Page 12 of Close Match

Slipping my phone from my jeans, I tap in my godmother’s number. “Linnie, I don’t have time. I’m late for class. Stefano kept me…let’s just say tied up last night.”

Ew. I did not want to know that. “Veronica…”

“I hope you’re ready for an intense jazz class today, my darling. I plan on working those thighs…”

I try to break in. “Veronica…” But she prattles on.

“Sometimes, I wonder if you’ve been on the stage too long, my darling. Your form used to be better.”

Finally, I’ve had it.

“AuntVeronica!” I yell. There’s dead silence on the other end.

“What’s wrong?” she whispers. There’s a note of fear now in her voice. I’m not surprised. I haven’t called her “Aunt” since she started denying her age, which was right about the time she divorced her second husband, the godfather I no longer speak to.

“Mom…” I have to force the words out. “Mom’s in the hospital. She…heart attack. In surgery.” My voice is choked with tears.

“Where are you?” Veronica demands.

“NYU. Cardiac Care Unit.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She disconnects the call.

“I just hope she doesn’t bring Stefano,” I mutter as I slip the phone into my back pocket.

“Why would she do that?” Simon asks, catching the tail end of my conversation as he comes through the door.

“Because she’s banging him,” I find a detached sort of amusement as he fumbles handing me my skinny vanilla latte over that announcement. For all his global worldliness, there are just some things Simon can’t process. The antics of my godmother happen to be at the top of the list.

Bristol laughs. “Did Mom know?”

I shrug. “No idea. I only found out two days ago when she made me dance with him in class.”

Simon looks disgusted. “Your sadist godmother—and yes I can say that as I’ve taken her classes—made you do a pas de deux with her lover?”

For the first time that day, I smile. “What does that make Pasquale for making me kiss my sister’s baby daddy every night?”

Simon and Bristol exchange a smile before my sister pulls out the hand she’s been sitting on all morning. “Don’t you mean his fiancée?” she whispers.

My mouth falls open. Shoving my cup on a nearby table, I lunge for my sister to catch her close. “Oh, I’m so happy for you.” The tears that have been trickling since Mom fell in my arms last night start right up again.

“I decided if I waited for the perfect moment, it might never come. So, I went with the right one,” Simon murmurs. His arms wrap around us both.

“Mom’s going to be so thrilled.” My ordinarily husky voice sounds shredded, but I don’t care. For one minute in the last ten hours, I’m happy.

I’ll take it.

Who knows when I’ll get to feel this way again?

* * *

“The surgery was difficult, Evangeline,”Dr. Pilchner runs his hands over his salt-and-pepper hair. “Your mother has significant tissue damage to her heart as well as the blockage to her arteries. If it weren’t for her healthy lifestyle, this would have happened years ago.”

Bristol’s engagement ring is cutting into my hand. “What can we expect?” I ask bravely when I feel anything but.

“When you’re able to go into her room, she will be on a ventilator and strapped down for her own safety should she wake up. Please, one at a time except for Bristol; she and her fiancé are permitted to go in together. If anything happens and the medical team comes in, you move out of the way. Immediately.” Pilchner’s voice is firm.

Veronica comes forward. “How long do you expect her to be in the ICU?”