Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
When I got to AMITA Health La Grange out on Willow Springs, I parked and then went quickly to the emergency room. I was surprised when I found Regina that no one else was there.
“Jory,” she announced, like she hadn’t seen me in ten years instead of the Sunday before. We normally had a meal with the family every weekend, and depending on what everyone was doing, sometimes it was dinner, sometimes brunch, and even breakfast if no one was playing golf or going to the gun range.
I hugged her tight, and she leaned into me, head on my shoulder, weeping softly. I held her until she stopped shaking and then waited as she grabbed several tissues from the box next to his bed, and blew her nose.
“Is he sleeping?” I asked anxiously, seeing the large bandage on Thomas’s forehead. He looked terrible, face bruised, left arm in a cast, more like he’d been mugged than taken a tumble in his home.
“Dozing,” she answered me. “He’s been in and out.”
“How is he?”
“He broke his wrist, as you can see, and he’s got a nice gash on his forehead, but other than that,” she sighed, tears seeping from her eyes, “he’s fine.”
I leaned her into me, and she took a shuddering breath. A doctor came in to see us, hyper efficient, not real warm, but he explained in detail what had happened, what could have happened, and what they were watching for—concussion, though not likely, any brain-swelling or any other latent issues.
“He’s in great shape for a man his age,” Dr. Nolan Evans explained, smiling at Regina. “You must take wonderful care of him.”
Her eyes narrowed. “We take care of each other,” she replied coolly. “I’m still working, he’s retired, so he’s the one that makes sure we’re eating right and exercising.”
Regina cooked Sunday whatever meal it turned out to be, and of course on special occasions. Thomas cooked during the week, and they ran together and used the treadmill in their basement when it got colder. They traveled too, which they both loved. But for a doctor to thank her for caring for her husband—even though I knew he was just trying to be nice—was a bit antiquated. She wasn’t the “little woman,” and as she’d worked all her life, first as an actress, then as a homemaker, and now as a television host, his indulgent tone rubbed her the wrong way.
“Of course,” Dr. Evans said quickly.
“You’re saying that for a guy closing in on eighty, he looks damn good, right?”
“Yes,” he said quickly, grasping for the lifeline I was throwing him, smiling wanly. I saw the real guy underneath the cool, aloof physician façade then, and Regina did too. She reached for his hand and took his in both of hers and smiled gently.
“Thank you for taking care of the man I’m going to beat worse than this when he gets better.”
His smile brightened with relief. “It might be time for a ranch,” he said softly. “My parents moved from Hinsdale to La Grange because the house I grew up in just had too many levels. Smaller was better too.”
She nodded. “I’ve been saying this, and now I think I’ve got him.”
Their A-frame house wasn’t big, but it did have two floors and a basement, so the one-level ranch would be a huge change. I knew they’d been talking about it for a while, even though it was hard for Sam and his siblings to imagine them moving. But it wasn’t fair for Regina and Thomas to live in a home that was too big simply because no one wanted to let go of their childhood home. And I would have understood if everyone lived far away and returning to the nest was a yearly pilgrimage. But everyone lived in Chicago, and if people came from out of town to visit, we had room at our house, as did all Sam’s siblings except Michael, who was again separated from Beverly. I had no idea if they could overcome a second separation, but I was hoping so. I knew they loved each other, even if there were others in the mix as well.
Thomas opened his eyes then, waking slowly, and Regina and I both made the same noise of happiness.
“I missed the landing, but the takeoff was sensational,” he teased his wife, grinning at her with the wicked curled lip that he had passed on to his oldest son. And it wasn’t to say that Michael Kage wasn’t handsome as well, but Sam, my Sam, was the proverbial chip off the old block. He looked just like his father, both men aging more than well.
“Thomas Kage,” I said suddenly in a deep disembodied voice, moving my head back and forth as though in a trance.
“No,” he said sharply.
I put my fingers to my temples. “Thomas Kage, I’m having a vision.”