A Second Chance (9 page)

Kathy laid her cell phone on the
counter and pulled her travel mug from the cupboard. “I’m going to
be late getting home. I have a meeting and then I’m going to run
over to Regan’s house. Audrey is going to meet us and discuss
catering options.”

“
Sounds like a lovely
time.”

“
Smart-ass.” She bent to
kiss him. “Be nice or I’ll make you go.”

“
I have to get everything
ready for conferences next week.”

“
Then this will work out
great,” she said just as his cell phone rang.

“
Hey, Ed. Good morning.”
Carlos stacked the papers he’d scattered on the table and put them
into his commuter bag. “How’s everyone this morning?” He watched
Kathy fill her coffee mug. “Good. I think it’s good for you to be
there. Do you need a ride home from school today?” He stood and
walked to the sink to dump out his own mug. “Okay, I’ll call you
all tonight. I love you,” he said and slid the phone into his shirt
pocket.

“
Everything okay?” Kathy
asked as she buttered a bagel.

“
Yep. He says everyone is
doing great. Madeline is feeling good and they’re glad they’re
staying with her.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and laid a
kiss on her neck. “You know, if you don’t spend all night at my
sister’s house, we could get to bed early tonight.”

She squirmed beneath his lips and
laughed. “Mr. Keller…”

“
Yes?”

She turned into his arms and pressed a
soft, warm, and inviting kiss to his lips. “I promise I won’t stay
too long.”

“
I’m going to hold you to
that.”

Kathy glanced at her watch. “Oh, I’m
going to be late.” She kissed him again. “I love you.”

“
I love you too,” he said as
she pushed past him, grabbed her bag, and headed out the back
door.

He turned off the coffeepot and threw
the newspaper into the recycle bin.

His phone rang again and he pulled it
from his pocket. The ID was from Christian’s school.

“
Hello,” he said quickly.
He’d never gotten a call from Christian’s school. He hoped he
wasn’t sick or hurt.

“
Dad?”

“
Chris, what’s wrong?” He
pulled his bag over his shoulder and headed toward the back
door.

“
Did you talk to Ed this
morning?”

“
Yeah. He called when he got
to school.”

“
Okay. So you know?” Carlos
heard his son’s voice calm.

Carlos clenched his teeth and felt the
heat rise under his collar. “Well, why don’t you tell me what I
should know.”

“
That Mom is really
sick.”

Carlos was reaching for the car door,
but he stopped. “Your mom is sick?”

“
Yeah, I thought you said he
told you.”

“
How sick, Chris?” He threw
his bag into the passenger seat with a huff as he climbed into his
car and began backing out of the driveway.

“
She’s been throwing up for
the past four days. She’s lost like ten pounds, Dad.”

He shook his head. Damnit! What good
was it to have Eduardo lying to him when he was supposed to be
there to help?

Carlos looked down the road, checking
for traffic. He turned sharply onto the street, narrowly evading
the mailbox and the six-foot ditch on the side of the road. He
swerved back and sucked in a breath. He needed to get a grip or
he’d get himself killed, and then where would his children
be?

“
She’s taking her medicine,
right?”

“
Yeah, that’s what’s making
her sick.” He sounded so young and frightened. “Dad, she’s really,
really sick.”

He came to an abrupt stop at the stop
sign at the end of the street. “Okay. You get to class. I’ll check
on her.” Turning left would have taken him to work, but instead he
turned right and headed toward Madeline.

He had the foresight to call Curtis
and ask what he should do.

“
Antinausea medicine will
help and so will ginger. You can get both of them at the drugstore
or grocery store.”

Carlos headed toward the drugstore
just around the corner from Madeline’s house. “And what do I do to
make her eat?”

“
If she can start keeping
things down, she’ll eat. But you’d better keep an eye on her too.
Anorexia is very common when patients can’t keep food
down.”

“
So they fixed her just so
everything else would kill her?” He gripped the steering wheel as
if bending it into a different shape would cure Madeline. “It seems
like cutting off half of her should have been enough.”

“
Carlos, it isn’t going to
help her if you’re upset.”

“
I know, I know. But damnit,
she should have told me she was sick. I bought Ed a damn phone just
for this reason, and he lies to me.”

“
She doesn’t want to upset
you.”

“
Well, it doesn’t seem to be
working, does it?” He pulled into the parking lot of the drugstore.
“She can’t die,” he said on a sigh.

“
Carlos, she’s already past
the hardest part. What did they say about the results?”

“
They got all of the tumor.
They said it looks good for her and she’ll finish her round of
chemo.”

“
The chemo is keeping
everything at bay and killing off anything that might have
lingered. Soon she’ll be able to have the reconstruction done and
she’ll feel and look more normal. That will help her recovery. When
she looks normal, her attitude will brighten. But for now she needs
you and the kids to just be pillars of strength.”

“
You’re right.
Thanks.”

“
You’re welcome. Hey, why
don’t you see if she’ll come to Mom and Dad’s on Sunday for dinner.
Maybe mom can get her to eat.”

“
Yeah, maybe I
will.”

“
I love you, Bro. Take care
of yourself too.”

“
I will,” he promised before
hanging up and walking into the store.

He was directed to the medicines and
herbs. He wasn’t sure what the hell he was doing, but he gathered
every bottle he thought would help her. Then he took it to the
pharmacy, explained what he wanted, and the pharmacist handed him
back only two bottles.

“
This should be all she
needs, and it won’t interfere with her treatment.”

After thanking the pharmacist, he
found a book for Madeline to read. If he remembered correctly, Nora
Roberts was her favorite, so he picked up the two books that were
on the shelf. She’d like three or four of the gossip magazines, so
he grabbed them. A Hershey’s bar, it was her favorite too. After
finding her a puzzle book and her favorite lip balm, he headed
toward the checkout.

Eighty-seven dollars later, he was
back on the road toward her house.

Carlos gathered the bags of items he’d
purchased and walked to the front door. He looked around the yard.
No one had cleaned up the leaves from the fall, and he wondered if
that bastard ex-husband of hers had even bothered to turn off the
sprinklers before he abandoned her. A branch was breaking on the
tree near the bedroom window. That would need to be cut down before
it broke a window. He’d make a list, and he and the boys would take
care of it.

He rang the doorbell, stood, and
waited. There had never been a day since he’d moved out of the
house that it didn’t feel odd to stand there and wait for someone
to answer.

She didn’t come to the
door.

Carlos rang the bell and then pounded
on the screen door. Still there was no answer. He walked to the
garage and peered in the window. Her car was there. She must be
inside.

He set the bags on the porch and again
rang the bell. When she didn’t come, he took out his keys. It was a
long shot, but he’d never taken the house key off his ring. Surely
Matt had changed the locks. He slid the key into the lock and
turned.

The door opened.

“
Maddie! Maddie! Where are
you?”

He stood for a moment and then he
could hear her. She was in the bathroom and she was getting sick,
again.

He dropped the bags at the door and
went to her.

He kept calling her name so he
wouldn’t frighten her. When he found her, she was sprawled on the
floor of the bathroom in her robe. Her arms and head rested on the
side of the bathtub.

“
Maddie.”

“
Carlos, go home.” She
crawled toward the toilet. The movements were there, the noise was
there, but she had nothing to throw up. Carlos gathered her in his
arms and carried her to her bedroom. She was so weak she didn’t
argue with him.

“
What are you doing here?
You should be at work.” Her voice was weak and that didn’t settle
with him.

He needed to call work.

“
I got you some stuff. I’ll
be right back.” He grabbed the small trash can she kept by the
bedside and set it next to her.

He called the school and convinced
them he was sick, but the principal wasn’t happy and made it
perfectly clear.

He carried the bags to her room and
found her sleeping. That had to be a positive, he thought. At least
she was getting some rest and had stopped heaving.

The best thing for him to do was to
make himself at home and do what he could for her while she slept.
He brewed a pot of coffee, did the breakfast dishes, and mopped up
the bathroom. If she was going to be spending time on the floor,
it’d better be clean.

He’d finished his conference notes by
the time he heard her stirring in her room, and he went to
her.

He carried in a tray with the soup
he’d found in the fridge, some tea, and a few ginger pills. He set
it on her nightstand and turned on the small lamp. “Are you feeling
any better?”

“
My stomach is
sore.”

“
I’ll bet.” He closed the
blind so that the light was soft. “Is that okay?”

“
Yes. Thanks.”

“
Let’s get you situated.” He
gathered her into his arms, and she clung to him. For a moment he
held on to the feeling of her near him. He knew it was for
strength, but a part of him felt a deeper connection.

He arranged pillows until she could
sit up against them.

He handed her the pills and a glass of
water. “Here, it’s ginger. Curtis says to take them and they’ll
help with the nausea.”

She nodded and took the
pills.

Carlos kicked off his shoes, picked up
the bowl he’d carried in, and walked around the other side of the
bed. Careful not to spill the contents of the bowl, he scooted
across the mattress until he sat next to her. “Let’s get something
in your belly.”

“
Carlos, I can’t eat,” she
said weakly.

“
You need to try. You’re not
going to fight off anything if you don’t keep up your
strength.”

He lifted the spoon to her lips, and
she slurped then laid her head back on the pillow.

“
Try some more.” He lifted
the spoon to her lips again and she took another sip. “Okay, now
we’re making progress.”

This time when she laid her head back,
it rested on his shoulder. Instinctively he kissed her
forehead.

“
So he told you I was sick?
I asked him not to.”

“
Ed? No, he kept your
secret.”

Madeline turned her eyes up at him.
“How did you know?”

“
Christian called me from
the school office because he was so worried about you.” Gently he
tilted her face with his fingers and looked down into her eyes.
“You’re not doing yourself any favors by having Ed lie to me about
your condition.”

“
I didn’t tell him to lie. I
just told him to tell you I was okay. Which I am, by the
way.”

“
No, you’re not. When is
your next doctor appointment?”

“
Tomorrow.”

“
I’m taking you.”

Madeline tried to sit up and turn away
from him, but Carlos guided her back to his shoulder. Then he
lifted the spoon of soup back to her lips and she took another
sip.

“
You need to be at work. You
worked too damn hard to get that job. You’d better keep it,” she
argued.

“
For your sake I will. If it
weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have the education to even have the
job. But for once in your life, admit you need some
help.”

She sat silently for a moment. “This
was never supposed to happen.” He heard the quiver in her voice and
then felt her body shake as the tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’ve
never been sick a day in my life.”

“
I know, honey.” He set the
bowl of soup on the other nightstand and gathered her in his arms
and held her against his chest.

“
Look at me. I’m a mess. My
skin is pasty, my boobs are missing, and now my hair is falling out
in clumps.” She threw a hand in the air. “My husband left me and is
marrying someone else…”

“
Wait.” He adjusted to see
her better. “Matt is getting married?”