Chapter Eleven

Rio

Pulling up beside Hazel’s red truck, I parked, pushed open my door, then reached over to grab the bag from Signed Sips and tray of coffees before getting out of my Jeep. I held up the items at the passenger window of Hazel’s truck.

“I brought gifts,” I said since the window was rolled down.

She leaned over and opened the door for me, so I could climb inside.

“Cup closest to you has some caramel shit you like, or so Henley said,” I told her.

She took the cup and leaned back in the seat with a sigh. I was worried about her. She had barely gone home for a good night’s sleep since Pops had been put in ICU. Gramma was the only visitor allowed in the waiting room. Thanks to Covid, we had to wait outside.

“Why don’t you go back to the house and get some sleep? You could also use a shower. I’ll stay here. I promise,” I told her.

She looked at the bag I had instead. “What’s in the bag?”

I handed it over to her, and she opened it, then pulled out a doughnut.

“God, I love Henley,” she said before taking a big bite.

“Eat the doughnut. Hell, eat everything in the bag, then go home and rest. You aren’t keeping Pops alive by sitting in the parking lot. You need some sleep,” I told her.

Hazel continued to chew. When she was done, she shifted her gaze from the massive building in front of us to me. “What if I leave and he … and he—” She stopped because I knew she couldn’t say it. I understood that.

“I will be here, and I will come get you. We can’t go inside. We would just be out here, waiting on Gramma to come out. That’s all we can do. I go home not because I don’t love him, but because there might be a time soon when we are needed. And not because of the worst. But when he gets out of there and when he is strong enough to go home, we are going to be needed. So, I get rest. I continue on with my life daily. I go to work, and I make sure things are running smoothly, so I can update Gramma. That’s what we need to be doing.”

A single tear rolled down Hazel’s face. “What if he don’t come home?” she whispered.

I had thought about that more than once since Gramma had called to tell me he had a massive heart attack last week.

“He’s still alive. He’s strong. He will come home. But if he doesn’t, we’ll lean on each other, and we’ll pull through. We’ll be there for Gramma, and we’ll be strong for her. That is what he would expect of us.”

She nodded then, and I hoped to God I was right and his still being alive a week later meant he was going to live. I knew one day, I would have to face life without him, but I wasn’t ready for that yet. Neither was Hazel. We both needed him still.

Hazel finished the doughnut, then turned to look at me. “You’re right. It’s not somethin’ that happens often, but you are right now. Thanks,” she said with a sad smile.

I shrugged. “Everyone is right eventually,” I replied.

She laughed, and I reached into the bag and pulled out a chocolate chip muffin and a slice of lemon cake, then handed her the lemon cake since it was her favorite. She took it, and we ate in silence while we stared at the brick building in front of us. The evening breeze came through the rolled-down windows, and I felt hopeful. That soon we wouldn’t be sitting here, waiting on Gramma to come out and give us an update. Soon, we would all be back at Pops and Gramma’s house, eating her fried chicken and biscuits in the kitchen while listening to Pops talk about how bad hospital food had been.

“I saw Bryn today,” Hazel said, breaking the silence with the one name I hadn’t wanted to hear.

“How?” I asked instead of just ignoring her comment.

“She was walkin’ somewhere. I waved. She waved back. That was it,” Hazel said. Then, she sighed. “Okay, that’s a lie. I waved. She recognized me, realized I was sitting in a hospital parkin’ lot, and came over to see if I was okay. I told her about Daddy. She said how sorry she was.” Hazel stopped, and I waited because I knew she wasn’t through. “Then, she left and came back with a cheeseburger and fries. She also left me her phone number if’n I needed anything and then asked me not to mention it to you, if I didn’t mind. She said you wouldn’t be happy about her being around me.”

Hazel cut her gaze toward me then. “I don’t think she smashed yer Jeep, Rio. She’s good. The kind of good you can’t fake. It’s in her eyes. She paid you back for the Jeep. More’n your deductible was, and Pops had paid that. The way she argued that she owed you more the time I gave her back the last envelope, that was character. That is a good person.”

When was Bryn going to stop coming around my family? Couldn’t she just stay the fuck away, like I’d told her to? Did she have to stalk everyone related to me?

I jerked open the truck door. I loved Hazel, but I wasn’t going to listen to her praise Bryn. I wasn’t in the state of mind for that. She’d paid me back because she’d bashed my damn Jeep. If she hadn’t done it, then why pay me back? I wasn’t going to argue about this with Hazel though.

I closed the truck door, but Hazel wasn’t done talking.

“I love you, but you can be an ass,” she said, and I turned to get into my Jeep without responding to that comment.

When I was safely inside, she stared at me, and I mouthed the words, Go HOME. I’ll stay , because I wasn’t rolling down my window, so she could keep saying shit to me I didn’t want to hear.

She finally nodded and started her truck. I was relieved when I saw her pull out of the parking spot and drive away. Getting her to leave this week had been almost impossible. I didn’t see how my sitting here in the parking lot helped Pops or Gramma. I lived three miles from the hospital. I could be here quicker than Gramma could get outside if she needed me. Nonetheless, I rolled down the windows and drank my coffee. I’d told Hazel I would stay, so I would stay. Even if I knew Gramma didn’t expect it of us.

My text message alert went off, and I picked it up to see Drake’s name. He had been headed to hear Jack Knife play at Stonies tonight when I left the house earlier. I figured this was him asking me if I was going or not even though I had already told him I was headed to the hospital.

That crazy Tory bitch is working at Stonies. Serving motherfucking drinks.

I read the text twice. I was relieved she had a job. Henley hadn’t mentioned her or Bryn again since I had told her not to hire Tory. Either she’d listened or Tory just hadn’t gone in to see her. Whichever it was, I was just glad Stonies was stuck with her.

I didn’t respond to his text and laid the phone back down in the seat. Taking another drink of my coffee, I looked at the people walking down the street toward the main street in town. Watching the visitors come and go from the hospital doors depressed me, so I didn’t want to look in that direction.

Pops had saved me after my mother’s death. I was difficult when they first brought me here. Seeing their life, I couldn’t understand why they’d left me with my mom for so long. They must have known what she was like and the way I was being neglected. It took some time, but soon, I understood just how much my grandparents had helped us and how much they hadn’t known about my mother. Until her death. In time, it had been easy to forgive them. They loved me in a way I had never been loved.

It wasn’t time for Pops to go yet, and he knew that he was needed. He’d fight to live. It was why he was still alive.