She looked so pitiful. “What’s the matter, honey?”
“Wagner has been throwing up all night, and it was so awful and so scary.” She put crushed ice in a glass and poppedthe top of a Coke. “I’ve never been alone with him when he was sick.” Gray shook her head. “I almost called Greg.”
I put my arm around her. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I was going to,” she said, “but you got here so early. You need to get out of here. I don’t want you catching this.”
I laughed. “Honey, I meant why didn’t you call me last night to help?” I took the Coke and said, “I’ll go up and check on him, then I’ll come down and make him some tea and toast and go out and get some bananas for when he’s feeling up to it.”
“But, Di,” she protested, “you’ll get sick.”
“Oh, Gray”—I winked—“I have an immune system of steel. I never get sick. Not ever.”
She smiled weakly at me and said, “Okay.” She sighed. “He’s kept down Gatorade for about an hour now, so I think the tide might be turning.”
“You go lie down and get some rest, and I’ll get you if we need you.”
She looked so grateful. I saw tears in her eyes. She hugged me and said, “I know you’re going to leave me, and I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
I pulled away and squeezed her shoulders, looking in her eyes. “I’m not going to leave you.”
Now I could see the tears really gathering, and she looked away and said, “Of course you will. You’re in love. You’re happy. I want that for you. I just miss you, and you aren’t even gone.”
With that, she turned around and walked down the hall, and I got the distinct feeling that whatever was going on insidethat tired, pretty little head didn’t have all that much to do withmeleaving her.
Wagner managed a weak smile when he saw me walk in, carrying a Coke and saltines. I sat down on the bed beside him and rubbed my hand across his clammy forehead. “I heard it was a rough night, buddy.”
He nodded. “Yeah. But I haven’t barfed in a couple hours. I think I’m gonna be okay.”
I smiled. “That’s a relief.”
“Do you think I’ll be able to play tennis later?”
“I’m going to say no to that one.”
His face fell. “Andrew really wanted me to play with him today. I think he wants a rematch after Johnny and I beat him and Mom so bad.”
I nodded, and it made me feel sort of sad because I would have bet that locket I loved so much that Andrew wanted to see another member of Wagner’s family even worse.
“Is my mom okay?”
I handed him the saltines and said, “Oh yeah. She’s good. I just told her to go and get some sleep.”
“Yeah,” he said. “But, I mean, she seems sad, you know?”
I shrugged. “I think it’s real hard for a momma to be away from her kid.” I wondered after I said it if I shouldn’t have. But, well, he was getting ready to be nine years old, and he wasn’t stupid, and that’s the God’s honest truth of the whole thing.
“Yeah. All I kept thinking was that it would’ve been so awful if I got sick when I was with Dad, because I would’vewanted my mom the whole time.” He shrugged. “It’s weird, right? Do you think my dad and Brooke are going to have another baby?”
I laughed. “Okay there. That’s enough with the questions. I think that’s for them to know and us to find out. You close those peepers. I’m going to go get some laundry done, but you holler if you need me. Deal?”
He sank back into his pillows sleepily, and I set the Coke on the nightstand. I pulled his covers up tight and kissed that sweet, clammy forehead. I thought about Frank. And Gray. And that baby I never had. And all I knew was that sometimes, in the most convoluted of ways, somebody up there looks down, smiles, and finally gives you all you really wanted this whole time: a family.
CHAPTER 16
gray: bare-soul truth
Poor Trey. Even he couldn’t get me out of my funk. He was driving, singing show tunes at the top of his lungs, the stereo blasting. Ordinarily I would have joined him. But today I couldn’t muster the energy.
