Mending Fences

“Still, that doesn’t mean he’s sick.”

“Then what could it be?” Caitlyn asked.

“I don’t know,” Dani admitted. She looked at her friend. “Maybe you should just ask your mom.”

Not that she wanted to ask her mom if she’d ever thought about divorcing her dad. For one thing, her mom would probably tell her it was personal and that she didn’t need to know, which was bogus. A divorce might be between her parents, but it affected her, too. And Josh, though he was oblivious to what was going on right under their noses. Plus he was fourteen, which meant he was oblivious to everything except sports and girls.

Beside her, Caitlyn sighed. “I don’t think my mom will tell me anything. She probably thinks she and my dad are doing a great job of keeping this, whatever it is, from me and Evan.”

“What does Evan think?” Dani asked.

Caitlyn gave her an incredulous look that was wise beyond her years. “If it doesn’t involve a ball or a bat, he doesn’t think about it at all.”

Dani grinned. “Yeah, I know exactly what you mean,” she commiserated. “Brothers are a pain, huh?”

“A royal pain,” Caitlyn agreed.

Silence fell and, once again, Dani was the first to break it. “I’ll bet things will be okay any day now and you’ll have done all this worrying for nothing.”

“Probably so,” Caitlyn said.

But Dani could tell, looking into her eyes, that she wasn’t buying it.

For the first time in forever, Emily went for a couple of weeks without catching more than a glimpse of Marcie. What little spare time she had was spent with Paula, who was not only sick as a dog from the chemo, but showing signs of depression. Emily and her other friends from school were spending as much time with her as possible trying to lift her spirits and take care of some of the household chores. Emily did laundry during her visits, others brought casseroles, and any one of them dusted or straightened up if the house needed it. Marcie was driving her to appointments, which were mostly in the morning, so they rarely crossed paths.

Paula’s kids were tiptoing around the house trying to be quiet, trying to be brave. It broke Emily’s heart every time she saw them.

“Why don’t you let me take the kids home with me tonight?” she suggested to Paula. “You and Dave can have an evening on your own.”

“To do what, stare at each other and avoid the one topic neither of us wants to talk about?” Paula responded.

Emily regarded her with surprise. “If you want to talk, then you probably need to take the lead. I suspect Dave is trying not to upset you.”

Paula sighed. “No, the truth is we’ve run out of things to say. I mean, really, it’s not as if anything’s changed. I had surgery. Now I’m doing chemo. No one knows how any of this is going to turn out. What is there to talk about? Funeral arrangements?”

“Stop that!” Emily said, dismayed. “You’ll be old and gray before you need to worry about that. Maybe what you need to tell your husband, though, is that you’re scared. You have a right to be, you know. This is scary stuff.”

Paula’s eyes suddenly welled with tears. “When the doctor first told me and we came up with this whole plan, it was, like, okay, good. There’s a plan. I know what to do. Then all of a sudden, I realized, I could actually die…” She frowned when Emily started to interrupt. “No, you know it’s true. Why deny it? There is no guarantee in this plan that I won’t die.” She choked back a sob. “My kids aren’t even in high school yet, and I could miss seeing them graduate or get married. I could miss having grandkids.”

“But you’re not going to miss anything,” Emily said. “You are going to beat this. I insist on it.”

Paula chuckled, then swiped at her damp face with a tissue. “God, you sound just like Marcie. You spend too much time together. You’re starting to sound alike.”

“Are you kidding? She’s much more refined than I am,” Emily said.

Paula gave her an odd look. “Why would you say that? Because she spends a fortune on clothes and you don’t? Because she bakes cookies and makes gourmet meals? None of that makes her one bit better than you.”

Emily sighed. “I’m sorry. I sound as if I have a bad case of petty jealousy, don’t I? And I don’t, not really. I adore Marcie.”

“Me, too,” Paula said. “She’s been a godsend with all these appointments.” She frowned slightly. “Have you noticed that she seems a little off lately?”

Emily regarded her with a puzzled expression. “Off how?”

“I’m not sure I can explain it, just not her usual upbeat self, as if there’s something weighing on her.”

“To be honest I haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks, but she was okay last time we were together.”

“Maybe you should give her a call. I asked if everything was okay, but she blew me off. You two are much closer. Maybe she’ll open up with you.”

“I’ll call her the minute I get home. Thanks for saying something. Now you just need to say something about how you’re feeling to your husband. I’ve never seen a man more devoted to anyone than Dave is to you. Don’t shut him out, Paula. Let him be there for you.”

“I just feel he’s had to accept so much already,” Paula said. “The mastectomy, me starting to lose my hair, being sick all the time. It pretty much destroys the mystique that marriage needs to stay alive.”

“Or maybe it puts it on a whole new footing,” Emily suggested, giving her hand a squeeze. “Talk to him, okay?”

“I’ll do it tonight, bossy,” Paula said. “Thanks for being one of my biggest morale boosters.”

“You’d do the same for me,” Emily told her.

As she drove home, it wasn’t Paula’s low mood that was on her mind, though, it was her observation that something was going on with Marcie. As soon as she walked in the door, she picked up the phone.

“Hey,” she said when Marcie picked up, “mind if I run over for a minute?”

To her surprise, Marcie hesitated, then said, “Why don’t I come there instead? Five minutes, okay?”

“Sure,” Emily said, then slowly hung up, trying to recall the last time Marcie had wanted to stop by her house for a late-afternoon visit, rather than having Emily come over.

She waited until she saw Marcie coming through the hedge, then called out, “How about lemonade? I just bought a carton at the store yesterday and I don’t think the kids have been into it yet.”

“Sounds good. Did you see Paula today?”

“Just left her,” Emily confirmed as she went inside and took the carton from the refrigerator.

“Was her mood any better than it was this morning? She was pretty down.”

“The same this afternoon, but we talked a little and I think she felt better by the time I left.” She poured the lemonade over ice and put the glasses on the table, then sat down to join Marcie. “So, how are you? We haven’t had a minute to catch up for a couple of weeks now. How’d your mammogram go?”

“It was fine. Yours?”

“Okay, thank goodness, though I am not anxious to repeat the experience anytime soon.” She studied Marcie’s face and thought she detected a shadow of worry in her eyes. “Everything else okay?”

“Sure.”

“Really? You look as if something’s on your mind.”

Marcie’s smile seemed forced. “Not at all. I’ve just been very busy. Ken’s going out on his own, which means there are a thousand and one details for me to follow through on.”

Emily regarded her with surprise. “He’s opening his own company? When did that happen?”