JO WASN’T SURE what she was doing back in Beaumont. She’d pointed her truck west when she’d left Wildewood, determined to drive until she was at least in the next state before she gave any thought to where she was going.
Then she’d thought of the message from her father she’d retrieved right after hitting the road.
“Jo, it’s Dad,” he’d said. “I just… I just wanted to apologize for yesterday. I’ve never spoken to you like that before. Never in your life. And I’m sick to my stomach that I did it then.” He’d paused. “Well, okay…that’s all I wanted to say.”
He hadn’t needed to say more. That had been enough for her to turn her truck around and head for her hometown.
Now she sat down the road from the house she’d grown up in, watching for activity, he truck partially concealed by a thatch of evergreens. She didn’t even know if her mother had been released from the hospital yet. But given that her father’s customized van was parked in the driveway, she was guessing she had. Jo couldn’t imagine her dad leaving her mother’s bedside for even a moment.
The dull ache in her chest grew more urgent. What was it like to love someone so much? To dedicate your life to another person come rain or shine? Experience a connection to the point that it eclipsed you as an individual and made you part of a greater whole?
A scant week ago, she would have said she hadn’t the faintest clue. But knowing Trace had given her a glimpse of just such a bond. Even now, Jo wished she could talk to him about what was going through her mind. Ask for his opinion. Or simply melt into his arms and ask him to hold her.
Never, ever had she felt that way with anyone outside her family.
And what was he doing now? Was he thinking about her? Was he experiencing this same dull ache? The sense that something was missing?
At a sudden movement, Jo sat up, watching her father emerge from the side door, the dogs doing figure eights around his feet. She knew her mother liked to visit with the canines, and since it was difficult for her to go outside to them, her father brought them inside to her.
Jo’s hands grew damp where they rested against the steering wheel. Overnight, her father had seemed to age at least ten years. His hair appeared a little whiter, his shoulders more stooped, even as he rained affection on the dogs.
Without realizing what she planned to do, Jo started the truck and pulled it into the driveway, parking it next to her father’s van. He straightened upright, looking at her as she shut off the engine and got out.
“Daddy,” she said.
“Jo.”
He opened his arms wide and she went into them, listening to his quiet apologies, wishing that yesterday had never happened. Jo absorbed his every word, took comfort in his tight hug.
She pulled back. “How’s Mama?”
The way he immediately looked away told her to brace herself. That he might not tell her the truth. But then he met her gaze again and took a deep breath. “You know your mama. The instant she got home, she wanted me to fix her a spread fit for the holidays, something to make up for all that awful hospital food.”
Jo nodded.
And then he did something she wouldn’t have anticipated. He grinned. “I made her a broiled chicken breast and greens.”
Jo laughed. “And for dessert?”
“Fresh fruit.”
“She must be livid.”
“Well, she ain’t happy, that’s for sure.”
They stood there for long moments. The sun was slipping quickly over the horizon, shading the house and surrounding property with warm red-gold hues.
“I’ve decided that she needs to have that surgery, Jo. If I have to sell off some of the property in order to afford it, by God, I will.”
Jo took his arm and started walking with him toward the house. “Why is it that you always think you’re alone in this?”
“What?”
She squeezed his elbow. “I have the money, Daddy. And I can’t think of a better investment I’d like to make than in the health of my mama.”
“I… I can’t….”
“You can and you will. I’m not some stranger offering you a handout, Daddy. I’m your daughter. And Daisy Mae’s my mother. We’re a family. And right now we’re going to have to pull together in order to preserve it.”
She opened the door for him.
“I’m also going to be sticking around to help you both through this.” She shrugged. “The way I figure it, you’re going to need all the help you can get with Miss Daisy Mae. They don’t come any more stubborn. I should know, because I’ve been noticing the same traits in me.”
The look of pride and gratitude on her father’s face was almost Jo’s undoing.
What she felt, seeing it, was something she would never have experienced had she continued driving west instead of coming back home.
What a shame that would have been. What a shame, indeed.