Page 6 of Someone to Watch Over Me

When I open them, I see Tom’s sister running toward the entrance. She’s petite with dark hair. The total opposite of her tall, muscular, light-haired, blue-eyed brother.

“That’s Tom’s sister.”

I step away from Iris and Gage to greet her.

The fierce hug she gives me takes me by surprise as we only know each other in passing.

“How is he?”

“I don’t know anything yet.”

“I’ll go find out.”

Cora disappears through the doors.

“I… um… I suppose I could leave now that she’s here.”

“Is that what you want to do?” Iris asks.

I shake my head as tears slide down my cheeks. “It’s not. I want to be here for him, but I can’t go back in there. I just can’t.”

“You don’t have to. Do you want us to take you home?”

“I can’t go there either.” It’ll take years for me to get past the sight of him passed out on the floor.

“We’ll bring you home with us, then.”

“I’ve messed up your whole evening.”

“No, you haven’t.” She squeezes my arm. “We’re exactly where we need to be.”

“I don’t want to hear that he’s…”

“We understand,” Gage says. “Don’t worry about anything.”

“I should tell her I’m leaving.”

“I’ll do that.”

“You should give her Tom’s phone.” I grab it from my purse and hand it to Gage. He goes inside while Iris leads me to his SUV.

“She won’t understand why I’m leaving. She’ll think I’m…”

“What she thinks doesn’t matter right now.”

Leave it to Iris to cut through the bullshit. That’s one of the many special gifts she brings to the widow business, as we refer to it. Her husband, Mike, was killed in a plane crash, leaving her with three young kids to raise on her own. Long after he died, she found out he’d had a child with another woman. Despite that shock, which knocked her down for a minute, she’s still the most supportive person I’ve ever met. Our other widow friends would agree.

Iris is our North Star.

She settles me into the back seat of Gage’s fancy SUV. I think it’s a Range Rover, but I’m not sure. Wondering about that keeps me from obsessing about what’s happening to Tom.

Iris stands next to the open door, holding my hand, while we wait for Gage.

“If you’d asked me yesterday if I could handle something like this, I would’ve said of course I could. I’m an expert on all things medical and hospital… But I can’t handle it. I can’t handle what he looked like on the floor.” I glance at Iris, blinking her into focus through more tears. “He looked dead.”

“He’s not dead.”

“What if he is?”

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