She turned and shot him a pointed glance. “You and your brother are here, so yes, I can see now that I underestimated how you both would feel about it.”
“What did you expect us to do? Shrug it off and go on with our lives?”
“I certainly didn’t think my two workaholic sons would drop everything at a moment’s notice and come to the house.”
That was fair. More than fair. “Austin and I are here for you. For the surgery, and when you come home. We don’t want everything to rest on Stuart.” Donovan got up from his seat and crouched down next to her chair. “Mom, no matter what, I want you to remember that we love you.”
“Good. I love you, too.” She reached out and brushed his hair from his face. She hadn’t done that in forty years. Maybe more. “Some days, I really see your dad in you.”
He’d been kept awake for countless night in his life with that worry, that there was some part of him that was inherently broken because his dad had been broken, too. Or that perhaps his mom was haunted by bad memories every time she looked at Donovan. “I hope you seeyouin me, too.”
“Oh, you’re mostly me. Your dad squeezed in a little, but you’re a lot like me. Pragmatic. Sardonic. Dour at times.”
“Sardonicanddour. Good use of the thesaurus.”
“Learned, too.”
There were footfalls coming from the door. “Am I interrupting a tender moment?” Austin asked, with just a hint of sarcasm.
“Oh, good. You’re both here.” She sat back in her chair. “I want to talk about my last wishes.”
“Mom. Is that really necessary?” Donovan asked. That seemed like quite a leap. “I think you’re going to do great. I researched your doctor online this morning. She has amazing credentials.”
“I’m not talking about now. I doubt I’ll die tomorrow. Or the next day. This is for later. If we talk about it now, I don’t have to bring it up at an awkward time, like at Christmas or on one of your birthdays.”
Donovan stood and took his seat again.
Austin poised himself next to Donovan, bracing his hand on the back of the chair. “Yeah, Mom. Go.”
“This is all in the will, but I’ll tell you now that I want to be cremated. I do not want a funeral. Funerals are for sadness. Plus, I know very few people I like well enough for them to be invited, and it’s an awful lot of trouble to book a caterer for a small event.”
Austin let out an astonished laugh. “Okay. What else?”
“I want to be cremated. I want half of my ashes spread on the grounds here. Except not in the patch of lawn where the dogs do their business.” She furrowed her brow, as if she was searching her memory for what came next. “After that, I’d like you to divvy me up, and leave a bit of me wherever you think I might like the view. Austin, if you can sneak onto the field at Fenway Park, I like it there. I like the pants the players wear. And Donovan, I have two requests for New York City. In front of Tiffany & Co. on 5thAvenue, and from the Bow Bridge in Central Park.”
“Mom, I can’t just leave you on a sidewalk in the middle of Manhattan. You’ll blow away,” Donovan said.
She dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand. “So a bus comes by and I go down the subway grate. I can spend eternity riding around the city.”
Austin and Donovan looked at each other, equally dumbfounded. This was one of the more remarkable conversations they’d had with their mom, which was saying a lot.
“Anything else we need to know?” Austin asked.
“The house will go to you both. Think of it as one last motherly endeavor on my part. It was always so hard to get you two to share. This will force you to figure it out.”
The brothers again looked at each other. That was going to be an interesting thing to compromise on. “Okay. Thank you,” Donovan said.
“I’m glad you’re both here. And I’m sorry I kept the cancer a secret. Sometimes we do stupid things to protect the people we love from things we think they can’t handle.”
“The key word there isthink, Mom. Austin and I can handle all of this. Just fine.”
***
Their mother’s surgery went off without a hitch and after three days in the hospital, she was able to come home. That was when things got a little dicey for Donovan, Stuart, and Austin. She was in a great deal of pain, but had always been leery of prescription drugs, so she refused to take what the doctor had sent her home with. Stuart was of zero help. Their mom was able to talk him into anything. That left Donovan and Austin to trade off with the battle, each of them taking a different day. They both quickly learned it wasn’t easy to force medicine down your own mother’s throat. Even when it made her feel better, she still didn’t want to take the next dose. She could be so damn stubborn.
For a full week, Donovan and Austin were handling far more of a work load than either had anticipated. The house was in need of constant upkeep. The animals all required food and tending, and the emu in particular was a complete pain in the ass. And then there were their mother’s requests. She was essentially subsisting on smoothies, but they had to be made just right, and apparently Donovan was the only one who did it correctly. More than once, he’d gotten up at three in the morning to make her one because she was hungry. Donovan didn’t dare complain, but his mom did point out that she was merely getting even for the nights he hadn’t slept when he was a baby.
Donovan had very few spare moments, but when he did, his thoughts drifted to Lela. They’d talked almost every day since he’d left, their conversations light and short because Donovan was too exhausted for anything else. But every time he had to say goodbye, he found himself wanting to just finally come out with it and tell her that he loved her.Just wait,he told himself time and again. She deserved more than a stupid phone call. She deserved the world.
