Perfect Fit (35 page)

Sage frowned. She hadn’t known that her mother had high blood pressure. Not knowing that information made her realize that she had never really inquired about the true nature of her mother’s health. Like most young people, she thought her parents were in good health and would be around forever.

“I’ll be back out as soon as the surgery is over.”

“Can I see her?” Sage asked.

“Sorry, but we’ve already started prepping her for surgery. We want to get started right away before the fluid gets into her bloodstream. I’ll be back out as soon as the surgery is over, and then I’ll let you see her.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Sage said as everything he’d said weighed heavily on her mind. After he left, she turned to her father. “Do you want to walk with me to the café to get a cup of coffee?”

“No, I’d rather sit and wait right here, just in case the doctor comes back out.”

Sage knew there was no sense in telling him that they wouldn’t be seeing the doctor again until after the surgery. “Do you want me to bring you anything?”

“No, I’m fine.”

She nodded. “Just try to relax, Dad, and I’ll be right back.” She had started to walk off when her father called after her. “Sage?”

She turned back. “Yes?”

“Thanks for coming.”

Sage looked at him. Had he thought that she wouldn’t come because of the differences between them? Had that special relationship they’d always shared eroded to this?

Knowing she needed to be by herself for a while and think things through, she nodded and quickly walked toward the elevator.

A couple of hours later, Sage and her father sat across from each other in the waiting room. Other people were in the room, but conversations were muted as everyone waited for word of their loved ones from various doctors.

Sage shifted her gaze to her father, and again she thought of how battered he looked. Although he’d said he hadn’t wanted anything, she had brought him a cup of coffee anyway. He drank half of it, and now the rest was sitting on the table in front of him, cold.

There hadn’t been much conversation between them. She had tried talking about Eden and the progress that had been made, but he hadn’t taken the bait. His mind was still concentrated on the surgery being performed on his wife.

“Has anyone called Reverend and Sister Jones?” she asked, breaking into the silence.

He glanced up at her and nodded. “Yes. They came earlier today and indicated they’d be coming back later.”

Sage nodded. Her mother was close to the elderly couple. “What about Uncle Jess and Aunt Mable?”

“Your aunt left a few days ago to fly out to California to see Ginger. Jess stopped by a little before you got here. He said he would be coming back when he got off work.”

Sage was about to say something when she saw Dr. Connelly coming toward them. Her father saw him at the same time and quickly stood and asked, “How is she, Doctor?”

He smiled. “She’s doing fine. We managed to keep her blood pressure stabilized during the surgery. We have her on strong antibiotics to fight off any possible infections.”

“Can we see her?” Sage asked eagerly. From the look on her father’s face, she knew a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

“Right now she’s in recovery. We have her pretty sedated, so she won’t even know you’re there. I’m
hoping that we’ll be able to have her in a room in a few hours. The two of you may want to go home and get some rest and come back later.”

Charles Dunbar shook his head. “No, I’m staying.”

“So am I,” Sage chimed in.

Seeing their resolve, Dr. Connelly said, “All right. After she comes out of recovery and gets settled in ICU, you can both visit with her, but only for a short while.”

After the doctor left, Charles Dunbar looked at his daughter. Tears of happiness and relief shone unabashedly in his eyes. “I think I’m going to go downstairs to the café and get something to eat.”

Sage nodded and then realized that this was the first time he’d eaten since she had arrived at the hospital. She decided to go with him to the café to make sure he ordered something more nourishing than a sandwich. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go with you, Dad.”

He shook his head and wiped the tears from his eyes. “No, I don’t mind. In fact, I’d like that.”

Sage and her father were able to see her mother a few hours later when she’d been placed in a room in ICU. At first Sage’s knees almost buckled under her when she saw her mother’s still body lying in the hospital bed hooked up to a number of machines.

Now it was her father who gave her support when she closed her eyes to block out the sight before her. Placing a firm arm around her, he said, “Remember what Doctor Connelly said, Sage. She came through, and everything is going to be all right.”

Sage nodded and opened her eyes as he released his hold on her. She then watched, in silence, as he crossed the room to the bed where her mother lay and lovingly trailed his fingertips down the side of her cheek before leaning down and kissing it. He then pulled a chair closer to the bed to sit down, taking her mother’s hand in his and gently caressing it.

Again Sage thought that this was a man who truly loved his wife, and she suddenly became overwhelmed with confused thoughts as to what could make a man who loved his wife fall into the arms of another woman.

She shifted her gaze to the other side of the room where a number of floral arrangements sat on the table. One particular arrangement caught her attention since it was so much larger than the others.

Crossing the room, she went to see who had sent them. Opening the card, her stomach pitched suddenly. She sucked in a breath.

The flowers were from Gabe, and the card simply said,

Wishing you a speedy recovery, Gabriel Blackwell.

“Who sent those, Sage? They weren’t in here before.”

Sage turned upon hearing her father’s question. She met his gaze. “They’re from Gabe Blackwell.”

From the way her father nodded, she knew that he remembered the name from that time she had mentioned Gabe to him.

“That was thoughtful of him to send them.”

She nodded, thinking of other thoughtful things Gabe had done. “Yes, it was, wasn’t it?”

It was over an hour later before her mother came awake, slowly raising her eyelids. Without saying anything, she acknowledged their presence by gazing at them and nodding before closing her eyes again.

“With the medication the doctor has given her, she’ll probably sleep through the night,” the nurse said to them. “This may be a good time for the two of you to go home and get some rest.”

Sage nodded, agreeing with the nurse. After a long flight, she needed to at least shower and change. But she could tell by the defiant look in her father’s eyes that getting him to leave would definitely be a problem.

She looked down at her mother sleeping peacefully. “She’s right, Dad. We both need to get some rest and be ready to come back first thing in the morning.” When he started to protest, she said, “Neither of us will do Mom any good being tired and worn out.”

For the longest time he didn’t say anything, and then he asked quietly, “Will you be coming to the house?”

A knot formed in Sage’s throat. She hadn’t really thought about where she would be staying, although staying at her parents’ place was the logical choice. “Yes, if it’s all right with you.”

Charles Dunbar crossed the room and placed his hands on his daughter’s shoulders. “Of course it’s all right with me, Sage. It’s your home and will always be your home.”

Sage nodded and reached up and covered one of his hands with hers. “Then, let’s go home, Dad, and make plans to return early in the morning.”

Reluctantly, he agreed. She then leaned down and kissed her mother’s cheek and whispered,
“Dad and I are going home, Mom, and we’ll be back in the morning.” Sage wasn’t sure if her mother heard her or not but wanted to let her know in case she woke up again and they were not there.

She saw her father hesitate, then quickly concluded that he wanted to spend some private moments with his wife. “I’ll be right outside the door, Dad.”

“Thanks, Sage.”

They were back at the hospital before the first sign of dawn broke in the morning sky. The nurse from the night before met them after they had gotten off the elevator. “Mrs. Dunbar had a very peaceful night,” she said, smiling. “If she continues doing well, the doctor may remove the feeding tube to see if she can take solid foods.”

Sage smiled widely at her father. That was good news to hear. Seeing one less IV line hooked to her mother would mean all the difference in the world to her, and she knew her father felt the same way.

As soon as they had arrived home last night, she had showered and changed clothes while he had answered the many phone messages that had been left on the answering machine. And then while he had showered, she had done likewise, making sure her family, both near and far, got an update on her mother’s condition. Then she and her father had gone to bed. Knowing her mother’s condition was good, sleep had come fairly easy for her, but she’d wakened a number of times upon hearing her father move about, restless and unable to sleep.

The devil had been busy, and evil thoughts had consumed her mind while she’d lain in bed listening
to him. She’d almost been convinced that guilt and not love was eating away at him, but then after saying a prayer, asking God to rid her mind of such corrupt thoughts, she’d held on to the belief that it was love.

She stopped short when they entered her mother’s room. Delores Dunbar sat propped against the pillow, awake, and she was no longer using the respirator. Knowing she could not give her mother the hug that she wanted to give her, Sage quickly crossed the room, but her father had reached her mother before her.

“Baby, you scared twenty years off my life,” he said, leaning down and gently framing her face in his hands, before placing a kiss on her lips.

Sage stood back and watched them, suddenly feeling like an outsider in her parents’ world. Evidently, during the time she’d been in Anchorage, their relationship had grown closer. A part of her wondered if her father had told her mother about his affair yet, and she decided she didn’t want to think about it. Making sure her mother was happy while her condition improved was the most important thing.

“Sage?”

She got pulled out of her thoughts at the quiet whisper of her mother’s voice. She walked over to the bed. She met her mother’s gaze and smiled, fighting back the tears she felt behind her lids. “You gave me a scare, too, Delores Dunbar.”

Her mother slowly nodded while keeping her eyes on her daughter. “I didn’t mean to.”

Sage took her mother’s hand in hers. “How do you feel?”

Delores smiled. “Sore.”

Sage chuckled. “Yeah, I can believe that.”

Since her mother was still in ICU, the time to visit was limited. The only good thing they had to look forward to was the fact that if her condition continued to improve, she would be sent to a private room on another floor where visiting restrictions would be lifted.

Relief rushed through Sage, knowing that her mother was healing. On the plane flight from Anchorage, she had been plagued with the fear of losing her, but now seeing her on the mend made her feel extremely better.

At least, a part of her felt better. There was still that small part lodged within her chest that ached—her heart. Although she didn’t want to think about it or, even worse, admit it, she missed Gabe.

She missed him a lot.

Two days later, Sage’s gaze settled on her mother’s smile. It had always been a generous smile that Delores Dunbar had reserved for everyone she knew, and Sage didn’t want to think about how close she had come to losing that smile, to losing her mother.

“Whatever you’re thinking about must be serious.”

Sage blinked, realizing that her mother had spoken and had caught her staring. Sitting up in the hospital bed, Delores was eating solid foods, something she had begun doing yesterday for the first time since being admitted.

“No, it isn’t too serious,” she said, crossing the room from where she’d been standing at the window for the past fifteen minutes. At first she’d been thinking just how vastly different Charlotte was
from Anchorage, and that was based on more than just the weather. Even the shape of the skyscrapers was different, and there were no snow-covered mountains in the background, no wilderness trails and … no Gabe Blackwell.

“That serious look just got more serious.”

Her mother’s words startled Sage from her thoughts. She smiled and took the chair across from the bed. “Just thinking about some things.”

“Some things like your father?”

Sage lifted a brow. Her father had left half an hour earlier to drop off a package at the office. They expected him to return at anytime. He spent most of his days as well as his nights at the hospital. “Why would I be thinking about Dad?”

Delores Dunbar wiped her mouth with a napkin and pushed her tray aside. “Mainly because I couldn’t help but notice that your relationship seems to have improved, and I’m glad. The two of you had me concerned for a while.”

Sage nodded, not wanting to discuss this with her mother when she knew she was wrong as to the reason why her and her father’s relationship had gotten strained.

“He was right, you know, Sage. It didn’t really concern you. It was about me and him.”

Sage blinked. She wondered what her mother was talking about. Did she have an idea what was going on between her and her father and why? Sage met her mother’s gaze, and as if she was blessed with the ability to read her daughter’s mind, Delores said, “Yes, I know what happened, Sage, with your father and that other woman. He told me.”

“He did?” Sage whispered in shock, not so much that her father had finally admitted the truth to
his wife, but that her mother was calmly sitting in bed as if it was no big deal to discuss the fact that her husband had committed adultery.

“Yes, he did. I’ve known now for a while, but I didn’t bring it up to you whenever we talked on the phone because I felt when the time was right for us to discuss it, then we would.”