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“Yeah?”
“Don’t screw this up. If Jane asks you to leave - leave. Okay?”
“I will.”
* * *
When he walked into Mama J’s room, he could barely stop from pulling Jane into his arms. She sat next to the bed, holding Mama J’s hand, and she looked so sad and broken that his chest squeezed painfully.
There was a second chair on the other side of the bed, and he eased into it as Jane stared at Mama J’s face. Josephine was hooked up to what seemed like a dozen machines that all beeped and squawked intrusively.
“Jane?” he said tentatively.
She glanced at him before turning her gaze back to Mama J. “Hello, Mr. Dawson.”
“Jane, I’m so sorry about Mama J.”
“Thank you. What are you doing here?”
“Mark told me you took a personal day because Mama J was sick. I called Bev, and she told me what happened.”
“Right,” she said. “Probably illegal for her to share that information, but Bev has a crush on you.” She gave him another quick look before she stared at Mama J again. “You’re probably used to that. Who doesn’t have a crush on you, right?”
“What I said earlier? I’m sor -”
She held her hand up. “No, not now. Please.”
He lapsed into silence as Jane reached out and stroked Mama J’s face with her fingertips. “Thanks for coming, Mr. Dawson. Mama J liked you a lot. It would have made her happy that you came to see her.”
“You should have called me, honey,” he said. “You shouldn’t go through this alone.”
“I’m not alone,” she said. “I have Amy, and I texted Candy from the club. She and Tony are here. You said not to contact you if it wasn’t work related, and I said I understood.”
He flinched at her matter-of-fact tone, but hell, he deserved that. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m so sor - ”
“Mama J has a DNR,” Jane said. “I knew she did. We talked about it when Alzheimer’s really started to take hold of her. She didn’t want to be kept alive on machines, she said. She told me that death was only a transition and nothing to be afraid of. She said she would be with her Walter again and couldn’t think of anything she wanted more than that.”
She lifted Mama J’s hand to her mouth so she could kiss her knuckles. “The doctor talked to me about the DNR after he said that Mama J was brain dead. In a few minutes, they’ll come in here and shut off the machines and Mama J will die. And then I really will be all alone.”
She spoke with an odd lack of emotion that frightened him badly. He moved around the bed, crouching beside her chair and cupping her face. “You’re not alone, honey. I’m here with you. Okay?”
“It’s over between us. You said that yourself.”
“I was wrong,” he said. “I made a terrible mistake, and I -”
“Jane?” A man in a lab coat stepped into the room.
Jane stiffened, and a look of despair crossed her face. Luke took her hand as she said, “Hello, Dr. Wales.”
“Hi. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” Jane said in a low voice.
The doctor glanced at Luke, and Jane said, “You don’t have to stay.”
“I want to,” he said. “I want to stay with you, honey. Please let me.”
“Sure, whatever you want.” She stared at Mama J’s face.
