Something Unexpected by Vi Keeland
CHAPTER 14
Beck
ROUND TWO.
A week later, I found myself on another date. This time it was with Claire Wren, a woman I’d gone out with three times before—on the same day for three of the last four years, our joint birthdays.
Claire was an IT security expert who owned her own firm. She’d done some work for me a few years back and somehow we’d figured out that we shared a birthday—not just the day, but the year, too. A few months later, I was out for drinks with my friends when she texted to wish me a happy birthday. She wound up coming to the bar where I was, and we ended the night by celebrating back at her place, just the two of us. Claire was driven—maybe the one person I knew who was busier than I was at the time—so it wasn’t until the same day the next year that we got together again. After that, it became our thing. She texted on our birthday each year, and we got together for our once-a-year celebration. The only time we hadn’t was the year I was out of the country. Tonight I’d almost declined and said I couldn’t make it, because I wasn’t in the mood, but I’d convinced myself to go in the end. Birthdays alone were just sad, as was sitting home drinking alone, which I’d done all too often lately.
Claire ordered us shots of Bailey’s at the bar, and we held them up in a toast.
“A smart, handsome, successful person was born today.” She smiled. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t you. It was me. Who knows, maybe next year will be your year. Happy birthday, my birthday twin.”
I laughed and clinked glasses, and we knocked back the shots.
“So…what’s new the last three-hundred-and-sixty-four days?” I asked.
“Not much. Working nonstop. More money than free time.” She raised a finger. “Oh, actually, there is something new. I was in a committed relationship for about six months.”
“What happened there?”
She shrugged. “He accused me of being more in love with my work than him. So he gave me an ultimatum: cut back on work or it was over.” Claire smiled. “Turned out he was right. I did love my work more.” She lifted the toothpick from her martini and used her teeth to slip the olives off. “What about you? Any special woman in your life this year?”
I immediately thought of Nora. We hadn’t spoken or texted since the night of my last date, the night she’d sent me the ass shot. My gut told me the next morning she’d decided she’d gone too far and reined things in again. Which was just as well. I needed to disconnect from her. Though stalking her vlog wasn’t exactly making a clean break—but baby steps. I was getting there. Tonight would be a giant leap.
I shook my head and lifted my drink. “Nope. Just my daughter.”
A half hour later, I was starting to enjoy myself. The food was good, and the company even better. Claire was smart and funny. There was never a lull in conversation. But then my phone rang, and Nora’s name appeared on the screen. I watched it flash two or three times, fighting the urge to pick it up.
Claire looked from my cell to me and back again. Her brows dipped together. “Do you need to get that?”
Images of Nora flooded my brain—and not even the ass shot or the bikini picture, but ones of her laughing. I fucking hated that I’d let her infiltrate my date. So I blew out a deep breath and reached across the table, taking Claire’s hand just as the buzzing finally stopped. “Nope. It’s not important.”
As if to call bullshit, my phone immediately started buzzing again. I tried to ignore it a second time, but each flash of her name had me growing more concerned. Nora didn’t call often. Definitely not twice in a row.
I pulled my hand from Claire’s. “I’m sorry. I’m just going to answer it quick.”
“Of course. Take your time.”
I swiped to answer. “What’s up?”
“Beck—” I knew something was wrong in that one syllable.
I stood from my seat. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Louise. She’s in the hospital. They say she had a stroke.”
“Where are you?”
“We’re in Tennessee. Memorial Hospital in Gatlinburg.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
I swiped my phone off, dug into my pocket, and tossed a few hundred-dollar bills on the table. “I’m sorry, Claire. I need to go.”
“What happened?”
“My grandmother had a stroke.”
I grabbed the first cab I could hail and told him to start driving to the airport. I didn’t even know if there were any more flights out tonight, but I had to try. Using my phone on the way, I was able to grab a seat on a plane to Knoxville, but it was going to be tight to make. Fortunately, the line at security was light for once, and since I didn’t have anything with me other than my wallet, I made it to the gate just as they were announcing final call.
Two hours later, I was in Tennessee and a waiting cab took me the forty-minute drive to Gatlinburg. Nora had given me updates, so when we pulled up at the hospital, I went straight to the ICU. Nora was waiting in the hallway. The look on her face stopped me in my tracks.
“Did she…”
Nora shook her head. “No. No. She’s okay. Well, not okay. But stable at the moment. The nurses are getting her changed into a gown and stuff. They said it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes, and they’d let me know when I could come back in.”
I raked a hand through my hair. “What happened?”
“We were just swimming in the pool. One minute she was fine and laughing, and the next she started slurring her words and stringing together random things that don’t go together. At first I thought maybe she’d had a few drinks and hadn’t mentioned it. But then I noticed one side of her face drooping a little, so I called nine-one-one.”
“It was definitely a stroke?”
Nora nodded. “They did scans. One of her tumors has grown larger and is pushing on her blood supply.”
“What do they do? Take it out?”
Nora frowned. “She has an advanced medical directive and a living will. Surgery isn’t an option. They put her on blood thinners, which seems to have restored the blood flow for now.”
“For now? What about later?”
The doors to the ICU opened, and a nurse waved to Nora. “You can come back in.”
“Thank you.”
The woman glanced at me as I followed as well.
“This is Louise’s grandson, Beck,” Nora said. “He just flew in from New York.”
“How nice. Two grandchildren by her side.”
I looked at Nora, who gave me the wide-eyed, lips-pursed signal for shut up.
When we got to the glass-enclosed pod, the nurse motioned to a closed door. “You can go on in. The doctor will be by to speak with you shortly.”
“Thank you.”
My heart felt lodged in my throat as I stepped inside. Gram looked so tiny. So frail. I started to think old, too, but she’d kick my ass for that last part, so I didn’t let myself go there.
“Did she lose weight?”
“I’m not sure. But we came straight from swimming, so her hair was wet and she has no makeup on. Plus, she’s not one to lie down and rest, so it seems odd to see her so…” Nora shook her head, and her eyes welled up. “I don’t know. I put the silver glitter headband on her because Louise isn’t Louise without a little sparkle.”
I walked around the bed and put my arm around Nora. “I’m sorry. That was a dumb question. And I’m positive she very much appreciates the headband.”
Nora sniffled. “Do you think she can hear us?”
“I don’t know. I guess we should ask the doctor.”
We got our answer to that question a few minutes later when the ICU attending walked in. He gestured to the door. “Why don’t we speak outside?”
Dr. Cornelius introduced himself and got right to the nitty gritty. “As you know, your grandmother suffered a stroke. There are two main types of strokes: an ischemic stroke, which is caused by the blood supply to the brain being cut off, normally from a blockage; and a hemorrhagic stroke, which is caused by bleeding in the brain. Louise suffered an ischemic stroke caused by a tumor that blocked her carotid artery. Ischemic has a much higher survival rate than hemorrhagic.”
The doctor must’ve read the relief on my face. He held up a hand. “However, normally in these types of strokes, we can remove the obstruction and restore the blood flow to the brain. But your grandmother has made her wishes clear—she does not want any surgical procedures to extend her life. Luckily the blood thinners we’ve given her seemed to have worked.”
“Can she stay on blood thinners long term?”
He nodded. “We’re giving her medication through her stomach right now, but blood thinners can be taken in pill form with relatively few complications.”
“Oh, that’s great,” Nora said.
But something in his tone told me not to breathe a sigh of relief too soon. “What about the tumor?” I asked.
Dr. Cornelius smiled sadly. “I called over to Sloan Kettering in New York to have her last scans sent so I could compare. It’s an aggressive tumor. We can only make her blood so thin. Chances are it will continue to grow and cause another blockage.”
“And then what?”
The doctor looked me in the eye. “She won’t likely survive the next one, son.”
I don’t remember anything anyone said after that—not even the nice words I know Nora spoke as we sat by Gram’s bedside for hours. At some point, the nurse who’d been checking on Gram all night came over to talk to us.
“Hi. They’re going to kick you out soon, when the change of shift starts. The only time visitors aren’t allowed is from five to eight AM. So you two should go home and get some rest. Your grandmother’s body has been through a lot, and she’s likely going to sleep for several hours more. I know you want to be with her, but the most important thing a caretaker can do is take care of themselves. Get some sleep. Eat a healthy breakfast. Then come back.”
I glanced over at Nora, who looked exhausted. I didn’t have just me to think about. So I nodded. “Can I make sure you have both our numbers in case anything changes?”
“Of course.” The nurse walked over to a white board and picked up a marker. “You can write them right up here, so it’s easy for whoever is on duty to call if they need you or if there’s any change. I’ll also make sure your numbers are in our computer system.”
“Thank you.”
Nora had come in the ambulance, so we called an Uber since neither of us had a car. The sun was coming up as we wound our way up the Smoky Mountains. I’d never given the name much thought, but the haze of thick, bluish fog below made it self-explanatory. Shades of purple and orange rose above through the peaks of mountains.
“Wow.” I stared out. “It’s beautiful.”
“We got up to watch the sunrise the last two days.” Nora swallowed. “I’m really glad we did that now.”
It was hard to think there might be a sunrise in the future without my grandmother around to see it. My throat swelled with emotion as I realized that reality might arrive sooner rather than later. Nora and I stayed silent, each staring out our windows until we slowed at a plateau and a hotel came into sight.
“This is us,” she said. “Louise and I always get two room keys and give each other one, for backup. So I have her key, if you want to stay in her room.”
“I think I’ll see if they have anything available. That way if she gets…” Realizing what I’d said, I stopped myself. “When. When she gets out, everything is how she left it.”
Nora forced a smile and nodded.
The hotel turned out to be pretty empty, so they had plenty of rooms available. The clerk remembered Nora’s name and set me up with a room right next door. We walked from the elevator with a gloomy feeling following us.
When we arrived at Nora’s room, she stopped at the door. “What time do you want to go back to the hospital?”
“Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll go back in a few hours by myself, and you can come when you wake up.”
She shook her head. “No, I really want to go.”
I looked at my watch. “How about ten? That’ll give us about four hours.”
“That’s good.” She looked me up and down. “I’d say I would lend you a shirt or something, but I don’t think anything of mine would fit you.”
I shrugged. “The lady at the desk said there was a toiletry kit in the room. That’s all I need.”
“Okay. Well, you know where I am if you think of anything.”
I nodded. “Get some sleep.”
The door to my room was almost shut when I heard Nora yell. “Wait! Beck!”
I stepped back into the hallway. “Yeah?”
Nora smiled sweetly. “I didn’t say happy birthday. I suppose now it’s happy belated birthday. Your grandmother told me, and I had planned to text you, but then things went awry.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
When we were at the hospital, I’d thought I would be too wired to sleep, but one look at the big bed, and I let out a giant yawn—though I needed a quick shower before I could get in. So I peeled off the suit I’d been wearing since yesterday morning and laid the pieces over the back of the chair in the corner. I was in and out in less than five minutes and just needed to brush my teeth. But when I dug back into the complimentary toiletry bag, I realized there was no toothpaste, just a toothbrush. I debated saying fuck it, but I’d had too many cups of coffee to count, and it would drive me nuts.
Nora’s room wasn’t only next door, there was an adjoining door. So I put on the hotel robe and walked over to listen to see if I could tell whether she was still up. There was definitely movement, and I thought the TV might be on too. So I knocked lightly.
“Beck?” It sounded like she was standing right on the other side of the door. “Was that you knocking?”
“Yeah. Sorry. Could I borrow some toothpaste?”
“Oh, sure. Hang on.”
The door opened, and she held out her hand with a tube of Crest, her eyes pointed to the floor. I went to take it, but it struck me as odd that she hadn’t raised her head.
“Nora?”
After a moment, she looked up. Her face was covered in blotches, and her bottom lip quivered.
My heart had been hanging on by a thread, and seeing how upset she was snapped my last bit of control.
“Fuck,” I grumbled and reached for her. “Come here.”
She didn’t even try to fight it. It was like a floodgate opened. Nora cried out, a horrible, gut-wrenching sob. Her hands fisted my robe, and she hid her face against my chest as her shoulders shook. I scooped her up and carried her into her room, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and cradling her on my lap as she cried.
“I’m not ready to lose her yet,” she choked out.
The broken sound of her voice shredded me. I tasted salt in my throat, and I was grateful for the lump that formed, because it was the only thing that kept me from losing it right along with her.
I stroked her hair. “It’s going to be okay.”
She sobbed louder. “It’s not going to be okay. The world is just going to keep on, and everything will be the same. And that is not okay.”
I held her tighter. “That’s not true. Everything won’t be the same. You know why? Because she’s not leaving the world the way she found it. Louise changed lives.” My voice broke. “She made you and me better people.”
I was trying to help, but what I said only made things worse. Nora cried harder. The sound came from a place deep within. I didn’t have too much experience giving comfort, except to my daughter, so I tried what worked best for her and rocked back and forth.
It seemed to help. Eventually Nora’s shoulders shook less, and her gasps for air became less frequent. After a while, she let out a big sigh. “Thank you.”
“Nothing to thank me for, sweetheart.” I kissed her forehead. “If anything, I should be thanking you. My grandmother is lucky to have someone who cares so much.”
She wiped her cheeks. “I think I’m going to raid the mini bar for wine and take a warm bath.”
I smiled. “That sounds like a plan.”
Nora crawled from my lap and stood. “Thanks, Beck. Your grandmother is lucky to have you, too.”
I nodded and got up. “I’ll leave the door open a crack in case you want to talk when you get out of the bath.”
“I think I’ll be okay. But I appreciate that.”
At least a half hour went by before I heard movement next door. The lamp in Nora’s room was on, and a sliver of light streamed in from the door that separated our rooms. There was a distant click, and then that sliver went dark. So I settled back into bed, giving in to the heavy weight of my eyelids. I started to drift off, but then I heard a creak.
“Beck?”
I lifted to my elbows. The curtains were drawn, but there was still enough light to see Nora’s silhouette. She was wearing the hotel robe, and her wet hair was slicked back like it had just been brushed.
“Are you okay?”
“No.” She paused. “I want to forget.”
I froze. Those were the words she’d used the first time we met, the night of her Tinder date. I was relatively sure I understood what she was saying, but I didn’t want any doubt at all. “What are you asking me, Nora?”
Her response was to untie her robe and slip it from her shoulders. “Make me forget, Beck.”
When I didn’t say anything, she took a few steps closer. She was completely naked, and since I didn’t have any clothes to change into, so was I.
“I only had one glass of wine,” she said. “And yes, I’m emotional. But I’m not so emotional that I’m making a rash decision. I’ve thought about you every night since the first night we met. I’ve touched myself remembering the sound of your deep voice and imagining my nails scraping your beautiful tan skin.”
Oh fuck.
She moved closer.
“Nora…you don’t want this. You’ve told me that yourself, multiple times.”
She smiled. “No, you’re wrong. I lied. I’ve told you I didn’t want you because I was trying to convince myself it was true. But I want you so badly, I couldn’t even force myself to be with a man. God knows I tried with that cowboy on the last night in Montana.”
All the hesitancy and uncertainty I felt was suddenly pushed to the side by a new emotion—jealousy. A fucking cowboy.
I pulled back the blanket. “Did you let him touch you?”
“No, but I almost did. I thought about sucking him off while I pretended it was you.” She took another step so we were toe to toe. “I want you, Beck. I want you in my mouth.”
I stood, my cock fully erect. He and I were ready to show her who those lips belonged to.
“Get on your knees. And there won’t be any pretending going on…”
