Page 32 of Trick of Light

But Vinny wasn’t standing on the other side when Rod opened the door.

It was someone else entirely.

It was a ghost.

Bethany Sutton Waterstone was the same age as Rod was now. Forty-three. She was slender yet strong-looking, with beautiful curls that framed her face and large, sad eyes. For a moment, Rod gazed at her as dread filled his stomach and throat. He imagined dropping back into his house and slamming the door in her face. He imagined telling her to go back to where she came from. His heart couldn’t take it.

But of course, he’d been the one to text her. He’d been the one to break the twenty-five-year silence.

“Bethany,” Rod said, unable to believe he was actually speaking her name.

“Rod.” Her eyes sparkled with tears.

Rod had imagined this moment hundreds, if not thousands, of times over the years. He’d imagined lifting her into his arms and swinging her around as she laughed with joy. He’d imagined covering her face with kisses.

Instead, they held each other’s gaze wordlessly as a plane buzzed overhead, charting a course through the clouds.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” Rod said.

Bethany raised her shoulders and chin. “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your text.”

“I know it was out of the blue.”

“I didn’t know what to think of it,” Bethany admitted. “But I was just driving around, thinking about you. And somebody told me you’d taken over your parents’ place.”

“Crazy, isn’t it?” Rod said. “The more things change, the more things stay the same.”

Bethany raised her lips into a near smile. Rod chuckled. “I’m sorry. That was a stupid thing to say.”

“It wasn’t. I don’t know what to say either.”

Rod took a small step back. His mind had returned to Felix. “Why don’t you come in?”

“I’m not intruding?”

“Never,” Rod said, then cursed himself for being so forthright. He didn’t want to scare her away. As she stepped in, she brought with her a wonderful perfume, one of sandalwood and jasmine. His heart fluttered.

To the right of the foyer was the living room, where Felix had fallen asleep. He croaked and sputtered, stretching his arms over his head and blinking through the shadows at Bethany and Rod. Bethany watched him, taking stock of his bruises and his little face, then turned to give Rod a look of panic. There was a moment of understanding that reminded Rod of being a teenager. All he and Bethany had to do back then was glance at one another. It had always lent so much emotion and understanding. They’d always had a unique bond.

“What is it?” Bethany asked.

“Cancer. It’s in his spine,” Rod explained. “It’s part of the reason I wanted to talk to you.” Only part, he thought to himself.

Bethany dropped her chin to her chest and filled her lungs. Rod thought for a moment she would break down. But in a flash, Bethany was on her knees in the living room. “Hi,” she said quietly. “My name is Bethany. What is your name?”

Felix rubbed his eyes. “My name is Felix.”

Bethany blinked and reached out her hand to shake his. It was clear she had a wonderful camaraderie with her child-aged patients. They trusted her immediately.

“Felix, do you mind if I look at your arm?” Bethany asked.

Felix extended one arm first and then the other, then opened his mouth so Bethany could see his damaged gums. Her eyes swam with understanding. As she worked, Renee stepped into the doorway to oversee them, glancing at Rod with curiosity in her eyes. When Renee was a teenager, Rod first mentioned who Bethany had been to him and why it hadn’t worked out. Renee, wise for her age, even at fifteen, had crossed her arms over her chest and said, “So that’s why you’re so weird?”

Felix went back to sleep a half hour later. Renee gathered Bethany and Rod in the kitchen for a fresh pot of coffee and all the snacks she’d been able to find in the pantry—crackers, cookies, gummies. They told Bethany everything they could about Felix’s diagnosis, and Bethany took diligent notes on her phone and didn’t touch the snacks at all. When she’d finished, she stepped into the foyer and made a phone call to her hospital down in Savannah. Of this, she said, “I need a team I can trust around me. It’s one of the best hospitals in the entire world. I need Felix to have the very best. And I don’t trust anyone else but myself to do it.”

As Rod and Renee listened to Bethany talk to her colleagues in Savannah, they remained wordless, clasping their hands beneath their chins. It all felt so surreal. But Rod couldn’t help but feel as though the sun shining through the kitchen window was twice as bright. The smartest woman he’d ever known was going to operate on his grandson. All the pieces of his life were finally coming together.

Bethany got off the phone and returned to the kitchen. “I have an appointment for him in a week and a half,” she said. “I’ll need to look at your current doctor’s records, and we’ll need to go down to Savannah early to prep. But it’s all going to come into place.”

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