In Confidence

“As I mentioned,” Dr. Carruthers said with a chuckle, “I guessed she’d be out here before I was done.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Rachel murmured, turning back to Carruthers and extending her hand.

“My pleasure,” he said, shaking it. He looked then at Cameron. “You did the right thing insisting on having her checked out, Mr. Forrester.”

“Ford, not Forrester,” Cameron said, shaking the doctor’s hand. “And I’m just a neighbor.”

“Oh.” Carruthers paused for an awkward beat or two, then turned again to Rachel. “The results of the blood work should be available sometime tomorrow, Ms. Forrester. If there’s anything unusual, I’ll call you. Otherwise, the results will be mailed.”

“Call me, Dr. Carruthers,” Dinah instructed firmly, “not Rachel. I’m not too fragile to hear bad news, at least not yet.”

“I don’t anticipate giving you bad news, Mrs. Hunt,” he said, with a grin. “And remember, no working in the sun without a hat and no skipping meals.”

Dinah gave him a droll look. “I’ll try to remember that, as I sure don’t want to wake up looking at the underside of azalea leaves again.”

Still chuckling, he left them to enter another cubicle a few steps down the hall.

“Let’s go, Mom,” Rachel said, taking Dinah’s arm. “The insurance—”

“In a minute.” Dinah resisted being hustled away. “First, I need to thank Cameron.”

“You don’t owe me any thanks,” he said. Now that he knew the older woman wasn’t suffering a stroke or worse, he itched to get back to his work. He was only half done with the proposal for his next book.

“Well, of course I do. And I meant what I said in the car, Cameron. Anytime you feel like having a break, come over for coffee or some iced tea. I like to bake and usually have a little something on hand—cake or cookies. Nick and Kendall can vouch for that.”

“Nick and Kendall?”

“My grandchildren, Rachel’s babies.” Dinah moved over toward the area where the insurance clerk waited and presented the appropriate cards before looking back at him. “And thanks again for giving me a ride to the hospital, although I still say it was not necessary. I knew what was wrong the minute I began to feel dizzy. But by then, it was too late and I just keeled over. Plain bad judgment on my part,” she said, taking the clipboard that was passed through the partition by the clerk.

“You should have waited until the weekend, Mom,” Rachel scolded. “That’s the kind of work Nick can do for you. And this just proves what I was telling you about moving out of your apartment. The upkeep on a house and yard is arduous. You should have gotten a condominium.”

“Do I advise you where to live, Rachel?”

“No, of course not, but—”

“Then when I become senile, you can start advising me. Until then, I make my own decisions. Now,” she said briskly, “as I said, I exercised bad judgment today, but the day dawned so sunny and clear and the ground was nice and soft from that shower Wednesday. I knew I wouldn’t have a better chance to get those shrubs relocated and to tackle the weeds in that bed where the daylilies are planted.” She studied the form to be completed on the clipboard for a moment. “My word, I’m going to have to sit down to fill this thing out. Must be fifty questions on it.”

“Let me do that for you, Mom.” Rachel reached for the clipboard.

“I’m still capable of filling out my own medical history, Rachel.” She moved to a line of chairs against the wall, sat down and began writing.

Rachel drew a frustrated breath, then looked gamely into Cameron’s eyes. When she spoke, it was in a tone that Dinah couldn’t hear. “It’s frustrating trying to keep my mother from taking on more than she can handle, and since you believe that I neglect her, I’ll say nothing more about that. Nevertheless, I appreciate what you did this afternoon. Thank you.”

“No thanks necessary,” he told her, just as he’d told her mother. “I did what any decent neighbor would do.” She simply looked at him and something in her expression prodded the devil inside him. “Your mother’s not getting any younger. She bought the house she wanted and you should be gracious enough to help her enjoy it. An occasional visit would be nice.”

She flushed as his barb found its mark but, as good as her word, she didn’t offer any defense. Something flashed in her eyes and he caught it just before it was veiled by her lashes—very long lashes, he noted. Then whatever he’d glimpsed was gone. Still stonily silent, she gave him a curt nod—just a quick dip of her head—before turning on her heel and striding to a chair on the far side of her mother and taking a seat. She didn’t look at him again.

“Mom, won’t you please reconsider and come home with me tonight?” Frustrated, Rachel watched Dinah strip the leather thong from her hair and run her hands through the unruly curls. A couple of dried leaves and a broken twig landed on the bedroom carpet.

“For the tenth time, Rachel, I’m perfectly fine.” Sitting on the side of her bed, Dinah pulled off her dirty sneakers and handed them to Rachel. “Will you drop these in my washing machine on your way out, please? Don’t turn it on. I’ll need to throw in the overalls when I’m done with my shower.”

“You won’t forget to eat before going to bed then, will you?”

“How could I? I’m as hungry as a bear.”

Rachel went to the door. “I’ll make you something while you shower. How about an omelette?”

“Not necessary, Rachel. And instead of feeding me, shouldn’t you be worrying about Nick and Kendall?” Their eyes met in the mirror. “It’s dinnertime and I’ll bet Ted isn’t home yet, is he?”

“No, he’s…he has a meeting. He’ll be late. And I’ve called Marta. She’ll look out for the kids until I get home.”

Dinah held her gaze for a moment, then with a skeptical sound, began to work at the snaps on her overalls. “That man has so many night meetings, you’d think he was a politician instead of a doctor. If he doesn’t watch out, the kids are going to grow up not knowing him any better than they know the town’s mayor!”

“I can’t disagree with you on that, Mom.”

Holding the overalls against her, Dinah studied Rachel’s face. “Have you two talked about this? How long is he going to neglect his responsibilities? Have you discussed the importance of Nick and Kendall having both a mother and a father?”

“I wouldn’t define our encounters as discussions,” Rachel said frankly. “They usually wind up with me nagging and Ted clamming up.”

Dinah sank with a sigh onto the side of the bed. “I guess it’s not helpful to hear me harping on it, either, is it? I’m sorry, Rachel, but you’d think—”

“Speaking of the kids, I’d better be going.” Rachel stood in the shadows of the hall where her mother couldn’t see how her words had stung, especially tonight. “You’re sure you won’t reconsider and come with me?”

Dinah didn’t reply for a moment, but Rachel knew she wasn’t finished. “I’m sure.” She cocked her head, studying her intently. “How was your day? Those kids giving you more than the usual grief lately?”

“No more than usual. I counseled a pregnant sixteen-year-old this morning and then I drove to Dallas and picked up Jason Pate, Coach Monk’s star quarterback. He was being held by the Juvenile authorities on a DUI charge.”

“Oops.”

“Uh-huh. Jason is the heart and soul of the Mustangs. Hence, Coach Monk’s concern. Or rather the play-offs, which are in full swing, are his main concern and Jason is key to that.”

“And then you came home to find your ditzy mom had landed herself in the ER,” Dinah said with a grimace.

Rachel rubbed her temple with two fingers and managed a weak smile. “I suppose it has been one of those days.”

“And that’s all?” Dinah said, still trying to define something more she had sensed in Rachel’s mood.

“Unless you want to count the lecture I got from Cameron Ford.” She was still stinging from his unflattering assessment of her as a daughter. Five years ago, he’d been brutally judgmental about her ability as a counselor, now it appeared she hadn’t risen a jot in his estimation. Bad counselor then, bad daughter now. It made no sense for her to care what he thought. She must be particularly vulnerable and he’d hit a nerve.

“I guess I’m shocked to learn you’ve moved next door to a man who hates me,” she told her mother with a weak laugh. “If I’d known he was going to be your neighbor, I would have argued even more fiercely against you buying a house instead of a condo.”

She knew the man’s reputation as a gifted author and she bought all his books—on the sly, of course, as it seemed inappropriate somehow, considering how brutal and accusatory he’d been about her job. It would be awkward having him right next door every time she visited her mother, although she supposed he wasn’t any different from other Rose Hill residents who’d sampled life elsewhere before coming back home to live.

They’d both attended Rose Hill High, but Cameron had been four years older than Rachel, which made him as remote from her world as seniors are from lowly freshman girls. Even then, he’d been a brooding, nonconformist sort and she thought he wasn’t much changed today. It was silly to be bothered that he had a low opinion of her. She knew him to be a decent person, if somewhat aloof—if his press was accurate—which should be all she needed to know since he was going to be her mother’s neighbor. It wasn’t as if he’d be her neighbor. Thank God.

Dinah was frowning. “A lecture from Cameron? About what?”

“He thinks I neglect you. He told me I should find more time to visit. He thinks you get more attention from the postman and your neighbors than you get from me.”