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Gennessey noted the slight tremble in Collette’s lip and the unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. She hurried over to her hostess’ side and placed an arm around her shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Mrs. Beckett. I wouldn’t have come if I had known you had a family matter to talk about. What can I do?”
Collette sniffed and squared her shoulders as if physically demonstrating how she was pulling herself together. “You can start by calling me Collette. I insist. And you can help me get some dessert together for everyone. I think we’re going to need the pick-me-up.”
“Yes, ma’am. Just tell me what I need to do.”
Collette didn’t reply right away. Gennessey just waited, already feeling a fondness for this woman she just met.
“Amos has an aortic aneurysm. The doctor believes they can take care of it with surgery, and Amos wants to move forward. There’s a risk with the surgery because of his age, but he and the doctor both believe it’s the right course. He could refuse, but then he lives with the potential of added health concerns and of the possibility that one day it ruptures and…”
Collette’s voice trailed off, and Gennessey understood the unspoken words. Surgery or not, Amos carried the risk of dying from his condition.
“Why don’t we sit down for a few minutes?” Gennessey led Collette back to the dining room table without waiting for her to agree to the suggestion. Once they were seated, Collette looked at her with a watery smile.
“I don’t usually fall apart like this. It’s why I didn’t want to be there when Amos told the boys. They’ve never seen me scared like this before. I mean, living in a house full of men meant I had to be tough, or those boys would run right over me. Don’t get me wrong. They’re good boys, and they’ve always treated Amos and me with respect. But they could be mischievous when they had a mind to, and sometimes Amos would encourage it as long as it didn’t go too far.”
Gennessey smiled but stayed quiet because she sensed Collette needed to voice her feelings more than she needed someone to reassure her.
“The boys are close to their father. This is going to be hard on them. I want to be strong for them, so they have someone to lean on. But I’ll tell you, woman to woman, there’s nothing that scares me more than imaging a life without my husband.”
Gennessey tried to picture her own parents showing such devotion to each other. They loved each other in their own way, but she’d never seen them share the same loving relationship she saw with Collette and Amos. Her parents were both strong personalities, and their fights were epic and frequent, so much so that Gen and her brothers paid little heed to them.
If her father became ill, her mother would be worried, but would she feel the level of devastation that Collette was experiencing? Would she try to hide her fear and sadness to protect her children? Gennessey doubted it. Her mother loved them, but she had a habit of putting her own needs and feelings first.
“I’m sorry,” Collette told her. “I never meant to lay all of this on your shoulders. I hope this doesn’t scare you away from us. We want you to come back and visit again. And Brennan doesn’t have to be with you when you do.”
Gennessey widened her smile. “No, I’m not scared away. I’d love to visit again.”
The sound of footsteps interrupted the women’s moment. Gen saw the three brothers returning to the dining room, their footsteps taking them on a direct path toward their mother.
Gennessey instinctively pulled back, giving the brothers space to gather around their mother. As a unit, they embraced her and held her for several moments. She saw Amos standing behind them, his eyes glistening.
The scene was emotional, and Gennessey felt like the outsider she was.
Chapter Seven
Gennessey knew she needed to say something. She even knew what she wanted to say. The tricky part was actually voicing the words.
BB was her coworker. She wouldn’t even call him her friend, and she was pretty sure what he needed in this moment was a friend. But he was stuck with her.
She glanced at his profile for what was probably the fiftieth time since they climbed into his truck to head back to their apartment building. The silence was heavy, uncomfortable, so BB eventually switched on his satellite radio to a country music station.
The strands of twangy guitar music grated on her nerves, but she didn’t have the right to ask him to find the rock station she preferred. They weren’t a couple. They weren’t on a date. And he had just received news which probably rocked his world, though he didn’t let his emotions show. He was stoic like he was when they worked cases.
Gennessey stayed silent, debating her next move. Before she had time to decide, they were home, and BB was climbing out of the truck. With a shrug, she followed until they reached their floor. He turned to go to his apartment, and though she turned to walk toward hers, she didn’t get far. She whirled around just as he unlocked and opened his apartment door.
“BB, wait a sec.” She approached him before he could turn to face her. “Look, you don’t have to talk. I just want to tell you…I’m sorry about your dad. I enjoyed getting to know him and your family tonight. If there’s anything I can do, I hope you know you can ask me. No matter what it is. And don’t worry about coming with me to the wedding. I know this is not a good time for you, and time with my family’s drama is not what you need right now.”
She turned back to head to her apartment only to glance over her shoulder to find him watching her. “Oh, and if you get inside and you start to stress out or worry or can’t relax enough to sleep, call Wings or somebody and tell them. It’s okay to lean on your friends in times like this.”
He didn’t stop her from heading inside her apartment, but she didn’t expect him to. She closed the door and secured the lock. Then she peered through the peephole and saw BB had gone inside his apartment as well. With a sigh, she turned and leaned against the door. Though she figured BB’s mind wouldn’t relax, she didn’t expect her own to be troubled as well. She pushed off the door and walked through her bedroom into the adjoining bathroom. Soon she had the water warming in the shower, and she shed her clothes and stepped under the spray.
After several minutes of the steaming water washing over her, stinging her skin with the heat, she felt her perspective shift.
Having a date for Cohen’s wedding was no longer the emergency she’d considered it. Putting up with her family’s drama and matchmaking antics no longer seemed like a chore. They drove her crazy and never understood what motivated her, but they were the only family she had.
She loved them, and the thought of any of them facing what BB’s dad was up against brought a tightness to her chest.
She washed and conditioned her hair before stepping from the now lukewarm water. Toweling dry, she wrapped her hair in a turban and her body in a terrycloth robe. Her hand swiped steam from the mirror when she heard the knock at her front door. She hurried to check who was at her door and threw it open without a thought as to her appearance.
