“There’s more to it,” I said so low that I could barely hear myself. “When I got back to Chicago, I couldn’t stop crying and thinking about what had happened. Sam came and stayed with me. She took the best care of me, Brendan.”
I couldn’t talk for a minute. But I had come this far, hadn’t I?
“I was in my bathroom. I felt this sharp pain, and then I was doubled over on the bathroom floor. I screamed and Sam came running. She knew immediately that I had miscarried. She held me and cried with me. I lost the baby. I lost our baby, Brendan. I was pregnant, and I lost our little ‘peanut.’”
Thirty-seven
BRENDAN HELD MEfor a long time on the dock. Then I had to say good night to Sam, so I drove over to the medical center about 8:30. Brendan offered to come, but I told him I was all right. I brought Sam roses from her garden.
“Sam, wake up. Look,” I said, “you have to see your roses. And I need to talk to you.”
But she didn’t respond in any way. She couldn’t even hear me, could she?
I placed the flowers in a crockery jug on the windowsill and fluffed them until they looked just right.
Then I turned back to Sam. “You’re missing everything. A lot is happening, Sam.”
She looked pinched and faded, not good. I’d never been more worried about losing her. Every time I saw Sam I was scared it could be the last.
I pulled a chair up close to the bed. “I’ve got a secret to tell you,” I said. “Sam, there’s someone I like at the lake. I’m trying hard not to like him too much. But he’s so sweet; he’s smart in a good way. He’s even kind of a hunk. I know, I know, you never get all three of those qualities in the same man.”
I gave Sam a moment to take in the news. “I’ll call him Brendan. Ha, ha. Because that’s his name. I could also call himDoc. He’s a doctor.
“You remember how I used to follow Brendan Keller around when I was a little kid? Well, he’s all grown up. I trust him completely, Sam. I told him about Danny, and the baby. I don’t know how much he likes me. I mean, he definitely likes me, but he’s holding back a little. I guess we both are. Confused yet? I am.”
I finally stopped babbling and took one of Sam’s hands and held it. I played that game where you think something and you pretend somebody else can hear your thoughts.
I need you to meet Brendan, Sam. Can you do that for me? Just this once.
Thirty-eight
“YOU KNOWthat this is completely unreal, this life on the lake that we’re living this summer,” Brendan said, and smiled. We were driving home from dinner at the Lake Geneva Inn the next night. It was pouring rain, sheeting the stuff. I almost told Brendan to pull over to the side of the road.
“It was your idea—every moment from sunup until I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Those wereyourwords,” I said.
When we got to Sam’s, the two of us raced across her puddled yard to the protective wing of the front porch. I yanked open the door.
“Stay here. I’ll get towels,” I said, and walked inside first.
I was halfway to the linen closet when a table lamp flickered out—I smelled something burning. Uh-oh.
I shoved the armchair away from the wall with my hip and saw a limp white rag lying in the corner.
It was Euphoria.
Something was wrong with Euphoria.
I called, “Brendan, come quick,” and then he was right there beside me. He lifted my cat and gently laid her down again in the center of the carpet. What I saw made me sick. The fur around Euphoria’s mouth was singed and bloody. And then I realized that she wasn’t breathing.
“Oh, God, what’s happened to her?”
“Looks like she bit into an electric cord,” Brendan said. He placed two fingers high up against the inside fold of her left hind leg.
“She’s in arrest, Jennifer. Poor thing’s got no pulse.”
I’d loved that little girl since I rescued her from the pound right after Danny’s death. Euphoria wasn’t just a cat to me. I loved her dearly. I clutched at Brendan’s arm.
“Please! Can you help her?”
