have to hang it all up again anyway.”
“Exactly.” She ducked back into the kitchen, and he could hear the refrigerator door open and then close.
He brought out another armful of clothes and set it with the first, returning to his room, where he dumped the contents of his dresser into the suitcase. The first two drawerfuls fell in neatly, but the contents of the third spilled onto his bed. He pressed down on the messily packed clothing and zipped his first suitcase shut.
He loaded the second suitcase with the escapees and several pairs of shoes. As soon as he was satisfied that he couldn’t fit any more into his luggage, he dragged the suitcases down the hall and parked them by the front door.
“How’s it going?” he asked Kari when he entered the galley kitchen.
She pointed to several grocery bags on the tiny kitchen table. “I got most of the refrigerator cleaned out, and I loaded up a few things from the pantry.”
“That’s great. I’m going to start putting stuff in the car. I’ll be right back.”
“I can help you.” Kari picked up three of the grocery bags and followed him to the door.
Ten minutes later, they were in the car, heading to his new house. He thought of the open spaces and the six bedrooms. “Do you think it’s crazy that I bought a huge house when it’s just me who will be living there?”
“It won’t be just you,” Kari said without missing a beat. “And no, I don’t think it’s crazy. Everyone needs someplace they can call their own.”
“Have you ever thought about what you want your home to be like when you settle down?”
“Not really. I guess I would want it to be like the house I grew up in,” Kari said, clearly considering. “My parents always made everyone feel welcome. I liked that.”
Ryan thought of how his mother had acted a short time ago and quickly pushed it aside. He didn’t want to have his mother’s voice in his head, not when it came to his relationship with Kari. “Have you made any more progress in deciding where you’re going to go to school this fall?”
“Actually, I have,” Kari said with a hum of excitement. “I thought I would have to sit out fall semester because I’m so late in applying, but George Mason has a visiting student program. It looks like I would be able to take classes while they process my application.”
“When would you graduate?”
“A year from May.”
He thought of her future plans and found himself aligning them with his own. “What about medical school? Is George Washington University still your first choice?”
“Either there or Johns Hopkins, but I doubt I’d have any chance of getting in,” Kari said. “I’ll have a better idea of my options after I take the MCAT.”
“When is that supposed to happen?”
“I just got the study materials to start prepping for it.” She brushed her hair behind her shoulders. “I don’t want to think about that though. It makes me too nervous.”
“Then let’s think about more important things, like what to get for dinner.”
“We have a bunch of your groceries in the backseat.”
“Yeah, but I don’t feel like cooking tonight.” He thought for a moment. “Why don’t you call Ben and Maya and see if they’ve eaten. If they haven’t, we can get some takeout, and we’ll have them over to my place to eat.”
“Okay.” Kari made the call and relayed information back and forth until they decided on where to pick up dinner. She hung up and made another call, this time to place their order with a restaurant located along their route.
“It looks like you’re about to host your first dinner party in your new home,” she said as soon as she hung up.
“We,” he corrected. “We’re about to host our first dinner party.”
“Fine. We,” she said agreeably. “And after dinner, you need to take it easy and get some rest. You’ve got to be exhausted.”
“It’s been a busy day.” He reached over and put his hand on hers again. “Definitely one to remember.”