Jack left for work. He had court that morning. Tim and Gwen would go to the hospital to visit Jack’s mom. Liam begged off going with them. He wanted to spend the day relaxing and catching up on work. Gwen suspected he wanted her to have alone time with Tim, too.
She relaxed while Tim drove them to the hospital. His hand stole across the seats, where he laced his fingers with hers. “You have no idea how glad I am you’re home,” he said.
“Technically, I’m not home. The RV is our home.” Despite wanting her own happily-ever-after, she reserved her heart. She still needed to have a long, private sit-down with Jack, and even then, the outcome might not be what she prayed for.
Not if he couldn’t fully open his heart. Love wasn’t enough. She needed to know he loved her for her, not because of Melodie.
Ed hadn’t arrived yet. Helen sat up in bed, intently watching a program about current stock trends on CNBC. She brightly smiled when they walked in. “Tim! Come here and give me a hug, sweetie. I haven’t seen you in so long!”
He gently squeezed Gwen’s hand. Helen must be having a good morning. He leaned in and hugged her. “How are you doing, Helen?”
“Had a nice breakfast earlier. Ed called me a little while ago, he’ll be by after lunch.” She looked at Gwen. “Didn’t I meet you yesterday?” Her face clouded. “I’m sorry. I’m not at my best with names now.”
Gwen stepped forward and held out her hand. “Gwen Oxford. You met me and my brother, Liam, yesterday.”
Recognition dawned. “Ah! That’s right. Pete came by yesterday, and I kept confusing your brother with Pete.”
Tim and Gwen exchanged a sharp look. A heavy feeling settled in the pit of Gwen’s stomach as she sat next to Tim beside the bed.
Helen sadly smiled at her. “You look just like Melodie. She was such a sweetheart. I miss her and Pete so much.” She reached over and patted Tim’s arm. “Not that I don’t love you, Timmy, because I do.”
Gwen suspected his smile was forced. “I know, Helen. I understand.”
“I wish Jack would forgive Pete for what happened. It’s not healthy for him to hold hatred inside all these years. Especially when it was an accident.”
As Gwen opened her mouth in an attempt to steer the conversation in a different direction, a man appeared in the doorway, a small vase of flowers in his hands. He stopped short, his eyes locked on Gwen, his expression filled with shock.
Helen, despite the ravages of her Alzheimer’s, proved faster than any of them. “Pete!” She sat up and waved him in. “Come here! I want you to meet someone!”
He looked ready to run, but apparently forced his feet forward until he stood on the other side of the bed.
Gwen felt Tim’s shock and suspected his thoughts mirrored her own, that Helen wasn’t nearly as out of it yesterday as everyone thought she was.
“Pete Sacher, this is Tim Ellis, and Tim and Jack’s friend, Gwen Oxford.”
Pete nodded. “Hi.”
Tim and Gwen both nodded back and in unison said, “Hi.”
“I don’t want to interrupt you,” Pete said as he set the vase on the bedside table. “I’ll leave you alone—”
“Oh, no you don’t,” Helen admonished. “You’re going to stay and visit with me. I told you, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you. I’ve missed you terribly.”
Looking decidedly uncomfortable, he sat in a chair on the other side of the bed. Gwen didn’t miss how he stared at her, apparently unable to take his eyes off her.
It would have creeped her out if she didn’t know why.
After an hour of mostly uncomfortable conversation, with Helen oblivious to the tension, Pete excused himself. Gwen, wanting to talk to him, also excused herself, leaving Tim to shoot her a questioning look as she took off after the man.
He quickly hurried down the corridor to the elevators. Before the doors could close on him, she rushed inside with him and caught his arm.
“Hi, Pete. Listen, please, can we talk?”
He shook his head. “I really should go,” he mumbled.
“Jack isn’t coming by until after work. Please? Let me buy you a cup of coffee or something.”
Finally, after another glance at her, he nodded. “Okay.”
Once settled at a far corner table, away from others in the cafeteria, she reached across and touched his arm. “Why did you come visit her?”
He sighed. “I loved her and Ed like my own parents. I heard from an old friend of mine that she was in the hospital, and that she’s…well, you know. She’s not going to be coherent for too much longer. I wanted a chance to talk to her and apologize when I knew she would halfway be able to understand me.” He pulled a napkin from a dispenser on the table and started shredding it into tiny pieces in front of him.
“Jack told me you were in jail.”
“I got out last year. I didn’t know he was back in town at first. I was afraid to contact his parents. I didn’t know if they’d even want to see me.”
“Helen said you told her it was an accident.”
Tears welled up in his eyes. He didn’t look at her, just focused on the growing pile of paper scraps in front of him. “I wasn’t driving,” he whispered.
“What?”
“It was still my fault it happened, though.”
Gwen tried to absorb that information. “Why did you tell them you were driving if you weren’t?”
He took a deep breath and finally raised his gaze to hers. “Jack never responded to any of my letters. I stopped trying after a while. I have a feeling he never read any of them. I tried to tell him in them.” He blew his nose on another napkin, then pulled a fresh one from the dispenser and started shredding it. “I had a couple of drinks at dinner. Mel took the keys from me.” His gaze seemed to shift from Gwen’s face to a point inside his own mind as he recalled the events.
“I was just screwing around. Had a good buzz on, feeling good, you know? Started playing around with her in the car while she was driving.” His voice softened even more. “I unbuckled her seat belt and started messing with her while she was driving. Then we rounded a curve and there was a damn deer standing in the middle of the road. She swerved to avoid it. We went off the road and rolled, and she was thrown from the car while I ended up behind the wheel.”
He closed his eyes. More tears squeezed out from under closed lids. “So it was still my fault, wasn’t it? I didn’t want people to know that’s how she died. It was easier to plead guilty and not put her family or Jack through that. He’ll still hate me regardless. I was drunk, I was screwing around with her, and she died because of me. End of story.”
Stunned, Gwen sat back and tried to absorb that. “You should tell Jack.”
“I don’t think I should set foot anywhere near him.”
“You still love him.”
He slowly nodded. “But I know that’s in the past. Helen told me about Tim yesterday. Believe me, I’m not looking for a reconciliation with him. I know that’s not going to happen, and I’m not even going to try. I at least wanted to talk to Helen. She was like a mom to me.” He sniffled and blew his nose again. “She told me yesterday she knew about me and Jack and Mel the whole time.” He laughed. “Kids always think they can fool parents. Doesn’t matter how old the kids or parents, the result is the same.”
He met her gaze again. “You do look just like Mel. I nearly crapped myself when I saw you sitting there.”
She rummaged through her purse and pushed a pen and notepad across the table to him. “Please, give me your phone number and address.”
“Why?”
“Because I have a feeling Tim is going to agree with me that Jack’s never gotten over this, and maybe what needs to happen is he needs to face this head-on and talk to you once and for all.”