Theo didn't look up from her shoulder. "I'm simply paying her a compliment, sir."
"Pay her…a compliment…when I'm not in the bed."
"Sorry, boss."
The room laughed.
I wished I could be Theo. I'd wished it before and hadn't yet figured out how. Theo could walk into a room with a dying man, tell his wife she was beautiful, and change the whole mood for a moment. I couldn’t do that.
Cade came in after Theo had been there a while, in a navy coat that meant he came from the office, and he greeted the room, checking who was in it. He kissed Mom on the head, gripped Dad's foot through the blanket, nodded at me, and clapped Theo on the back.
"Sorry, I'm late. The Adler installation went over."
Mom perked up. "Adler? The gallery you'd been telling us about?"
"That one." Cade unbuttoned his coat. "Suzanne's piece is the centerpiece. They moved it three times before they decided where to hang it."
Dad looked at him. "Suzanne — Suzanne works as an — " He blinked at the ceiling.
Mom reached over and put her hand on his wrist. "As an artist, baby."
"The artist." He nodded at her. "Yes. Suzanne."
He found Cade with his eyes. "How is she doing? How is her work?"
"It's doing well." Cade put both hands in his coat pockets. "We've been turning down more shows than we accept now."
"Good. Good."
Mom's hand stayed on Dad's wrist. "And the wedding? Are you planning yet?"
Cade looked at the foot of the bed. "Suzanne wants to wait. She — she thinks we should wait until…"
Dad finished it for him. He worked on it for a beat — the words coming slowly, the breath between the words — and got there.
"Until I'm…not here."
The room got very quiet.
Dad waved his good hand. The wave was small. "Cade, don't wait. I would…at least like to be at one of my sons' weddings."
My mouth opened without anything to put in it. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Theo, who had been peaceful for two minutes and was apparently bored of it, turned to me. "Isn't it obvious, Beau? You're depressingly single."
Cade snorted. Mom laughed and immediately covered her mouth like she hadn't meant to. Dad laughed, and the room, which had been on the edge of falling, went back to where Theo had pulled it.
They laughed at me.
The conversation went back to Sebring. Theo had something to say about a new car. Cade had something to say about why Theo would crash. Mom had something to say about Theo’s mother, who she hadn’t seen since spring. They talked and talked around the bed of a man who’d just been told he wouldn’t live to see his sons married.
I sat in the chair on Mom’s side of the bed and watched them all, while something wordless shifted inside my chest.
Can you not see what is happening?I wanted to grab the bed's railing and shake it.He is dying right in front of you. The Sebring trip isn't real. The car isn't real. Things are never going to remain the same. He is —
The doctor came in.
She nodded at the room, and her eyes landed on Cade and on me. "Mr. Cross. Mr. Nightingale. Could I borrow you for a minute outside?"
