Page 27 of Truth or More Truth (Throwback RomComs #3)

twenty-six

. . .

“ D ad!” Kelli runs into my arms the second she spots me entering the hospital waiting room.

I wrap her in a tight hug. “You OK, baby? Any news yet?”

“Daa-ad, I’ve told you to stop calling me baby.” She pulls out of my embrace but then loops her arm through mine and pulls me over to a chair.

I glance over at Whitley’s mom, who holds a hand up in greeting.

“Sorry.” I’m not really sorry. I’ve been calling Kelli “baby” since the first moment I saw her, and I can’t see myself stopping anytime soon. She’ll always be my baby girl. “Now tell me about your mom.”

“She’s gonna be OK.” She sits next to me and leans her head against my shoulder. “We can go see her in a little while. They said she’ll be here for a few days and then can go home, but she has to rest for a few more weeks. Will Opal come stay with us again?”

“I need to call her, but I’m sure she will.”

Opal is a sixty-something retired nurse who I’ve hired to stay round-the-clock with Nanette before.

She was with us for about nine months after the accident, while Nanette was recuperating and going through physical therapy to regain use of her legs.

She also comes to stay sometimes when I’m out of town and Nanette isn’t feeling her best, and she occasionally takes Kelli to and from school even when she’s not staying over.

I don’t know what we’d have done without her these past few years since the accident.

It helps that Nanette lives in the guest house on my property, but with my job taking me out of town so much, Opal has been a godsend. She always comes when we call.

Whitley’s mom gives me a more detailed report about what the doctor said, and then I thank her profusely and send her back home to spend the holiday with her family.

“How was the wedding?” Kelli asks, her head back on my shoulder. “Tell me about Leslie’s dress.”

I chuckle. “It was white. That’s about all I can tell you.”

“Of course it was, you silly man. But what kind of material was it? Were there beads or lace? Was it poofy? I want to know it all.”

“I guess it was poofy, as you say. The skirt part was pretty big. And I don’t know one material from another, so I can’t help you out there. Maybe I can ask Leslie to mail you a picture of it in a few weeks after they’re home from their honeymoon and settled into their new place.”

“Oooo! Where’d they go on their honeymoon?”

“Diego’s resort.”

Several years ago, my friend bought a run-down, struggling property near his hometown in the Dominican Republic.

He fixed it up, hired and trained an entirely new staff, and ensures his workers are treated well and paid fairly.

Diego is a very hands-on owner, because corruption runs rampant in his country.

He’s doing everything he can to battle it.

Kelli sighs. “I love that place.”

“Me, too.” We’ve been there a few times. It’s a family-friendly resort, and Kelli loves all the activities they provide.

“Are you going to be home for a while now?” my daughter asks.

I kiss the top of her head. “I don’t know how long for sure, but definitely until your mom is stable and we have transportation lined up for you and all your activities when I’m gone. I doubt the doctor will clear her to drive again for a while. ”

My chest tightens when I think about how I won’t be able to go back to Chicago to see Melissa for a couple weeks, if not more.

Then again, I need to just end things with her.

Not that there’s anything official to end.

But there’s no way we can make a long-distance relationship work with everything I have to deal with on a daily basis with both work and family.

And it’s not like I can move to Chicago, with Nanette and Kelli here.

And Melissa moved back to Chicago to be closer to her parents, so I can’t imagine her moving to California for me.

It’s a no-win situation, and I need to put an end to it before either of us get any more attached, but I’m determined to let her down gently.

“Bobby, you’ve done enough,” Nanette says, frustration evident in her voice. “You don’t need to come visit me every day, and you can’t keep upending your life for me. It makes me feel like a burden.”

Nanette has been in the hospital four days now, and she’s ready to go home, but they want to keep her another few days. A minute ago, I sent Kelli to the hospital cafeteria to get us some drinks, so I could talk to Nanette alone.

“We’ve had this conversation before,” I say, “and we’ll keep having it if needed, but you’re not a burden, and I’m never going to stop taking care of you, so it would be helpful if you’d stop arguing with me about it.”

She sighs. “I’m not helpless. And the second we signed the divorce papers, you were no longer obligated to take care of me.”

I cock an eyebrow at her, and she chuckles.

“OK,” she says, “you were obligated to make the more-than-generous alimony and child-support payments, but that’s it.

You’ve gone above and beyond what even most spouses would do, much less a former spouse.

And we’ve had this conversation before, and we’ll keep having it if needed, but it would be helpful if you’d stop thinking the accident was your fault.

You didn’t drive drunk and blast across a cross-street without stopping.

All you did was drive our daughter and me home from her soccer tournament that night. ”

We didn’t make it home, but I’m not going to point that out. “I should’ve been paying better attention. It was late on a Saturday night, and I should’ve been on the lookout for drunk drivers, especially with Kelli in the car. If I hadn’t offered to drive you?—”

“No.” Nanette cuts me off. “You don’t get to regret doing something kind for your child and ex-wife.”

“It wasn’t even my weekend with her,” I argue.

“Bobby Jacobs, stop it with that nonsense. We both wanted you there. We’ve always wanted you to spend as much time as you can with Kelli—even before I lived in your backyard.”

I take her hand in mine. “It’s a shame we couldn’t make things work between us.”

“I’ll never regret getting pregnant with Kelli or marrying you to try to give her a stable home, and I couldn’t ask for a better dad for her. But we were never really meant to be more than friends. You know that as well as I do.”

I do know it. Nanette and I were friends who took things a little too far one night and ended up with the best thing that ever happened to me.

Kelli’s birth and our short-lived marriage gave me the stability and family support I didn’t realize I needed.

I’d been on my own for so long, I had forgotten what it was like to have people who needed and loved me, and who I needed and loved in return.

“You’re right, as usual.”

She gives me a soft smile and pulls her hand out of mine. “What you need is a woman to take your mind off me.” My mind shoots directly to Melissa, and Nanette must see something in my expression, because her eyes widen. “Is there a woman?”

I look away from her. “No.”

“You’re lying. Tell me about her. Did you meet her at the wedding?”

“We’re not having this conversation. And you need to rest.”

She gives me a puppy-dog look. “It’ll make me feel soooo much better if you tell me. You won’t deny me that, will you?”

“You’re the one who should’ve been a lawyer. ”

Nanette laughs. “I would’ve made a terrible lawyer. Teaching is much more my style.”

And it’s my fault she can’t teach anymore. She occasionally substitute teaches at Kelli’s school, but being on her feet and constantly being “on” with a group of kids all day isn’t something she can currently do on a daily basis.

“No,” she says firmly, “do not blame yourself for that.” She knows me well—too well. “Now, tell me everything about this woman, and then I can sleep in peace.”

“There’s not much point in me telling you about her, because it can’t go anywhere.”

“Why?”

“It’s complicated.”

“What’s complicated?” Kelli asks from the doorway, saving me from having the conversation, because I’m definitely not telling my romance-loving daughter about Melissa.

“Nothing.”

My daughter narrows her eyes at me. “Which means it’s something but you don’t want me to know about it.”

I hold my hands palm up. “You got me. But I’m still not talking.”

“Fiiiiine.” Her faces scrunches up as she hands me a cup. “Here’s your Mountain Dew. I don’t know how you can drink that stuff. It’s so gross. Do you know what it does to your body?”

“What it does is keep me awake so I can drive my lovely daughter to all the different places she needs to be.”

Kelli huffs. “Whatever. Just cut back, will you? You’re already old. I don’t need you dying on me.”