A Forever Kind of Love

“My plane leaves in three hours. I’m running late as it is. It’ll take me at least an hour to get to the airport, and I wanted to stop in New Orleans for a few things before I fly out.”

“Mother, are you seriously leaving while your mother is in the hospital? Before even going in to see her?”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Mya. I swear you should be on the theater stage instead of designing costumes for other actors.”

Mya turned to her aunt, who stood at the door to the privacy room, her hands crossed over her chest. “Did she just call me dramatic?” Mya asked.

“Just let it go, Mya. Let her go.”

“Yes, please, let me go,” Elizabeth said. “It’s time for me to get back to civilization. I swear I don’t know how you people in Gauthier can stand it. There’s not even a Starbucks.”

Anger simmered beneath Mya’s skin. She had been just as anxious to get back to New York, but there was no way she could leave with her grandmother in the hospital. Apparently, Elizabeth didn’t share the same sense of responsibility.

“You will never change,” Mya huffed with a disgusted snort. “I don’t know why I expected anything different from you.”

“Well, I certainly won’t stand here while you look down your nose at me.” Elizabeth stalked over to the door in her high-heeled sandals. “Tell Mama I’ll see her next time I’m in town. And take better care of her, Maureen.”

“You have the nerve—” Mya started, but her aunt raised her hand, cutting her off.

“I will take better care of her. Now go on. You’ve got a plane to catch.”

Elizabeth nodded and, without another word, turned and walked out of the privacy room.

As soon as she was gone, Mya stomped up to her aunt. “Why would you let her talk to you that way? As if it’s your fault that Grandma is in the hospital.”

“Haven’t you learned that the best way to deal with your mother is to say whatever is necessary to get her gone?”

“But Grandma is just as much her responsibility as she is yours,” Mya pointed out. “I hate how she treats you, Aunt Mo. And the way she walks around as if she’s better than everybody? It just sickens me.”

“Mya, your mother has been that way since she was a little girl. She has always been too good for this little town and the people in it. I learned a long time ago that the best thing to do as far as Elizabeth is concerned is to just ignore her. Just let her go,” her aunt stressed.

Mya clutched her hands at her sides, trying to release some of the pent-up anger coursing through her blood. Aunt Mo was right. Letting Elizabeth get on that plane was the best thing for all of them. Now they could focus on her grandmother.

“You have your own plane to catch, don’t you?” Aunt Mo asked.

“I’m not going anywhere until I know Grandma is okay. I can spare some time off,” Mya continued when she saw her aunt about to protest. “I’m between shows right now, and anything else I need to do can be accomplished via email.”

Maureen shrugged her shoulders as they exited the privacy room. “I won’t waste my time arguing. Lord knows you’re just as stubborn as Elizabeth.”

Mya gasped. “You would compare me to that woman?” She put her hand to her chest as if covering a wound. “Now that’s just mean, Aunt Mo.”

As soon as they reentered the waiting room, Corey shot up from his seat. “Is everything okay? I came back from Drusilla’s and you were both gone.”

“The doctor took us to another room to update us on Mama’s status,” Aunt Mo answered. “She’s fine, but they want to keep her to run additional tests.”

Mya saw the way his shoulders wilted with relief and she was struck again by this complete one-eighty. Fifteen years ago, Corey Anderson was enemy number one in her grandmother’s eyes. She’d claimed he was only after one thing and had forbidden Mya to see him. It hadn’t stopped her, of course. Mya had been intrigued; she had craved the taste of trouble.

As a cocky seventeen-year-old, Corey had done everything he could to live up to her grandmother’s low expectations of him. He’d encouraged Mya to sneak out of the house at all hours of the night. He’d snuck liquor from his daddy’s liquor cabinet and gotten her drunk on more than one occasion.

And let’s not forget the biggest trouble of all—her brush with the stork.

Corey had never learned of the pregnancy and, as far as Mya knew, her grandmother still thought the two nights Mya had spent in the hospital was from a vicious stomach bug that had been going around. Aunt Mo was the only one who knew about the baby she’d miscarried at seven weeks. She doubted her grandmother and Corey would be so chummy now if either of them knew about that little incident.

Mya pushed back against the wave of shame that threatened to crash through her whenever she thought of the child she’d never told Corey about, and the heartache it still summoned. It was too long ago to even matter anymore.

Corey’s cell phone trilled. He held up a finger and answered. “Yeah?...Tell me you’re lying.... Damn.” He pocketed the phone. “I need to go.”

“That’s fine, honey,” Aunt Mo said, giving him a hug. “Thanks for bringing Mya.”

Her aunt turned to her. “They’ll probably put Mama in her own room soon, so I’m going to run back to the house to get some clothes, and then come back here for the night. They’ll only let one family member stay, though.”

“I know,” Mya answered. “I’ll go home once visiting hours are over.”

“What time do you want me to come back and pick you up?” Corey asked.

“I’ll call Phil,” Mya answered, knowing her best friend, Phylicia, would drop whatever she was doing to be at her side. “I don’t plan to leave the hospital anytime soon anyway,” Mya said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

A smile, subtle though it was, inched up the corner of his mouth. “No one ever doubted you’d be fine, Peaches.” He kissed Aunt Mo on the cheek. “I’ll see you later. You tell Mrs. Eloise not to scare us like that anymore.”

Mya watched as Corey left the waiting room. She waited until she was sure he was out of earshot before turning to her aunt. “What’s going on here?”

“What?” Aunt Mo asked.

If Mya didn’t spend her life around the theater, she would have bought the innocent act. “Don’t even try it,” she said. “When did you, Corey and Grandma all become best friends? The two of you both hated him.”

“We did not hate him,” her aunt protested. “At least I didn’t. I was just concerned that he was a bit too fast for you. With good reason,” her aunt added with a pointed look. “But all of that is beside the point. Corey’s not the boy he was when you two were in high school.”

“How do you know that? He’s been gone from Gauthier nearly as long as I have.”

“That’s not entirely true,” her aunt said. “Corey visited several times a year when his daddy was still living. He moved back last year to coach the high school baseball team.”

“You still haven’t explained why he’s all of a sudden your new BFF,” Mya said.

“My what?”

“Forget it.” Mya sighed. “I just think it’s strange. Grandma thought those Anderson boys were nothing but trouble back when I was in high school, and now she’s got one cutting her grass? Why didn’t she ever mention him when I called home?”

Her aunt hunched her shoulders. “Maybe she didn’t think it was a big deal to you. As far as Mama is concerned, everything between you and Corey ended after you graduated from high school.”

“It did end after graduation,” Mya stated. “Still...”

Was there a “still”? Corey was nothing more than a guy she’d dated a long time ago. It had been years since she’d seen him, since she’d had anything to do with him. Why should it matter after all these years that he’d moved back to town and ingratiated himself to her family?

A nurse entered the waiting room. “Dubois family?”

“Right here,” Mya called. She and Aunt Mo sprung from their seats like coils in a new mattress. “How is she?” Mya asked the nurse.

“She’s doing well. She’s in room seventeen. Follow me—I’ll take you to her.”