In the hospital cafeteria, Keagan leaned across the table until he was almost between Jasmyn and her spoon. She stopped stirring the coffee and looked at him.
He sat back. “Thank you for coming.”
As though she’d had a choice. He had slipped through airport security as if it did not exist, shocked her with Liv had a heart attack, and marched off with her beach bag. Now she had missed her flight, had no clothes except the ones on her back, and had no plan in mind. What was she doing?
Jasmyn ripped open two more nondairy creamer pods—she’d already added two others—and poured them into her mug.
“That stuff will kill you.”
Coffee sloshed from the cup. She set the spoon on the white Formica tabletop and clenched her fists on her lap. “I’d do anything for Liv, but I’m a little…”
“Discombobulated?”
“What does that mean?”
“Like it sounds.”
“Hmm. Like I’m a water balloon and I just went splat?”
“You got it.” He squeezed a tea bag over his cup. “At the moment, you’re mentally halfway to Illinois with an image of a healthy Olivia. You’ll catch up to reality shortly.”
“She seemed perfectly fine this morning. Maybe tired, but her usual self.”
“That’s how these things happen.”
“But the doctor said she’ll be okay, right?” Jasmyn had asked the question at least half a dozen times already, ever since the doctor had spoken to Keagan when they first arrived at the hospital.
“Yes, that’s what she said.” Keagan repeated his answer in a tone of infinite patience. “The angioplasty went without a hitch. Liv can go home in a day or two.”
She nodded. Okay. It was serious, but not as bad as it could have been. “I still don’t understand why she wants me here. I mean, she has dozens of friends who are closer to her. Inez is closer. You’re closer.”
“Inez has her dotty moments, and I’m a guy. Nowhere near the same impact. Her dozens of other friends don’t live at the Casa.”
“I don’t live at the Casa.”
“She thinks you do.” A corner of his mouth made a tiny indentation. It might have been a smile.
He was actually a nice-looking guy.
“But I don’t live there. I am on vacation. I have no clothes. Again. No household stuff. No home to put it in if I did.”
Keagan lifted his jacket from the back of his chair and unzipped an inside pocket. “Nothing has been moved out of Cottage Eleven.” He pulled out Liv’s stretchy coil key ring and a cell phone and slid them across the table. He fingered a key with a brown dot painted on it. “This is the office key. Inside the top desk drawer you’ll find your cottage key. Chad’s bringing her van over for you to use. All of our numbers are programmed into her phone. You’ll want to let the others know what happened. Organize visits. Probably meals too.”
Jasmyn stared at him.
“A few deep breaths always help.”
“Keagan, I can’t.”
“Breathe?”
“No. I can’t live here and take care of Liv.”
“Because you were doing something else?”
Not exactly. “She trusts me this much?”
“Is there a reason she shouldn’t?”
“Will you stop answering questions with a question?”
“Jasmyn.” He leaned forward again, forcing eye contact. “She trusts you completely. You need to trust yourself.”
“Just now, when we first saw Liv, she was agitated. The moment you started talking, she relaxed. You light up a room, Ms. All Bright. You make a difference. Just be yourself.” He touched her hand, light as the brush of a butterfly wing, and then he stood. “Why did you come back?”
“Because you made me.”
His left eyebrow rose. Clearly he didn’t buy that answer.
And clearly, she could have simply said no. Except she hadn’t wanted to go home.
“By the way, I already called Piper,” he said. “She’ll pick up some clothes for you.”
Jasmyn tried taking a deep breath. It caught in her throat. More clothes. At least Piper was a smart shopper and understood Jasmyn’s simple tastes. Except for those neon yellow shoes and the comfy sandals.
Keagan put on his jacket. “And I called Sam.”
“Sam?”
“She’ll be the most affected.”
“Sam?” Jasmyn wondered why he thought that about the Casa’s most together tenant. What else was she missing about her new friends?
“Drink the tea,” he said. “Skip the coffee. You’ll feel better. Later.” He walked away.
Jasmyn wanted to run after him, the only familiar person in this whole weird scene. But fear rooted her to the chair. What had she just agreed to? Or at least not disagreed to?
You light up a room, Ms. Albright.
But he had said it in two distinct words. All Bright.
Just be yourself.
Discombobulated could not begin to describe the turmoil inside of her.
Deep breaths. Drink the tea.
Maybe she should try things Keagan’s way.