Page 6 of Dancing in the Rain

“She says that about you.”

Peyton laughed softly. “Yeah, well, she’s right. We both are. Are you okay right now? Want to talk?”

“I’m okay. I just got home from school, and Mom’s still in bed. I don’t think she got out of bed all day.”

Peyton bit her lip. “Can you make her something for dinner?”

“She says she’ll do it. But I can tell it’s hard for her. Plus, she doesn’t eat.” Chloe’s voice skipped. “She tries to make me think she is, but she’s not.”

“She doesn’t know you’re calling me?”

“No. I thought if you just show up, she won’t be able to do anything about it.”

“Good thinking, kiddo.” Sara had been telling her for weeks that she was doing fine but she’d call if she needed her. She probably never would. Well, until she was worried about Chloe, because Chloe was her world. Sara would do anything to avoid putting Chloe at risk, even if it meant humbling herself to ask for help.

Peyton and Sara had argued more than once about how much help a single mom needed to raise a child. From the time Sara had accidentally gotten pregnant in college, Peyton had sworn to her sister that she would be there for her, because despite her big sister’s bravado, she’d seen the fear in Sara’s eyes. Peyton had been in the delivery room when Chloe was born. She’d babysat Chloe while she and Sara both went to college, and after Sara had graduated and started her career. Peyton had been there to help comfort Chloe when her beloved grandparents had died, even though she was grieving, too. Sara hated relying on others but accepted help because it was best for her daughter.

After hanging up the phone, Peyton hurried out of her office to speak to her assistant. “Aaron, I need to go to Chicago as soon as possible. Can you check flights and see what there is? And we’ll need to reschedule my meetings for tomorrow.”

“When do you want to come back?” Aaron was already reaching for his computer mouse. “Your entire week is booked solid.”

“I don’t know when I’ll be back.” A sick feeling settled in her stomach. “Book a one-way ticket. We’ll probably need to move things for the rest of the week. But I’ll be in touch once I’m there.”

“Gord is going to freak out,” Aaron said, clicking away and staring at his monitor.

“I’ll deal with him.”

Her boss was super stressed about a new client they were working with, a huge pharmaceutical corporation, which had just reached a two-million-dollar settlement with the State of New York because the company had been inflating the cost of the intravenous drugs sold to Medicaid. Their reputation—and, consequently, stock prices—had taken a hard hit, and their leadership team was challenging to deal with. Because of the stress, Gord had been even more demanding than usual lately, but surely even he would understand that her sister was dying.

She went to let her staff know that she was going to be out of the office for at least the rest of the week and to make sure they had what they needed and knew they could call her for anything. Many of them knew about Sara and were sympathetic, stepping up to offer help, which touched her. She had a great gang working for her.

She returned to her office to finish the spreadsheet she’d been working on when Chloe’d called. It was only a few minutes before Aaron appeared in her office door. “There’s a flight tonight at seven. Too soon?”

Peyton scrunched her face up. “Yeah. I have to go home and pack. That might be tight.”

“There are lots of flights in the morning. Eight-thirty okay?”

“Perfect.”

“You’ll be there around eleven.”

And easily at Sara’s home by noon.

She had to go talk to Gord. Smoothing her pencil skirt down over her thighs, she strode down the hall to his office and knocked on the open door. “Hi. Got a minute?”

She’d learned over the years that the best approach with Gord was to be brief, be clear, and get the hell out. While some people liked to make small talk to open a conversation, Gord didn’t even bother with pleasantries such as “How are you?” or “How’s your day going?”

“My sister isn’t doing well,” Peyton stated. She’d already informed him that Sara’s illness had become terminal about a month ago. “I need to fly to Chicago to be with her.”

“When?”

“I’ve got a flight first thing in the morning.” She also knew it was better to present a plan to him rather than to ask for permission. “Aaron and I will work on rescheduling things for the rest of the week. I’ll be able to do some work remotely, though.”

“You have an important meeting with RLM tomorrow.” Clearly he was unhappy with this.

Peyton pushed back her own irritation. “I know.” She wasn’t going to apologize for this. “I’ll talk to Paul and we’ll set up another time.”

“Shit.” He frowned. “We’ve had enough delays in putting together the plan for them.”

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